Disclaimer: I don't own Neopets, if I did I'd be a freakin' millionaire...

A/N: This is a Neopets fic, I wrote it for the Neopian Times, but they wouldn't take it because it had nonexisting pets in it. You can go to to find out what a gelert, aisha, etc. is, and the rest of the characters. I have an account, but I haven't been on for a long time. My username is bullang.

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Trimoon

Part one

Thunder crashed. She was running through the Haunted Woods, away from the angry gelert pack that had banished her.

Her unusually green paws thudded over the earth as she panted for breath. She didn't even see the red lupess in front of her until the two crashed into some nearby bushes.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't see you."

"No, it's my fault. I should've been more careful. Are you okay?" the gelert asked, helping the lupess up.

"Yes. Just a few minor scratches. My name is Persia. What's your name, little one?"

"I--I'm Sarayou." The gelert replied, taking in the lupess's features. Persia was clearly much older than she, and wiser. She had a soft kindness in her eyes, like many other lupes. Sarayou, however, was not any regular gelert.

She was somewhat young, but had a certain hardness to her eyes that suggested that she had had to grow up fast. Her fur was lime green, as opposed to the pale teal color of a normal green pet of her species. Sarayou also had a crescent moon on her left forepaw. Her most peculiar -if not outright startling- feature was her eyes. They were emerald green, with an electric quality to them.

As Sarayou looked at Persia, she noted that she was a mother; the kind firmness and understanding in her eyes proved that.

"Are you lost?" Sarayou's thoughts were interrupted by a voice. Persia.

"No," Sarayou replied quietly.

"What were you running from?"

"Some of my pack. They were…" Sarayou paused. She could tell this kind lupess the truth, couldn't she? No, she reasoned. She'll wonder why. "They were mad at me." she finished.

"Well, you can stay with my pack tonight if you want to. Or maybe even a few days if your parents won't mind." Sarayou smiled. "Sure."

"Follow me." Persia smiled back, then turned toward a nearby path that led to a clearing.

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A few nights ago, Sarayou probably would have been in some bushes waiting out the storm. Now, instead, she was caring for the puppies while the rest of the lupe pack hunted. I'll have to earn my keep somehow, she thought, somewhat merrily. And caring for the pups was the best thing for her; it left all the lupes in the pack open to hunt. They were sure to be more successful than before. Sarayou smiled as one of the puppies fell on his brother. The gelert was as gentle as she was powerful and smart.

"Who are you and why are you here?"

Sarayou jumped. She looked up, ready to yell at whoever it was, then remembered that scaring the puppies was a bad thing and would surely get her kicked out. Instead, she glared up at- who was he? The speaker was a yellow lupe.

He was a different shade than a normal yellow lupe, more gold than yellow, and about Sarayou's age. His eyes were the color of amber; bright gold. Like hers, they had an electric quality. He spoke again, "So are you leaving?"

"Who are you?" Sarayou was intrigued by this mysterious lupe. "I've never seen you before," she finished distractedly, glancing at the pups. As she did so, Sarayou noticed a crescent moon on the lupe's right forepaw, facing the opposite direction as hers -to the left. She stood up, suconsciously trying to hide her own birthmark.

"I'm Sinya. I'm part of the pack, but I don't hang around much. I usually take care of the puppies. When I saw no one was here, I was worried about them. I thought they had been left alone."

"Well Persia's not that stupid." Sarayou stated, as if he should already know. "I'm Sarayou."

"Evidently you know my aunt. So why are you here?"

Sarayou was silent for a moment, not knowing how to explain.

"I was running through the woods when I bumped into your aunt. I was mad -well, they were mad at me, so Persia offered to let me stay with your pack for a couple of days. I wanted to be helpful, so Renata said I could watch the puppies while they went on a hunt."

"Who was mad at you?" Sinya asked, cocking his head.

"My… pack." Sarayou averted her gaze once more to the puppies.

"Why would your pack be mad at you?" Sinya asked bluntly, completely alien to even the thought of banishment, or any kind of anger toward a pack member for that matter.

"Esme! Hi! How did it go?" Sarayou bounded toward Sinya's family as if they were her own. Sinya joined in on the welcome, along with the puppies.

"Not so well. No thanks to you," came a harsh, gruff voice. It was strong, commanded obedience, and was not much older than Sinya and herself, Sarayou figured.

Sarayou stopped dead in her tracks as the rest of the pack filed into the cave. She lowered her head and backed away. "Wha -what did I do?" she asked quietly, not wanting to upset the speaker, who she now recognized as Rafe, Sinya's older cousin -and second in command.

"You held us up!" Rafe snapped. "We were ten minutes behind the rise of the river! We had to take the dangerous route along the edge of the cliff! Do you know what you have cost us?!" Rafe was yelling now, and the room was silent, except a barely audible moan of pain from one side of it. Sarayou's ears perked and rotated to the sound, then her head followed suit.

Rafe's father, Kova, lay there, his right foreleg obviously broken; he was near death. A tear threatened to fall from Sarayou's cheek at the sight.

"Don't you dare cry. He's not your father." Rafe demanded. "Out."

Now that Kova was disabled, Rafe would take over -whether his father survived or not. Which wasn't likely. Sarayou stood there, stunned; then wavered a little, stuttering,

"I -I… I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-" The tears welled up; her throat swelled.

"Now!" Rafe boomed. His white fur ruffled. He bared his teeth at her in a savage snarl. Sarayou broke down then. She ran out; the world around her was becoming more and more of a blurry whir around her every second -all green; all brown; a mix of the two.

"What was that for?!" Sinya yelled; it was the last thing Sarayou heard before she shut everything out. She ran and ran, and didn't stop until she reached a cave, then, and only then, did she lay down to rest.

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Sinya started toward the cave entrance.

"I'm going after her. You didn't have to yell at her." He said over his shoulder matter-of-factly.

"If you leave don't you dare come back." Rafe growled, a dangerous frozen hardness in his voice, followed by a mixed response. There were growls, whimpers, wailings from the puppies, and a few were silent. Sinya's mother, Esme, began to cry. Some had a cold look in their eyes, like they wanted him gone. The remaining few had an indifferent air about them. "QUIET!" Rafe boomed once more. It wasn't hard for him. The room fell silent. Almost. Esme's soft sniffles filled the void.

Sinya stopped. He glanced at the ground, then brought his head up. Pretending not to notice Rafe's smug smirk at his passing, he turned around to face the puppies; he padded over to them. He singled out the oldest -about six months, and his personal favorite- and went about taking her aside and asking her to be a big girl and take care of her siblings, like he had taken care of her, while he was gone.

She replied with shock, "But Sinya, how'm I supposed to take care of them all? I won't be nearly as good as you -why can't you?" Vivie had exceptionally nice speech for one so young, Sinya noticed, as Persia had always said.

"Because I won't be here any more. I'm needed elsewhere." Sinya replied. Vivie burst into tears at this notion. "Shh, don't cry," Sinya comforted her. After a while she calmed down again.

"But where?" Vivie asked.

"I don't know," Sinya didn't like where this was going.

"Then how will you get there?"

"Just be a big girl and trust me, okay? I'll be all right." Even though he said it softly so she wouldn't get upset again, his voice still filled the room. The pack had been silent, save for Esme, and remained so. Vivie nodded, and hugged Sinya.

"I'll miss you." Her voice was muffled through Sinya's fur; only he could hear it.

"Me too." Sinya hugged her back, then put her down with her brothers and sisters. He turned to Rafe, whose smirk disappeared.

"Consider me gone." Sinya turned and left with these words. He saw Esme try to reach him, only to be blocked by two husky yellow lupes -Rafe's brothers. Her mournful wails echoed through Sinya's mind.

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The sun was… not there. Axel stood before her, her soon-to-be husband. He blocked it out with his burly blue gelert-ness. Then he growled at her. No, it wasn't Axel. The sound came from behind him. All of a sudden he crashed to the ground. Someone had attacked him! For a moment she lay there, then stood, watching the gelerts -Axel and his assailant- fight.

The latter slashed at Axel, knocking him back to the ground. The blue gelert got up again, wincing from the pain, and slashed back. The attacker -she thought she saw a glimmer of red fur- grabbed Axel's foreleg and shook it savagely, throwing him to the ground once more. The aggressor placed a clawed red paw over Axel's throat.

Sarayou's instinct finally kicked in and she lunged at the red gelert. She pinned him as he had done Axel. His face caught the light. It was-

"Wake up! Sarayou, wake up!"

Sarayou opened her eyes. Sinya was there. He looked worried. She realized she was shaking. "What happened? You looked scared."

"Huh? Oh, that. Nightmare."

"Is that all?" Sinya looked surprised. "You looked ready to kill something there at the last. I was half scared to come in."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Sarayou answered blankly. Then she came to her senses. "Why are you here? I thought you were one of them."

"Not anymore. I'm alone now."

"What? You left? Why?" It came out in a rush. Sinya was surprised.

"I left… to… to get you," Sinya replied quietly, embarrassed. "And Rafe said not to come back if I went."

"And you came anyway?! Why?! You had a family that loved you, a roof over your head, and you just threw it all away? For what, a scraggly, meaningless mutt like me? No. You're going back."

"What? No! Rafe will kill me! I can't go back!" Sinya feared for his own life as well as hers. He'll kill you, he thought at Sarayou, disdainfully.

"We'll see about that." Sarayou took Sinya by the back of his neck and started to drag him away.

"Ow, ow, ow! Stop it! I'll go if you let go!" Sinya meant this; Sarayou's teeth were sharp. Too sharp for any normal gelert, he thought. "We can sneak in -there are plenty of back ways." He said this to convince her. It worked -she let go.

"You better not be lying." Sarayou's voice was dangerous. "Go on then, you live there."

"Lived." Sinya corrected. He couldn't help thinking what would happen should they be caught. He set off the way he had come. Sarayou, following him, made no sound whatsoever. The leaves didn't crunch under her paws, the twigs didn't snap under the pressure of her weight. Sinya had to keep looking back to make sure she was there. She was, every time. He wondered how she did it.

It had been late afternoon when they left. Now it was dark. They found somewhere to sleep under some bushes. They chased a snowbunny away several times before they realized they were sitting on its hole. When they finally did fall asleep, it didn't last long. Sarayou awoke, whimpering, to the same nightmare.

"Why does it keep coming back?" Sinya looked at her, worried.

"I don't know," she lied. "Come on, we need to get there before dark." Sarayou stood up and waited for Sinya to take the lead once more. He did, asking questions all the while.

"So why was your pack mad at you?" Sinya decided to try one last time to start a conversation. His previous attempts had proved fruitless.

Sarayou hesitated, not knowing whether to tell him the truth or not. She settled for in between. "Because I did something very, very bad and unforgivable." she said it with a stern finality that sent a chill down Sinya's spine. "Is this it?"

Change of subject? What have you got to hide? "Yeah, this is it." he answered, putting those thoughts aside and leading Sarayou inside. They found some leftovers from the last night's hunt and had breakfast. A few long passageways, twists, and turns later, Rafe and the rest of the lupe pack came into view. Sarayou and Sinya could see the others, but hid behind a rock so as not to be seen themselves.

"So that's why we didn't see anyone." Sinya said. Sarayou cocked her head in bewilderment. Sinya explained, "Rafe is holding a meeting."

"What for?"

"I don't know. But we're just in time to find out!"

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A/N2: While I was editing this, I realized how fast it goes. Sorry if it's too fast-paced, but unless I find a reallllllllly good reason to change it, I won't.