“I’ll take the first shift. So try and get a good sleep. I’m going to wake you up about halfway so you can take the watch.” You have a feeling you have a stronger will than the vulpix. After he gets some sleep, he should be able to stay up.
“Sure thing Lulu.” He curls back up and closes his eyes. In just a few minutes he is snoring peacefully.
You sigh and brace yourself. This is going to be a long few hours. You sit outside the log looking in the forest. Nothing happens for three hours. You almost doze off a couple of times but catch yourself. You get up and pace to keep the blood flowing. The night is cool and the nippiness helps a little, although, you would love nothing more than to curl up into a nice warm ball. You need something to keep your mind occupied. You wonder what the Fire Lily smells like. You sniff the flower, it smells smokey like wood is burning and has a hint of a sweet odor, similar to an apple. You now wonder what it tastes like. You can’t help yourself and lean in for a bite.
Suddenly, a bush rustles nearby. You stop and turn to face the bush. You see two brown eyes peep through the shadows. A zigzagoon head pokes out into the moonlight. It sees you and looks just as surprised to see you as you are of it. A zigzagoon is not a threat to you when you are awake. They are omnivorous and are very opportunistic. It would have been one of those predators that would love to have caught you sleeping and would have made quick work of your neck. You stare at each other for a few seconds, then the zigzagoon quickly disappears into the woods, too afraid to challenge you.
You go back to pacing, forgetting about the Fire Lily. You wait for another three hours without incident. You are so tired when you walk over to Xander.
“Hey Xander,” you say groggily.
“Ugh,” he grunts in return.
“Xander, come on.” You begin shaking the vulpix with your front paws.
He finally wakes and looks at you with droopy eyes. “Okay, okay, I’m up.” He gets up, stretches and yawns. As he is stretching you see the red tip of his dick has unsheathed. You turn away, trying not to look, to save him the embarrassment. He shakes, making his skin flop back and forth. Xander walks from the log and begins pacing, trying to wake up.
You yawn, “did you get a good sleep?”
He smiles, eyes still droopy but less so, “yeah I did. I’ll be fine to keep guard. Don’t worry, you're in good paws.”
You hope so. You smile at him and curl into a ball inside the cozy log. You fall asleep quickly. But just before you do, you think you hear Xander's stomach growl.
You awake suddenly to a strange noise. You look outside the log; it’s still dark out but now a thick fog has settled. You don’t see Xander.
You poke your head out of the log. “Xander?” He’s not around at all. What happened to him? Did he run off? Or is there a predator? You walk out cautiously. “Xander?” Still no response.
A nearby bush rustles. Is it Xander coming back from a piss break? But it’s not; it’s Norb, the pikachu.
You get down and growl, “Norb, what the hell are you doing here? I told you I don’t want anything to do with you.”
“So you’re sleeping with a vulpix now? Guess pika-dick is too small for your loose hole? Lulu the fox fucker. Has a nice ring to it. Wait till I tell the tribe what you've become,” Norb snides.
“I didn’t sleep with him. We are a team, he is helping me find a Thunder Stone. What’s it to a failed rapist like you anyways; and what did you do to him?”
“Oh Lulu, don’t worry about him. It’s just you and me now.” Norb begins to walk towards you.
"Get away Norb, I'm not going to fuck you!"
"I'm not here to fuck you, Lulu. What I did back at the tribe was try to save you, honest. But you seem hell-bent on becoming food for some lucky predator. So I thought, why waste your meat on some other Pokemon? Might as well keep the flesh inside the species." He grins, but the smile doesn't look like any pikachu's smile you've seen; his teeth are sharp, like a predator's.
You growl and try to flash sparks but nothing comes out. You are sure you should be well-rested enough to have electricity. Norb keeps approaching with an evil toothy grin. You turn and try to run away but your legs are weak and it feels like you are treading water. What the hell is wrong with you? Norb quickly catches up and tackles you. He wrestles you to the ground, pinning you on your back.
“Get off me you fucking freak!” You yell at Norb.
"Mmm, you look so good. They say we taste great; that's why so many things love to hunt us. Guess I'm about to find out if that’s true.” He begins savagely licking your neck. His tongue is unnaturally warm. You scream for help. Is this really happening? Are you about to be cannibalized by Norb? Norb groans in pleasure as though he is eating a tasty berry. Then he opens his jaw wide over your neck. You can feel his hot breath.
"No, Norb, pleas..." But it's too late.
You open your eyes wide as he takes a bite. It was just a dream, but it felt so real. You now realize you are making eye contact with one brown eye; it's Xander's. You look up to see you are still in the log and see three red tails swishing happily. You follow his snout down but the end is below your chin. You gasp for air but all that comes into your lungs are curdles of blood. Xander has dug his teeth deep into your exposed neck. The blow is fatal. You are now nothing more than Xander’s next meal. You should have been warier of sleeping with a predator.
You panic and try to use Thundershock but the blood loss has sapped your energy. You flail as a last resort but that too is pointless. The vulpix’s teeth are dug deep and his weight keeps you pinned to the ground. Xander growls as he wrestles you. Whenever you pause briefly, he whines and shakes with excitement; his tails never stop moving. After two long minutes, the blood loss becomes too much and you go limp.
The fucking bastard betrayed you. You wonder if the vulpix’s request to team up was just a ploy to get an easy pika-kill. Now satisfied you are ready to eat, Xander heats his maw. You can feel fire come down his throat. Flames, like waves, wash over your neck. The smell of singed fur and cooking flesh fills the air, accompanied by the sounds of popping roasting fat and hissing blood turning into steam. The pain is excruciating but all you do is convulse meekly. The heat cauterizes the wound, lessening the blood loss and extending your life needlessly. Once the meat is cooked to his liking, he rips the chunk out.
*smk-smk-smk-smk-slrp-glrk*
"Ahhhhhh," he lets out in pleasure, declaring just how tasty you are. His tails must agree because they swish back and forth. He looks down at his gargling victim with sad eyes. ”Sorry Lulu, I didn’t plan this, honest. But I was so hungry, hungrier than I’ve been since winter, and I saw you just laying there. I couldn’t help myself. Please forgive me.” He seems genuine but his tails are still going fast. “If it’s any condolence, Lady says there is no shame in becoming food; it is only natural for your kind to feed mine and for mine to feed others. But I promise not to waste your meat up the food chain. Next spring, I’ll find a mate or die trying. And if I have a vixen, I’ll name her Lulu, after you!” Great, you aren't sure that's much of a reward for being killed.
You gargle in response and he smiles, blood drips from his fangs. “Good, now just relax Lulu and I'll do all the rest.” Xander walks down to your belly. It feels like your lungs are on fire. He breathes a flame out, singeing the fur on your belly. It hurts, but you no longer have any energy to move. He bites into your belly and begins cooking it. Luckily, you start to fade. Your ears ring, muffling the sounds of a vulpix's chewing. Your body goes numb and cold, and your vision starts to tunnel. This is it. As you are dying, you can't help but think, ‘at least I helped the poor bastard grow a pair.' Somehow that thought makes you happy. As you fade, a peace washes over you.
~~~~~~~~~~~
With half of Lulu disemboweled, Xander pulls his head up, bringing with it a liver. He fills his maw with flame and flash fries the delectable morsel. With his sharp teeth, he chews it to mush and swallows it down. His stomach gurgles, pleased with the pikachu fed to it but still wanting more. He bends his head back into the gaping gut wound.
This is a turning point in Xander’s life. He was always small and weak for his kind. No one, not even his parents or his sister thought he would survive the winter. His parents kicked him from their den when his tail split, as is tradition. That was late last summer. He was taught the basics of hunting, like all vulpix, but it's different hunting when it's life or death. He almost starved a few times and got killed more times than he can count but he always pulled through somehow.
When winter thawed, his second tail split, nature called and he headed back to where he was born to find a mate. Of his peer group, over half died, including his sister. The ones that did survive were the strongest. So there were quite a lot of surprised looks when he waltzed back into the breeding grounds.
The first week of mating season was the most hectic. It was no surprise to him that he didn't find a mate in that time, he didn't expect to. The six-tailed reynards got their pick of the vixens, selecting the young beautiful ones, of course. There was a lot of snarling and pissing and bravado but he, and most of the other three and four tailed, sat out, too afraid to get into the fray. What pissed him off was when weeks three and four came around and he was still without a mate. The ugly older females saddled up with some three-tailed until there were only a couple females left. They were ugly as sin but he wasn't going to complain. Maybe next year he could get a more attractive one. But even those vixens told him they would rather let their wombs shrivel and die before they would let him mount them. He was devastated.
Vixens started laying eggs and heats started to dry up and he left the breeding grounds wishing that he didn't survive the winter. What's the point of the struggle if you can't even breed? Defeated and dejected, he began to take his frustration out on local Pokémon. He would kill not for food, his failure in the rut took his appetite, but for just the thrill of the kill. If he couldn't have power over a vixen, then a pidgey or a caterpie would have to do.
Xander began playing with fire, figuratively speaking, by hunting at the watering hole. It's a sin punishable by execution, if not by vulpix then by pikachu. The watering hole is a shared space between vulpix and pikachu. It's a fragile treaty made many generations ago. One of the main rules for vulpix is no hunting of any kind. But he ignored that and instead took advantage of a few pidgey who thought it a safe place.
While waiting in the brush, he became obsessed with watching the pikachu. They lived so differently than vulpix. They mate for life, raise their young for years instead of months, and live together all year round. He wished he was born a pikachu. He thought of his weak vulpix body as a curse.
He became attracted to the pikachu females. One in particular, the one he is currently snout deep in, he found very attractive. Lulu seemed different from the others, and not just because she was the most beautiful. She seemed confident and determined, everything he was not. Just yesterday he heard some young bucks talking about Lulu, discussing just how displeased they were that she was leaving for Thunder Mountain. When he heard that, he knew he had to approach her. He was going to ask to mate with her but he knew that was unlikely so his backup plan was to join her in hopes of learning something from her.
He knew she wouldn't agree to mate with him and he even expected she would say no to teaming up. But when she said yes, he couldn’t believe it. It was almost like a vixen agreed to his advances and mated with him. All his anxiety melted away and he finally felt validated. Almost immediately, his appetite returned. He hadn’t been this hungry since he almost starved during the hard cold snap last winter.
He didn’t want this; after all, he did genuinely like Lulu but watching her sleep sent dark thoughts through his head. He held back his temptation for five long hours but finally, his hunger won. It started with just one innocent thought; what if I just sniffed her? No harm in that. She smelled so good, both as a fertile bitch and as a plump prey. He struggled for a while on which of his desires hungered more; turns out, it was his stomach. Lulu was in some sort of a dream and rolled over on her back, exposing her neck. That led to the next thought; what if I just licked her? No harm in that. He began to lick her neck. He doesn't know why, maybe it was her mumbled dream pleading, but something kicked in his prey drive. Without thinking, his mouth opened and quickly clamped down on the soft yellow neck. The rest is history.
He munches away at Lulu for the next few minutes, eating almost all of the tender guts. His newfound fortitude has made him hungry and he eats more than he thought possible. Once he's just about stuffed he stops, sits up, and cleans his chops. He admires his work. Lulu's midsection is missing, just her red fleshy back meat and white spine are left. Her throat is missing and cooked medium-rare. Her eyes are opened wide and dim. She was beautiful before but now she looks even better.
He looks down at her legs. They look so plump and delicious. He stands up and starts tearing into her right leg. He gnaws it to the bone then twists his head and pulls, dislocating it from the socket. He walks out of the log and sits down with his second helpings. He chews it up, bone and all, and it is gone in less than a few minutes. The sun is rising now and Xander lays out on his side. What a good night. He lays down, closes his eyes, and pants hard, as though he just ran a mile. A happy bloated gut sings its master to sleep.
Xander spends the next few days feasting off Lulu’s remains. Xander is not picky and almost all of the pikachu is used, except the skull which is too thick to chew for the vulpix. Once finished, Xander leaves the log, heading south to his normal hunting grounds. He leaves his makeshift home with a new furnishing and a smile. The world doesn’t seem so scary now. Xander doesn’t think he’ll have many problems surviving till next spring.
****************
Thus ending your story. You were betrayed by your teammate and you paid the ultimate price. You are forgotten by the tribe as just another member lost to the foreboding wilderness. But Xander will always remember you. To Xander, you were more than just a delicious meal. He felt a little bad for killing you but he couldn't be too upset; after all, he did get a free breakfast from the deal. But more than that, your death was like the starting of a new chapter; one in which he stopped being a pushover and started taking charge of his own life. He accepted that he was a predator and a tod, and started standing his ground. He kept his promise, and next spring, now with four tails, lands a cute five-tailed vixen. He has two kits, one a female, and names her Lulu, after the unfortunate pikachu who helped turn his life around. He lives the rest of his life a respectable reynard and has many kits. You leave no legacy. But hey, at least Xander turned out better for it!
