Aetas Infinitas

Chapter One

The Whelp

Well, this is an original idea of mine that I thought of about a year and a half ago and just never got around to writing. I thought that it would be neat to see the experiences of a creature that lives close to forever from a human perspective. I really wanted to get the first chapter at least finished before I started my exams next week. Xx

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

"Don't worry, I'll be back for you," The mother ninetails gently licked her nearly newborn offspring's muzzle and breathed deeply. She looked up warily for a moment and then dashed away in an instant. The blind, deaf, and furless blob of vulpix lay curled up in a tiny thicket near a small waterfall in the middle of the woods. The moment that it no longer felt its mother's warm touch the tiny whelp began to whimper in hunger and loneliness, as any newly arrived creature would do.

If the pup could have heard, it would have received noises of running men, whatever they were to the tiny fox. It would have heard men with large, noisy weapons and loud shouts that echoed around every crevice in the thick woods. The pup did however, feel great vibrations in the ground as the strangers passed, and the unfamiliar sensations terrified the pup into crying loudly. Something inside that tiny pup's head however, told it that crying right now would only lead to pain and terror from the strange creatures that were of the unknown.

The next morning was a bright, sunny one, contrast to the previous day that had been filled with rainstorms, the sudden disappearance of her mother, and the strange vibrations that had terrified the whelp. Birds chirped in the trees and the pup slowly awoke in the warmth of the sun that shone brightly through the crevices of the thicket. The vulpix stirred and sniffed the air with a tiny dot of a nose that quivered up and down senselessly even though it couldn't actually smell anything yet. It struggled to drag itself a few inches from where it had been lain by its mother the night before, and pointlessly sampled the air again. As the warm sun beat down on everything in the wood it warmed the pup's back once more and put it into the deep sleep that only a baby can experience.

When it awoke again, the tiny vulpix lifted its head toward the still-blue sky and felt the gentlest of breezes blow past its back, and caused the whelp to shiver a bit. This caused the newborn a bit of discomfort and it began a tiny, low whimper that gradually grew to a loud crying that just happened to catch the interest of a lone Nidorina. The azure rodent was casually strolling past and averted its head to see a tiny, white ball of skin that occasionally vibrated in time with the whimpers. Curious, the nidorina trotted near to the pale blob lying on the forest floor and gave it a gentle nudge with its muzzle. The pup stopped its outcry for a moment and rolled its body over to investigate with what few senses it had. This stranger wasn't its mother, no; it didn't even have a similar touch or the comforting scent that only the female ninetails could possess.

The nidorina was perplexed by this random creature that had managed to capture its interest after it had just released its own litter to be off on their own not three days before. Unsure of what to do next, the nidorina sat on its haunches for a moment and cocked it head to the side. Finally the rodent rose to its feet and gently nudged the pup until it was resting delicately on the nape of its neck and trotted once more in the direction it had been heading.

The tiny vulpix had slept the entire way from atop the nidorina's back and awoke a second time when it was cautiously dumped on the floor of a shallow burrow. It was cold and damp, and would have smelled of young nidoran had it been there a few days before. Suddenly the vulpix began to whimper again, but the nidorina knew exactly what the newborn wanted. Another nidorina stepped from behind the first, and the pup could sense that she was heavy with milk. The second nidorina circled the pup and lie down next to it and offered it her swelling teats that made the pup overflow with as even greater hunger. The vulpix crawled the few inches to the nidorina and greedily began to drink the warm milk. It wasn't the same as the first drink of its life but it was satisfying and the nipple tasted faintly of other creatures, most likely this mother's offspring.

When it had satisfied its intense cravings, the pup shifted onto its back and rolled over onto its side, facing away from the mother. Its belly was bloated, and again the whelp fell into its baby sleep. The laden nidorina got to its feet and chirped its leave and then left through the burrow entrance.

This same routine continued for several weeks, when the pup had had all of its senses for around four days. With its new vision the pup saw for the first time its foster parent, and it saw daily its food parent, who was now beginning to lose her large, round underbelly from nearing her offspring's teething stage. And after another week and a half, she stopped coming altogether. From then on it was just the vulpix and the nidorina, who nurtured and kept the tiny fox as one of her own.

When the pup was nearly a month old, the nidorina occasionally took it down the stream in the midst of a vast field of long grasses and random shrubs. The pup followed the rodent everywhere, bounding around on stubby legs or looking around frantically when the female would hide itself behind a bush or a rock. By now, its tail had split into three appendages, and their rusty color was beginning to replace the pale tail. A small tuft of fur was beginning to grow on the top of its head as well, and an ever-thickening, rusty fuzz was also starting to spread its way across the pup where pale skin had once been. Every day the vulpix's eyes became more and more of an odd but beautiful cerulean color that made the nidorina come to love her adopted even more.

Once the pup had been weaned, the nidorina began bringing it whatever it ate: random berries or leaves or roots or whatever it could find lying around. The vulpix had never tasted the savor of meat before and it didn't even know that the flesh-food existed as what it was supposed to be eating. So for the months that passed afterwards, the vulpix fed like a nidorina, not that it knew any better. The nidorina showed the vulpix how to avoid predators and to dig for roots when food was scarce. There was little the nidorina mother could do to show her adopted defense however, seeing to the fact that neither of them knew the potential destructiveness that the little fireball could wield from its throat.

One day while the nidorina was drinking daintily at the streamside, a loud, crashing noise came from the distant hills. The vulpix, now nearly three and a half months old, was playing nearby and trotted over to the water's edge and vacantly began to lap up the cool water when the noise rang out. It raised its head and shifted its ears in every direction until it located the direction of the noise; from the east. Without moving its head, the whelp looked at the nidorina who was still as stone. Not even the usually frenzied nose of hers quivered or twitched- she was petrified. No one moved for what seemed like the longest time until the sound got so near that with the pair's keen eyes they could see a cluster of shadows rapidly approaching the den site. A few moments later as they became even nearer, the vulpix could see that they were riding atop creatures with glowing manes that wavered valiantly in the strong wind they were riding against.

Their riders were creatures of a race that the vulpix had never seen before, nor the nidorina. Their battle cries were harsh and unpleasant to the pair's sensitive ears that, when combined with the booming of the mount's hooves created a deafening drone that rung in the ears of every victim who heard.

They were nearer now; close enough now that the entire vast plain seemed to bow down to the arrival of such strangers. The riders were upon them now, and just moments before the nidorina bolted for the nest, calling at the top of its lungs for the vulpix to follow. The vulpix reached the jagged green stone that marked the burrow only a few moments away- it looked behind and saw the nidorina, desperately trying to avoid the thundering hooves that had so ominously descended upon them. The rodent dodged every which way, frantic and horrified; unsure of how to escape. The river of fiery horses seemed incessant and offering no way out. The vulpix pup scared, but valiantly dashed into the roaring mess of equine and stranger in a futile effort to rescue its mother. The pup looked hysterically in every direction for the crying nidorina and spotted her only a few bounds away, still amidst the pounding. A heavy foot landed right in front of the vulpix, making the whelp skid to a sudden stop and struggle to its feet again and hurdle more hooves to reach the azure rodent. She was just steps away; the vulpix would reach her- it reached out a paw to the mother who did the same and barely missed its safe grasp when it was suddenly swept away by a stray hoof and knocked unconscious to the damp grass. Not a second later another heavy foot came down unexpected and stuck the lifeless mammal in the skull, sending gushes of revolting blood in every direction, staining the dark grass and making the ground soggy. The fatal hoof had a few small blood stains too that stood out against its white hide as it pounded away. The vulpix waited a few moments until the last of the creatures had galloped away before it dragged its weary limbs over to the dead nidorina.

It nuzzled what was left of the beautiful creature's face, sobbing and mixing tears with red, vile blood. The vulpix nudged a bit harder and emitted soft, chanting cries hoping that it would rouse the mother back to life. But no such thing happened and the pup lie down next to its foster mother, laying its tiny head on its forepaws.

Around five minutes later a lone set of hoof beats came pounding back toward the murder scene. The vulpix didn't bother to look up, and only turned an ear when the sound of only a pair of feet approached it. The creature dismounted the rapidash and slowly bent down to the vulpix. When it still didn't look up, the creature scooped up the baby from the bloody ground, gently putting a hand over its tiny muzzle. The vulpix struggled; what was going on?

The tall creature returned to his mount and swung himself over its bare back. He held the vulpix firmly but gently in the crook of his arm, his hand still loosely clamped over the vulpine's snout. The other hand held a long cord that ran up to the head of the fiery beast they were sitting on top of. Its warm flames burned just a tiny reach from the tip of its nose, and yet it didn't seem to bother the strange creature in the least. With a quick snap of the string, the rapidash bolted off in the direction the stampede had gone. All the while the tiny vulpix squirmed and writhed within the strong clutch of the strange creature, but any efforts seemed but pin pricks to the big creature. After a minute of pointless struggle, the whelp relaxed under the bounce of the ride and let the inevitable take its course.

xoxoxoxoxoxxo

And that's the first chapter, and I'm aware that I haven't given a name or gender to our heroine yet, which will come in the second chapter. If you were confused about the title, those words are Latin for 'period of life' and 'infinite'. Kind of fitting I suppose, so….let me know what you think because my plans on how I am going to describe the history or the Pokemon world are somewhat sketchy right now.

Until next time, Crystalryu