Disclaimer: I do not, have never, and most likely will never own Pokemon in any way shape or form. This story is just for the personal enjoyment of those that read it and does not, nor ever will, receive any monetary funding. Thank you.
With a flick of her tails the white fox sent the nine balls of fire whistling towards Rattata. The rat pokemon tried her best to evade them, dashing left and right and running around the clearing, but the fire just followed her, trailing behind and slowly closing ground.
It only took a few seconds but it seemed to last minutes as the fireballs creeped towards Rattata. "Quick attack into Ninetales!" I shouted hoping to increase Rattata's distance from the attack and inflict some damage onto the Ninetales.
Hearing my order Rattata began to speed up and change course, now heading towards the Ninetales who had been observing out panic attack from the center of the clearing. Rattata pulled away from the projectiles and rushed at the Ninetales, a white aura enveloping her as she leapt into the air, trying to slam the fox in her face.
It looked like the attack would go through, but something didn't feel right.
Why hadn't the Ninetales moved yet? It was slowly advancing right at the beginning but she stopped to charge that attack and sat down as soon as the fire left her tails. She also seemed calm, almost unconcerned with the 8 pound rat speeding towards her face.
The Ninetales flicked her ears before twisting her neck and head, dodging Rattata's quick attack, and using her mouth she caught Rattata by the tail. I watched in disbelief as Rattata flailed around, unable to do anything as the Ninetales' fire projectiles rushed towards her.
As they came into contact with her, instead of causing burns like I expected they instead faded, seemingly disappearing. They must have done something though because not a second later small tongues of flame showed themselves on Rattata, burning her and vanishing a moment later.
Ninetales then tossed Rattata to the ground and placed a paw on her side, digging her claws into Rattata's skin, Pinning her to the ground. Rattata was panicking now. Thrashing about desperately trying to free herself, letting out high pitched shrieks whenever the flames appeared and trying to claw her aggressors paw, to no avail.
In the background I could faintly make out the Vulpix cubs, yipping and growling in excitement. Was this why the Vulpix brought us here? To have its' mother beat us into the ground?
Frantically I tried to use my pokeball to return Rattata but Ninetales simply dragged Rattata through the dirt to prevent the pokeball's laser from reaching her. Turning to look at me I found her ruby eyes narrowed, they seemed to ask me if I planned to intervene again, if I planned to intervene again.
Swallowing the tension in my throat I knew the answer to these unspoken questions. Of course I would. This was my partner, I couldn't lose her, but what could I do? Rattata was pinned to the ground squeaking in pain as what I finally decided must be a burn status flared up again. My Weedle was still very injured from when I caught it and I didn't like my chances against that fox.
Realizing my only option if I wanted to make it out of this situation with Rattata I summoned my courage and mentally prepared myself. Why was I so stupid?
The moment Ninetales looked away from me and back at the rat pokemon it had pinned I made my move. I ran as fast as I could. Leaning forward I rushed the fox. I could see the moment she noticed my movement, her ears twitched, probably hearing my feet on the forest floor, and she looked up again.
Her eyes widened as I slammed into her with all the force of a running Fifteen year old. She fell onto her side with a yip of surprise and I picked Rattata up off the ground. Taking a glance at her I was relieved to see that the claw marks were mostly superficial and that she seemed to be mostly suffering from the burn, that gave me time to get her to a pokemon center I if ran the rest of the way to the city.
Hearing the white fox behind me cough and wheeze as she found her bearing I took that as my sign to leave. Pumping my legs I made a beeline for the edge of the clearing, intent on getting myself and my pokemon away from this Ninetales.
The same Ninetales that had recovered and just set the greenery in front of us on fire.
I slowly turned to face the Ninetales. I found myself breaking out into a sweat again, one that had nothing to do with the flaming shrubbery that was now at my back.
This Ninetales had us at her mercy. She always had. From the moment we entered her territory she had been toying with us and we never had a chance. We weren't likely to make it out of this in one piece. Realizing this I tried to wrap Rattata in my arms to protect her from what would no doubt happen.
It was in this position that Ninetales found me as she walked up to us. She looked at us for a few seconds and cocked her head to the side. Then she narrowed her eyes, snorted and turned around, walking back to her cubs.
I watched, unbelieving as she walked, swished her tails back and forth before sitting down by one of her cubs. I stared dumbly as she touched noses with the cub and made a few barks and flicked three tails towards their Vulpix barked happily and circled it's mother, even running through her many tails before darting into their fox hole and returning with a berry in its' mouth.
Then to my shock they both turned away from the rest of the cubs and walked over to us. Oh god, was the Ninetales going to have the Vulpix be the one to kill us?
They walked casually, with none of the Ninetales' previous tension in their walk. As they reached us the Ninetales sat to the side as the Vulpix walked right up to us and dropped the berry it had been holding at my feet.
My grip on Rattata loosened as I examined the berry the Vulpix had just dropped. Its' leaves were short and a deep green while the berry itself was a bright blue. I was able to determine that it was a Rawst Berry. While they weren't very common in Kanto but my folks had tried to grow some a few years back. They had a bitter taste that few people enjoyed. However Rawst Berries were not usually used as a food item. Instead they were known for their ability to cure pokemon of the burn ailment.
Slowly crouching down, my eyes still locked on the Ninetales and her cub, I picked up the Rawst Berry. Again, I stood up slowly so as not to provoke the pokemon in front of us. Now that I had the berry I tried to feed it to Rattata, having to force it into her mouth and hold her jaws shut so that she wouldn't spit it out. Something that she tried to do, even in her condition. It must have tasted really bad.
After forcing her to swallow it I could see her look better almost immediately. The tongues of flame were no longer appearing on her and her breathing became less labored. In only a few moments Rattata fell asleep.
Taking another glance at the calm white fox and happy little cub in front of us I realized that we might be out of trouble for now. Seeing my opportunity I grabbed her pokeball off my belt and returned her to stasis until I could get her to a pokemon center.
I then turned back toward the the foxes and, after menovering my way around the burning shrubbery, began to make my way backwards, keeping them in my eye sight incase they tried to do anything.
I felt myself tense in fear as the cub rushed forward and yipped as it came to my side, walking at about the same pace. Hesitantly I lowered myself I pushed it back in the direction of its mother.
The small fox gave me a confused look before going back to its mother. Only to stop as the Ninetales narrowed its eyes and flicked its nose back to me. Now I was the confused one as I watched the Vulpix barke happily and rush to my side. I tried to push it back again but its' mother growled and took on a threatening stance.
No longer trying to prevent the Vulpix from following me I walked slowly into the forest. As soon as we passed the tree line I turned and ran. I ran as hard as I could, only stopping to avoid the various pokemon living in the forest. I ran until I couldn't run anymore.
Gasping for breath I leaned on a nearby tree, using it for support. My knees buckled and I was laying on the ground, back to the tree and covered in sweat. As I regained my breath and took a drink from the water bottle in my travel pack I felt something brush up against my leg.
Looking down I found the Vulpix, forepaws resting on my leg, looking up at me with wide eyes. As I stared back I couldn't help but sigh and and tilt my head back as I looked at the canopy of trees above us. It looked like the small fox had followed me. Turning back to it I found myself talking to it.
"So little thing, you want to come with me and my team?"
I'm not sure if it could understand me but it sure seemed too because at my words it gave and excited yip, jumped into my lap and began to nuzzle my chest. As I worked my arm up to the small pokemon I scratched its ears and couldn't help but smile. This wasn't so bad. Although hesitant to bring the cub after what my team and I went through with its mother I suppose I wasn't in any position to deny it what it wanted. And if it wanted to join my team and go traveling who was I to say no?
Standing back up I began to walk. We were a long way from the path and if we wanted to get to the city we would have to find it again. As I pushed a branch out of the way and saw my new Vulpix dash ahead I couldn't help but get the feeling that things were looking up.
As I watched my little cub follow after the human I couldn't help but let out a snort. That one was alway making trouble, always going out into the woods and exploring, never letting me know where he went. Didn't he know that he was to young for that?
I flicked my tails in annoyance as I turned to the rest of my cubs. They were still growing but I could already see the differences between him and the rest of them. He was more adventurous than the rest of them. Honestly it was a good thing that human had come along when he did. I'm not sure I could have kept him here much longer. At least with the human he won't get into as much trouble. Given how far the boy went for the other pokemon in his care I think that he'll be able to keep my cub in check while traveling.
I guess there are more humans like that than I thought. I haven't seen one that would risk their life since my old trainer. Now that was a good human. Friendly, helpful, and he always had good food on hand. Now that she thought about it she must have meet him when she wasn't much older than her cub. Shame what happened to him, he was such a good trainer too.
Breaking away from my reminiscing I returned my attention to my cubs and watched as they tackled each other. I study their coats and only confirm what I already knew.
I can see their tails already beginning to take on the deep red color of the rest of their fur. Yes, it was the right decision to send that one away. The others never would never have accepted him when his tail remained white, much less when the color began to spread to the rest of his fur.