Daughter of Time, Chapter 7: The Sorrowful Life of Maple The Vulpix
Greninjaten99: Haha I'm glad I managed to surprised someone with that plot twist.
The Pocket Monsters Y Guy: Thanks I honestly think writting dialogue is one of my strongest points as a writer but I'm trying to improve on describing a scenes better it's kind of hard because I tend to focus more on the characters rather than their environment but will try to become better at this.
champthy: Thank you and I'll try my best.
Phoenyxs: As I said that is one of my strong points. Honestly I think I would be good at writting dialogue in comics or mangas unfortunately my drawing is absolutely atrocious so I'll content myself with just writting.
1975
Her name was Maple. And as soon as she was born her father had already been dissapointed in her. It was a tradition that the first child of the pack leader become the next leader in his stead. But her father, a strong and silent Ninetales that had been given the name Kusubu had wanted a strong son to carry his legacy.
Imagine his disappointment when he instead got a daughter. She had tried everything to please him but it was never enough. ''You are weak Maple, how do you expect to lead our people when a simple water Pokemon is able to knock you down?''
''But dad he was an evolved Pokemon!'' She had replied.
''Silence! I do not care for your excuses. Now go train some more, your Ember attack looked like it was fired by a newborn. You should be better than this.''
Everyday she had trained until one day she had improved enough to be able to create a Flamethrower attack. That day she had came home excited to show her new technique to her father. But once she had shown him he looked at her with a bored expression.
''Is that all?'' He asked coldly.
''B-but I trained all week to master this!'' She yelled getting angry at his apathy.
''Then you're wasting your time. When I was your age I was arleady able to do a Fire Blast, you're too far behind.'' That night she had cried herself to sleep.
One night she had trained all day her shoulders were sore from hitting the tree trunks so many times. But she finally learned Quick Attack but as she enter her home she could hear her parents arguing.
''Is it so hard to treat her like a living being? She's not a tool you know, you're contantly putting her down!'' Her mother yelled angrily.
''That's where you're mistaken, she is a tool to be used for the future of this pack. And she has proven to be faulty over and over again. Females are not made to be leaders. If only I didn't have to obey to this asinine tradition I would have given her up to another family arleady.''
''You're a monster. I don't know what I ever saw in you.'' Maple covered her mouth as she heard the sound of a loud slap and her mother crying in pain.
''Don't talk back to me female! If I did not mated with you, you would have been just another wild Vulpix scraping by while poachers hunt for your tails!'' Maple ran away from the den and decided to dig her own little hole far away from her father.
The next day she had been woken up by the sound of sniffing. At first she had been afraid thinking maybe a predator had found her but as she carefully poked her head outside she saw a small black and red Pokemon that didn't really looked intimidating.
''Oh a Vulpix! Do you live here?'' Maple nodded with a nervous frown.
''What are you? I never saw your kind around here before.'' The Vulpix asked curiously.
''I'm a Zorua and let's just say I'm very far from home. A poacher captured me but I managed to escape and find this forest so yeah... What is the name of this region anyway?''
''This is Johto.'' Maple replied a little bit concerned about the Pokemon story.
''Oh man! That's like on the other side of the world! I don't think I will ever manage to return to Unova!'' The Vulpix looked at the distressed Zorua in pity.
''I'm sorry.'' But the Zorua simply shook her head.
''It's okay I wasn't that attached to the place. Beside my mother died before I was born and my father was clearly only taking care of me because he had no other choices.'' Maple looked at the Zorua bewildered, how could she act so casual about all of this? Her life sounded even worse than her's. ''So what is a young Vulpix like you doing all alone? Shouldn't you be with your parents?''
Maple winced in response. ''Yesterday my parents had a fight. My father basically said that if he could get a son he would get rid of me.''
The Zorua winced. ''Ouch, no offense but your father sound like a prick.'' The Vulpix couldn't help but laugh at that. But then she sobered up as she thought about how long she had been away from home.
''I-I should probably return home my father will probably be angry I didn't returned yesterday.'' She was not looking forward to seeing her dad again.
''Hey I have an idea if you don't want to be yelled at maybe I could replace you for a little while! Whatever your dad say to me I'm sure it won't affect me as much since he isn't really talking about me!''
Maple looked at her weirdly. ''How could you possibly replace me? You look nothing like me, they would notice right away.''
The Zorua laughed at that and Maple had to admit her laugh was pretty cute. Suddenly the Zorua was covered by a bright light and when it vanished there stood a perfect replica of Maple in her place. The real Vulpix gawked at her doppelganger.
''How did you do that?!'' She had asked in wonder.
''This? This is nothing special every Zorua are able to create illusions like this.'' The dark type replied with a proud grin.
''Can you teach me?!'' Maple asked with her eyes full of hope.
''Umm, I'm not sure. I never saw another Pokemon create illusions like we do but then again I'm not really familiar with Vulpix do you have any special abilities?''
The Vulpix looked thoughtful. ''Well Vulpix and Ninetales have a special power we don't really know how to call it but the humans says it's magic. It allow us to create curses and such when we're really angry. I once heard a legend that there was once a cruel man who would go around and kick small Pokemon in the forest just because it made him feel powerful. A Ninetales who witnessed this was so angry at his cruelty that she transformed him into a Joltik. The legend goes on to say that when he tried to return home his wife cried bloody murder at the sight of him and squashed him with a shoe.''
The Zorua face had paled as Maple finished her story. ''Wow remind me to never piss you off.'' She said with a nervous laugh.
''Anyway can you teach me?'' The Vulpix asked with puppy eyes.
''Fine, fine, I will do it. But I make no promise alright? There a very big chance you won't be able to learn this.'' Maple nodded but still had a excited grin on her face.
Over the next few months the two of them would try to unlock the power of illusions but nothing had worked. They were ready to give up but then one day when Maple came to train she was beyond pissed.
''I can't believe this! My dumb father tried to talk to mister Kasai today and he tried to convinced him to give him his son in exchange of me. What does he see in that stupid kid that I don't have?! The only difference between the two of us is the fact that he's male!'' When her rant was over they both froze as they saw a flash of light in the corner of their visions.
A few seconds ago there was a big trees that stood behind them but now all that was left was a small sprout barely at the start of it's life. ''Wow you did this? The power of a Vulpix is amazing!'' The Zorua exclaimed and looked at her friend with wonder in her eyes, but then an idea came to mind.
''Of course! Why didn''t we think of this earlier!'' Maple looked at him in confusion.
''Think of what?'' She asked.
''Try to think of something that make you really angry.'' The Vulpix thought of the night her father had slapped her mother and she gritted her teeth angrily. ''Perfect! Now try to use your cursing power.''
Maple felt something surge inside of her. ''I feel it! Now what do I do?''
''Try to turn the curse on yourself! You should try to throw a curse that will transform you!'' Pretty soon the Vulpix was enveloped by a blue light. The blue light stayed there for almost a minute before it faded away when it was gone there was still Vulpix standing there.
''Aww it didn't work.'' Zorua pouted disappointingly but then she began to notice subtle differences about the Vulpix and when it finally clicked her eyes widened. ''Wait a second. Did you turn yourself into a male?!''
Maple grinned in response. ''It worked?! Finally! Maybe now my father will respect me!'' His grin faded as he saw the Zorua looked at him with sad eyes.
''What's wrong? Aren't you happy? We did it!'' The dark type shook her head.
''It's nothing I'm happy for you.'' She said with a forced smile. Maple then decided to return home they waved at each oither when the Vulpix was gone Zorua sighed. ''I should have known that's what she was going to do with this power.'' She shook her head sadly. ''A illusionist is supposed to fool their enemy but she's trying to fool herself.''
When his father saw him he narrowed his eyes. ''What is the meaning of this? Are you trying to laugh at me?''
''No sir, I'm going to prove to you I can be the son you always wanted!'' He said with defiant eyes, Kusubu snorted.
''We will see about that runt. You can play pretend all you like but you will never amount to anything.'' Maple boiled in silent rage, he would prove him wrong and become worthy of being the next leader!
Finally the day had arrived. Today he would be tested to see if he was worthy of the crown. The test was pretty straightfoward, he had to defeat a Ninetales. Easier said than done, he looked around nervously as people looked at him.
''Hey is that Maple? Why do she look like a male?'' One of the Vulpix asked his mother but the vixen shushed him.
Maple gulped as he look at the large Ninetales looking at him with cold eyes. Both of them were standing in a ring. Well it was really just a circle drawn on the dirt but they still called it a ring ''This is a match between Maple daughter of Kusubu and Enta son of Kasai! Begin!''
Immediatly he jumped into action with a Quick Attack but as he slammed into the larger Pokemon he noticed that the Ninetales barely flinched at the attack.
''Flamethrower!'' A few Vulpix in the crowd looked impressed by Maple's attack. But the Ninetales didn't even bother to try to dodge. When the attack was done he sneered at Maple.
''Is that all? Allow me to demonstrtae true power. Dark Pulse!'' Maple screamed in pain as the dark attack overwhelmed him. Before the Vulpix could even recover he was hit by another attack. ''Flame Charge!''
Maple was sent crashing on the ground outside of the ring. ''And the winner is... Enta!'' It was the last thing he heard before his world went black.
She woke up a day later and immediatly noticed that her illusion was gone. She hated looking at her female body. It was the body of a weakling. She began to sob as she realised she didn't even last more than a minute against the Ninetales. Her father had been right all along she really was a failure.
She heard the sound of paws aproaching but at this point she didn't care who would see her. She left something warm against her and realised it was her mother that was hugging her.
''Shh, it will be okay honey. Everything will be alright.''
''No it won't! I failed the test, I'm not worthy to be a leader!'' She cried more tears were pouring out of her eyes.
''Yes you are honey. This test was never supposed to have happened today. Your stupid father insisted to test you right now but they were supposed to wait until your eighteenth birthday. The council all agreed that the test should not count. You are only six year old honey you still have a lot of room to grow. Your father doesn't seem to realise that.''
''But dad said he arleady mastered Blast Burn when he was my age.'' Maple replied with a small voice.
''Here's a secret that your father doesn't share with anyone. The only reason why he was able to master Blast Burn so early is because he used to be owned by a Pokemon Trainer. Humans have a special ability that allow them to make Pokemon much stronger than they should be. Your father had an unfair advantage over you.'' Maple eyes widened at the revelation. She would never have guessed her father used to be owned by a human.
They were interupted when they heard something enter their home. Recognising the footstep of her father Maple began to cast her illusion on herself. When his father entered the room he looked at him for a few seconds but didn't say anything but he could see the look of disapointment in his father's eyes.
Finally he walked away with a snort. And as soon as he was gone tears began to fall from his eyes once again. Maple's mother looked at him in shock.
''W-what have you done to yourself Maple?! You look like a male!'' He looked away from his mother concerned eyes.
''Father always wanted a son... So I thought he would prefer to see me like this.'' His mother didn't say anything for a while but he could swear he saw her eyes flash blue for one second. ''M-mom are you alright?''
''It's nothing honey but while you're with me you don't have to disguise yourself alright? Unlike someone I won't name.'' She said her voice dripping with venom. ''I like you just the way you are Maple.'' The Vulpix nodded and his mother left him alone.
Maple and his father hadn't spoken since that day but everytime they would see each other his father would glare at him. It continued like this for a while, but fortunately Kusubu was often sent on missions to recruit more Vulpix and Ninetales into their pack, get more food to feed them and fight for more territory over the forest.
But then one day her father hadn't come back at first they weren't worried sometime his mission would last longer than expected. But then one night Kasai had came to visit them which was pretty unusual since usually he only visited when Kusubu was there.
''Hello Miss Syrup and Maple. I... I don't know how to say this gently but Kusubu was killed in action during the last mission. He was attacked by a Arcanine and... Well I won't share the gruesome details but he died protecting the rest of his team. Even in death he's still a hero.''
Both Maple and Syrup were shocked at the news. But Maple soon realised that she wasn't able to cry for her father and that made her feel guilty. They held a funeral for her father but she did not attended because she didn't have many kind word to say about him and she didn't want to seem like a jerk.
The sadness the whole pack had for her father confused her a great deal. Was she the only one that had seen his bad side? When the pack talked of him as a hero and as a great leader it was as if they were talking about a completely different Pokemon.
She began to feel like she didn't belong with the rest of them so one day she decided to run away. Disguising herself as male once again he left the forest. He didn't know what he was searching for but he travelled multiple routes. Traversed though a park filled with bug types and snuck throught a massive city filled with humans and Pokemon alike.
Until he finally reached a forest but that forest felt very different but at the same time a bit similar to home. It was still a forest obviously but he felt like there was something powerful hidden in this place he couldn't put his paw on it.
Some bug types and Flying types Pokemon came to inspect him they looked curious. He was surprised at how they didn't seemed afraid of him at all. Normally when a bug type saw a fire type they would scamper away. But it was as if these Pokemon felt liked they were protected by something.
But without warning the peace of the forest was shattered by a loud voice screaming in the distance. ''Those are mine! don't you dare touch it filthy human!'' Someone angrily yelled.
He began to run toward the voice and his eyes widened at the sight before him. A Poliwrath was standing in front of a young human girl and was threatening her. When the Pokemon threw a water attack at her he jumped in front of her without thinking.
''Protect!'' And the rest as they say was history. He made friend with the girl called Paradox who he later found out was the daughter of the legendary Pokemon Celebi. The girl had looked so happy to have him as a friend it broke his heart to know such a sweet girl felt so alone.
She was kind of weird for a human he couldn't deny it, but he liked her a lot. She was his only friend since Zorua. The dark type Pokemon had vanished after teaching him how to make illusions he had searched for a long time but she never returned.
Pretty soon he had to leave the forest and return home. But he promised her to return at the start of every months.
Back in his home the council had decided to elect Enta as the new leader of the pack until Maple would be old enough to try the test once again. He had to admit learning that the one who had mopped the floor with him was the new leader kind of stung.
Maple's mother would force her to drop her disguise everytime she was home. But she didn't mind, if she wanted to be honest with herself, she kind of felt better as a girl but at the same time she also felt exposed in her real form as if someone would take advantage of it as soon as they saw who she really was. Soon most Pokemon had forgotten what she really looked like except her mother. Her mother was the only Pokemon she allowed herself to show weakness to and Maple felt safe with her.
The season passes and he continued to train hoping that one day he would finally master Blast Burn. And every months he would go visit his best friend Paradox and stay a week with her. He also felt safe with her but he didn't dare show her his true form around her. He was too afraid that she wouldn't like the real Maple, the weak, pathetic Vulpix who had never amounted to anything.
Soon months grew into years and what used to be only friendship started to be a little more. Maple had discovered that he was atracted to female and he didn't know how to deal with the information. When he was in his male persona most people would assume it was normal for him to be atracted to girls but Maple knew the truth. He wasn't really male and there was something wrong with him for liking the same sex.
One day while she was at home she decided to confess about her attraction to her best friend to her mother. Once she confessed she had hoped that her mother would help her overcome this, make her forget about her attraction to her best friend and fix herself. But instead her mother had smiled softly and said. ''There's nothing to fix Maple. Sometime Pokemon are born and they are attracted to the same gender and there is nothing wrong with that. Maybe some Pokemon will give you trouble for it, but never listen to them alright? You should always follow your heart.''
''Are you sure? What about making an heir for the pack if I somehow manage to pass the test? I don't think two females can make an egg.'' Syrup shook her head.
''Don't think about that right now you're still very young and if it come to it I'm sure you will find a way.'' She was confused at what her mother was saying but she dropped the subject.
Maple decided he would forget about his attraction to Paradox. The chance that she would return his feelings were extemely low not only were they both girls but Paradox was also a human and humans didn't mate with Pokemon.
Soon Paradox would celebrate her fourteenth birthday. And Maple knew what gift he wanted to give her. One day he snuck outside the forest a few weeks before he was supposed to and made his way to the National Park. There he found a Scyther and when he told him his plan the bug Pokemon had looked at him as if he was crazy.
''Are you sure you want to this? This is probably gonna hurt like hell.'' The Vulpix nodded with a resoluted frown. ''Fine, just don't place a curse on me or something alright? You're the one that asked for this.''
With that the Scyther had made a clean cut on one of his tail . ''Ahhhhhh!'' The Vulpix screamed in agony.
''I told you it would hurt! This was the stupidest request someone ever asked of me!'' The Scyther said with a shake of his head.
Maple tried to contain his tears and he took the tail that laid on the ground. He felt an intense sense of loss as he look at his tail. But he told himself it would regrow and fortunately he was right.
A week later the tail had completely regrown but she had still freaked out her mother when she saw that she was missing a tail. ''What have you done to your tail?!'' Syrup yelled in a panick.
''I was practicing and I accidently cut it off.'' Maple lied and Syrup had immediatly hugged her.
''It's alright mom it's gonna regrow.'' She had said with a reassuring smile.
''That's not the point! Don't you know our power is tied to our tails? You're probably gonna be weaker than all the other Vulpix for at least a month because of this!'' Oops she hadn't known about that.
Fortunately no one wanted to duel him that particuliar month so he could pretend like nothing was wrong. Finally the day came when he had to go visit his best friend to celebrate her birthday and that was the day that everything changed.
'S-she just kissed me! No, no, no!' He thought to himself as he ran throught the forest as fast as he could. He had never wanted for her to fall in love with him! She deserved someone so much better than him!
He was only a weakling a pathetic runt who pretended to be strong when he was in fact the most pathetic Vulpix in existense! Paradox had fallen for a fake persona and he couldn't do that to her anymore. He had lied to her for eight long years and he didn't know how he would ever look at his own reflection ever again.
He had ran all night long and when he made it to his house Maple dropped her disguise and fell on her bed. Maple's mother had come to check on her with a worried frown. ''You're back arleady? Wasn't it your firend birthday today?''
''W-we're not friend anymore, she was going to discover my secret!'' Syrup looked at her sadly.
''Why is that so wrong? Maybe you should let another person see the real you it would be good for you.'' The Vulpix shook her head violently,
''I can't let her see me like this. She loved the strong Vulpix who had come to save the day all those years ago she would never liked the weak, pathetic Pokemon I really am-''
Maple never saw the slap coming. ''Don't say that about yourself! You only think like that because of him. He made you lose all confidence in yourself! He never deserved you!''
Maple looked down on the ground. ''But he was right. Despite how many years I have trained I still can't master the Blast Burn I will never be worthy of being the pack leader.''
The Ninetales lifted the head of her daughter with her paw. ''You will get it someday honey, you should try to be patient. Some Vulpix take a hundred years before they master that move so you shouldn't beat yourself up over it.''
''Fine.'' The Vulpix muttered and her mother gave her a nuzzle.
The next two years had been some of the most miserable in his life. Almost everyday he would do the same thing. Wake up, train all day, eat supper with her mom and go to sleep, rinse and repeat.
But then one day when he was trying to make his flame bigger he had heard someone calling his name. ''M-Maple?'' With a chill he realised that the voice sound eerily familiar. As he turned around his fear was confirmed. Paradox was standing there with a small Marill on top of her head.
He was in shock at the sight of her and he didn't knew what to do. And the worst thing was that she was even more beautiful than before. Finally snapping out of his frozen state he turned around and sprinted as fast as he could.
''Wait Maple!'' She yelled after him but he couldn't. Why did she had to find him?! Now her image of him would be broken forever! They ran for almost ten minutes throught the forest but finally he was able to escape her pursuit as he dived into a bush.
But then as he was about to walk away he heard the voice of Enta accusing Paradox of attacking him and threatening to kill her. His heart sunk as he heard him yelling ''Blast Burn!'' And without thinking he had jumped in front of her just like he had done ten years ago.
''Protect!'' He had felt a sense of deja vu as he once again protected her from a dangerous Pokemon. It was funny how the world work sometime, their story had come full circle and they were back at the begining.
He managed to chase the pack of Ninetales away. But then he was left alone with his best friend and he realised it was too late to back out. If he didn't reveal his secret right now he would lose her forever and he knew this and yet he was still afraid to do it.
But with a resigned sigh she dropped her disguise and for the first time ever she had exposed herself completely to her best friend. But as Paradox fell on the ground and lost consciousness she knew it was too little too late. Paradox probably hated her now...
Author note: Yeah this was probably the darkest chapter I have written for this story yet. Also to be honest I'm a little bit worried about this chapter not because it's dark but because of the constant shift of pronoun for Maple. I wanted to show she was only being herself around her mother I don't know if I did a good job of that or not. Tell me if it's too confusing and I will try to change it.
At first I had just wanted to make in sort Maple reason for disguising herself as a male was because she didn't want to deal with male Vulpix constantly flirting with her. But I felt this was a cheap reason for the plot twist so this is what I came up with.
Also I know I'm evil, I finished the chapter on the same cliffhanger as the last chapter. But don't worry next chapter we will finally see how Paradox deal with her best friend's secret.