When Vulpix was finally released from the Pokéball, she shook her entire body in relief. She didn't know how long she was stuck in the ball, but she was glad to be finally out there. It also meant she was going to meet her trainer now. And indeed, an unknown human was standing in front of the ice-type. The human looked similar to the adult human that had visited her old home a couple of days ago: citrus hair, vanilla skin, and all-white clothing. It was probably the child of the older human. However, there was someone else with the young human: a Pokémon.

The Pokémon in question reminded Vulpix of a cloud. It had a black face with yellow eyes, cloud-like fur that was sky-blue on top and turned more and more purple the deeper it got. Two yellow scythes were growing out of the top and the bottom of its body. Vulpix had never seen such a Pokémon. Nor had she ever heard about such a Pokémon existing. Did it maybe come from across the great sea? Her parents had often talked about the lands far away from the islands they lived on.

"Hello, Vulpix." The human brought the ice-type out of her thoughts. "My name is Lillie, and the little ball of fluff here is Nebby." The now dubbed Lillie motioned to the other Pokémon. "I hope we can all become great friends."

Well, that was what Vulpix hoped they would be. However, the ice-type had been told she would be the first Pokémon the human owned, the so-called "starter." But apparently, she was the second. Why? Humans were only given one Pokémon, the rest they would catch in the wild. At least that was how Vulpix's parents had explained it to the young fox.

Lillie got on her knees right in front of the Alolan-Vulpix and placed her other Pokémon right next to her. Nebby appeared to be nervous and pressed its side against Lillie's. The human didn't appear to notice and slowly stretched her arm out towards the ice-fox. Carefully Vulpix made a few tentative steps towards her trainer and began familiarizing herself with the smell. The citrus-haired human held still and waited patiently for the Pokémon. Once Vulpix was sure she had memorized her human's smell, she pushed her head forward and allowed Lillie to pet her head.

"It feels cold," Lillie said out loud. "But in a good kind of way. The fur feels totally different from Nebby's. Like smooth silk, compared to the fluffy wool."

"Vul..." Vulpix purred in approval of the attention she was getting. Lillie's skin was smooth, and her short claws were scratching the ice-type at just the right places. After receiving a bit of attention, Vulpix moved her head away and looked over to the other Pokémon. Lillie watched with interest as her new partner slowly moved towards Nebby, never breaking eye contact. Nebby, for its part, didn't run away. It made no move to approach the other Pokémon either.

"Vul, vulpix," the ice-type spoke to Nebby, once it had gotten close enough.

"Pew..." Nebby answered tentatively, still pressing itself against Lillie. The girl giggled and gave the psychic-type some reassuring scratches on the side.

"Don't worry, Nebby. I'm here."

Vulpix began sniffing the other Pokémon as she did with Lillie earlier. The Pokémon had a mixed smell on itself, consisting of shampoo, Lillie's bodily smell, food, and the Pokémon itself. The ice-type noticed some yellow crumbs on the fellow Pokémon's cheek. The vixen wondered why the small cloud was so shy.

"Vul, vul," Vulpix spoke.

"Pew..."

"Vulpix. Pix. Vul."

"Pew?"

"Vul-vul."

"Pew? Pew."

The blonde human watched with interest as her two Pokémon began having a conversation. It was so fascinating to see how human those "animals" could be at times. Naturally, she didn't have the faintest clue what those two were talking about. The only context she had was Vulpix's voice sounded curious, whereas Nebby sounded nervous. Lillie wished she could understand her Pokémon, but this wasn't one of those stories. On the other hand, it was way more fun trying to interpret your Pokémon.

"Pew. Pew~ew?"

"Vulpix?"

The icy vixen tilted her questioningly. After a bit of an exchange between the two, Nebby had asked a question. At least Lillie thought her starter had asked one. The psychic-type wobbled forward until it was face to face with the ice-type. To the human's surprise, it began rubbing its body against Vulpix's. Lillie was slightly taken aback by the action, a sentiment Vulpix seemed to share. However, it appeared as if the fox was getting comfortable with the puffy cloud and snuggled back.

"Dang. Where's my phone? I need to take a picture."

Nebby squealed in happiness, warming up to the idea of having another friend. Vulpix, for her part, liked the way Nebby's fur felt on her own. It wasn't nearly as pristine as hers, but it had a fluffiness to it that rivaled her tails. Eventually, their snuggling evolved into the two Pokémon pushing themselves against one another. Unavoidably, Vulpix pushed a little too hard, causing Nebby to fly a tiny bit backward. The psychic-type didn't mind. Quite the contrary. It performed a softball version of a Tackle against Vulpix, who responded in kind. The two of them soon began running circles in the room, resulting in their first-ever game of tag.

Vulpix, having the superior body build and some minor battle experience, managed to stay away from Nebby most of the time. It meant the psychic-type was the one doing most of the chasing. Lillie escaped to her bed and began recording the entire ordeal with her phone. She laughed at their antics. The game went on for a while until eventually, Nebby got tired. After drinking a good chunk out of its water bowl, it fell asleep. Which reminded Lillie she still had to get Vulpix a water and food bowl.


Nebby had never used its bed, always insisting on sleeping with Lillie. As a result, Vulpix got Nebby's bed, who was chilling out there, when Lillie returned with some food. Nebby was in a deep sleep on Lillie's pillow.

"Glad to see you and Nebby get along," Lillie commented as she filled her Pokémon's bowl with pellets. The ice-type didn't comment, opting to focus on getting something solid into her stomach. After having spent hours in her Pokéball and playing with the other Pokémon, she was starved. Speaking of the other Pokémon, Vulpix still had no idea what its species was called. It couldn't be Nebby. It was obviously a nickname given to it by the lemon-haired girl. The ice-type hoped she wouldn't get a nickname this silly. She had heard horror stories from visiting Pokémon that belonged to trainers. Like that male Gardevore that had been named "Sweety." The food wasn't anything special. Nothing bad, just the usual pellets that humans gave to Pokémon. Vulpix preferred those that had little chunks of meat in them. For some reason, the human Lillie felt the need to watch the ice-vixen eat. It was one of the many strange obsessions that a lot of humans had. Vulpix generally didn't mind, as long as she wasn't touched while eating.

Lillie waited patiently for her Pokémon to finish. She wondered if she should annoy her Vulpix a little by trying to steal a pellet or something. But she decided against it, remembering the last time she got bitten by a Pokémon. The jaw of a Poochyena was powerful. Her hand had to be bandaged for the month. Not to mention the shots against rabies she had to get. Oh yeah, rabies was a thing in the World of Pokémon. In fact, there were twenty different types out there. And Lillie got shots for all of them.

After the icy-vixen had a satisfying meal, she gave out a happy yip. Lillie sat down right next to her and proceeded to pet her on the back. The fox approved this motion.

"I hope you're looking forward to our journey as much as I am." Vulpix looked up. "Sadly, we're going to be stuck here for another two weeks. Oh well, I'm sure we'll find something to do in that time."

"Pix? Vulpix?" The ice-fox jumped on Lillie's bed and looked at Nebby curiously. The girl had to turn around and got on her knees.

"Are you curious about Nebby?"

Vulpix looked Lillie directly in the eyes. She wasn't sure what the vixen wanted, so the lemon-haired girl simply started talking.

"Nebby is a very rare Pokémon. Its species is called "Cosmog." Cosmog's are frail and can hardly fight back. Case in point, the only attack Nebby knows is Splash."

The fox looked over to its fellow Pokémon. Since this Cosmog only knew Splash, the most useless attack in existence, it couldn't fight at all. Was that the reason Vulpix had been given to the human? So she had a Pokémon that could fight?

"The truth is, we don't know much about Cosmog. It was discovered a couple of months and has been in our care ever since. We tried to find out what it was capable of but had no luck. We don't even know if it is a boy or a girl. Uh, by the way, could you help out with that?"

Vulpix wasn't sure what to think of that particular question and tried not to think too deep into it. But no, Vulpix couldn't help with that. She couldn't smell a particular male or female smell on this Pokémon. The ice-fox assumed Cosmogs were like Magnemites and were neither boys nor girls. That had been one interesting experience, meeting her first Magnemite. To learn that there were Pokémon out there that had no scent to them that identified them as one or the other gender.

Upon getting no answer to her query, Lillie continued. "Anyways, Nebby doesn't like any of the adults. They... let's say, they were not nice to it. Whenever I had time, I would play with Nebby for a couple of hours. Because the two of us get along so well, it was eventually decided I should be the one taking care of Cosmog and learn about the species as much as possible. Like a researcher, you know?"

The ice-type appeared to be slightly impressed by that explanation.

"The problem is, I will be starting my Pokémon Journey soon. And not only can Nebby not fight, but I am not allowed to use it for battle. You know, I am supposed to do research, which means taking lots of notes on Cosmog's behavior, see what it likes to eat, poke it here and there with a stick, a lot of stuff."

"Vulpix?" the Pokémon tilted her head in slight confusion.

"Er, you know. Take temperature, check heartbeat, the things a Nurse Joy does when you're in for a check-up. Among a couple of other things. You'll see when we're on the road. So, in conclusion, you're my starter, and Nebby is... I don't want to science project. Friendly companion, maybe?"

Ok, this was a bit of an unusual situation Vulpix found herself in. So this Cosmog was going to be a traveling companion, but not a battle partner? And Vulpix was still the starter? Well, it wasn't like anything bad would come out of this. Things would be slightly different from how this usually goes, but no harm, no foul, right? Vulpix let out a little cooing sound and rubbed herself against her new owner.

"Thank you for understanding. Oh yeah, Vulpix. What I wanted to ask you is do you want to have a nickname?"

The ice-type looked up and vehemently shook her head. If Cosmog's name was anything to go by with, then this girl had terrible naming sense.

"Whoa, okay. No nickname, I get it," Lillie held her hands up in a surrender position. She wasn't expecting such a negative reaction from her new Pokémon. "So, Nebby is going to be tucked out for a while. Do you mind if we do a little training?"

"Vulpix? Pix, vul." The ice-type nodded. Training didn't sound so bad. The playtime she had with Nebby earlier barely exhausted her. She needed to move her muscles. "Great, follow me."

Lillie got up from her sitting position and carefully scooped Nebby with her hands. She proceeded to place the small Pokémon inside a large carry bag carefully. "Nebby doesn't like its Pokéball," the human explained as she exited her room. The blonde held the door open for Vulpix to come out. Once out, Lillie began leading the way through Aether Paradise, with Vulpix dutifully following in her shadow. The human carefully navigated around other humans. There was a lot of activity going on at this time of the day. Every couple of seconds, the girl would look back to see if the Pokémon was still following her, which resulted in a couple of almost collisions with other humans. The traffic became worse inside the building. Vulpix was almost overwhelmed by the number of humans and Pokémon she saw that day. Finally, Lillie and Vulpix arrived at an elevator stationed at the other end of the building from which they entered. Since other people were using that elevator, Lillie took her Pokémon into her arms for the time of the ride.

"Oh, Miss Lillie," one of the staff members talked to the girl. "That is a beautiful Vulpix you have there. Is she a trainer's Vulpix or a wild one?"

"She's mine," Lillie curtly replied. "I received her today from mother. I will be starting my Island Challenge in two weeks." Vulpix turned her head in surprise due to the lack of emotion in her trainer's voice. In fact, one might say Lillie looked annoyed upon being spoken to.

"Yours?" the employee repeated. "I had no idea you were going to do the challenge. Let alone, received a Pokémon."

"My private life is none of your business. I do not see how it is work relevant for anyone to know that I received a Pokémon."

"S-sorry, Miss. I was just curious."

"Then I would like to ask you to keep your curiosity at bay and only talk to me if it is somehow work-relevant. I have no time for pointless chit-chat."

As it just so happened, the elevator reached Lillie's stop, and the girl left. She didn't bother looking back to see his reaction. He must have been a new guy. Or was it a woman she talked to? Not that it mattered, really. The people working here were all so forgettable. Especially Wicke. The woman was so generic nice she might as well be a protagonist.

The destination Lillie had in mind was the docks. As most deliveries were done in the morning hours, there was a lot less going on right now in the down levels. Most ships that came in out right now either brought or picked up visitors.

The girl carried her Pokémon to an area where a lot of boxes and containers had been placed. There seemingly wasn't anyone around, if you discounted the occasional Rattata scurrying around. She eventually stopped at a dead end. To her right was the ocean and to her left a simple wall. In front of her were a couple of boxes stacked on top of each other.

"Here we are." Lillie let go of Vulpix, who still appeared to be a little concerned at the human's earlier behavior. "No one should bother us here."

"Vulpix?" the fox asked, upon being put down.

"Don't worry. As long as we don't break anything, you can freely use your attacks here." Lillie shrugged. "Some of the workers here even fight, even though it's against the rules."

Vulpix looked excited at the mention of a fight, but Lillie waved her off.

"Don't bother. The trainers and Pokémon here are way out of our league as of now. They carry boxes as large as this one," she pointed at a particularly large box, "back and forth every day. Plus, most people here already finished their island challenge. They know their stuff."

"Vul..." The vixen looked at the ground, disappointed.

"Oh, so you like to fight, huh? Guess I'll have to make sure to get you plenty of exercise once we're on the road. But for now, let's get some work done, okay?"

Vulpix nodded, wondering what kind of training Lillie had in mind.

"Alright. I looked up what kind of attacks your kind learns, but can you quickly demonstrate what you can do? Just so I have an idea of what we're working with. And please direct your attacks against the wall. Don't worry about damaging it. It can take the explosions of five Electrodes."

"Vulpix?" the fox looked up questioningly. The human grinned sheepishly back.

"We had an incident a couple of months back where three Electrodes exploded and took down this very same wall. It's a long story, and we still have no idea how they even got down here to the docks. It's like someone purposely wanted to see this very wall gone."

Well, that was an interesting tidbit of information. Vulpix didn't know what to make of it, except to keep an eye out for rolling Pokéballs that might spontaneously explode. As for Lillie's request to see what attacks Vulpix could do, it sounded reasonable. At least the girl didn't shout out some attack the vixen was "supposed" to know, like Blizzard. She had heard plenty of horror stories from other Pokémon.

The first thing Vulpix did was blast a small amount of snow against the wall. A bit of the ice stuck and formed a small frozen pattern.

"So that's what Powder Snow looks like," Lillie said thoughtfully. "It looks more impressive than Ember. And maybe a larger area of effect? I don't know. This is so different from watching videos and TV."

The next attack, Vulpix wasn't sure if it could be properly demonstrated. She started wagging her tails back and forth. For a while, Lillie looked confused at the Pokémon's behavior until she smacked her forehead.

"Tailwhip. Man, I am such an idiot sometimes. I know it is supposed to distract the opponent, but apparently, it worked on me, too. Makes me wonder if you would tackle me if it would hurt more than usual. Okay, so another attack you should know is Disable. Can you look at me for that one? It shouldn't have any effect on me."

Vulpix hesitated for a moment but dutifully turned around and looked Lillie in the eyes. The fox's eyes glowed white for a second before returning to normal. If Lillie had blinked, she might have missed it.

"Yup, I don't feel anything. What would it feel like to be unable to do a certain thing? I'm pretty sure it would annoy you if you suddenly could no longer shoot snow out of your mouth."

Vulpix didn't know. She had never been hit with the attack, nor had she ever used Disable during any of her playfights.

"Any other attacks you can do?"

Vulpix shook her head in the negative.

"Huh, I was hoping you would know Ice-Shard. Oh well, that is part of being a Pokémon trainer. Actually teaching you certain attacks, among other things."

The way Lillie said that sentence felt off to the ice-type for some reason. She couldn't put her paw on it.

"Speaking of training, it's time we started ours. Now, what I had in mind might sound weird, but hear me out. You see, not only will you do some training, but I as well. Specifically... okay, there's no good way of saying this. I want to learn to give commands."

Now Vulpix was at a complete loss. Learn to give commands? Wasn't this the easiest thing in the world? Shout the attack you want the Pokémon to perform? It sounded like child's play to the vixen. In theory, even Pokémon could order other Pokémon around.

"H-hey! Don't give me that look," Lillie said with a pout. "I told you this would sound weird." She sighed. "Look, I want to be a trainer like any other kid wants to be. But the thing is, I get nervous just thinking about fighting other trainers. I... I think I have a bit of stage fright. This whole shouting, being in command and..." the blonde-haired girl shook her head. "I don't even know how to describe it properly. The best way I can put it is I want to get used to giving commands before having my first proper battle."

The ice-type didn't appear to understand Lillie's problem at all. At least, that was the impression Lillie was getting from the confused look the fox was giving her. "You know what? Let's get just get on with it. Maybe I'm making an elephant out of a fly. I thought we do this because I command you to attack in a specific direction and then tell you to attack in another direction and so on. Do you follow me so far?"

The fox nodded, not seeing how this could be considered training.

"So, it would go like this. I would tell you to use Powder Snow to the right, and after a brief pause, I would tell you to attack the left, just as an example. The thing is, I will make sure the intervals between commands will become shorter and shorter over time. Meaning you will have to react much more quickly, or you will miss one of my orders."

It took a second for Vulpix to understand the idea. She wasn't entirely sure how this would play out, but it seemed like her trainer had some kind of idea. However, Lillie turned out to be a slightly weird person for needing to learn to shout attacks.

"Ready?"

The Alolan-Vulpix nodded.

"Alright, let's get started." Lillie breathed in and out. "Vulpix, use Powder Snow to your left! Hit the wall!"


After roughly an hour of training, Vulpix was a little out of breath from blowing snow over and over again against the wall. A good chunk of snow and ice had gathered on the floor from all of the attacks. A few small ice crystals had grown on the wall, but they were already melting. Lillie had quickly gone away and came back with a water bowl filled to the brim, as well as two bottles of water. The girl had smacked herself once more when she remembered that water-types weren't the only ones who used a lot of water in their attacks. The vixen was greedily slurping as much water as her tongue allowed.

All in all, Vulpix was satisfied with the exercise. And she now understood what Lillie had meant when she said she needed to practice giving orders. At the beginning of their training, Lillie had hesitated a lot. Her voice lacked confidence. She stuttered and stumbled over her own words. Once or twice the human ordered the Pokémon to use attacks it couldn't even learn. It was cringeworthy. Luckily, over time it got better. The girl started to get used to what she was doing and began picking up the pace. The citrus hair even had the audacity to trip Vulpix up by demanding her to use Tail Whip and Disable from time to time. The training ended in a particular hilarious fashion. Lillie demanded Vulpix to turn around and use Disable. But Vulpix screwed up and hit the girl with a load of snow. The human shivered for a bit but wasn't harm. After an hour of non-stop attacking, Vulpix couldn't put much power into her attacks anymore.

"Wow. I actually had a lot of fun. How about you?" Vulpix didn't answer. She was too busy drinking water. Lillie dutifully refilled the bowl when it was almost empty. "I'll give you some snacks when we're back in my room. You earned it." The human girl checked her bag and saw that somehow Nebby had not woken up from all the commotion. The little cloud was happily snoozing away, its body snuggled up between a plushy and a pillow. Lillie smiled and closed the bag halfway. Soon enough, Nebby would be sweating as well. Until then, it was allowed to be lazy. "So, want to quit for the day or get some more work done?"

From then on, every evening, Lillie and Vulpix would do some light training. At times Nebby would be watching with interest. Other times it was asleep in the bag. Nebby and Vulpix would continue to play with one another daily. The psychic-type quickly warmed up to the ice-type and played as much with the fox as it did with Lillie. Sometimes Lillie would throw a ball into the room, and the two Pokémon would scramble to bring it back to her. Other times they played tug of war, though Nebby wasn't very good at it. Both Pokémon liked listening to Lillie playing the flute in the evenings. Usually, the trio would go outside and watch the sunset while the human played her instrument. The three of them had a nice routine.

Eventually, the day to leave Aether came. On the final evening, Lillie was doing a final check-up on all of the things she would be taking with her. The girl had been given a modern backpack with the Aether logo on it. Food, drinks, medicine, an audio recording device with strong encryption software, Lillie's phone, five Pokéballs. Lusamine had gotten her daughter some more appropriate footwear, though as always, the woman had not consulted the girl on her opinion. It didn't matter, as long as the boots did their job.

After she was done with her evening prayers, Lillie decided to give her mother one final visit. She brought the entire tea-set with her. Like most times, she had to grip the tray handles a little harder because of the teleporter. "How. Can. People. Stand. Those. Things." She gritted out between her teeth, suffering from a heavy case of nausea after teleporting. After she stopped seeing double, the girl brought the tea over to her mother's desk. Lusamine seemed a bit confused at the gesture.

"I don't recall having asked for tea," the blonde woman stated.

"I thought since we will not see each other for a couple of months from tomorrow onward, it would be appropriate."

Lusamine hummed and took a small sip of the tea her daughter had prepared. It was as good as it always had been. Lillie had even brought the biscuits that her mother liked so much. The older woman didn't remember the first time her daughter had brought her tea. It simply happened someday and became a regular thing. Lusamine did wonder how her daughter knew her mother's preferences in tea. It turned out she had asked Wicke and looked up guides on the internet before serving her first-ever tea. Lillie had wanted it to be perfect from the get-go.

Lillie was about as good of a daughter as any mother could hope to have. The child helped her mother in every possible way she could, be it by being a pseudo-maid, pseudo-lab-assistant, or using her smarts in more elaborate ways. The latter part had shown itself once again when the girl came to her mother with her idea regarding the Cosmog. Truth to be told, even after a month, Lusamine had mixed feelings about the idea. She trusted Lillie. The woman had learned that she could trust her daughter like she could trust her own employees. In a special sort of way, Lillie was an Aether Employee. However, giving Cosmog away like that didn't sit well with the president. Several things could go wrong, such as Cosmog being stolen from Lillie. Or the Pokémon getting killed in some accidental fashion. Lillie herself had pointed out there was only this one Cosmog.

"I hope you are aware that we will be keeping a close eye on you," Lusamine stated. "If your experiment doesn't show anything, we will be taking Cosmog back and continue like before."

"Naturally," Lillie nodded. "I would not have made the proposal if I had no faith in it."

"Faith, huh?" Lusamine murmured, taking another sip from her cup. "Faba doesn't seem to have any faith in your ability to bring results, as you told him. In fact, no one who worked on Cosmog thinks you will succeed."

"With all due respect, I believe this is simply their pride speaking," Lillie deadpanned. "They think of me as a simple child that is trying to show off to her mother. They do not view my opinion objectively as you do."

"Hmm. And what do you think you're doing, Lillie?" Lusamine asked with interest.

"I am helping you," came the reply. "As your child, it is my duty to ensure your happiness in every possible way. The best way I can make you happy is to help at Aether in every way conceivable. And while I lack the necessary degrees to apply as a scientist or even a simple caretaker, I can help you as a trainer. Many people have looked down on certain children in the past and yet look at what they have accomplished? I am not saying I am one of those, but I will become one of them if it is necessary for your happiness. All I am doing, my entire existence is for you."

Lusamine was silent for a couple of minutes after having heard Lillies explanation. The girl herself wondered if she should have toned down the cheesiness a little bit. She wasn't sure if she had sounded like a knight swearing an oath to her liege or like a lover proposing in the most awkward way possible. Eventually, Lusamine broke the silence.

"Your boat leaves at 9 am sharp. Don't be late. I will be expecting your first report on Sunday. Leave the tea here."

Lillie bowed lightly. "Goodnight, mother." And she left.

On the way back to her room, she pondered over her mother's last reaction. Lusamine sounded so stiff all of a sudden. Had Lillie accidentally struck a cord somehow? Luckily, she wouldn't have to worry about her mother anymore once she was away from Aether. She wondered how Nebby would react. The little cloud still had no idea they would be going away tomorrow unless Vulpix had said something.