(OOC: It's not the best, but I shall edit it and work on the not-so-great parts of it later when I'm not scrambling to clean my room for my friend who's coming over to study tomorrow.)
01 -Lost in Translation-
"Look, look! Blue and white, mommy!"
Yuki barely shifted her eyes from the absorbing imagery set before her as the voice of a young female child pierced the air with glee. A true human settlement, with buildings of steel, and houses more than one floor high, was directly ahead of Yuki, and her ears twitched at the hustle and bustle of the inhabitants. Closing her eyes, Yuki carefully detailed the clamor of the area, committing to memory the vividness of the town. She drew in a small breath of air, before scrunching up her nose.
"Achoo!" She sneezed three more times. Scowling at all the humans who paused to look at her strange hair and ears she daintily rubbed a finger under her nose and sniffed once more. Yuki glanced down at Fubuki, who seemed to be having troubles over-sneezing as well. "It smells nasty here, it is far too noisy, and it is such a waste of space! That in the heavens which had compelled me to journey to such a place shall surely pay," Yuki coldly stated, glancing around and glaring at the little children that were entranced by her constantly convulsing ears.
She sighed as Fubuki flopped over her shoeless feet, exhausted from sneezing so many times at once, before peering around the fringes of the settlement. Even though she was of a demon tribe, the noble Wolves, Yuki had terrible eyesight, and was forced to squint her eyes to see anything at all. This action, coupled with her already scowling lips and red nose, gave the passersby the impression that Yuki did not wish to interrupted nor assisted. So the slightly more normal population of Pallet Town gratefully avoided the surly young woman as she continued to scout for an inn of sorts.
Fubuki, though tired of sneezing, and greatly drained of energy from eating nothing but berries for seven days, suddenly sat up in alarm and began running circles around Yuki's feet. Not paying attention, Yuki took a step forward to see a sign in the distance better and cleanly tripped over the fur ball gyrating about her feet. With a loud thump on the ground in front of her, Yuki pancaked to the cement sidewalk and deflated, her entire body trembling.
Unaware of her impeding doom, Fubuki shook herself off from where Yuki's feet had accidentally kicked her, and gingerly sniffed around Yuki's head. Yuki's body did not stop trembling, the very slight movements not catching the eyes of the pokémon nor of the people around them. Children tugged their parents' hands to see the reason for the fussy whine emanating from that spot, only to grin with excitement upon discovering Yuki's prone body, facedown, on the sidewalk. Several young boys and girls rushed to Yuki, not seeing the slight trembling, and began playing with her white hair and batting at her ears. Unable to take the blatant abuse of her precious ears and untainted hair, Yuki sprung up and off the ground in one smooth motion, sending some children flailing back and Fubuki to the ground once again. Glaring at every single child, adult, and pokémon within the vicinity, Yuki powerfully stalked away from the scene, displeasure and murderous intent cascading from every pore of her being. Fubuki smoothly jumped to her paws and pattered after the infuriated young woman.
Two hours later found Yuki no better off than before; she was still catching the attention of many humans, still hungry, and still rather lost. Her ears had long since flattened to her head due to the sheer noise from the city. Her eyes had begun to hurt from all the squinting she was forced to do. Her head still throbbed from her fall. In short, Yuki was irritated. So irate was she, in fact, that when she saw two teens - probably siblings judging by the similarities - grab Fubuki and begin tugging at the downtrodden and exhausted pokémon's ears, she snapped. Casually walking up to them, assessing their strengths, Yuki smiled wickedly in a sardonic greeting before punching them both; one in the face and the other in the stomach. The two moaning teens, a girl and boy, were left at the side of the street in front what was presumably their house, and Yuki sauntered away, relatively satiated, with a grateful, quiescent Fubuki snuggled in her arms.
Regardless of the rather invigorating incident, both Yuki and Fubuki were simply tired of walking. After escaping to a safe distance from the scene of the crime, Yuki's quick-paced, sure-footed walk became more sluggish, to the point where she leaned against an alley wall and snuck to a sitting position. Fubuki, who had been resting in the wolf-demon's arms hopped away and lay down next to Yuki. She let out a small whine and Yuki sighed before petting the soft fur of her partner. It had been a long week, and without company with which she could converse, Yuki was getting even more surly and aggravated than normal.
"You know, if you were able to speak, you'd be far better company than you are at the present moment." Yuki coldly glanced at the pokémon, who by now was gently, rhythmically breathing in and out. Quirking an eyebrow, Yuki ceased useless prattle about the misfortunes they had encountered along the way, such as the poisonous snake Fubuki had stepped on, or the loss of one of Yuki's black turtlenecks to the torrential river not far from town when she had hung it up to dry, that would have been less troublesome had Fubuki been another wolf tribe member and not a pokémon.
'Actually, an awake Fubuki would be far better company than she at the present moment,' Yuki sullenly corrected herself. She was near about ready to doze off herself when it occurred to her that she was still sitting in the rather dirty alleyway, and her person was completely exposed to any sort of abuse from the townspeople and local criminals. Instead, Yuki dragged herself up and shook her head hard to dispel the magic of sleep, before prodding Fubuki with her bare feet into a standing position. The pokémon flopped back over, but quickly recovered when Yuki stepped back into the streets of Pallet town, tired yet slightly more energized.
As Yuki walked down the street with Fubuki pouncing on her heels – or misfortunate birds – she noticed a cozy looking café that was full of customers. Pausing in her mindless walk, Yuki considered entering the café and grabbing a bite to eat; she was a bit short on whatever humans used for money, but she had taken a few of her mother's gold and gold-plated jewelry, which was sure to cover the costs of next to anything. Finally, thinking 'Better than continuing to wander this god-forsaken, ridiculous human city,' Yuki walked to the entrance of the café, where the daily menu was printed in white chalk on a blackboard. Her ears perked up at the constant chatter within the café, and her mind quickly stored much of the more interesting information away, particularly the conversation of two sitting costumers that seemed to have noted her presence outside.
"Why're all them anthropomorphs visitin' Pallet Town lately? Don't we 'ave 'nough problems?" A gangly looking teen wearing a red shirt and blue denim jeans sneered at someone within the café before shifting his silted eyes towards Yuki. "Them stupid beasts are eatin' us normal folk outta house an' 'ome!" He made a rude gesture in Yuki direction before taking a deep draught of his black coffee; Yuki smelled the disgusting liquid from her venue in front of the café menu. Without so much as twitching her nose at the human, Yuki shifted her eyes back to the menu to see if the café offered smoothies. She adored orange smoothies.
A younger girl with black and red hair speedily ran past her into the café, out of breath and seeming very much in a hurry. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the stares of the other café house occupants following the new arrival, and several of the people started to whisper. Yuki just turned back to the menu, intent of discerning the strange human handwriting once and for all. She rather disliked not being able to read the frilly script.
The bratty teen's friend, sitting opposite of him, had noticed his friend's gesture in Yuki's direction, and was just now turning around to catch a glimpse of her gray wolf ears twitching at the noisy shift in the café. He smirked a bit and leaned towards his friend, conspiratorially whispering. Barely able to distinguish his oily voice from the other vile noises she heard come forth from the café, Yuki followed their conversation once again, curiosity peaking and her desire for an orange smoothie diminishing. While eavesdropping was immoral, Yuki had the oddest feeling it concerned her, and her instincts overrode any sense twisted sense of right and wrong she had in the first place.
"Ya know bud, if we sell off that there girly to one of 'em bounty 'unters, we'd make a pretty penneh. Wolfies like 'er are only rumors, since they hid 'emselves a long time ago." Yuki could almost hear the creaking of his bones into a hideous smile, and her eyes narrowed as she swiftly turned from the café. She was about to make a quick escape when the disgusting human's last sentence caught her attention. "She's not at all like that there cat-freak. Why, 'em nekos be so common place, tryin'a sell one of 'em is like selling coffee to this café."
'Cat? There's a cat in the café, I suppose,' Yuki thought, scrunching her face up and taking a deep breath. The scent was faint, closer to the entrance, but it was definitely wafting from the counter and deeper within the café. Feeling almost sorry for the anthropomorphic cat, Yuki turned away again, disgusted by the conversation she was hearing, but disinclined to do anything about it. The mocking whispers of, 'I hear that girl has no memory," and, "Doesn't she have a family?" rang in her ears, but Yuki did not know the person they were talking about, nor did she want to get unnecessarily involved. Those sorts of situations always led to undesirable fistfights and unneeded deaths; perhaps not so much the unneeded deaths clause unless Yuki was extremely irate.
Yuki spent another few hours walking around Pallet town with Fubuki at her side, chasing butterflies and pouncing on unsuspecting cats, when she noticed the sky becoming darker. Though she was normally an outdoors sort of person, rain would mean getting extremely wet. Her only clothes were within a non-waterproof knapsack, and if this were not enough of an incentive to find shelter quickly, Fubuki disliked the rain because it soaked her fur thoroughly, and thus she became a poorly behaved grouch.
'I rather would like not to be stranded outside in such atrocious weather… Perhaps I should return to that café and wait out the downpour.' Yuki looked ahead to where Fubuki had wandered while chasing some insects and whistled to catch the Poochyena's attention. "We are going back to that café to get out of the oncoming rain," Yuki told Fubuki once the pokémon had returned to her side. In response, Fubuki stuck her tongue out and bit into Yuki's right pant leg. Yuki just rolled her eyes, shook Fubuki off of her leg, and stalked away in the opposite direction, intent on finding the café.
Fubuki followed after a brief interval, smelling the oncoming torrent of rain, and deciding that Yuki would know better than she where to seek shelter. How unfortunately wrong both Yuki and Fubuki were; while Yuki was exceptional at many things, she was downright atrocious at directions, but in a manner that not even she noticed. So, walking around for several minutes, Yuki and Fubuki assumed that they were going in the right direction, when in fact, they were going east and not north. Eventually, Fubuki noticed their misdirection and started whining, but Yuki would have none of it, glaring at the pokémon and continuing forward.
Before long the pair reached the edge of Pallet Town on the east side, Yuki had become far more aggravated, and Fubuki had chewed through part of Yuki's right pant leg. Yuki swiftly turned in a direction she though to be north and continued walking, passing several other pedestrians rushing home to avoid the rain. Tempting as it was to ask someone where the café she had seen may be, Yuki couldn't stand the thought of lowering herself to ask such common people, and so she scowling trudged onward with Fubuki continuing to chew up her pants.
By the time they reached the edge of Pallet Town on the south side, Yuki had enough. She grabbed Fubuki by the nape of her neck and growled at the Poochyena deeply before hissing out, "Why exactly did you let me be the leader? I abhor directions. Next time this happens I will most certainly des-" Yuki looked up to the sky mid-rant as the silver drops began to drop from an ashen sky. Without warning, Fubuki leapt out of Yuki's grasp and tackled her to the ground, going berserk as the rain fell harder. Displeased at her state of sogginess, Yuki once again grabbed Fubuki's fur and in the opposite direction they had been traveling in for the past several minutes.
Within five minutes, Yuki was breathing deeply right outside the café she had seen earlier that morning. Fubuki was angrily prancing about her bare feet, jumping excitedly up and down and scratching Yuki's jeans with her sharp claws. After tapping her companion on damp, fur covered ears to calm both of them, Yuki carefully opened the door, trying to shake off the ringing in her ears from the recent thundering and sizzling of a nearby fire.
Inside, Yuki noticed a certain tension present, one that most certainly did not become of the occupants. A girl with white hair and glowing red eyes was on the floor and smirking wickedly at a lion anthropomorph sitting at one of the café's tables. It seemed as though he did not notice that she was awake with her devilish sights set on him, for he was pointedly starting at Yuki, as was a the rest of the occupants of the café: one family with a small, sobbing child nestled between the parents, one of the bratty teens from earlier, and an oddly feathered anthropomorph, who was clearly unconscious and in need of medical attention. Despite the pointed, burning gaze the other white-haired female was directing at the rather burly looking male lion, Yuki could tell that he didn't notice it at all. Perhaps she had indeed come at the strangest of times, when most normal people would have already been locked up within their houses and huddled around the fireplace, and thusly she deserved the greatest of scrutiny. But Yuki was most certainly not normal. Nor did she have a fireplace at her house. Nor did she think the half-glazed look in his eyes was that of an astute sentinel.
Soaking wet and dripping on the floor of the café, Yuki swiftly departed from her position at the door. The only truly alert person, it occurred to Yuki, was the other white-haired female. Her red eyes shifted as Yuki moved further away from the door, while the male's eyes briefly glanced in her direction before turning back to the door. The humans didn't even seem to consider her presence attention worthy, as the child continued to cry, the parents console, and the teen carelessly doze off. But the white-haired anthropomorph – for Yuki could tell she was a cat after the first breath of air – had fixated her eyes on Yuki in a cold greeting. The look in her eyes was one Yuki had seen every morning in the mirror: a haughty, defiant, and mocking gaze, one full of challenge and scorn.
Yuki schooled her expression as she headed towards the establishment's only bathroom, taking care to tug Fubuki from the humans and along to change and dry off with her. She changed her clothes into a pair of navy blue jeans, a black turtleneck and orange T-shirt, carefully wringing out her previous garments before hanging them up to dry in the tiny bathroom, and used a towel to attempt to dry Fubuki's fur. Yuki even went so far as to grab the hair dryer hanging from a rustic holder and Fubuki and blow-drying the water-crazed Poochyena. Yuki's own hair was quickly taken care of through scrupulous wringing and head shaking. Before long, both Yuki and Fubuki were acceptably dry, and Yuki stepped out of the bathroom, only to be greeted by the glowing red eyes of a certain white-haired cat.
"Move, fool." Yuki coldly stated, casually leaning against the doorframe, crossing her right leg over her left and placing the toe on the ground. Her bare feet were wrinkled from the water, but now that she had dried them off, she was far more sure-footed than any cat could ever hope to be.
Cocking her head to the left, the cat raised her eyebrow delicately and giggled with menacing glee. She lifted a finger and brought it in front of Yuki's nose, the finger red and puffy contrasting the pale skin of her face, as though the finger - or rather entire hand - had been dipped in scalding water several times. "You really don't want to play games with me, wolf. Don't get in my way. That will be my final warning to you." She flashed a devilish grin at Yuki again, before turning to move away, flicking out her left foot while doing so. Yuki yawned as the cat walked away, and though she didn't turn back, Yuki could tell that she was enraged by the lack of response and the by the wild flickering of her ears and her heightened breathing. Yuki herself wasn't so much as moved by this threat; she had no intention of interfering in the first place. All she desired was a nice, warm, and most importantly dry place where she could wait out the storm.
With this in mind, Yuki stepped back into the commons room and sat down at a table as far from everyone else in the café as humanly possible. A Ponyta, which Yuki had failed to take notice of previously, stared at her in a curious manner; Fubuki noticed this and started growling angrily at the Ponyta. Apparently, having gotten wet once was enough to cause the Poochyena's temper to rot. Yuki sighed quietly to herself, unheard to the other occupants of the darkened café, and knew that the wait was destined to be long and exhausting.
