Ambition Over Everything

This is a story by Mydvee. Enjoy~

Chapter 1
"Hey! Wait for me, Flamie!"

Flame howled, "My name isn't Flamie! It's just Flame!" The young Growlithe sped up, a fire-colored blur against the forest he raced through. His best friend, a Vulpix named Rue, raced after him.

"Wait for me, Flame!" she corrected herself, a slight edge to her voice. Flame skidded to a halt so Rue could stop beside him.

The Vulpix slowed to a stop, panting. She fell onto her side, and looked at Flame. "How'd you learn to run so fast?" she asked, scrambling to a sitting position.

Flame shrugged. "I dunno. My whole family was fast." He sat down and blinked his cyan-blue eyes.

Rue nodded. "Right." She flicked her ears. "Of course they were fast, they were Arcanine." She rolled her pale-colored eyes, then stood up as a call sounded. "I'd better go." She turned and headed into the forest, glancing back and barking, "Bye!" over her shoulder.

"Bye..." Flame flattened his ears, looking at his paws. A Ninetales from Rue's pack, probably her mother, always came looking for her, always when the two finished a race.

Always.

He got to his paws and headed back to the Arcanine pack. When Flame got there, his mother was waiting for him, her red eyes seemingly angry. "Flame Paw, where were you?" she growled, her fluffy tail twitching.

Flame's eye twitched. He didn't like it when someone said his actual name. He knew better than to object to what the Arcanine said, so he didn't object. He only mumbled, "Outside looking for berries."

"Your brother was worried about you." his mother continued. "Rune Paw-"

"Why are you saying our full names?" Flame interrupted.

Ignoring him, his mother went on. "Rune was even going to go look for you."

Flame twitched his ears. Rune wouldn't do that. Rune was always too scared to even leave camp. But he didn't say this; he only nodded.

A new voice interrupted his mother's lecture. "Come on, Fiery." Hey, at least the voice hadn't said his mother's full name. "Let the pup have some fun, he never goes out of camp without permission anyway."

Fiery, her full name being Fiery Dance, snorted. "So? This is my son we're talking about, Dark."

A dark-grey Arcanine with the same black stripes as Flame's stepped toward Fiery. "And your son is also mine."

"Oh, sorry, do you mean was?"

"Really, Fiery?" Dark Stripes, Flame's father, remained calm.

"Really."

-tbc-