Cindyr yawned and stretched like a cat, her front paws pressing against Greg's shoulders as she arched her back, almost pushing him off the bed, her tails securing him a the last second with their fluffy binding.

"Whoops...sorry." She said apologetically as he awoke with his head hanging off the edge of the bed.

She leapt atop him lightly and leaned down to his exposed throat, licking the skin there and then nuzzling him, kissing him eagerly.

"It's breakfast time." She said, leaping off the bed and moving over to the door, unlocking it with an impatient flick of one of her tails, nosing it open and sliding out into the pokecentre proper.

Greg grumbled unhappily and followed, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. Bugsy was sitting at a table, wide-awake, still rolling that infernal ball back and forth. The female trainer was sitting at another table, also rubbing the sleep from her eyes, staring at the plate of bacon and eggs in front of her as if it was something alien.

Not wanting to stare at the monotony of a pokeball moving back and forth across a hard wooden surface, he went and sat down with the female trainer, sitting across from her and yawning again, which set off a yawn from the female trainer.

She closed her mouth after putting her hand in front of it, and then stared at him angrily. "Stop it...you're making me yawn as well." She berated him.

He slumped forwards onto the table, putting his head on his arms. "Sorry." He mumbled tiredly, staring at Cindyr as she reared up on her hind legs, putting her paws on the counter and giving the almost musical tone that her species made, to try and get the attention of nurse Joy.

Nurse Joy walked over, and petted her on the head, smiling at the vixen before getting some food for her.

Cindyr yipped happily as she put a bowl of milk and another of pokemon food before her. She immediately ducked and lapped at the milk happily, being careful not to make a mess, before putting her muzzle into the pokemon food, delicately taking some in her mouth and nibbling at it before swallowing it with a neat toss of her head.

Greg watched her with a slight, contented smile on his face.

"You really love her don't you?" The female trainer asked.

Greg immediately jerked up, almost falling off his chair.

"What!? No!" He said immediately, his heart yammering in his chest, his face flushing with blood.

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't mean *LOVE* love." She said, "You misconstrue my meaning. I meant love as in affection."

Greg swallowed, finding the simple act rather difficult owing to the large lump in his throat. "Oh." He said in a strangled voice, his heart trying its best to break free through his mouth. He turned back towards the counter to disguise his embarrassment.

"You still haven't answered my question." She observed softly.

Greg was saved by an answer as Cindyr finished licking the bowl clean and stalked over to him, nuzzling at his knee entreatingly.

He laughed softly and rubbed at her head, playing with her ears and then sliding off the seat to hug her, loving the way her soft fur felt against his body.

"Well...yeah...I suppose I do..." He said quietly, stroking her neck softly.

"It's good that you love your pokemon, I've seen too many trainers who treat their pokemon like pets or toys, or even just objects to do their wills." She said, slumping over the table, careful not to fall onto the plate, closing her eyes and groaning softly. "So tired..." She murmured.

"What's made you so tired?" He asked, looking up over Cindyr's neck fur, his hand stroking softly along her side. The vixen made a happy sound and caressed his cheek with a tail.

"Monty. He hates sleeping in his pokeball, and he has the most annoying sleeping patterns and habits." She replied, picking up a fork and chasing a piece of bacon across the surface of the plate.

"Who's Monty?" Greg asked, leaning in to take a deep breath of his ninetails scent.

"My ninetails. He can't keep his tails still when he's asleep. And they keep whacking me in the face." She said, smiling ruefully and miming a tail hitting her cheek.

Greg laughed softly and stroked one of Cindyr's tails, before saying, "I'm glad Cindyr doesn't do that. But I'm usually the one who keeps her awake. Bloody males. We're useless aren't we? Can't even sleep without messing up " He commented.

She laughed softly, and picked up the piece of bacon, holding it out between her fingers for Cindyr to take.

Cindyr happily reached out and delicately took the bacon, chewing it with eyes closed, relishing the taste, before tossing her head back and swallowing it. She reached forwards with one of her tails, holding the girls wrist still so that she could lick her fingers clean with quick, flicking strokes.

"Oh...she's very talented with her tongue." The female trainer commented as she stared at Cindyr's tongue, which quickly cleaned her fingers.

"Oh yesss..." He hissed, and then realised what he had said and blushed furiously, turning his head away. "I never did catch your name." He said, to cover up his embarrassment.

"Nevyda." She replied, holding out her left hand for him to shake, her right hand slick from Cindyr's tongue.

"Pleased to meet you Nevyda. I'm Greg." He said, shaking her hand. "And this little darling is Cindyr." He continued, motioning towards the ninetails who rapidly lost interest in the conversation since it didn't concern food or sex, and walked over to a vacant seat, curling up on it and resting her head on her tails, her luminescent lupine eyes regarding them.

"So just how did you find out how talented your Ninetail's tongue is?" Nevyda asked suddenly, catching him off guard.

"Um...well...y-you see...she likes to...um...lick my neck. You haven't felt anything to you've had a ninetails lick your neck." He replied, starting off falteringly, but quickly regaining his composure.

"Yes...and Ninetail's just love to lick your neck all the time." She murmured. Greg couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

"Your breakfast's getting cold." He said, trying to cover up his new awkwardness.

She reached across and prodded her bacon. "So it is." She replied, picking up her fork and jabbing at an egg, breaking open the yolk and dipping some bacon into it, putting it in her mouth with relish.

This display was making him hungry, so he went to the counter and got some breakfast as well. Just some bacon, eggs, and toast, and spent the next hour nibbling at his food and feeding Cindyr little treats of bacon wrapped around a little bit of egg.

He didn't notice, but Nevyda watched him with narrowed eyes as he playfully fed his ninetails, a look of thoughtful suspicion on her face.

* * *


The four of them set out the next day, heading up route 42 towards violet city, where Greg intended to get a new badge from the gym leader. He was rather recalcitrant to go in that direction. He felt bad for leaving Hitan in the slowpoke well without even searching for him properly, and then going further away from him. But nothing could be done about it, and his companions convinced him to go.

Cindyr and Nevyda both went for a walk before they started walking, the ninetails just walking off in one direction, while the trainer walked in a different direction, citing warming up her muscles for a walk as the reason and enjoying the forest.

Both of them came back from the same direction. Nevyda just said, "I'm back" Brightly and joined them, while Cindyr didn't say anything, actually, she completely ignored him.

* * *

Route 42 was a long, straight road that meandered through a forest close to the pokecentre and the entrance to dark cave, and then went north towards Violet city. A person had a choice of going across the water on sturdy walkways, or through the sparsely vegetated road area, and then both paths joined before slipping through the small mountains close to the town, with the ruins of Alph on the left.

The three of them decided on the water path, Cindyr still remaining speechless, stalking on ahead of them.

Greg walked a little faster and caught up with the ninetails, walking besides her and asking, "What did I do wrong? Why aren't you talking to me?"

The ninetails stopped and sat on its haunches, staring at him with its head cocked quizzically, brown eyes observing him impassively.

Greg gave a start of shock. Cindyr's eyes were blue.

* * *

By the time they three of them had gotten back to the point where Cindyr had left, it was almost dark again, and there was no sign of the vixen.

Greg immediately drew Hitan's sword and walked into the forest, hacking desperately at the plants in front of him, forging a path through the thick brush, calling out loudly for his beloved ninetails.

"Cindyr!" He yelled out hoarsely, the light fading fast.

"Greg?" Came the confused reply.

"Cindyr!" He called out louder, hacking at the plants with renewed fury until he finally, finally hacked down a last palm frond blocking his way, throwing his sword to the ground and sprinting over to Cindyr, who was sitting in the middle of a clearing, looking around with a puzzled expression, almost as if she didn't know where she was.

He threw his arms around her and pulled her closer, and she nuzzled him gently. "I thought you'd forgotten about me..." She murmured.

"No...it was Nevyda's ninetails...I thought it was you..." He whispered in reply, holding her close with relief at finding her. "Why didn't you come back?" He asked.

"A Zubat hit me with a confuse ray...I don't know where to go...I'm lost..." She said, embarrassed.

"It's okay now." He murmured, pulling her closer and crushing her to him with a strong hug.

"Um...Greg...the hugs nice and everything...but...you're sort of crushing me..." She wheezed.

"Oh...sorry." He said, relaxing his grip a little.

"How touching." A cold, emotionless voice said. "But I think I'll have to break up this little reunion." It continued, and then a sharp, barked order, "Double-edge!"

There was a rush of air, and Cindyr was suddenly lifted off her feet with a horrible yelp, slammed into a tree trunk with vicious power, the Heracross who had performed the brutal blow, the one that appeared as if from nowhere, then turned its attention on Greg, red eyes blazing with a strange kind of inner fury.

Greg, leapt to his feet, and, stupidly, stepped forwards, aiming a heavy kick for the pokemons midsection, hitting squarely and almost breaking his ankle on its unyielding carapace.

He gave a gasp of pain and limped backwards on one foot as the bug pokemon started to advance.

Managing to catch a tree root with his good foot, he fell to the ground heavily, crawling forwards on his belly, reaching for Hitan's katana.

There was a rush of rapid wings and a sudden lance of pain swiped across his stomach, the Heracross using its horn to lift him right off his feet and send him tumbling through the air.

He actually felt his fingers brush the hilt of the sword before he was thrown head over heals into a bush, uninjured but hurt, winded by the strength of the blow.

With a slow, painful roll, he was out of the bush, sprawling in an agonizing heap, trying still to protect himself as the Heracross advanced again.

It was rearing over him, horn angling to impale him, when a flash of silver dissected the natural spear, cutting a good half of it off, where it tumbled off the pokemons head and onto the ground between its front legs.

Greg didn't waste any time, not worrying about what had cut off the pokemons horn, he swept his legs out in font of him, using the pokemons stunned state to his advantage, putting his left foot under its chin, on its neck, and then swept his right foot around as hard as he could, slamming it into the Heracross's head.

It rolled to the side, completely stunned by the loss of its horn and the massive hit to its head.

Greg was about to start the long, painful process of climbing to his feet, when a pair of black boots, not shiny, but matt-black, stopped in front of him, with long spines of black metal digging into the ground. A gloved hand appeared in his field of view. He took the offered hand, and it pulled him to his feet.

Hitan handed him a sword, and then turned back to the young trainer with a black look on his face, holding his sword backhanded as he charged.

The young trainer only stood there and watched with mild interest as the ninja neared, eyes filled with murderous intent.

Something swept in from the side, a large blackish brown something, that flashed into view and then out of view, taking Hitan with it.

The Onyx gave a great roar of anger and lifted its head, higher even than the trees, staring down at the miniscule humans below, a minor insignificance to such a large creature.

Greg could only watch, uncertain, not knowing what to do, as the Onyx stared down at him with narrowed eyes, a soft moaning from somewhere in the foliage telling him that Hitan was still alive, for all intents and purposes, but probably not able to fight.

He reached down and pulled off a pokeball, throwing it out to the side, away from himself, a flash of red light revealing a charizard.

"Flaming wings!" He called, as the Onyx drew closer.

The charizard stared at him for a second, confused, and then threw itself into the air, opening its mouth and breathing a fire spin right in front of itself, before flying into it, flapping his wings furiously, the fire seeming to bind to its wings, creating a massive flaming apparition.

It flew straight at the rock pokemons head, slamming into it hard and flapping its burning wings against the side of its skull, long streaks of burning flames flashing repeatedly over its rocky face.

Being a rock pokemon, the flame didn't bother it's skin much, but the fire hitting it's eyes did bother it, making it rear back and roar with anger and pain, the rear half of its body writhing in pain and irritation, the long tail smashing several trees down.

"Headbutt." The opposing trainer called impassively, leaning against a tree, arms crossed.

The Onyx gave a roar and writhed around, so that it was upside down, and then slammed its head into the ground, crushing the Charizard between its rocky forehead and the hard, intractable forest floor.

The red dragon pokemon gave a muted roar of pain, its breath cut off from the massive force driving it into the ground.

With a rumbling sound of rock moving, the onyx lifted its head and then drove it back down, pinning the Charizard once again, pummelling it mercilessly.

Greg did the only thing he could, seeing that all his other pokemon were gone, and drew the Dratini's ball.

"I'm sorry..." He murmured to the pokemon encased within, before throwing it straight at the Onyx.

The ball snapped open and the Dratini was deposited onto the ground, staring up at the much larger serpent who was in turn staring down at it.

"Shocking spray!" Greg called.

The Dratini stared at him in confusion for a second, before realising what he wanted, like most of the pokemon Greg commanded, and then turned its attention back to the large rocky serpent facing it.

It opened its mouth, arching it's tail at the same time, both pointing towards the Onyx. Bolts of crackling electricity started to coalesce around the ball on the Dratini's tail as it sent a blast of water at the rocky pokemon from its mouth.

Just as the spray hit the pokemon, the Dratini touched its tail to the frothing spout of water, the electricity arcing into the water and along it, hitting the already hurt Onyx with a blast of energy amplified by the stream of water.

The Onyx roared with anger and stared down at the tiny serpent that dared defy it.

"Tail whip" The trainer said impassively.

It obeyed with relish, slamming it's tail around and hitting the little Dratini with full force, whipping the serpent-like pokemon around and splaying it against across the leaf-strewn forest floor.

"Onyx..." The trainer started, drawing out the order, savouring it, "Body slam the ninetails."

"No!" Greg called, immediately leaping forwards with his sword held in front of him, sprinting towards the Onyx and slamming the blade hard against its side, dropping the sword as his arm was jarred worse than he had ever felt it.

"No..." He called out in despair as the pokemon ignored him completely, slithering past and rearing over his beloved Ninetail's inanimate body, before picking her up with its tail, twisting its coils around her, and then slamming her hard into the ground.

A horrible, ear-splitting yelp was torn from her body at the impossibly brutal blow, and then she went silent, her broken body tossed into the foliage like so much trash.

Greg could only watch in horror as his beloved was so viciously assaulted, before reaching down and scooping up his sword, a raw, primal anger engulfing his body. He started to run towards the trainer, sword held low and to the side, ready to be swept upwards. He didn't want to kill the trainer. He wanted to slowly flay him alive.

"Suicune, keep him away from his ninetails." The trainer said, and then took a few darting steps backwards, dropping a strange yellow ball as he went. There was a blinding puff of smoke, that made Greg cough and splutter, and when it cleared, the trainer was gone.

He started to make his way back over to Cindyr, desperately forging his way through the underbrush, trying to reach her, praying to any god that would listen that she wasn't dead.

Greg saw her, lying on a flattened bush, her fur matted with dirt, a small trickle of blood spilling from the corner of her mouth, and he started to move towards her, when a sudden massive blow forced him back.

Looking up, he saw a blue Pokemon standing over him, growling low in its throat.

He could only stare in aware at the pokemon that had no rights being in the forest. Had no reason to be at the command of anyone.

It was Suicune.

He staggered to his feet, still holding the sword, trying to go around the legendary Pokemon and reach his badly hurt Pokemon.

Again, the Suicune hit him, hard, sending him flying through the air to land on his back, sore and bruised, and now more pissed off than ever.

Once more he tried, and was rebuffed, and again, and again, each time being slammed off his feet.

He collapsed in front of the pokemon, staring at it entreatingly, blinded by tears.

"Let me through...please...." He said, begging shamelessly with the Pokemon, "You can't let me watch her die...you can't...oh god please just let me through..."

He knew it was hopeless. No pokemon would disobey their master. He collapsed forwards into the underbrush and started to weep.

She was going to die, not four metres away from him...because he didn't have the strength to get past one lousy pokemon! And there was nothing he could do...all he could do was sit there and wait for her to die.

Greg stared back up at the Pokemon, and sobbed venomously, "You're killing her!... and for what! To obey a trainer like that fucking asshole! You're going to let her die for him!"

The pokemon stared back impassively, but something about it changed slightly, as if it were wavering in its resolve to keep rebuking him.

He sensed its indecision, and leapt to his feet with the last of his dwindling strength, sweeping the sword forwards and upwards.

There was an ear-splitting yelp of pain and a spray of hot blood that covered him, before he dropped the sword and rushed past the fallen Pokemon, dropping to Cindyr's side and cradling her head gently.

"C'mon baby...wake up...please?" He begged, tears falling down his face as he shook her urgently "Wake up...please...wake up...I can't go on without you...I love you...please wake up..."

He continued to shake her futilely, blinded by tears, shaking her back and forth in an effort to garner any kind of response.

Greg didn't think he had the strength to lift her, let alone carry her anywhere...then there were the other pokemon to think about. Hitan was somewhere out there, probably hurt; his charizard and Dratini were hurt as well.

He laid his head on the Ninetail's neck, his tears slowly sliding through her fur as he continued to rock her back and forth, alone with his grief as he cradled the inanimate body of his beloved.