Chapter Text
A large white fox strolled through the raging blizzard, snow whipping through her flowing white mane with red highlights as piercing yellow eyes with a slight red glow scanned the snowy field.
“Wow… This is one nasty storm… I hope I find a cave soon.” Sighing to herself, she wandered on as she flexed red claws.
The chill was penetrative deep into her body, managing to even bite through the ever-burning malice that allowed her to exist beyond death. A lull in the howling winds brought screams to her ears, making her pause.
More cries sounded, seemingly coming from behind a hill of snow and ice. “What is that? I think I should check it out.”
Soft crunches filled the air as she closed in on the crying, the winds dusting away her tracks as if she was never there. The cries grew louder until she leapt over the mound. Standing her full height, she found what seemed to be the aftermath of a struggle. Pieces of unusual colours littered the white, trailing towards a weaved basket she had seen humans carting around near Berry trees. This one looked slightly different, and appeared to be the source of the crying. She cautiously stepped closer, going around to look inside.
“It cannot be, can it?”
The basket seemed to hold the same red covering she had with the other humans, but there was something moving underneath. Carefully pulling the cover away, she saw a human kit crying and thrashing. Its mane was the colour of honey, the tips paled from the cold. She gave a soft coo, which made the kit pause in her crying and look up at her. The kit’s eyes were a striking blue, glistening like the blue ice tunnels below the snow.
“Hello there, kit. Where are your parents?” She gave a small smile when the kit giggled and reached out to grab her claw, but soon gulped when she saw a red stain on the top of the basket. That, in addition the the coloured patches that were slowly being swallowed by the blizzard, told only one story.
“You are alone… Much like I am. No pack of your own, just like me… There is only one decision here. I will become the first Zoroark who truly cares about a human…”
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The first issue Zoroark had found was that she had absolutely no idea how to raise a kit; yes she had seen Zoura, and often was surrounded by them while other Zoroark hunted, but that babysitting was mainly from a distance. Most regular Pokemon stayed as far as they could from alphas, mostly sticking close by for protection. She knew that was very similar to how humans stayed away from alphas out of fear.
“What did I just get myself into?” She put her paw on her muzzle, growling to herself before she realised another important fact. “Human kits have specific needs that I do not have provisions for… Looks like I am doing an illusion into the nearest settlement…again…”
The kit cooed from the basket, hands making grabbing motions as Zoroark knelt in front of them. Chuckling, she took the baby from the basket and cradled the kit in her arms. From here, she could tell in the kit's scent that they were female.
“I wonder what I should call you, little kit. It needs to be feminine…” Zoroark glanced down to see the kit staring at her with her glistening eyes, a bright smile as she cooed and grabbed the Pokemon's fur. “I think I have the perfect name for you, little kit. I will call you… Irida…”
The kit, now Irida, babbled happily as Zoroark beamed and nuzzled her. The alpha turned her gaze to the ongoing snowstorm, sighing as she moved to the back of the cave. The wind howled beyond the mouth of the cave.
“Looks like my baby supply hunt will need to wait until tomorrow…” Zoroark curled up at the back of the cave, an arm around Irida as she yawned. “Goodnight, my sweet Irida…”
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Zoroark took a composing breath as she put on the illusion of one of the humans wandering around the tent township over the snow mound, with Irida blinking and staring at her from her arms. The pink and purple uniform contrasted against the snow as she wandered closer, pulling the hood over her face to prevent the humans from looking her in the eye.
“Okay, just need a bunch of those diaper things, something to help feed you, those extra furs that humans put over their skin, and… oh what else?” Zoroark concealed a growl of irritation through clenched teeth, her eyes drifting to Irida in her arms.
She stepped beyond the wilds and into the human settlement, waving back to those who greeted her. Her nose soon led her to one particular tent - the tent seemed to share the scent that hung around Irida's basket, which means it had sheltered her new kit's parents.
“This is promising…”
Going inside, she scanned the room and pumped a free fist. Zoroark moved to pick up some of the pieces of cloth littered on the floor as she gently set Irida down. The kit crawled over to a chest, sitting in front of it before putting her fingers in her mouth with a mumble.
Zoroark looked over and smiled at her, collecting all the cloth as she clambered across on all fours. “Hey, my little kit. What have you found there?”
Irida put her free hand on the chest, taking the other out of her mouth and giggling. Zoroark took this as a sign there were items Irida liked in the chest, and gently opened the lock. Irida grabbed the lip of the opened chest and used it to stand, peering over as Zoroark pulled out a strange-looking device. It had some sort of bulb on it, with a round shape connected on the back.
“What is this?” Zoroark glanced down when she heard babbling, seeing her new kit reaching for it. “Maybe we should take this chest entirely, huh? Perhaps we could go through this together?”
Irida clapped as she flopped back onto her backside, giggling gleefully.
“That settles it, then.”
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Irida suckled happily on the strange device as Zoroark started going through the chest in their cave, the kit watching her adoptive mother intently.
“Now, let us see what we have here…” Zoroark opened the chest and set aside some extra cloth pieces, shaking her head with a paw in her mane. “Human kits clearly are messy…”
There were also a spare device very similar to the one in Irida's mouth, a pink ball attached to a wooden stick that rattled when Zoroark picked it up, a decoy Spheal made from the same fabric she had seen on the humans, a clear cylinder with a strange-looking top, and extra furs of various colours and styles.
Zoroark turned to Irida with a gleam in her eye. “Looks like there is plenty here to help, huh my little kit?”
Irida crawled over to the items her mother had pulled out, her small hands reaching out to the decoy as she cooed behind the device. Zoroark chuckled as Irida took the false Spheal in her arms and rubbed her face against its body. “You sure like Pokemon, right Irida?”
“Zo…Zowak!”
Zoroark blinked with a dropped jaw, eyes locked in the kit as Irida giggled and squeezed the false Spheal. A moment of silence passed between them, with Irida staring back at Zoroark with innocent eyes.
“Zowa?”
Zoroark coughed slightly, shaking herself out of the stupor as she lifted the kit into her arms. “Talking already? You are such a fast learner, kit! I am so proud of you!”
Irida squealed in joy as Zoroark spun around, giggling as the decoy Spheal dropped to the cave floor. “Zowak! Zowak!”