Their destination was not that far from the berry tree, a hole in a hill hidden behind a bush. Anya cautiously followed few feet after the group, the tunnel was quite dark, Anya had some trouble seeing even if her night vision was better now compared to her human one.
The tunnel slowly slanted upwards, she could finally see some light ahead. They had reached their destination, the space opened up as she found herself in an open area where the ground was cluttered with twigs, leaves and dirt to soften the floor making it a bit more comfortable to lay on.
"You may lay down anywhere you like" Ninetales said calmly, "We know it is not much, but we really don't have much to offer" he said while offering Anya a berry, this however was not like the berries she had eaten earlier. It was a huge, pink and looked like a peach.
Anya took a bite out of the pink berry, her mouth was filled with a juice so sweet that it tasted like pure sugar. She forced the mouthful down her throat and put the rest of the fruit down. "It is way too sweet for my taste" she said while shaking her head. Ninetales nodded knowingly and the leftovers were quickly nommed on by the trio of three young pokemon.
"I apologize for my earlier aggression, we do not get any friendly bug-types, around here, those pesky Beedrill are ever so slowly expanding their area and anyone unfortunate enough caught inside will..." Ninetales quieted down to a silent mumble.
Suddenly something poked her from behind, her body tensed in surprise as her head slowly turned she saw that Eevee had approached her fidgeting timidly.
"Uhm, ummm, wh-what are y-you?" she asked, Anya looked around finding that all of them were looking at her direction waiting for her answer. What should she say? Should she tell them that she was a Human? a sense of dread rose up what if they think she is a monster? the others noticed Anya's abnormal uneasiness. Just as Ninetales was about to say something, Anya spoke up.
"Do you know what a Human is?" Anya questioned back
The three small pokemon all shook their heads but Ninetales nodded and answered "Humans are an odd species of pokemon, they look similar to Machoke, Cannot understand any other species and do not fight right. However they are extremely aggressive with expanding their territories by destroying nature around them driving most species away from their nests and habitats."
"T-that is t-terrifying..." Eevee stuttered
"Sounds about right..." Anya said while taking a deep breath. She saw that none of them had immense hatred towards Humans, which she was glad off.
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"I have lived my whole life among Humans and my species is that of a Leavanny, but you can call me Anya as it is my Human-given name."
Ninetales stirred a bit before laying down again closing his eyes.
"What is a name?" the Rattata squaked "What are the Humans like?" Vulpix continued "Are you s-strong?", Anya slowly composed herself in the barrage of questions.
"Name is a Human-made term for knowing who is who" she said at first
"That is stupid, we can easily identify each other by their scent!"
"Well, Name is more than just that, also the Human sense of smell isn't that good either, let's say this room is full of Rattata and you see one of them doing something interesting..." she though for a moment before continuing.
"After a while you tell Vulpix here about that one Rattata, Vulpix wants to also see that Rattata, but you have no time to help, you need to go."
"If that one Rattata had a name you could have told Vulpix to look for a Rattata asking about the name, instead of going a Rattata to Rattata to ask them if they are the Rattata that did a thing" Anya waited for a moment before continuing.
"It also works the other way around, If for example there were a lot of my species around, Leavanny and one of you wanted to get my attention without bothering everyone else, Just use my given name to call me and I instantly know someone is calling me directly."
"I could go about this a bit more, but let's answer the other questions first"
"It was something about Humans?" Anya questioned Vulpix
"Yes, yes, what are they like?" he bounced up and down in excitement while Anya thought for a while. She wasn't sure how Humans were here.
"Humans... are different and many" "They can be as scary as they can be kind, Humans love bonds, be it between themselves or between someone else entirely" "I'm.. not exactly an expert on Humans but know this, do not waste your image of Humans as a species over a few bad individuals and thread each and every one of them differently. The more you interact with them the more you notice things" Anya sighed
"One more question right?" she looked at the Eevee who had been eagerly listening her tales.
"Y-yes, are you s-strong?"
"No" she said without hesitation. Should they know, she learned to walk just a week or so ago...
This time the young Vulpix shouted in surprise "But Dad said you are strong and dangerous! You can even easily cut trees! We even saw your territorial markings!"
"I..I'm not strong at all" she said while slowly shaking her head while also wondering what were the markings they were talking about, she knew she had accidentally ruined some trees considering how sharp her arms were.
Ninetales ruffed to calm the Vulpix.
"You say, you are weak but do you mind telling us why you would think like so. Most pokemon I know are proud of their strength, meanwhile you, are claiming otherwise with so much power behind your aura."
Anya steeled herself and opened her mouth
"Few days ago, I went to sleep at a place I called home, When I woke up I...I found myself in an unknown place in an unknown body, those trees, were an accident, I was using them as a support to learn how to walk using these" she said while pointing her legs.
"... You were abandoned by the Humans the moment you evolved?"
"..." Anya sat in silence. The nest was slowly getting more and more darker as the sun rays have disappeared.
"It is getting late, You are welcome to stay the night with us." Ninetales said and Anya happily agreed to stay.