Disclaimer: I do not own Wolf's Rain or any characters from the show/book.

Saving Paradise

After Wolf's Rain (anime). With the world renew, and the wolves living among humans, peacefully unaware of their past, everything seems to be perfect. However, when the scent of Lunar Flowers draws them together again, it turns out Paradise is in dire threat of being ruined.

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Prelude

Cheza slipped into a dirty alley, bringing her dark pink cloak closer around her as she hid behind an overfilled dumpster. The cloak did little to protect her from the cold breeze that chilled her to the bone, but it was still comforting to her. Her pink eyes closed as she shivered, tears running down her face. It wasn't supposed to be like this. This was Paradise; it was supposed to be peaceful, free from terror, free from him.

She had to find her wolves. She had to find Toboe, Hige, Tsume, Kiba…

A low growl made her jump, realizing she had started to fall asleep. A glance around the dumpster revealed a large dog, not a wolf, or even a half wolf, standing at the entrance of the alleyway, teeth bared menacingly as it stared right at her. A second of fear turned to be her downfall as she froze before running further down the alley way. The dog bayed loudly, alerting his master and his fellow hunters that he had found her, before quickly running after her. The bags of garbage posed no problem for him, jumping over them while Cheza stumbled.

The hound caught her less than a minute later, his teeth digging into her arm as he pulled to the ground. Cheza screamed in pain, inaudible to the humans in the city, but all the hidden wolves suddenly woke up, confused as to why.

Back in the alley, Cheza's scream was silenced by a gloved hand covering her mouth before a sharp pinch to a pressure point in her neck sent the flower maiden into a dreamless sleep. Lord Darcia gently picked her up, frowning for a moment at the puncture wounds on her arm before carrying her out of the dirty alley.

((

"Toboe?"

The young wolf looked back to his adoptive grandmother, "Did I wake you up?" He asked as he left his spot on the porch and went to help the old woman to her usual spot, an old rocking chair sitting next to the door.

"No, child," she assured him, patting his arm gently. "I'm usually awake by now. You, however, are usually asleep."

"Yeah…" He gave a nervous grin and rubbed the back of his neck as she sat down. "Something… woke me up."

Granny frowned as she spread the afghan blanket she had carried across her lap before looking up at Toboe. "Whatever it was, it seems like it really unsettled you."

Toboe nodded as he sat down on the porch next her, leaning against the rocking chair as her hand gently smoothed down his hair. "I think I heard someone scream… but when I woke up, I couldn't hear anything." There was a moment of silence as Granny rocked back and forth, her chair creaking against the wooden floorboards. It was obvious that Toboe wasn't nearly as peaceful as he kept fidgeting slightly beside her.

A few minutes later, he started again, "Granny…" he looked up at her, his big puppy eyes conveying his unease. "Would it be okay if I went out today?"

The old woman laughed quietly. "Of course! You know you're free to come and go as you please."

"Yeah… It's just… I have this feeling I might not come back for a while."

"I'll be here when you return," she promised as her hand drifted down again, unsurprised when her fingers met fur instead of hair. "Do what you need to do, Toboe."

((

Blue wasn't surprised when Hige appeared beside her, munching on a sandwich. "You heard it too?" He asked between bites as he leaned against the balcony rail. She nodded her head slightly, still a bit disturbed by the high-pitched scream that had woken her.

"It seemed familiar," she confessed.

"Yeah," he agreed. A name was on the tip of his tongue when he woke up, ready to run and fight. It had taken a moment to remember he was in the apartment he shared with Blue and not somewhere else. Where else he would be, he wasn't sure. For about a year now, he had been living with his mate, even though he and her 'family' still didn't get along.

A chilly wind blew from the north, not really bothering the two wolves in human form. However, the scent on it surprised Hige. He lowered his sandwich as he took a deeper whiff of the sweet scent that flowed on the northern wind. "You smell that?"

Blue frowned, but sniffed as well. Even though she didn't have a nose quite as good as Hige's, part because she was only half wolf, part because Hige had what she heard some call as 'super nose', she did smell the light, flowery scent. It made her relax and smile lightly. Like the scream, it felt familiar, more like an old friend, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember it from anywhere.

"The Lunar Flower…" Hige muttered as he opened his eyes. "I thought that was an old legend…"

"Maybe someone has one around here?" Blue asked, but knew that something was wrong with the statement.

Hige grinned as her wrapped an arm around his mate. "Let's go find it!"

Blue hesitated before nodding. As weird as it was, it felt right to go hunting after the source of the sweet scent.

((

Tsume sat on top of an old building, it was a bit chilly, but otherwise a good night to campout under the stars. The piercing scream had chased away all thoughts of sleep though, and instead caused worry in his stomach. It sounded as if it came from half way across the city, but he was tempted to take his motorcycle and find the cause. But there had only been one scream, and it had faded long ago. Still, he kept his senses alert, in case there was another scream, or some other sign.

That other sign came with the rising sun and cold gust that carried a strong, sweet scent on it. Without hesitation, he jumped off the edge of the building, landing on his feet three stories down on the cement walkway that was overgrown with weeds. His bike only waited a few yards away, propped up on a wall. He was going to find the source of the scream, find out who exactly was causing this uneasiness in him.

((

Kiba looked down at the red cloak in his hand. He hadn't been far when he heard the scream, about only a mile away, already following a familiar scent of flowers. Unfortunately, by the time he arrived at the alleyway, there was only trash and a red cloak soaked in the scent of Lunar Flowers. He bowed his head as he clutched the cloak tighter, taking in a deep breath of the sweet scent.

"I'll find you," he muttered into the fabric. He wasn't sure whom he was searching for, but knew that he had to find them, and hopefully fast.

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Author's notes: Well, hopefully this catches a few people's interest. Saving Paradise won't be very long, but since I only have a general sketch of the plot line, who knows where it will go?

Obviously, this is set after the Anime, and obviously, I took some liberties about the life after the end. However, I do plan on keeping this as close to cannon as I can, except, there might by some original characters later on, but they shouldn't play a big part later on.

I'm unsure when chapter one will be out, I'm not even going to try to give a general sense of when. But, since I'm really passionate about this story right now, it shouldn't be too long.

Questions? Comments? Want to point something out? Critique? Leave a review and I'll get back to you as soon as possible! (By the way, I love critique! Even if it's a flame, it tells me what I'm doing wrong so I can improve!) By the way, I am looking for a Beta. Microsoft Word doesn't catch everything, and I'm definitely not perfect at grammar.