I had no clue where we were heading. For about an hour I would lead the way, then the next Houndoom would lead the way. Most of the time we list track of where we were heading simply because we kept on getting distracted by berries we've never seen before, strange looking Pokemon that usually ran away from us, or even just something that smelled good. Honestly, I didn't mind the wandering; it was much better than sitting in a cave while solitary. On top of that, while I may not exactly have a friend(it's only been a few hours since I've met Houndoom), I did have company which was enough to appease my emotional state.
"So what is your stance on Ninetales?" I asked out of nowhere. I was well aware of my own stance; they were stuck up, entitled pricks. "I don't know… I mean, they're weak and fragile before they evolve, and basically need a human to become a Ninetales," Houndoom said. "Which means they're pretty weak, because then they rely on their humans for everything. For food, for company, anything! Then they have the audacity to think they're sooo smart because they can understand human speech! Hey guess what I can do? I can understand what people are saying!" Houndoom started laughing. "That must mean I'm smarter than an Alakazam!" We both had a good chuckle.
"I just think they're entitled because of their humans. And any wild Ninetales often have humans begging at their paws, asking said Ninetales to be their slave," I added in. "Yeah! They get it easy, while Houndoom like us are shunned for looking scary!" Houndoom said. "And we Absol are shunned simply for being able to sense the weather, and make warnings," I said. I shivered. "It's going to rain," I said. "It can't be that bad," Houndoom said. "Oh no, it's going to rain pretty hard. It's no spiral of air, or giant storm, or even ground shaking. It's just going to drench our fur,."
"And… I don't want my fur to get muddy," I added. Houndoom gave a small smile. "Y'know, if you got muddy, I'd happily try and groom you. We're a pack now, even if we aren't the same species," Houndoom said. I nodded and rubbed up against him. Why did he say that? Why did I run up against him? It's been what? Maybe four hours since we met, and we're already a pack? Well, I wouldn't mind this outcome. At least I had somebody to rely on. A drop of rain hit my head. "We should run," I said. Houndoom nodded and we bolted through the woods.
0-0-0-0
We stopped just as soon as we reached a cave, padding in and huddled together for warmth. My fur was completely drenched and so was Houndoom's. Neither of us were happy about it either, Houndoom grew a bit grumpy as his fur matted together, and I just felt relieved that only my paws got a bit muddy. "This sucks!" Houndoom said as he shot fire on the ground. Surprisingly with no wood(or anything to burn) the fire held its shape and burnt strongly. I suppose that just showed how strong a Houndoom's fire was. "Yeah… I'm going to be a puff ball once all this fur dries," Houndoom said. "Hey! At least you've got short fur. Think of how much of a puffball I'll be when I dry out?" We both chuckled and stared out the mouth of the cave.
"Odd. I thought I would not see another Pokemon for quite a while," a soft voice said. It was coming from behind us, so I got ready to strike, and I could feel Houndoom's fire building in case he would have to fight. I shot up first and saw something that almost made me puke. Sitting behind us was a snow white Ninetales, likely from Alola, sitting on its hind legs, staring at us. I could tell it was a female. Her tails fanned out behind her and it was quite hard to distinguish them from each other. Instead of red, soul piercing eyes, she had blue, calm eyes. To my surprise, no human was with her, and no collar was wrapped around her neck.
"Get the fuck out," Houndoom demanded. I nodded in agreement to his statement and lowered down for a fight. "Do not strike out at me, I don't want to get drenched in that storm just like you two. I get that Houndoom tends to be a bit hot headed, and I don't know too much about Absol…" the Ninetales sighed. "But I am sure one night in a cave with me is not the end of the world," she laid down and settled her head on her paws. I could hear Houndoom grumble about how pretty she was, before he also laid down while facing our new guest.
"Where is your trainer?" I asked. The Ninetales then started laughing hysterically, her voice suddenly started filling the cave, making her seem like a maniac. "Do you believe Vulpix cannot find Ice Stones on their own? Perhaps Kantonian Vulpix are a bit different, but I am sure you can find wild Kantonian Ninetales as well," she said. "Plus, I'll be damned if I have a trainer. The damned beasts separated me from my son and a flash of light blinded me. I woke up in this cave, and stuck around for a bit. If I find out my son is alive and has a trainer, I am slaughtering that damn human, and taking my child back," Ninetales said.
"How do we know you don't got a trainer lurking back there, waiting to catch and enslave us?" Houndoom asked. Ninetales shook her head with a grim smile. "I was forced to leave my son alone and afraid because of humans. Do you not understand how damaging that is to a young Vulpix? To know that you won't see your mother again? What about both parents? I was all my son had, and the humans did not care. They still tried to kill me for my pelt and they have failed. Don'tt even fucking suggest that I would allow a human to rule over me after knowing what they did to my child."
Houndoom grumbled something again, which made Ninetales' hackles raise. "What did you just call me?" She asked before shaking her entire body. "I do not appreciate being called a bitch. I was hoping you two would be nice, as at least some company would help soothe my anger, but I suppose you two are like what the stereotypes say," Ninetales repositioned herself, her back towards us staring into the cave. "Houndoom are loads of shit. Absol might not be too bad, but you allign yourself with a mindless beast. I am pretty sure if my son were still with me, you'd kill him just to torture my psyche," Ninetales said.
I could feel Houndoom jump, and before I could blink, he lunged forward at Ninetales. Only to catch nothing, as Ninetales had moved, just barely out of my friend's path. "You don't fucmin' call me mindless, when your kind will happily align themselves with humans without second thought. Your entire species is a bunch of," Houndoom stopped when he started staring into Ninetales' eyes. I followed suit and we could tell there was nothing behind them, this one was simply a husk. She laid her head back down after closing her eyes. Ninetales must've dodged purely on instinct.
"I apologize for moving. I will let you strike at me. I may have hoped that my son was alive, maybe a human had taken him in and was actually taking care of him, but I must be realistic. I left my son with a bunch of bloodlusting hunters who would have happily killed him. So chances are my son is dead, and I haven't even had the chance to teach him to hunt. He will likely die on his own, if he hasn't been killed by a human yet. I simply no longer care; what is the point of a mother being alive if she cannot protect her own child? I am merely a failure and nothing more," Ninetales' tails fell to the ground as she awaited for Houndoom to strike.
Never before had I seen a Ninetales look so… defeated. Then again, I haven't seen that many in my life, so perhaps there were more like this. Houndoom looked at me and back at Ninetales. My eyes started running over our guests' body, I could see the first signs of what seemed like a lack of food. Did she not not know how to hunt? Or was she trying to starve herself? Judging by that speech she had just given, she was hoping to die one way or another. And we have given her another way to simply die.
"Houndoom, we shouldn't," I said. Sure, hunting was one thing, but outright killing somebody who was begging for death just seemed wrong. Sure, it was a Ninetales, an entitled prick, but she looked so… defeated. "I know," Houndoom set a paw on the Ninetales' back. "Hey, we're not gonna kill you, and we aren't gonna have you starve yourself either. Come with us, we can use another pack member, and who knows? We might find your son while we're at it," Houndoom said. Ninetales raised her head and silently nodded.
Out of nowhere, Houndoom dragged Ninetales over to where he and I were huddled, and laid her in between us. "I apologize for calling you a mindless beast," Ninetales said quietly. "Hey now, I called you a bitch. We're both at fault here… but let's forgive and forget. Then once the rain clears, we'll go hunt," Houndoom said. Ninetales nodded. Suddenly a layer of something laid over us, Ninetales' tails, covered the three of us. "I suppose we shall nap? There is not much we can do in this cave other than wait for the storm to clear," Ninetales said. A lick was planted on my head. "Why'd you lick me?" Houndoom asked. "It is what wild Alolan Ninetales do with our pack of Vulpix. I… I don't know. It's like a mark," Ninetales' ears flattened. "If you do not like that, I won't do it again," she said.
"No no, this now marks that we are a pack. Come on, let's just sleep already," Houndoom said. I can probably guess who our leader is, and it wasn't me or Ninetales. Oh well, we have a depressed Ninetales, me, an Absol, and a Houndoom. Surely our pack could not get any weirder, but I didn't mind.
I laid my head over Ninetales' head and closed my eyes.