Normal 1.6: Through the City of Fire
Pixie
October 7th, 2019
You hear one of the humans talking to everyone and no one. She turns towards your cage and unlocks it before reaching in to pull you out. After she runs a forepaw along your side she seems to decide that you’re okay. Reality disappears in a flash of red.
What is this?
…
Is this place a place or not?
…
How would you know?
…
Who is you?
…
There were just thoughts.
…
What are thoughts?
…
This.
…
There was something before.
…
What is ‘befor
Reality reappears. You shake yourself off and breathe before pulling yourself in.
This is.
You are.
Skysong moves to pick you up and you let her. Her grip misses the mark a little bit before you correct it and it feels like it could slip at any moment, but it’s warm and pleasant while it lasts.
“Hey, Pix,” she says. The words come from her chest beside you and her mouth above you at about the same time.
She doesn’t sound angry. She smells like almost all of the feelings at once, but anger is not the main one.
You don’t quite know why, but it doesn’t seem like she hates you.
“They feed you yet today?”
Did they? You aren’t sure. That depends on how long you weren’t.
“Not hungry,” you answer.
Skysong hums and the noise reverberates through her and into you. “Alright. I’m going to eat some toast or something. Then I’ve got a meeting at the VStar building. We’re getting our first assignment today. Should be on the trail in three, maybe four more days.” She resumes humming. You aren’t sure if you’re supposed to speak over it or not. “I was thinking, maybe instead of battling we could take a few days to teach you to be a better guide fox. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course.”
“Want to,” you yip.
“Good,” she says. Then she bends down slowly before relaxing her grip. You take the hint and jump to the ground. “We’ll start on the way back from the meeting.”
*
“Toast,” Skysong explains between bites, is the result of humans grinding up strange berries that are always dry, tossing small sick animals in, throwing it all in a fire, taking it out and letting it cool, and then throwing it all in a fire again. It seems like far too much effort for something that doesn’t look or smell good. But then she puts on a paste that comes out of milk when you attack it. It is odd that even adult humans keep drinking milk. Then again, they are very weak and probably need all of the help they can get. And the paste smells good, too. Even if you are too strong and adult to want any.
*
Reality resumes in the blessed cold of inside. You could have walked with Skysong through the metal forest with burning air and hard black rivers, but she wants help later and you can’t do any good if you are literally melted.
The other two humans in her pack are present, the still-wounded Bloodrage and the annoying frog owner Growlsleeper. There is also a new and as-yet-nameless adult male human. Before you can crawl up on the big flat climbing structure to get a good look at Nameless, Skysong pulls you back towards her and starts petting you. Her heart doesn’t sound like Nameless is a threat, so you can put off your exploration until after the petting stops.
“Looks like you’ve had a busy week. Kekoa and Cuicatl, congrats on your Class III. Most trainers stop there, but if you want to go higher, we’ll gladly help you,” Nameless says in a way that makes it sound like teeth are bared. Not in the “threat” or “happy” sense, but in the “I want to make you think I am not a threat” one humans sometimes use. The scent is always the giveaway. It is strange that humans express so much through their glands but then are not able to smell it. Like they were designed to not understand each other.
Humans must be very lonely.
“Genesis, good job on the Class II. Enjoy your time off from studying, but I would try to get the Class III when you’re back. It will let you take better paying missions later on.”
“I, um, okay,” Growlsleeper stammers out. “Thank you?”
Sometimes you think Growlsleeper is almost smart enough to not understand human communications. Like Skysong! She told you that humans make no sense and she can’t explain them to you because she just cheats and uses her mind. She’s nice so she did try to answer a few questions before she finally had to give up.
“No problemo,” Nameless responds before clapping his hands together to create a weak shockwave attack. Your ears flick back and Skysong flinches under you. She should work on that. It makes her very easy to take out at the start of a fight. You will help her fix this problem. Maybe roar in her ear at random times until she stops reacting. “Now! I have an important announcement to make, drumroll please,” he starts banging his forepaws on the board really quickly. You glance up to Skysong and inquiry growl. Is the climbing structure a threat? You know some wood that smells dead is actually alive and moves and should be killed so that it is dead for real.
{Not a threat.}
Oh. Just another inexplicable human thing.
“At the break of dawn Wednesday we’ll pick you up and take you to a secret journey starting ritual—”
“Mantine ride.” Bloodrage yawns and makes no effort to slow or quiet it. “It’s a mantine ride. All over the forums.”
“Well. We’ll see on Wednesday—”
“That’s actually the problem,” Bloodrage interjects. “Because one of us won’t be seeing anything and I want to make sure that you’ve at least thought about that before dawn Wednesday.”
Skysong’s hand stops and she moves to cross her legs under you, forcing you to move to the edge of the seat before she abruptly stops. {Sorry.} Then she moves her legs back to how they were. You take a second to make sure that everything has settled again before you quietly yawn an apology and curl back up. She resumes petting you. As she should.
“…I will look into it. If there is a problem with our secret journey starter we’ll find something else for her to do.”
Your trainer’s paw lifts just a bit, one claw curled back and pointed down like a snake about to strike down. “Thank you,” she says, and her claw falls back in line with the rest and ruffles your headfur.
“No problem. We’re going to drop you off in Heahea around noon. Pick you up thirty-five days later at North Shores. We’ll text you more info on that when the date comes closer.”
Bloodrage leans forward and you can hear his hands pressing down on the table, causing the whole thing to creak and shift. “Anything else we need to here or could this have just been a five line email?”
“You want to know what you’ll be catching, right?”
“Of course!” Growlsleeper says.
“Your main goal is paras. They can be caught in Brooklet Hill and Alolan Rainforests NPP after you’ve beaten the trial there. Invasive little buggers, but they’re useful in medicine. Catch limit is five a trainer and you should each be able to catch five. You can sell them to us at twenty each.”
“Not as much money as orientation implied,” Bloodrage says.
“Well, that brings me to your secondary mission: castform. There are a few in the Alolan Rainforests preserve and the season on them just opened up. We’ll buy them from you for $1000. Limit’s one a trainer but don’t be too worried if you can’t reach that. I’d be impressed if you got one between you.”
“Now we’re talking.”
“Glad to hear it. Between the two, you can either go straight north and take on the normal trial in Kuahiwi or loop east and try to take on the fire trial and grass trials as well, maybe even face off with the Kahuna at the end. It’s ambitious, but it’s been done before.”
They say more words. It’s boring. You decide to ask Skysong a question you thought of earlier. “What’s a mantine?”.
“Pixie,” Skysong hisses. Her heart is beating faster. Threat? Is the mantine a threat?
“There a problem, miss?” Nameless asks.
“No, sir. Pixie just got a little excited. Can I go into the hall to calm her down?”
“A-OK with me. I’m sure Kekoa or Genesis can fill you in later.”
“I will!” Growlsleeper chimes in.
Skysong bares her teeth and nods. “Thank you.” She starts to stand so you jump up and follow her out.
“What’s a mantine?” you bark again as soon as the door is closed.
Skysong sighs. “After we finish guide training, we’re going to work harder on telepathy.”
You hop up into her lap as she sits down on a long climbing structure that’s only a little bit taller than you are.
“Why?”
“Because people don’t like it when pokémon are loud when people—when humans are talking. And if you’re wearing a guide harness it’s really important that you’re quiet when humans are talking.”
You swat your tails at her. “Humans are boring.”
“I know.” She ruffles your headfur before really scratching your cheek and you lean into the wonderful petting. “Humans also have good things that we both want. We have to be nice to them.”
“I can hunt,” you offer.
Skysong laughs in her high pitch windy way. “Great. Now, can you make blankets?”
“I’m better than blankets.”
“Clothing?”
You stretch out before curling into a ball on her lap. She’s clearly trying to drag this out, so you can afford to get comfortable.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Falsefur is unnecessary. Sea level is already hot.”
She stops petting you, leaving her forepaw awkwardly hovering above your neck, a finger in striking position again.
“I’m thinking that… well, you might be getting some teammates on Akala. But only for maybe two weeks! Then I’ll let them go and you can be my only pokémon again.”
You lift your head and make eye contact. Challenging her. Even if she can’t see it. “Why?”
She leans back onto her forelegs and her head droops until her chin brushes against the base of her neck.
“I have to catch the paras anyway. I could immediately hand them over to VStar, but I think they might be useful in the trial. Assuming we go straight north. I can’t see why we wouldn’t. If we go the long way then, uh, how do you feel about getting lit on fire?”
You huff, “I’d like to see someone try.”
She bares her teeth in either absolute fear or joyous recognition of your power. “Right. I, um, it would make me feel better if we got a water-type friend for that one.”
“No,” you whine. “Fire turns ice into water and then water hurts fire. I win.”
Why is she already trying to replace you? You’ve been a good fox! She’s not going to leave you. She can’t. You’re being nice and everything! Ice foxes are better than fish (they can’t even breathe on land, much less fight there!) and she’s smart for a human so she has to know that, right? Why is she acting like she doesn’t get it. Like she doesn’t love you.
“Just think about it, okay? I will pick up pokémon for two, three weeks at a time if I need them. If you treat them well, I’ll let you veto any permanent teammates you want.” She starts to get up before you can figure out a response. “And you know what bats are, right?”
Yes. You used to sit at the edge of a hole in the mountain and wait for thinwings to fly out in a giant swarm and then you would fire up sharp icicles and sometimes you’d knock one down and eat it.
“Well, mantine are like giant bats that live in the water. Since you wanted to know.”
*
You still aren’t entirely sure if Skysong is going to abandon you for a fish, but she has started treating you properly. First, she took you to a store that smelled like many, many other pokémon and got you a harness. You didn’t think you wanted falsefur, but the harness is sky blue with white curvy lettering and it matches your eyes and fur and it is perfect. You will wear it until it breaks and then scream until you are given one that is even better.
Then there was practice inside of a giant building with lots of humans that was thankfully kept cool. And then more practice on a road that was not cool. It took you some time to catch on, but now you are an almost perfect guide fox pretty much all of the time. Even if Skysong did reprimand you when there was this big black moon ring eevee and you had to protect your trainer. Apparently, you are not supposed to protect her when you are wearing the harness. Even from eevee. And you are not supposed to roar at the giant metal boxes humans send down the hard black rivers, even if they are going very fast and being very loud near your very vulnerable human. And one time people were walking very close to your trainer and you almost got stepped on so you jumped in front of Skysong and then she kicked you. She apologized. You weren’t hurt: no human could hurt you. It was fine.
Now you are being rewarded for the excellent job that you did!
Rewarded outside. Which is bad. But there is at least something to hide from the sun under, even if for some utterly unknowable reason Skysong is only keeping her legs in the shade.
Growlsleeper walks back up to you and sets some things down on the structure you’re resting under. “That’s your chocolate, my leppa and,” she bends down under the table and places a small cup down beside you. “Pixie’s vanilla.”
Growsleeper sits down, also only putting her legs in the shade. You approach the cup and sniff it. It feels cold. Smells strange. A little like the paste on Skysong’s toast. Food?
{Yes, food.} Skysong messages. You hadn’t even meant to ask her.
Okay. Food. You stick your tongue out and let the very tip of it sink into the paste. It doesn’t taste like snow. Thicker. A little more solid. It’s familiar, like—oh like the strange floating icicles that showed up right before Thirdborn and Fifthborn got lost. The icicles tasted very good. They were very mean but pretty weak. You start taking very big licks out of the icicle corpse in front of you before it starts melting in the unbearable heat. Pretty soon there is nothing left to lick up and you sit down, your mouth and throat and belly suitably cold. Skysong loves you! Probably.
“Leppa?” Skysong asks. It takes you a second to realize that she isn’t talking to you.
“Oh, yeah, they’re these really sweet berries. Kind of small—”
“I know what leppa berries are. Never heard of them on ice cream.”
There’s a moment of silence above you. Growsleeper crosses her legs and you have to duck to avoid getting hit by her paw.
“Right. It’s actually super common? Like, leppa, chocolate, and vanilla. Except no one actually gets leppa…”
“Hmm.” Skysong scrapes her hollowed-out-claw against the edge of the wood pulp. “Only one place in the village that had ice cream. Owner made it from scratch. Don’t think she sold leppa, but I could’ve just missed it. Never liked the berries’ taste, anyway.”
“Chocolate?” Growlsleeper asks.
“Hmm?”
“Sorry. Just. You led by stating my flavor as a question and uh. Yeah. Kinda thought that. Nevermind.”
Skysong laughs. Was there something funny? A threat? Humans are very strange.
“It’s fine. Honestly just wanted to see how American chocolate holds up.” Growlsleeper’s legs uncross and again you have to dodge a paw.
“How does it?”
Skysong laughs again. Shorter this time. “It doesn’t. As for the vanilla, I read online that vulpix like white foods and I also wasn’t sure what flavors she can and can’t eat. Dog stomach, you know?”
You are not a dog. You do not have a “dog stomach.” You have a fox stomach. But you are wearing the collar so you should not point this out now. No. You will wait and then make your grievances known. Probably by hiding her white stick while she’s asleep. She hates it when you do that.
“How did you know that vanilla ice cream is white?” Growlsleeper asks? Accuses? Both?
“You know most blind people weren’t born blind, right?”
Another swinging kick from Growlsleeper! How dare she?
“I didn’t know that.”
There are a few more desperate scrapings of a claw on wood pulp above you before something gets pushed across the structure.
“I was, though. It’s not the cataracts. I just leave those because my brother said they make me look like a wizard.”
Growlsleeper giggles. Skysong joins in. It’s short but you’re not sure if they’re arguing or not anymore.
“Anyway. Colors. I don’t see them, but other people think they’re important. That means that they’re important for me to know.”
“Okay. But how do you figure out what color things are?”
“I ask people. Or read it in books.”
“Oh.” You think about asking what books are. But then you remember earlier and how Skysong doesn’t like you interrupting so you don’t. Like a very good fox she should love. “I can tell you what color clothes are, if you need help now.”
Skysong’s legs start to shift and you stand up to get out of the way. She abruptly pauses. {Crossing legs.} And then she finishes, legs crossed just above the paws. Nice gesture but it would be better if it came earlier. {It’s reflex. Sorry. Don’t think about it in advance.}
“Thank you. I don’t think I will be buying clothes for a while, though.”
It is very, very warm in the shade. You puff out air and shake yourself off, sending shards of ice clattering to the ground. You get down and roll in them, relieved to feel cold outside of your body.
“Oh. Yeah. I, uh, I meant when clothes break.”
“Break?”
“Y’know? Tears and stains and stuff.”
“I can sew small ones back together.”
Your gorgeous fur is a prison of fire. But you are a good fox wearing a beautiful harness. You will not misbehave until the harness comes off.
“You can sew?”
“You can’t?”
This is boring. What even is sewing? And your ice shards are almost all melted. Now you’re hot and wet and this is maybe the worst thing to ever happen to you.
“You really can’t sew? No one ever taught you?”
“No. That’s not … okay I guess there are a lot of girls who know how, but it’s not really expected or anything?”
“Huh.” There’s a long-bodied mammal at the edge of the clearing. Yungoos! That’s what Grasseyes called it. Should you tell Skysong about it? You will if it gets closer. They’re known to steal food from the bowls of very good foxes. “It’s one of the first things girls are taught in Anahuac. I just assumed…”
Growlsleeper’s voice gets quiet. “Bad for girls over there?”
“Sort of. Girls have options.” You see Skysong’s leg twitch at the edge of your vision, but she stops herself before it moves. “But boys have better ones.”
Interesting. Humans are patriarchal. That makes Bloodrage the leader of the pack. Does that mean you have to take orders from him? You hope not.
“That’s sort of how it works here. Well, same opportunities. But boys get the best ones because xerneas made them stronger and smarter than us.”
The heat has almost fully evaporated the water on you. Now you are only very, very hot. You accidentally flick a tail against Skysong. She ignores it.
“Kekoa’s smarter than me?”
You flick another tail on accident.
{Yes?}
You whimper in heat-related pain and Skysong seems to get your meaning. She fiddles with her belt and takes your pokéball out.
“I didn’t say—”
“Yeah. You did. If boys are all smarter than girls.”
Growlsleeper doesn’t respond as Skysong leans down and reaches out to you. She runs her hands through your fur more than is probably needed to take the harness off. Not that you’re complaining.
“I like to think I’m smart. Smarter than him.” She finishes unhooking the last strap and pulls the harness off in one motion. Maybe a little too roughly. Then she reaches for the sweet nothingness of your pokéball. “But everyone keeps telling me I’m not. Maybe I’m wrong.”
{You can tell me aloud if you’re hot. Even in your harness.}
You bristle and start to growl right before you un-become.
Now she tells you.
*
You reform on Skysong’s bed. A quick sniff and glance confirms that both of the other pack members are present, but neither of their pokémon are. Interesting scent though. You turn towards it and take a few small steps forward, nose to the ground. There it is! On Skysong’s pillow. It’s… salt? Like the ocean? Why did she throw her pillow into the sea? Even by human standards that is very strange.
Bloodrage makes harsh throat air. “Well, now that you girls are done with your shopping spree, can we get back to business?”
“Just bought a harness…” Growlsleeper mumbles.
Bloodrage ignores her and Skysong doesn’t say anything at all. “Any objections to just heading up Routes 4 and 5 to North Point? Sure, we could go a little out of the way to Royale Avenue but then we’d be cutting it close for castform catching.”
“I’m fine going straight north,” Skysong says before baring her teeth and tilting her head. Uh oh. “How was your excessive force lecture, by the way?”
Bloodrage glares. “Next time you want to be a sore loser, please don’t drag me into it.”
“Or what? You’ll beat me up. And get another talk? Almost worth it.”
“You’re right.” Bloodrage puts his paws together and there’s a sharp breaking sound. “It almost would be.”
There’s a fit of coughing from right above you. Growlsleeper.
“I’m also fine going north. We want to talk about tents and stuff tonight?”
Bloodrage lifts his glare a little bit and crosses his arms. Skysong frowns. Did she want to challenge him? Even though she is female and would lose, since male humans are smarter and stronger? The stalemate breaks. Bloodrage kicks his hindlegs up into his bed and lies down in it, staring at the platform above him.
“Still more road shit to discuss. One night in Heahea. Anyone insist on staying longer?”
“I’m fine,” Growlsleeper says quickly enough that the words blend into each other.
Skysong shrugs. You flick a tail at her to remind her that she is within petting distance of you and is not petting you. She reacts incorrectly by reaching into the harness bag.
“Okay. With that settled, three nights on Route 4.”
“Why,” Skysong asks as she rummages around the bag. “We could do it in one day and not sleep on the trail at all.”
She finally finds what she’s looking for and pulls out—a brush! Not a human one but one for very beautiful fur. Like yours! You hop up on her lap and she takes a second to feel where you are before she starts brushing.
“Says the—” Bloodrage sighs and says nothing as Skysong brushes your mane. “I want to know if the gear works. It’s also a chance to train and maybe capture some pokémon before the trial gets too close. I’ve thought this through. Trust me.”
You press your cheek into the bristles and feel them slide past you and down your neck and side. You immediately turn around and press your other cheek against the brush before she has a chance to take it away.
“Is there still enough time if we do that?”
Bloodrage shifts onto his side to look at your trainer. “Yeah. Thirty-five nights. One in Heahea. Three on Route 4. Three in Paniola. Four on the lower part of Route 5. Three at Brooklet Hill. Six on the upper part of Route 5. Up to fourteen for training, trial, and castform catching. Whatever’s left at North Shores.”
Skysong sets the brush down and you reflexively rush towards her hand and snap your teeth down a hair away from her skin. The betrayal! She looks at you like she’s annoyed and. Oh no. Maybe she thinks you’re going to bite and kill her and now she hates you and is going to get rid of you as soon as she can.
Your trainer sighs and stands up. “More brushing later, Pix. And Kekoa? Your plan’s good enough for now. We can talk more after my shower.”
*
When humans lick themselves clean they insist on being surrounded by very hot water that makes all the air around the grooming site get very hot as well. You’ve learned to keep your distance and wait on Skysong’s soft bed for her return. She vocalizes under the water. Something about a “witch” and a sky snake. You could easily kill sky snakes. Snakes hate cold. Birds hate cold. They would run the second they saw you but they wouldn’t because you would sneak up on them so stealthily that they wouldn’t see you so they’d die and you would eat them.
She comes out a little bit later hair damp and her body smelling odd (humans apparently lick something with a very strong scent before licking themselves clean). When she sits down you note that she’s cold. Not embraced by lingering heat. Very strange.
“Now,” Skysong says. “Logistics. Let’s start with food.”
“I have a list,” Bloodrage responds. “Mostly freeze-dried and canned stuff that lasts a long time and can be cooked on a camp stove. Ideally it wouldn’t require cooking at all.”
Skysong shakes her head. “No. Too expensive.”
“Two-thirds discount on camping gear for the first month. Applies to most camping food.”
Skysong leans back and folds her arms. “And the discount gets cut in half later. Besides, preservation isn’t an issue.”
Bloodrage rolls his eyes. “Now, if you don’t remember you agreed to a seven-day segment on the trail. No refrigerators there.”
“Depends on your definition of refrigerator.” You get pulled up rather aggressively onto your trainer’s lap.
Yes. You are a refrigerator. The cutest refrigerator. Also, hiding inside of refrigerators is very fun.
Bloodrage crosses his arms to match Skysong. “By the time you get to the end of a day of hiking you won’t want to cook.”
“All I’d have to do is warm stuff up. Not very hard.”
“Like?”
“Beans, cheese, and vegetables on a tortilla. Cooked in advance and warmed up when needed.”
“Can I jump in?” Growlsleeper asks.
“Go ahead.”
“I think I vote for Kekoa’s plan? I don’t want to eat the same thing everyday. And backpacking food sounds exciting.”
Skysong practically hisses as she exhales air. “Fine. See if I care.”
*
“What are the stars like?”
You look up at Skysong.
“What?”
“My—my brother used to tell me what stars were out, and what he’d learned about them in school. Then I’d share any songs I’d learned about the stars and their stories and we’d just sit there for a while. Sometimes talking about life. Sometimes not. I was hoping… forget it.”
You don’t understand. But you’ll do it if it will make her love you.
“Not many stars. Human lights are too bright.”
“Oh.” She sounds disappointed.
“There are lots and lots of stars on the mountain.”
She lowers a hand and you press your muzzle into it. “Do you have stories about the stars?”
“When the ninetales were stolen by the moon, the rainbow kept sending stars to win us back. And then the moon added some of her own… now there are a lot of them.”
Another hand drops down and she presses both against you, one on each side of your face. A finger from each rubs against your ears. “Do the individual stars have stories? Or the groups of them?”
“Yes.”
“When we get away from the city, can you tell me some of them? I’d love that.”
Love!
“Yes!”