Disclaimer: I don't own anything. If I did, you would know about it.

A/N: And last, but certainty not least, merry Christmas Matt! x3

The Origin of Ninetales

A Ninetales sat by the fire, his golden fur glimmering from its flickering light. His trainer had left him alone for a while, to shop at a local store. The old fox winced when a crash came from upstairs, and soon three sets of guilty brown eyes appeared over the balcony, down at him. "What was it, little ones?" He asked tiredly.

There was a pause, in which muffled mutters came from upstairs, as if the three up there were arguing who would talk. Finally, a little female voice answered, "Mommy's new lamp."

"Ah, that. I think she has this thing called… insurance on that lamp. She'll be able to get a new one of you three broke it."

He chuckled when the three vanished from the balcony and came rushing down the stairs, and soon the three Vulpix had either tackled him or settled around him. "Looks like I'm your captive audience now, doesn't it?" The Ninetales continued.

The female Vulpix that had spoken before, also the smallest, nodded frantically, "Will you tell us a story, Grandpaw?" When he hesitated, the three of them burst out into pleading yips and cries.

"Okay…" He finally grumbled, and waited for them to get settled before he continued, "Once there was a Vulpix named Maxim who directly served the great Moltres of his time…"

Maxim raced down the countryside, his tails billowing behind him like six red banners. He turned his head back for a moment and saw that the black dog was slowly falling behind the swift Vulpix's stride. The Mightyena's barks were almost inaudible at this distance.

A round amulet was clamped firmly in the fox's mouth, the golden sphere that the Mightyena wanted back so badly. The dog pursued Maxim through the flat ground that he made off through, and finally through a strip of forestland. He gained on the fox for a while, until the tired Maxim finally gave up running and squeezed through a hollowed log.

The Mightyena was stuck as soon as his snarling head made it into the log. Maxim laughed at the dog, and finally put the amulet down. Grinning wickedly, he shot a tongue of flame out, one that barely missed scorching the dog's muzzle. "I'd leave right now, if I were you." The Vulpix growled, "Because that could be you on fire next."

The fire he'd sparked inside the log was beginning to spread through the rotting wood. Instead of answering, the Mightyena just spat and growled, before he wrenched his head out of the log, and bounded away. He'll be back. Maxim thought while he waited a bit longer, before picking up his amulet and exiting through the non-smoldering side. He was going to leave the log burning.

The walk to his master's lair was long; yet not as straining as the chase he'd just been through. The forestland soon thinned out, becoming rocky and dry. Soon Maxim was walking up a mountain with his amulet, the frosty peak his destination.

Once there, a feat that took a few days by itself, Maxim bowed his head to the massive bird of fire before him. "Did you get it?" His master asked. The Moltres he reported to was a King of sorts, his flames burned brightly even at his old age (that was part of the fire bird's ranking system, bright flames meant good health), and so his word was unchallenged by that of his race.

The Vulpix jerked his head and tossed the amulet to the Moltres' feet, "Yes Master Kitaren, I got it."

"Good." Master Kitaren hesitated when he took the amulet in his beak, appearing to marvel at the gold beauty, before tossing it back to Maxim, "It is not what I thought it would be. You may keep it for your struggles."

Maxim's face was an unreadable mask as he pawed at the amulet's side, "But Master, how will I carry it?"

"…A small chain would serve you well." The Moltres suggested with a helpless shrug, "You may look for one later. I have another mission for you." The fox's ears perked up, even though he was tired from the long trek, he loved missions-strangely enough.

Eventually, Master Kitaren found a silver chain that was the perfect size to fit around Maxim's neck. Even though it did take both of them together to string it on, and then fasten it, it still was stunning against the Vulpix's crimson fur. Now, though, it was a bobbing nuisance that hindered Maxim as he dashed down his master's territory, heading due north on the task that he'd been given.

He was after another little trinket that had caught Master Kitaren's fancy, this time a pearl that was supposed to be the size of one of Maxim's paws. His master didn't know much else about the pearl, except it was big, and was supposed to have an odd effect on Pokemon that were under its influence for too long. Those that possessed this pearl were said to become greedy and hoardish, stealing things of worth to them and amassing a whole pile of the possessions.

Also, it was under the guard of a powerful Altaria, who'd turned vicious suddenly after finding and flaunting the large pearl. Her territory was on the outskirts of Master Kitaren's land; it was a good week's walk from his centralized mountain lair, yet the Moltres had been kind enough to fly Maxim a good ways out. It only took two days before Maxim caught the sweet, flowery smell of Altaria, and their pre-evolution Swablu.

Finding the female Altaria-named Mesra-wasn't the hard part of Maxim's mission. It was getting the pearl that was; the bird had it concealed under the cloud-like feathers of her chest. And when she spotted Maxim, she wasn't about to let him have it. "I come in the name of the Great Kitaren for possession of your… pearl. Give it to me now and-"

The and was never heard, as the bird gave a screech and swiped her wing at him, "You're going to have to take it from me." She snarled, an orange blast of fire spewed from her open beak, aimed for Maxim. The stunning Dragonbreath prickled his fur, and when it'd dissipated his fur was standing on edge.

In self-defense, Maxim shot a blast of fire at her head, which was swiped away harmlessly by a wing. Mesra stood and a metallic clink, clink, clink sounded from under her as a large, dark gray pearl rolled away, downhill towards Maxim. He made a dive for it, mouth open and amulet clanking, but the Altaria was faster, and snapped the pearl up in her beak before buffeting the fox across his chest with one powerful wing.

Maxim's sight swam as his light body flew backwards, out of Mesra's small cave and into a tree that was obtrusively standing about a yard from the cave's entrance. Then everything went black.

The sun was beginning to rise on a new day when Maxim finally stirred and moaned. His mouth was dry, his head throbbing to an invisible chord. When his sight would focus, Maxim found that he was still outside Mesra's lair where he'd landed.

It took a while, but the Vulpix finally managed to stand and clear his head. He headed away from the lair, intending to come back a little bit later when he felt up to it. There was a small stream close by, which he intended to stay at for a while. The water there was clear and pure, as if a Suicune had freshly touched it, and several prey species also came there. (Though he doubted he could hunt them with his amulet clanking like it did.)

After taking his fill from the stream, Maxim would have settled down to rest some more, but he heard the sound of voices-human voices-very close by. Curious, he went to investigate, and found nine humans standing around an old, crumbling monument. The likeness of a Moltres loomed at the top of it; the only piece of stone that showed no signs of a crack or age, the rest had turned a murky brown and crinkled up. At the center of the monument was a small square of stone where a bright fire burned powerfully.

The nine humans stood mumbling to themselves. When the Vulpix got even closer to them, he saw that most showed the signs that humans had of aging, wrinkling skin and white fur. While most were male, seven of them to be precise, the other two were female and just as ancient.

Even though Maxim made no sound, one of the old humans turned to him and seemed to smile. He muttered something and dropped to his knees, so he didn't loom over the small fox as much. "Hello there, what's your name?" He asked kindly, outstretching his hand to Maxim. The fox's gaze hesitantly darted around at the other eight humans, who had turned as well and were watching, and the back to the first. He would have run away, yet the Vulpix felt he had nothing to fear of them.

"Maxim." He answered, sniffing the offered hand for a moment before retreating slightly. Knowing humans, they probably didn't understand that, hearing no more than a fox-like yip.

One of the females repeated what he said, though, in a voice that cracked with her obvious age. "Well, Maxim, I'm sure you'd like to know what nine old coots like us are doing here." The first human said with a chuckle. Instead of saying something, Maxim just exaggerated his nod, "You see…" The man's gaze darted to another.

"Go 'head and tell 'im." The other man replied to the unsaid question, "We'd best be admittin' it."

"…The nine of us are at our last." He finished, "It's been gnawing at the back of our minds for the longest time, but now the truth has come alight. We were just paying our last respects to the ancients of this world…"

Maxim yipped again, a horrified look crossing his face. Before he could express anything else to the nine before him, the woman that had understood him suddenly gasped and rushed forward, dropping to her knees and grasping the amulet as he neck. She'd taken it off and was gasping something as she looked upon it, "I know what this is!" She said suddenly to the surprised fox, "Fellows, I think we have one last thing to do…"

The woman held up the amulet for the nine to see, before pulling her arm back, aimed, and tossed it directly into the fire. The flames immediately hissed and spluttered, quickly turning the golden color of the amulet before completely dying for a moment. There was no sign of the amulet anymore, all that remained there was a sharp, fiery red stone that glowed with heat. This only lasted for a couple of seconds, before the stone shivered and burst back into now-golden flames. "What is that?" Maxim asked, confused.

"That, my Vulpix friend, is a firestone." The woman answered.

Maxim blinked as the other woman said something that was too shrill for him to make out the words. This sparked a full conversation, which Maxim silently listened to, yet didn't understand. Finally, the first lady turned to him again and said, "Maxim… we had a favor to ask of you. The nine of us can put the last reserves of our power into that fire, making the firestone omnipotent. If you're exposed to it, you'll most likely change form into something much more powerful than before. But it'll only be for a few seconds, before the effort kills us… Yet if you were to evolve, then some small shreds of our influence would still exist, inside of you."

The fox nodded, and another of the male humans spoke up, "Please, it will at least make our last minutes on Earth… important. Will you chance it?"

Maxim was already nodding agreement before the full question came out. He approached the burning golden flame and looked back at the nine elder humans, where they were already transferring their power to the fire. When the flame roared up as far as it could, he heard a joint "Now!" from the humans, and jumped into the fire.

For a couple of seconds, the Vulpix felt nothing as he stood inside the inferno. And then, then a new sensation racked his body fully, the sensation of being burned. The pain filled Maxim's being until he was blinded by it, his muted scream never left his throat as his body temperature rose to that of the fire.

And then, just when the Vulpix thought he was going to be fully roasted, it all stopped. Stopped to a mind-numbing stillness as Maxim's temperature reached that of the fire itself. He was one with the flames.

He could feel his tightly curled tails unfurl, and then they too went numb to save from the pain of three more growing in as well, along with lengthening.

Maxim's body toppled out of the fire by that point, scattering the last remaining embers of the golden flames, which had died down again to the glowing firestone. His amulet was around his neck again, the chain still the perfect size for him, yet wasn't even close to scraping the ground.

The nine elders were gone, yet Maxim could sense a small trace of them still inside his being.

Maxim had grown taller, his body had turned sleek and the fur a golden that matched the flames and also his amulet. He still glowed slightly from the evolution, the outside world was abnormally cool to him now, as he retained the high temperature he'd been exposed to.

With a small little smile, he whispered thanks to the nine deceased humans, and began the trek back to Mesra's cave.

The Altaria had been expecting him to come back, yet she had no clue about his change. When Maxim flamed again, the fire had become super-heated, and it charred her velvety wings easily. She eventually, and grudgingly, surrendered the pearl, which Maxim made off with, with a happy little twitch of his tails.

Returning back to his master's lair was only a four-day trip in his faster form, and Master Kitaren was utterly amazed when he'd returned that early. "You changed Maxim."

"Yes sir." Maxim answered, then proceeded with telling him the whole of what had happened.

"Well then, what are you going to call this new evolution of a Vulpix?" Master Kitaren asked calmly when he'd finished.

Looking back at his tails, and thinking about it for a moment or two, Maxim finally said, "Ninetales."

"…And so Maxim became the first Ninetales, and alerted others of his kind about the change. At first they were skeptical, but a brave few exposed themselves to firestones and evolved. Maxim himself lived to the ripe, old age of a whole thousand years, before peacefully dying in his sleep the night after his thousandth birthday. And his amulet… well, it was passed down through his descendants. It's rumored that it's still around, and as shiny and golden as ever…"

The old Ninetales fell silent then, a smile curving his mouth as he looked over and up on the mantle, where an old trinket had been collecting dust for a while. Its golden glint caught his eye for a second, and he repeated, "Still around somewhere…"