An evolution and hatching

Almost a week after his battle with Professor Oak's Arcanine, Balto was ready to evolve. While Ash and Gary were eager to watch the event, they understood that this was a moment that required silence. Placing the Fire Stone in front of Balto, Vali beamed at her first partner, "It's time, Balto. I'm so proud of you."

Balto barked and wagged his tail before seemingly taking a breath as he focused on the Fire Stone. He stared at it for a few moments before stepping forward and placing a paw on it. Fire surrounded Balto as he evolved, it burned brightly and expanded with Balto's evolving body. Everyone backed up a bit and covered their eyes in an attempt to shield them from the flames, Vali was almost reluctant to do so. Warmth seemed to run through her body, a hum echoed through her mind as the magic within her veins thrummed almost violently. What shocked her from moving towards the flames was what she felt in side of them, Balto's inner flame growing stronger as the energy from the Fire Stone changed his body.

When the fire and a majority of the heat dissipated, she uncovered her eyes and found a majestic Arcanine standing in the place of a Growlithe. Balto opened his eyes with a shake of his head and focused immediately on Vali. He walked slowly towards her and she moved to meet him in the middle. She raised her hand and Balto bowed his head to bump his nose against it. She giggled softly as she wrapped her arms around his much bigger neck and felt the sheer heat radiating off of him, "You look amazing Balto."

Balto let out a low rumbling sound as he leaned slightly into Vali. She pulled back after a few moments as Gary and Ash both shouted, "Awesome!"

Vali was watching her Vulpix egg like a hawk with her other pokemon though they were staying near the edge of the room. The egg had quit it's increasingly vigorous movements not long after breakfast two days after the last demonstration at Ash and Gary's school. Ash had been disappointed that he needed to go to school rather than watch the egg hatch, but had been told that the egg might not hatch until after he came home from school leading the boy to regain his excitement. No doubt, Gary and Ash would be rushing to the Ketchum-Black-Potter residence after school alongside a few of their classmates. Delia had given Vali their video camera and the fire-type master-in-training would start recording it the moment the egg began hatching. All the supplies they needed for the hatching were ready and waiting. As soon as she heard the first crack, she started the recording and got into position.

The egg shook and rolled slightly as soft cracking sounds echoed through the air. Vali and her pokemon offered soft sounds of encouragement. Even Empress and Eevee were trying to encourage the newest member of their family, everyone was eager to meet the baby pokemon that would soon be born. The first thing she saw as the egg began to crack open was a paw. Slowly, the cracking sounds grew louder as the baby Vulpix fought his way to be born. Small pieces of egg shell fell to the carpeted floor, she was definitely going to save a few pieces to commemorate the moment other than the video. Finally, the biggest parts of the egg began to crack open and fall apart.

The baby Vulpix shook off the piece of egg shell on his head and rubbed at his membrane covered eyes. Smiling softly, Vali took one of the towels being kept hot by her fire-type pokemon and helped clean off the slimy film covering his eyes. He jerked a bit before leaning into the touch as she gently and carefully got rid of what was covering his eyes. When she finished, he opened his deep chocolate brown pupil-less eyes for the first time and locked them with hers. She spoke in a soft voice, "Welcome to the family, Little One."

Vulpix tilted his head a bit probably attempting to figure out what she'd said. She began cleaning him off and introduced each member of their family. Balto, Smaug, Arwen, and Pele all breathed a few embers towards him upon meeting. After feeding him, Vulpix quickly fell asleep from his rather tiring hatching. Vali placed him on Balto's side knowing that keeping him warm was definitely needed considering how much smaller he was compared to other newly born Vulpix. The single almost blindingly white tail curled around his body as all her other pokemon began to curl up around Balto to either take a nap or just be close to their newest family member. Ending the recording and taking a picture of everyone, she left the room for a moment to tell Delia and Steven that Vulpix had hatched.

Delia promised to tell Professor Oak for Vali and she headed back to her room to clean up everything.

Vulpix were normally around 10.9 pounds and a 1.5 ft tall at birth usually taking about six months to reach full size. Vali's Vulpix was 5 pounds and barely 1 ft tall. Professor Oak quickly set Vulpix up with a diet that would help him grow and make up for the fact he was a runt. Other than that, Vulpix was perfectly healthy thanks to how careful Vali had been with his egg. The constant check ups with Nurse Joys had ensured that he would be born healthy despite the usual problems that came with runts. Which was a relief for Vali, she would be doing the same thing with her Houndour egg which would take at least three months to hatch.

Ash and Gary were both mildly disappointed to find out that Vulpix tended to spend more time asleep than awake which was normal for baby mammalian pokemon outside of electric-types who tended to spend about only 3 hours asleep when born unless outside of an electricity rich area. It took Vali and Delia both scolding them to keep from trying to wake Vulpix up to play. It wouldn't be for another week before Vulpix would actually be able to stay awake for most of the day. As it was, Vulpix tended to wake up his trainer almost every other hour during the night for food. Which had her wondering why she wanted to do it again with a baby Houndour, Vulpix made up for it by being an absolute cuddle bug and being adorable.

Idril tended to spend much of her time cuddled up with Vulpix when she had a chance. Celina and Balto took turns acting like a pillow for the vulpine pokemon. If Vulpix was fussy, Smaug tended to lay his head close to the tiny fox and let out croon that helped calm him down. Elrond kept Ash, Gary, and Pippin from getting too rough with Vulpix when the fox did feel like playing when he was awake. Terra, Pele, and Arwen often seemed confused about how to react to the tiny fox often spending their time just peering at him. Empress tended to surround Vulpix with pillows and seemed to be attempting to teach him how to talk. Whenever Smaug couldn't calm down Vulpix, Eevee would curl up as best he could around Vulpix and purr which always settled down the fox enough to cause him to purr back to the evolution pokemon.