Curse of the Black Fox
by LoweFantasy
Very smart and very vengeful. Grabbing one of its many tails could result in a 1000-year curse.
1
Collin arrived smelling of campfire, pine, and teenage boy in dire need of an hour long shower, preferably with bleach.
After Mom had done her squealing and hugging and kissing and rustling of his thick black hair (raining dirt and dead grass on the floor as she did so), he held out a shining poke'ball to me.
I looked at it. Then I looked at him.
"Yep," he said, having the audacity to grin. "Happy Birthday. Don't give me that look, you haven't even seen what's inside yet."
"A poke'mon," I said blankly, not even bothering to pretend. I could fake it with Mom and whoever else I wanted to get along with, but this was my baby brother. I was giving him noogies, beating him in wrestling matches, and teasing him mercilessly since he could walk. I was the alpha…aaaand he was one of the few people who put up with my weird aversion.
"It's not just any poke'mon." He circled his hand above it, wiggling his fingers, like a magician ready to pull a bunny out of a hat. "You've never even seen this kind. Girls love them. Full proof gonna cure you. You'll have no choice but to love it."
That got me thinking it was one of those kinds that had love spells or something, which wasn't comforting.
With many 'spoowsh spwoosh' sound effects that I think were supposed to be his idea of magic, he pushed the button and dropped it on the floor.
The momentary flash of light blinded me. Reason four why I hated poke'mon.
When it cleared, a sleek, white-gold canine sat in a mass of tails, each tipped by caramel. It's fur positively gleamed, and it's cherry eyes settled on me with eerie focus mirrored in its stiff triangle ears.
Mom's hands flew to her mouth.
"It's gorgeous…" she said.
Even I, with all my dislike welling up, had to admit it was beautiful.
One of the many tail ends twitched.
Collin crossed his arms in front of him. "Well?"
Scowling, I allowed myself to bend forward as imperceptibly as I could and sniffed the air. As the scents came through, my mind connected it to the air over the sidewalks on a hot summer day, a scentless candle, and the hair-blow dryer when it didn't have any of my black hair caught in it.
My scowl deepened.
"It breathes fire," I said.
Collin's eyebrows shot high. "Did you just…get that from a smell? Dang, you're weird."
Mom sighed and pinched her nose. "This is the reason why you can't get a date, honey."
"I don't go around sniffing people! And there are only three guys close to my age in this town, I doubt that is an end all be all for the world."
"Isn't there internet dating?"
I gave her the best dead-pan look I could. Way to go, Mom. Encouraging your daughter to have shifty internet relationships with guys who could very well be forty-year-old creeps in their parent's basement.
Collin rushed to quell what he probably thought was an incoming fight. "E-Either or, you're right on the money, sis! Ninetale's here's a fire poke'mon, and you won't believe—"
"You brought me a fire poke'mon?" I couldn't help it. I recoiled.
A few more tails twitched and I could have sworn the Ninetale's eyes narrowed.
"What's wrong with fire poke'mon?"
"Are you an idiot? What if she gets pissed at me and decides roast Mayleen sounds tasty? What if she burns down the house? How is a fire dog suppose to make me feel comfortable around poke'mon?"
"Technically, she's a fox," said Collin, unperturbed. "Wait, how'd you guess she was a girl? Please don't tell me you didn't smelled that too."
"I'm not that creepy. Something this pretty just seems girl. And calling in an 'it' seems kind of insulting."
"See?" Collin beamed.
"What?"
"You're 'connecting.'" He brought two scissors fingers together in a way that would have come off lewd to anyone else. "You're feeling out her feelings, rejecting her as an 'it,' empathizing. I really am a genius."
I stepped back, clenching my fists. "No."
But he just kept on grinning. "Too late."
"Collin—"
"Just accept the damn poke'mon," Mom hissed, her fingers on her hips like claws and her crow's feet like cuts reaching all the way to her hairline.
Both Collin and I flinched. It didn't matter that he wasn't the one in trouble, he instinctively turned docile and repentive.
I bit my lip and looked back to the Ninetales, who still sat primly between us as though busy watching an interesting show on my belly rather than the domestic conflict curdling the air like cheese.
I fought for words as well as the strength to get over the prickles of revulsion crawling up my skin, or the knowledge of the fire and teeth behind the Ninetale's closed lips. All the while, Mom glared at me.
Collin broke first.
"Ninetales are actually really rare in the wild," he said. "Usually you have to find a Vulpix and evolve it with a firestone. I've never actually heard of anyone I know catching one. But this one, well…I found her on top of that grave mountain by the Safari Zone-super creepy. There were tons of ghost, and she just…anyways, she's super nice and super chill, so I hoped she wouldn't scare you, and she's also really clean so I figured she wouldn't smell so bad. And she's pretty."
"Collin," I sighed, hating myself already. "You don't have to explain yourself. I get it. I'm just a jerk." I took a steadying breath and faced the Ninetales. "I'll…I'll give her a go, okay? Though you really shouldn't have wasted so much effort on me."
The gooey brownie look he gave me made all the crinkly, dryness inside me melt.
"Of course you're worth it."
I wanted to continue arguing that I wasn't—say something to get rid of the slight burning in my eyes—but Mom broke in to throw herself around Collin's neck.
"Oh, you're the sweetest! I can't believe you're my little boy!"
Collin winced a bit, looking at me. Something like sympathy passed through his gaze.
I just smiled and nodded, hoping that was enough to tell him he was fine and held out my hand.
"I guess I'll take her poke'ball, then."
He tossed it and the warm weight of it against my palm momentarily startled me. It was as light as a baseball, but with a strange buoyancy to it, as though it were underwater.
I looked at it, then to the Ninetales, uncertain.
She cocked her head at me and sniffed.
"Go on, Ninetales." said Collin above Mom's arms. "She's your master now. Try to be gentle with her like we talked about, okay?"
I doubted the Ninetales had understood those talks, because pokemon don't speak human, but she did finally move from her regal seat and walked towards me. I held absolutely still as she sniffed my hand, getting even more of her summer heat musk. My hand twitched, but that was as far as I got it to move in petting her.
She really was a pretty, dainty thing. On all fours, her head could easily reach my hip.
And I still had to fight not to hate her.
I put a diligent effort in building her the comfiest nest I could in the corner of my room. She followed me at a safe distance as I trotted about the house, to which Collin cooed at like an old lady over a baby.
"Look at that, she already likes you!"
Since Mom was sitting next to him on the couch and glaring at me, I managed to not say that, if anything, it was a testament to how much she liked him. That, or it was because I kept her shrunken poke'ball in my pocket and she intrinsically knew, through whatever magic poke'balls worked, that whoever owned the ball owned her. Though I couldn't see how that could stop her from chewing off my face the moment I gave her the wrong kibbles.
And no matter how much I dreaded it, the time finally came for me to head to bed. Mom was a light sleeper, so it was the family rule that when she went to sleep, the rest of us did.
I pulled down my covers and got in. Ninetales sat in the middle of my room, waiting, watching with her red eyes.
Why'd they have to be red?
I met her gaze, chewing my lip.
"Um…I made you a bed." I pointed to the pile of blankets.
Ninetales looked where I pointed, but then just looked back. Unfazed.
I sighed. "Of course you don't understand me. Ugh, I'm not going to sleep a wink if you just stay there staring at me with those…monster eyes."
She blinked. But otherwise, just sat there, much as she had between my brother and I when he first introduced her, her many tails swept about her like a cloak, or a giant back cushion. Seriously, how did she walk having that much attached to her butt? It almost looked like all her tails weighed more than the rest of her body.
I wanted dearly to kick her out into the hall, but I didn't want Mom to catch her on her own when I had told my brother I'd try to get use to her, especially after he mentioned how lucky I was that the poke'mon actually tried to stay close to me instead of rocketing wherever it wanted like a maniac. Apparently most of his had been like that. If I were to ignore such 'luck,' Mom would never let me hear the end of it.
Tired of talking to the deaf, dead-eye red stare, I flicked off my lamp and laid down, facing the wall. Instantly I had to turn around and turn my light back on, a thrill of fear shooting up my back.
But the Ninetales hadn't moved an inch.
Somehow it was more creepy than if she had.
"Shoo," I flicked my hand. "Go…sniff around. Take a poo or something."
"Niiine," she said, the first sound she'd made since I met her.
"Yeah, reason two why I don't like poke'mon. Why the heck do so many of them say their names as their speech? How does that make sense?"
In answer, she just cocked her head to the side, flicking a few of her tails.
I snorted. "Freak." And turned back over. Though I left the light on.
Somehow, I did manage to fall asleep. I even had some weird dream where I was running through a forest thicker than the scanty woods around my backwoods home of Oldale and Littleroot. A young man dressed in a jacket of ever changing colors ran ahead of me, pushing past wide leaves, his silver hair gleaming like metal in the diamonds of sunlight that managed to break through the canopy.
My bladder woke me up with a pang. I had to get over my denial that I actually had to get up before I did, and when I stepped off my bed, instead of hardwood floor, my foot sunk into a mass of hot fur.
A loud yip—I shrieked—and I found myself in the line of sight of an angry pair of burning scarlet eyes. I thought them death itself before I remembered I had a poke'mon in my room, though it didn't help me feel better in the least.
"I'm sorry!"
The eyes came closer. Hot lines of fur whipped at my offending foot before vanishing altogether. Somewhere amidst the eyes and fur and watching my life flash before my eyes, I both peed my pants (just a little...maybe) and remembered that I had fallen asleep with my lamp on, not this darkness. Not even the moonlight made it through my window.
A pink glow, however, started to eminante from the many tails.
"Foolish child of such little respect…"
The pink light trickled up into flames, licking at the darkness, bringing the Johto Kimono Girls on my posters to light, though their pale faces stood out dark and eerie, their smiling mouths empty. My computer monitor reflected it all.
"I know now how to grant his wish."
The pink fire engulfed me.