Ad Astra

by AspenJoy

A young vulpix enjoys a peaceful and playful life with her parents. All she wishes to do is live with her family and friends but life had a different route in store for her. Pokemon POV. Raised to T for safety.

4. Chapter 3

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Chapter 3: The Clan

I was slowly roused from my peaceful dream filled sleep by someone grooming me. I felt so tired, I wanted to go back to chasing the butterfree and using my own flames in my dreams. My parents, however, were already prepared for my awakening grumpiness this time. Mom had positioned her stomach right in front of me, so when I woke up I was imminently reminded of my hunger and started nursing right away.

After I was done feeding I looked around, no longer tired. There was the burnt remains of what Dad explained before was a rattata, he said it was a pokemon that they ate frequently. He told me that when I grew teeth, I would start eating them as well. It did look kind of appetizing. Even though I liked the taste of my current method of eating, I was curious about how it tasted.

I looked around more and noticed the moon and stars were gone from the sky and it was no longer dark. Instead there were gray puffy looking things blocking out the blue sky and sun I saw before. "What are those?" I asked motioning to the things blocking the sky.

"Those are clouds, they hold water that sometimes falls down onto the world, we call this rain. By the looks of it, it's going to rain today. We should try to get to the clan before it starts, I don't really want you getting wet." Silver explained. "But first I want you to try to walk again, I think your legs are healed and possibly more developed from the last time you tried and you should be able to walk before you enter the clan. We don't want the other vulpix to have a reason to insult you." Silver said.

I sighed, remembering the exhaustion and pain from the last time I tried. Though the memory of how great it felt to be able to run after the butterfree in my dream excited me, so I didn't complain. I knew I couldn't ride on my parents back for the rest of my life. Preparing myself and thinking back to my only successful attempt, I got ready. Positioning my legs under me, I steadily raised myself onto my still bent legs. As I tried to unbend my legs too fast however. Not completely balanced like I should have been when I unbent my legs, I started to tip. I tried scrambling to regain balance before ungracefully falling on my face with my rear still comically up in the air. Embarrassed by the weird position I had ended up in, I scrambled back into a lying position and looked back at my parents. Thankfully they weren't laughing or making fun of me, they just reassured me, encouraging me to try again. After taking a little while to regain my composure, I tried again. I did the same thing as my last attempt, but this time I bent my legs for longer, making sure I was completely balanced before straightening them. Surprisingly, I succeeded this time standing at my full unimpressive height for the second time. I yelled in triumph and my parents complimented my strength. Unlike the last time I stood, my legs felt like they could support my weight, like I could stand all day.

"Okay now that you're standing, try walking, your body should know what to do. Make sure not to overthink it, just lean forward and start with your first step."

I didn't really believe Dad, even if he knew how to walk and I didn't. I highly doubted my body would know how to walk when I hadn't ever done it before. Grumbling about how I was just going to fall down, I took my first step forward. Carefully raising my front right leg to not lose my balance I moved it forward and placed it on the ground in front of me. Unconsciously my rear left leg lifted and tried to move forward when I was about to place my right paw down. As soon as I realized another one of my legs was off the ground I panicked. With only two legs left touching the ground I felt horribly unbalanced, slightly tipping forward. I imminently slammed both lifted paws to the ground as I tried to desperately regain my lost balance. Stumbling, I somehow stayed standing.

I heard laughing and I glared angrily at my Dad, upon seeing me he stopped and said "Sorry, you almost had it. As I told you, your body knows what to do. When you command your body to walk forward it will walk on its own. It would be really distracting if you had to constantly think about how to move all four of your legs so you walked correctly. If you had to think about it you would probably not be able to fight or hunt well. It's kind of like breathing, your brain manages the action of breathing in and out constantly in the background, so you don't have to think about it."

'It sort of makes sense.' I thought. I don't think about breathing, my body does it for me. Annoyingly, as soon as I thought about breathing my body stopped breathing automatically and I had to breathe in and out on my own. 'Stupid brain!'

After calming down from my breathing dilemma, I tried walking again. When my legs automatically moved as I walked forward, I forced my panic down instead of acting on it. This time I succeeded and walked a few strides forward. I noticed the pattern my body used and quickly got used to it. After a little bit of continuous walking, I stopped and sat down. Mom and Dad congratulated me and I felt proud.

"Okay, that is enough progress for now. We will wait for you to have a few days practice walking before we teach you to run. We should get going if we want to get to the clan before it starts raining." Mom said.

Dad picked me up and put me on Mom's back. They started walking at a faster pace than yesterday. They still took time to explain things I didn't know which helped pass the time. New pokemon pushing their heads out of the bushes to peek at us. I saw a butterfree in the sky and wanted to chase it like I did in my dream, but it was too high up. When I looked up at the butterfree I also noticed several types of bird pokemon in the tree branches watching us. One of these birds was a pidgey, which was one of the pokemon my dad told me about before. This pidgey in particular had caught my attention, it had piercing blue eyes. When it saw that I had noticed it, it smiled at me and waved a wing. I looked away toward dad and said, "Hey dad there's a weird blue eyed pidgey in that tree." He looked towards the tree I was pointing my nose at, but when I looked back to where the pidgey was, it was gone. "It was there, I swear!" I shouted

"I believe you Astra, it must have left after realizing you were telling me about it. Pidgeys, after all, are part of our diet sometimes." He said, trying to calm me. "What's with all of these blue eyed pokemon, I wonder if it means something." He mumbled to himself.

My parents continued walking for the rest of the morning until they came upon a wall of pine trees that looked strange compared to the rest of the forest. Each tree was weirdly close to each other, there was also another layer of trees behind the first. Both of these details made the trees into a rather perfect wall that I couldn't see past. A dense patch of green bushes and foliage was both in front and in between the trees. Mom and Dad stopped right before the bushes and sat down. A male voice came from the bush and made me jump at the sudden noise. It said "Who are you and why do you want inside the clan grounds?"

Silver replied calmly like he was expecting this, "I am Silver and this is my mate Petal, we are members of the clan that live outside it. We are here to introduce our kit into the clan." As soon as he was done speaking there was rustling in the bushes and then silence.

After a while of waiting in silence there was more rustling and the voice came back. He said "Welcome back Silver and Petal, you are allowed to enter."

They sat up, crouched down, and crawled through an opening in the bushes. I had to burrow further into Mom's fur to not be swept off her back by the leaves of the bush. After a few moments of crawling we were through and I looked at the most amazing sight I had ever seen.

A massive clearing spread out in front of them covered in grass and leaves. Around the clearing was the same wall of pine trees that I saw outside. Just before the wall all around the outside of the clearing are numerous holes which had vulpix and ninetales going in and out of some of them. These details were not what caught my attention however.

In the center of the absolute gigantic clearing was a tree. It was no normal tree, first of all it was the biggest tree I had ever seen, in fact it was bigger than anything I had yet to see. Its trunk was as thick as twenty full grown trees combined, the roots appearing from the trunk burrowed deep into the ground. Very high up on this supertree, multitudes of branches sprouted, so long that they covered the entirety of the clearing and so dense that no rain got through.

Its size was impressive but that detail of the tree was not what amazed me the most. Unlike any other trees, the whole tree's color was that of a sooty black. Its leaves which were on the branches were an orangish red and looked like they were glowing almost like they were on fire constantly. The leaves that had fallen to the ground were of the same color but they seemed to lose the glowing effect. Multiple cracks snaked along the whole length of the trunk splitting the black wood. Inside the cracks a red light illuminated out, lighting up the whole tree in a sinister red light. The light inside seemed to pulse and flicker like there was a burning fire inside the tree. It's just as beautiful as Mom's flames! I thought, still staring in wonder.

Managing to look away from the tree, I noticed the situation. My parents had walked a little into the clearing and stopped while I was still staring in wonder. A huge crowd of ninetales and vulpix formed a semi-circle in front of us, blocking our path. They were all staring at me, whispering to each other excitedly. I felt all of their eyes on me. My face heated up and flushed as I tried to escape their gazes by retreating deeper into Mom's fur. Dad had different plans for me, he grabbed my scruff and lifted me from Mom's back to the ground beside him. I quickly used my newfound walking skills to scramble behind Dad's front legs and peeked out. Both Mom and Dad giggled at my embarrassment, I blushed even more.

At this point a ninetales started to walk forward from the center of the crowd. This ninetales was different from the others however. It was physically bigger, still as skinny as other ninetales but its muscles were more pronounced and its whole frame was larger. White streaks of fur littered throughout the normal golden color. There were also lines where no fur was present at all in fact the skin in these lines looked discolored as well, more pinkish in color. Its tails were way longer than Mom's or Dad's own tails, they seemed to stretch out for eternity, trailing behind them as they walked forward. It's face held an excited expression, but unlike the others it's eyes, while still red, looked rather tired. I was a little scared as it continued forward, only stopping after standing directly in front of Mom and Dad. I hid even further behind my Dad's legs. "Why if it isn't the little troublemaking couple, Silver and Petal." The male said. I would have thought the male ninetales hated my parents from the words he spoke if it hadn't been for the very loving tone in his voice. "Is there a reason you haven't visited in years? Your families and friends missed you quite a lot, not to mention that you hadn't even come back to tell us that you were expecting a kit." He interrogated Dad.

Mom and Dad both seemed to shrink a little bit. Dad then spoke up, his voice a bit soft and nervous, "We just lost track of time, Elder Ashe. One thing came to another and we had a new daughter. We had a few problems with Astra's health, so we had to wait a few days after hatching to bring her." He then moved his paws away, revealing my hiding spot and pushed me forward. "May I introduce our daughter, Astra." Dad said, trying to make me the center of attention instead of himself. The tactic seemed to have worked as the elder looked at me.

"Nice to meet you, Astra. My name is Ashe and I'm the elder of this clan" He cooed softly with the same loving-sweet voice he used when he first spoke to my parents. His tone eased my nerves a little, I still couldn't get myself to speak because of the intimidating frame of the elder. I continued staring at him. The elder continued after realizing I wasn't going to speak, "I know my appearance is a tad intimidating, little one, just know I will never try to harm you."

After he finished talking, he started waiting for me to talk once again. Knowing what he was expecting from me I managed to squeak out a greeting, "Hello Elder Ashe, It's very nice to meet you." I said softly, still a little embarrassed.

"So cute and well mannered as well! I have never seen a vulpix colored as uniquely as you, much more beautiful of a color than the other strangely colored vulpix." He praised me lovingly. A thought seemed to have occurred to him because he asked Dad, "You said she had health problems?" He sounded suddenly concerned.

Petal answered, "She became somewhat sick and was asleep for one day and two nights. Astra was also born a few days too early and as you can see is way smaller than other vulpix her age. She only just learned to walk this morning. We are still very frightened for her health, so we want her to be checked up on by the healers. There is also something we want to speak about in private." She looked from me to the Elder when saying this.

"Yes, I did notice her very diminutive size, I had hoped I was mistaken. She might be permanently smaller than other vulpix and even ninetales when she gets old enough to become one, if she hatched early. Even though she is not a runt, she still may get sickly often due to the lesser strength of her body. We will have the ceremony and celebration tomorrow evening, so right now you should go to the healers right away. After they give Astra a check up and you introduce her to your family, come speak to me in my burrow." The elder says before turning around and telling other clan members to not crowd us yet.

My parents didn't pick me up this time and had me follow them instead. They walked at a slower pace than they usually did, allowing me to keep up. Both Mom and Dad kept stopping to say hello to other ninetales. They also introduced me to everyone they passed, it was impossible to remember everyones' name. A pack of vulpix followed behind us trying to be sneaky, but I could hear them whispering to each other, they were probably instructed not to bother us. We slowly made our way to the other side of the clearing past the tree, which I was still curious about, but with my parents constantly talking to others, I couldn't ask.

When we finally got to our destination, across the clearing, the sun was in the center of the sky. My parents had me enter one of the holes in the ground. As I entered the large hole, my parents followed behind. Inside the hole was way bigger than I had expected, a ninetales could stand at their full size and still have room above their head. There also seemed to be a lot of room to walk around as well, it felt like the room was the opposite of cramped. Multiple piles of berries lined the edge of the room, sorted by type, I saw some berries that Dad had shown me and some I had no knowledge of. There was also a section along the edge of the room containing five different nests. The room smelt earthy and bitter, not the best smell but not the worst either. There were two ninetales that were already in the room when they entered, a male and a female. They walked around picking up leaves, squashing berries, and mixing things together, focused enough to not notice the three enter.

Dad spoke up saying "Hello, excuse me. We came to check the general health of our daughter. The Elder told us to come here because he was worried about her."

The two ninetales looked up and looked at Dad. The female ninetales spoke "Silver, Petal, and Astra, the new kit that has been the talk of the clan. I'm Luna and he is Spark." She motioned towards the male and Spark waved one of his tails at us in greeting before continuing on what he was working on. Luna continued "I will be the one doing this checkup. Stand on this nest Astra." She led me to one of the side nests and I stood on it.

My legs were starting to get tired so I said "Can I lay down? My legs are a bit tired." Luna looked at me.

"Try to keep standing for me." She told me. "Has she walked for that long today?" Luna asked my parents instead of me.

"Well she learned to walk just this morning but had a long time to rest, she also walked across the clearing with us." Silver answered.

"Learning to walk this late and she doesn't seem to have much stamina." She mumbled to herself. "Has Astra been sick recently?" Luna asked after a while.

"She was sick two days ago, but luckily it didn't last long. She was asleep the whole time she was sick, so we had to heat her up quite a lot." Petal answered this time. My parents seemed to expect these questions.

"Okay, I will examine your body now. This might be a little uncomfortable for you Astra, just bare with it." Luna warned me.

Mom and Dad stood near the entrance as Luna started to inspect me. She had me open my eyes wide and looked straight into both of my eyes for an uncomfortable amount of time. She then looked into my ears, checked the thickness of my fur, and poked muscles I didn't know existed. She had me open my mouth and say ahh, as she looked into the back of my throat. After all of this she then started poking and prodding all over my body including some rather unpleasant places. By the time she was done I was flustered, embarrassed, and my legs were sore.

Luna addressed my parents "Astra muscles are definitely weaker than a normal vulpix and she may be lower than average her whole life." My parents looked sad at this news. "But there is a chance, albeit a very small one, she could regain some strength when she evolves. Her size is also smaller than usual, but you know this already. Her fur is healthy and in my personal opinion, very beautiful. There is a big possibility that she will become sick more than other vulpix, but I don't think the illnesses she will get will be lethal for her. Make sure to be careful about over exertion and care for her well. If you stayed in the clan, we could monitor her, but I know how much you guys hated living in this place." Luna finished her report.

Mom and Dad both looked very sad at the news of my weakness. I hated seeing them this sad. Why did I have to be born this way? If I was normal they wouldn't be sad or disappointed for me. I thought with hate for myself. I looked down in shame.

Luna noticed my mood and said "This isn't your fault little one, nothing you could do would change the way you were born." She moved over to Mom and Dad and whispered into their ears. Their faces changed from sadness to smiling, but it seemed like the expressions on their faces were forced, like they were only trying to reassure me. It didn't make me feel better. "Now, we just have medicine for you to take and you are free to go. It is just a mixture to facilitate muscle growth and strengthen your body." Luna said, as she brought over a leaf with a light purple paste on it.

I made a tentative sniff, it smelled extremely bitter. I scrunched up my face in revulsion, turning my head away. My parents however, would not let me go without taking it. I turned back to the medicine, slowly bringing my head down, I licked a small bit of it off the leaf. I had a small hint of sweetness, but it still tasted as bad as it smelled. I gagged, making a very gross burping noise. Mom came over and patted my back with her paw, but still encouraged me to finish it. It took a long while of gagging and even more encouragement before I finally finished the medicine. I was not happy, the taste seemed to stick to my mouth even after drinking water.

After saying our goodbyes and thanks, I was happy to get out of that burrow. Luna and Spark were nice enough, but the checkup was an overall unpleasant experience. Dad lifted me onto his back and I was thankfully able to rest my legs. They continued to the left side of the clearing, where they approached another hole. Before they reached the hole, a female voice called out to them. "Silver! It took you long enough to come see us. I can't wait to meet my granddaughter!"

Dad turned around to see another ninetales, I couldn't see his face from his back, but he sounded excited when he said "Mom, it's good to see you again! Where's Dad?" He looked around.

"He is talking to Petal's parents. I'll tell you what, you go into our burrow and I'll fetch him and Petal's parents so we can have a family reunion." Before Dad could say anything back she ran off towards the right side of the clearing. Dad shook his head and headed into the burrow with Mom.

"That was my Mom, Ruby. She is your grandmother, Astra. I'll introduce our other parents when they get here. I'm sure they are super excited to meet you, they didn't even know you existed before today." Dad said as he walked into the burrow.

The burrow was similar to the healers den, but it was a little smaller. There were two nests one was bigger and had fresh green moss and leaves strewn throughout, the other nest was smaller and made of the same stuff but completely dead. There wasn't much else in the home besides a few bones that hadn't been cleaned up yet.

"That is my old nest." Dad said pointing towards the small dead nest. "In the clan you don't get your own burrow until you get a mate, even if you're old enough to become a ninetales and too old to sleep in your parents nest anymore. When me and Petal officially became mates we didn't stay around long enough to get our own burrow, we had already decided to live outside the clan. It's a little weird that they never removed my nest." He walked to his old nest and looked at it.

'It might be a good time to ask questions since we're alone!' I thought as I didn't waste the opportunity. "I've been wondering for a while, why is the tree in the center glowing? It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen." I said in silence.

Mom answered, "Sorry Astra, you must've been burning to ask that. I didn't think about it since I spent decades around the Ever-burning tree so it's not so special to me."

"The Ever-burning tree, does that mean there is actually a fire in the tree?" I asked.

Mom nodded and said, "The tree actually used to be a normal tree. One day however, there was a rainless lightning storm. One of the bolts of lightning hit the forest and a wildfire started. The fire burned for a rainless week before the water pokemon could finally put it out. The Ever-burning tree was the only tree left in a forest full of charcoal and ash. The fire never went out in that one tree. After a long while pokemon started to notice another strange detail, even with the tree still burning it was still growing. Our ancestor ninetales and other pokemon were amazed. The ninetales then decided to create a clan right under it and here we are. The tree has always been a holy place for all ninetales because it proves nature and fire could co-exist in a wonderful way. There are other groups of ninetales in the world, but this clan is the biggest. This is because other ninetales come here in pilgrimage to see the tree for themselves from all over the world, most of the time they stay. Silver's ancestors were the ones to find the tree and start the clan, where my parents were pilgrims." She finished her story. After Mom finished her story she had to explain a bunch of terms she used like lightning and holy to me.

It took awhile to tell the story and explain the terms, by the time Mom was done several ninetales, along with Ruby, waited in the borrow for her to finish the story. They did things like shifting their weight from paw to paw, showing their impatience. "That's so cool!" I said after she was finished, feeling even more mystified at the tree after hearing the story.

When it became silent my Dad said "Well since everyone's here. I would like to introduce you to our very beautiful daughter, Astra." Everyone looked at me as I blushed and shied away at the attention.

Suddenly, the only female ninetales I didn't know in the burrow came over to me and started snuggling with me. "She's so cute!" She exclaimed. I tried backing away, feeling uncomfortable at being touched by this unknown ninetales. The ninetales followed my movements, still rubbing against me.

Mom, sounding amused, said "Ma, she doesn't even know who you are yet. You're weirding her out." She came over to me and nudged me away, putting me beside herself to which I was grateful. "This is my unthinking mother, Mercy. She is the caretaker for many young vulpix whose parents sometimes have to go somewhere for their jobs, or sometimes parentless vulpix. Yet she is still over-excitable when it comes to kits." Mom jokingly scoffed at Mercy.

"Hey! She is not just any young vulpix, she's my precious first and only granddaughter!" Mercy defended herself. "Who I only just learned about today, due to someone not warning us." Mercy said in an accusatory tone.

Mom and Dad suddenly had a guilty look about them. I felt bad for them and said "Don't yell at Mom and Dad, they are too kind and loving to ever be mean!" I yelled as loud as I could. Instead of looking offended or mad by my shout, everyone in the room had a smile and looked lovingly at me. Feeling a little angry that no one took me seriously, I pointed my face away, feigning indifference.

After a while of everyone in the room cooing pleasantries at me to get me to stop being angry, Dad spoke up. "You're too good for us, Astra." Dad said in a sigh. "Even so, you are right to be mad, Mercy. Me and Petal are extremely sorry for not telling you before we had Astra. When we learned about the pregnancy, we wanted to find the perfect home to welcome Astra into the world, it was very hectic and we forgot to tell the clan." Dad bowed to them.

The family wasn't really mad anymore after my outburst, so they just accepted the apology and explanation easily. "Anyway, our two dads have yet to be introduced! This is my father, Red, He is a gatherer of medicinal herbs and berries for the clan." Mom said pointing to the male on the left, who smiled kindly and greeted me. "And this is Silver's father, Phoenix, we call him Nix for short. He is a clan caretaker, his job is to take care of the tree, dig new burrows, or any other job that modifies the clan territory in any way." She pointed at the other male, who also greeted me. "All of these people are your close family just like us." Mom said to me.

We spent a long time having a family gathering as my Dad called it. I was nervous and shy at first, but I quickly warmed up to them. Other than Phoenix, who was a bit indifferent at the situation, all of my family was very loving and friendly. The color of my fur was a frequently brought up topic, everyone would stare at my fur, which made me uncomfortable. Mom and Dad had to explain my size and the recent visit to the healers den, everyone looked worried. They also talked about what they did for their jobs in the clan and of recent experiences, I listened intently. It was pretty interesting but sounded hard.

Dad soon realized how late it was and said, "I'm sad to have to end it here, but we have to go to a meeting with the elder. We have all of tomorrow to talk before we go back the next day."

Everyone complained about the impromptu end of the gathering, but soon Mom's parents said their goodnights and went back to their burrow. We left after them but didn't say goodbye to Dad's parents because we were spending the night in their burrow and would soon be back.

I followed my parents closer to the Ever-burning tree. To my surprise there was a hole in the ground right next to the tree. We entered the tunnel, it led directly underneath the tree winding through the roots. It was warmer than everywhere else in the clan. The warmth made my eyes droop down and I suddenly felt sleepy. Dad noticed me slowing down and had Mom put me on his back. With warm fur surrounding me I felt even more drowsy, but I forced myself to stay awake. I was curious to see what this was about.

We arrived in a bigger den than I had ever seen before. This den had a main room, like other burrows, but unlike other burrows it had holes in the walls of the room, leading to other rooms. Roots sprouted from the ceiling and disappeared into the floor. The roots had holes randomly strewn through each of them. The same light that came from the main tree exited the holes, lighting up the burrow in a flickering fire light.

No other ninetales were visible. 'Maybe he's out.' I thought, right before a voice exited one of the rooms on the far right. "Welcome to my home, I assume you are here for the meeting we talked about." Ashe said while exiting a room.

'How did he know we were here? No one made a sound.'I wondered. 'It must have been a weird sense I don't know about.'

As I pondered how he knew we were here, Elder Ashe walked up to us. Dad answered him, "Yes, elder. We are here to discuss weird things that are happening to our kit. You already know about her strange coloring and small size, but there are other things." Dad explained, placing me down to the ground.

I layed down and yawned, losing a little interest. 'Of course this meeting was to talk about me more, everyone seems to focus on me!' I thought, a bit irritated. I always felt embarrassed and shy when people focused on me, so I hated it.

"Things so strange that you have to discuss in private?" Ashe wondered out loud, also looking at me. "You seem to be full of surprises, Astra." Seeing how tired I was he offered me a nest in a corner of the room to lay in, I accepted gratefully. I could still hear the conversation among the comfy moss however. 'I should fake sleeping, maybe they will talk more if they didn't think I was listening.' I felt good about this decision and I quickly enacted it. I put my head down and squinted my eyes to make it look like I was sleeping. I could still see all three faces in the light of the tree through the crack in my eyelids.

"The first strange thing we noticed was when we first saw her egg. Among the normal red spots of an egg there was a large perfectly symmetrical five-pointed star." Dad said, Elder Ashe looked a bit more intrigued at this. Dad continued, "We would have brushed this off, but with her one of a kind fur color, I can't help but think that she is special in some way."

"Every kit is special in its own way, but I think I see what you mean. I have never in my 759 years seen either another shape on an egg or this strange fur color." The Elder responded, I caught the look he stole at me.

"That isn't the only thing that we came to tell you. After Astra hatched, a strange female noctowl wouldn't stop staring at me, Petal, and Astra. I call it strange because it had blue eyes, which I never saw before. It also looked sad and very tired even though it was night. Anyways, after Petal and Astra were asleep I had decided to keep watch in case it tried anything. While watching I asked it why it was sad and it answered saying something sad was going to happen. Panicked about Astra, I asked what was going to happen. This is when a truly strange thing happened." Dad paused, Ashe seemed to look very interested at this point. "The noctowl swore on Arceus's name that Astra would not die of sickness or weakness. Meaning the blue eyed pokemon accurately predicted the future just to make me feel better. According to Astra she also saw a blue eyed pidgey on the way here." He finished his story. I also listened intently, I knew about the pidgey already, but not about the noctowl or the star on my egg.

The Elder looked extremely surprised before he calmed himself. He then spoke "Based on stories I have heard throughout my life, I think I have an idea of who the blue eyed pokemon is." He paused and I listened closely.

"Who?" Petal asked, leaning closer.

"According to stories, there is only one pokemon who can completely turn into another pokemon and has blue eyes even when changed. Mew, creator of pokemon and watcher of destiny. If it is Mew and she knows about Astra's future then in all probability she is here to watch Astra's destiny unfold. Mew watches a pokemon if it's destiny is important enough to shape the future of the world itself. She only watches to make sure nothing strange happens to change that destiny."

My parents looked shocked and stuttered over themselves. Finally after a while of shocked silence my Dad got out, "M-Mew! you can't be serious, no pokemon is important enough to personally get monitored by the goddess of pokemon herself!" After realizing something he shouted, "I talked and shouted at Mew! How could I be so stupid, she could have killed me for my insolence!"

"Calm down, my boy! There are stories of other important pokemon getting watched by Mew. It's rather strange that she decided to talk to you, she usually tries to not disturb fate by interacting. It is said that Mew is very nice and doesn't think of herself above other pokemon, usually making friends with whoever she meets. She hates suffering and does anything to stop the suffering she sees herself. It makes sense that she wouldn't see any task as below herself, even if she was tasked to watch a very young and special vulpix kit."

I was a bit shocked. Dad had told me a little bit about a legend that described Mew when he had shown me the stars. I knew she had originally created the first pokemon and showed them how to live, so they could teach their children. 'Why would anyone want to watch me, let alone someone so important? If anything, other than fur color, I'm less impressive than other vulpix. Everyone is larger and seems to have more strength than me, I'm weak.'I felt sad at the realization of being less than average. I silently started crying in the corner, knowone seemed to notice.

My parents were still a little panicked at the news and were looking for answers. Dad asked, "Well what do we do, now that we know Mew is watching Astra?"

"Absolutely nothing." Elder Ashe said in a calm voice. Everyone was looking at me including him.

"What? How can we do nothing? A god is observing our child!" Petal shouted.

"Calm down, Petal." He said in a calming voice. "Mew would never hurt Astra, it's simply not in her nature. Mew will simply continue watching in the background, there is nothing you can do. In fact I advise you to just raise Astra normally, even if she is special. Who knows what treating her differently will do to her fate. Don't tell anyone about this, Astra knows already because she is fake sleeping in the corner. So we will need to make her understand the importance of this being kept a secret."

I was extremely surprised at being called out. He had not made any indication of knowing I was awake at all. 'How did he know?He seems to know everything.'I thought, silently wondering if he was some sort of god.

My parents looked at me with a shocked expression covering their features. I continued acting asleep, even knowing my ruse was up, just in case he was bluffing.

Mom walked over to me and poked me in a particular spot on my side she knew I was ticklish in. I rolled away with my eyes still closed and stayed silent. She pursued me with her paw and continued her tickle attack. I tried resisting the urge to laugh until I couldn't anymore and I started giggling uncontrollably. She continued this for a full minute with an evil smile on her face. Just when I ran out of breath and started panting, she stopped. "I swear, I never met another kit who was so devious. At least it shows how smart you really are." Petal complimented me, which made me feel better from the realization I made before.

When I stopped panting and sat up the Elder spoke directly to me in a stern voice, "I trust you know to never speak of this to anyone else?" He looked at me and I meekly nodded, lowering my head in submission. "Good, now is there anything else?" Ashe asked my parents.

Dad nodded and spoke up, "Actually, yes there is. This isn't something I wanted Astra to hear, but I'll tell you anyway. Astra seems to have already unlocked her fire core and used it."

"You taught her how to use ger core this early, how could you be so irresponsible! No kit has enough energy to use their core without dying or becoming extremely sick." Elder Ashe yelled, as he seemed to lose control in rage for the first time since I saw him. His fur puffed out, tails flying wildly, his already impressive size doubled. His eyes glowed red brighter than I've ever seen. He truly looked like a monster, way scarier than when Mom puffed out her fur.

Both my parents cowered making their bodies look half their normal size, obviously terrified. Even though the rage was not directed at me I was terrified as well. I quickly hid behind one of the roots that sprouted from the ceiling.

Dad, trying to defend himself, said, "We didn't teach her, I swear!" The elder seemed to calm a little at this. He looked around and saw me cowering behind the root. He must've realized how scared he made me because he coaxed me out with his kind sweet voice.

When I was out of my hiding spot and not shaking anymore he asked my parents in an irritated tone, "So if you didn't teach her then how did she do it?

"We don't exactly know ourselves. Astra saw Petal fight a mightyena on our way here with fire and she seemed excited to learn how to produce fire herself. I told her that we wouldn't teach her about fire attacks until she was older. Astra seemed to go quiet after this, as we continued on our way here, so we thought she fell asleep. She must've been meditating instead, looking inside her body to figure out the location of her core and how to use it. When we found a place to sleep for the night she suddenly used her fire core. She passed out after using it, but other than that she was completely fine." Dad finished his explanation and looked at the Elder to see his reaction.

Ashe looked shocked. "So you're saying she both found and learned how to use her core all by herself in under one day?" Elder Ashe asked incredulously, looking at me with appraising eyes.

"She would've had to, we avoided mentioning anything about fire and even cooked our food when she was asleep. The only time she could've learned about fire was my battle." Mom answered, just as confused as the elder was.

"If this is true then she is probably the smartest vulpix I have ever seen. Not only that but If you told a normal young vulpix how exactly to find and use their core, they still wouldn't be able to find it. This is because you have to have near perfect knowledge of your own body, which kits tend to not have, to even find the core. Even then, if the vulpix kit found their core they would burn out of energy way before they were able to use it. This means Astra has both way more energy than she is supposed to have and a brilliant mind to be able to figure out how to find and access her core!" It was weird how quickly he changed from angry to excited. But the way his voice was bursting with excitement filled me with pride at my accomplishment.

Silver nervously said, "That really is amazing, Elder." He looked at me and brought his muzzle closer to the elder's ear. Then in a softer voice I almost couldn't hear, he whispered, "But could you not compliment her when we literally yelled at her this morning for using her core without permission. Even if she can use her powers safely, we don't want her going off and using them without supervision."

The Elder seemed to get a hold of his excitement at this statement. "Ahem." He cleared his throat. "Sorry, you are right Silver. Astra, you are still not allowed to access your core without permission! Any attempt to do so and my anger will be directed to you next time, do you understand?" He asked in a stern voice. I simply nodded, a whimper of disappointment involuntary coming from my throat. "That being said, no one in the history of vulpix and ninetales, that I know of, has been able to do what you have done so young. It might mean that although your body is small and your strength is weak that you more than compensate in other areas. This in fact, may be one of the reasons that your destiny is important enough for Mew to watch you."

"Of course he is stern only for a little bit, but then goes right back to inflating her ego even more. She might even 8thgo back to start trying to use her powers again without permission." Mom complained.

I didn't know what Mom was talking about, there was no way I would try to sneak using my core. I did not want to be the subject of the Elder's fury, I was still shaken from his anger the first time. I suddenly yawned the largest yawn there ever was, my jaw even hurt from opening my mouth so wide. The earlier drowsiness seemed to crash into me all at once. Eyes drooped and head slouched, in the middle of another yawn, I asked, "Can we go to sleep yet?"

"Yes, sorry dear, it has gotten quite late and it's your first day walking. I don't have any other concerns, Elder, so we might as well go. Astra has a busy day tomorrow anyways." Dad said, smiling at me.

The elder nodded and said, "Yes we have the introduction ceremony and celebration to look forward to. This meeting was rather enlightening, I have a lot to think about tonight. When you get back to your home, I recommend you start training Astra extra hard to help prepare her for whatever destiny has in store for her." In a whisper I could barely hear, he also said, "Possibly start her fire training a bit earlier than usual." I felt a bit excited at the mention of starting fire training, but I didn't let it show. 'I'm not sure if the Elder wanted me to hear that.' I thought.

Mom and Dad both nodded. Dad came over to me, picked my limp body, and set me on Mom's back. We exited the burrow after saying our goodbyes. When we came out it was night time. There were only a few ninetales in the clearing now, they seemed to be walking back and forth patrolling the clearing. I couldn't see the moon or stars from underneath the dense branches of the Ever-burning tree, which was sad. I wanted to see the beautiful stars again. We walked back to Dad's parents' burrow and entered. Ruby and Phoenix were still awake and waiting for us.

"You can have our nest for however long you stay in the clan, It's the bigger, more comfortable nest. We will take your old nest, Silver." Ruby said after greeting us.

"No, it's your nest, I don't want you to be uncomfortable, just for our sake. We will stay in my old dried up nest." Silver argued.

"Nonsense, we don't mind being slightly uncomfortable for a few days, if it helps our family and new granddaughter enjoy their stay in the clan more. I would feel bad if Astra was uncomfortable. I won't back down from this decision, so you might as well give up. Besides, we will get new moss tomorrow and our bed will be more comfortable." Ruby said.

Dad gave up the argument and just accepted her hospitality. We moved to the nest and they set me down. Mom forced me to eat even though I just wanted to sleep. Ruby and Phoenix watched me nurse for some reason, they seemed to find it cute. When I was done, my parents curled up together with me in the center like usual. I instantly fell asleep in their warmth.

Chapter End

—

Story Lore

It is true that Arceus has the power to create anything, he is in fact the true god of the pokemon world. However he decided not to do everything himself, but decided to delegate some of his powers to others to help him out. Even though he could do everything himself, he wisely had no desire to overwork himself. He started out by creating Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina. He gave Dialga the power to control time, so that time would constantly move forward. He gave Palkia the power of space, the ability to create stars and planets out of the atoms that were all around them. Palkia made whole galaxies each with unique planets so that life would have somewhere to live. Arceus gave Giratina the power to manipulate reality itself. Giratina made numerous different realities, some were almost exact copies of the main reality and some were what would be called heaven by the people of earth. Arceus also made Giratina the gatekeeper of the afterlife since he could move other creatures from one reality to another even after their death.

After Arceus created the creation trio, they created the universe. Even though there was now a universe, it was rather disappointing. Every planet floated in space as a round barren rock. So Arceus created more god pokemon, Rayquaza, Groudon, and Kyogre. Rayquaza, god of the sky, created an atmosphere that covered the barren rock, it held a high density of carbon dioxide and some oxygen. He also created the ozone layer which stopped the sun from blasting the planet with radiation. Kyogre, god of the sea, held the power to create and control water. She flooded the dry rock with an unbelievable amount of water, it filled every deep crevasse in the planet. Groudon, god of the earth, had the power to shift landmass to his liking, not wanting to be outdone by Kyogre, raised multiple continents above the water. The planets now had everything it needed to sustain life, but Arceus realized something was missing. Life needed to have something that was self-sustaining to feed off of or everything would wither away, he created Celibi to solve this problem. Celebi discovered how to create plants with her future sight ability and gave the planet life. She created forests, grassy plains, coral reefs, and fields of algae. These plants had a side effect of consuming the carbon dioxide in the air and turning it into oxygen which life other than plants needed.

Only after creating everything life needed to continue living, did Arceus start the process of creating life. He finally created Mew and gave her one of the most important abilities. The ability that he used to create all of the god pokemon that created the universe so far, the ability to create life. Being the creative, childish, and smart creature she was, Mew created hundreds of different species. Arceus thought she went a little overboard before he looked closely at what she had done. Without help or instruction she had created the cycle of life. Mew had made several different ecosystems, each pokemon she had made was suited to the climate she put them in. There were snowy, desert, forest, freshwater, and ocean pokemon, some were herbivores that fed on the plants that were created by Celebi and some were carnivores that fed on the herbivores. There were also some that fed on plants and meat, which intrigued Arceus greatly. Each pokemon fit in this cycle of life, not one species was left out. Mew had also made pokemon that helped ensure the general safety of pokemon as a whole. She made Latias, Latios, Lugia, Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos. Mew had then found the biggest tree and made it her home, naming it the tree of life. Feeling protective over the tree and the pokemon that lived there she created Regirock, Regice, and Registeel to guard it. These pokemon Mew created to guard pokemon were more powerful than other pokemon, but not as powerful as the legendaries who created the universe.

Arceus also created Ho-oh the god of reincarnation and rebirth. She is responsible for regrowing forests after they burn in forest fires. She also has the power to reincarnate the creatures whose souls are not ready for the afterlife yet. She later reincarnates a vaporeon into Suicune, a growlithe into Entei, and an electrike into Raikou making three more guardian pokemon.

After all of this, Arceus was finally satisfied with the universe, he and the other god pokemon continued to watch over the universe for all of eternity. He made sure that none of the other god pokemon tampered with the lives of the planet dwellers. He wanted to protect his creations, but knew that too much outside help would limit their freewill. He still allowed legendary pokemon to make friends, contact other pokemon, and occasionally help out with something, as long as it didn't affect the world that much.

After a long time of peace among pokemon an unexpected evolution took place. A species that Mew had no intention of creating permanently evolved from a normal-type primate pokemon. They had no powers to protect themselves so they used tools instead. These non-pokemon creatures eventually came to be known as humans. These humans loved to war against one another, they tamed pokemon to fight for them and created weapons to harm others. These wars were unlike any small territory dispute the gods had ever seen, thousands would lose their lives in every dispute. Mew and the other god pokemon were sad with all of the death, but could do nothing because Arceus's non-intrusion rule still held. Eventually the humans learned to co-exist with one another and other pokemon. The endless cycle of war calmed down. The legendaries were still angry at the violent nature of the humans but were satisfied that the warring was finally over. Even in the present day the gods are still displeased at humans, only helping pokemon in need and ignoring requests of humans. Even with the everlasting peace the gods were certain war was inevitable for humans and many of them would be willing to disobey Arceus to stop it from happening again.

End