Well, it's me, Sanluris and I present to you my first D.Gray-Man fanfiction story. I wanted to see if I could keep writing such a story, and I have thirteen chapters so far which tally up to eighty pages in Word. I am trying to avoid having my character become a Mary-Sue, for most self-inserts, they say, are Mary-Sues or Gary Stues. I suppose this story isn't really a self insert due to the fact that the character I am using is nothing like me, but I'll let all of you decide. Let me know if you'd like me to continue putting up chapters and writing them. Thanks for giving it a chance if so! I hope I describe things in a non-confusing way, but if most of you have read the manga you will probably know what I'm trying to describe (I hope, because I can be confusing sometimes). I dislike describing things sometimes...I can never find the right words. I apologize in advance for any grammar errors or other mistakes; I've checked over the chapters a few times but mistakes probably still evaded me. I don't mind constructive criticism but don't just leave me a review (if any) that says plainly "It sucked", or even "It's good"--if you could explain a bit for both of those I'd appreciate it. Well, with that said, on with the story, and I hope you'll enjoy it!

Howling Innocence

Written by Sanluris

Prologue

Dark clouds and a thick mist hung over an enormous, foreboding tower that was built on top of a round, flat piece of land. The land that the tower was built on was so tall that the tower rose high above the earth below. The flattened ground kept going for quite a ways, but suddenly disappeared and revealed that the land simply changed to a sharp, ninety degree drop.

The colossal tower had levels stacked on top of each other, with tall dark windows placed around the outside of each level. The highest level had large spires situated all around the top. To give a better mental picture, the tower could possibly be likened to a many-layered wedding cake...minus the icing, frosting roses, and fluffy inner layers.

The dark clouds overhead suddenly collided, which sent a bright flash of lightning across the sky, and in that instant, the cliff ledge which had been previously empty now had a black-furred paw flung over it. The creature it belonged to clung obstinately to the edge of the cliff, every muscle in its body straining hard to keep hold. Another paw made an appearance as the creature flung the appendage the paw was attached to up toward the edge of the cliff in a swift movement; this caused the creature's paws to almost slip free of the cliff edge, which would have sent it spiraling back down the cliff to its doom. Several times that had almost happened when parts of the cliff face had given way. The creature's paws flexed and dug their claws into the rocky ground of the cliff's ledge, and slowly but surely began to pull their owner up the side of the ninety-degree drop. Painstakingly, the beast's elbows lifted clear of the cliff edge, and then its barrel-shaped chest made it onto the flattened ground. Not soon enough the creature's back legs were scrabbling to get a hold on the rocky ground as it pulled its body free of the cliff and darted away from the dangerous area.

The rounded chest of the creature heaved as it panted from its ascension up the cliff. Its claws weren't meant for climbing, especially not directly up rocky cliffs, and now they were nearly torn out of their sockets and steadily leaking blood. The sticky crimson liquid also had begun to drip from the creature's chest and abdomen; the areas had been cut during the last struggle to pull free of the jagged cliff edge. Glancing back at the cliff, the creature bent down to lick her paws, which were crimson with blood. Only by digging its claws into indentations of the cliff or holding tightly onto small ledges had the creature been able to fight its way to the top of the cliff.

Doubtless, this was the first time a wolf had dared to climb a cliff like this with seemingly little reason. The castle the wolf was heading to wasn't inhabited by others like her. No—this place was only filled with exorcists and other humans who aided the exorcists. She was only looking for one of them...someone who went by the name of Komui. But she had to get inside first. Limping slightly, the beast started to pad forward towards the not-as-of-yet towering doors that would, with luck, grant her entrance to the place. If the Gatekeeper gave her any trouble, it probably wouldn't be very hard to break past him—the information she'd gathered about the Gatekeeper had been enough to confirm her previous thoughts that he was a pretty jumpy individual. Although it'd be best if it didn't come to a fight before the creature could even get inside—if the Gatekeeper that was now stretching imposingly over her pointed ears got tipped off even a little bit he would send up a wailing that would put the whole castle on alert...and that was something she could do without, thank you very much. Two massive, midnight black doors with four black crosses on the top and bottom sections that were separated by rivets on either side greeted her, and as she expected, they were nestled on the left and right of the huge face that currently had blanked out white eyes. Staring at them, the wolf realized that the eyes reminded her of the half windows that sometimes decorated churches. The Gatekeeper's mouth was shaped like an overturned boat, which made the thing's expression look ghastly and gave one the impression it had seen something that thoroughly disturbed it. With a put-off sniff the wolf noted that the facial makeup of the Gatekeeper made him look like he'd acquired a double chin somewhere along the way.

The female wolf sat her bottom down in a quick movement and let out a loud, harsh bark to alert the Gatekeeper that someone wanted to come in and meet with the head supervisor. When a minute passed and nothing had happened, she barked again with increased volume. When there was still no response came from the doors she set up a cacophony of shrill barks and growls. Her teeth were bared when the Gatekeeper finally responded, turned his panicked and meek eyes on her, and blinked once. "Hm?" The Gatekeeper yawned and the wolf shuddered and coughed as the boat-shaped mouth opened wide and sent a strong gust of breath over her. "Oh, look, it's a puppy."

...

"What are you doing in a place like this?"

I need to see the Supervisor! Why didn't I think of this beforehand...let me in. The wolf hoped her eyes would convey that she wanted to get inside, but she was hoping for too much.

"Are you lost?" The Gatekeeper asked.

Oh, sure, someone lost would scale a cliff that high; makes perfect sense.

"Oh, maybe you want to come in, doggy?" The big head questioned, still confused as to why a dog was at the Black Order. The wolf's ears perked as she got an idea.

He thinks I'm a dog, I'll act like a dog, she thought as she lifted a mutilated paw and scratched it lightly across the surface of the black door. Some of the blood from her paws smeared across the surface of the door and showed up startlingly well against the deep black.

"What's wrong, doggy? What is that?" The wolf leapt back with a startled bark as the Gatekeeper shoved its face down closer to the spot she'd scratched. "Blood!?" Nothing the wolf could have done, seeing as how she couldn't speak or use human sign or body language to convey that she wasn't an Akuma, could have stopped the Gatekeeper's massive freak out session. "ALERT! ALERT!! MURDER! VIOLENT AKUMA WOLF AT THE ORDER!! ALERRRRTT!!" The wolf's gracefully pointed ears seemed to vanish as she flattened them tightly against her head to shield against the shrill alarms that suddenly started blaring. She heard air rushing above her and jumped back just in time to avoid being impaled by a glowing blue sword, but she couldn't focus fully on the swordsman who owned it because she had to immediately dodge again to avoid being torn open by thin, sharp claws.

And all hell breaks loose.

Author's Note: To any who were wondering, no, I'm not giving Allen or Kanda or anyone else in The Order a pet, and again no, this wolf isn't a werewolf. That's all I'm going to say for now...you'll find out more if you read the next bit. Hopefully you thought it was good enough to continue reading. This is my first D. Gray Man story so no wild bashing please, just criticisms that will help me make the story better and easier to understand. Hopefully some encouraging comments will be included as well though. It's my first D. Gray Man story and I'm also a learning writer. I wanted to put a story up that I was happy with, since all the other ones I'm writing aren't very sure where they're going. Review, if you'd be so kind. Let me know what's good and what I need to improve on, and definitely let me know of the many mistakes I'm sure are there somewhere. I probably will read this story over and over before I actually post it, but might overlook some things, so let me know of mistakes if you have the time. There's just one other D.Gray-Man fanfic out there, by Ookami Gekkani, that has a wolf exorcist. For that story, and any other stories that are possibly out there, any similarities are unintentional. I wanted to write a D.Gray-Man fanfic that had an exorcist that could shape-shift to an extent because I'm interested in that sort of fantasy...I'd definitely apply to be an Animagus in the Harry Potter universe XD And I loved the game Okami, it was an awesome game. I think I was inspired by those two things but I am not going to make any more similarities than shape-shifting and animals that fight monsters if I can help it. I just searched around in my brain and sifted through ideas, trying not to have an overused idea...and I arrived at wolf. I could have done a kitty or killer bunny exorcist but that might have been silly. '

Bai for now!

-Sanluris