Occasionally, especially in the case of exceedingly rare poke'mon in areas such as the Safari Zone, poke'mon will simply flee, making capture difficult.

12

We practiced until morning until Carlos came out and saw us, according to Chevy's plan. Exhausted as I was, I let Blaze lick my ear as a sign of goodwill and Carlos didn't call him back. The moment Carlos had gone to start up his morning chores, he laid down next to me, not allowing a single hair of space between us, and set his eyes on Blaze, a low growl in his throat.

It grated on my sleepy ears and I whined in protest. It didn't help that his stinky musk was giving me a headache, even if it had a hint of the weird nice scent change from yesterday.

Blaze, however, just chuckled.

"The day I'm threatened by you is the day I sprout flowers from my ears," he said. "Oy, May bay" his new nickname for me that combined my name and 'baby,' "Tonight we do some fighting. Got to practice using those new moves of yours."

Without thinking I moved to give him a thumbs-up, but since I had no thumbs and my hand was a paw, I just got a puff of dirt in the face for my efforts.

"Got chya," I said. "Chevy, budge over, your stink's making my head hurt."

Chevy let out an almost inaudible whine, but did so, if only by a foot or so. Not wanting to hurt his feelings by asking him to move more, I put my nose beneath my paw and faced it towards the pit of charcoal. The scent of sleeping fire helped dull it a bit.

I dozed until Carlos came round to light up the fire pit. The heat rushed over me, easing stiffness I hadn't realized I had and melting into the burning of my overused muscles. I just about passed out then and there by Chevy's pitiful whine woke me up.

"Buddy, you can't stay here, you'll overheat," Carlos was saying, and when I opened my eyes it was to find him looking, not at Chevy, but at me. The boy bit his lip as he looked across the way where Blaze had taken a seat atop one of the boulders, apparently fast asleep. "I don't think anything will happen while Blaze is asleep…"

Sighing, I pushed myself to my feet, stretched, and shuffled over to a much too perky and worried Chevy. The fire was nice. But I'd sleep in the grass just fine too. And I still didn't entirely trust Blaze to not do anything gross while I slept.

Chevy nuzzled my shoulder as I fell into step besides him, and I was too tired to nudge him off.

Carlos let the two of us out into the field. I dimly wondered why Carlos was letting Chevy come with me instead of helping out with his chores, as Chevy usually did in the morning, but decided it probably had to do with him thinking we were falling in love and wanted to facilitate the main operandum and all that jazz.

Whatever. Whatever…

I fell asleep and didn't wake up until a Pichirisu stuffed a pecha berry into my ear.

The next thing I knew, my jaws were filled with squirming, throat gagging fur, having reacted so quick I hadn't even thought about it.

The Pichirisu squawked and prickled my mouth with static on steroids. My mouth stung and my tongue went numb, but I just shook the darn thing, irritated beyond belief.

Chevy made a low warning gruff and I dropped my bedraggled prey. The moment its tiny feet touched the ground it was gone, chittering madly.

"Next time you're lunch!" I barked after it.

"What it do?" asked Chevy with a yawn. He lay only a foot or so away from me, having fallen asleep with me.

"Stuffed a berry in my ear." I could tell it was pecha based off of the smell. I shook my head to the side, trying to dislodge it. I spat a few well chosen curses as I used a back paw to try and claw it out.

"I'll get it," he shuffled forward.

I gave him the side of my face and shuddered as I felt his tongue slide in and scoop it out.

"Uawug," I scratched at my ear again. "Sloppery slithery sounds, yug."

But he didn't stop there. His tongue stroked my jawline like a set of fingers, petting along the run of the fur to my throat.

I froze.

Maybe berry juice drizzled down? I thought, but just as soon as I did his tongue came out again to lap around my throat and under my jaw. Wild instincts flared up my back, screaming about the vulnerability of my neck—my throat tearing out—

In a blink I jumped back, on my feet, all my tails flared out and warming along with my gut. My lips curled back.

At the utterly apologetic, flat-eared look on Chevy's face, my mind came back to me.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to flip out on you," I ducked my head, pulling my claws and fangs back in. "Sorry, I didn't—I don't know what came over me."

Chevy didn't say anything, and when I looked up he had his head turned the other way so all I could see were his sad, lowered ears.

"Chevy?"

"It's fine," he said, quietly. "I should be the one apologizing. I…I got carried away."

I examined him for a moment. A suspicion had been tickling the back of my mind for a while now. I hadn't wanted to consider it due to all the problems it could cause, coward as I was, and I didn't mention it now. To pull it out into the open would mean I'd have to deal with it, and I wasn't ready yet.

Eventually, I returned to the flattened patch of grass where I had been resting and l curled back down, resting my head on my paws.

Carlos didn't even look like Collin from a distance. The overalls made him look pudgy, and his curly hair had bronze highlights in the sun, not the silver and blue that my brothers black had.

"When will you leave?" asked Chevy.

I huffed, watching the blades of grass closest to my nose waver. "Well…I can make a decent Ember now, and there's that Psychic type attack I need to figure out what it does. So soon, I hope."

Chevy was quiet at this. I felt something tighten around my chest, just a bit.

Carlos walked into his house only to come out a few minutes later with a blond woman at his side wearing a flaming red business suit. At her call Ponyta lifted her head and took off towards them with a happy whinny. One of my tails swept around as the fire horse closed its eyes to nuzzle the woman's face.

"Good for her," I said. "Now where are the rodents' trainer?"

"Mayleen…" said Chevy.

"Yeah?"

"…Do you…would it be so bad…" he took a deep breath. "If…if you did manage to make a egg, you wouldn't have to worry about the man-mating."

Something within me sucked in and chilled.

"And your trainer would let you stay here. And he'd give your children to trainers who'd really want them, they'd have to with how valuable their pelts—"

His jaw clacked shut as I stood and started walking away.

"Mayleen!" I heard the scuffle of grass as he got up to follow. "I didn't mean it like—I know you want to stay with you children and you refuse to have anything other than a life mate—"

"Chevy—"

"—But your trainer probably wouldn't even be interested in any that didn't have your coloring—"

"Chevy—"

"And we could raise the others—"

I didn't snap. I didn't spit fire. But whatever he saw from my prickling, boiling body when I turned to face him made his knees bend and his ears all but vanish into his dark mane.

"I don't expect you to understand," I said, trying to sound soft and not hurt him even as the animal within me demanded I was being threatened. "And, honestly, I don't think you can, but that's okay. I will be out of here long before that can even be a possibility."

But rather than put him at ease, rather than reassure him that I wasn't going to lunge out and bite off his ears or whatever he was being put off by, Chevy melted into the grass, all but whimpering, his nostrils thin.

"No," he whispered. "No, that's not…please don't say that."

"Say what?"

"That I—that I can't understand. I want to understand you. I desperately, desperately want to understand you. I'm sorry I said it wrong, I'm just…"

The whiny like dog whimpers took over his words momentarily, and the sense of danger eased away from me. It was hard to feel any danger from a dog groveling on the ground like a scolded puppy.

I sighed wearily. "Dude, stop it. You're not this pathetic, get up, I'm fine, you're fine."

"No, I'm not," he said, with the same sad softness.

"Yes, you are. Look, I overreacted. Just don't mention eggs, yeah?"

When he looked away and didn't say anything, I sighed again, wondering if I should just go back to the fire pit and finish my nap with the bug-eyed lava slug and the horny hound.

Just as I made the decision to do just that and opened my mouth to say so, along with reassurances that I hoped would ease whatever was going on with him right now, Chevy spoke.

"I love you, Mayleen."

Oh no. "Um, like friend love?"

"I want to be your mate." He pulled a me and put a paw over his eyes, his tail curled so tight around him it nearly vanished with the rest of his fur. "When I think about you leaving I…it hurts. Mayleen…I…there will never be anyone like you. Not as beautiful or smart or wise or brave or…or just you, and I'll never—"

"I'm a human."

He stopped.

My heart went wild in my chest. A good deal of my brain was demanding how I thought this would make anything better.

But I couldn't let this go on any longer. Human or poke'mon, a heart was a precious thing. And he had to know why he couldn't give his to me.

His face came around, his ears up a bit, if just because he thought he hadn't heard right. "What?"

"I'm a human." The words rolled out like vomit. "I accidentally stepped on a Ninetales's tail and she cursed me into becoming one. That's why I don't know anything about being a Ninetales or a poke'mon or—"

"Why you are so familiar with humans," he said. His eyes gone wide, his body slack.

I nodded, turning my head away, looking anywhere but at him. "And why I need to get away. I need to…I have to find a way to change back. I can't—my brother…"

My jaw snapped closed. If I said anything more about Collin, I'd fall apart.

"I have to find that Ninetales and beg her to change me back" I clenched my eyes shut. "…I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

And unable to resist the screaming of my body any longer, I fled.