The light of day leaked through the fronds around the mountain as a ninetales made his way up to the base. His head was lowered, his steps unsure, and yet his heart was beating with more strength than ever since he had arrived at this place. Well, that might not have been totally true given what had happened, but it was at least the strongest beat whose origin wasn't fear or adrenaline. Kindle looked forwards, at the entrance of the village, and felt the strange sensation of his heart trying to shrink in fear and swell with joy at the same time, hesitating from one side to another until it finally stayed the same, vibrating in pure, unrestrained anticipation. As he walked closer and closer, the many memories of all the rules he followed back home kept troubling his mind, but he adopted every last one of them nevertheless.
Walk straight, don't feel inferior, but don't look down at them either. He noted as he corrected his posture, straightening his spine in an almost painfully forced way, but keeping his head lowered as to not look as if he was boastful. He found himself moving his shoulder blades with hesitation to get rid of the nonexistent soreness that walking like that had for so long caused him, but this body didn't seem to share that problem. For now at least, a few more visits this place and his back would be killing him as much as always.
That statement of before, about his heartbeat now perhaps not being the strongest one here, proved to be false. Kindle felt as if his heart was going to jump out of his chest, every pulse threatening to break his ribs with its intensity as the ninetales came closer to his destination.
Don't drag your paws, don't walk too fast. The ninetales started to move in softer, swifter steps. Touching the ground only on the spot his paw had to support itself, to not brush the ground with his cold body and wither the plants underneath him.
The entrance was nearing.Kindle suddenly became superconscious of the sounds around him. The soft rustling of the leaves as the wind brushed them. The sound of his steps as his paws carried him along. The sound of his troubled breathing as he started to hyperventilate, creating small, snowy clouds in front of his snout as he tried in vain to control himself.
Keep your tails off the ground, but not too high. The nine tails moved like one behind him in a rehearsed movement, seeking to not accidentally touch grass or flower, and not wither them with the ice inside of him. He had to try many times to manage to do it without causing a small snowstorm to begin falling behind him. These new tails were as troublesome as they were elegant, but at last he managed to hold them in a way that wouldn't kill the plantlife he came across.
Kindle kept adopting these small manners one after another as pressed harder to increase his pace, trying to both to finally make it inside the village, and to keep following his self-imposed rules. The ninetales had to stop merely a few steps before the entrance to compose himself. He didn't sit down, as he perhaps couldn't assume the correct posture again if he did, but he slightly bent his knees to rest. His breathing started to ease, no longer creating clouds of snow, but still being visible in the air for a split of a second after he exhaled. Well, there was nothing he could to about that.
The ninetales closed his eyes for a few seconds, before opening them again as he walked inside. And there he was, in the village. The fox froze in place upon seeing the shaymin, his white body seeming to become an ice statue in the middle of the street. His gaze darted all across the surrounding like a baby who finally opened its eyes, curious about everything yet so helpless to even take a step forwards. The ice fox had to actually put all his willpower to move again, keeping his head low, his tails high, and his eyes wide open. But oh, misfortune had to strike him like it always did, and as his eyes kept looking everywhere but directly in front, his paws managed to find a hole in the road and the ninetales tripped in such amazing fashion he felt his shoulder nearly dislocating as his head hit the ground with such strength he began to see stars in plain midday. Kindle layed in there for a few seconds, trying to recover from both the concussion and the shame of having tripped like that in front of the creatures he respected the most. The fox wanted to cover his face with his tails and just pretend to be invisible for a few days or so, until everyone forgot about what they had just witnessed, but he knew that couldn't be. Kindle slowly stood up with his eyes firmly shut in silent shame, steadying his paws in the ground... and hearing it let out an all-too-familiar creak from under him.
The ninetales mind snapped to full alert as he looked underneath him to confirm his fears. There was now a wide patch of frozen grass under his paws, stretching a little from the point he had tripped at. Icy veins slithering in all directions for a few steps worth of ground in a spectacle that would have been pretty in any other situation. Kindle looked at the floor wide-eyed, if before he had turned into a statue, the ninetales now appeared to be frozen in time itself as he stared at his mistake. The many rules he had been carefully following suddenly abandoned his mind, error messages following each other at increasing speed before too dying in a white noise that translated his thoughts quite well. Good job, Kindle.
