Me: Hey, new story I had an idea for. Now sure if I'm ever going to post it (I know that I do have one story that I have several chapters of but never posted at all) But we'll see what happens.
Chapter 1: The pact
"Inubatsu Suzukanene!" A tall woman scolded, one bony hand on her hip. She cast her glare out across the large field where her class was sitting quietly, all the young adults sitting contemplatively on the grass, all but one. "Inubatsu Suzukanene!" The woman called again, a harsh bark in her tone. She was using her Inu powers. The vibrating wave of her voice extending out through the field. Her students near by held their ears in anguish. Whimpering slightly.
"What!" A voice called back, very annoyed. A mess of tan hair, neglected and let wild and sandy skin surrounding brilliant gray eyes came up the hill. Suzukanene in all her feral glory, dressed in a light gray short kimono walked up. Staring down at the ground, refusing to meet the sensei's eyes.
"I will consult your guardian about your behavior Inubatsu-dono." The woman said dejectedly. "Now sit and be good." The woman turned her back to address her class when she heard a rustle behind her. She turned and lunged but too late. Suzukanene was already gone and down the hill. Her arms stretched out and howling into the wind. Heading right into the forest.
"Sensei!" One boy with black hair raised his hand politely. His sensei ignored him, then pointed sharply to him. "Why wont Suzu come to class?"
"Because." Their sensei said slowly, messaging her temple. "That girl wont make it as an Inu." She paused, gathering her thoughts. "Class, what is the most important thing to an Inu?"
The calls raised their answer together, the words just barely heard in their mass of voices.
The pact.
"The pact is sacred to us Inu. Without it we will die. The pact is the source of all our powers. If we don't make a pact with a human then we will die and out spirits will never find rest." She said expressively, treating each word with care.
"Then Suzu will-" The boy started to say but stopped suddenly, not wanting to say those words. Their sensei nodded, the gesture sealing the subject.
"Don't be like Suzukanene class, follow your destiny and make your pact."
***
Suzukanene broke through the dense foliage that extruded over the scarce animal trail. She strained her ears for any sound, any abnormally. Branches grabbed at her and tree roots tripped her. Every shadow jumped at her, ever break of a branch deadly. She crashed through a thicket, the branches catching her and entangling her. She struggled and pulled; every second was vital. She couldn't waist time.
They were after her, people with inhuman abilities and skills. She remembered one of them, the one who breathed fire. He first did these strange things with his hands and then the fiery blaze almost caught her. She ran but they were faster than her, moving so fast her eyes couldn't trace their movements. She lost them somehow in the undergrowth of the forest.
They were eerily strong and fast but she knew how to hide. How to move and not been seen. These humans were blundering idiots unlike stealthy her. The foxes in the forest home taught her how to move like shadows. These humans had no such training. They made lots of noise as they traveled through the forest.
With a final tug she freed herself from the vines and stopped. Listening for any sign of the humans. The forest was silent like death. Unmoving and still, cold and final.
She ran, running from the darkness, running from the humans. A spurt of laughter escaped her; she stopped again, looking around. The sound of her voice was explosive in the silence. It was ironic, she through, an Inu whose very lives depended on making pacts with humans and now she was running for her life from them.
"Damn it..." She cursed. She was losing it; she was going crazy. The woods around closed in, branches became long spiny fingers, the vines twisted around her feet. The air was suffocating her. The animals of the night stalked in the shadows, lusting for her virgin blood. Their teeth aimed at her throat. She was being hunted and there was no escape.
A glint of light flashed before her when blood filled her vision, red staining the dark green world of the forest. A rearing pain in her shoulder hurled her back into reality. Skin meet earth as she collapsed to the ground, blood oozing from the deep wound. A metal knife, dark and menacing was lodged into her skin. She sniffed it, the smell of human tainted it.
But how had they found her, she never heard them, she never smelled them. A young man appeared before her, his face hidden behind a red mask. Its black eye holes, empty of all life. She cried out, barking madly like a caged animal. She kicked and punched, lashing out blindly hitting whatever ventured within her reach. She banged up against wood and earth and then solid flesh. Her shoulder burned and the pain became almost too much. Whoever she hit backed up; his companions had arrived. She heard them humans talking, planning.
Run. Get away. Hide. The thoughts flew through her mind. Run away. Escape. Get out of there! The voice of panic urging her stronger and stronger but her body refused to move. She was frozen with fear.
Limp on the ground, unmoving, she laid, panting heavily. The humans stopped talking and started to stalk slowly to her. They were quiet; she couldn't hear their slow death walk to her. They tricked her. The reality hit her. They tricked her, she thought they were lumbering idiots that could be heard a mile away but they could be just as silent as her.
"No..." She whispered, fear sinking in. "... no... not... like this..."
Glints of scattered light flew over her and red rain fell upon her. Cries of pain broke the silence of the night and the sounds of struggle reached her ears. Suzu looked up, more people were with her now, the small gap they fought in making it seem like there was more than there were.
Five newcomers were with them now. No, four, she couldn't tell. They all wore the same long black cloaks, making them indistinguishable from each other. The humans after her were dead or locked in battle with the other humans. This was a chance to escape. She gathered her last remaining strength, and crawled silently over the ground. She moved fast but carefully. Both parties were hopelessly distracted and she wasn't going to change that.
Suzu crawled across the ground. Far from the fight, the clang of metal still heard in the distance, the ground dropped into a step cliff face. Suzu peeked over its edge and saw that it dropped far down, it would have been insane to jump from this height.
A twig snapped behind her. A desperate panic filled her, stripping away all reasonable thought. She had to escape. She shoved of the ground, and lunged forward. For a brief moment she hung in space, then fell, down, down down.
A face, framed by yellow, replaced by dirty rock was the last thing she saw as she fell down. The ground was suddenly closer than what it looked like from so high up. A person shouted above her, they had jumped too. She didn't bother looking up at them the ground was right to her. She screamed and hit the ground. Dirty and leaves flew up. The ground gave way beneath her and she tumbled into darkness. Her body scraped against earth and rock as she was pulled further and further down. She broke through the earth and fell into empty air before-
Gush! Water was flooding around her as she was forced down. The strong current was forcing her deeper and deeper into its depths. She didn't even had time to think when the current suddenly changed directions, sharply turning. She was pulled up and slammed into rock. She was barely keeping her head above the water. Her good arm fumbled for a hold but the rock was too smooth. She was pulled under again, just barely having caught her breath. Her feet and hands were scrapping the smooth rock of water's floor.
It continued brutally, the current changing, her pulled up, slamming against rock. Enough time for a quick breath and back under again. She didn't know how long she could keep it up; every time she was pulled under she feared it would be the last. Just as she had given up hope of escaping the current it slowed. She gently rose up to the surface of the water, she gasped for precious air, her arms fumbling around her for land.
The current slid into a gentle curve and she was pushed onto a flat, hard surface. She crawled shyly unto the land; them fell down, passed out cold.
Suzu woke up, wondering where she was. She felt the hard rock beneath her and the gurgling sounds of running water behind her. The water was pushing on her submerged feet. She clambered forward slowly, pulling her whole self onto the flat platform. She was in some kind of underground cave river. On either side of her the cave was swallowed up into darkness. The water was clear and pure, she pulled herself forward and drank tentatively from the water that saved and nearly killed her at the same time. It tasted clean and she gulped it down, her dry mouth yearning for it.
Run. Thoughts of the past day's-or was it still night- events asked her. Someone was still after her.
"I'm an idiot." She said aloud, trusting that no one could hear her and finding comfort in that small fact. She was mad at herself. That she, could be overrun by fear and anxiety. She had never experienced the hunt before. Nor did she ever want to again. She stood up, testing her limbs. She was tired and her arm still bleed, the knife was gone, dislodged when she was thrown about in the current. She frowned; it would have been useful to have.
"I have to keep moving." She looked down the tunnel that the river slid into. It was dark and she didn't know what lay ahead of her, but she couldn't stay there all her life.
She sat back against the wall, letting her action-paced mind slow down; she would have to get moving again soon.
***
"Suzu." A boy with short black hair and dark tan walked up to Her. She was reclining back in the hollow of a dead tree trunk. Its empty branches were reaching for the distant sky.
"What Juju." She impatiently asked.
"Why wont you make a pact with humans? Teacher said that you'll- you'll-"
"Die" She finished for him. He nodded vigorously. Suzu started to pick bark off the tree.
"Well?" Juju asked. "Why won't you."
"Go away." She flicked pieces of bark at him.
"The village hates you, you know." He spat angrily. He was slowly gaining confidence to speak up,
"They all think you're bad news and avoid you, they say you're a plague on the village! I tried to be your friend to show them wrong but you really are a disease."
"You think they'll name the disease after me? With one of those technical terms and name?. Suzuidis sounds kinda cool." She said seriously, staring down at the boy. "Maybe Suzuterqouisis."
"Shrivel up and die!" The boy ran away.
"This is the best spot to watch the clouds." She continued speaking as if the boy was still there. "The best clouds are always here."
A bird answered her. She smiled, listening to the birds.
"Best bird spot too." She added, before falling asleep.
***
Suzu chuckled to herself. Her whole village wanted her dead but she wasn't ready to die yet. She was the first Inu to run away from the village, the outside world meant freedom. She hated safety; she wanted thrills. At least, she thought she wanted thrills. Dark thoughts, ghostly whispers of her fear, running through the forest like a mad animal. She shook her head. She would never go back to her village, running away was punishable by death.
She tore of a piece of her short kimono and tied it around her shoulder. It was bleeding a lot. Her blood was pooling around her, staining her gray kimono on the bottom. She plunged into the water, letting the current guide her along. She prayed silently that it stayed this smooth current and empty out into a lake or something.
She floated down for hours in the peaceful current, everything going along smoothly. There were several other flats of rock along the way. She would stop at one and catch her breath before continuing onward. She reached another flat but a strange sound filled her ears. A deep rumbling sort of sound that echoed throughout the cave. Suzu could only guess what the sound was but she didn't want to admit it. She pushed herself into the water, once more going into the unknown.
Before she had traveled so much as ten feet from the flat was she pulled violently under the water to the bottom. The current was straight and fast. No turns to fling her out for air. Her lungs burned as the current swept her along. She struggled to swim upward but she couldn't tell which way was up she fumbled about in the water, tugged along by invisible strings. Her head hit the ground and she lost what precious air she had left.
'This is it.' She though, gulping water. 'I'm going to die.' Darkness creped outside her vision. Pitching her forward down another dark and eternal tunnel. She struggled to keep going but her body wouldn't listen. It was like back in the forest. Run. She thought but her legs were still.
Live. She thought now. Live, dear god live! I don't want to die yet, not after I had tasted freedom! Not now, not ever. Live!
Blinding white light burned her eyes as her body was thrown out of the water into the air. Her eyes dazed by the sudden brilliance that was light. Water rushed down beside her as she fell. She crashed into more water, her feet hitting the rocky ground.
'Kick up' she thought, seeing the sunlight dance on the water's surface. 'You survived! Now live!' But she couldn't do it. The few precious gulps of air she grabbed in the free fall weren't enough. She was too exhausted. 'Live, live, live! I'm so close damn it.'
A new thought came to her, a new desperate thought. It was a deep and ancient thought, a call from her great ancestors. The thought was powerful; it was too great to be hers. She had no choice. She called out to that deep voice deep within her.
She was no longer in the water drowning, but standing in a space between all time she started to walk forward, suspended in weightlessness. She knew exactly where she was but couldn't have known before the thought came to her. Two beings on either side of her came up and walked next to her.
She couldn't explain but knew it, she was existing in a place where no matter could exist. But she was there. On her left a white wolf, its shoulder coming up to her waist, walked with her. On her right, a brown dog, slightly smaller than the wolf, walked beside her as well.
They talked to her, but their mouths never moved. They spoke in turns, one finishing the through of the other. Like they were one being in separate bodies. They were the deep thought within her. They told her how to be free. They asked her if that is what she wanted. She gave them an answer.
Yes.
She was back in the water, but this time was different. Power burst from her and she was filled with new strength, temporary strength. She had but meager moments to escape the water and head to freedom before her power disappeared. She kicked off from the water's bottom and launched out from the water. She broke the surface and continued high into the air. Water danced around her as she flew up.
Reviling in the surge of power she howled, high and exalting. The world was hers. In the back of her mind she could hear the warning, the timer ticking off. She landed back in the water and swam to land. The sun was high above her, making her shadow self disappear. She danced in the sunlight, her power surging like the sun itself. Bright and glorious.
She turned around in circles, wondering what she could do with her power when it snapped. The power was gone. She fell to the ground, dazed at the sudden drain of energy. The sudden loss of something greater yet apart of her.
"Damn it." She cursed her stupidity. Visions of the white wolf and brown dog flashed through her mind. "They told me... it was only momentary."
"What was, un?"
Suzu gasped and jumped up, a white mass flew at her and she dodged. The mass exploded, sending her back into a tree. A man with long blond tresses walked up to her.
"Hey, un. I finally found you." He smiled crookedly, his bright blue eyes flashing. "Bit of trouble you gave me, yeah. They blamed me for losing you, un. Made me search for you, un." He grabbed her and lifted her over his shoulder. "Now don't move and be a good girl, m'kay?"
"Who... are you..." Suzu wheezed, red and yellow dancing across her eyes. A wave of nausea creeping up on her.
"Me?" He asked quickly, pausing. "I'm Deidara, yeah. Don't worry about me killing you, we want you alive, un."
"We?" She questioned vaguely.
"You'll find out eventually, hmm." He answered, holding her tight as he carried her off. She couldn't do anything, and she hated it.
She was free, then hunted, thrown into constant, life threatening danger and then was cast into the glorious light of power, only to be torn away from it. Now she was captured.
"I hate..." She started to say but couldn't; she passed out.
Deidara huffed and walked through the woods to the others.
***
Me: Well guess what, I decided to post this story! Great huh?
Other than that review! Reviews make me write!!