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Chapter 2: Warmth
I felt something gently lick my head, awakening me from a deep sleep. I tried to snuggle deeper into the very comfy and warm chest of fur to get away from the rude tongue. A feminine voice in an amused tone said, "It seems she has taken a liking to you, Silver." I cringed away from the somewhat loud voice, keeping my eyes closed as I pressed my face further into the fur. The calm heartbeat I heard reminded me of the time I was still floating in bliss.
A different deeper voice closer to me than the first, in a whisper, said "Wake up honey, you can't just sleep this beautiful day away no matter how comfortable my fur is." After a while of me not responding and nuzzling farther into the fur it said, "I guess I could give you a little longer to sleep."
I was awake but still wanted to lay there and bask in the heat and softness of the fur. I heard whispers of the two beings that were with me but I didn't care to understand them. I was in absolute bliss. After a while of snuggling with my warm furry bed, it suddenly moved away from me. I cried in complaint, making a tiny high pitched whining sound. 'Why would my bed move when I was so comfortable.' I wondered, trying to follow blindly but failing due to my legs unable to support my weight so I shuffled forward and crawled instead. When I continued to fail to find where my warm furry bed had gone, I wondered if I could get my bed to come to me. I tried my hand at acting for the first time, as I faked shivering, hoping they would think I was cold enough for the fur to come back. It must have not been very convincing because I heard the lighter sounding voice giggle at my display and say "I don't think she's a morning pokemon. Here, put her on my stomach to feed, she can also get warm again from my body heat." I felt the skin on my back grow taunt as someone grabbed onto my scruff and lifted me up. It didn't hurt, but felt super weird as my limbs suddenly went slack, not being able to even struggle and falling completely limp under the grip.
They lifted me and set me next to a soft warm stomach. Immediately I recognised what was happening and suddenly feeling very hungry, I latched on and began suckling. Almost instantly rewarded by the same sweet warm liquid that had satisfied my hunger. A deep purring noise rumbled in my chest, telling anyone who would listen how satisfied I was.
After a while of feeding I felt the painful feeling in my stomach go away, I also didn't feel like sleeping anymore. Pushing myself away from the warm belly in front of me with my front paws, I slowly opened my eyes. The light hurt at first like it did when I first opened my eyes, but this time I was prepared for it and blinked a few times, my eyes were now able to handle the light. The first thing I saw was a giant creature, who was many times my height, laying down on it's side right in front of me and showing its belly to me. I let out a startled yelp before I realized it was who just fed me and calmed down.
The one laying down on their side got up and stretched their back in a large arc before joining the other one who was already sitting upright. They both smiled lovingly at me. For some reason I felt a warm feeling in my chest when I looked at them, I felt safe, like I could depend on them for anything.
This is when the higher pitched of the two started talking to me, "I believe we have yet to introduce ourselves. I am your mommy, Petal, and this is your daddy, Silver." She gestured to the other giant fox sitting next to her and just smiling at her.
"Mommy…. and Daddy….?" I ask, testing the words. The amount of love that I felt when I was looking at them was overwhelming. 'I feel happy just being near them.' I thought, a smile of my own appearing on my face. I felt like I needed to be nearer to them, so I tried to crawl closer as they were sitting a little ways away.
"Yes we are, we are very proud to have a daughter like you." Dad said absolutely beaming. He walked over and put his tails around me protectively before he continued, "I'm not sure if you heard when you were awake yesterday, but we have already decided on a name for you. Your name is Astra, which according to your mother means 'the stars'." He finished waiting for a reaction.
'Astra huh, I don't know what stars are, but I like it.' I nodded at him. Curious about the things I was named after I asked "What are stars?"
"Oh right, you wouldn't know that." Dad said, looking panicked for some reason. "I wouldn't do the stars justice by trying to explain what they look like, so I will wait until night to show you. Let me talk with your mother for a moment." He said as he guided Mom away from their kit to talk.
Disappointed at the lack of an answer, I couldn't help but to hear the conversation of my parents because of my sensitive hearing. With nothing else to do because of not being able to walk yet, I decided to listen in.
"Is something wrong dear?" Mom said, sounding concerned.
"I just realized how much we will have to teach Astra all by ourselves, in the clan there were instructors that would do that for kits." Dad mentioned obviously overwhelmed.
"Seriously!? That's what you're worried about? That is the least of our concerns." Said Mom confidently.
"Why would that be?" Dad questioned.
"Well we just answer any questions she has as well as tell her things that seem prevalent at the time. We don't need to rush to tell her everything we know all at once, since the thing we have most is time together. Besides, do you really want an instructor of the clan to take Astra away from us for most of the day everyday, rather than spending more time as a family and teaching her yourself?" Mom said lecturing Dad. She continued after giving dad a second to think about it. "Every vulpix that was raised in the clan was never that close to their parents, by teaching her ourselves we get to spend more time with her. You and I both hated how little time we were able to spend with our families. It was one one the reasons I wanted to live away from the clan, so Astra never has to experience the feeling of missing her family." She finished, sighing.
"I guess that makes sense, I did hate not being able to see my mom and dad that much, luckily I had you to keep me from feeling lonely." Silver agreed looking over to me, I quickly looked away and acted like I was looking around the cave instead of being focused on their conversation. I couldn't see his face to see if my acting had worked or not though.
They ended their conversation and came back towards me, unable to hold my curiosity I asked "What's the clan?"
Dad looked at me and in an accusatory tone and sly smile said, "So you were listening to our conversation. I thought I saw you staring at us."
At the tone of his voice I realized I was in trouble and felt ashamed. Pressing my ears against my head and lowering my head so it was pressing against my chest in an attempt to look smaller and avoid his glare, I looked at my Dad.
He sighed and said, "I just can't be mad at you, you're too cute. It's not like we were talking very quietly anyway, but just so you know in the future, listening in on other people's conversations is rude, okay?"
I nodded, relieved that he wasn't mad anymore and returned to a more comfortable lying position.
"Anyway…" Mom said, interrupting the situation. "To answer your question, the clan is a very large group of vulpix and ninetales." I must have looked confused because she said, "Ninetales are what me and your father are and you are a vulpix. A vulpix is a younger form of a ninetales, so one day when you get old enough we will take you to be changed into a ninetales. So back to the original question, me and your father were both raised in the clan and are still members of it, but we decided to live outside the clan for reasons of our own." She paused, seemed to remember something, and added "Speaking of which in the next few days we will have to introduce you to the clan, I completely forgot!"
Dad looked flustered and said "Dang it, I was hoping to spend more time with Astra before we had to go! It takes a little more than a day to travel back to the clan! We will have to start the journey tomorrow in order not to be yelled at by the elder for waiting so long to tell them about our child!"
After their realization they started running in and out of the cave, though they always made sure that one of them stayed with me, mostly Mom. As we cuddled, I asked what they were doing. She said that since they had to be away from here for a few days that they had to mark their territory so another pokemon didn't move in while we were gone. I was amused by the way Dad rushed throughout the cave and traveled in and out of the entrance.
Me and Mom did many things together while dad was preparing. She taught me how to groom myself, to which she was very thorough, not stopping until I was completely clean. She told me about how she and my father met and also about the strict rules of the clan, which was the reason they left apparently.
Mom also made me try standing over and over again. I collapsed every time, by the end of the day I was tired, my legs hurt, and I was very vocal about my complaining. I was panting, my mouth felt dry and my fur was clinging to my body uncomfortably. Mom started to look a little worried like she wanted to stop, but instead she said "I'm sorry, but try standing again, I want you to be able to walk before we get to the clan."
I just wanted to rest, but I felt like she wouldn't let me until I could stand. With the last of my energy, I used my tired and strained legs to slowly push my body off the ground. I was determined to get it right so I could stop and rest. Focusing, I kept my legs bent while I balanced myself, when I felt steady enough I straightened them. I stood there in my full unimpressive height. After a few seconds I yelped in panic as I felt my legs give out beneath me and I collapsed in a heap. Mom let out a yelp of joy saying "Great job honey! That's enough progress today, I know how tired you are. Just make sure you memorize how you did that."
My legs were burning with pain to the point where they felt numb. "I can't move or feel my legs!" I exclaimed, too tired to even panic.
Mom looked concerned and nuzzled my legs, she saw my legs muscles twitch and spasm. "Oh that doesn't look good." She licked my legs and asked, "Can you feel that?" When I said no she exlaimed, "I'm so stupid! I overestimated how much your legs could handle, there may even be torn muscles and right before we go to the clan too!" Mom berated herself. She noticed me staring at her and said "You just rest, I'm so sorry for not listening to your complaints, I should have stopped after a few attempts. What came over me?" She looked distressed with a worried look on her face.
That's when dad came in after finally finishing whatever he was doing. Seeing his love distressed and me on the ground panting hard with my legs sprawled out to the side slightly twitching from muscle spasms, he came over to us quickly. "What could have possibly happened?" Dad said concerned but a little angry at seeing me in pain. "I thought you were watching her!"
"I was trying to get her to stand and be able to play with the other vulpix when we got to the clan, but I pushed her too hard and might have hurt her legs, I didn't mean to." She started crying.
"Did you forget how small and weak she was! You didn't even tell me you were doing this! If anything bad happens we are a full day away from the clan, she could die before we would be able to get help!" He shouted now visibly angrier knowing my own mother did this to me. I felt the cave get way hotter all of a sudden.
"I wanted to surprise you, I know I shouldn't have pushed her that hard now, but the prediction made me forget how weak she was, I don't think her legs are permanently damaged. I'm so sorry!" She cried.
Dad must've known she didn't mean to hurt me because he calmed a little bit, the air cooled as well. "The information that the owl told us only said that she couldn't die from sickness, not that she couldn't get sick, get permanently damaged, or die from any other way. When she is little more than half the size of a normal vulpix of her age you can't just expect her to be able to walk at the same time they would be able to!" He shouted, still considerably angry.
I couldn't help but feel scared as Dad yelled at Mom along with him mentioning me dying. I started to shiver and cough before giving in to my exhaustion and falling unconscious.
-000-
Upon hearing a coughing sound behind him Silver froze, his anger flooding him a look of horror quickly adorning both his and Petal's faces as they looked towards a shivering heap of fur.
Astra was alone just outside the nest on the cold stone floor of the cave. Her parents, who were only focused on each other, completely forgot about their tiny exhausted kit. She seemed to be unconscious but that didn't stop a coughing fit from shaking her body.
Silver without a moment's hesitation ran over to Astra. He picked her up, laid her on the nest, and completely covered every part of her with his fur. "She is way colder than she needs to be, I will warm her up. You go see if you can find an oran berry." He commanded as he increased his body heat so high that it would hurt a non-fire type to touch him.
Instantly Petal ran out of the cave, she already had an idea of where one was and quickly returned, finding her home to be super-heated. She went inside the cave and pierced the berry with her claw. Carefully with the help of her mate, they drained the juices of the oran berry into Astra's mouth hoping to give her body enough energy to fight the sickness. All of their pelts became sticky with the juices that didn't make it inside Astra's mouth but they didn't care. "That's all we can do for her other than keeping her warm." Petal said.
"I think she will be fine, luckily this doesn't seem to be anything more than a cold. Her body temperature is already heating back to normal." He sighed and continued saying "I'm sorry I yelled at you. I know how much you love her and that you're probably still beating yourself up about what happened. I myself am partly to blame, rather than worrying about Astra and helping her, I lost my temper at you, distracting you from also helping her."
"I deserved to be yelled at for what I did, I'm obviously not ready to be a mother. I hurt her, what mother hurts their own kit. She was complaining, shaking with exhaustion, and panting hard. Even with all of these signs that I should have stopped, I made her keep going. Not even a couple days have passed since she hatched and she's already sick." Petal said dejectedly.
Quiet filled the room other than the raspy breathing of Astra. Silver couldn't really argue, he knew what Petal said was somewhat true. He himself still didn't feel like he could fully protect his kit like he was supposed to. Astra only had him and Petal to look after her, but what if they weren't good enough, they had already failed her once. What if it was a mistake to not be helped by the clan, no one else was here to correct their mistakes. He couldn't help but feel terrible stress and helplessness, Astra becoming sick only reinforced those feelings.
Night passed into morning and morning passed into night again. They both hadn't slept, heating Astra so her body heat never decreased. They had to constantly focus their fire cores to increase their body heat, this not only took constant concentration but also energy, it was no surprise that they were tired. Their work paid off however, as Astra started breathing normally and could retain her own body heat just before nightfall.
After Astra stopped being sick, both ninetales stopped caring how it happened and just felt relieved. Astra was safe and neither of them would make the same mistakes again, that was all that mattered to them.
"Even if Astra just got over the sickness we still need to go to the clan tomorrow, we are already late. I will carry her in the neck fur on my back to let her rest all the way there." Silver said cuddling with his family.
Reluctantly Petal agreed, "Yeah, when we get there we could get the healers to see if there is anything wrong with Astra. We should have come back and told the clan I was expecting a kit when I was pregnant, like other ninetales who live outside the clan do. You know our parents will be pissed at us, they don't even know we have a kit yet and we almost got her killed."
"They don't need to know that last part, if they did they would never let us bring Astra outside of the clan again." Silver chuckled remembering his parents. "There is one thing I can't wait to see in the clan though. Imagine how jealous everyone will be with how beautiful our kit is. I will have to keep the older male vulpix from tackling her."
"None of the vulpix are old enough to think about those things dear, it's their parents you have to worry about. When they see her beauty they might try to betroth their sons to her." Petal jokes, a little hysterical from the lack of sleep. "Anyways, we need sleep if we have to travel so far tomorrow." She said looking for an excuse to fall asleep.
Silver agreed, being just as tired as her. They curled up tighter together with Astra between them and passed out.
-0-
Waking up and opening my eyes, I was met with complete darkness. I felt fur all around me and was unimaginably warm and cozy. Weirdly my body felt sore, my legs and neck felt super stiff. I also was completely unable to move, usually when I woke I felt like going to sleep again, especially if I was this comfortable, but unlike the mornings before I felt completely awake. After a seemingly long while of not being able to move or go back to sleep, boredom was starting to creep into me. I listened to the noises around me and heard two seperate sets of breathing and heartbeats, I sighed realizing where I was. Mom and Dad had me squeezed in between them, there was nothing I could really do as I couldn't even lift my own weight let alone my two parents who were several sizes larger than me each. I started struggling and crying out anyway, my voice seemed muffled to even my own ears, there was no way it was going to wake them and my movement did nothing either. I sighed again and decided to just enjoy the comfort of my parents, I wasn't able to do anything else anyway.
After what felt like all day to me and I started to notice just how hungry I was. It felt like my belly was trying to devour itself, the comfort evaporated as all I could feel was pain. 'Why do I feel this hungry? I felt stuffed when I went to sleep, which should have only been last night.' I was getting a little panicked and irritated, so my mind started drifting towards more devious ways to get free. One of these ideas I decided was the best course of action, I bit the fox that was closest to my mouth. Sadly, I forgot I lacked teeth and all I got was a huge clump of fur in my mouth as I gummed my parents. I was starting to feel a little desperate and nauseated, when I noticed a pressure near the end of my body. I think my parents said this feeling was the need to pee and they made me relieve the pressure in the very corner of the cave. This time however there was no way to get to the corner or warn my parents, so unable to hold it, I relieved myself right there.
Both Mom and Dad jumped away quicker than I thought possible after feeling sudden warm wetness seeping into their fur. After realizing what happened they were not pleased. I felt ashamed at what I did as they glared at me. They calmed down after I explained that I needed to go but was stuck in between them. I also told them about the extreme hunger.
While I was feeding, I heard their conversation "We really can't be mad at her, she was asleep for a whole day and two nights no wonder she would be starving and in need to go." Mom said trying to clean herself and me while not disturbing my nursing. 'Wait, I was asleep for a whole day?' I thought, confused. 'I guess that explains why I was so hungry.'
"Oh well, it will take a while to clean this up, so we will probably start our journey later than we wanted to. We will also have to sleep in the wild because of it, hopefully we can find somewhere safe along the way." Dad said, also cleaning his not-so-clean-anymore fur as well with a grimace on his face.
After I felt better and the mess was cleaned up, Mom lifted me up and put me on Dad's upper back in the fluffy part of his fur. We apearently were now going to the clan Mom had told me about because I needed to be recognised as a new member or something. I didn't exactly get it, but I was excited to finally see the outside which I only previously got small glimpses of.
Dad carried me through the entrance of the cave and into the outside world. Upon going outside the first thing I noticed was the amazing scent of the bushes and trees which smelled way fresher than the stuffy cave. The tree's leaves were a bright orange color and were on the ground as well as the branches. There was so much color everywhere, a mix of oranges, greens, and browns. It was beautiful, I couldn't have gotten rid of the smile on my face, even if I wanted to. There was a warm feeling on my whole back, I looked up to see where the heat was coming from and looked straight into a bright yellow ball surrounded by blue. When I looked directly at the bright light it immediately hurt my eyes and I quickly closed them. "What's the bright light that hurts my eyes?" I asked in pain.
Mom looked at me, seeing my eyes shut tight, she giggled "That's called the sun dear, it sits in the blue sky and lights up the world during the day. As you might have learned, it's a bad idea to look at it. The sun will eventually go down and the moon will come out along with the stars." She explained.
I was in awe at the knowledge that was just given to me "That's amazing!" I exclaimed.
Silver laughed after hearing my excited voice "Speaking of stars, I promised to show you them two days ago. I will do that tonight when we rest for the night.
They continued walking with me on Dad's back, out of the clearing that held our cave following the stream. We walked like that all throughout the day. Countless trees and bushes passed us on our journey. My parents told me about the many pokemon we passed on our way, just when I thought there could be no more types of pokemon, a new kind always shows up. Dad pointed out which pokemon were best for hunting and eating. They told me about usable plants and berries as well. Mom told me that most of the trees in the forest were maple trees.
I soaked in all of the information they could tell me and asked many questions. The forest outside the cave was way bigger and more beautiful than I ever imagined, better than the gray walls of the cave that I had been staring at for the past couple of days. I never felt bored as I tried to look at every passing object and pokemon along the way, almost falling off a few times as I leaned to look at something. My parents chided me to be careful a couple of times but seemed amused nonetheless.
Everything was peaceful and quiet. Most of the pokemon we went past seemed to want nothing to do with us and hid when they sensed us coming. Some pokemon who didn't seem scared of us, like pokemon who were in the water, smiled and waved at us. A few of the friendly pokemon saw me on my Dad's back and made funny faces at me, which made me giggle.
After a long time of walking Dad said "It is getting close to dusk, we should find somewhere to rest." Before I could ask, he added "Dusk is the time in the day when the sun starts to disappear and it becomes night. When it becomes night, pokemon who sleep during the day come out, we call these nocturnal pokemon." Dad always sounded enthusiastic when he explained something new to me.
I looked at the sun, squinting my eyes this time to see the time myself. Before, when I looked it was near the center of the sky, but now it was close to the tops of the trees like you could walk to it.
"Does the sun have a cave where it falls asleep as well?" I asked.
"No, it only looks like the sun will touch the earth because the earth is spinning, so the sun disappears when our part of the world is facing away from the sun. The sun in fact is very far away from the earth but it is so big that you can still see it from far away." Dad explained.
I must've looked as confused as I felt because Mom said "This topic might be too complex for you to understand, so I will teach you more about space when you are older." I was a little sad that I couldn't learn about it, but quickly got over it.
While they were looking for a place to sleep for the night, an angry pokemon found us. A four-legged pokemon with mainly gray fur but also long black shaggy fur on their back and covering their big fluffy tail. Their eyes were a piercing red, kind of like mom's and dad's eyes but had yellow surrounding their pupils instead of white. Dad whispered so the pokemon couldn't hear, "That pokemon is called a mightyena, they usually fight in a pack."
The mightyena growled scarily at us, my fur stood on end, making me look like a tiny silver puffball. The lone mightyena spoke angrily "You are trespassing in our territory!" The seemingly male mightyena growled.
"We don't want any trouble, we are just passing through to the ninetales territories. I wouldn't bring my kit if I was trying to take territory from you." Dad said calmly, trying to reassure the mightyena.
"No, I don't think you would, but my pack is hungry and as I see it there are two meals and a snack in our territory." The mightyena grinned evilly showing his sharp teeth. He then crouched down in a fighting stance.
"You fight him, I will guard Astra.'' Dad whispered to Mom.
Mom nodded and took a similar stance. She growled raising all nine of her tails and puffing out her fur, she looked way bigger than before. Her eyes turned completely red as her body heated up. "You think a lone pack pokemon can threaten my family!" She growled through her teeth. "You are not going to live for daring to scare my daughter!" Mom said, seeming extremely angry.
Fear took hold of my mind, not from the mightyena but from Mom, I had never seen her like this. She looked almost twice the size of Dad. I started shaking, shrinking down but still able to peek over Dad's head.
My father felt me shaking on his back, whispering "Don't worry Astra, your mother will be fine, I haven't seen her this angry for a long time. She will end this quickly." He must've realized I was not scared of the battle, but of Mom because he continued "Petal would never harm a hair on your head, you have no need to be scared of her. She is only like this because she is scared you will get hurt."
I relaxed a little, a bit of my senses coming back to me at his words. 'He's right, mom would never hurt me, she loves me and I love her!' I decided to pay more attention to what was happening.
The mightyena looks a little startled from the sudden display of intimidation from the fiery fox. Instead of running away like I thought he would, he dashed forward towards Mom. Mom took a second to breathe in deeply and shot what looked like a ball of fire from her mouth, shooting at the mightyena with a somewhat fast speed.
The mightyena had to stop running so he could jump to the side, narrowly dodging the attack. He continued running so Mom shot another fireball at him, he dodged a second time getting a little burnt on his side. This little burn didn't seem to matter as he was too close to Mom. He opened his mouth and Mom tried to dodge but was unsuccessful. The mightyena's teeth turned pitch back as he clamped down on Mom's chest
"Noooo!" I screamed and Dad tried to calm me down, but I was still putting all of my attention into the battle.
Mom yowled in pain and anger. Hearing my scream seemed to make her confidence grow as she said through a growl, "Now it's my turn!"
Mom opened her mouth and a continuous stream of the most beautiful orange flame I had ever seen went point blank onto the mightyena's body. The mightyena tried to unclamp his teeth and run but it was too late, by the time he removed his teeth two moments of continuous flame danced across his body enveloping every part of him. He didn't seem to be able to move as he was still there after four moments had passed. After the fifth and final moment of the attack his body collapsed in a smoking heap.
After shaking the beautiful image of the attack from my head, I saw what the flame had left behind. A body lay on the ground unmoving and unrecognizable as most of his fur was burned off revealing burned skin underneath. His eyes were closed but he was still breathing in shaky breaths, the most pained expression was plastered on his unconscious face. I gazed on the body in horror before Dad saw what I was staring at and used his body to impede my gaze. My stomach seemed to roll as a little of my breakfast came up into the back of my throat, I gagged a little.
Mom looked dazed, a little blood leaking from the bite wound. She said "There I won, though I put too much energy into that attack, so I feel a little dizzy." She slumped a little, her form losing the size she used to intimidate her opponent.
"Good job, though you could have been more careful. You know more moves than only attacking ones. If you had put more thought into that battle you could have won without injury. Hold still I'll clean your wound" He told her as he leaned down and started to lick the shallow holes in Mom's chest.
"I know, I should have used a confuse ray while he was running at me to make him stumble. I just was so angry, him threatening Astra made my blood boil. Speaking of boiling blood." She said as she looked at the charred body.
"I don't think he will live for that long without help. True you went a little overboard, but he brought this upon himself. We don't have time to help him as more of his pack might discover us, so we will leave him to whatever fate Celebi has foreseen for him. We need to get out of this territory." Dad said after cleaning the blood from Mom's fur, sounding solemn. The bite wound seemed to have already stopped bleeding.
Mom agreed and they started moving again. After they left that territory and continued searching for a place to stay, as it was even darker now, I asked Dad "Can you teach me to use that amazing fire like Mom did?"
He laughed and said "Well I'm glad you aren't too shaken up by your first encounter with fighting." I remembered the body and shivered. He noticed and stopped smiling saying "Sorry, it was a pretty gruesome sight, I didn't mean to remind you. To answer your question, yes we will. Before we do though you will have to get a lot older. Many young vulpix who learn how to use fire too early tend to burn something or someone they love. Not to mention young vulpix don't have enough energy to use fire attacks, it's possible that it could be fatal to use fire attacks too early. We will teach you some more basic moves like tackle when you can walk and jump without difficulty."
I felt disappointed, I just couldn't get the dazzling attack out of my head as the scene replayed over and over again in my mind. I wished to be able to use that power and see what it looked like whenever I wanted.
I decided if Dad wasn't going to teach me I would try to use it without help, so what if I wasn't supposed to? I closed my eyes.
I looked inside myself with a burning desire. Even with my determination though, I wasn't sure what I was looking for. 'What does it feel like to make fire?' I wondered. After what felt like forever looking inside myself for something that might or might not happen, I began to grow frustrated. I almost gave up but I decided to keep going. What seemed to be another eternity looking and I was still determined, but something had happened this time.
I felt the tiniest spark in my chest, so small I almost discarded the feeling, but I didn't. 'It's small, but it's still something.' I thought as I latched on to it. It seemed to try to slip away from my grasp, fleeing from me as fast as it could. I almost screamed out loud as it escaped.
I just knew this had to be the way to produce that attack. There was just the tiniest hint of warmth in my chest when I was fully focused on the spark. It almost felt exactly like how love felt, but different somehow. The possibility to fill my chest with that amazing feeling of warmth made me immediately try to find it again.
It didn't take as long as the first time to find the spark, knowing what I was trying to feel helped a lot. Before I acted to try to capture it this time however, I readied my mind. I knew that it was going to try to escape. 'This time I will catch you!' I shouted in my mind at the spark, focusing my will onto it again. It tried to escape as it did before, but this time I fully enclosed it in an imaginary prison with my will. It seems to bang against the walls of the prison for a while before it stills. 'I won!'
It stopped moving, no longer trying to get away, it was completely under my control. In fact, it had stopped doing anything, still the tiny spark that it always had been. 'Now what?'I pondered. It still seemed to be warming my chest with a nice feeling, but getting this feeling wasn't my goal. There was no way this puny spark could ever match the great but deadly flame I saw in the battle. I thought about this for some time.
'What did my spark need to grow stronger?'I thought to myself after doing the most thinking I had ever done in my life. 'Wait, fire needs fuel to grow, what if my spark is the same!' Excitement rushed through me as I came to a conclusion that made sense. 'Now what to fuel it with? Mom seemed rather tired after using that attack, so maybe my energy itself?'Thinking this was as good of a thought as any, I tried it. Using the most energy I could muster I willed the spark to grow and grow and it worked. It burst into an actual fire! Instead of just my chest holding this warmth, my whole body grew in heat. As this happened my mind grew sluggish from lack of energy, I had a strange feeling I was going to fall asleep soon. 'I need to reach my goal before I lose it!' I thought desperately. I opened both my mouth and my eyes and tried to expel the heat though my mouth and…. nothing came out. Darkness consumed me.
-000-
After Astra had asked how to use fire attacks, she just laid down. Silver thought it was strange she didn't insist like all vulpix did when they refused to be taught. Petal confirmed that Astra's eyes were closed. "Huh, she must've been more sleepy than I thought." He thought out loud to himself.
After searching for a little while longer they found a large tree that leans more to one side, sheltering the ground underneath it from the elements. It's large roots also blocked pokemon from seeing them and acted as a windbreak. It was too dark already and they were unlikely to find anything better, so they settled there.
Astra still needed to be fed so Petal gently lifted her off of Silver's back and set her down next to her own belly. Astra didn't stir at all, when placed she remained in the position she was placed in, her eyes still closed.
Silver guessed that it was possible that she was still asleep, poked her with his paw, still no response. Starting to feel a little concerned he nudged harder and said "Astra wake up!" No response, his nudging only accomplished pushing her onto her side. Silver's breathing increased, sickness and now this a day after, this can't be coincidence.
"She just won't wake up!" Silver exclaimed.
"What, no!" Petal gasped
They started panicking, trying a number of things to wake her. This included grooming her, yelling at her to wake up, warming her with their bodies, and even more nudging. After trying everything their panic changed to sadness. Astra couldn't seem to get one day where she wasn't injured in some way. If she stayed in this coma they would have to take her to the healers and if they couldn't help then she would wither away.
Just as they were about to give up hope about her waking normally, her body started to heat up to an extreme degree. This was not something a young vulpix could just do. It only meant one thing.
Before they could do anything she opened her eyes, they were completely red and seemed to be glowing. Astra opened her mouth and exhaled like she was going to breathe fire, to Silver's relief however she expelled nothing and collapsed.
"Did she just….?" Petal asked, staring at her child and blinking rapidly, as if not believing what she saw.
"It's the only way for her to have increased her body heat high enough to make her eyes glow red, there's no mistaking it." Silver said, completely shocked. "Astra figured out how to control her core, without any instruction even!"
"She is only a few days old and can't even walk yet!" Petal exclaimed "If she did access her core then she is probably the youngest vulpix to ever do so."
For a pokemon finding how to control their powers was not an easy feat. Usually they would be told what to look for and how to control it by their parents, even then it still usually took days to access for the first time.
Silver and Petal both knew, since Astra found it for the first time and used it, it would be considerably easier to use her core when she looked again. Astra was going to be trouble.
"We should wake her up, she still has to eat, after not eating all of yesterday she shouldn't miss another meal. Oh and make sure to act mad at her, as impressive as it is she still went against my orders. She could have gotten hurt, we need to punish her so she doesn't try something like this again." Silver said, nudging Astra, this time she stirred a little.
-0-
I woke up and Mom had me eat, getting rid of the hunger I hadn't realized was there. I was super ecstatic after using my core, my parents made sure that didn't last though. After finishing my nursing, Mom got up and joined Dad, sitting next to each other with the same scary look on their faces. I knew something was wrong and felt apprehensive backing a little away from them. Dad blocked me with his tails.
"We know what you did Astra!" Dad said in an angry tone. 'Oh no', I thought, looking scared. "I told you, you are too young to learn fire moves and what did you do?" He asked and when I didn't supply an answer he continued "You went and tried anyway! When you tried to control your power you collapsed from lack of energy. The last time you passed out from exhaustion, you got sick and were asleep for two days! You know how worried you made us!"
At this point I was crying, tears dripping down my face with my ears back. I tried to explain myself in a shaky voice "I didn't know, I just wanted to use the beautiful flames myself."
"Of course you didn't know, you are too young to know! If you didn't know, why did you think that you knew better than me and disobeyed me? After I taught you so much already, don't you think I had a reason for not teaching you this one thing!" Dad was getting louder with every point he shouted at me.
Mom rested a paw on his shoulder, Dad seemed to calm down a little and in the saddest voice I ever heard from him said "I didn't know what was happening to you, I thought you would never wake up again." He seemed to lose the composure he had held when angry.
Mom took over talking to me, "That being said, we have decided to punish you." She paused looking at Dad's saddened form and continued "You are not to use or even think about your core until we decide to start teaching you fire moves."
The thought of not being able to access that wonderful feeling again horrified me. I tried to argue but Mom interrupted me before I could get a word out, "That decision is final! There is a chance you can kill yourself by using to much energy, we cannot take that risk." She said with a stern voice.
Dad seemed to regain his lost composure and added "Do not think you can use it in secret, if you even touch your core with your mind, we will know and you will get a punishment far worse than this! We are also not letting you out of our sight when we get to the clan, we can't have you instructing other vulpix and causing trouble."
When they were done yelling at me, I was a mess, I was shaking and crying. A mix of fear, sadness, and shame clouding my face. I knew there was no talking back or argument that was going to sway them. They were visibly mad at me and I truly felt sorry for what I had done. I could not go against their punishment, I knew they would carry out their threat if I disobeyed.
After getting that out of the way they came over and comforted me. "We only do this because we love you, you know that right?" Dad asked, a little worried that he went too far. I nodded and he looked relieved.
It took me a little while to calm from my hysterics, but I eventually settled down. Mom after cooing at me to settle me down said "I think it's about time to finally show her the stars. Becoming a little excited at the mention of the subject that they left me curious about, I looked at Dad enthusiastically.
"Okay, it wasn't my fault she got sick and couldn't see the stars." He picked me up and started moving out from under the leaning tree. Even though it was dark, I could still see fairly well. He then put me on the ground, told me to lay on my side and look up. I looked up to see a pitch black sky, but blackness wasn't the only thing I saw. Countless white dots were peppered throughout the blackness, there was also a giant white ball that was way bigger than the dots. All of the shapes seemed to be shining brilliantly. I stared up in awe, my mouth slightly agape.
Dad and Mom also looked up, we stayed like that for a little while in silence, just watching the tiny lights in the sky. Suddenly Dad spoke up, "Those tiny shining lights are what we call stars and what we named you after. The stars are actually each bigger than the world we live in, but they are so far away that they just look like little dots to us. The sun is a star as well, just closer than the rest of the stars. They are able to shine even when everything around them is dark, giving light to everything. You Astra, are our star in the darkness." I looked at the stars with newfound amazement. I couldn't believe they had decided I was good enough to be named after such a beautiful thing. The remaining bitterness filling my heart from the argument melted away. Dad continued "That big white round shape is the moon, it appears every night and lights up the night. The moon changes forms every night. It cycles between a fully lit up moon, which we call a full moon, and disappearing when the moon is completely dark, which we call a new moon, every 30 or so nights. This is how we tell time." He finished his explanation and it was quiet again.
Dad told me stories about legendaries and how the world was made. He told me about how Arceus was the first and had created the other legendaries to help make everything. How Mew created all living beings, Pulkia to govern space, Dialga to govern time, and many more important pokemon. I listened with rapt attention, taking in every word like it was a treasure. He continued telling stories like that a while before I started to feel sleepy.
Noticing me start to nod off my parents carried me back into their makeshift shelter. They set me down, curled up together with me in the center, and kissed me goodnight. The last thought that drifted lazily in my mind was 'So warm.'I purred before I drifted off to sleep.
Chapter End