Early the next morning, Gracie was woken up at the sound of some commotion going on outside. Yawning, Gracie got up, streched out, and looked over to her still sleeping mother, frowing. Lumi was her name, and scars covered her beautiful body. Gracie walked up to her "oh mom..." she said, nuzzling her. Lumi slowly opened her eyes "hey my sweet..." she said weakly as she struggled to get up. Because they were at the bottom of pack, Lumi was often only got the scraps of what the others didn't eat, and what she managed to get, she gave all to Gracie, so she hadn't eaten properly for a while now and its make her weak and sick.

Kai was no help either, he was one of the lookouts, he had proved himself strong enough to climb higher in the ranks to lookout. It was no fair, he was just like her father, left them as soon as something better came along, in this case, a rank much higher in the pack. At first, he would sneak us some of the food that only the monarchy could eat, but it became less and less often over time as the influences higher up started brainwashing him that we were worthless. Soon, he never came around anymore, and totally snuffed us out, it was clear he wanted nothing more to do with us. That was fine though, but things started to get worse for us.

The higher ranked eevees would often attack her for fun, and sometimes even the higher ups would join in. However, Lumi would always rush to the aid of her daughter, causing her to receive the worst of the attacks. Eventually, with lack of food and the attacks, her mother grew weak, and if they would try and escape, the alpha would put her in her place, which is how she got most of her scars. The alpha's name was Archie, and he was a powerful flareon, and also one of the largest flareons around. He controlled his pack with fear and punished all those who stood against him.

Gracie helped her mother steady herself as they walked out of their rundown little cave to see what was going on. Archie stood there, by the entrance of the cave, looking furious "you useless welp, what have I told you about leaving the pack" he barked. Even though she was weak, Lumi stood infront of her daughter "Archie, leave her alone, she's done nothing wrong" she said, sounding bold despite her state. The fire fox growled loudly and struck Lumi with his paw, sending her small frame into a tree "MOM!" Gracie shouted out and ran towards her fallen mother. Lumi struggled to open her eyes "Gracie..r-run and ger out of here" she whispered.

The silver eevee shook her head "no, I'm not leaving you mom, your all I have" she said, tears dripping down her face. Without warning, Archie grabbed Gracie by the tail and threw her a few feel away "NO one is leaving!" he yelled. All the action caused the other pack members to wake from their slumbers to see what was going on. Gracie got back up, slightly fazed by the throw "you little runt! I should have banished you and your mother from the pack long ago, but thanks to pack rules I wasn't allowed, lucky for me, I could control where your place would be, so I decided to put you as low as possible in the pack and it has been great amusement to me to watch you suffer" he said. Gracie growled "your nothing but a coward who's only power is controlling the pack with fear, i'm sure no one respects you, they all just fear you, we were better off with our old alpha, before you stepped in" she said back. Archie roared in anger and shot a flamethrower at Gracie's mother "NOO!" she shouted, using quick attack to recch her mother in time and take the full impact of the flamethrower "aughh!" she cried out in pain as she struggled to stay standing.

He had fired another flamethrower at the pair, but using her psychic attack, Lumi directed it away from them. She stood up easily, almost like she couldn't feel the pain coarse through her body "don't you EVER attack my daughter again!" Lumi growled out. Growling, Archie ran at her with flame charge "then i'll just attack you" he said. Knowing that neither of them had any energy left to protect themselves, Lumi braced for impact. However, after a few moments nothing happened, confused, Lumi and Gracie opened their eyes and Gracie gasped.

There, pinned down to a tree was Archie, and the pokemon holding him there was none other then a mad looking Xander. He had his claws between Archie's neck, holding him against the tree "look at you, mr. bigshot, think your all tough trying to kill two females" he spat. Archie struggled against his hold, but clearly Xander was having none of it as he held him there even tighter now "your nothing but a pathetic coward, not even worthy enough to be leading a pack" he continued.

Never before has Gracie been so relieved "Xander, thank you" she said, smiling weakly. He looked at her and nodded, giving his signature smirk "anything for you gorgeous" he replied and turned back to Archie "now, i'm gunna be taking these lovely ladies out of here, and if you even think about trying to stop me, I will kill you" he threatened before dropping the flareon to the ground with a thud as he gasped for air. None of the other pack members moved, all too shocked as to what had just happened.

The zangoose walked up to Gracie and her mother "come, I know someone who can make you feel better" he said. Suddenly, Lumi began fainting as her weakness fully hit her, luckily Xander caught her "she's really weak, we need to get your mother healed up, and fast" he said, putting the fainted espeon on his back, Gracie was still fine enough to walk. She turned back to see some of the others help their fallen leader. As the got farther and farther away from the pack, Gracie felt as though a weight had lifted off her shoulders, her and her mom were finally free at last.