3.

The One About the Heat

It was only the first week of summer in Rhyme City, and all the people and pokemon who had lamented summer's departure last year were already back to wishing for it to end again. For Rhyme City was located next to a rainforest, and when the metropolis wasn't being flooded under dozens of light spring showers, it was being scorched to death by the hot summer sun. It was all the secret underground Cult of Mew could do to pray that the chance tornado didn't suddenly appear and wipe them all out.

Vendors were selling portable shade in the street for ridiculously high prices, and it was said that if you were discreet about it, you could even fry a pokemon egg in the middle of the Downtown District. The fire-types, with all their heat resistance, were having a field day.

In short, it was the Worst Day Ever for Vulpix.

She'd travelled all the way from Mt. Lanakila along with Mother to see what was being heralded by pokemon all over the world as 'The Best Place on Earth To Live' (And also because the humans had invaded Mt. Lanakila a few months ago, and she couldn't even steal a peaceful five minutes to herself without some idiot trainer and their pet monster lobbing poke-balls at her!) , but she'd never expected it to be this hot!

Unlike her fiery brethren, she wasn't suited to the heat at all. Every step she took felt like the pavement was burning holes through her paw pads, and it was all she could do to keep her tails from dragging on the ground as she walked. She felt like she was melting!

"You know, I still don't buy it." A vulpix of the red, fiery, heat-resistant variety walked alongside her, perfectly at home under the scalding summer sun. "Ten poke-dollars says you're just doing this for attention."

His name was… Briar (It was hard for her to dig things up in her brain under this heat), and he'd met up with her not long after she and Mother had departed the humongous Moving Rail Thingy that had taken them into the city. Her mother and Briar's were family friends, and so Vulpix and Briar had been courteously shoved out into Rhyme City to 'play' while their mothers caught up with each other over a plate of berries that only grew in warm weather.

Needless to say, he had changed since the last time they'd met. And not in a good way at all, she decided.

"How much makeup is that, anyway?" Briar asked, smirking at Vulpix like a stuck up prince as he walked. "I heard your lot cover yourselves in snow so you don't stick out much."

"Great deduction, genius," Vulpix hissed out under her breath between desperate pants. "If I was wearing snow on my coat all the way here, then why hasn't it melted off yet?"

"Why," Briar stated, a proud smirk on his snout at what he thought must have been a very clever deduction, "It is melting."

That was when Vulpix snapped out of her hazy, heat-induced stupor, and took the time to look over herself properly. For once in his life, Briar had been right: her tails were steadily dripping water onto the ground behind her. It was almost like they were melting- like she was melting.

Vulpix began to pant in horror as those three words ran through her head, and for the first time in what felt like ages, she could think clearly again.

She knew that vulpix from Mount Lanakila had an artificial method of self-cooling, but she had never been able to master that- and until today, she'd never have thought she'd needed to. She rattled through the options in her head. Shade. She had to get some shade!

As he watched Vulpix tremble silently in the middle of the street, Briar was beginning to realize that it really wasn't a joke after all.

"Vulpix?" he asked tensely, poking at the ice fox with a paw. However, he sent himself sprawling to the ground in momentary shock when she let out a sudden shriek of horror and sprinted off to the nearest shady spot, leaving a steady trail of dripping water behind her.

Vulpix dashed towards the nearest shady spot in sight- the sunless circles cast by a row of umbrellas hanging from a street vendor's nearby table. Once she was within the confines of the shade, she finally relaxed, catching her breath. She would recover… but she needed time. And maybe some water. Water sounded really nice, in fact. Ice cold water with even colder ice cubes… And if she couldn't have that, she'd just freeze it herself…

"It's ten dollars an umbrella. And I expect them back by sundown."

Vulpix snapped out of her trance and looked up at the portable shade vendor; a gruff-looking human man accompanied by a floatzel.

"I… I'm not here to buy anything… I just… need to relax… for a minute…" She panted out.

Floatzel translated that to the man using a series of paw gestures. The man frowned.

"One minute." He set a timer on the table, and let it start ticking. "And then it's pay or bust."

Vulpix took a look at the scorching heat outside the umbrella. Paying for an umbrella wouldn't be so bad… But she'd left her pokemon purse with Mother. And she doubted she had the strength to carry it in her current state anyway.

She could hear the timer ticking down as she tried to recover herself, every single tick burning itself into the back of her brain. 34 seconds… 33 seconds…. 32 seconds… Vulpix's ears drooped as she realized she would soon be faced with the cruel reality: She might not make it back out of the sun in time. She might not make it back out at all. Just the thought of it all made her want to break down in tears. Travelling to the world's first pokemon utopia just to meet her end at the hands of the heat? What a horrible way to end life! And what about Mother? What would Mother do without her?

"10 dollars, you said?"

Briar walked up to the counter, glancing haughtily at Floatzel as he went. "It just so happens I can meet that."

Vulpix perked back up in hope as Briar produced ten metal coins from the small sack hanging around his neck and handed them to Floatzel. Was he really… ?

The man counted the money, and then gestured to one of the dingier umbrellas on the far left. Briar took it by the pokemon handle in his mouth and carried it over to Vulpix.

"Ughth," he stated in disgust, his words muffled by the umbrella. "Thith ith one oth the flavored oneth. You're lucky ith wath only then dollarth."

Vulpix dashed over under the umbrella's shade, almost giddy with delight. Away from the sun's broiling heat at last, she almost felt back to her usual perky self.

"Thank you… Briar," She told him. "I didn't know you cared that much."

"Don'th be thilly," He shot back at her through the umbrella handle. "We had a beth. I loth. I'm a pokemon oth my word."

That wasn't his real reason, and Vulpix knew it. But she kept that tidbit of information to herself, instead keeping a giddy smile upon her face in silence.

Briar looked at her, a slight expression of annoyance showing itself upon his face.

"Wath? Ith my hair curling uth again?"

"Just a little."

"Yoi're therrible."

"Well, that's my job! Who else would spend their precious time annoying you?"

"Anth ather I goth you your prethioish thade…"

"Aww… You know you would have done it anyway."

(-o- )

This was written for the Summer 2019 Fanfic Contest on the Pokewrite Forum, using the prompt "Write a fic based around "Heat." How you define 'heat is entirely up to you."! I hope everyone liked it… If you want to submit your own entry to the contest, you can absolutely do so (But you only have until July 1st for the first round...)!

I hope everyone liked it...