Author here to inform the readers that they can expect at least one chapter a week. ^.^
It chases down prey in a pack of around ten. They defeat foes with perfectly coordinated teamwork.
2
My world turned to pain and fire. I ran on my hands and knees, having fallen at some point and finding myself somehow too weak to stand. As panic overcame me, I moved to my feet and hands, somehow moving faster that way. My hips grew heavy. My head smarted, then screamed and screamed and screamed.
Then it stopped.
And just like that, I opened my eyes.
Birds twittered about me, and I smelled earth and dew. I lay on my side, looking up across bristly grass that grew up as it neared the hidden little trunks and skirts of bushes. I could see a pair of brown mushrooms clustered beneath the shade.
My brain buzzed and every bit of me ached, so it took longer than it should have to remember, though nothing in my memories could tell me why I was laying in the forest. The air smelled rich of Alford's fresh smoked jerky, which he sold in at the local mart.
I groaned. Then, with tremendous effort, rolled onto my stomach, bringing my arms into view—
They weren't my arms. They weren't even arms.
Adrenaline spiked cold through me, jolting me to my feet—not my feet. Paws. Black paws. Black furry legs, black black black—no fingers, no face, Arceus, my face—
The paw pads had considerably less feeling in them than hands, and my front legs moved nothing like real arms could, but what I managed to feel out wasn't a face at all. It was a long muzzle, which I crossed my eyes to see a very canine nose. I whirled in a circle to get a look at myself: two more black legs, and tails. Many, long, snake-like tails, black as midnight.
My scream sent birds fleeing from the trees. But not even it sounded right to my ears. It came out as a long, eerie howl.
"Wha-wha-wha-wha?" This—this had to be a dream—no, no it couldn't. I hurt way, way too much, and there wasn't that—that—oh gall, I could smell more than ever before too. So many things I didn't even want to smell, and many more my panicked brain couldn't even begin to keep up with.
As my mind scrambled to make sense of the new information flooding in, not just from my nose, but my eyes (had the colors dimmed?) and nine extra appendages coming from the same point off my butt, my body took off. Branches slipped by, digging in but slipping over my fur. Pebbles and twigs pricked, but left my paws unharmed. Trees ducked out of the way.
The next thing I knew, I could barely smell Alford's jerky smoke, and it was that lack that brought me out of my frightened haze.
Just in time to meet face-first with a tree.
Stars burst across my vision. My ears buzzed. I wouldn't have been surprised if I'd just bursted eye and brain jelly all over the poor thing's bark.
Hyena-like laughter punched through the buzzing. Several more, higher than the first, joined it, making a blood-prickling chorus.
"You see that?"
"Boss-boss-I can't breathe! Ha ha hee hee!"
"The crack!"
"HEE HEE HEE HEE!"
I moved an arm—paw—over my screaming eyes, wishing I could finger my face for blood.
"Shut it," I moaned.
"Oh, oh! It noises!"
"Noises!"
"It's alive! That's even funnier."
"Whoa whoa, wait. Boss, I think it's a girl."
The cackling died down just a bit until it was more of a muffled undertone. Something nudged my side.
"Hey. Girlie. You gonna live?"
The sudden close proximity and low bass of the tone shocked my paw off my face.
I wish it hadn't.
A fierce, gray and black wolfish face leaned into mine, baring its teeth in a macabre smile.
I wriggled back, only to cringe mid scoot from the angry protest of my skull. But it was far back enough to see the scraggy black mane running the length of the canine's spine, all the way to the tip of its ragged tail. His paws wielded unhooded claws.
This one was definitely not a fox. And his musk overwhelmed me, making me gag (for surely it had to be male).
"Don't you dare yack on me." His sharp eyes widened, pulling back his lips from his fangs even more.
"That ain't how you treat a lady, boss."
"Yeah, boss."
"Even da ones that brain themselves on trees."
"Shut it!" he barked—actually barked, as I realized the way he spoke wasn't even in words as I remembered, but sounds. This revelation somehow stunned me more than losing my hands.
When he brought his head back around, I imagined I could see something like sympathy in those mean little eyes and wrinkled snout.
Said snout ducked forward to give me several, loud sniffs.
And Mom said I was a creep.
"Ain't got none of your kind around here," he said. "Nevermind a black one."
His nose wandered south. Ignoring my protesting head, I scrambled my hindquarters away, my tails instinctively curling around like a massive quilt to hide myself. Continent size tails meant swiping him across the face. Despite obviously doing him no harm, any softening to his snarl vanished and his teeth flashed out in vengeance.
"Where you get off thinking you can hide anything in my territory, eh?!"
I flinched back. "I-I-I didn't know."
"Yeah right," cawed one of the voices behind him. "Boss gotta scent you can smell through high and hellwater."
Another cackled its hyena guffaw. "He just said you stink, boss!"
The mirth started up.
"Quiet!" the wolf above me barked again, its eyes still on me. "Tell me what you are, girlie, or move the tails."
I had to think hard on that, as I didn't quite know myself. But, then, it didn't take me long to figure it out, even if I was a different color.
"A Ninetales."
He snorted. "Ain't heard of no Ninetales down here. You a long way from home, ain't you? Don't you have some mystic mumbo jumbo to get to?"
I just looked at him, blankly. I really didn't know what Ninetales did. The only thing Collin had told me was that they weren't really found all that often in the wild.
Though that made me think back to the other Ninetales I knew, and the pink fire which she had drowned me in.
"Wh-what are you? If it's—if that's okay."
He didn't look impressed at all by my answer, but at least he stopped snarling at me.
"Mightyena," he said. "And we ain't so shy as you. Must've really brained yourself."
"Hee hee, brained," murmured behind him.
I remembered those now. And it brought me no comfort. Mean, angry poke'mon they were; one of the dark types, which meant that they almost never liked humans, or anyone else for that matter. They usually lead around packs of Poochyena, which would have explained the other voices. I tried to peek around him, but the moment I caught sight of a splotch of gray fur and large yellow eyes, the Mightyena's teeth snapped next to my face.
"Eyes on me, girlie. I ain't done with you."
"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't know this was your territory and—and—and I was scared, and I d-d-don't even know where I am and—"
"Okay, okay, jeeze. Don't pee yourself." He sat down on his haunches, giving another snort that somehow seemed exasperated.
This seemed to be the signal to come forward, as several little Poochyena pawed forward, yellow eyes bright with curiosity and noses twitching.
"She smells weird, boss."
"Real weird."
"Ya gonna keep her? She got nice fur."
"Shiny…" muttered another, pawing one of my tails.
I flinched back, only to hit into the forelegs of more Poochyena, who gave toothy grins when I recoiled.
"Ooo, lookie, she's scared."
"Brained one scared."
"If you don't shut up, I'm braining all ya'll," said the Mightyena.
They fell quiet. At least for now.
"Look, since you're cute and stupid, I'll cut you a deal," he said, licking his nose. "You give me an egg, I'll let you go. No questions asked. You can't get better than that."
I froze. Had I heard right? "Uh, an egg? Like…from a nest?"
A Poochyena snorted, but remained quiet.
The Mightyena was not so amused. "A cub, you dolt. My cub. My egg. You make, then give. That tree really did a number to you?"
I gaped at him.
"Make a baby with you?!"
His ears jerked back at my volume and an inch of the snarl returned. "I should gnaw your head off for acting like that wasn't the honor it is. I'm giving you a place in my pack, temporary as it is. Dumb will only get you so far."
Heat spiked up from my gut, spreading with the icky horror crawling to the tips of my toes. Were poke'mon really this…this…
Of course they were.
Despite the ring of fangs and claws, and my eye-watering headache, I pushed myself to my feet….well, paws. It was odd, balancing myself and my much too heavy rear in a way I shouldn't. It was almost as though I hadn't sprinted the entire way here. Brained indeed.
"And if I refuse?"
The Mightyena mirrored the toothy, Cheshire grins of his minions.
"I eat you," he said.
The heat crawled up my throat, burning like bile, sharp as acid. In a knee-jerk reaction, like a swallow when something was in my throat, my stomach shoved up, dropping my jaw.
Blue fire leaked out of my mouth. Where it touched the ground it spread, like water. Within a blink it had grown into a brilliant pool lapping at the paws of the hounds.
Chaos ensued. All around Poochyena screamed, howled, and scrambled away. Mightyena backed off, but his hesitance cost him his legs as the blue fire caught hold and in moments reached up to lick his ears.
I didn't wait to see what happened. I leaped through the tickling flames, untouched by their friendly warmth. Bushes once more wacked and slid across me, leaving me weaving through like a stream over stones.
"GET HER!"
I ran.