Main Story
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My father was always kind to me and very peaceful and calm. Even more so, ever since my mother died some weeks after giving birth to me. My name was Aria; I was a young female Vulpix at that time. I won't lie, I was kind of weak. I relied on my father for killing other Pokémon in the forest so they could be brought back to me so we could both have eaten. He didn't want me to come with him when he decided to go hunting as he thought that I might have gotten hurt. That was reasonable, of course, but I grew bored sometimes by myself. He never allowed me to stray away from him and adventure for myself.
"Once you have evolved, then you can do what your heart desires. Until then, follow the rules and stay still until I get back."
He used to tell me that most of the time, which I thought was a little bit stupid. Even though he was already a strong and powerful Ninetales, and could handle his battles for himself, if he wanted me to evolve, he should have let me go hunt with him more often than he normally did, which was almost never. Before I evolved, I had to learn the skills to hunt, so it didn't make sense to keep me sheltered all of the time.
That was the day that I finally gathered up the courage to ask him.
"Daddy, could I start to hunt with you? I think I'm capable of doing so now."
We sat down that day close to our den. It was in the evening and the sun was about to have set soon.
"Let me think for a minute... no."
"But how do you expect me to evolve if I don't have much experience in hunting? It doesn't make any sense!"
I slammed my left paw down at the ground. My father looked surprised as he looked at me. He had never seen me like this before, and neither had I. It took him a minute before he could speak.
"That's right... you won't be making any progress at all..."
He looked angry as he looked down at the ground, mad at himself rather than at me.
"Okay Aria, I understand how you feel, you'll hunt with me whenever I go out. We start tomorrow; be ready."
I could not have believed what he had said then and there for a moment. I was actually going to be able to hunt with my father every time we needed food. I was extremely happy.
"Thanks, Daddy! You won't regret it, I promise!"
He smiled briefly, but by the time that conversation was done, it was night already. We had walked into the den to go to sleep, but I wasn't able to sleep until about three hours had passed. I was too excited and way too curious about how evolution would have been like for me. I knew I was going to like to become a Ninetales like my father, but I didn't know if the process would have hurt or how long it would have taken. I had so many questions, but I ignored all of them and fell asleep.
The next day was incredible. I felt so good hunting with him, and each Pokémon we killed was an easy target. What we had done for every kill was that he would sniff out the Pokémon and see if they were with a pack or a group. If there was only a small group consisting of three or four Pokémon, he would take out most of them and leave one remaining so we could both take that last one down. That was mostly how the process was, except for the last Pokémon we hunted, which was a Rattata.
Since he said that I was so good at hunting, he decided to let me take it down all by myself. I was ecstatic at that moment. The first Pokémon that I had beaten myself was a Rattata. It was a little hard to have to catch up to it with it's speed, but with a simple Quick Attack, the job was done. He was very proud of me. After that, we just went to the den since the day was so successful and chatted for a while.
"How does evolution feel like? Does it hurt?"
"No, not at all, Aria. It's actually very surprising once you have realized that you have evolved. Your entire body starts to glow and all of a sudden, you start to grow bigger and your body starts to change form."
Maybe it's the way he said it, but that still sounded like if it was going to hurt. However, I took his word for it and asked him a few other questions that aren't worth mentioning before we went to sleep. All I knew was that I had to work harder and harder and eventually I would evolve; that's what he'd told me before.
Three long days had passed after the last day, and my hunting skills were growing to be better day after day. My father let me take on more Pokémon by myself that were more powerful than a mere Rattata, but Pokémon that were still easy to take down eventually and more on my level.
I noticed something weird though, something that really startled me a little. On the second day of hunting out of the four days in total, my father went out of the den in the middle of the night and came back some hours later. I didn't get out of the den at all and had just pretended to have been asleep when he came back. It was odd. He had never done that before, but I passed it off as nothing.
On the fifth day of hunting, it was normal. We were successful and were able to have eaten three medium-sized Pokémon before night came.
"I'm still a little hungry, Aria, it'll just be one more Pokémon, I promise."
I guessed that was reasonable, since he was a Ninetales and I was only a Vulpix, he would require a lot more to have eaten than just three medium-sized Pokémon, otherwise he would have been hungry that night and probably stay up until morning with a growling stomach.
"That's fine, Daddy. I'll just follow you there."
He nodded and we ran to the location, it was a little far from our den but not too far. Most of the times we hunted, my father always had to wait up for me or try to match my speed because I ran a little slower than he did. Actually, I don't want to lie, it was a LOT slower, but this time, he was actually almost running a little slower than I was. I didn't know why, but I ignored it. Eventually, we reached the location but there were no Pokémon in sight.
"Daddy, where's the Pokémon you wanted to eat?"
He didn't say a word. He just looked down on the ground and had a sad expression on his face.
"Daddy?"
It happened then and there as he slashed at me with such a force that I flew and crashed into a tree.
Somehow, I was still left conscious when I fell down to the ground, but the pain was tremendous. Not like one that I had ever felt before in my life. I opened my eyes and saw him as he walked up to me slowly with his sharp teeth exposed from his mouth still bloody from his meal before.
"Sorry, Aria, you're the Pokémon I'm going to eat."
That was it. I thought that I was done for, that my own father was going to swallow me whole. His voice was so deep and serious that it froze me in place for a few seconds before I came to my senses. I hated what my instincts told me, but I knew I had to survive. I knew that I couldn't try to run away yet, he's faster than me and that would just be too easy for him. I don't know what I should have done, but I had to do something, and I had to do it fast.
I ran to the left and jumped up a tree as quick as I could, trying not to pant or make a single sound to give my location away. He walked around the area slowly; he didn't seem to know where I was exactly, just what I had hoped for.
"You can't hide forever, Aria, when I find you, there will be no escape."
I was scared out of my mind, but somehow, I managed to fight back. I waited until he came up close to the tree I was in and jumped down, using my claws to scratch his left eye. He growled and yelled in pain, but as much as I loved him as a father, I just ran. Love was nothing at this point. I ran and ran, but something that was shining in the distance caught my attention. Even though I was trying to run for my life, I somehow couldn't ignore it and went to it to see what it was.
It was a gem, no, a stone that had a flame inside of it. I was surprised, never had I seen something like that ever before. It had a warm and bright glow that shined in the shadows. Without hesitation, I touched it with my paws. Before I knew it, I was a Ninetales. As surprised and happy as I was with my new evolution, I knew a simple scratch in the eye wasn't about to have kept my father back from having me being eaten by him, so I ran. It was a little hard to get used to, my speed had greatly increased from the disappointment it was before, it wasn't even funny. Before I knew it, I had gotten away. I passed hills, mountains and plains until I finally reached another forest.
As exhausted as I was, I didn't stop running until I passed out and woke up the next morning. I was safe and I was able to have gotten away from my father successfully. I had waken up to the sound of a nearby voice of another Pokémon. When I got up and was fully conscious, I had seen a Mightyena right in front of me. He asked me if I was alright and told me to come with him. He didn't seem dangerous, but at that time I had a splitting headache and my back was hurting a lot, so I just tried to keep my guard up just in case. I followed him to one of his dens and he offered me some Sitrus Berries he had saved up inside. There were lots of other berries as well in different dens as well, I was impressed.
I ate the Sitrus Berries and felt a whole ton better. After that, we just talked and got along. I had finally made a true friend.
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Conclusion
Nine months later, the Mightyena I met before became my mate. His name was Hyperion. A very nice and funny Pokémon, once you got to know him. He had many friends in the forest as well, which I began to know as time passed. At first they didn't like me since I was a Fire-type and they thought that I would burn down their forest, but Hyperion vouched for me to stay, and they agreed as long as I promised I wouldn't burn it down, and I would have to try to be careful if I released fire from my body.
I've switched from eating other Pokémon to eating berries now. I've only done this because I don't want to inflict harm on others anymore unless I have to, otherwise, I would remember that dreadful night and the rest of my grim past. I just wanted to stay away from all that and look to the future.
Thinking about the situation with my father and everything, I don't think he was actually trying to eat me. He couldn't have possibly been. If he was, I would have been dead by now. That night was most likely a setup in which he pretended to want to eat me to try to let me finally evolve. Before, I thought that I had to just get stronger in order to evolve, but all I had to do was touch a stone and voila, you're evolved. That night was set up so that I could have evolved then and there. He's been through a lot worse before than just a single scratch to an eye. Besides, he could have just sniffed the air and found me as well, then have burned down the tree I was in. He just made sure I had the necessary skills and mindset to have survived by myself.
On the second day of hunting, that might have been the time when he had set all of this up, the next two days were just to see if he could have proceeded with this plan of his. After I had improved so well in hunting, that was why he initiated his plan on the next day. He knew that if he let me run away after that, that I would be safe to face almost any opponent, but why not do it the easy way?
By the easy way, I meant that he could have just showed me the fire stone, then told me that I could have handed myself in the wild by myself soon after that, but that would have had no guarantee. If he did that, I might have never wanted to go away by myself and I might have only wanted to stay with him. At least with this other method of pretending to kill me and eat me, he could have ensured that I ran away.
This evolution is both a curse and a blessing. I grow more intelligent every day, gradually. It's like my brain is able to have information processed into my memory from around the world. Somehow, I'm able to speak different languages now that humans speak, apart from my native tongue. I also know that this evolution is a very ancient one that has been granted to our kind a long time ago. It has expanded our lifespan of one to fifteen regular years as Vulpix to one to one hundred ninety-nine years after evolving into Ninetales, with the rare case of a few Ninetales that have lived to be 1,000 years old. Along with this evolution are many supernatural powers that are considered to be godly as well.
With the curse, all my friends and everyone I have known will die of natural causes before I do, even my beloved Hyperion. Even with how amazing knowing almost everything is, it's still scary thinking of some of the things that exist in this solar system that many don't even know about. It's enough to make you think and only think for a thousand years without end. Sometimes, in my dreams, I see visions of the future and of different universes, some that are more similar to ours than we think. Many disasters can be seen as well, both natural and man-made. There are even some so terrible, that I can't even begin to fathom. I got used to all of them though.
I just miss my father so much. Even with all the knowledge of the world, I still have so many questions to ask him about this evolution. One day, I went to check the forest we lived in before. I checked the den and everything, but he had just disappeared without a trace. I know that I'll see him again; one dream I had showed me that I would. I just don't know how long or when exactly, but one day, I'll see him again, definitely.
One day.
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Credited to ID