Chapter Two: The Escape
The ninetales was out for an early morning stroll. She had descended from on high to see her domain and its inhabitants, the other pokémon of the island that lived in its forest. Of course, the vast majority of them hid at her approach, but those that she did spot she knew to be her loyal servants. It was a beautiful day, dappled sunlight reaching through the canopy to light the ninetales' fur in a patchwork of alternating fiery radiance and muted gold. She was both an awe- and terror-inspiring sight as she padded casually to nowhere in particular.
A noise caught her attention, though she did not pause in her regal stride. Some pokémon was crashing through the underbrush to her right, clearly coming in her direction. The ninetales gave a small sigh of irritation, the weary sigh of a ruler long disposed to dealing with idiots and bunglers. No doubt the approaching creature was one of her numerous underlings, on his or her way to complain about something or other. Moments later, a Persian erupted from the undergrowth, a female that the ninetales recognized as the one known as Nishivma. The persian was out of breath, apparently having run for quite some distance. Nishivma bowed her head respectfully before blurting out, "Urgent news, Mistress!"
"What is it?" the ninetales replied in a bored tone. Few things that the denizens of the forest deemed "urgent" were actually of much concern.
"A trainer!" Nishivma gasped. "On the beach! Jeremy ran out to her!"
"What!" the ninetales snarled, all traces of boredom gone. Her eyes burned and Nishivma cowered back, whimpering. "It is your duty to prevent any of the Cursed from leaving the forest, especially when there are trainers about! And why has this trainer not entered the trees?"
"I am sorry, Mistress, but I think Jeremy distracted her. She is very strong. I was afraid..."
"You should be far more afraid of me than of any human scum," the ninetales snarled, cutting Nishivma off. "It appears that I must deal with the situation myself, as you are apparently too incompetent to handle even such a simple thing. And if I were you," the ninetales continued, glaring threateningly at the cowering Nishivma, "I would pray that I had not completely failed in my duties."
With that, the ninetales was off and running. For all that she was waited upon by the pokémon of the forest, she was far from soft and complacent. She darted through the forest with a speed and grace that any Arcanine would be envious of, leaping effortlessly over rotting logs and swerving around trees without breaking stride in the slightest. The few denizens of the forest that had not already taken cover did so, doing everything in their power to stay out of the way of their fiery Mistress. As the ninetales sped on, the air surrounding her grew steadily warmer as her anger stoked the fire burning within her, and as her speed and rage increased still more she left a trail of smoldering foliage in her wake.
With a final great leap, she soared over the final barrier of bushes that marked the edge of the forest and out onto the grassy strip between trees and sand. She landed heavily, her paws carving deep gouges in the earth as she checked her incredible momentum. So focused was she on her goal that she had not even felt the strange shiver of power pass across her as she left her domain, and she failed notice the way that the grass surrounding her blackened and fell to ash as the extreme heat she radiated incinerated it. Panting slightly, the ninetales furiously turned her head this way and that, searching for the foolish trainer who dared trespass in her domain and the still more foolish Cursed pokémon who was attempting to escape her grasp.
A shadow passed across her face and she whipped her head upwards, craning her neck as she searched the sky. A pidgeot was circling over her, climbing higher and higher into the vaulted heavens that were beyond her power to control. There was clearly a trainer on its back; the human had escaped, then. As the ninetales glared at the departing trainer, seething with hatred and frustration, her second sight caught something else. A faint aura of magic surrounded the trainer, a fiery halo that the ninetales could only just make out as the pidgeot banked away, heading east. Recognizing hazy power signature as a curse of her own working, the ninetales felt an icy trickle of fear threaten to drown the flame that constantly burned inside of her. It couldn't be! Eyes locked on the swiftly shrinking form of pidgeot and rider, she let out a howl. The eerie sound, suffused with anger and despair, rang out across the nervously silent island, striking fear into the hearts of its inhabitants.