Ah, hello my lovelies. This story has been a little plot bunny in my head for quite some time now so I finally decided to start writing and posting it.
It's a yaoi between Zaxion and Demyx so you might as well just not read if you don't like that kind of thing...
It's a werewolf/wolf shape-shifter fic as well, with quite a few Kiesh'ra and Warriors references... I (sadly) do not own anything of this story except the plot. Hope y'all enjoy.
It's said the first of my kind was a woman named Jenova, a human raised by wolves. She learned their language and was gifted with their form.
No records remain of her life, no record except for the wolf ears and tail that each of my kind bear while we otherwise appear human. And of course there's the beautiful silver wolf form that is as natural to me as the arms and legs I wear normally.
The story is one we hear as children, though it tells nothing of reality or the hardships we're taught later.
Almost before a child of my kind learns to walk, they learn to hate. They learn of humans. They learn that they are untrustworthy, that they're liars, violent and loyal to no one.
We learn to fear their wicked machines and how they drove us from our homes. That these enemies are evil, their ways are not ours and that they would kill us if they could.
This is all they learn.
This is all I have learned...
The sun beat down from above, warming my fur and allowing me to relax into a blissful, content state. It was the first day of nice, clear weather in over a week, so I'd slipped out of camp earlier that morrning to take advantage of it. Take a day off.
My eyes, half lidded, followed a colorful butterfly as it fluttered from one flower to the next in the meadow before me, then closed my eyes fully and let out a light sigh of contentment as it finally escaped my line of sight.
I'd almost slipped into unconsciousness, when a stick snapped somewhere close behind me.
My head shot up and my fur started to bristle, but I relaxed and waved my tail in greeting at the young girl standing there at the edge of the trees. Her shoulder length hair was the color of storm clouds, and her one visable eye that of freshly spilled blood. Twin wolf ears stuck out from atop her head and a long bushy tail trailed out behind her.
She smiled brightly when she caught sight of me, revealing sharp canine teeth, and she bounded across to me. "Knew I'd find you here!" She exclaimed, sitting down next to me.
I sat up then, changing out of my wolf form as I did so. It felt good, the change, as it always did. Painful in a good way, sort of a release. For a second I had that fluid, free feeling usually associated with the change, before my human body took shape with practiced swiftness, the entire process taking a matter of seconds.
I smorked at her then, reaching out and ruffled her hair affectionately. "Hello Fuu."
She growled playfully and batted my hand away. "Stop." she huffed in annoyance and ran her fingers through her hair several times to fix it. ""Zex, you know I hate that."
"And you know that that's why I do it." I responded cheekily, before laying back, crossing my arms behind my head.
Fuu glared at me for several seconds, before sighing and rolling her eyes. "Males." She grunted. "I'll never understand them." Then with a wink she curled up against me, resting her head down on my chest and wrapping an arm around my waist.
"I haven't seen much of you these past few days." She murmured in a suddenly serious, slightly regretful, tone.
I frowned. I'd been with my brothers, planning a trip into human territory, something they'd done several times in the past but this would be my first, and there was a lot of things I had to learn beforehand. Fuu couldn't know. It was very dangerous and risky, I could even die, and if she found out she'd only try to stop me. So I didn't answer her and we lapsed into a comfortable silence.
Although she was several years younger than me, thirteen to my sixteen, I'd always considered Fuu to be my closest friend. We'd known each other and been friends since she was a pup in the nursery.
I'd grown up with her by my side. She was the one in the pack I trusted most, and I knew I could count on her to reprimand me for being foolish, which is why I chose not to tell her I was going. She could just thing I was off hunting with my brothers for a few days, which was not uncommon.
Glancing down, I noticed that Fuu's eyes had drifted closed, and her even breathing indicated that she was asleep. Moving one arm out from behind my head, I began to run my fingers through her short hair absentmindedly as I turned my gaze up towards the near cloudless sky, before my eyes drifted closed as well.
Both of us were coming to that age where many in the pack assumed I'd soon name Fuu as my mate. But wolves mate for life and for love, and I wasn't sure that she was the right mate for me. As much as I tried, I couldn't bring myself to see her as anything more that a friend, and naming a mate for any reason other than love was scorned by my people.
Fuu had several other young wolves padding after her anyway, which wasn't really surprising. She was quite beautiful in both her forms.
While I may have been the youngest son of the pack's Alpha, I didn't think of myself as anything special. My wolf was strong and dependable, but I've always been a bit on the small side and my human form was rather scrawny compared to most, especially other males.
It was embarrassing sometimes because my three older brothers all take after our father. Tall, strong, great fighters. I on the other hand, took after our mother, and have her smaller, slight frame, though even she wasn't as short as I was.
At least I inherited my father's silver hair, which has run in the Alpha line ever since our kind's creation, though I didn't share the same blue-green eyes. Instead I have my mother's darker blue ones.
And said eyes snapped open at the sound of the howl that sounded from deep in the forest. I recognized it at once as my father's, as well as the sense of urgency in it. It was a message to all of the pack that was out of camp to return as soon as they could.
Fuu started awake at the howl as well. The two of us exchanged a glance, then without a word we shifted into our wolves and raced towards camp.
It took ten minutes of running to get back. When we got there most of the pack had already assembled beneath the large boulder in the center of the main clearing, atop which my father, Sephiroth, stood in his wolf, pacing, his fur bristling angrely, lips drawn back in a snarl. As I watched, he threw back his head and let out another howl.
I padded across to where my mother was standing at the base of the boulder in her human form, before changing into my own, Fuu following and doing the same.
"Mother, what's going on?" I asked. The last time I'd seen my father so upset... I shuddered, not wanting to think of it.
But she shook her head. "You'll see."
I blinked, but decided better than to question further. I'd find out soon enough. Turning to look around, I noted that most of the pack had already gathered, there was a little over thirty of us total, some were in their wolves, others not, while all were shifting uneasily, sensing something bad had happened, and several kept glancing over at something.
I followed their gaze and my eyes widened, before narrowing angrily. Cloud, a sandy colored wolf, now in his human skin, was wrapped in the arms of Squall, his mate, sobbing and wailing, tears streaming down his face. Close by, his oldest son Ventus, was standing, crying as well.
I knew them both fairly well, and neither of them were ones for getting so visibly upset. Something truly horrible must have happened...
Just then, my father spoke. "Ventus." I looked up and saw that he had changed out of his wolf, his eyes on the young male. "Could you come up and tell everyone what has happened?"
He nodded. It was an order in the form of a question, so whether he wanted to or not Ventus had to. He wiped the tears from his face, took a moment to regain some composure, before going forward, climbing up onto the boulder to stand by my father, facing the pack. When he spoke his words were almost frighteningly calm.
"Roxas is gone."
Those three simple words caused a surprised muttering to spread through the gathered wolves.
'Gone?' I thought, just as shocked as the rest. I glanced at my mother who nodded sadly. My gaze returned to Ventus as he went on to explain.
"Me, Roxas and Pence left early this morning..." His voice was now little more than a whisper, easily heard over the now dead silence in the clearing. "We figured it'd be a nice day to get out of camp and just hunt r something. Take advantage of the nice weather while it lasted, y'know. We weren't paying much attention to where we were going, even though we should have been." He paused to wipe his eyes, as tears were starting to form there again.
"We were in our wolves, just running, enjoying the freedom and wind in our fur after being trapped in camp for so long because of the rains. But soon we stumbled into a group of human hunters. We must have taken them by surprise, three wolves running right into the middle of them. And then..." His voice broke off and gradually grew more panicked as he continued.
"There was a loud bang and Pence screamed. I looked over and he'd collapsed, blood pouring from his side." He started crying again. "I panicked and ran away as fast as I could. And I kept running, figuring Roxas was right behind me, but when I finally looked back he wasn't...So... I went back." His voice returned to a whisper. "But They were gone. And there was no sign of them other than Pence's blood on the ground, and a scent trail leading back towards human territory. I searched for Roxas, called out to him, but I couldn't find him. They must have taken him. I was going to follow the scent trail but I was scared."
He growled angrily now. "They took him. They took my brother and killed my friend."
By the time he'd finished, almost everyone was bristling and growling in anger. Even those who may not have known Roxas or Pence personally could at least relate to loosing someone to humans. Pence's own parents were killed years ago, and Cloud had lost his first mate, the mother of his pups, and now he had to deal with the possibility that Roxas could be dead too. He was lucky enough to find a new mate, Squall, but there was no way to replace a dead son.
As if some sign had been given, the entire pack, threw back their heads and howled. It was our way of honoring not only Roxas and Pence, but every one of our kind taken from us by the humans.
Once the howling died down my father spoke. "I think we can all agree that this human problem has gotten out of hand." He paused as thre were several growls of agreement, myself Included. I cared for my people and hated to see them so mercilessly killed. My hatred for them just seeming to grow with each passing day.
"Tomorrow I will send out patrols into human territory, both to search for Roxas and bring him home, as well as to wreak as much havoc as they please." He smirked.
At this there were howls of approval from the pack.
"Father." The youngest of my brothers, Kadaj, called out from where he was standing with Loz and Yazoo. "Could we go?"
My father nodded, smiling his approval. "I'm glad to see my sons so eager to avenge their pack mates. Very well. You three and Zexion shall leave first thing in the morning."
My ears perked up and I grinned in anticipation. We hadn't planned on leaving for another few days. I met Yazoo's eye and he grinned at me.
"Zexion..." Fuu's disapproval was clear in her tone.
I turned to look at her. "Relax Fuu. I'll be careful, promise." I ruffled her hair and winked.
She huffed. "You better be..."
So Yea :) I hope you liked it. This chapter was just a lot of explaining things and setting up for plotliness, which shall unfold within the next couple of chapters.
Review with your thoughts. Constructive Criticism is greatly appreciated.
I'll try and update sometime in the next few days.
~Berry-Chan~