Chapter One:
Dreams and Lullabies
It was coming to a close. Darcia was gone. And so were Cheza and his pack.
His body collapsed entirely to the ground bellow. The sight of white lotus resembling flowers gazed into him and their scent clouded his nose. They were beautiful. Delicate. Sensitive. Breath-taking creations. But they could never compare to the one blossom he had come to love. The one blossom that he had lost. The one that was nearby his form, losing its physical moisture as it shrivelled and drooped to a non-living organism.
The ice was giving way, and soon enough, it crackled into melted nothings.
He was sinking into a sea of the dark abyss. It seemed like nothing at first. But then for some odd reason, he inhaled, with the frosted liquid soaring up his nostrils. Pain and suffocation was repelling him exclusively and oh so slowly. His heart felt like someone was holding it, squeezing and applying pressure little by little, with the cold bite nibbling agonizingly.
The white wolf was utterly weak in the arctic temperatures, with the water seeping through his fur and flesh, barely having the time of the night to notice the wilted lunar flower descending devotedly by his side. And as his lemon eyes peered from his heavy lids, Kiba stared into the round crack of the ice, looking directly into the oddly coloured circle in the sky. Looking as if it was smiling for him. Smiling gently, or sneering smugly. Which one, he didn't know.
Kiba was weakening. The lupine was on the verge of giving up. He wanted to just throw it away. He was surrendering to the pain in his lungs and the terrible tightening of his chest.
The white wolf couldn't take it.
The little glimmer, a tiny shine, within his heart urged him to break to the surface. To survive and search for Paradise. His long term goal and mission.
But Paradise seemed like nothing. Because without his faithful pack. And without Cheza by his side, the place that he had always longed for seemed of no importance at all. Like a worthless dream. How could he go to Paradise without his 'family' amidst him to see it for their own eyes? To show them the haven they all had imagined when he filled their hopes till it was overflowing.
Exactly.
He couldn't.
When he lost Toboe, something triggered.
Blue, trigger.
Hige, trigger.
And Tsume.
His devoted brother. That triggered something, without a doubt. It was a nightmare he longed to awaken from. Kiba wanted to just open his eyes to find it was all a nightmare. To awaken to the glory of heaven, where he and his fellow wolf ruled over. But the truth of never arousing was cleared when Cheza withered into nothing.
It was then, that he had snapped, falling into the sadness of loss and other fits of emotions.
One minute, Cheza's little voice was cooing gently in his ears, her body moulded into his own. But in a bare instant, her sound ceased, and all that was left were the shreds of her clothes and the ashes soon melting into the snow. Her presence replaced by a single dead flower.
The list of his despairs continued to grow. He was tempted to give up. Tempted to completely give in. But only one thing stopped him. And that was the fact that she had promised they would meet once again. They would meet again in Paradise, and that was enough to confirm his decision to live. Although. Before he could even think of breaking free, darkness closed inside only to spare Kiba the deep void where a voice echoed his name.
"Kiba"
His calling sounded, repeating through the black, "Kiba, wake up".
The accent was gentle and kindly, the English fluently rolling off its tongue. Like a Mother's lullaby. It was a simple sound, but it developed so much hope inside his being that it could've made him burst. It reminded him of his Flower Maiden, only this tone was merely more. Powerful. Influential. It was still tender and soft, but the pitch provoked strong emotions into his existence.
"Please Kiba, wake up."
There it was again. That symphonic sound. It was encouraging him.
"Who are you?" he groaned to the voice, the darkness more avid than ever before.
"Kiba, you need to wake up. I need you."
"Who are you? What do you want!?"
"Please wake up, Kiba. You need to lead your pack. You need to lead them to Paradise, they're searching for you."
"What do you want?"
"Find me. Cheza misses you. She needs you, Kiba. Find me and you can find her."
"Cheza?"
"Yes, she needs you. Don't make her wait. I can lead you to her."
"How? Where is she? Where can I find her?"
Then from out of the darkness, he felt warm arms capture his form into a backwards embrace, a body leaning into his spine with limbs roped around his middle. And in response, his hands touched the ligaments which were lovingly imprisoning him. They were soft, smooth and slightly larger than the maiden's, but nonetheless still comforting.
It was nice.
So as the body of what he had imagined had belonged to the voice, he took in her strange scent of apple and cinnamon. And Lunar Flowers. All the while with the sound instructing, "Your friends will find you, they need you to lead them to Paradise. You just need to open your eyes."
And without another second to spare, she disappeared with the sensation of agony pulsating through out him as his face broke out from the water, taking a long desired inhale at the life the stranger had saved.
The life the Lunar Maiden had saved.
And while he was shivering thanks to the cold, the sea began to shift unnaturally.
The currents were supporting him, keeping the wolf between the balance of the water and oxygen above. The slightly melting ice wanted him to live. It was warming itself ever so slowly to ensure that the wolf could survive, all the while, with a strange glow being emitted on his wounds, as the ebb and flow of the aqua situated him upon the snow.
The bottom fraction of his body was still slightly consumed within the frosted water, in the midst of his upper half breathing heavily. And while that subdued, Kiba was wholly ignorant of the scars and blood dissolving away into nothing, leaving his flesh exclusively unblemished. What an earth had happened? Did the water just heal him?
"Wake up, Kiba."
His sights curled open at the pace of a sprinting snail.
"You should be fine now" the voice stated by means of a smile in the tone, and then it continued, "come on, stand."
A rugged sigh left his throat. Physically, he was well, but mentally, he kept on thinking that he was still injured and in hell. Thus, the wolf didn't wish to comply.
"Please. Trust me, you're fine. I will look after you."
The texture of the sound was so assuring, so safe and secure. He couldn't taste any lie in her words. But what was she talking about 'looking after' him. Wasn't he the one who usually completed the position of protecting, being the Leader of course?
His body twitched.
No pain.
He moved a ligament.
She was telling the truth.
No. It wasn't like he feared the pain. He never did, and never would. Nor would he fear death. He was a proud wolf after all, and so, he would never allow such things to twinge his being. But how would she know of the agony when it was something only he could feel, not she or anyone else.
"See? I told you so" the gentle vocals hummed with cheer. And before it permanently left his consciousness, she advised, "Follow the Lunar flowers."
Time flowed after she left his senses, leaving Kiba alone in the frozen wasteland. The snow fall had ceased, the temperature was changing slightly and the sun was beginning to rise from the distant horizon. And with an expert inhale, the wolf knew the seasons were shifting.
Spring.
But how? It was as if they had all been suffering the grasps of winter down there for decades. Why the alteration now??
Kiba crawled to a stand.
She said she needed him. Before, when she called out. And if the voice needed him, then he planned to answer her plea.
The lupine then took a step, without strain, and began walking in the direction where he could barely taste the scent of the blossoms. They were soft, light and subtle. But he knew they were there. And furthermore, the scents of two specific wolves from his pack were also lingering there.
And slowly as he began building his pace, his legs took off to a sprint.
The scent was coming from the north.
And that was where he was heading.
The air brushed against his wet pelt as he ran; the steps he took looking as if he was gliding upon the land in a precise, respectable manner that awed the flying gulls in the sky, as the sun curled higher and higher. His hind legs and those of the front left the ground for a bare moment, soaring through the air for a short instant, before the law of gravity brought him down only for the male to glide through the wind currents for a second time as he took off. Soon followed by a third, and a fourth.
The exhilaration of his sprint was pumping vigorously.
Freeze City.
That was his destination.
And as the sun was soon followed by the moon, the process was repeated over and over again, his relentless exterior forcing him to continue onwards until he was met with the sight of what he was searching intently for.
The domed metropolis.
Devastatingly looking appendages poked from out of the semi-circular shield which emitted a cold aura, with the now ruined and destroyed Golden Gate resembling bridge of San Francisco being held in disgusting ruin. The snow had died but the cold was still there, and furthermore, his stomach began to complain.
A huge, stone cascade attempted to block his chances of entering, but nonetheless, it was displayed useless as he expertly scoured up the wall, brisking up and over the pathetic excuse for a barrier as he walked through, his nose meeting the horrid aroma of the city's pollution.
Yet what sent delectable shivers up and down his spine, and that of the other fauna creatures in Freeze City, was a haunting lullaby being sung by a prisoner in the tallest building, echoing to the civilians below.
"In the moonlight I felt your heart
Quiver like a bowstring's pulse
In the moons mere light, you looked at me
Nobody knows your heart"
It was a thorough tone; light and strong, with the unknown lyrics boding a unforgettable, mysterious tale.
"When the sun has gone I see you
Beautiful and haunting, but cold
Like the blade of a knife, so sharp, so sweet
Nobody knows your heart"
Kiba lifted his muzzle to the air, inhaling delicately, sniffing and shuffling through the smells of smoke, alcohol, hot dogs, gas and... Flowers. It was powerful, that much was for sure. It nearly knocked the hell out of his system. It was so strong that the aroma was nearly sickening, in a delicious way of sweet memoirs.
"All of your sorrow, grief and pain
Locked away in the forest of the night
Your secret heart belongs to the world
Of the things that sigh in the dark
Of the things that cry in the dark"
Then, as the beautiful lullaby came to an end, danger sifted through the white wolf's spine and fur, and Kiba was just in time able to watch the sight of the imperials come to attack in the directional stench of a particular grey wolf.
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(A/N)
~ Rewriting.
The scene is taken place just after the last episode of Wolf's Rain. The other fan-fiction 'For My Own Paradise' wouldn't have gone well with the plot I had in store. So until I finished this new one, I plan to complete 'For My Own Paradise' for another time. So enjoy and please review and I'm sorry to those who liked the other, you're going to have to wait for 'FMOP'.
Song/Lullaby = Ending credit song of the movie 'Princess Mononoke' property of Hayao Miyazaki.