Alolan Ninetales- Surf's Ups and Downs
On a small island of ice no more than 12 feet across, an Alolan Ninetales laid on her back, looking up at the sky with a saddened look of resignation on her face. She rolled over onto her stomach and looked out into the distance. Nothing but water could be seen in every direction, and it caused her to shiver with fear. Her long mane hung limply to the right side of her face, while her nine wispy tails continued to flow behind her.
She slid herself towards the edge of the island, her nose sliding over the many paw prints she had made. She paced around the island many times during her forced stay on it, and she knew it very well in spite of hating her stay.
Once she reached the edge of the island, the Alolan Ninetales stared down apprehensively at the water. She shut her eyes tightly, steeling herself as much as she good, and then cautiously slid her left forepaw off the edge and extended it down towards the water. She cracked her eyes open a bit just as she poked her paw into the water.
She yipped nervously and immediately pulled her paw back out, disturbed by wetness. As she shook her paw off, she noticed that a small chip of ice had formed on top of the water where her paw had touched it. Curious, the Alolan Ninetales breathed in and out, and then stuck her paw back into the water and swirled it about. To her amazement, a layer of ice formed right on top of the water, and it grew to be about to be the size of a dinner plate.
The fox was surprised by this, her head tilted in thought. Then inspiration came to her, and she stood up and stared down at the surrounding water. She rocked back and forth on her paws, and then jumped off of the island and onto the surface of the water. The water froze beneath her paws, creating four small platforms of ice for her to stand on.
The Alolan Ninetales laughed in delight as she stood atop the surface of the water. She smiled proudly and held her head up high, tossing her mane gracefully as it flowed along with her illustrious tales. She then took a confident step forward, only for her left forepaw to break right through the piece of ice it formed. She cried out in panic as she stepped backwards out of reflex, only for her left hind paw to break through, plunging her hind leg into the water. The fox immediately reared up onto her right hind leg in response to this, the ice under it just thick enough to hold her. With her forelegs pulled into her chest and her left hindleg bent, she twisted around while balanced on the one paw until she was facing the ice island, and then made a desperate leap back onto solid ice.
She clung to the solid surface, gasping breath as she fought to compose herself after nearly going for a plunge into the deep water. However, her panic was interrupted by the sound of her stomach grumbling rather loudly. The Alolan Ninetales' eyes widened in genuine concern, and then she huffed loudly as she poked herself several times in the forehead with her right forepaw. She then stood up and turned to look at the great expanse of water before her.
She took several deep breaths, and then she growled to herself as she began stepping in place, keeping her legs limber and making sure she was light on her feet. After a minute of bouncing on her paws, the Alolan Ninetales suddenly pounced forward and landed on the surface of the water once again. As ice formed beneath her paws, the fox bounded forward, pushing off of the stepping stones of ice she was creating and jumping across the water's surface.
After several bounds, the fox suddenly found herself laughing as she exhibited dominance over her greatest fear. With great confidence, she ran majestically over the sea, her tails fully extended as she made progress towards where she hoped was land.
She was all smiles as she progressed, but then her smile quickly fell when she felt her back half get pitched upwards slightly. She turned to look behind her and saw that a big wave was forming behind her. The Alolan Ninetales screamed as she was unceremoniously flipped right off of her paws and right into the water.
After the splash, she immediately surfaced and flailed around in a panic, slapping the water with her paws and she wailed and howled. In her panicked state, she let out an Icy Wind from her mouth, which froze a large section of the water in front of her. Her paws quickly found their way upon her impromptu life-raft, and she climbed aboard quickly and nervously looked about. She then looked down at the large piece of ice she was standing on. It was an oblong shape, slightly longer and wide than she was. She stomped on the ice-board a few times, and was satisfied with its strength.
The icy fox looked out ahead of her, and utter joy overtook her as she could just make out land in the distance. Having already fallen into the water and too desperate to reach land to be afraid, she began frantically paddling with her paws to move herself forward. As she did this, however, another wave began to form behind her.
As the wave began to carry her upward, the Alolan Ninetales stopped paddling and stood stock still in the center of her ice-board. She looked up and behind her, and she saw that the wave was growing far bigger than the one that had knocked her into the water before. The wave got bigger and bigger, until the shadow of it completely fell upon her.
The fox trembled with fear at the sight of the towering wave, but then something in the water caught her eye. It was a Mantine, surfing along the wave and zooming past her without a care in the world, laughing joyfully all the way. The Alolan Ninetales blinked her eyes at the surfing Mantine as it zoomed off, then took a shuddering breath and leaned to one side so that her ice-board was pointed parallel to the massive wave. As she surfed along with the wave to her right side, she bent her needs to keep her balance. Her nervous fear slowly began to transform into nervous laughter, and then genuine laughter as she began to get the hang of surfing.
She closed her eyes and extended her right foreleg and left hindleg, letting her mane and tails flow in the ocean breeze and seaspray.
When she opened her eyes, however, she saw that huge Wailord was in her path.
The fox cried out and leaned to the right without thinking. This allowed her to avoid the Wailord, but it also sent her right up the side of the wave and over the crest.
The Alolan Ninetales went flying into the air, losing her ice-board and sent flailing desperately as she went flying. She screamed as she flipped up and over, until she finally landed on a sandy beach and slid forward a bit before coming to a halt.
She laid there for a moment with her eyes shut, then her forepaws began to cautiously began to feel around on the sand. Her eyes snapped open, and dewy eyed look of joy came over her. She kissed the ground several times and lovingly nuzzled down into it. She lay their smiling for a moment, then her eyes opened wide with concern. She then quickly stood up, breathing heavily as she stared at how much her chest and legs were dripping. There was then a barely perceptible hissing sound coming from her paws, as the very hot sand was starting to melt the ice in her paws.
The Alolan Ninetales let out a shriek in pain as she bounced from paw to paw, turning around frantically. She then spotted a beach chair with a sun umbrella over it, and swiftly ran towards it. Every time her paws hit the hot sand, she let out a quick yip of pain, leaving wet paw prints in the sand as she ran. It felt much longer than it took to get there, but she eventually made it to the beach chair and umbrella.
The ice fox lay panting on the chair, shaded from the Sun by the umbrella as she caught her breath. She then rolled over onto her back and let out a sigh of relief. Then she noticed a small table with a bowl of assorted berries and a can of Lemonade with a straw in it.
She smiled and leaned over to take a sip of the Lemonade, only to stick her tongue out at how warm the drink was. But then she smiled slyly and pressed her paw against the can. She held it there until the can got frosty, and then she took a sip of the now chilled beverage. The Alolan Ninetales sighed and laid back comfortably in the beach chair. She then reached out to grab a Pecha Berry, only to suddenly feel something furry and very warm.
She quickly turned to look and finally noticed that there was another beach chair next to the one she was lying in, and lying in that other chair was a Fire-type Ninetales, who stared at her as both foxes paws touched as they had both reached for the same Pecha Berry.
To be continued. . .
(Next time: We see the story of the Fire-type Vulpix and how he became a Ninetales)