Chapter 1.3: Time skip no jutsus.
An: fun fact, I had chapters 2 and 3 written already, but I had second thoughts due to the story progressing too fast so chapters 1.0, chapter 1.1 etc were born.
-Drought-
I'm back in my human body?
Looking over my room, I notice that it seems more empty now, leaving me a lot of space while some of the furniture still left here is a blurry mess that I can't interact with.
'Huh. I guess I'm losing more things as I go.' I said to myself.
Walking towards the mirror, I look at my reflection and see a blanked-out face with black hair covering my eyes while my body is human-shaped white light with black borders to pronounce the shape. Looking closely, I can't tell if I'm still wearing clothes or not.
"What color are my eyes again?'' I said out loud.
I sighed and walked towards the door to try and open it, only to realize that the door isn't actually a door. It looks like a wall sticker meant as a decoration so I can't even explore what was left of the house I used to live in.
If it was my house in the first place.
'Did I used to live in a bungalow or a house with multiple floors?' I asked myself if I could recall anything.
'I wonder what my childhood was like, I remember anime and games I used to play so why not something with more meaning.'
'Before I became Drought, who even was I before this?'
'Someone important? Someone who did something bad?'
I can't remember.
'Did I die?'
I can't rem-
…
I woke up with a gasp, wondering what the hell caused me to wake up.
After thoroughly searching the area for any ghost or psychic activity, I went back to sleep after finding nothing.
…
Approximately a week has passed since the great heist, things have become harder especially with the weather taking a turn for the worst. The light snowfall I experienced daily turned heavier and heavier until my ability could barely make a ray of sunshine when I decided to actually come out of my tree.
To dig a burrow of course!
I remember foxes and smaller mammals do this kind of thing to protect themselves from the elements, especially since I noticed that the tree is now barely protecting me from the cold so it got demoted to being a Summer house instead.
"Digging a hole! Diggy diggy hole!" I sang to myself.
Due to the weather getting worse, I deduced that Ivy and Exeggutor won't be showing up anymore. I barely come out of my new den and it's only when I'm pushing out dirt or going to the bathroom. Otherwise, I spent the entire week digging and sleeping.
Unfortunately, I don't have any leaves or grass to soften the ground so I sleep on the floor like a damn peasant.
Another unfortunate news is that the beedrill colonies have retreated further into their territory after our raid, doubling their alertness.
But now, with the weather dying down I decided to go all out and make sure I'm bringing back a kill tonight due to my stocked food being brought down to half capacity.
Especially with the feeling I got that this was the "calm before the storm."
-0-
Moving through the trees slowly, my eyes are scanning the area for movement while taking a peek at the sky from time to time because aerial predators are a thing and I need to lose that old human habit of thinking that the skies are safe.
It's currently midday, and I'm slowly lurking from branch to branch. Only jumping when I'm certain the coast is clear.
Fun fact. Pokemon are trichromatic, which means they are sensitive to red, green, and blue like humans.
That, unfortunately, means that hunting in the daytime was not ideal for me, especially with my glorious golden fur sticking out like a sore thumb where all the trees are covered in white snow and all the leaves have fallen off, giving me zero to no cover.
While the paths below are also covered in snow making it hard for me to travel unless I take the footpath everyone pokemon takes, making me a sitting farfetch'd.
At times like this, I curse my short adorable form.
Suddenly, my ears twitched to the sound of movement causing me to crouch low into the branch.
I spotted a bushy tail with cream-colored fur at the tip. After a mental recount of the pokemon I've encountered, I now identify this tail belongs to an eevee.
From what I remembered from exeggutor's lessons, eevee are below me on the supposed "food chain" but I never took it to heart due to my belief that everyone can get strong enough to break the pecking order if they tried hard enough.
Which is why I'm just silently observing my possible meal before making a move since I have no idea if this eevee can fight back due to its nature being omnivorous but I'm mostly following it since something else might come along for me on intercept.
After observing the eevee for at least a couple of seconds, I began to realize that the eevee itself wasn't having much luck in the food department because I swore I heard its stomach rumbling earlier.
I sighed, as I decided to approach the eevee because I remembered myself when I first woke up and of my past experience where I had nowhere to go while starving.
It was a horrible feeling and I didn't like it. "Of all times I decided to have morals." I muttered to myself causing the eevee below me to squeak in surprise, looking around for what made the noise.
"Hi." I greeted clearly.
The eevee quickly looked up after hearing my voice causing it to panic as it puffed up its tail, trying to make itself look bigger. "W-what do you want?!" Too bad she's shaking in fear or shivering from the cold which ruined her threat display.
"Nothing, but you can come with me and eat." I softly said with a smile.
Unfortunately, I suck at reassuring pokemon as that only caused her to snarl at me. "Taurus shit! What are you really after!"
'Um crap.'
I shrugged. "Nothing, really. I was just in a similar situation myself before and I felt bad when I was looking at you."
Before she could reply, I jumped down from my tree causing her to flinch as her eyes darted between me and all possible escape routes.
Upon seeing her about to bolt, I laid down in a relaxed posture like a sphynx, meaning if she ran now, I would be at a disadvantage if I decided to chase her.
The eevee seeing this, relaxed a bit and is now looking around me if I came alone or anything suspicious. "Alright, I'll either get something to eat or it won't be my problem anymore."
I nodded at her dark humor. "Since you look like you don't have the energy to go branch hopping, I guess we're just gonna walk there."
And with that, my new friend warily followed after.
…
Surprisingly, Rngeesus still loves me. I love my plot relevance!
Because at the corner of my eye, I spot a lone noctowl eyeing the obviously weakened eevee lagging behind me.
Oh, what luck! What fate! What an evil fortune!
This cocky bird forgot it was morning and that was my domain especially since it didn't have the cover of darkness. While its brown feathers helped it hide itself, I detected it through sight and hearing when it took off into the air.
'Big mistake, bucko. I heard you, I got your ass now.' I thought to myself as I charged an ember shot in my mouth.
I waited to fire until the noctowl was a few feet away from swooping down on the STILL unsuspecting eevee.
Everything grayed out as everything slowed down, I turned around, mouth open. The first fire bullet flies out towards the noctowl.
Pew!
As the bullet flies in the air, surprising the eevee at my sudden actions as I fired over her head, hitting the surprised noctowl in the face causing it to flinch.
Pew!
Another shot fires out, hitting it in one of its wings making it spin uncontrollably while I advanced forward and fired another shot, Pew! Managing to hit it in its left talon.
My eevee friend finally managed to react as her tail glows white in power then she did a sweeping motion with her tail as yellow stars came out and barraged the spinning noctowl.
Time finally goes back to normal as colors returned, the barrage of projectiles hitting the noctowl and the uncontrolled spinning was too much for it to retake control of its flight, causing it to crash into the snow in between myself and the eevee.
I quickly dashed forward with quick attack, landing a solid hit on the downed noctowl causing it to groan in pain. The noctowl raised its head, trying to peck at me but was knocked forward towards me as the eevee also crashed into it with quick attack while I took advantage as my jaws lit on fire and bit down on its exposed throat.
The noctowl tried to talk but I shook, ripping out a good chunk of its throat.
I spat out the feathers then quickly checked the area for any follow-ups, the eevee was taking deep breaths at the sudden burst of movement she had to do while weakened.
After confirming the noctowl's death, I started dragging the body toward my den. "Let's go before anything else tried to take advantage."
My new eevee friend quickly realized that helping me would be her best bet at survival and grabbed a wing, helping me drag the body.
She let go of the wing. "So…I'm Vee, this is my first winter alone, and thanks for taking me in because I was pretty sure I wouldn't have made it." My new companion introduced herself while she mumbled the last part while biting down on the wing again to continue dragging it away.
With my mouth biting down on the Noctowl, I just nodded.
We finally reached the ring of large trees that acts as my fence. I dragged the body into a small mound of snow and started burying the body in it.
I cleared my throat, getting Vee's attention who was looking around the place. "Name's Drought." I replied while walking towards one of my stashes.
"Named after the ability?" She asked, I nodded. "Why choose that name of all things to call yourself?" she asked me.
I shrugged, I dug out one of the oldest bodies I have in storage. That young rattata I murdered weeks ago. "It's what everyone's been calling me."
She looked at me in confusion. "You didn't choose your own name or use the one your parents gave you?"
I shrugged again as I started defrosting the body while using the fire to give it a slight char. "Been alone since the beginning, currently trying to catch up on things anyone's supposed to know."
Vee winced and was about to apologize but I just waved her off using my tail to do the gesture. "It's fine, I don't get why everyone's making a big deal out of it." Then I handed her the roasted rattata.
"What do you mean by things everyone's supposed to know?" Vee asked while sniffing the rattata.
"River truce, not fucking with pokemon that are "supposed" to be stronger than me."
She blinked. "I understand the first, but what about stronger pokemon?"
"I've almost killed a pidgeotto before until it decided to fly away, that noctowl earlier was smaller and a lot slower. If it had stayed, I would have had a free meal by now."
Vee just gave me a look while taking a bite of the rattata. "You don't understand the significance of that do you." She said it in a tone of fact, not as a question.
I turned to her. "Nope, my two other friends said the same thing." Noctowls and Pidgeottos aren't even pseudo legendary and earlier gen pokemon have pretty bad stats anyway so I don't understand her problem.
She sighed. "And they said something about us being weaker?"
I shake my head. "They said I had a disadvantage."
Vee just huffed. "What else happened?"
"Well, there was a raticate that tried to take it over." I said nonchalantly.
She just deadpanned at me. "Let me guess, you almost killed it again until it managed to escape."
I sagely nodded. "Unfortunately."
While Vee was eating, I went to the boundary and used my tail to sweep the snow, erasing our footsteps and drag marks. She raised a brow at me, but a quick explanation had her continuing the walk onward.
After a while, Vee finished her meal, leaving nothing but bones.
After she finished eating, Vee sat next to me with a grateful smile on her face. "Thank you, really. I expected this was a trap and I was about to die."
I just shrugged. "I had you dead to rights earlier, if I wanted you dead I would have just." I raised a paw and extended my claws as it glowed in power, as I slashed through the air.
Vee just paled in color and muttered. "A vulpix that knows the move slash."
"It's just slash, I don't see the big deal about it." I mean, it's a 70 power move with higher crit ratio but moves like hyper beam and giga impact exist.
Surprisingly, face palms or paws in this case is an expression in the pokemon world because Vee is doing it right now.
"It may not be the move that does the most damage, but it's the lethality of it." Vee said with a sigh. "Describe it for me on how it feels when you are forming the move, Drought."
"Ohh, I discovered it by focusing the energy on my claws and then folding it into itself to prevent any leaks or excess until it reaches into that I guess."
"That right there is the reason!" Vee cut in, using a paw to point at me.
I tilt my head. "That the energy is focused?"
"Yes! While a hyper beam, giga impact can hurt, almost no normal pokemon can do enough damage to obliterate a pokemon flat out. While cutting or biting moves like slash, drawing blood is a near guarantee." Vee explained.
I nodded at her logic since I remembered that pokemon really are made of tougher stuff, since that branch that fell on the growlithe should've caused serious injury on a person back on Earth, not give it a bonk on the head.
Meaning a move that near guarantees piercing the skin, would be more fatal than a more spread-out attack.
We spent the whole day talking about random topics until night finally came. I invited Vee to sleep with me in the burrow, but she insisted on sleeping at the treehouse.
As I was about to sleep, I heard movement entering my den. That specific entrance has to be opened by moving a decently sized log and considering only one pokemon knows about that entrance, I instantly knew who it was.
"Heh, I knew you'd come around." I smirked at the Eevee at my doorstep.
Vee shivered as another gust of wind caused her to rush inside. "S-shut up!" She stuttered as she covered the entrance.
After covering it, she walked towards me and laid down for warmth.
I wrapped my tail around her like a blanket, because she's pretty decent in a fight and I didn't want her to die. "When the weather gets better, we need to get more food."
"Y-yeah, but berries are now gone and pidgeys left for warmer areas." Vee said between shivers.
I rolled my eyes. "We're not going after pidgeys."
…
After a moment of silence, Vee just sighed.
"Whatever, I'm tired so you can tell me your plan tomorrow." Vee said and snuggled closer. "How are you even still alive at this point?"
"Beats me."
-0- Interlude. -0-
-Vee-
Being born in the warmer seasons while being spoiled rotten by her over-protective family really puts it into perspective that running away was a really bad idea.
At first, everything was easy. Food was plentiful where you wouldn't need to walk more than 10 feet and you would find a berry bush, she even managed to hunt her first pidgey and it was glorious!
But of course, all good things must end. The cold crept in like a ghost pokemon in the night. Then suddenly, the berry shrubs are giving less and less fruit, while her prey are now used to her patterns and have countermeasures against her while some are guarded by their older forms.
It was as if everything was turning against her!
And then there was a snowstorm that completely buried her shelter. Granted, it was an old tree stump so it collapsing from the weight of the piled-up snow should've been obvious.
Hindsight was twenty-twenty, but it was a lesson learned to find a better shelter to protect her from the elements because it was only considered a light snowstorm according to the other pokemon at the river.
Meaning, finding a place sturdy enough for a heavier one is a must.
Unfortunately, her luck ran out a week ago. Now here she was, half-starved and freezing from the cold trying to find a place to stay.
'Why the hell did I leave home again?' She thought to herself. 'Oh, right. I wanted to do things for myself.'
"Of all times I decided to have morals." A voice suddenly spoke out, causing all the hairs on her back to raise.
Vee looked left, right, and even behind her, but she couldn't find where it came from.
"Hi." The voice came again but clearer, allowing her to pinpoint it coming above her.
Little did she know, that meeting would change her life forever.
…
Vee couldn't comprehend with what she just, witnessed. A noctowl was about to swoop down and eat her! She couldn't decide if she should be grateful that her new friend saved her life or angry that she was used as bait.
The fox was quick on the attack that by the time she reacted, he already landed 3 hits on her would-be attacker. Of course, she wasn't idle and got her hits in, but she can see the difference in their attacks. While hers are more spread out and weaker, his are more focused and aimed for vital areas.
Especially with him not hesitating on using fire fang, ripping out the noctowl's throat. The bird didn't even get the chance to plead for its life. It seems her new friend wasn't in the mood for talking and that scared her.
That kind of behavior was described as a trait for savage pokemon, the same kind her mother and siblings used in stories to scare her.
…
Update, she got food and shelter. Drought, the name that he introduced himself in is the embodiment of a feral pokemon. He doesn't use grass or leaves for bedding, he doesn't hesitate in ending another life, he always go for the kill.
Granted, he's nice enough to take pity on her due to similar situations, but whoever taught him the basics of etiquette probably had a headache, I just had to explain to him the lethality of some moves which got him into deep thinking.
She has decided that she has enough for the night, and let the fox scheme while she catches up on some sleep.
An: Chapters 2 and 3 got scrapped respectively, the story was going in a direction I didn't like. I'm hoping I picked the right one.
Name: Drought
Species: Kantoan Vulpix
Ability: drought - triggers sunny day, which causes a radius around the user to magnify fire-type attacks and the sun.
Known moves: NEW UPDATE: [L] symbol has been added to signify a move that has been deemed lethal by normal standards.
Fire fang [L] - covers the fangs with fire.
Ember shot - instead of multiple small fires sent towards an enemy, it is compressed into 6 shots giving it more stopping power.
Quick attack - activated before jumping or running while deactivating mid-air, only used to gain momentum.
Fury swipes - not gonna be used lol
Slash [L]- Normal-type energy folded together and compressed into an edge, very sharp.
Things discovered.
River truce: In the absence of predatory water pokemon, the river will be treated as a neutral ground where no one is to hunt. Ponds, lakes don't count if there is a bigger source of water.
Type weakness: Type weaknesses are not straight forward like in the game. Ex. A weak fire type move versus a steel type will do nothing due to the temperature not being hot enough.
Steel types are weak to fire by sudden changes in temperature and need time to adapt. Ex. Steelix burrows deep down into the earth where it will be hotter than regular fire.
Companions:
Name: Vee
Species: Eevee?
Ability: ?
Known moves:
Quick attack - covers the user in normal type energy, boosting their movement for attack.
Swift - fires projectiles that locks onto an enemy. it cannot miss.