Anonymous person who has chosen to be called 'Just a fanfic reader' you have asked many good questions about this story, most of which will be answered in the chapters to come. As for your prediction, it's not that correct, as you can see from this chapter. As for Umbreon's catch, he was lucky, that's all. I don't know where it'll end yet, but it probably won't be for a while. I haven't read any wolf books actually, and am surprised that the book you mentioned has almost the same name as my Eevee evolution story. Thank you for your incredibly long review; it was literally the best one I've gotten yet.
Absolkagome, yes! I can't wait for it, it's supposed to be called Midnight. Umbreon might get a warrior name… ;)
Kindly Kold, Vulpix4life, Moon, and The Cougar, thanks for your input! And sorry for the long author's note…
Chapter 3
After a long pause that seemed to take a century to pass, Blazewind the pack leader broke away from the crowd to peer down at Scarfang. "What happened?" She demanded.
"I… I… I saw them." Someone finally stammered out, sounding so frightened that Umbreon barely recognized her as Takula. Her muzzle was still bloody from the Spearow she'd caught.
Blazewind turned to face Takula. When she spoke, it was in her usual kind and tired tone. "Speak Takula."
"It was… it was… the Houndour. A lone Houndour, he attacked and killed Scarfang! Oh Scarfang, Scarfang, your death shall be avenged!" The Vaporeon responded, a hint of insanity in her voice.
"Takula was always close to Scarfang." Fern told Umbreon quickly before darting away from him to join Pyrone. There she resumed her old pastime of making strange faces at him. It was to be expected, Umbreon told himself.
"…As you all know," Blazewind had been speaking while he had been looking at Fern, "Scarfang was not only our elder, but had been trusted to be our deputy. We will never forget Scarfang for as long as we live, he'd been wonderful to all of us. And I'm sorry Takula."
An uproar of mews greeted her words, comforting Takula, agreeing that Scarfang would be in their hearts, and, most of all, knowing that he'd been a wonderful elder to them. Umbreon added his voice in as well, before Blazewind had silenced them all with a wave of her tail.
"But now we are without a deputy, and an elder. I'm next in like for the lateral position, so it shall remain empty until I retire. But for a deputy…" She looked meaningfully around at the crowd arranged around her and continued, "Will Vernol step forward?"
A Jolteon, thick muscled and small, scampered forward and stopped two feet from Blazewind expectantly. "Today we have experienced the death of one of our own, Scarfang, killed by a lone Houndour. His death shall be avenged by our new deputy!" She paused and placed her left paw on Vernol's forehead.
"Vernol is no more, today he shall forever be called Stormclaw!" A chorus of mews exploded from the crowd; Stormclaw must have been the popular choice for deputy. It was then that Umbreon noticed that Takula hadn't joined in; she was edging away into the forest.
"As is our custom, Stormclaw, you must leave for the forest now. Stay there until you find the Houndour that committed this terrible crime and bring him back, dead or alive."
"Yes ma'am." Stormclaw responds before turning away and dashed through the crowd, which parted for him, and disappeared into the forest. The pack buried Scarfang after that, in a sleepy dell by the lake. Takula showed back up and wept along with the rest for their old elder. When at last everyone had returned to pack grounds to eat, Umbreon had finally gotten his chance to say his parting words to the Jolteon.
"Goodbye old one." Umbreon mumbled as he situated himself next to the upturned dirt that held Scarfang. A lone tear streaked down his nose and dripped onto the ground, "I will miss you too."
Umbreon spent a couple of minutes in silence, just sitting there, thinking over the past couple of days. Scarfang had his doubts about Umbreon, but had been kind to him all the same. The misfit had been taken care of by him, Scarfang had been the one to stuff forest berries down his throat. When Umbreon said he'd miss the Jolteon, something inside him said that'd always be true…
"You're still here?" Asked Fern softly as she padded over to Umbreon, disturbing his train of thought. She smelled of food to Umbreon as she sat down a foot away from him.
"They still have fresh kill for you." She continued, in the same soft voice, "If you want to go eat it, there's a nice warm spot over in the tyro's area…" Fern got to her feet, wagged her tail at Umbreon, and stepped off for pack grounds. Umbreon followed her reluctantly, passing by a couple of already sleeping Vaporeon as he went.
Fern had been right; in the middle of the grounds was one last piece of food, which Umbreon snatched as he followed Fern to the sleeping area for the tyros. She settled down in a patch of earth that didn't normally have the shadows of trees obscuring it. Umbreon settled next to her, and found that she'd been right about this too; the spot is very warm still in the frosty autumn night.
"Hi!" Exclaimed a bright voice from behind Umbreon as he finished his meal and began to clean his muzzle. A small male Eevee pranced over and stood in front of Fern and Umbreon, his tail wagging.
"Hello Noric." Fern grumbled, getting up and inching away from both him and Umbreon. "I should be going; my mum wants me to sleep with her."
Umbreon watched her go sadly, she'd been kind to him one minute, and regained her old attitude again. He was confused, but didn't dare offer that Fern stay and share his space tonight. He'd always slept alone in the tyro area, no Eevee wanted to be close to him. This Eevee, young as he was, shouldn't have even bothered to speak to Umbreon.
"Wow, you're the Umbreon! Can I touch you, huh, can I?" Noric continued, "I was just made a tyro tonight! Isn't that great? I'm a tyro now, whoooo!"
"Sure, I guess." Umbreon responded uncomfortably, holding out his right paw to the eager Eevee. Noric sat down and held out a paw of his own, and touched it to Umbreon's.
"You're really cool." Noric finally said as he got up and settled where Fern had been next to Umbreon. "Can I sleep with you tonight?"
Umbreon's heart soared; his response was quick, "Of course! I'd love to have company!"
Noric purred lightly as he snuggled into Umbreon's fur. "Good night."
"'Night." Umbreon replied happily, laying his head down next to Noric's front paws.
This night was Umbreon's best; he'd finally made what could be called a friend! When Takula came calling the next morning for their morning hunting practice, another female Flareon accompanied her.
"I see you're already met Noric." Takula said approvingly as the young Eevee yawned and stretched. "He's going to be coming with us today as we show you all the pack's borders." It was then that Umbreon noticed that Fern was standing a little bit away, giving him the normal odd look-over.
"The pack has borders? But… but… I thought that we were the only pack other then the Houndour…" Noric said, his eyes wide.
"Oh no, there are three other packs. Not just us." The female Flareon stated.
"This is Elvera, she's Noric's mentor." Takula said to Umbreon and Fern.
"Nice to meet you both." Elvera said kindly, her eyes glinting as they looked upon Umbreon.
They set off then, Elvera and Takula in the lead, then Fern, Noric and Umbreon brought up the rear. Noric was very easy to talk to, and he didn't seem to care that Umbreon was strange looking at all. They headed east first, where after a while the familiar scents of the Whitefang Pack died away and a new, sweeter scent came through.
"This is the boundary between the Whitefang Pack and the Eaglefire Pack. They're Vulpix and Ninetales only. Look, there's one of them now!" Takula was saying as she pointed her left paw at an extremely large, cream colored, fox-like creature that had nine tails that was standing ten feet away. She glanced at the five on her border for a second before waving her middle tail.
"That means that Eaglefire Pack doesn't mind our presence on their grounds." Elvera mumbled to the tyros, "It's when a Ninetales waves her outer tails when we know that there's a problem."
"Can we hunt on their grounds?" Umbreon asked curiously as he gazed at the unblinking fox.
"Yes, if you want to, of course. The ones from Eaglefire don't care if we hunt on their grounds, as we don't care if they hunt on ours. We're friendly with each other like that. You can even go and talk to that Ninetales if you want!" Elvera answered. Umbreon personally didn't think it was a good idea, but Noric did as he bounded over to her.
Umbreon followed his friend, not wanting him to be barbequed or whatever by the fox Pokemon. As they stopped close to the Ninetales, she seemed to smile slightly at the two of them. She wasn't as tall as she seemed, but still towered over the two of them.
"Hi!" Noric mewed loudly. The Ninetales bent her head down and sniffed Noric's forehead before giving it a quick lick.
"Good morning little one. How are you?" She responded, her voice light and airy.
"I'm great! And you?" Noric exclaimed brightly, which caused the Ninetales to chuckle.
"A little hungry, in pain a bit."
"Why are you in pain? Is something wrong?" Umbreon put in, looking over the Ninetales with concern.
"Ha, no, it's just nature taking her course. I'm expecting a litter soon, you see, and soon my own pack will have me locked up back there." She let out a barking laugh, "So I'm enjoying a bit of fresh air first. What are your names little pups?"
"I'm Noric, and this is Umbreon! We're training to be the best fighters in our pack!" Noric responded brightly, causing the Ninetales to laugh again.
"Oh my! You two are cute! If you ever have the time, maybe you could stop by my own pack grounds again? I'd love some more new company after I get locked up… ask for Flamedance, that's me."
"Hey! Are you two going to talk forever, or are we going to get a move-on?" Fern called impatiently from behind them.
"Oh well, good-bye little ones!" Flamedance said with a final lick on both their foreheads before they charged back over to Takula, Elvera, and Fern.
"Have fun?" Takula asked as they got going again and encountered another scent, one that Umbreon was more familiar with, the Houndour pack's smell.
As Umbreon and Noric nodded, Elvera continued, "These aren't very friendly grounds. Don't try to go into this land, whatever you do. You'd be torn to shreds first."
"Yeah, I kinda noticed that…" Umbreon muttered under his breath.
"Doesn't this pack have a name?" Fern asked.
"We don't talk to the Houndour much, so we don't really know their pack name. You see, normally a pack changes names as they change leaders. Before Blazewind became the leader, we were called the Forestpaw Pack, but very few of us remember that time. After Blazewind, who knows what we're going to be called?" Elvera replied as they began to pad away from the nasty scent of the Houndour.
It took a while of walking southwest before they encountered another scent, a musty one. "And the last pack in this forest, the Electrike and Manectric pack. We can hunt in their grounds, as they sometimes hunt in ours, but we're a little less then friendly. But we do know them as the Staticstrike Pack. That's all for now actually, you three are free for the rest of the day." Takula said with a dismissing flick of her tail, in which Noric, Umbreon, and Fern padded away.
"That was cool, wasn't it?" Noric exclaimed after a while, "We should go visit Flamedance in a couple of days!"
"Who's Flamedance?" Fern asked stuffily as they made it back into the clearing, where a pile of fresh kill was waiting for their wary little legs.
"The Ninetales. I bet you wish you went and talked to her now!" Noric replied.
"I wonder why the Staticstrike Pack is 'less then friendly' with us…" Umbreon mumbled thoughtfully.
"We don't approve of them. They're accepting Poochyena and Mightyena into their ranks, and that's tripled their pack size. And they're at war with the Eaglefire Pack." Fern replied and Noric nodded in agreement.
"What are those?"
"Stupid, big dogs that enjoy killing things. A newborn kit could outwit their elder!" Noric exclaimed with mewing laughter.
"Got that right!" Said a passing Jolteon.
"So why-" Umbreon started, but was cut off by Fern.
"Because they're stupid and like to kill things! They'll listen to the Staticstrike Pack; they'll go out and join the war against Eaglefire! It's a good thing Ninetales are tough, or they'd be slaughtered." Fern snapped irritably as she took her Pidgey to go and eat over with her mom.
"Let's eat over here!" Noric said as he took his own meal and settled down next to the tyro's area. Umbreon followed him gratefully and they dug in to lunch.
"Do you think Flamedance will remember us?" Umbreon asked as he swallowed a much-needed bit of food.
"Of course, Ninetales never forget! They get really old too!"
"How come?"
"Uh, because they have… nine tails! Yeah, I don't really know." Noric sighed into his meal.
"Hey Noric?" Umbreon finally said.
"Yeah? What's up?"
"Thanks, thanks for not judging me." Umbreon blurted, having finally said what was on his mind.
Noric blinked at him at first, then smiled widely and nodded, "It's no problem really." He purred.