Me: Since my muses still refuse to get along, I'll have to start this off. We don't own Pokemon. Now, on with the fic.

Vurso: *Wailing faintly. * Sera!

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I grinned happily as I flipped another fish out of the creek and onto the large leaves on the bank. "That's five!"

Whirlwater laughed at my enthusiasm. "Sugar, ya sure are getting good at this here fishin. You're getting betta than ah am."

My tongue lolled out as I gave a happy grin. "Think this should be enough to get Moonshine to teach me how to really run?"

"Sugar, ah know that Umbreon, an ah know that he won't be able ta resist this here fish." The Vaporeon answered from where she was sunning herself on the bank.

I could resist. Honestly, I couldn't! I mean, could you resist a perfect opportunity like that? She was practically asking for it!

I drew my paw up and back, as far out to the side as I could, and swing in down in a fast arc. The resulting wave of water completely drenched Whirlwater.

Whirlwater snorted a drop of water off of her nose, and grinned. "So that's the way ya wanna play, huh?"

I made a mock growl in answer, and we immediately started a play-wrestling match. It didn't consist of more then batting at each other with our paws, gentle play biting that wouldn't even leave a mark, and trying to push each other into the middle of the creek. It was all in play, and we had done it many times before. Thanks to the rich diet of fish, berries, fruit, and other foods that the Eevee pack introduced me to, I had started a growth spurt that now actually made me a little bigger than the Growlithe in my own pack. Which made me just the right size for wrestling.

Though it didn't necessarily mean that I would win. Whirlwater soon pinned me, just like she had every time we had wrestled.

"Just you wait!" I laughed. "I'll beat you one day!"

Whirlwater grinned. "In your dreams, Sugar." I grinned and splashed her again. Whirlwater laughed and let me up. I stood up and shook, sending water everywhere, and drenching Whirlwater again. This sent us both into another bout of laughter.

We both climbed out and shook ourselves again, then I ducked my head down and picked up the corners of the leaves in my mouth. Taking a firm grip, I lifted them up, until the bundle left the ground. It was heavy, but I could do it.

"Well, Sugar, once that Moonshine teaches ya how ta run, come on back here and we'll have a race between the three of us." I smiled and nodded. I then turned around and started to trot off.

I stopped when I had an idea, and put down the fish. I turned around and asked my friend, "Wanna come and watch?"

"Sure!" Whirlwater jumped up and trotted up beside me. I smiled and picked up the fish again, and together we went to find Moonshine.

We found him sleeping under a tree on the fringes of the pack. I purposefully trotted up to him and dropped the fish on the ground right in front of his snout.

His nose twitched and he opened his eyes. He raised his head, and looked at the five large fish in front of him.

"Huh?" Was the only reply he could think of.

"I caught you fish." I told him. "Now teach me to run."

After staring at me, then the fish, then me, then the fish again, then me, then the fish, he slowly stood, and picked up the bundle. He carefully carried it off somewhere, and trotted back a couple minutes later.

"Come on, runt. I'll teach you." He said, suddenly the gruff teacher. I grinned mentally as I trotted beside him to an open part of the meadow we were in.

"First off," He said, sitting down, "Forget all you know about running."

"Huh?"

"You heard me. You can't learn how to run if you remember other ways of doing it."

"Uh…" Finding no way to argue with this, I closed my eyes and attempted to forget how to run. I slowly opened them again.

"Well? Did you?" Moonshine asked, giving me a piercing look.

"Uh… I think so…"

"Thinking so is not good enough. You have to actually do it." I groaned mentally. This was going to be a looooooong day…

Finally, after satisfying Moonshine that I had forgotten how to run (it took me 4 hours…) he got down to the actual teaching.

"First off, the way that you used to run wastes energy. You go up and down more than forward." I nodded, my entire attention on him.

"The real way to run is to run with your body close to the ground, bounding forward, instead of up." I nodded again. It made sense.

"I'll demonstrate." He said, standing. I stood, too, to be able to see better.

He crouched for half a second, then shot off. I turned my head to follow his progress.

Running, he was about three-quarters as tall as before. I noted how he used his back almost like a spring, absorbing the upward motion, and instead channeling it forward. I nodded to myself as I watched how he stretched himself as far as his body would go on each stride.

(A/N: Think about how a cheetah runs. Like that.)

He ran to the other end of the meadow and back, skidding to a halt in front of me.

"You got it down?" He asked, not even out of breath.

"I think so…" I said, still amazed at how good he was.

"Well, time to find out. Try it." I gulped.

"Okay…" I stood up, and set off into a run. I noticed that I was running in my old way, and tried to do what I had seen my teacher doing.

And stumbled and fell on my next stride.

I blinked as I stared up at the sky, then at black and gold as Moonshine's face appeared over me.

"Not bad, runt. But you still have a long way to go."

I sighed, and got up. I was right. I was going to be a long day.

***

By the end of the day, I had learned to run like Moonshine had showed me for a few strides without falling. But only a few strides.

"Hey, don't get discouraged. You're doing better than I thought you would." Moonshine told me, his first words of encouragement to me of the day.

"Really?" I asked, perking up a little.

"Yeah. You keep at it, and you'll soon be running at the head of the pack." I smiled slightly, and thanked him for the lesson.

"No problem. You actually caught me some fish, which is more than a lot of the members of my pack do." With that, he sent me on my way.

I met Whirlwater as I was walking towards the trail that led back to my pack, and she gave me a once over.

"Sugar, what happened to ya? You're gonna have a bunch of aches and bruises tomorrow."

"I know…" I groaned. "Learning to run is harder than I thought it would be…"

"Just stick with it, Sugar. You have the makings of a poke faster than any I've seen before."

I laughed. "Yeah, right. I'll be lucky if I'm fast enough to keep up with the pack when they start teaching the pups how to hunt."

Whirlwater just smiled.

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Me: Finally, finished with this chapter. Sorry it took so long, but I was short a couple muses…

Both (from their rooms): LET US OUT OF HERE!

Me: NOT UNTIL YOU CAN BEHAVE! Ahem, anyways, please review! And could you guys put in your reviews anything you would like to happen to Stormchaser? I'll use all of them, eventually, I promise!!!