The Eevee awoke, surprising himself that he had not managed to freeze. He tried to take in his surroundings, but when he moved, pain exploded through his side. He gave what he thought was a screech, but to the Vulpix lying in the sun, it was just a whimper. She stood, and padded back into her cave, glancing at the Eevee.
"You awake, Eve?" She asked, Using the nme she had given him. The eevee drew in a shallow breath before speaking.
"What happened?" He asked, as if every word hurt, and they did.
    "You took a tumble down the side of a mountain. Didn't your parents teach you to burrow into the snow in a storm like that?"
    "I was raised by a trainer." The eevee responded. "I've never been in the wild alone."
    That made the vulpix pause. She had simply assumed once the eevee had healed, she could say goodbye to him. But now, she couldn't. If she threw him out, he would die, and no matter how cold hearted she had become, living on the slopes of Mt. Cornet, she was not a killer.
"Eve, I'll teach you how to live our way." The vulpix said, reluctantly. "In return for two things." The eevee stared at her, tucking his tail into his body. "One, your name, and two, why you are here instead of with your trainer."
The eevee nodded, and then spoke. "My trainer called me Fanta." The eevee said. "And my trainer..." Fanta trailed off, closing his eyes, remembering the night. His trainer had replaced him, because he wasn't strong enough. "My trainer left me."
The eevee finally said. The vulpix closed her eyes and nodded. She wouldn't say, but she knew what abandonment felt like. There was a reason a vulpix not seven winters old was living alone on the side of a mountain. The vulpix sat next to the eevee, who was still laying on the ground, though struggling to sit up, and gave him a comforting, and later admittedly, affectionate lick on the top of his head. He gave her a quizzical look, but shrugged it off, managing to sit.
    "Now is as good a time as any to start." The vulpix said. "My name is Charcoal, and i am going to teach you how to survive."
It had only been two weeks. It was hard for Fanta to wrap his mind around that. It felt as if he had been training for months, not weeks. He could do things he couldn't before, of course.
He could hunt, though he preferred berries and other vegetation to the meat Charcoal ate, he could travel without fear of snowdrifts, hidden rocks, or other dangers, read the sky for the next days of weather, and fight, through all of these things still needed work.
In his first days, he was confined to Charcoal's cave, and was only taught what the vulpix would tell him. Even after that, he spent a fair amount of the evening listening to Charcoal's stories, asking questions. Charcoal herself was as much a mystery as the wild, though she did not give up her secrets so readily. Even so, he did try to attain them just the same.
"Come on, Coal, tell me something." Fanta said, trying to find out something, anything, about his mentor. She simply looked at him, calmly and, irritatingly, mutely. "Fine." Fanta said. "Then tell me something else, something interesting."
Charcoal thought on that for a moment, and then said. "I will tell you a story that will satisfy both of your wishes." She said. Fanta nudged himself closer, so that they were nearly touching, in front of the small fire that the vulpix kept going.
"Once, not two summers ago, just after." She paused here, working around details she did not want to admit. "I came here." She decided on. "One of the three great cats met me. Suicune, she was called. As I had already explored this area intently before I left my old home, she wanted me to aid her in stopping an army, intent on Snowpoint City. So I did. I did not see much of the battle, but i did, as I was told, win the battle for suicune. Without my help, that army would have marched to Snowpoint, and burned it to the ground."
"Who led the other army?" Fanta asked, excited, having only heard rumors of wilders fighting wilders.
"Entei." Charcoal replied. "He was in a destructive mood." She paused. "Now one of your stories." She said. "I have heard none of your exploits"
Fanta considered this, pausing. "I'm not sure you want to hear any of my stories." Fanta said, adding quietly, too quietly for Charcoal to understand, but not quiet enough to escape her notice. "Or that I want to tell them."
"Tell me something, I want to know who you are." Charcoal said. She had assumed that Fanta's trainer wasn't a good one, even though the eevee was devoted, or had been, to him.
"Well, there's the biggest battle i was in." Fanta said.
"Go on." Charcoal said, after a pause.
"It was a six on six. Nate, my trainer, threw us all out. We split up, each taking a different target." Fanta paused, remembering how his so called team had left him in the open, alone, for a Gallade to pounce on. "I was left with a Gallade." Fanta said. The gallade had shown no mercy. Pokemon battles, especially those without a third party watcher, often ender with a lot of blood. He had been lashed a half dozen times before he had managed to break away. "We fought for a while. Eventually i was thrown off of him." Fanta remembered hitting the ground next to his trainer, barely able to stand, one leg cut almost to the bone in two spots. "My trainer sent me back out. I lost." He had thrown him back in, and the gallade had been waiting. A single blast of power had sent him flying, slamming into a tree. Fanta cut the flashback off there. He had gone through that seen enough times, in enough battles. He knew what would come next.
Charcoal was quiet. She could tell by the look on Fanta's face it wasn't exactly as he had told it, and what he had left out was more painful than the rest. She leaned over as Fanta lowered his head, laying her head, comfortingly, she hoped, On his shoulder. Fanta glanced at and then slowly, cautiously, as if she we an arbok ready to bite, put his head on top of hers. She let him, and in a few minutes, she realized he had fallen asleep. She smiled, to herself, and she allowed herself to drift off as well.