A/N: Hello everyone! This is my first WR ff, and I'm very excited about it. I've only recently discovered Wolf's Rain; I haven't seen the last few episodes yet, though I do know how it ends, so that will play apart in my story.

The main character of my ff will be Leara. I was captivated with her, and I thought that it would be interesting to explore what happened to her later, after meeting Toboe.

And, yes, I will try to include Kiba & the others in some way later on.
Any comments are welcome!

Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own Wolf's Rain or any of its characters. However, I do own my original characters.

Prologue: A Memory

The years have flown by since that first encounter with the wolves. Yet even so, I can still remember the one wolf, the pup of the pack. He had seemed strange at first; who names their dog after himself? But I had seen the kindness in his eyes, the eager smile playing about his lips. How could someone so young and seemingly innocent prove to be such a monster? I should have known he was different when he told me his name.

"I've already told you," He'd said, smiling. "It's Toboe."

Like the naive girl I was, I had accepted this odd stranger, and had hoped that we might have been friends.

I hadn't expected what had come next.

The image of my beautiful hawk, being thrust at me, his body limp, already growing cold. The boy's face, so appealing, sickened me. Why had he given me a token of death?

"My bird.. It's dead.." I remember saying. His face fell, tears pooling in his amber eyes.

"Leara...Oh, Leara, I didn't mean to!" He said it pleadingly, and he almost won my pity, had he not uttered the next sentence. "I didn't mean to kill it!"

It was then that his sobs faded away to be replaced by a mourning howl, and I had seen his true nature. A slip of a wolf cub, with dusty brown fur and amber colored eyes. Even now, the recollection of his true form sends shudders up and down my spine. I had almost befriended a monster, a creature of myth. Who knows, he might have attacked me after he finished his inhuman song, had it not been for the black leather clad young man with gray hair, who yanked the beast away.

I had stood there for a moment, my mind spinning, trying to forget what I had seen. Yet how could I forget with my already cold bird in my arms, the fang marks visible? How could I rid myself of the image of the boy becoming a wolf? I couldn't accept what I had seen, yet I couldn't deny it either.

When I told my father of my encounter, he merely laughed at first and regarded it as a child's active imagination. I didn't think of showing him the corpse of my hawk; I had managed to bury him in the spot where he had been killed. Looking back, I suppose that that would have been the best way to convince him. But my father was a stubborn man, who would rather hold fast to the idea of reality than the truth of the myths. He discouraged my so-called game, and told me that wolves had died out long ago. I hesitantly accepted my father's false ideas, hoping that maybe I could wrap myself up in this false reality and that my wolf would become like a distant dream.

It wasn't to be.

Days later, I met him again. His coat was covered in trash, the silver bracelets on his foreleg dulled by the muck he'd managed to get into. At first, I was in disbelief. Hadn't my father said that wolves didn't exist? And yet, here he was, talking to me, his great amber eyes sad.

"Leara, I didn't mean to scare you." Toboe had said, his ears laid flat against his head. "I only wanted to---"

The rest of his apology had been cut off by my screams.

"Daddy? Daddy?! DADDY! It's the wolf! The wolf is here!"

My cries for help had sent him running away with two other boys. Not to be discredited, I had foolishly raced after them, believing that if I managed to catch the dusty pup that my father would stop looking at me with fear in his eyes, and skepticism in his voice. When I reached the alleyway that I had seen the wolf cub take, I had come face to face with the false form of the wolf. A boy, slightly scrawny, with amber eyes and reddish-brown hair. I had blinked to make sure that it was the right boy, but his silver bracelets gave him away.

"Why did you scream, Leara?" He had asked quietly, edging closer to me. "I only wanted to show you what I am."

"You stay away from me!" I had yipped. "It's not normal.. You're not normal! How can I trust you?!"

His eyes had seemed sad then. "I tried to show you.. I guess Tsume was right.."

"LEARA!?!"

My father's voice had reached my ears and I turned my back foolishly to the wolf. However, my father did not meet me. Instead, a grizzled man stood behind me, reeking of vodka and gunpowder. He'd had a crazy gleam to his eyes as he roughly pushed me aside and yelled, "Where's the wolf at?"

One part of me wanted to answer him, to lead him to the wolf and have it destroyed. But the stronger part of me resisted. Why should I have the wolf named Toboe killed?

I was saved by the arrival of my father, who had quickly taken me up in his arms. "Leara, what's wrong? What happened?"

His questions were posed as a concerned parent, but how could I have told him the truth when he already considered me insane?

The days that followed were long, full of questions by the Noble's men, and incriminating glances that clearly said they believed I was crazy. I didn't fight the claims, but instead retreated from the world. As the months progressed, more wolves passed me by, and I could recognize each for what they truly were. All the while, I had to ask why. Why was I the only one who could see them? Why had I been chosen? Was it because of my meeting with Toboe? Or something else?

Six years have passed, and I still don't know the answer to those questions. The wolves had come less frequently to our city, and as they had been scarce before, it was rare to find one now. Yet when they do come, my emotions are overwhelmed. I do not hate the wolves, as some might think, yet I cannot stand the sight of them. Maybe I am crazy, as my father first accused those six years past.

My name is Leara, and I can see the wolves.