Chapter 6: The omega dog, no threat at all?
(From the perspective of the Ninetales, Kitsune)
The light of dawn crept over to me; I could feel the coldness of the night fade away as my mind was clear. I had spent the night in a meditative state so as to still be aware enough to sense any movement the Mightyena would make, though it was unnecessary, as he didn't even stir once. I had assumed that he would have been nocturnal, it was an easy assumption to make, but he would not have slept so soundly unless he had been awake all of the previous day, if not longer.
It should still be easy to work this situation to my advantage; in fact the only problem is that he'd be awake enough to do Lilac some serous harm if I don't intervene, but as long as he isn't any stronger than the pervious one I fought I wouldn't even get a scratch. It might even give Lilac a bigger fright than if I did him permanent trouble by depriving him of air.
I stretched and took a few steps away from the Mightyena, his disgusting scent had rubbed off on me over night but it was nothing that couldn't be quickly burned out. With my head close to my fur, I opened my mouth to let out cleansing fire. I yelped in surprise at the puff of steam that I got instead of fire, which was far more embarrassing than the lack of flames.
How could I have been stupid enough not to realize I wouldn't even be able to breath fire to clean myself? The weakened flame I used to have was enough to clean my fur if given enough time, but now I didn't even have that. How can I put up with my fur gathering the scents of others that would in time over power my own natural scent?
It's hard to believe most lesser creatures put up with such things, but for one as superior as myself having to is just unthinkable…
"It's odd that you're still breathing steam," Lilac called out, startling me once again. Two nights with her and she's woken up first both times, though nether really counted because of illness the first night and meditation the second, it was still discomforting, "I guess your inner flame is hard to put out, though it is still unlikely that you'll be able to breath fire for a long time… Well breakfast is ready, if you're still hungry after the amount you ate last night."
"Wait… you mean that not only will I get a meal every day, but you'll provide more than one!" the third shocking thing today, meaning I'd appreciate my revenge on Lilac a little bit more, "I'm not hungry, you really should have told me last night that there'd be more in the morning. Of course the Mightyena is probably starving after being knocked out last night, since you seem to know more about the Pokemon in Hoenn you better be the one to deal with it."
"Um… I don't think that'd be such a good idea," Lilac said, as she inched away, "I've heard all about Mightyenas, they are highly valued, mainly in criminal groups, not for their power but for the difficulty involved in having any control over them… those that can't handle them get mauled. Supposedly they are given to new members of Team Magma and Aqua to test or build up their skill, which is cruel for both the Pokemon and human… If you look at this properly, I can't even control you and Ninetales are meant to be very loyal, so what are the chances of me handling a wild Mightyena?"
There was a growl, and I glanced towards to Mightyena to see that it was already on his feet; now that his eyes were open I could see that they were a fiery orange with black slits; such eyes were those that I had always been jealous of, they almost made the creature look dangerous…
"You will die for what you have done," He growled as he slowly stepped forward, though his lack of confidence showed as his tail hung between his legs and his steps were cautious, "You murdered a litter of innocent cubs and left their mother to bleed to death… I shall be the one to avenge their deaths, when the sun sets I shall kill you in your sleep."
"Um… it's just after sun rise, you slept through the night and Kitsune never touched any cubs; the Mightyena was injured while Kitsune saved a Zigzagoon," Lilac said, sounding more like she was trying to reassure herself of what she believed than to convince the Mightyena, moving quickly so as to have me between her and the Mightyena, "you know it's odd to see a Mightyena without a pack. Also they're usually nocturnal but this one's most certainly diurnal since it's comfortable with the day light… it doesn't make much sense with the little information I currently have, though there is certainly a logical explanation."
"I think I understand why this one is like that then," I growled, threatening him not with physical strength but with knowing more about him than he was comfortable with, "he probably is just the lowest member in the hierarchy of his pack, resorting to getting food during the day because there isn't enough left when it gets to his turn to eat… since this was probably the only good nights sleep he's had for years it's hard to understand why he'd put up with being in a pack at all, none of my kind would put up with being anything less than absolute top of the hierarchy in a pack."
"Hey, why are you talking about me in the second person," he growled, as he almost took a step back before a wave of anger at me refreshed his confidence. "Humans can never say anything that one can understand, it is not even worth bothering to try to learn their language because it's only an illusion of one… um… your kind must have trouble forming packs if no one is at the bottom of the hierarchy."
"The lowest member of a pack is sometimes called the omega dog," Lilac said, desperate to be useful as she trembled in fear of the dark type Pokemon, a fear common in humans that had little basis at all, "also the lack of understanding helps explain their hostility when their captured, their stubbornness to adapt their beliefs must also be a factor… a social pack creature would have trouble adapting when they are commanded in a language that they have trouble understanding and the comfort of being in a pack would remain in their minds so they'd long for it again."
"At least I do know your weakness," he continued, his tail having trouble wagging while it was hung so low, "all your kind are protective of their tails, and there is also the rumour about a curse that affects all who touch one of the tails…" the pause in what he was saying would have been filled with a bit of laughter if it were from a creature that ever did such a thing, "…that doesn't fool me, I bet if I rip off one of your tails you'll become helpless."
A sudden urge rushed over me to just yell out that my tails weren't a weak spot, I knew it was the truth, my kind were just protective of their tails because, because, there was no reason that I could see, it was just another instinct that had always gotten in the way. Even if Lilac knew why, it'd be too embarrassing to ask her…
"Your
speechless meaning I was right," he growled as he lunged for one of
my tails.
I could have easily knocked him to the ground and killed
him there, but I hesitated and ended up just pulling my tail out of
his way. I couldn't go for a quick win when the poor thing had no
chance of winning at all when I intended to peacefully sort out the
human problem in the future… I needed practice at doing such
things, a peacefully solution to a simple thing like this would be a
sign that things would certainly work out in the end.
"Pack your stuff," I called out to Lilac, my dodging of the Mightyena's attempts to bite my tails probably looked like a playful dance to her; it was hard to keep the fact that she was only a stupid human fresh in my mind when she always said things I didn't know, "we're heading off to the next town, this guy here will eventually get tired and go home… if not I'm sure there will be some pathetic trainer who'll want him to prove they have great skill, though by then he'll hardly put up a fight."
It was almost fun teasing the creature with my tails as we ran around Lilac; he seemed to be going for a long drawn out chase, as he was afraid of what would happen if he did catch me without hitting a weak spot. Lilac made sure we still progressed towards the next town at a reasonable pace for a human…
"I think I need a bit of a rest," she wheezed, looking weak from the distance we had traveled, "we'll stop for lunch and a bit of a rest, I just hope you can handle that Mightyena for that long… if you get into trouble I won't be able to help you."
I looked towards a nearby tree, a perfect place to set him down for a while. I ran towards it and he followed, snapping at my tails. I ran past the tree, waving one of tails against it, before quickly pulling it away. When I heard thump as the Mightyena ran straight into the tree, more out of being too focused on my tail to notice the tree than stupidity, I twisted round and whacked my paw down on his throat.
"Look, why can't we sort this out peacefully," I growled, adding a little pressure to make him uncomfortable but not so much that he'd blackout, "I could of easily killed you at any time but instead I tried to wait for you to get bored. Look, even if you continue to try to kill me you'll just fail time after time as you lack the strength to beat me in a fair fight and you lack the intelligence to trick me. I don't want this to come to a fight; I have no desire to harm you."
"I'm sorry about this, I should have guessed that the howl was a bit of an exaggeration," the Mightyena whimpered, "some of my kind just get a bit paranoid when they have pups and end up forcing everyone away, so she was probably a bit confused when she howled out the message about you. But that's not the problem, no one really cared about her since she had no pack and the pups were fathered be a Seviper. I still have to kill you, as I can't return back to my pack unless I do. If I tell them you didn't do anything I'd be considered a coward, backing out of something I said I'd do."
"Let me get this straight, you got tired of being the omega dog so you spurted out that you'd hunt me down," I said, easily guessing about what had happened to him, "just so you could be moved up the hierarchy… of course you should know that the only chance you have of killing me is to outsmart me; being intelligent is clearly not something your good at because you also missed the fact that even if you kill me you'll be back down to being the omega dog in a few days because your such a wimp…" suddenly the shock of something else he said hit me, "you mean your species breeds with other species? That can't work, can it?"
I turned questioningly towards Lilac, letting go of the Mightyena.
"Yes, it does happen but I don't know any more than that," she sighed, "I have gotten to see the evolved forms of Eevee breed, nothing more thus I know very little about that sort of thing… I do know that some of the more successful breeders rely on it happening to breed Pokemon with certain abilities they don't normally have. I would guess that the young Poochyena in that litter would grow venom sacs or something."
Suddenly there was the sound of hoofs on the ground and something dashed past us, stopping in the path to the next city, thus disrupting any chance of me quickly finishing off with a 'peaceful' solution with the Mightyena. The true peaceful solution had proven to be impossible, but that didn't mean it was an omen of things to come.
There stood a fiery horse, a Rapidash, only a short distance away standing side on, showing off as much of its magnificent flames as it could. It was a creature that might understand how I was suffering from being unable to burn my fur clean, a creature who might even… no, I could not ignore the lifeless look in its eyes or the black robed figure on it's back, the wind blew the scent of the rider to me, it was the same one I saw in the Pokemon centre yesterday.
"Sometimes I have to wonder why I bother spying on my targets before dealing with them," a human voice called out from under the black hood of the robe, as feminine as it was it still held far too bile and malice for the speaker to have anything nice planned for anyone for the rest of her life, "I could have easily slit your throat as you slept last night, but I mistook you for the type who would have some tricks to prevent that, but then I ended up sleeping in thus missing the chance to observe you more closely."
She sighed, her Rapidash seemed a little restless under her as if it was not used to her talking so much, or maybe for some other reason, "I almost feel sorry that I have to kill you, but you know how it is. You know something that I don't want someone else to find out about, and even though I am curious as to how you found out when you were even too stupid to make sure I didn't find out you knew, I can not take the risk of letting you live. At least it'll be a rapid death since you won't be able to put up a decent fight."
I glanced at the Mightyena, I could see that a plan had risen in his mind, the way he tried to hide the fact that he was watching Lilac carefully made it clear what he intended. I had underestimated is intelligence; however he still posed no real threat.
It was clear what he was planning as it would be similar to what I'd do in this sort of situation: In a fight I'd have to move away from Lilac, and he'd have a chance to take her hostage, luckily that'd mean he'd also have to protect her if anything got past me meaning I could fight without worrying about her.
And after the fight, if he's even got enough strength left to hold a hostage, I could always use my special technique that he will have to way to resist…
As cunning as his plan was, it would help me more than harm me and he'd be the last to know. He was truly a natural omega dog, the last at everything important in life.
