Chapter 3: The fox's toy…

(From the perspective of the human, Lilac Blossom All-Weather)

"Lilac, it looks like there are still a few hours left in the day," Ingénuo said to me as we left the small docks of LittleRoot Town, she just ignored the fact Kitsune was there, "maybe you could stay at my parent's house overnight, as I can't really leave here till I get my first Pokemon tomorrow… Well Professor Birch sometimes has to test to see if someone is good enough to be a Pokemon trainer and he always give new trainers a Pokedex, so if you stay he might even give you a Pokedex too."

I sighed, as likeable as Ingénuo was she didn't really respect others much, especially Kitsune. Maybe if she spent some time by herself with a Pokemon that she couldn't understand, it'd teach her how to be nicer. I couldn't allow myself to stay with her if it would slow down her progress to being a reasonable Pokemon trainer, and certainly she'd just talk to me all the time and forget about her Pokemon if she came with me.

Anyway, it'd just be wrong to travel with her out of selfishness of being uncomfortable alone with Kitsune. What would be best for Kitsune is hard to say, but it'd be better for me if I could become comfortable with whom Kitsune is.

"Sorry, but it would be best for Kitsune if we kept moving…" I sighed; hating to have to used Kitsune as an excuse, but I'm sure she won't mind since I don't think she likes Ingénuo much, "I need to train with her alone for a while so she gets used to me, and so I get used to her. As you've probably noticed she is a bit uncontrollable since I only got her today, maybe we could meet up somewhere, like Dewford Island, I intend to stay there for a few days anyway."

I could feel Kitsune's gaze, I could feel my skin crawl out of fear, I couldn't have upset her much even if I did imply that she belonged to me when she was still free and had no Poke ball that could instantly bind her within it's self. She was wild and there was no way she'd give up her freedom when she didn't have to, but maybe if I had another Pokemon she'd be willing to be caught as then I wouldn't need her to keep me company.

Odd how she didn't say anything, as if she didn't want to risk Ingénuo understanding what she said, or not wanting to reveal that I could understand her. A pang of guilt hit me; I shouldn't have stopped talking to her directly on the boat just because she wasn't talking and that Ingénuo thought it was stupid.

At least Kitsune should be happy that I plan to stop at the birthplace of her other friend, though I doubted that the friend was either human or a trained Pokemon, but a wild Pokemon would have trouble travelling from Hoenn, well unless they went about it the same way as Kitsune.

"Sounds good," Ingénuo muttered in distaste, her arms crossed across her chest, "usually I'd say I'd catch up sooner since you'll have a lot of sight seeing to do but there is a big storm coming in a few days… You might be able to travel to Petalburg before it hits, maybe even reaching Rustboro where you'll be able to get a boat to Dewford after the storm, but it'll be too dangerous for me to travel any further than Oldale if I start tomorrow."

"I hope you don't intend to let your Ninetales stay out of it's Poke ball, you keep on seeming more and more insane: first was you playing with it, then you tried to grab one of it's tails, now you tell me you were doing that after just meeting it for the first time… It'll be hard for me to believe you won't do such a stupid thing, luckily the worst it'll do is run away as we all know what happens to a Pokemon that attacks a human"

Well, at least now I won't have to stop for directions, the sign posts should tell me the way to each of those towns so getting to Dewford should be easy. I watched Ingénuo turn her back and walk away, so I began to head out of town and to the route north, hopefully towards Oldale, the first point on the way to Dewford.

"You know, she actually acknowledged that I could think for once," Kitsune said, clearly she was amused but it didn't show in her voice the same way that it would in a human, though her tails showed her emotions much better than her voice, they were flicking in delight, "she indicated that she believed I was smart enough not to kill you as all violent Pokemon are quickly killed, I think I could like her once she grows a bit more mature, I'm far more intelligent than she thinks, what humans do to those Pokemon who don't suit them as perfectly loyal will never pose me a problem… well if I wasn't completely loyal"

There was a tinge of humour in what she said, though I didn't laugh. Mainly what she said sounded like a threat, that she did not fear the consequences of harming me, and the next bit sounded like she intended it to comfort me as if she said the other bit by accident. Well it's not her fault, she seems young for a Ninetales, a bit immature, and she doesn't know what she's saying. If she hurt me she'd quickly realize that, she just is currently unaware that others feel pain the same way she does.

Still it was difficult to keep my mind focused away from the fear of her I felt. All my life I had never been around any Pokemon other than Eevees and their many evolutions, only knowing about others through videos and textbooks.

As I walked I did my best to blank out Kitsune from my mind. I still trembled out of nervousness because of Kitsune; she seemed to dance around me as we moved deeper into the wilderness between towns. It was as if she was feeding on my fear and was enjoying its taste a lot, not caring that she was scaring off all the other Pokemon in the area. Her behaviour was much like that of a young Umbreon, if it believes your afraid of it, the flavour of fear being impossible to resist because of special hunting instincts. It wasn't Kitsune's fault she was like this; she was clearly immature because of an early evolution so it was mine for encouraging it by being afraid.

At least time seemed to be passing fast when I was ignoring her.

The sun was almost setting when I collapsed to the ground. My backpack rolled out to my side, my legs hurt too much to of been from a normal long walk. I must have been walking a lot quicker than I should have been but we probably would have stopped earlier than this if I were thinking straight. We probably only got half the distance. There was no way we would reach Rustboro before the storm now all thanks to Kitsune's frightful behaviour.

Too bad the other features of an Umbreons hunting instinct were also in Kitsune, the whole instinct was to keep the prey scared and running till it was too weak to fight well, then attack for an easy kill.

Kitsune pounced, light gleaming off her sharp white teeth. I barely managed to roll out of the way, though I knew quite well that resisting would just encourage her. I could not resist obeying my fear, somehow I managed to summon the strength to get back on to my feet, the surprise that I dodged Kitsune's pounce clearly brought me the time to get up… almost.

She leapt again, this time I felt her jaws grab me by my throat and her paws somehow impacted on my shoulders knocking me over. I fell; I could hear the rapid beating of my heart clearly and the fall seemed to take longer than it should have, though my life did not flash before my eyes, as I knew she was only playing at the moment.

My impact on the ground was soft, too soft for such a fall. It seemed that Kitsune's paws had slipped off my shoulders and landed on the ground first, then she had carefully slowed my fall by hold my neck in her teeth. Doing such a thing would require exceptional precision; if she had tried to slow my fall too much she would have just ripped my throat out instead.

Kitsune let go of my neck but I was too tired to use that as an opportunity to escape, anyway that would probably result in her jumping on me again and I doubt that she could pull off the trick with slowing down my fall again. She laid her front paws diagonally across me holding me down so even if I had the strength to move I would still not be able to.

"I hope I didn't scare you too much," Kitsune said as she rested her head on me, clearly she had wasted a lot more energy than she was willing to admit earlier, the warmth of her body up against mine was comforting and my eyes slid shut, I wasn't trembling but that could just be out of lack of stamina. I knew that Kitsune hadn't eaten all day, yet I had at least gotten my own lunch. She must have been getting hungry, but she hadn't let that get the better of her, at least not this time.

I didn't feel up to trying to talk yet, I was getting a bit hungry, but that could wait until Kitsune lets me up.

I must have dozed off as a horrific howl awoke me. It was certainly from a pokemon, it sounded like that of a Mightyena, and likely had a meaning I could not understand. There was only the light of the stars and the crescent moon to see by. I tried not to tremble in fear, as long as Kitsune was here I would be fine.

Kitsune! The weight of her on my chest was gone. I quickly sat up and looked around, surely she must have just moved off me for some reason, probably fearing that she would accidentally hurt me while she slept.

No! There must be some mistake, a quick glance around revealed that she was no where to be seen, and no shadows nearby that looked at all like her

I was shaking, but honestly who wouldn't be; I was suddenly alone, without any protection, without enough light to see by, and there was a Mightyena around. I could feel its anger and hatred. I couldn't see how I could or why I could, but I knew somehow. The worst part was the realization that I'd always be scared. I was afraid of Kitsune, but I was even more scared of not having her around.

I could feel myself curling up into a ball, an instinctive reaction so as to make myself less threatening to any thing around. I wanted to scream for Kitsune but I couldn't. I was having trouble breathing; even Kitsune couldn't scare me like I was scared now. It was worse than the dream I had just before meeting Kitsune.

"Don't worry, I'm here now," a familiar voice whispered in the wind, Kitsune's voice, I turned to look to where the voice was coming from and there was a silhouette of the correct shape. She had returned. I didn't need to know why she had been gone; I just needed her beside me so I could let myself fall asleep once more. There was a tint of red to her fur, it seemed to be in patches, though I felt that it must just be a trick of the light, "Don't worry, everything is fine… I just need to clear up my fur a bit; it's a mess at the moment."

Quickly she was beside me again. It didn't matter that I knew Pokemon like a Ninetales usually didn't put much work into keeping their fur neat, maybe Kitsune was actually concerned about how she looked, and it didn't matter that Kitsune was being a lot more comforting than usual. Maybe she didn't like seeing me this scared.

Soon she was nuzzling her face against mine and I put my arms around her, though there was a slight dampness and her fur was a bit sticky, but it didn't matter to me. I began to drift off and Kitsune gave my face a lick, probably as an equivalent of a kiss, clearly she was going out of her way to make me accept her as a friend. I will have to wait until morning to ask her what had happened, but I'm sure she had a good reason…