Difference and Acceptance
This chapter and possibly one or two after will be focusing on Shadowflame.
Shadowflame walked out of the cave he slept in, and stretched. He looked up at the sky and saw the sun shining with a few clouds dotting the sky, then looked as his pack members started appearing from their dens and started their day. He smiled as he saw a few houndour running around. A couple houndoom said good morning to their alpha and he nodded in response. He cared for his pack a lot, not like the leader of his old pack when he was just a pup. When Shadowflame was young, the alpha of the pack he lived in, Shadowstorm, didn't seem to care much for his pack. He was mean to the houndour and houndoom, forcing the pack on hunts, while he stayed behind. The pack thought he was a cruel alpha.
Shadowflame had to be careful around the alpha so he wouldn't get hurt, since Shadowstorm seemed to hate him the most. He would sometimes trip Shadowflame or chase him from food. As Shadowflame got older he learned to avoid the alpha and stick close to his parents, who would protect him, or if he was with his friends, they would hide when Shadowstorm came around. When Shadowflame became a teenager and evolved into a houndoom, Shadowstorm kicked him out of the pack, deciding he was old enough to live on his own and eventually make his own pack. So, without getting to say goodbye to his parents or his friends, he ran from his old pack, tail between his legs. The anger from being kicked out built up in him and he decided to be a better alpha than his old one...
Startling out of his daydream, he shook his head and a nearby houndoom asked if he was ok. "I'm fine, Derrick." Derrick nodded and went to another houndoom and started talking to him. Some of the other houndoom wondered why Shadowflame didn't have a mate, but he wouldn't tell them. He had started and held together a pack without help, and never did try to find a mate. *but...* shadowflame thought to himself as he walked around, watching the various members of his pack, *maybe it would be good to have help with the pack* especially when their rival pack came around, it was led by a mightyena, who had a pack of Mightyena and poochyena. Shadowflame decided to go walk by himself, and also think a little bit. Leaving Derrick in charge while he was gone, he went into the forest.
Walking through the forest, Shadowflame thought about when he was younger, about when he started his pack, and about how he was doing well managing the pack by himself. He wasn't watching where he was going and almost bumped into two poochyena that ran by. "Sorry, mister!" one of the poochyena yelled back at him as he followed his friend, and they both ran into some bushes and disappeared. Wondering where they went, he decided to follow them, walking through the bushes he gasped at what he saw. There were several houndoom and a couple houndour, like his own pack, but there were also some poochyena. Confused by the poochyena being there, he walked into the pack, and the poochyena from before came up to him. "Hey mister! what are you doing here?" Shadowflame looked at the little poochyena, "I saw you and your friend run by and I wondered where you lived so I followed you." The poochyena cocked his head, "well I live here with my brother and my friends, we were separated from our old pack." Then they heard a voice.
"Who's your friend, Nicky?" Both looked to see who had spoke, and Shadowflame was surprised. It was a female houndoom, but her fur was pink while her muzzle, belly and the tip of her tail were yellow, instead of a spade shape on the end of her tail, she had a strange three pointed shape on the end. her paws and the fur halfway up her legs was black, her horns sloped back instead of curving up and back, and her eyes were a ruby red color, like the gems in the skull pendant on her neck. "Oh, hi Annabelle, this is" he looked at Shadowflame. "My name is Shadowflame, nice to meet you Annabelle." Annabelle smiled, looking at the orange and black houndoom in front of her, "nice to meet you too, Shadowflame." Annabelle looked at Nicky, "why don't you go play? I'm going to talk to Shadowflame." "ok," Nicky said and ran off to find his brother Toby.
Annabelle motioned to Shadowflame. "Follow me, let's go somewhere where we can talk." So they went and sat under a tree. "So, why are you here?" Annabelle asked. "Well, like I told that poochyena, I came here because I saw him and his brother run by after I almost bumped into them and followed them after they went through the bushes. Why are they here?" Annabelle got a sad look on her face, "I found them in the forest, poor little guys, they had gotten separated from their pack during a hunt and I took them in." Shadowflame smiled at her, "well that was nice of you." Annabelle smiled, she liked this strange colored houndoom. "I have a pack too, a small group of houndoom and a few houndour." Shadowflame told her.
As they talked and laughed about different things they didn't notice a dark shape approaching the pack. "I remember when I was kicked out of my pack when I was a teenager, my alpha Shadowstorm really didn't like me for some reason." Annabelle licked him, "It may have been because of your color." Shadowflame shook his head. "I don't know." When the mystery pokemon saw Annabelle lick the other houndoom she was sitting with, he got mad and ran towards them. "HEY YOU" he yelled, "GET AWAY FROM HER!" He rammed into Shadowflame and knocked him away from Annabelle. Annabelle gasped. "Riven! what are you doing?!"
Riven turned from where he was glaring at Shadowflame to look at Annabelle. "Just protecting you, babe." he smiled and she rolled her eyes. "He wasn't doing anything to me we were just talking, besides, I like him, Shadowflame is nice." Riven looked surprised. "Wait, Shadowflame?" He turned to where Shadowflame was on the ground, "Don't I know you?" Shadowflame got up. "Im the leader of another houndoom pack, wait, your the leader of the Mightyena pack!" They growled at each other. "Stay away from Annabelle" Riven said, "or I'll hurt you." he snarled after that. "Now leave!" Shadowflame glared. "Fine, but I challenge you to a battle, tomorrow, at this spot." Riven nodded. "Fine."
Shadowflame said goodbye to Annabelle, and left. Annabelle glared at Riven. "Why do you have to be such a jerk?" Riven smirked at her, "Cause I love you babe, I don't want anyone hurting you." Annabelle shook her head, "he wasn't hurting me! I was just talking to him! now leave me alone, you have to get ready for your battle with him tomorrow," She walked off. Riven sighed and left, shaking his head as he thought of how stubborn his girlfriend could be.