[2/2]

It was two days since I was joined by clumsy female ninetales in my journey, completely oblivious how to survive in the wilderness and having problems with controlling her own body. I could understand these problems, I knew the feeling when you gain control on the unknown to you, new body. Most problematic for her appeared to be controlling her new tails, before her evolution she has only or even six of them but now it was nine and they were much longer and more mobile.

The second most problematic thing were much longer legs, she already reminded to herself how to walk but it was still looking awkward and abnormal. Less problematic was something that she called 'inner fire', something that was burning inside of her all the time, but I didn't believe her. At first I didn't notice anything wrong but when she tried some of her fire moves she loses control of her fire and I permanently banned her from using anything fire-related.

How lucky I have the ability to rebuild damaged parts of the body, I wouldn't still have my long leaf on my forehead without that. I managed to convince her that it was natural because I'm part plant and plants can do such thing (and they really can, but not that fast). I felt some kind of pride about my leaf on forehead and tail as leafeon, they seem to be longer than leaves of other leafeons I met before even if my appearance wasn't the showiest.

I noticed that she wanted to learn how to become a wild pokemon but she was doing this in wrong way, she was waiting until I commanded her what to do. That wasn't how I wanted it to be like.

I decided to hide my true self for now, so I stayed in leafeon form even in the night, watching closely so I didn't lose contact with plants for too long, which wasn't hard considering that we were in the middle of the forest. We were heading towards the south, Naert was walking before me sweeping the ground with her tails. For now, she gave up trying to control them and was only dragging them behind, they had already lost their white-yellow colour and become dirty brown and full of leaves.

"Is it edible?" she asked, pointing at something which I couldn't see standing behind her but I felt which plants were ahead.

"You ate this in the day which we met, yesterday and today's morning so yes they are edible," I answered boredly. The food was something that I didn't need to command her.

"She has the same problems with memorising plants like you," noticed Myron.

"Said my leafeon side who know only one fruit," I answered him while Naert was busy with examining strange for her plants and finally ate some of them.

"These ones are so sweet, come and try some!" she called cheerfully from thick bushes.

"No thanks, I don't eat fruits," I answered.

"You didn't eat since two days, are you ill?" she asked with worry.

"No, I am fine, leafeons can survive only with water and the sun," I wasn't sure if this was true but for now it was working, I also noticed that staying a long time in grass form altered by body: my leaves were longer and greener than ever from absorbing the sun's rays.

"Ah, I forgot, you are part of plant yes? If I am proposing you plants to eat is it like offering you part of you to eat?" she asked.

"Actually I am not very sensitive to plants so it is okay but I won't eat them," I didn't want to become really ill. Seeing my decline she packed her muzzle with as many fruits she managed to fit and we continued going to the south. If she really had inner flame it needed to burn everything that she ate, she didn't miss any edible thing on our way.

"Were humans starving you or you are trying to eat the whole forest?" I asked walking with her side by side when she gulped what she had in her mouth. "There are things which humans don't have but I think that food they have too much of."

"No, it is just because of we-I mean trained pokemon-have some fruits to eat only when we get some injury during the fight," she answered, visibly embarrassed by my remark.

"They feed you only after you got an injury? You needed to be beaten quite often if you are still alive," I said surprised, how did it even worked? This mean that better was to lose and be injured then win?

"No no, we were fed three times per day, fruits were only to make our injury heal faster," she explained. We, our, trained pokemon. I repeated these words in my mind. She was still seeing herself as not wild. In the same moment, Naert suddenly stopped and fell on her stomach. I looked back and saw that her tails again caught to some root.

"What stupid tails!" she yelled angry looking back and tried to free them but she hadn't much control on it. "Not this one!" she screamed again when she moved again different tail than she wanted and was about to burn the poor root.

"No fire! We are in the forest, you could burn everything here!" I warned her and carefully cut annoying root with a fast slash of my thin side of leaf tail freeing her.

"Thank you," she said with relief and added irritated. "I don't understand why my kind needs to have so many tails, you have just one and it is much more useful than mine nine."

"Well, if every ninetales have nine tails then there need to be some purpose of that," I said trying to calm her. As we continued our walk she started again practising her control of the new body and became irritated again. I stayed silent not wanting to become an object of irritation.

At the end of the day, there was some progress. She learned how to move two of her tails, the rest were still undulating chaotically when she tried to use them. I also noticed that after she learned that, her walk becomes less grotesque.

It wasn't time to sleep yet, I found a good spot on the ground to sleep later: a pit under the bush. I could sleep on a tree but Naert couldn't. While she was vulpix I could try to carry her somehow up the tree but now she was much larger than me, there wasn't even a chance that I could to that. Naert in the meantime was digging into nearby bushes and when she finished she sat close to the pit and looked at me, waiting for something.

"No, I won't give you any command," I said facing her.

She looked away from me so that I couldn't see her face expression.

"I, I just wanted to ask why you are doing this? I wanted to change your life because of my master ... former master ordered me that but you changed mine, why do you bother yourself with some annoying vulpix?" she asked seriously but didn't look at me again.

"The question should be why I am still bothering myself with even more annoying ninetales," I answered her.

"Hey!" she snorted and turned to me.

"Calm down, I'm kidding. Why am I trying to adapt you to the wilderness? I just thought that you never had a chance to choose your own path in life," I answered her, saying what I really thought. "So I tried to give you a choice."

She was still looking somewhere in the deep forest and it started to become dark and cold. Summer was about to end, every next day would be colder and colder. When I felt cold I stood up and entered the pit taking the place close to the entrance and bush which was covering the entry. I lied in that way to touch leaves of the bush. But the pit wasn't warmer than outside.

"Naert!" I called. "Come inside and warm here a little, I am freezing," I said because of thin fur coat of leafeon, I feel coldness much more than it really was. My leaves changed its colour to the darker shade. After a second, the ninetales entered the pit and warmed me a few times with her uncontrolled tails before she finally laid down. The interior immediately become hotter by fire creature heat and it made me quickly sleepy.

I woke up at morning when first rays of the sun entered the pit. I yawned and stretched but didn't open my eyes. Then I felt that something soft was restricting my movement. When I opened my eyes I found myself covered in mostly yellow (but dirty) tails of Naert who was lying much closer than I remember she laid yesterday. I didn't want to admit it, but it was a pleasant feeling being covered by her warm blanket of tails.

I couldn't find strength or motivation to stand up so I stayed on the ground, I only checked that I am still leafeon and closed my eyes again. I was lying like that very long when I heard that Naert woke up but I acted as if I was still asleep. I felt that blanket being pulled away from me and I almost told her to stop.

I heard her exiting the pit, probably to find something to eat. No matter if she had her inner flame or not, she needed to use some energy to warm up our pit. Without a blanket, lying on the ground lost its enjoyment, and I stood up. Then I noticed that it was high noon outside, I never before slept that long but also never before I felt so rested as now. I was thirsty but dew on the leaves already faded away.

I didn't find Naert in the bushes around the pit, I didn't find her behind the bushes and even when I walked few circles around the pit, going further and further through the forest, I still didn't find her.

She wasn't walking alone earlier through the wilderness, something bad could happen to her. That thought was making me more and more nervous with every minute. I returned to the pit and looked for some tracks on the ground. At first, I didn't saw anything but when I looked closely I saw that there was a path of combed grass, guessing that she was again dragging her tails. The path was leading straight ahead. Running I followed the tracks.

How did I miss that in the first place?

"It seems that you care for her," chirped Myron when I ran some distance.

"Yes, I care, it was me who convinced her to become wild. If she dies now because of that it would be as if I killed her," I answered him when the path became switchbacks. It seems that she lost direction and started to make random turns.

"I mean that you care-care for her," twittered Myron and probably would nudge me if he only could.

"No, I am just..."

"She touched you and you didn't say a word, you even enjoyed that, do you remember when last time someone touches you and didn't lose its hand, paw or whatever he could use to it? You are really insane if you try lying to me. I am a part of you, I know your feelings," continued Myron. "And look at you now, you are running for her in worry tha-tree ahead!"

"What?" I said and before I could react, I ran into a tree before me. My vision became dark but was slowly returning. When my vision returned to normal my head was overwhelmed by a wave of throbbing pain.

"Stupid tree," I said going shakily around the giant dark tree and grit my teeth to counter the pain in my head. On the other side of the tree, through the bushes, I could see a stream of the water with a small beach where Naert was standing.

But she wasn't just standing, she was standing proudly, stretched with head height and with lifted completely clean tails curled in the middle. She was facing something that I couldn't see on my right. I blinked, astonished at how beautiful she looked, I almost didn't recognise her, like just after her evolution.

She made a few steps slowly and majestically to the right, to the left. Then she started walking in normal tempo, not losing her grace, but then suddenly her walk become staggered. She lost her balance and her tails started waving chaotically, it looked like she tried to regain her balance, not losing her proud posture, but she had stumbled on something on the ground and fell on her face.

So she was practising her new body. But why she didn't say anything to me and why she was doing this alone? I could be of help.

"Nine," I heard her saying. " How can I control all nine at once?"

Yes, that was still the same clumsy Naert which I knew. When she stumbled, I snapped out, magic which pinned my eyes to her disappeared somewhere. I walked through the bushes on the beach and approached her from her right. I didn't think about it, but I noticed that I was sneaking up to her, not making any sound.

Habits.

Naert didn't notice me and was still in her thoughts.

"Hi, what are you doing so alone here?" I said, acting as if I hadn't seen what she was doing. I scared her, immediately getting her attention.

"You need to stop sneaking like that, someday I will burn you by mistake," she warned me, standing up but not as confidently as earlier. "I was training and I improved in controlling my fire!" she added proudly.

"Just don't use it again close to me, please," I answered reminding how easily and quickly leaves could be burned.

"I promise, I won't burn you ever again, that was an accident," she said, embarrassed by the earlier event. I actually doubted that promise, when she get control on her changes we probably would have some battles. I remembered the way in which she was fighting and my false assumption that she need to learn how to fight from the very basics.

Then, for the first time since three days I felt hunger, I couldn't go on a hunting trip with Naert. But there was a solution, I walked to the stream and satisfied my thirst. With water inside of me and the sun above, my leaves continued doing its photosynthesis and I stopped feeling hunger. This way was easier than hunting but living only on photosynthesis was making me lazy that I would just lie somewhere in the sun doing nothing.

"Did you eat something today?" I asked. I didn't want to stay in one place too long, every next day will be colder and I knew a great place with microclimate to stay for the winter.

Also, I didn't know how long Naert would stay with me and I didn't want to show her my changing type ability: it wasn't something that I could explain easily. It wasn't a problem for me to survive the winter as glaceon but glaceons usually stay in packs with other eeveelutions in shelter and stock of food for the winter. For me, a lone wanderer, it would be hard to find something to eat and because of the long winter nights, I couldn't change to leafeon to survive on the water and the sun.

"Yes, I already ate," she answered.

"That's good, so we can keep going," I said happily and went to the south.

"But where are we going?" She asked following me.

"Well, you joined the wild at a very bad time. The summer is ending and winter is coming: it is like a great pause. Living with humans you may not notice that. We are going to the place where it won't be that cold," I answered. "I am a grass-type, cold is as just as unfriendly to me as fire or perhaps even more so," I added, playing my role.

"Poor you, being grass-type you need to avoid both: cold and fire," she remarked bantering.

Yeah, being only one type sucks.

"Just like you don't like to assimilate with water," I responded. I reminded that she didn't mention that she was also practising walking, very pretty looking walking. Was it shame for her that she need to practise such basic thing as walking? Finding balance in a new body which was so much different than her former one was a typical process. Eeveelutions don't usually have much problem with that as the evolved form is quite similar to eevee, some exceptions being espeon and vaporeon: these two has the biggest difference between primary form.

Our path became narrow and winding, with uphill climbs full of tree roots which were growing incredibly thick here, but Neart was fine keeping her tails low, but still above the ground.

"I see that you become better at that, maybe you are thinking too much to control everything new in that body. You should just relax, probably this would be more helpful than practising," I pointed out.

"Thank you, but how can relaxing and not thinking about it could be helpful? And if I finally learn these things how to live and survive in the wild what will happen with me? What would I do next?" she inquired.

"It is your decision what you will do, you are free. I think relaxing can help you to start to naturally control this, you can't spend your whole life focused on your tails," I informed her, jumping above of the tree roots, which were not very high but still high enough to prevent it me from crossing it.

"Can I ask you a question about life in the wilderness?" she asked passing the same root, without jumping.

Long legs have an advantage…beautiful legs.

"Sure, I am here to help," I stated, stopping and turned to her.

"How do types work here, I mean while I was with humans, types are important only on the battlefield but here there are no humans here to control us," she questioned, also stopping.

"Hmm, I think that we shouldn't consider every pokemon of the same type as the same. But usually there are small wars between types. A territory is usually a main reason but sometimes just advantage of one type of another cause some fights," I started explaining sitting down, there was much to say.

"Let's say for example we have an inactive volcano of some kind where fire types live. Under it is a lake with water types, but between the mountain and the lake is a forest with grass types. In the mountain, there is also a source of the water for the lake. Pokemon who live in the lake for some reason would want to have the source of the water as they want to be sure that no one will put anything harmful into the water. Or they just want more space for themselves but obviously, pokemon living on the mountain won't just leave their territory.

"Water types, having the advantage on fire types, sooner or later would win the fight and force fire types to leave their territory. But close to it is the forest so fire-types would easily win against grass types, taking their territory, which causes grass-types to look for another place. And because water types were the reason why they lost their dens, they go against water types to fight. And so we have never ending circle. Simply put, different types don't like each other, especially these which have very big advantages or disadvantages to each other like water-types are afraid of grass-types or ghost-types are afraid of dark-types."

"Or grass-types of fire-types," she added, "You aren't afraid of me, are you?"

"No I'm not, but these concepts don't work with eeveelutions, can you even imagine why? If leafeon parents have an eevee as a child and this child evolved into flareon, the parents won't become afraid of their own child," I pointed out, amused by her thought. "Because we, I mean eeveelutions, keep together not caring about type, other species don't like us too much. It is as if we were some other type hated by everyone type. But remember that not everyone who you will meet will be like that. If you will be lucky you may meet many friendly water-types.

Maybe I sounded like I knew what I was talking about: things I learned only by observation. I hoped that she didn't want to go into details.

Because of this long talk, I became thirsty again but there was nothing to drink.

"That is complicated," she summed up. "Now I see how lucky I was that I met you, all of this could look completely different if you would be afraid of me."

"Um, no problem, you were more funny to watch than scary." How could I be afraid of my night blanket? As she hadn't more questions we continued our trip. Because of how long I slept today, I lost track of time and it already had become late afternoon.

"What was so funny in my fight, besides the fact that I was waiting for commands," she questioned after a minute, it seems that her earlier pride didn't leave her completely. I noticed that when she didn't focus on her walking it become better, more natural and normal.

"Your posture. You were more focused on looking good than winning. But you also expected victory," I cackled and smiled when she smiled, summoning the memory of our fight. "You have a long life ahead, so be prepared that I will always remind you about it."

"You won't beat me like that the second time," chirped Neart, standing proudly like when I saw her next to the stream.

"Sure, now you are too big for a simple leaf snap," I laughed and nuzzled her side and I felt that a shiver went through her body but only after a moment did I realise what I have done. I wanted to say sorry but she spoke faster.

"Let try if you can still beat me, it will be like some light training. I won't use fire but you won't use any grass-type thing," she proposed and not waiting for my response she moved few meters from me. "And your tail, I consider it as a grass-type thing too."

"Wait, then how I am supposed to fight?" Even biting hadn't sense, teeth of leafeon were short and not sharp and I doubted if she wanted to fight with biting.

"That is your problem," she said and approached me fast, I saw that she already changed her fighting style from positional to more aggressive. I avoided her paw, jumping to the left, but she followed me and I jumped backwards increasing the distance between us again.

Then Naert jumped high and tried to pin me to the ground, but I ducked under her so that she landed behind me. But I didn't even turn to face her when I felt two soft and warm things wrapped around my stomach and another one around my neck immobilising me and when few more things shrouded me it lifted me from the ground. I looked back not sure what just happened and I saw that I was enveloped in Naert's tails and that she wasn't even looking. When she turned to me her head I saw a wide smile on her face.

"I did it!" she trilled happily.

"When did you learn that?" I asked, I really wasn't expecting anything new from her, maybe she was learning faster than I thought or maybe that was because of changes after evolution? I knew nothing about her species but maybe there was some intelligence improvement after she evolved. Not that I thought that she was stupid before.

"I learned this just now, you told me to relax and I did that!" Praised the young ninetales. "See? I beat you!"

"Congratulations, you beat defenceless pokemon, you can be proud," I said jesting.

"Oh don't be like that, you don't know how to lose," she said cheerfully and settled me gently down on the ground but some of her tails were wrapped around me. I looked at her inquiringly for what she was waiting but then I met her sight of eyes like rubies.

We stared at each other in silence and I felt that I was losing myself in her deep oceans of reds and I saw that she was also becoming entranced by my eyes.

My eyes!

I quickly broke our eyes' connection, hoping that I didn't hypnotise her, making her blindly following me now because of my eye's ability. But when I looked at her again, not in the eyes, I saw that she was fine-maybe only a little disappointed.

"Uhmm eh, we are close," I mumbled, she nodded and unwrapped me letting me go.

Soon we were at the bald top to of the hill, having a wide view of the landscape. The landscape mostly the forest, cave-in at the horizon. There was a deep giant hole in a shape of a circle. At the bottom of the hole there were trees and bushes as if it was a normal forest. This was our destination, the microclimatic hole where the whole year was as if it was spring.

"You mention that other species are unfriendly to your kind, why?" she asked while we were going to the round valley.

"They have their reasons, mainly because they can't stand that we have the multi-types pack so we stay neutral if there were some conflict. Also, we are quite rare, and because of that, there are a lot of humans who are looking for us. Because we attract humans, no one wants to have packs of my kind in its territory," I answered her as we were walking through the tall grass of large clearing.

Here was the wildest place which I knew, even pokemon didn't live here. It was the ideal place to spend the winter. But I wasn't coming here in the every winter because it was also a little risky. If the temperature in the valley suddenly lowered I could freeze as leafeon, or change to glaceon and die from hunger. Luckily that never happened, but it never was hot enough to be comfortable and it was often raining. But now I had firefox with me and I hoped that she would share some heat when a situation required that.

"But... where is your pack then?" she asked and I looked at her surprised

"What?"

"You always are saying about your kind as a pack but you are alone," she pointed out. "Did you lose your group?"

"No, I just never was in a pack and never joined any," I answered trying not sound sad. I always wanted to join some but there was always something that prevented me from that, usually my nature.

"But you have us," Myron tried to cheer me up, or it was just me who didn't want to feel sad.

I guided us down the narrow and steep descent excavated by water aeons ago and was leading to the valley, unfortunately in the descent was dark. When it was dark then there were no plants and I couldn't stay as leafeon. Staying at the edge of the grassy ground thinking about possible solutions, Naert noticed that I stopped and looked at first at me and then at the dark path.

"You're not telling me that you are afraid of the darkness, are you?" she asked worriedly. I smiled at her.

"Race you!" I yelled and ran at top speed down the hole.

"That's not fair!" I heard her behind as distance between us grew bigger and bigger. Even if leafeons didn't see well in the dark I was seeing as if it was middle of the day. I hoped that Naert wouldn't have much trouble with that either.

Maybe she was now taller, had longer legs and could beat me in our short sparring sessions, but speed wasn't something that she could gain with evolution and a few days of adapting to the wilderness. When I looked behind I saw far behind me an orange light, she was probably lighting up the way. It wasn't far to the end of the passage which was overwhelmed by the light of the day but I didn't manage to reach the end in time before I transformed to eevee and lost a lot of my speed.

Now I could see that orange light was coming closer, she probably didn't even need to run to be faster than me in my current form. She would probably catch me but luckily where the passage ended was in a valley. Without stopping I ran into the thick bushes and lay flat on the ground.

Now! Change! Faster!

I saw that Naert had also exited the passage and was looking around the place, then she lowered her head to the ground and sniffed. She was sniffing a while and finally, her face expression changed to very puzzled. If I were following a leafeon and then sniffed eevee I wouldn't be any less puzzled. I looked at my paws to find that they are still brown. I didn't want to risk forcing a form change but I hadn't much more time. I flattened on the grass, even more, trying to make as much contact with plants as it was possible.

"Um, Myron are you feeling fine?" I heard Naert voice behind which almost made me jump. I fastly looked at her and then again at my paws: they were yellow ended in brown, I managed to change on time.

"Yeah, I am fine," I answered standing up and exiting the bush. " I I-I just became tired because of all this running."

"Oh yes, I have never seen someone running that fast what were you doing before that you became that fast? Racing jolteons?" she spoke, not trying to hide admiration.

Jolteons? It would be too easy.

"Maybe," I said quickly. "Follow me, I will show you some nice place here," As we were to spend here some time I wanted to show her place which I called 'the heart of the valley'. The forest here was the thickest forest which I ever saw. I was here before but since last year new trees and bushes had grown.

Going through all undergrowth was a problem even for me but for Naert it was even worse. To her happiness, we entered 'the heart' of the hideout, which was a round clearing, overgrown on the edges by the thick forest. In the clearing grass was growing randomly white calcareous rocks. In the centre was a small pond with water, so clear that it was possible to count stones at the bottom of the pond.

At the bank of the pond were giant and old willow trees which roots spread far along the land and across the water, making narrow natural bridges through the pond. The spreading crown of twisted willow was like a ceiling, with much smaller but long hanging willowy twigs mixed with small linear glossy leaves, sheltering the whole clearing in its shadow.

I guided Naert to the centre of the clearing at the bank of the pond where sun's rays were penetrating through the great willow crown.

There was no end of Naert's 'wows' and 'ohs' as she admired the clearing from different places around the pond. In the meantime I walked to the willow from the land side and swept aside the layer of leaves with my tail to discover the entrance to the den which I dug in the old times as I started my journey through the new life in this world. I could say that it was first place in which I stopped to live in.

The entrance was just tight enough for me, it needed to be changed. So did I, not only for me to be able to walk in without crawling but also for providing a comfortable entry for Naert. When I entered the den I saw that everything was just as I left it, the interior wasn't small as if it could look because of tight entry. The den was long and wide, full of willow's roots going through the ceiling to the ground and walls like some kind of web but it was still enough place between them to move. Because of the tree roots I could sleep here, not being afraid that I change my form during the sleep. I exited the den and saw that Naert ended her admiration of the environment. The day was about to end so I waved her to come and let her inside of the den first.

"So, did you live here?" she asked when I walked inside.

"Yes, long ago," I answered as I went deeper to the den and lay on the wall of roots.

"What happened?"

Why there needed to something happen?

"Nothing, I just wanted to learn about the world more," I answered.

"I think if I would live in the place like this I wouldn't leave it no matter what," she said lying close to me, between me and exit.

"If I would stay here I wouldn't have met you," I blurted out.

I didn't know why I said it, it just came out before I could even think what would it mean. But I didn't feel regret, I felt good with that. There was warm feeling inside, thoughts were going too fast through my head to understand them. Then I found that we were staring at each other just like before, eye to eye, I into her redness, she into my greyness penetrating each other souls and minds going deeper and deeper, looking for this one thing which both of us felt but were too much afraid to say.

She opened her mouth in attempt to say something and I felt that I froze, was it fear? No, it was something different, something which I couldn't name, something which wanted to be thrown out of me but being at the same time too easy to dissipate, lose by doing that. She breathed, pushed her head a little ahead to me, sighed and closed her mouth.

Words weren't needed, we could understand each other without them. Words could only destroy this moment making unnecessary noise deafen the calling of our thirsty souls. I could see what she wanted to say in her eyes just like she saw my answer in mine. I saw a smile appearing on her face, not some grin, but a smile of happiness which couldn't be mistaken with any other. I felt that the same smile appeared on my face, that wasn't something which could be faked, it needed to come without help.

She moved closer to me, I moved closer to her, being side by side and we laid together wrapped around by tails of ninetales.

This night was cold, a strong wind was blowing through the heart of the valley, the willow was dangerously bending and cracking because of the gust, waving its twigs chaotically with the whole forest around as old primal magic was freed.

Here at the end of the world, this magic becomes stronger than in every other place in the world. Just for this one night which will make history. In this storm, there was a single den under the roots of the old willow where this magic has concentrated, sinking into the two creatures warming the den, which soon will be changed from simple hole under the tree into something greater: into the place of happiness and good memories.

It was me, a mutant of the distortion world, tasting the happiest sensation in this world with only one pokemon who became so precious to me. Maybe later it led me to an angry backlash towards this, towards the sadness that was able to rip heart apart.

But this day I didn't know that, and so it was better.

This night was one of the coldest night in the hidden valley but it was the warmest night of my life.

Oh my, how hot it was.