Chapter 1: The Tear of the Moon
I never believed it. The one I care most for, lay dying, in my very own arms. Scarlet blood was scattered everywhere. The dead carcasses piled around me, as if to shield me. I froze with terror, colder than ice, as the giant figure loomed over me, his purple cape flowing in the wind, splattered by the blood of my fallen friends. Though, every happy ending has some sort of sick, demented twist. Mine was so wonderful, my happily ever after, all my friends. Though it's better to know what happened.
Lazy mornings had far been lost. My manager woke me at the crack of dawn. I felt like some baby blue bird, when its mother got bored and woke up, with the poking and prodding. I shot out of the bed. "I'm UP" I yelled, half-asleep. My manager smiled. His penguin suit with a white tie, and not to mention that snow white hair matched his blue eyes solidly. He bowed, showing a little of his duck boxers. I mentally winced when he exited, his squeaky, black shoes making more noise than he did. When he left I grinned and ran over to the secret exit I had built into the wall behind my bed. I quickly dug through my clothes, grabbing a light blue sweater-jacket that would cover my white shirt. I quickly zipped up my blue jeans, few tears marking them as old. I put on some old sneakers that my mom was unaware of, heaven forbid my mother, head of the department of animal restrictions center, found out her 18 year old daughter snuck out into the city. I brushed my abnormal shiny blue hair into a quick ponytail, the light end dangling off excitedly. I could just imagine my sea-blue eyes sparkling with the excitement I was going through. After all, for living in a mansion, I had a pretty boring life. The long dusty tunnel didn't bother me, I wasn't one to be scared by snakes or dogs or anything.
I finally exited the tunnel, for some reason, it felt longer each time I went through, which was quite often. I stretched and walked away from the hidden hole, my mansion looming in the distance. As I walked down the barren street, my spirits began to drop, as I remembered my friend, that I had always come out to hang with, had moved. She at least, had escaped this hell-hole, but I was stuck. As many store windows were there, the only building open was the police station, which I happily avoided, no sense in sneaking out if the chief of police, or my dad, would just drag me back. I turned a sharp corner as the door to the station opened. I walked down a bit, noticing that this alleyway ended further up, but a little porthole to the side, probably to the sewer opened up. I was about to turn around and try to find another exit when I heard the most handsome thing ever. "Move over Hige" a voice said from the hole. I leaned in closer, staying next to a wall, when a blob of a boy fell out of the pipe. His fluffy brown hair became soaked in a nearby mud puddle. His brown eyes closed quickly, from the pain I assumed. His red shirt that looked more like a sweater was rolled up on the sleeves, exposing his 4 bracelets on his right hand. He stood about as tall as me, and after he stood up, I could see what was mostly clean, green cargo pants, covering his whole leg and tucked in neatly in to his little army boots. He stared at me, completely lost in my gaze, I didn't notice the rest of his little group fall out, completely covering him, my mind soared as soon as I had seen him, he was in fact, the cutest boy I met, and he seemed nice enough.
The rest of his friends were just as plainly dressed, one wore a black shirt, or so I thought, covered mostly by a yellow hoodie only leaving the sleeves of his black shirt showing. His hair was about a sandy colored, and he looked like a class clown, he wore simple blue pants with gray sneakers, and a strange collar was hung about his neck.
The other was a bit intimidating, not scary, but definitely not friendly. His short, silver hair only hung down to about his ears and he had sharp, slanted eyes. He wore, what I thought was a cut up leather jacket, the sleeves barley hung to the leather vest, and a possibly gray tank top was what he wore underneath. He wore the same kind of black leather pants and black leather shoes, the only not black thing I saw about this man was a faded scar, rested above the neck of his tank top.
The last of the men stared harshly, but softly at me with determined, gray eyes. His brown hair hanging down to his neck. He wore a white shirt underneath his unzipped, black jacket. He wore blue jeans, like mine, only for a man and black and white sneaker. "Who might you be?" He asked, strangely nice, as the other two, the leathered one and the yellow jacketed one looked over, the younger boy still staring at me. He shook his head before I could answer. "I'm sorry" He said, which took me a little by surprise, "It is customary to introduce ourselves first" As he listed off the names, his eyes never left me, but I could tell which man he meant. "I'm Kiba, and this" He pointed to the leather man "is Tsume, don't let his appearance fool you, he's a big cuddle bear." He then pointed at the yellow one, still not looking away, his dark eyes piercing my every being, "This is Hige, the food hog of the group." Then his hand led to the first boy who was now taking slow steps towards me, curiosity deep in his eyes, he reminded me of a lost dog for a minute, but I mentally shook the image away. "This one is Toboe" He said as I quickly turned to look away.
I gulped, knowing they would want to know my name. "I'm… Luna" I told them as I glanced to see their reaction, Toboe came up to me and held out his hand with the four bracelets on it.
"Hi" He smiled. "I'm Toboe, Luna" He held out his hand softly and I shook it, glad for the first polite and not so threatening smile from the group. "Want to come exploring with us?" He asked, half-way dragging me to the tunnel, his eyes lit up like a fire cracker, but Kiba's hand caught his.
"You know she can't come Toboe" he glanced at him, and Toboe sighed.
"But she smells so nice, like flowers" Toboe said, sticking his nose in the air.
It was at that precise moment a gunshot was fired from the alleyway, directly at our gathering. Kiba shot himself in front, his hair, slightly rising. An old man with a rifle aimed directly at us, his gray hair and giant blue dog growled fiercely at his side, his long brown trench coat barley touched the ground. "ANIMALS" He yelled as he fired another shot into Kiba. My voice caught in my throat, Kiba was gushing blood, an old man was aiming a gun at us, and the only good news was Toboe still held my hand.
Kiba grunted quickly spinning around, ushering us all into the tunnel. "GO" He yelled, and I crawled more fiercely than ever before. We soon came into a long sewer tunnel, the smell was almost over-powering, but I stood through it, I was unable to say the same for Hige though. When Kiba was finally out he began darting his head in all directions until the loud sound, a growl came tearing through our escape tunnel. The big blue dog burst through the door and landed harshly on Tsume, knocking him down.
I couldn't move. The tall, leathery man had disappeared and a large gray wolf had reappeared where he stood. The two giant dogs wrestled and I slowly began to piece together that they were all probably this oversized dogs. I heard a loud rip as part of this Tsume-turned-dog lost a good part of fur, uncovering blood, and the blood of an animal. My body froze and I became numb. Blood. The one thing I couldn't stand. I felt I wasn't breathing, and soft arms embraced me, shaking me slightly. The light ringing sound of his bracelets brought me back to reality. His worried face loomed into mind as he saw my frightened look. "I'll explain, but now we have to run" He said, holding out his hand, and in an attempt to escape even the smell of that blood I placed my hand in his, and ran with all my might.
After a while we stopped near a manhole, the smell becoming tolerable. Toboe had just finished explaining they were wolves and easily hid themselves into society. I truly believed him, just because I knew he wouldn't lie. He sighed, almost nervously when I touched his shoulder. "Sorry" I said. "Trust me, the fact that your wolves is cool to me, I'm not afraid… but Tsume…" I said, trying to avoid the subject. Kiba and Hige rested against a wall, breathing deeply, seeming to be ready to pounce on me if I said the wrong thing. "It's just… the blood" I shuddered.
Kiba laughed quietly and quickly explained. "Forgive me. I thought it was the fact you were surrounded by extinct animals you were afraid of, not blood" He smiled lightly, something he apparently wasn't used to. "But listen" he became serious. "Would you consider… leaving with us? We are leaving this city for a reason…".
Before he could explain I held up my hand. "Sure" I smiled. "I've always hated this city" I laughed at his startled face lightly. "Plus, you guys get more excitement than I would have ever guessed" I laughed.
Toboe, Hige, and Kiba all looked worriedly at me. Tsume strutted down the sewer, back in human form apparently. My stomach lurched slightly as I knew he probably still had blood on him. Sure enough, when he walked up, blood covered his whole right leg. "Done" He said, almost proudly. Tsume's proud, arrogant face dropped when he saw us all sitting on some nearby rocks. "What? Are we adopting now?" He asked, his glare pointed at Kiba, but his finger sticking out at me.
Kiba shook his head. "No, but you sense it too Tsume" Kiba said. Sense? I really had no idea what he meant, must have been a wolf thing.
Tsume growled, "We already have one runt… why do we need a second who can't even keep up?" He almost yelled at Kiba.
My voice caught in the air when I spoke. If there was one thing I hated more than blood it was fighting. "Listen" I said, drawing all four stares from all of them. Tsume's was a piercing, angry look that made me want to run away, Kiba was a sincere and listening look, Hige looked like he wanted food, and Toboe… Toboe looked afraid and I had a pretty good idea he knew what I was going to say, "I should… go home anyway" I lied, "My parents must be worried" I put on a smile for the distraught Toboe. "Hey" I lightly punched him, "Just don't let Hige eat the city" I laughed lightly, and everyone but Tsume joined in.
Kiba smiled, "This manhole should lead you to your street, think you will be able to find your way from there?" He asked, his dark eyes, almost enjoying himself.
"Thanks, and don't worry, I won't tell anyone about you guys" Kiba nodded and gave me a firm handshake. Hige popped open the manhole.
"Thanks for the company Luna" He said to me, and my mouth hung open.
He gave me a confused look. "You spoke…to me" I said, jokingly. He laughed and waved goodbye.
Toboe gave me a hug, what I expected learning he was my age and never had a real family. He hadn't known these wolves very long, so that would take time to get really used to. I never wanted that moment to end though, Toboe hugging me felt like paradise right there. But eventually he let go and I climbed back up through the hole. I looked down and waved to my leaving friends. As I walked away I knew I would never see them again. I strolled down the now empty street. The sun was going down and the sunset off the horizon would have been beautiful, if this god forsaken city wasn't so damn big. I sat down on a bench near an abandoned park. This was the most beautiful spot because no one came here, no one cared about beauty anymore. The flowers were shooting up, past my ankles. White dandelions were scattered in different parts of the park and the weeds grew up to my knees. The swing set blew lightly in the wind, making a slight rusted sound. The squeaking got me to walk over. I sat on the old swing set, more than to tall for it. My feet draped on the ground and I sat there, in thought. The wind blew and I felt the coming of cold wind. I sighed, knowing I would have to go back to my house sometime. I was about to stand up when I heard a low rumble. I blushed slightly looking down. My stomach always chose the wrong time, but when I heard the grumble again I noticed this time it came from behind me. I stood up; maybe the police had found me again. I turned and smiled, trying to act surprised.
What greeted me was nothing like a police officer. An old man, with graying hair, clouded over eyes as if he was drunk, a brown trench coat with brown boots held a rifle pointed towards me. He glared at me, seeming lost and if I had tried to back away, I could easily see that his giant blue dog would charge towards me. This dog had its hackles raised and its teeth barred. This one second, Toboe would have been nice, but I had said goodbye and now I had to deal with it on my own.
The old man shouted words at me "Wolf Lover" He annunciated. I gave a stunned stare.
"Wolves?" I asked, feigning ignorance, something I was used to. "They went extinct…" but before I could finish, he shot his rifle at me, narrowly missing me.
"Don't pretend you don't know, I saw you holding hands with one" He accused as I tried to back away.
As I tried to back away I ran into the pole, beginning to shape the picture of the park in my mind, "Listen" I tried to reason, finishing up my plot. "You need some help, and I can get it to you, but wolves don't exist they disappeared ages ago" I tried to laugh, only sounding nervous.
He spat and his wolf stepped closer. "You know very well, I know you have seen them, the light in your eyes says so. Give them to me!" He yelled and I was about to make a dash for it when he yelled something much more deep than I figured he could, his eyes flung open wider as he shot his gun. "GIVE ME BACK MY SON" He yelled, his shot landing in my right shoulder.
I yelped and turned and ran, shooting my left hand onto my right shoulder, the pain increasing with every step. I heard him issue a command to his dog, to chase me down I guess, I wasn't about to stay and find out. I ran as far as I could until I couldn't take the pain anymore. I had ended up in a construction site; giant tunnels of stone were everywhere. I quickly crawled into one of the big ones; the dog didn't follow me from what I could tell. I sat down quietly; slow tears seemed to just pop out. The wound had bled excessively and the blood made me more and more nauseated. I coughed lightly, half terrified by the blood. The smell became too much and I lay down in the stone tunnel. The air whipped at my face harshly. As I was blacking out two very strange things happened. I felt presences all around me and, even though my eyes were close I saw a very strange teardrop, more sea-blue than crystal clear.