Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon, any of its canon characters, locations, plots, etc.

Adventure's First Sprint

Now, again, don't get me wrong; living as a suicune turned out to be pretty interesting. There was an entire side to the legendaries that I had not explored or even fathomed, and one of them was the fact that, as obvious as it seemed, the legendaries did have to reproduce.

Trust me, as far as I knew of, there were only a specific set of legendaries, and if they were all captured or killed, then they were replaced by the poké diety Arceus. I say poké deity because I learned something else too in this adventure; apparently humans and pokémon did not always share the same mythological ideas.

For the longest time, communication between the two was even rougher than it was in my time, if you exclude the sudden closing of that gap during the grand campaign that is.

Although I can never forget my first day, my second day is much fuzzier, and as much as I would love to make a pun out of that, suicune don't have long lengths of hair (overall), so I would be out of luck there anyway.

I guess I am sort of boring myself really at this point, so I guess I should put the tape in fast forward and get to some clear memories...

The place I had been born apparently was a marsh; why the marsh I never bothered to ask. It was wet, it was muddy, and it was a fascinating place to live; there were all sorts of creatures there, creatures that often times would not be found in other parts of the world.

Not only that, humans typically stayed out of the marsh; unlike on the plains, if they stumbled into the marsh, they were fair game to anyone and anything that wanted that sort of game, if you get my drift. As a young suicune, probably no older than a year, I had absolutely no idea what humans were and why they were made out to be so crazy.

Well, I remember the day I found out.

The sun was high in the sky; high noon. Most of the marsh plants were either partially submerged or entirely submerged in water at this point. The then current "suicune" of the trio, my mom, was still out for the day, so I was left in the care of my sister, yes, the one commonly defined as Suicune on the main line of time.

Naturally, I was an adventurous soul while she would much rather just relax at home and sunbathe, so as I was stalking an unsuspecting mudkip, I heard the clumsy stumbling of someone clearly lost in the marsh.

The mudkip continued to have my attention, however, until that lost someone began getting closer, their splashing and grunting and apparent cursing growing louder every few minutes. While most people who were struggling in the marsh tried to get out, this stubborn creature would actually prefer to venture deeper into the marsh.

As the splashing began clearly emitting from directly in front, the startled mudkip ran off, much to my disappointment, as I had been skillfully following it since dawn. Cautiously, using some of the taller reeds as cover, I peeked ahead to see a two legged creature dressed head to toe in metal.

What type of metal is not important... Or, much rather, I guess that was important, but I did not know or care what type of metal it was; all I knew was, this poor soul was going to drown before long if it kept up at the pace it was going.

While I was unaware of the fact that I was standing on water and that the armored creature was actually waist deep, I did know for a fact that it was far easier to walk over a few feet from where this thing was struggling. More cursing, more grunting, and more mouth moving, the muddy, gritty face finally managed to find a dune to rest upon.

Once out of the water, it donned on me that whatever I was staring at, it was male, and that meant that it probably would not appreciate a younger creature staring at it. I slowly began backing away, but the second I did, my foot actually stepped into the water; and much to my dismay, my entire being plunged in.

Now, I doubt I was very heavy, but even pebbles make noise when they fall into the water, and, again, I hadn't realized I was standing atop the water in the first place, so suddenly falling in was as great of a surprise as any. As a water type, the water was my natural home, and as such, I quickly surfaced, once again getting a "grip" on the water.

When I stepped my left front paw onto the water, it was then that I realized that it was on top of the water I just fell into.

However, there was little time for that as the splashing began more rapid, and the sliding of metal from a cover sounded. I didn't know what that was, but I had a feeling I didn't want to find out.

I hopped back atop the water, now more sure of my footing, and prepared to dash off, when I was rudely cut off by a lapras. Wait a second, lapras don't live in this marsh! Before I could register fully, the lapras snatched me up in its mouth.

I had always wondered what it would be like to be eaten alive, but this is not when I planned on finding out. I struggled, only to realize that I was only being held up for some reason. The man from earlier patted the lapras atop its head, both likely wielding a devilish grin, the man looking at my figure up and down.

I suppose now that I think about it, if I was small enough to be caught up by a lapras in its mouth, but large enough to stick out somewhat on the sides, then I guess I wasn't that large at all yet.

The man motioned for the lapras to follow him when suddenly a screech could be heard. The man froze, then reached into a holder of sorts to unvield what I now know to be a sword. The shining metal with the triangle tip shaking all the way down to the handle as silence re-settled over the marsh.

The man was terrified. I had heard that screech before, but I had never been afraid of it. In fact, it had been oddly comforting whenever I was in trouble. The man swung is sword at a colorful beam of light, the rainbow colors striking the pointy metal. The sword froze solid, and, to the terror of the man, a much more fully grown suicune pounced from the reeds.

Not from his front, but from behind him. The lapras roughly dropped me in the water as it rushed to address the matter at hand. I scuttled to a relatively safe portion of the area covered by reeds. I poked my head out as, for the first time, I witnessed the strength of my older sister.

The man had long since dropped his weapon and was now attempting to fight, bare-handed, with Sister. However, she had easily flipped him several times, and aiming a colorful beam, she was deigned to freeze the man when the lapras rushed her with a wave of water.

Surprised by the force of the wave, Sister lost her footing, temporarily, atop the water as the lapras prepared to fire a beam from its mouth. Sister glided across the water as the beam of ice froze the spot she had been within seconds of contact, the lapras firing the beam in bursts in an attempt to freeze Sister.

With swiftness that I couldn't keep up with, Sister effortlessly maneuvered around the shelled pokémon until she could hop aboard its shell back, a more favorable attacking position.

The man retrieved his still frozen weapon, the handle encased in ice. However, he seemed not to be worried too much, and still attempted to swipe at Sister. Sister dodged, the sword striking the shell. Instinctively, the lapras turned the ice beam on its new attacker, its companion, freezing him in mid-retreat, his look of terror permanently frozen upon his face.

Angered by the mistake, the lapras now turned on me. I hadn't even realized I had slowly been approaching until that moment, and as I squeaked in shock, Sister grabbed ahold of the lapras' neck with her mouth and flung it across the marsh.

While the helpless pokémon was in mid-air, Sister fired a beam of ice once again towards it, the force of the beam spinning the lapras sharply until it landed squarely on the dune, a sharp "crack" heard as it landed upon its stomach. Its head hung low and limp, and the flippers rested upon the sandy hill.

I didn't realize it at the time, but that lapras would not be slinking off into the water.

Sister glared at me, and for the first time, the glare triggered an instinct inside me. I was frightened, to my very core, by the look, as if for some reason I thought she would turn on me next. Swiftly she gently clasped my small neck with her jaws, then carried me off with an aggressive swiftness. I could already sense that she was not going to be happy when she returned home.

Mom at the very least was not at all amused by the encounter when she returned home. Apparently she had heard of it from her very gossipy underlings on her way home.

"What were you thinking, letting him out of your sight?!" she scolded Sister, "you know how... un-natural he is!" "Mother, if I could just have a word..." Sister attempted vainly to explain via interruption. "He could have been killed! Worst of all, you could have been killed!

The two of you are being far too reckless!" Mother continued, denying Sister the chance to defend herself as far as responsibility. "You two should have not strayed so far!" "But... little Entei was in the marsh and..." Sister tried to explain before Mom cut her off with a growl.

"What have I told you about meeting with him when I am not home?" Sister hung her head low as Mom turned on me next, Sister's submission apparently satisfaction that she had gotten that point across too.

"Did your instincts not tell you to run when you saw the human garbed in metal?" My throat had dried up on me, surprisingly enough since I'm a water type in my own environmnet, as I tried to word out a sort of explanation. "No, I guess not," Mom sighed, my lack of a quick response being her answer, turning her back to both of us, "you two are to stay in this den until further notice. Someday, your lack of pokémon instinct is going to lead to your death!"

I cringed as she stormed out, the soft terrain being torn up as her claws rake them on her way into what seemed to be a hole into the wall. That comment hurt in more ways than one.

My lack of "instinct", as she had put it so many times before, made me incredibly vulnerable to over-thinking situations, or worse, thinking too long over a situation.

I couldn't help it that my mind was tuned to try to analyze situations! Although I didn't know it at the time, that was just the way I had been when I was human, and that much apparently hadn't entirely changed.

However, while Sister once tried to cheer me up about it, even she finally admitted that I would be better suited to the human realm than theirs.

Tears welling in my eyes, I was about ready to start bawling when Sister beat me to it. It was a sort of angry, yet hurt, sobbing that normally someone would try to keep concealed till they got somewhere private.

It dawned on me that Mother was likely to have a talk with Master Entei, little Entei's father, and that meant that he would get into trouble too. I hadn't realized that I was the only one in pain here until she began making that pitiful sobbing noise.

I moved to try to comfort Sister, but she glared at me, eyes brimming with wet hatred. The piercing violet eyes froze me in place, unable to even breath as she bared her teeth at me, claws raking the dirt beneath her. I would have warned her about the dangers of that, but my terror prevented me from even blinking.

Heart racing, she growled with vice, "A normal creature would have fled. But you... You just stand there and even approach looking danger in the face!" Shaking uncontrollably, I was about ready to flee, feeling the icy gaze very well piercing my soul when she placed a single paw forward.

"This is your entire fault! We would have easily gotten away with it had you not wandered off!" she angrily shouted, "Get out of my sight!"

If nothing else set me off, it was that. In terror, I fled, blindly fleeing from Sister with a single thought in mind. Run. Call it instinct, but the danger radiating from her seemed to be operating towards me, as if I was the reason she was having so much trouble.

Maybe I was, but that didn't give her the right to threaten me. Surprised by how far I had already gone, I could sense that I was running along the water again. Frightened, I fled as far as I could from the den behind, hardly hearing the splashing behind me.