C H A P T E R O N E
Both of us had been running in a snow storm for days without food or rest. The storm was so thick that we couldn't see more than three feet in front of us. I almost lost Kiba numerous times because his fur blended in with the snow. There was no food for miles, and the clouds covered the moon thickly. Even if they weren't there, the moonlight couldn't have reached us through the blizzard. The two of us kept running because we knew that if we stopped, we would both freeze to death. After a while, I couldn't go on anymore; I collapsed. Kiba stopped running and skidded a little, kicking up snow as ran back towards me.
"Rei!" He called. I tried to get up, but I couldn't. I was simply too tired.
"C'mon, Rei! You have to get up, there's no way that we can rest out here!" He yelled. I layed there, motionless on the icy ground as harsh winds continued to blow snow against my fur. My blinking was slowing and fatigue overwhelmed me.
"I can't run anymore, Kiba... I'm so tired..." I said barely above a whisper. Kiba slipped under me and got up.
"Hold onto me then!" He said. I loosely gripped onto Kiba as he continued running. I could tell that he was just as tired as I was, and as far as I could see, there was no shelter in sight. I stayed silent as Kiba continued to run, forcing myself to stay awake.
.!.!.!.
I was lucky that I woke up. I didn't even realize that I had fallen asleep. My eyes shot open when Kiba stopped running abruptly and started growling. I got off of his back and saw that there were a bunch of humans in front of us that had just gotten out of a car. Four of them had guns and the other had a long white lab coat on. The two of us fought against them, still both as tired as ever. Even though I had gotten some sleep, I was still extremely tired. I could only imagine how tired Kiba must have been. After a while of fighting, Kiba had fallen to the ground. He'd been shot badly. I soon fell after him. It seemed as if I was dazed as I layed there on the ground. I'd been shot right in the stomach and there were a lot of wounds around my body from getting skimmed by bullets. I watched the humans as they pulled out a cage. They're voices seemed to echo as they spoke.
"There's only one cage that's big enough for one of them, sir. What should we do?" one asked, turning to another.
"Take the red one, then. Out of the two of them, it seems that one will be easier to handle. Put a muzzle on it and throw it in the cage." it answered.
"W-What about the other one, sir?" another asked. He was still a little shaken from fighting the two of us. I could tell by the stuttering of his voice.
"Leave it here, if there's no space then there's no space." the same one from before replied. I struggled a little as two of the humans tried to put a muzzle on me. Once I started to get a little troublesome, I was hit on the head with a butt of a gun
Six long and tiring months had passed. To me, it seemed like at least double that time. I'd been taken to a lab where I was experimented on. The humans were still debating on whether I was a wolf or not because according to them, the wolves had all been extinct for over 200 years. I was constantly being worked to my breaking point and injected with stimulants and depressants to see how my body would react to them. All the while I was there, all I did was dream of being with Kiba in Paradise. It was the only thing that kept me going. There wasn't a single doubt in my mind that Kiba would come for me even though it had been so long. I could always smell the scent of Lunar Flowers within the complex. The first time my blood was shed, I heard a scream, but it wasn't a human scream. From that night on, I kept on seeing someone in my dreams. It was the Flower Maiden, Cheza. She would sing to me to keep me at peace and help me relax as much as I could in the hell hole I was in. I planned to save her, even if I died in the process. I waited until all of the personel at the complex had either fallen asleep or gone home and broke out of your cage. I followed the scent of the flowers and found Cheza. Cheza picked her head up. Her dazzling rose colored eyes opened as I stepped into the room. I froze and was hypnotized when she looked at me and smiled. Those eyes.... They were stunning, indescribable. As I stared at the creature in ront of me, I was in complete awe of her. Immediately, I knew that I had to get her out of there. I went up to what looked like the control center of the glass sphere she was in and looked at it for a moment. Then I bit a hole into it and tore at the wires until the water drained. Once it was all gone, I broke the glass. I quickly slid under it to break Cheza's fall, ignoring the shards of glass piercing into my already weak body. At this point the alarms were sounding off. Sadly, I couldn't fight off all of the humans that were trying to prevent me from getting out. When they caught me again, Cheza was put into a more secure area and I was put into a more secure cage with a metal top and bottom. Though, instead of metal bars, electricity flowed. If I tried to get out, I was met with a nasty shock. Around my neck was a metal collar that sent even more electricity through my body if I tried to get out. The pain was so overwhelming that I immediately passed out if I was hit by its full force. I had now come to a point where I didn't struggle against the doctors and the experiments anymore. It wasn't worth it. There were a couple times when I thought about killing myself, but I couldn't die in a place like this. No, I couldn't die until I at least caught a glance at Paradise. I wouldn't let it happen.
.!.!.!.KIBA'S P.O.V.!.!.!.
I was still searching for Rei. It had been six months already, and she had probably given up hope in me, but I would never stop. Not until I found her. After my fight with the grey wolf and getting shot by the old man and chased down by his dog, I was in a cage. I could already sense that Rei was inside, where I was. I wanted to see her... To save her, but I couldn't do anything in the state I was in. I stayed inside of the cage, and rested for a little while. I woke up when I saw that there were another wolf with me. He was in the form of a human. He bent down and took a look at me.
"Man, you really screwed up. I mean, I've seen one of us get caught before, but never this badly." He said with a little chuckle. I opened one eye and looked up at the wolf.
"I can get out of here whenever I feel like it." I spat back at him.
"Uh-huh, so then why are you in there?" the wolf asked me.
"I just... needed a place to rest for a while. More importantly, I came here to save someone... That's all." I replied. I really didn't know why I was talking to him... I just was.
"I'm Hige, it's nice to meetcha" he said with a chuckle.
"So why are you in here, anyway?" I finally asked.
"No reason. It smelled like something interesting was going to happen and I just followed my nose, ya know? Besides, I got no where else to go." he replied.
"That's not your true form. Why do you hide yourself?"
"So I don't end up where you are. These people are terrified of us, you know? So if we look like them, they pretty much leave us alone."
"You're living a lie just so you could die a miserable death in this city?!" I yelled with a growl. To see a part of my species lowering themselves to that of a human.... It was just.... pathetic, pitiful.
"Gotta do what you can to survive right? Keep lookin' like that, you'll be back here in no time. It draws too much attention." Hige said, his voice and tone unchanged.
I got up and growled at Hige. "Have you given up your pride as a wolf?!" I yelled at him.
Hige looked surprised for a little while, but he started smiling. "You're a strange one, alright. But, having pride doesn't count for much if you're dead, ya know?" he said. There was a deep silence between the two of us. There was nothing I could say back to him because... He was right... The silence was broken by the sounding of the alarms. Hige just stood there as I bit the bars of the cage. They bent after a while, giving me just enough space to squeeze through.
.!.!.!.MY P.O.V.!.!.!.
I jumped up as the alarm sounded off loudly.
"What the hell? The last time I heard that annoying thing was when I went after Cheza.... Cheza!" I thought. I stood up and tried to get out of my electric cage, but the moment the tip of my muzzle got too close to the electic bars, my collar went off. I collapsed to the ground from the hard shock. Then I heard the door slam open and looked up. Even though they looked like humans, I saw two wolves, one light brown and one... pure white.
"Kiba!"
"Rei!" He yelled after me.
"Woah, another one! And it's a babe!" the wolf next to him said.
Kiba ran up to the electric cage in his true form and without hesitation, jumped through the electricity to me. I yelped as it shocked me. I rubbed my head on the nape of his neck when he was inside of the cage. He licked my cheek and then looked at the metal collar on my neck.
"Is it that collar that's hurting you?" he asked.
"Whenever I get too close to the bars it shocks me." I answered.
"Alright, if it shocks you now, bear with me, okay?" Kiba said. I nodded and lifted my head up, exposing my neck. Kiba tore at the collar. I shut my eyes tightly and clenched my teeth as it shocked the both of us. The pain tingled throughout out bodies as Kiba continued to tear at the collar. After a minute he got it off. We both stayed in the cage for a couple seconds, breathing hard and regaining our strength. Then we both jumped out of it. It hurt like a bitch, but we were out. Both of us stayed on the floor, a few feet from the cage. The other wolf walked up to us, still looking like a human. I noticed that he was staring at the bloody bandages around my arms. Kiba was staring at them too.
"You guys okay?" the other wolf asked.
"W-Who the hell are you?" I said a little confused.
"Hige." he said with a wide smile.
"Let's get going." Kiba said. I got up and looked at both Kiba and Hige weirdly as they "transformed" into "humans".
"Just think about lookin' like a human." Hige said. I gave him a weird look and then thought about looking like a human as he said to when I got up. Then like magic, I looked like one. As I walked through the complex, I noticed that Kiba was limping a little. I put my arm around his lower back and slung his arm around my shoulders. He was about to say something, but I interrupted him
"You're limping.... and besides, it's the least I could do for you..." I said. Kiba stayed silent. I saw Hige pout a little and smirk. When we exitted the building, no one looked at us. We completely blended it. Soon, after we were a couple feet away I heard a man run up to another one.
"Sir! That big white dog! It disappeared!" he said.
"What?! Where's the other one?!" the one he ran up to yelled.
"It's gone too!"
Kiba, Hige and I kept on walking as we heard the humans run back into the building. I was finally leaving that place. I was finally free, but I was also leaving Cheza behind.
"Don't worry, Cheza... I'll come back for you." I thought as I took one last look at the building. The three of you walked to the top of another building. Kiba sat down on its edge with Hige. I stood there staring at the full moon. I was completely stunned by it. It had been so long since I'd actually seen it again. I had forgotten its sheer beauty.
"Hey, can I ask you a question?" Hige asked.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever..." I answered. I wasn't really paying attention to what Hige said. I was still in complete awe of the moon.
"What was with the bloody bandages on your arms?" He asked. I rolled up my jacket sleeves that were hiding them and looked down at them and stared for a minute, but didn't answer his question. My eyes went back to the moon without me even noticing.
"...Eh... guess it was too personal..." after about half a minute of silence.
"Rei." Kiba called. I jumped a little and then looked at Kiba.
"Huh? Sorry, what did you say?" I asked.
"What? Have you never seen the moon before or somethin'?" Hige said.
"I haven't seen it for six months now... I-I guess I forgot how beautiful it was..." I said with an awkward smile.
"Wow...." slipped out of Hige's mouth. I took off my jacket and put it on the floor. Then I turned to Hige.
"Did you say something about these before?" I asked him.
"Y-Yeah." he replied with a little stutter.
I took the bandages off revealing countless wounds with stiches and five point injections marks that were in the shape of pentagons. Hige stepped back a little and gasped softly at the sight of them. Kiba growled softly.
"That's what they did to you in there?" he asked through clenched teeth.
"Yeah... They were part of the experiments they did on me." I answered. I ripped the stiches out of my arms, wincing slightly and tossed them on the ground. Then I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before sitting down next to Kiba. I laid my head on his shoulder, letting my wounds heal up and enjoying the warmth of the moonlight as it danced on my skin, sending a tingling sensation throughout my body.
"I don't care about them anymore.... You're with me again... That's all that matters." I said. I felt him relax a little as he lightly kissed my head.
"What about you Kiba, so why'd you come to this crummy town anyway?" Hige asked.
"I smelled something. The scent of Lunar Flowers. It's here, in this city." Kiba answered. Kiba put his arm around my waist and guided me back as he laided down, staring up at the sky.
"Yeah, I know. My nose could tell when a dogs' takin' a dump ten kilometers away." Hige said.
"That must really suck." I said with a little laugh.
"Sure does." Hige replied with a little snicker.
"Hige."
"Yeah?" Hige asked, looking at Kiba.
"Why did you escape with us?" Kiba said.
"Uh, I don't know. I just felt like it, I guess. Besides, you two seem kinda interesting... So what's next? Where'ya headed?"
I looked at Kiba, seeing if he would say the same answer as he would before. This was the answer that would tell me whether he had changed over the time we were apart.
"To Paradise." Kiba answered.
I smiled and thought "He hasn't changed I see."
"Paradise, huh? That sounds like fun." Hige said with a small smirk.
Kiba, Hige and I were walking through the city. Hige stopped for a second when he saw a hot dog stand and snagged some for the three of us. We turned into an alley. As Hige sat down on the stairs, I leaned against the wall next to him. He handed me one hot dog and tossed Kiba another.
"See, what did I tell ya? Nobody notices us." He said. Kiba watched Hige as he took a bite out of the hot dog and sniffed it once. Then he took a bite out of it.
"This is awful." I said.
"That's because it's cooked. Humans don't like their food raw for some reason." I pointed out to him.
"It's also the best you can get around here. If I see a deer by, I'll be sure to catch it for ya." Hige said sarcastically. I heard a noise and looked past Kiba. Hige and Kiba looked in the same direction.
"The Nobles are at it again. Seems like they pick up one idiot after another." Hige said, ignoring the situation.
"Where do the troops take them once they're caught?" Kiba asked.
"Same place they took you two I guess." Hige replied.
"I would've seen at least one if that was true." I said with a slight sneer. Hige pouted a little. He looked like he was about to spit something back at me, but the second he opened his mouth, Kiba spoke up.
"That's perfect." He said.
"Huh?" I asked, confused.
"I'll blend in and sneak inside." Kiba answered.
"What?! But we had to fool them just to get out of there. That hot dog fried your brain!" Hige boasted.
"I'm going back in." Kiba said with determination.
"Now, wait a second. What the hell happened to Paradise?!" Hige asked.
" I-I can't go back there, Kiba. I'll follow you anywhere but back to that place." I said with a look of anxiety of my face. I was completely terrified of even looking at that damned building. Kiba turned to me and took my hand.
"Please, Rei... I'm not going to let them get you this time. I promise you that..." He said. I looked away from him at the ground and removed my hand from his.
"F-Fine..." I said reluctantly. I still didn't want to go back there, but for Kiba, I would do anything.
"The scent is coming from somewhere inside that building and as far as we can tell, the only way in is to get captured. You know what's there, don't you? What they're hiding behind those walls?" Kiba said. Thoughts of Cheza were running through my mind. I could clearly picture her smiling at me and I smiled myself a little dreamily when I thought of the moment she opened her eyes and looked at me.
"The beacon that will lead us to Paradise." Kiba continued. I jumped a little, getting out of my dazed state when he spoke.
"Well forget it, you'll never get close to Cheza." Hige said.
"Cheza?" Kiba questioned.
"She's the flower maiden created from Lunar Flowers, that's what they say anyway." Hige answered.
"I saw her." I said with a little smile.
"What?! You saw her?!" yelled in surprise.
"Yeah..." I said. My smile faded at the thought of failure... My failure to save her...
"What did she-" Before Hige could ask any questions or even finish his sentence, I interrupted him.
"I don't want to talk about it." I said.
"C'mon, Rei. Just tell me!" Hige pryed.
"Leave her alone, Hige." Kiba said. Hige sighed.
"That makes sense. I heard that they tightened up security after somethin' like that happened. It's useless now. They got that place locked down. Even I couldn't get as far as the lab."
"So then why did you try to sneak in there?" Kiba asked.
"For a little excitement, I guess." Hige replied with a small smirk.
"Hige, don't you believe in Paradise, too?" Kiba questioned.
"I'm not goin'. No way." Hige said. Turned to me.
"I don't see how you could go back in there just like that after what they did to you." He said to me.
"Alright then, see ya around." Kiba said without changing his tone.
"Later, Hige." I said with a small smirk. Kiba grabbed my hand and then began walking towards the nobles with me.
"Hey, Kiba, Rei!" Hige yelled after us. He mumbled something, but I was a little too frantic about returning to the building to understand.
Kiba and I were locked inside of a large prison cell with a bunch of other people that had been captured. I was freaking out on the inside being inside of a cage again, but I didn't want Kiba to see. He had enough on his mind right now as it was. I didn't want to make him worry about me. I just sat there, leaning against a wall, hugging my knees and leaning my chin on them. Kiba sat down next to me and pulled me into him.
"It's okay...." He whispered in my ear. I sighed deeply, releasing my knees and leaning my head on his shoulder. He kissed the top of my head gently.
"Go to sleep, we may be in here for a while. I'll wake you up when something happens." He said. I nuzzled my face against his shoulder lightly and then closed my eyes. Even though I was in a cage again, at least Kiba was there with me this time.
.!.!.!.ZZZZZZ.!.!.!.
I woke up immediately when I heard the sqeaking of the cell door opening. I perked ny head up to see three men getting escorted in. Two I didn't know, but the other was Hige.
"Yo." He said, walking up to us.
"Hige?" I said in a surprised tone.
"What in the world are you doing in here?" Kiba asked.
"C'mon, we're friends now, aren't we?" Hige replied, sitting down on the other side of Kiba.
"That sounds funny comin' from you." I sneered. The three of us talked for a while, and then decided to go to sleep again. We woke up to the wonderful sound of the airship of a noble. I didn't even notice that all the lights were out.
"Damn nobles and their damn airships... why do they gotta be so freakin' noisy anyway...?" I muttered. I closed my eyes and began to fall back asleep, but got woken up by Kiba.
"Did you feel that?" He asked. I groaned grumpily in response.
"Feel what?" Hige asked.
"Something's gonna happen..." Kiba answered.
" I don't smell anything... except for the mildew." Hige replied after sniffing the air.
"You probably just heard the noble airship that passed by... Nothing big around here, happens a pretty often." I said.
"It's getting closer..." Kiba said.
"So, you wanna break out of here?" Hige asked.
"Yeah, let's go."
"Ugh... can't we just sleep a while longer?" I groaned, my eyes still closed.
"Sounds funny comin' from you." Hige said, mocklingly.
"Shut up, Hige...." I retorted. Kiba slid me off of him gently and then got up. I slowly got up and yawned, rubbing my eyes afterward. Kiba bent down at the bars and got ready to bend them apart, but then Hige tapped him. He stopped and looked at Hige as he pulled a key out of his hair.
"You can fit the whole world in there, can't you?" I said with an annoying laugh.
"Hey, because of my hair we're getting out of here without doin' any work!" Hige yelled.
"I feel like the two words I'll be saying the most to you are "shut" and "up", so shut up before I have to say it again!" I said with a sigh. I grabbed the key from Hige and began opening the door.
"Hey! How come you get to lead the way?!" Hige complained.
"Because I was in this damn place for six months and I know it best. I know this place backwards and forewards...or would you rather lead the way and just wander around aimlessly?" I replied. Hige pouted a little and then followed Kiba and me out once the door was open. The three of us felt a presence, it was toward the direction of the lab.
"Don't tell me you didn't feel that..." Kiba said. I nodded and led the way to the lab, running as fast as I could. Even though there weren't many people around, we still had to be cautious. It would be quite annoying if we got caught by a guard. I heard footsteps and stopped running. Then the three of us hid behind a ledge up against a wall. We heard a large crash that sounded like metal.
"What the hell is the matter wi-" I started whispering.
"Hurry up!" said in a whisper-yell. I looked up to see that Hige and Kiba had crawled into an air vent and were waiting for me. I jumped into it and crawled as fast as I could down it. I could feel the presence of a noble near that of Cheza's. I kicked the filter for the air vent out and jumped out of it, landing on the ground. Then I looked around to see if anyone was there; no one was in sight.
"This way." I said. Kiba and Hige continued to run towards the lab, following me, but stopped as we saw someone come out of the door that led to a bridge above us. There was a man with a dark colored trench coat and a white mask. I could see his right eye, but his left was covered by a dark eye patch. I knew that he was the noble that we all had sensed in the complex. I really could've cared less about him if he wasn't holding Cheza.
"Cheza!" I yelled. Kiba growled and the man looked down at the three of us.
"Wolves... you have my gratitude, for it was you who woke her." The noble said to us.
"What?" Hige asked.
"Who the hell are you?!" Kiba yelled. I continued to glare at the noble and growl.
"The flower maiden is mine." the noble replied.
"The maiden...? Is that... Cheza?" Hige said with a look of astonishment on his face.
"No she's not!" I yelled. I changed into my wolf form in less than a second and jumped on a ledge of a window on one of the walls once the noble grabbed Cheza by the neck and held her in the air. There was a light that beamed over them that was getting brighter. Cheza's eyes opened and tears streamed down them. I dropped to the floor, closing my eyes and covering my ears as she let out a scream. It was the same scream she let out the first time that my blood was shed in the complex. I got up as you Cheza's scream faded and I heard the ringing of the airship.
"We'll meet in Paradise... If we meet again, that is.." the noble said from within the airship.
"No!" I yelled. I jumped from the ledge to the spot where the noble was, but it was too late.
"Damn..." I changed back into my human form and looked at Kiba on the ground below me. There was no longer any trace of Cheza or the noble. I looked away from Kiba and stood there for a second, looking at the sky.
"I failed her... again...." I thought.