The Trainer and her Fox!

Nova walked out and looked around. She was nervous. Even though she grew up in Saffron, she didn't really know many people. Foxi nudged her elbow trying to push her completely out of the house and on her way.

"Foxi, I know you're ready to go, but I'm nervous," she said petting the ninetales head gently. Foxi shook her head and sighed, "Ninetales."
"Okay, okay, we'll go now, happy?" Foxi nodded with a slight smile on her foxy face.

She took another step out of the house. "How did I end up with such an extroverted pokemon?" she thought sighing slightly. She really just wanted to stay home for a few more days, but everyone was pushing her out of the house and telling her to get going.

Nova could hear hooves on the cobblestone and turned to see a girl riding- wait what? Yeah, the girl was riding a blue flamed ponyta. She couldn't help but blink rapidly once the girl got closer. The girl's hair was fine, she'd seen many colors and her own blue-green hair stood out like a sore thumb. The most interesting part was the girl's eyes. They were quite pretty, though Nova would be quiet about it, as she didn't know how the girl felt about them.

Foxi would come up next to her trainer, butting her head into Nova's hand. Novali automatically started petting the ninetales gently. "Well, I'm not really having any issues with her, she's just a lot more outgoing than I am and wants to get out and train. B-but I'm nervous to," Nova would say while looking away slightly and twirling one of her long bangs.

A few seconds of silence later, and Foxi had decided to get to know this new pokemon. She realized that those hooves would probably hurt if they struck her, so instead of bounding in like normal, she walked up calmly. Foxi would extend her muzzle, sniffing the ponyta softly before one of her fox grins crept onto her face.

Nova noticed the grin and immediately grabbed the ninetales around the waist and tried pulling her backwards, with only a little luck. "Foxi, you know better. If a new pokemon wants to play, they'll let you know. And no playing tricks on them either. It's no wonder the Professor had so many issues with you. Not only do you hate the ball, but you love playing tricks on people and pokemon alike. Can't you get rid of that extra energy any other way?" Nova would say with a sigh.

At the word 'race', Foxi's ears perked up and she turned back toward the ponyta in excitement. Yipping like an excited vulpix, Foxi pranced around, circling the whole group but mostly her trainer as if asking permission.

"Does running round help Blitzkrieg settle down? I've tried wrestling with Foxi and that only ends up with me tired and her hyper as ever. She'll even wrestle with the other ninetales and vulpix my grandparents own afterwards. They have at least four of each. They breed them, and they're seriously not sure why she's so hyper. They suggested that maybe she evolved too soon so now she's kind of stuck in her vulpix personality," Nova caught the ninetales once more and nuzzled her cheek against the fox's snout gently.

Foxi headbutt Nova gently and tickled her nose with her tails. Nova giggled and pet the tails gently, making sure not to pull. "You know, that whole curse thing if you pull one of their tails is more or less untrue. The biggest thing if you pull one is incur the trickster's wrath. That's why people think they get bad luck. It's just a bunch of foxes following you around making things happen around you," Nova chuckled and Foxi grinned once again.

"Hmm, I'll have to try your suggestions. And, Foxi, stop yipping please, you're starting to freak the ponyta out a bit," Nova said and hugged her ninetales gently. She let out one last small yip in apology and nuzzled her best friend. "So, where do you think they should race to? Maybe that sign and back?" she asked pointing to a sign about 100 meters away.

Nova laughed when Sophie mentioned that her cousin was having trouble after harassing a ninetales. Now that she'd been around the girl a little bit and been able to talk to her, Nova felt more confident and it showed in her posture.

"I'm Novali Ruso. I'm from here. This is my grandparent's home, thank goodness it's rather large and has a good yard because there's a lot of foxes in that house!" she answered Sophie with a giggle. "I'm not sure if I've heard the name for sure, but I do recall someone saying that there were poke-horse breeders over that way. Have you ever heard of my family? My mom and dad were fairly popular trainers and breeders before they disappeared shortly after I was born."

At the mention of her parents, Nova seemed to shrink back into herself a bit. "I don't remember them, but they were apparently good people. Max and Roxanne Ruso?"

Sophie smiled at the ninetales and held out a hand to pet her, but not quite touching her. The pokemon would decide whether it was pet or not. Just ask anyone that tried to pet a ponyta without it's permission. "Oh don't worry, Azshara's fine, ponyta are just a bit skittish. Thank you for at least not yipping anymore, Foxi." Sophie estimated the distance and shook her head in disapproval."Well it's not much of a challenge for her, but then again it's in her blood to be extremely fast so I guess not much would be. Alright, sounds find with me, you ok with it Azshara?" The ponyta whinied and shook her mane out again, stamping her hoof two times on the cobblestone. "I think that's a yes, anywho it's amazing you can fit a bunch of foxes in here. We need hundreds of acres for our ranch and still it never seems like enough."

Sophie was enjoying talking with Novali, she thought a minute when her family's name came up. "Well, I don't think I've heard of them, but I'm sure my mother has. She has tons of experience in the pokemon world so she's bound to have heard of them if they were famous." Sophie felt bad for the other girl, she didn't know what it was like to not have parents around or not know what happened to them. It was horrible. Still, Sophie tried to cheer her up with her usual pep."Hey look, I think they're ready!" Sophie looked over and Azshara's flames where blazing wildly and her nostrils flared. She was definitely ready to race.

The ninetales would happily headbutt Sophie's hand, always one to be happy for a pet. Nova smiled at her friend while stroking down her back. After a few minutes of petting, Foxi maneuvered herself next to the ponyta muzzle in the direction Nova had pointed to.

With a giggle, Nova said, "It surely seems as if they're ready to go. Do you want to call or do you want me to?" She was sad that Sophie hadn't heard anything about her parents, but she wouldn't let that get to her. She was stronger than that.

Standing up from her previous position, Nova would walk over to line up with the pokemon who looked to be aching for the race to begin.

(OOC: ugh, short post)

Nova motioned to Sophie to go right ahead and watched with anticipation. "Nothing dirty, Foxi. Be nice and let's have a fair race," Nova said to her ninetales and it yipped in understanding back. "Good," Nova nodded to Sophie just as she started the race and watched Foxi dash after the ponyta, obviously having to control it's urge to do something with it's tails to the ponyta.

"Remember, a fair race, Foxi!" Nova shouted and silently urged her to go faster. Her ninetales was fast, but no fast enough to beat a horse, but maybe if she tried to beat the ponyta then she'd be less hyper?

"Hard as you can, girl!" Nova shouted adding her own little yip to the sounds of rushing paws and hooves. At the sound of her friend yipping in encouragement, Foxi ran faster until she was at the ponyta's tail, then rear flank, then to Azshara's stomach area. She stayed far enough away as to not be tempted to do anything, but close enough to let the ponyta know that she was there.

When Nova heard Sophie ask her a question, she turned and yipped in affirmative before blushing and repeating herself in English. "Yes, it's fun. I would like it if you'd come with me. That way I can have another human with me." Her word choice made something clear alright. She believed that pokemon were people too.

Foxi saw the ponyta pulling forward and gave it all the more she could, but couldn't keep right beside her at all. The only thing she might have done if she hadn't already been told no dirty tricks was to grab a mouth full of tail and have it basically drag her to the finish. The fox pokemon wasn't surprised when the horse pokemon beat her, but she had given it a good run for its money!

At Sophie's odd expression, Nova would look away in embarrassment. Her ability to mimic a fox had gotten her into trouble before with other kids and she didn't want that to happen again. "S-sorry about the y-yipping. I-I just can't help it s-sometimes," Nova said with a huge blush and looked away form Sophie's eyes.

As if sensing their friend's nervousness, a few vulpixes bounded out the door and started yipping softly to the blue haired girl. She would crouch down to pet them yipping softly back. One vulpix in particular came closer than the others and licked the girl's face. Nova hugged the little pokemon to her torso, gaining strength from the pokemons' actions.

"You know, I've always wondered what a fox and a dog would act like together. Maybe we could find a growlithe or something?" she asked looking up hopefully at the other girl.

Foxi was breathing hard and only slightly tired. She didn't really like loosing, but this was a fair run, she had given it all she had. The fox allowed Azshara to nudge her with it's head and placed a gentle paw on it's muzzle before allowing it to walk back to it's trainer. Her proud tails were drooping slightly, especially once she saw that her trainer was being loved on by other pokemon. Nova saw this and set the vulpix down telling them all with some sharp yips to go back inside. They followed her command and she opened her arms up for Foxi. With a happy sigh, the fox literally flopped into Nova's lap.

"I guess we both keep forgetting how big you are, eh Foxi?" Nova said and stroked the pokemon calmly.

Nova smiled softly as Sophie reassured her that her talent was a good thing. Foxi headbutt her chin lightly and a bigger smile was brought out. "Foxi, you silly ninetales. But your being silly makes me love you more," Nova smiled and hugged Foxi tight nuzzling into the fur near her head and neck.

She noticed Sophie taking the bridle off of her ponyta and took it as a cue to stand up. If only there weren't a forty pound pokemon currently taking up residence in her lap. Nova yipped at her to get up and she somewhat reluctantly did. "Well, I don't mind if we don't find a growlithe, I just think it would be cool to find one," she said and smiled gently.

Nova walked beside Sophie, waving good bye to her grandparents' home. Foxi stayed fairly close to Nova, though still close enough to tickle the ponyta with one of it's tails every now and again.

Nova almost tripped once or twice over some root sticking up in their path, but she kept herself upright and walking. Foxi kept chuckling every time Nova tripped. When she would look back at Foxi, the fox would just look innocent and look over at Azshara. With a sigh, she caught back up with Sophie again.

"I like fire types, but I don't really have a preference. I love my ninetales and would really like to take over my family's business once I get older. But, I don't want it to just be ninetails and vulpix, you know? I want to do something like your family is trying. I want to see which pokemon naturally get along, and which don't. Grandma told me a story once about a charmander that liked taking bathes, as long as it's tail didn't get wet at least."

As she spoke, she was looking around trying to find any spot that she thought a pokemon would hide in. "Well, I know that in forests you're more prone to find insect pokemon, and ratatatas are likely to hang out in tall grass in plains, but that's about it. So, we'll see what we find, shall we?"

A small pink Pokémon with yellow tipped ears wasn't far off. It looked as if it were about to cry from the look on its face, but anyone who knew the species would know that it's just the way they look. Anyone who knew the species also might be smart enough to cover their ears, for the small Pokémon was a Whismur, which attacked with sound-based attacks mostly. Eating a few plants not far off from it was an odd looking brown spotted Pokémon. It appeared to be a Hippopotas, and was slowly inching its way toward the Whismur, making the Pokémon more likely to lash out with a loud attack.

Nova noticed where Sophie was looking and saw two pokemon, one sneaking up on the other. Sophie reacted first and told her ponyta to use a flamethrower on the hippo pokemon. She yipped a yes before repeating it in English. "Yep! Will do!" she said with a small salute and turning to her ninetales.

"Foxi! Use ember on the whismur! Then come over here!" she told the fox pokemon and dashed over a few yards so they'd be out of Sophie and Azshara's way. Foxi would follow Nova's directions before landing just in front of her trainer with an excited yip.

[Whismur, Female. Level 11] [Hippopotas, Male. Level 9]

Both Whismur and Hippopotas saw the Flamethrower attack, which managed to miss them both by only inches as it blazed between them. Whismur stumbled back a bit, overly surprised, and right into the Ember attack! Hippopotas, however looked angrily over to the ponyta that had launched the attack. It snarled best a hippopotas can, before hurling a load of sand in Ponyta's direction with Sand Attack! Whismur, on the other hand, began to cry, creating a loud Uproar!

"At least for now, yes, yes we are!" Nova shouted back. "Foxi! Try to dodge that sound. Follow up with a Quick Attack and Confuse Ray!"

Foxi's only reply was a yip as she tried to dodge the sound as best she could and go in for the attack.

(OOC: Hello there! I hope you don't mind, but Lucretia has put me in charge of moderating this thread from here on out.)

Hippopotas was not at all pleased that its Sand Attack had missed, but it had more pressing issues to focus on. Unfortunately, it had underestimated its opponents speed... Azshara was amazingly quick, and the Hippopotas barely had time to react before it felt the Ponyta's hooves slamming into its side. It let out a type of roar, if such a sound could be called that, and whirled its head around to attack! Hippopotas used Bite!

The little Whismur was making quite a racket. It seemed a bit caught up in its own effort and hadn't anticipated the Ninetales' Quick Attack. It took the hit head-on, stumbling back before righting itself just in time to avoid Foxi's Confuse Ray. It quite disliked being snuck up on, especially when it enjoyed making such loud noise. Whismur continued making an Uproar!

(OOC: Hiya! I don't mind at all! Random note here: Hippopotas is so horrible to type out)

Sophie pumped her fist into the air when she saw Azshara successfully follow through with her orders. "Way to go Azshara!" Though Sophie still felt bad for the poor Hippopatas. Still she didn't see the oncoming attack that came soon after, where Azshara's leg was bitten into hard by the hippo pokemon. Though there may have been an upside to that, perhaps the flames on her body would cause the hippopotas to attain a burn from such an act. The ponyta let out a whinny of pain and Azshara knew she had to get the Hippopotas off her pokemon somehow. "Azshara! Use Ember on it now that you're in close range!" Sophie bit her lower lip in anticipation.