Upon hearing its eerie howls, other Pokémon get the shivers and head straight back to their nests.

6

When it became apparent I wasn't going to lick myself clean like any normal poke'mon of my kind, Carlos brought me inside his bathroom where he filled the tub with as hot of water as his water heater could manage. He brought Chevy in to help convince me to get into the bath, but when I didn't protest and stepped right in, both were flabbergasted.

"What?" Then I felt like an idiot. "Oh right, fire poke'mon."

Which I shouldn't have said out loud, for now Chevy was giving me an even weirder look. With each day I got better at deciphering his doggy expressions.

"Wonder why they said you were rebellious," said Carlos, smiling all the same. "Is it warm enough, girl?"

Oh, yes, I practically purred, lowering myself into the tub, which was ENORMOUS, by the way. Had to be to fit me, or rather my mass of tails. I didn't even know bathtubs like this could exist.

Steam swirled against the lights.

Carlos got to work lathering me up with lavender scented shampoo while I examined the various scratches and chinks out of the porcelain. I imagined other poke'mon he had bathed in here hadn't been so compliant.

"Today's a big day for you, sweet girl. Chevy and I are getting you all glammed up."

I frowned and looked to the Mightyena sitting on his haunches. "Do I want to know?"

"Sounds like he's presenting you to a possible mate," said Chevy, chagrined. "Don't worry, I'll accompany you." His ears lowered. "I said don't worry."

I tried to push my ears off my neck, but they had a mind of their own, just like my tails. It wasn't like I was used to being able to move my ears or nine million noodles off my rear.

"I don't want to be m-mated," I wanted to gag at the feel of the word on my tongue.

"I know. But it is why you're trainer is paying for you to be here—"

I flinched so hard, bubbles momentarily blinded Carlos.

"Carlos is getting paid to take care of me?!"

Chevy did the Mightyena equivalent of rolling his eyes. "Humans don't do stuff for free. Don't you know about money? It's how humans make work solid so they can trade it for stuff, like food, which you've been eating. They don't catch their food, they use money."

"I know, I know, that was stupid. I know that, I just…" I sighed. "Forget it."

Chevy cocked his head, something he did quite often. "What?"

"Nothing."

I wasn't about to say that I had found myself really liking Carlos and had hoped he had liked me as well. For all his caretaking instinct, Chevy was being awfully obtuse to why I wouldn't like the idea of someone being paid to be nice to me.

And for that matter, Chevy was being paid to like me as well, in a roundabout way. And since none of the other poke'mon seemed all that comfortable being around me for more than thirty seconds, it made my human soul more alone than ever.

Carlos, who thought nothing of my sudden jerk, just went on scrubbing me, whistling to himself, blissfully unaware of the meaning of the yips and gruffles Chevy and I exchanged.

"I'm so glad you guys get along so well," he said.

Carlos was even more impressed when I didn't so much as flinch when he switched on the blow dryer. Even Chevy had jumped at the roar bouncing off the tiled bathroom.

"Dang, you sure you're a wild?" His fingers undid the larger knots beneath the hot air.

Chevy was staring a good bit too. "It took me an entire year to get use to that thing. Mayleen…are you actually brave?"

I laughed at that. "Are you kidding me? I'm a coward."

And I was.

I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of the hot air on my skin, drying the icky plaster of wet fur. I remembered my room, meticulously clean and organized. I remembered my knees locking up before a ferris wheel and screaming. I remembered Dad's scowl. I remembered the Ninetales glowing pink in my dark bedroom.

The blow dryer clicked off ages later.

"You, girl, have a lot of fur. Now just need to brush down all that puff…"

I glanced around at the mirror, which I had been avoiding, and looked away. Like I said, I was a coward.

Carlos cooed at the gleam and softness of my fur. Even Chevy seemed to be staring a little harder from his vigil at the door. When Carlos finished with my body and went to my tails, he specifically asked for permission before touching each tail, which would have seemed odd if I hadn't been cursed just by stepping on a Ninetales' tail.

"Not that I'd even know how to curse you if you did," I muttered. I couldn't even summon up the blue-drippy fire on command (yes, I had tried, with my mouth hung over the pond so as to decrease the fire hazard).

"It is not a crime to be inexperienced," said Chevy softly.

I hadn't thought he had heard me, nor did I expect him to pick up on my emotions so easily. But, then again, it wasn't like I knew how to school this new body in hiding those things.

"Maybe not a crime, but it's certainly caused me quite a bit a misery." I looked askance at him and tried my best at a smile, though I had no idea what the Ninetales equivalent looked like. "I'm being forced to be a brood mare because of it."

Chevy's tail did a hard slap. When he continued to stare into my eyes, I grew uncomfortable and turned away. Wasn't there some animal rule about not meeting other's eyes? Wasn't it, like, disrespectful? Gah, why didn't I listen better when Collin watched those Poke'mon documentaries? Sure, I knew the basics from school, but I doubted anything they taught me could have prepared me for this.

Once he had finished brushing, Carlos stood back to get a better look at me, lower lip jutted out in thought.

"Kind of hard to improve on that," he muttered. "But a little domestic touch is always nice. Guys like that stuff even if they're poke'mon, right bud?"

Chevy snorted. "Don't look at me."

Carlos vanished somewhere in his house only to return with a long, wide, satin blue ribbon, which he proceeded to wrap around the base of my middle most tail (after asking permission, of course). With some perfectionist tugs, he gave a wide grin and satisfied grunt.

"Knew it. Matches your eyes perfectly. Okay, girl, in the poke'ball."

A flash—gawl, I hated that—and the aliens had come to take me home.

I sighed and sat, my hindquarters a bit sore from who knew what. Probably from carrying around a buttload of stupid tails. Ha ha, buttload. Literally.

I twisted around to get a look at the generous sky blue bow adding a girlish flair to the base of my tails. It did look nice against my black fur, I could give him that. But it wasn't like any good would come of it. I couldn't just let some dude poke'mon…I mean, eww. Gross. Million kinds of weird. But even if I did get over that and somehow accepted that I'd—I mean, whatever egg I laid would still be my kid, wouldn't it? Forget the fact I'd have a poke'mon for a kid, any kid I had would belong to that creepy, uncaring loser who'd just sell them off to the highest bidder, or worse, dump it somewhere. And coward though I may be, I wasn't a heartless monster. Poke'mon or human, any kid of mine was going to be freaking loved and adored and not forced to fight freaky monsters for others amusements or sold like some item or-or-or-

Flash, and I found myself in a part of Carlos's ranch that I had yet to step on, despite my type. Short, man-made cliffs cut off the grassless stone and dirt from the pastures, and tucked away against an even taller rock, edged with a lazy Slugma and a puffy Torkoal, was a pool of burning coal.

Standing in the ten-yard space between me and it stood a great, ram-horned hound edged in ridges of bone and black-coated muscle. A long, skinny tail tipped by a small arrowhead lashed from side to side.

It's dark-orange muzzle parted, displaying a set of wicked teeth.

I squawked and stumbled back, only to trip on my own tails and land on my rear like the human I was.

The hellhound threw back its head and laughed.

My terror eased back to make some room for my humiliation and I turned around to hide behind Carlos, except he wasn't there. He sat quite a bit a ways, on top of an outcropping of rock twice his size and giving me an encouraging smile.

"You're alright, girl! Chevy's right behind you!"

And so he was, his pink tongue hanging out from the heat.

"Are—are you okay?" I asked, scuttling to his side now that I was back on all fours.

"Who's the baby?" boomed the demon dog. He stepped forward, muscles rippling beneath his short, metallic fur and head high.

"Her name's Mayleen," panted Chevy. "And she's…shy."

The dog boomed another laugh, one which I was quickly finding I hated. I'd never liked loud things or people.

"Funny, seeing you again," the dog seemed to smirk down at Chevy, as though enjoying his discomfort. "If you're so hot, you could always scurry back to your trainer. I won't bite…much."

"Like I'd trust the word of a Houndoom."

"Wow, stereotyping much? We're the same Dark type, dude. Surprisingly." Then, to my horror, his fanged, horned muzzle turned on me. "So, baby girl, what are you? Never seen you're kind before."

"She's a Ninetales."

"Noooo. Those things are pale little farts that play with ghosts. This one's black as my toes, that ain't no Ninetales."

"She's unique," said Chevy, his heat exhaustion becoming more and more apparent. "That's why her owner wants to breed her."

"Um, could you, like, not give my entire profile?" I asked, wishing for my alien-mirror room more and more.

On hearing that the Houndoom gave an unmistakable toothy leer.

"Ah, I can do that."

He took a big, ground-eating stride towards me.

My stomach flared up, insta hot. I scuttled back, already feeling fire bubbling up into my maw—

But Chevy stepped between us, his hackles raised.

"But that's what her owner wants," he growled, his voice little more than a rumble of intimidation. "Not her."

The Houndoom jerked his nose up ever so slightly, something I'd come to equate as the canine equal of a raised eyebrow. "Is that where you come in?"

"Correct. You touch her against her will," his black mane raised into a spiky ridge, his usually well-groomed fur ruined.

The Houndoom only laughed again.

"Oh-oh-oh that's good. A little fart-knocker like you, ha ha! Oh that's great. I like you Chevy."

Chevy snarled.

Houndoom just jerked his nose around, flashing an especially long fang. "I'll treat her nice, yeah? Hey! Baby. Stretch out those pretty legs of yours and come on over, give your overheated protector a break, yeah?"

I couldn't have moved even if I wanted to. My legs had stiffened to rods. The first drips of blue fire trickled from my lips.

"Oo, that's pretty," and walking past him as though Chevy weren't even there, the Houndoom came over to where I'd curled in the sun-heated stones, nose twitching. "Will-o-wisp, right? Baby, those things aren't going to hurt me. I'm fire just like you, so you can stop."

"I-I don't know how," I said, spraying more blue fire like spittle. As if my humiliation couldn't get worse.

His eyebrows shot up in an all too human expression.

"You're kidding?" He looked over his shoulder where a scowling Chevy had joined him. "She's kidding, right?"

"She's inexperienced," said Chevy stiffly.

"But, even babies," the Houndoom shook his head and took another look at me. "No, she's definitely grown up. I can smell that much. Girl, how'd you stay alive this long without knowing how to control your fire? You human born?"

I flinched at that, even as Chevy answered for me in a negative. I wondered if I should get annoyed that he kept answering for me, but with my mouth full of spit-fire, I was deeply grateful. I didn't want to be talking anyways.

The Houndoom snorted. "Wild. Yeah right. Hey, girl, just hold your breath, yeah? Suck it in, close your throat, like you're swallowing."

And since the pool of blue fire was drawing dangerously close to Chevy's paws, I did so, holding my breath until I thought my head would burst.

But, sure enough, my mouth cooled and the blue Will-o-wisp died out.

The Houndoom nodded. "Yeah, I'd laugh, but that's just sad."

A whine rose out of my throat unbidden, as most things were with my new body, and I ducked my head down to hide my face behind a paw.

"Aw, don't worry, baby, you're plenty pretty, and the fire's an easy fix. While I'm here I can give you some pointers, yeah? Isn't like I have anything better to do, and it will make the butt-wipe matchmaker happy."

Despite the kindness of his words, his voice held none of it.

"Don't talk about my trainer like that!" snapped Carlos.

"Ah, shut up and go jump in a pond before you pass out."

"I can handle this just fine! Like heck I'm leaving her with you."

"Whatever. You ready for your first lesson, baby doll? Come on, uncurl those pretty tails, yeah? Your name was Maybe, right?"

"Mayleen."

"Mayleen Mayleen, got ya. I'm Blaze. Rather unimaginative name, but it works, so feel free to wear it out to your fuzzy black heart's content."

Blaze sat himself on his haunches before me, curling his pointed tail around his feet in a remarkably domesticated pose.

"First off, what feeds fire? Hint, it's why holding your breath worked."

Internally, I thanked him for giving me the hint and sparing me the embarrassment of saying 'wood.'

"Air?"

"Good baby. Not all daft up there. So, if you want to make your fire bigger…" he waited, turning his head to give me one wide, red eye.

I turned my front paws inward, feeling stupid. "You need more air."

"And to get more air…?"

"You…need to…breathe more?"

"Yep!" He stood, lowering his face down to look at me past his eyebrows, his entire body language turning from kind to carnivorous within moments. "So start running."

I blinked. "Huh?"

Blaze barked, and it was nothing like a Mightyena's. It boomed far and wide, vibrating my bones and sending my fur on end. The animal in me wrenched the reigns from my human mind and sent my body flying, zipping past Chevy and the boulder Carlos sat on. I barely registered Carlos's cry of alarm as I bounded past, my paws flinging up dirt.

Houndoom's horrible laugh followed at my tail.

"That's right! Run! Run like you're life depends on it! Ha ha ha! I'm gonna eat ya!"

The closed gate appeared. Just as my human mind scrambled to decide how to get over it, my long legs sprung like a Buneary, clearing the gate that reached Carlos's shoulder with a miraculous, adrenaline spiked pounce.

Blaze wooped. I glanced back just in time to see him bound over it with ease, cackling like the devil he was.

I spun round to the next gate, intending to leap over it as well, but I hadn't the running start and my human thoughts were slowly breaking through. Too late, I jumped. My front paws cleared. The wood brushed the fur of my breast.

My back paws caught.

I tumbled across the grass, head over tails. It was the tails that buffered the worst of the fall.

"Keep running, baby, or you're dead!"

A snap of jaws near my rear and I was up, ignoring the throb in my back paws, sprinting for everything I was worth.

He chased me like that around the perimeter of the right field, nipping at my tails and hind quarters whenever I slowed to breathe. It didn't take long before my whole body burned with the sensation of Will-o-Wisps, eating away the oxygen my brain desperately needed. My vision blurred. My mouth ached. I couldn't pull in my tongue for the life of me and my fur smothered me more than ever.

Finally, my legs gave out, and no amount of nipping or cackling could get me to get back up.

Within moments Carlos and Chevy were upon us and Blaze vanished within a flash of light.

"You okay, girl?" Carlos cried, round face flushed red as a tomato and dripping sweat. He stuffed Blaze's poke'ball into his overalls with a vengeance.

"I'm so sorry, Mayleen, I tried to keep up," said Chevy past his lolling tongue. "I'm here now, you're safe, I'm so sorry."

Burning. I was burning up. All this dang, stupid fur. And my mouth, ahh. My mouth.

"Mayleen, can you speak? Did he hurt you? I saw him bite you."

"Where does it hurt, girl?"

Without a word, I forced my lava heavy body to its paws, the smell of water rich in my nose. I stumbled towards the pond.

"Oh, girl, if you're thirsty don't drink that, Lotad—"

Before Carlos could complete his sentence, I dived head first into the pond.

Cool, blissful relief. Just as I had expected. The burning stopped.

For the first second.

Then the burn of fire was replaced by an entirely worse burn, one that hurt in raking sizzles as coal never could. It was frostbite, it was a night in a blizzard, it was the knives of ice before the numbness could sink in and it soaked through my very pores to rake its nails among my innards.

I broke the surface, screaming.