Fighting 3.15: Kalani
Pixie
January 29, 2020
It somehow, wonderfully, became even colder as you journeyed back to sea level.
Everything else has been going wrong. The stupid rock you scared away came back bigger. And it talks! It keeps following you around asking why you’re marking your scent and how you make things cold. At least before it didn’t tell you how dumb it was. And now Skysong can fly on its back! She can just fly places now if she wants to go somewhere. Without you! And she hasn’t apologized for making you stay with Bloodrage for a night. He stinks, even by human standards, but she dared to laugh when you told her about that.
Now she’s trying to make it up to you. Eggbreath and Eyerock are nowhere to be found. It’s just you and her sitting down by the sea, a brush running through your fur. She’s even promised to carry you away when she’s done so you don’t get sand in everything. You hate sand. It’s coarse, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere.
A gust of cool wind rolls across the beach. Skysong stops brushing you for a moment and pulls her falsefur closer. You barely even notice as you bask in the wonderfully icy air.
The world lights up. You startle and turn to see a radiantly beautiful creature walking towards you, moonlight shining from her fur. She holds her tails up delicately behind her to ensure they do not touch the sand. Her footsteps are silent; you would not have noticed her at all were it not for the light.
“What’s going on, Pix?” Skysong asks. You ignore her. She is not as pretty as the nine-tails in front of you. The fox pauses for a second and her icy blue eyes bore into yours. Then she slowly, gently leans over and reaches down. Her mouth softly settles around the back of your neck and she pulls you out, holding you by the scruff.
Skysong must feel it. She lashes out, flailing a hand at the ice-type and reaching for Eyerock’s ball. The nine-tails drops you and lunges, white tails billowing above you. Your trainer’s back hits the sand and the fox’s snout presses down into hers. A low, powerful growl fills the air. “Stay away from my kit,” the nine-tails demands.
“Your—I thought you were on Ula’Ula?”
The nine-tails ignores her and turns around, picking you up in the same motion. You can hear one tail whipping out to strike Skysong. Kit. This nine-tails doesn’t smell like Avalanche. It isn’t her. No one you know from the mountain. Or the one from the cave. It still feels so nice to be held. Protected. Called family. And Skysong had been mean anyway…
“Wait! I just want to talk!” The nine-tails doesn’t answer. Her mouth is full, after all, and humans insist that it is rude to talk that way.
Red light races towards you and swallows you whole.
*
The world shatters. All of your jumbled thoughts snap back to clarity as everything fragments and collapses or violently explodes around you. Then it all fades just as suddenly and you’re left sprawled out in the sand. Shards of your pokéball are scattered around you. The nine-tails is hunched over you, tails spread wide in an aggressive stance. Skysong is laid out on the ground and groaning softly. Eyerock hovers low nearby. Half its body is coated in a thick layer of ice. Good. It deserved to learn how powerful a nine-tails is. Besides, Skysong’s the one who attacked first. Bruises and blood are a far lesser punishment to what the fox could have done.
Eyerock falls the rest of the way and crashes into the sand. A red beam absorbs him a few seconds later. Skysong doesn’t send out Eggbreath. A shame. They could also use a lesson, too.
Your trainer’s eyes flutter open. “Pixie…” she mutters. {Use roar.}
The nine-tails continues to stare her down. Why is she still trying to fight a guardian of the moon? You knew she was stupid, but this takes things to a new level. You’re certainly not going to fight one.
“Need… help. Call… please.”
She doesn’t even look that hurt. You got your feet and side scorched for her a few days ago. She can take a tackle or scratch or whatever the nine-tails did. Although humans are frail and noseblind. She might not be able to get help on her own. But she does deserve this.
{Have Eggbreath do it.}
She sighs, wincing in pain as she does. Definitely faking things. You can’t even smell that much blood. Her head finally settles into the sand. {Fine. Be safe.}
The nine-tails watches her for a few more seconds before picking you back up by the scruff of the neck. Once you’ve gone a long way down the beach you hear Eggbreath’s pathetic roar behind you. The nine-tails stops for a second and glances back. Then she keeps on moving as if nothing was wrong.
Eventually you find yourself at a wooden structure raised up above the sand. The nine-tails slinks in through a flap in the door and walks to a fluffy bed on the other side of the room. She finally sets you down. Before you can properly look around, she pulls you in with a foreleg and presses you into her side. Her tails come around to blanket you.
It feels so good. So familiar. You didn’t know how much you missed it until now. All of the good memories rising up at once. It’s been years, but you’re finally getting what you deserve.
The nine-tails brings her head over to yours and starts licking your fur. There’s not too much that needs to be done since you were just brushed. She’s still very thorough, making sure that every part of your fur is properly cared for and that you are marked as hers.
“Who are you?” you finally ask. Again, it’s no one you recognize. But she seems to recognize you.
“Kalani.” Her voice is lower than you would have thought. Soft, gentle, dangerous. Perfect for a nine-tails. “Were you born on the mountain?”
“Yes.” You don’t say anything more. This is a very good moment and you don’t want to ruin it by thinking about not good things.
“So was I.”
Exiled, then. Like you. Why would anyone ever abandon her? She’s perfect. She carries herself gently and fights fiercely. Her siblings couldn’t have been better.
Maybe mothers just don’t know their children very well.
The clicking of claws on a hard floor come from another room. Kalani huffs and pulls you closer. You’re surrounded by tails and can’t see who enters the room.
“Who are you talking to?” A canine dialect. His steps sounded heavy yet his voice is low to the ground. What dog is this?
“None of your concern.”
The dog sighs. “Try again.”
“None of your concern.”
There’s a long period of silence.
“There’s an extra heartbeat here. You were talking to someone.”
“None of your concern.”
“I’m telling the boss.”
Kalani’s tails whip around and she gets on all fours. “Do not.”
You can finally see the other canine. He’s a disgusting shade of light brown with sharp things poking out all over. Even worse to cuddle than to look at. Kalani is right to dismiss him. For some reason the other dog does not look intimidated. Just curious.
“Where’d you get that?”
“I found her.”
“You found a vulpix? Just walking around on her own?”
“Yes.”
“No trainer?”
“Yes.”
The ugly dog keeps staring at Kalani before finally looking to you. “Do you have a trainer?”
You aren’t about to contradict a nine-tails.
He snorts. “I’ll let the boss deal with it.” Kalani hisses but the dog doesn’t notice. His steps move farther and farther away. With a low growl Kalani finally lowers herself around you and continues licking your fur into shape.
“Who is he?” you finally whisper.
“Stupid rock. Heard I wanted a kit. Decided he could give me one. He cannot. I do not want my child to be ugly.”
“Smart.”
She huffs and cold air gently flows past your ear. “Yes. You’re better than a half-rock.”
It feels good to hear a nientales praise you. Even if it’s faint praise.
Kalani finally decides that you’re properly groomed. She nuzzles your head. “I won’t leave you.” She says it so softly that only you could hear. Then she settles down to the ground and sprawls out for sleep. She purrs. It goes through your entire body and it’s been so, so long. You purr, too, and soon you both fall asleep with happiness pulsing back and forth between your bodies.
*
The door opens. Loudly. An obnoxious man walks in with something big and unwieldly walking behind him. “You here, Kalani?”
The fox whines in righteous irritation at being woken up from her nap.
“Heh. Feel you, girl. Can I have some light?”
Soft moonlight flows across the room. The irritating clacking sound comes back.
“Alola, Po. How are you doing?”
“Kalani has a vulpix,” he says.
The big pokémon says it back in human tongue. Something like the human tongue, anyway. It’s all subtly wrong, different sounds emphasized or almost silent. It sounds like music, one of the few sometimes-decent things about humans. Its voice is almost as pretty as Kalani’s. You press your face out of Kalani’s fur to see what it is. It’s blue with a long tail and no legs. Random fins stick out everywhere. No fur at all. Terrible. One of the ugliest things you’ve ever seen.
“A vulpix, ay? Where’d you get it.”
“Found her.” Kalani barks it out like a challenge. The strange creature sings it back with the challenge gone.
“Found her? Where at? Down the beach.”
“Yes.”
The human moves on without waiting for the song. He can recognize the simplest of nine-tails sounds. This makes him very smart for a human. “Strange. Just got back from the Center down the way. They’d found this girl laid out on the beach with a set of long cuts on her side. Shredded her clothing and got through to the skin. She was cold, too. Colder than you would’ve expected from the time she’d spent out and the clothing she was wearing.” He pauses. “Wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“No.” The man sighs. Kalani presses on. “Humans get hurt all the time.”
The man sits down when the song ends, his weight settling into hard furniture that creaks along the wooden floor. “She said something snuck up on her. Took her vulpix and froze her metang near solid. Must have been a powerful, stealthy ice-type to do that. Maybe even quieter and stronger than you. What do you think about it? Is there any ice-type better than you around?”
Kalani hisses. It has a meaning every fox should instinctively know: go away or prepare to fight. The man does neither. He kneels down and holds up his hands, palms out.
“I know you want a kit. Trust me, I’ve been working on it. Just fell down the priority list with the darkness and aliens and all that. That doesn’t mean you can just take a vulpix that already has a home.”
“She didn’t have one.”
“I just talked to—”
“Humans can’t give a vulpix a home. You don’t know how.”
The man’s expression changes as the strange pokémon sings. He averts his gaze. Submission.
“I’m sorry you feel that way. But. She has a trainer she seemed happy with. It’s not fair to just take her away like that.”
“She’s happier here.”
Kalani turns to stare at you, finally asking for you to say something. What should you say? Were you unhappy with Skysong? She was going to abandon you eventually and she didn’t understand you, although she did try. Kalani has promised not to leave you. She understands what it’s like to be left alone in a strange place, rejected by someone who should have known better. You can trust her to keep you by her side. And she’s so, so pretty… Kalani runs a paw into your side. It’s time to answer.
“I like being here.”
The creature sings. The man looks disappointed. “Alright,” he says. He slowly stands back up, hands sliding from his thighs to his belt—Kalani disappears and the room is plunged into darkness. “Sorry about all that. She can be a bit much sometimes. A friend of mine, her nine-tails had kits back in November. Kalani’s been obsessed with having her own since then. A rivalry, maybe. Hard to tell with her.”
He makes it sound like nine-tails are irrational and impossible to understand. Even though he can talk to them through his weird companion. You would definitely not stay here for him. Skysong is much better. But you wouldn’t be here for him anyway.
“I’ll bring you back in the morning, okay? Right now your trainer’s in a bit of a rough spot. Wouldn’t do her any good to cuddle with an ice-type while she’s recovering from frostbite.” Since when does frost bite people? Is he saying that Kalani bit her? Because she can’t complain about that after all the times Eggbreath has chomped on you. “I’ll let you get your new ball tomorrow. For now, uh, what do you want to do in the meantime?”
“Can Kalani come back?”
“Oh.” It sounds like he wasn’t expecting that. “I don’t see why not?”
Kalani reappears and engulfs you in her tails.
“Mine,” she growls.
The man doesn’t need a translator.
*
The next morning the man, still unnamed, walks you back down the beach. One of the floating light makers flips through the air beside him. It isn’t nearly as bright as Kalani, but he doesn’t seem to trust her. As if a nine-tails would ever be untrustworthy.
It feels like it takes longer to reach the Pokémon Center than it did to walk away from it. Maybe because you didn’t actually have to walk through yucky sand last night.
Once inside he walks you down the hall to Skysong’s room. She’s in loose falsefur when the door opens. Eyerock floats behind her at the very edge of the light. Eggbreath is nowhere to be seen. You walk through the door and flick a tail into Skysong’s leg so she knows you’re there. She immediately bares her teeth and reaches down to scratch your ear.
“Miss Ichtaca?”
Skysong hums instead of answering, too absorbed in cradling your head in her paws.
“I’m sorry for the trouble. Kalani’s never done anything like that before.”
“Oh? You got your nine-tails to behave? Most of the time, anyway.” She doesn’t sound angry. Amused, really. “You wouldn’t have any tips, would you?”
“Bribery.”
“Figured that one out a while ago.” She gently flips you onto your back and raises you up to the top of her chest. A little higher than usual. “I bought some bloodsicles for you, by the way.”
Your ears perk up. That is one thing that Skysong has and Kalani doesn’t. It may be the only thing, but it is a big one.
“Heh. Seems you’ve got the basics.” He laughs and you squirm against Skysong’s chest. Skysong’s voice means her laughter is fine, but males can still be menacing. Not that they could hurt you anymore. You’re a lot stronger now than you were. “How’s your side healing?”
Skysong slowly lowers you to the ground again. “The scratches still feel cold. Nurse thought there might be a curse woven into it. If it hasn’t ended in a few days I’m supposed to call someone in Hau’oli.”
“I can pay for that.”
“Thank you.” Skysong’s hand locks up. She’s scared. Of him? You’re fine fighting him. Kalani doesn’t seem to like the man, anyway. “It’s a small thing, but…”
“Go on.”
“Can you pay for a new coat? I would mend it myself, but the material is different than anything I’ve worked with.”
“Of course. I have one I can loan out in the meantime. It used to be Selene’s, actually, but she outgrew it…” Selene. Firemane. Why does this man know Firemane? Your suspicions only grow. “And I brought you one more thing. If you can hold your hand out.” It’s a pokéball. Cold radiates off of it. How? “It’s a glacier ball. Kalani tolerates hers. Thought it would be a good replacement for her old one.”
Cuicatl reaches out and the man presses it into her hand. She then lowers it to you. “You can press the button,” she says. A pokéball that even a nine-tails could like? You’re interested. You press your snout into it and feel the world fall away.
…
You still exist. That’s new. You glance around to see rocky craigs covered in snow and ice. Freezing wind runs through your fur. There’s a cave with a bed in it cut into one cliff face. You head over, gracefully moving through the snow like you were born for it. Because you were, in fact, born for it. The winds die away the moment you enter the cave. The bed itself is warm but not hot. It’s comforting. And boring. You have beds outside.
The snow is deep enough to bury yourself into. And to stay buried in. You haven’t been able to do this in years. There are cliffs to explore still. More territory to examine and mark. You can take care of all of that later. Now you want to take a nap under the snow and imagine that Avalanche is watching over you.
*
The snow disappears and you find yourself lying next to Skysong in the dark. You’re almost disappointed. A pokéball that’s good rather than just not terrible. Why didn’t you have one of these before? She runs a hand through your fur. “Can I check you over? Make sure you aren’t hurt?”
“I’m not.”
“I would like to be sure.”
She checks you for injuries by petting you. This is acceptable, even if she won’t find anything.
“Okay.”
She feels cooler than usual. Still warm, but not as intensely. Is that the air being cold? You being cold? The curse? You turn your eye to the world of spirits. Nine-tails can move spirits around to let them go or curse the living. Vulpix can only see them, and even that requires a lot of focus. There’s a pale blur running by Skysong over her usual swirling green and black. Probably the scratches. She said that she still feels cold… that’s a small curse. Make her always cold so she understands what it’s like for you to be always hot. Barely even counts as a curse at all. Unless it lasts. Then always being the wrong temperature is terrible.
She really shouldn’t have pissed off a nine-tails. What did she think was going to happen?
“Where’s Eggbreath?” you ask. Did they get hurt? They might stop biting you if they saw what a nine-tails can really do.
“With Kekoa. I wanted to have some time alone with you. Mostly alone. Noci refuses to leave my side right now. Sorry about that.”
You can’t see it in the darkness but you assume the rock is staring at you from somewhere. That’s always a safe bet. What will it do when you bring the light back? Hiding will be much harder for something so big and ugly.
“You promised blood.” You almost forgot after your snow nap. You’re glad you remembered. It seems you got hungry in the ball.
“Right. Let me grab one.” She awkwardly shuffles along until she finds the box you keep filled with ice. You start drooling in a very dignified manner as soon as the smell hits you. “I’ll give it to you in the tub. Easier to clean up that way.”
“I am a very clean eater.”
“I know. Just want to be sure.”
You huff. If you weren’t getting frozen blood out of this then you’d be more upset.
It’s easy to follow the scent of blood. Then you get to devour it. Blood is maybe the best food. The taste of rich metal. A feeling of warmth in your gut that’s like being snuggled from the inside. The feeling of dominance over your prey. This blood is cold and you didn’t have to kill anything for it, but it still reminds you of love and victory. Besides, you need cool more than warm near the sea. Even if the moon eater made everything colder.
Maybe you can put off defeating it for a little while longer.
*
Skysong is a worse cuddler than Kalani. She’s wrapped around you but can’t fully surround you in her tails. She can’t keep altering the temperature so you’re always comfortable. You can’t feel protected by her because you’re the one protecting her. Sometimes she wakes up screaming at something that isn’t there.
You had enjoyed cuddling with her just two nights ago. She was flawed. Still is. But at least she was warm and looked after you. Now it feels like the bar should be higher.
Humans can’t give vulpix a home.
Is she wrong? Humans have tried to give you a home. Maybe they could succeed. A nine-tails could still do it better.
The one in the cave, though, he told you to go back to Skysong. Why? He didn’t seem to like humans that much. Wanted you to settle for someone who could just understand your words.
A faint pink light shines by the door. You perk up and listen as gears turn and a lock clicks. Moonlight floods the room as the door is pushed open. Kalani enters, radiant as always. She walks over, feet nearly silent even on the wooden floor, and picks you up in her mouth. Skysong shivers and murmurs something without waking up. “Alice…”
Alice. Again with Alice. The sister that she told you about. That she’ll choose over you.
Kalani turns around and leaves the room. You don’t alert Skysong. Eyerock stays perched in its corner unmoving. Good. It learned its lesson about fighting nine-tails. Liar is fast asleep in her bed. The human who keeps watch over the entry is also asleep when you pass. Humans. Can’t even stay awake right.
Kalani only sets you down when you’re back inside of her home. She immediately sweeps you up in her tails and starts licking you over, just like last night. Checking for injury like Skysong, maybe. She eventually seems satisfied and uses a tail to press you against her body.
“What’s your name?” she asks.
Had you never told her?
“Pixie.”
She growls. “I thought that was a joke.”
“Sixthborn of Avalanche. My old name.”
“She didn’t want you.”
It claws into your lungs to hear that said by a nine-tails. “No. She didn’t.”
“I want you.”
You start purring in anticipation and joy. You’re wanted. Wanted by someone who matters.
“Firstborn of Kalani. That is your new name.”
“You’re my mother now?” You think so. You hope so. A part of you is terrified you heard that wrong.
“Yes. You are my firstborn. I will never leave you.”
*
The man finds you in the morning. He and Kalani fight again.
“You can’t do this,” he says.
“You cannot stop me,” she answers. “This is my firstborn. I will not let you take her.”
The man walks out, muttering something about Mondays.
You should really name him at some point. Or ask Kalani. “Does he have a name?”
“Openliver. He doesn’t wear falsefur over his chest. Dares enemies to attack his organs. He survives anyway.” There’s something like respect in her words. Then it fades as she snarls and sends out waves of cold. “I will destroy your captor if she takes you again. Curse her until she wishes to die and finds the spirits unwilling to take her. I will do the same to Openliver if he tries to take you.”
You’re torn. The promise of protection settles over you like a blanket. She’s protecting you from the wrong person, though. “Skysong looked after me. Don’t curse her.”
Kalani growls. “Has she been good to you? What does she do? Get in the way of attacks? Hunt for you? Keep you cold on hot days? She can’t understand you. Humans are useful tools. They can never be family. Not even friends.”
“She can speak to me. Mind stuff. And she listens to my stories…”
Because they’re useful to her. She didn’t ask about them much before she needed them to keep Eggbreath.
“Doesn’t matter. Bubbleface can talk to both of us. He still doesn’t understand. They cannot. We are brilliant lords of the cold. They are dull, treacherous servants of the sand. They will take what they can use and reject everything else.”
“The nine-tails in the cave said that.” Something like that. About humans not being able to understand us. “He said that we’re trapped.”
Kalani growls. “An old fool. He has forgotten what matters. Nothing could trap us.”
“Who is he?” you ask. “I didn’t know we lived wild off the mountain.”
“We don’t,” she hisses. “Only him. I don’t know his name. Don’t care. It doesn’t matter. The curse matters.”
Right. She isn’t done with Skysong. Um. She isn’t that bad? For a human. It’s not her fault she was born furless, dumb, and weak. “They’ll try to hurt you if you curse someone.” You think she could take care of herself. It just feels wrong to torture someone who at least tried to keep you happy.
“Green-eyes fought the sun himself to save her children. I will do the same if I must.”
The sun demanded to eat one of Green-eyes’ children. She refused. Green-eyes fought the sun for a full day before the sun had to sleep for the night. They fought again for eight more days before she stood victorious and drove the sun away. That is why it is so easy to keep The Mountain cold – the sun does not wish to go there.
She only had two left when the sun came. If he had just come a little earlier than she would have let him eat one. The love and power of a nine-tails mother is unmatched, but only once their two have been chosen. Kalani comparing herself to Green-eyes means that you have been chosen. Another happy feeling fills your tails.
*
Skysong comes to Kalani’s home to meet you. The nine-tails stays inside, seething after she ceded the argument to Openliver. She would not have allowed you to meet her at all, especially not without her present. Kalani’s forced to stay behind the door listening in.
“Hello,” Skysong says while you approach. There’s wood here so you don’t have to sit on the beach. Good. “Can I check you over?”
You don’t need it, but it’s still petting. You hop up onto her lap and let her run her paws through your fur.
“She adopted me.”
“I heard.” Skysong doesn’t sound happy about that. At all. {Are you sure about this? You’ve only known her for two nights? What if she isn’t what you think?}
{She adopted me.}
Skysong sighs and sets her paws down on either side of you.
{I’m not saying you can’t stay with her. I just want to give you some time to make your choice. I have an offer in the meantime.} Is she using you? Kalani said she would. That she always was. {I’ll give you two chances to prove how strong you are to Kalani. Once she sees that she’ll definitely never want to leave you.}
She wants you to fight for her. Again. You want to say no. Kalani will protect you. Skysong makes you protect her. But her words make you pause as a shiver of doubt runs through you. What if even Kalani will leave you? She invoked Green-eyes. You are now her firstborn and she will fight to the death to protect you. There is no longer a need to let some children die and make some children leave. But Avalanche left you without a second thought. {What would I fight?}
{A bug and a crab.}
Insects. You can crush insects. It will be a good show of your strength.
{I will fight them.}
{Thank you.} Her paws find your fur again. {I hope you stay with me. I love you, really, but I won’t keep you from family.} “Just know that even after” {the fights are over and} “I leave for another island, you’ll always have a home with me if you need one.”
Skysong’s lying to you even if she doesn’t know it.
Humans can’t give vulpix a home.