Chapter 1: How it all starts

Hige's POV

So joining Kiba in the jail cell by sneaking in with more idiots seemed like a good idea at the time; at least with him I'd have more of a chance of finding something interesting. But, man, I thought at least there'd be an interesting fight going on or something, or at least some decent food. But there's nothing, and I'm subjected to sitting here in silence – Kiba doesn't seem one for small talk – waiting. Waiting for something – anything – different or interesting to happen.

I glance up hopefully as the doors are opened again, letting more people through. I'm about to turn back to the damn wall that I've been examining for the past half-hour when a scent pricks my ears and curiosity up. Taking another sniff, I curse the dryness in my nose that stopped me from smelling her earlier. I try not to groan out loud as she's let into the cell. She looks ordinary enough, fitting in among the humans. With her tousles touching around halfway down her chest, as deep and rich a brown as some of the mountain trees I've seen, and eyes to match the green of their leaves in high summer, she'd only gain attention from the humans because of her better-than-average looks. They would also see her relaxed stance as she walks in, her baggy light jeans nearly touching the floor over her white sneakers, her hands in the pockets of her open black hoodie over her dark pink top.

Only Kiba and I can "see" the late adolescent wolf with a thick coat the colour of her hair in human form.

When I said I wanted something interesting to happen, I didn't mean this.

Without a word, she walks over and takes a seat next to me, her hands still in her pockets as she stretches one leg out, keeping the other bent and pointing up. Then silence. Not even a 'hi'. Then again, she wouldn't; not with Kiba here.

I can feel Kiba's gaze on her, curious and slightly bemused, and I grimace.

"You didn't need to follow me in here, Niki," I say quietly, not looking at her. "I would have come for you once we got out."

She shrugs, undisturbed. She turns to look at me, holds my gaze for a few seconds, then meets Kiba's eyes for a surprisingly long time, knowing her. I recognise my cue.

"Kiba, this is my sister, Nikina or Niki," I gesture to her. "Niki, Kiba."

"Hi," Kiba greets her, giving a small smile.

Niki's lips slowly turn up at the corners, and she nods to him. Then she settles against the wall, closing her eyes and pretending to sleep – she won't sleep or she'll show her wolf form to the humans.

I turn back to Kiba and try to straighten out his obvious confusion.

"Don't be offended if she doesn't talk to you for a while," I say, knowing that Niki can hear but not being able to do anything about it.

"My sister has trust issues," I continue, "and talking, to her, is opening up pretty big. Give her maybe two weeks in your company and she'll trust you enough to talk with you. She gave you a smile though, so that's a good start compared to some people."

Kiba looks to her for a few seconds before nodding. "Okay, then. I'll try not to mess up and do something that makes her hate me until then."

Something trembling to my right makes me turn back to my sister, and I soon realise the shaking is her, laughing silently even as she can't hold in her grin. Her closest eye opens, swivelling to focus on Kiba, who has another small, surprised smirk on his face. Niki raises her eyebrows at him before resuming her previous position, a faint smile remaining on her lips.

I relay Kiba's plan with Cheza to Niki, then we listen to the mumbles and grumbles of the humans until the guards come and give us all blankets, and Niki, Kiba and I all lie down and pretend to sleep like good little prisoners. Once under the cover of the blankets, Niki gestures for me to get Kiba's attention, and I poke him so he turns to face her over my back. Niki throws us both a wink – or maybe it's just directed at Kiba – before removing part of her hand from her blanket and her hoodie pocket, letting what little light is in here glint off something metallic in her fist. After a few seconds, I identify it as a key, presumably for our cell.

"How did you get that?" I ask her, incredulous. She just shrugs in response, using body language to basically say 'I have my ways.'

"Couldn't we just force our way out?" I suggest. "Kiba did that with the cage they had him in yesterday."

Niki raises her eyebrow, then taps her teeth and gestures to the rest of the sleeping lumps in the cell. Almost as an afterthought, she cups her hand round her ear.

Luckily for me, I've had years of practice of decoding my sister's silent messages that she relays when she doesn't want to talk with someone present, and I translate for Kiba.

"She's got a point," I say, twisting around to face the other wolf. "If the guards only remember letting humans in here, it'll look suspicious if it looks like an animal broke out. Plus the noise it would make; someone in here is bound to wake up if we tear our way out."

Comprehension and agreement spark in Kiba's eyes, and he turns back to Niki.

"That's really good thinking," he compliments her.

She shrugs then grins at him, flipping her eyebrows. I don't think he needs the translation of 'I'm not entirely useless'; he chuckles as he settles himself on his patch of floor and waits for whatever signal he's waiting for. I decide to join him with the whole waiting thing.

It's not like I have anything else more interesting to do.

ЖЖЖ

Finally, Kiba apparently gets some kind of signal that tells him it's time to bust out of here, and Niki deftly reaches through the bars and clicks the lock free with the key she took. As soon as we're out, she locks the humans in again, dropping the key on the floor as we head out, well out of reach of anything behind bars. Then, we book it.

I won't bore you with the details of the supposed-to-be-confusing twists and turns we take before we get outside. But the inside of the whole place is metal, I swear; everything looks so artificial, it's kind of offensive to a wolf.

In open air, my nose works better than it did in there, and I pick up that always-present flower scent, strong and up ahead. I don't need to tell Kiba and Niki; from the looks on their faces – especially Kiba's – they've smelt it too.

We sprint through the city, desperately trying to keep track of that smell, searching for its location, not caring if anyone sees us, if the guards know that we're the ones that have escaped and are after us. We just need to reach Cheza. We just need to find the Flower Maiden and Paradise will be the next stop for us. We just need to find Cheza and everything will be alright –.

We find her.

Atop a ledge above us is Cheza. Her skin is so beautifully pale and smooth, her body is covered by some weird suit that doesn't belong on her, and her light, light violet hair waves and ruffles in the slight breeze. Her eyes are closed, like she's sleeping…in the arms of the Noble-looking guy holding her.

His whole body, in comparison, is swathed in a cloak as black as a moonless sky, and his face is hidden behind a mask devoid of any expression. But somehow that makes it all the more menacing. My instincts scream at me: 'Bad man! Bad, evil man!'

"Wolves," he greets us, his voice drifting innocently down to us.

The three of us start. Niki grabs my hand and squeezes it for reassurance – 'how can he tell?' – and I grasp it right back.

I don't know, Niki, and I don't like it either.

The Noble looks leisurely down at Cheza, then back at us, apparently undisturbed by our presence.

"I will see you in Paradise," he promises, and my spine tingles as some power builds up.

Kiba feels the power too, and darts forward closer to the ledge to do something – anything – but Cheza suddenly wakes up, letting out the most anguished cry I've ever heard. Even more so than my sister's when we were younger. As I work not to cover my ears against the heart-wrenching sound, there's a flash, and the Noble disappears. With Cheza.

Damn it.

Kiba's POV

No. No!

I want to scream. I want to howl at the top of my lungs and beat the floor. I want to collapse and cry under the weight of the cruelty; she was so close!

I want to do all those things, but all my body can manage is to stare at the spot I saw her, not moving and barely breathing. The spot seems to mock me, still glowing surreally from Cheza's presence.

She was here. She was right here. And you missed her.

The outside world creeps into my senses again, and a harsh breathing reaches my ears. Slowly, I turn toward the source. Hige is there, his arms around the shoulders of a girl just a few inches shorter than him. Her left hand is clenched where the neckline of his jumper meets the hood, and her other hand clutches at where her heart is, her chest shaking with shallow breaths. Her human face, which any sensible creature could admire, is streaked with tears.

Cheza's cry; it must have affected Niki a lot.

As if she senses my eyes on her, she turns to me, scrubbing her face of the tear tracks as if she could erase their very existence, make it so I hadn't seen them.

Why is she so ashamed of crying? It means she was affected by the sadness of someone important to all wolves, and I don't see how that is a bad thing.

She slowly, reluctantly pulls away from her brother. Hige's face is tight, concerned as he examines her face, trying to meet her eyes to determine her well-being. She ignores his stares, directing her own at me. I search her eyes, both for comfort and in concern; I'm checking on her just like Hige is trying to do, but the sadness I find hidden deep there is empathetic. The knowledge that I am not alone is amazingly strengthening.

"We should…find somewhere to sleep for tonight," Hige says softly, breaking my moment of connection with his sister.

I nod in agreement, even as I remain where I am and turn back to the place where Cheza last was. My inner self insults my failure some more before I'm broken out of my spiral of self-deprecation; the soft pressure of a warm, gentle hand encircling my bare forearm just above my wrist. The summer-green of the mountain trees from my region meets my gaze, soothing that voice in my head, telling it to hush and leave me be.

Niki's eyes suddenly turn imploring, and she gestures to her brother – not moved from his position – with her head before nodding. A sentence: 'What he said is right.'

At first I'm confused; of course he's right, there's nowhere else for us to go now, and it only makes sense that we settle down for the night. But I stop myself mid-thought. Here is a girl who doesn't talk to new people until she trusts them fully. For one who initially uses words so scarcely, wouldn't it make sense for her to believe that every word counts? That every word means something, because it was said for a reason?

With this new theory, I replay in my mind exactly what Hige had suggested: 'We should find somewhere to sleep for tonight'. On second examination, I spot what Niki is referring to immediately.

"For tonight," I whisper to her, asking her for confirmation. Does she mean that, after tonight, once we are rested, we're leaving to search for Cheza beyond the city walls? Is she planning on joining me? And is her brother; did he mean to use those words in the way of Niki's interpretation?

Relief floods her face at my comprehension, and she nods enthusiastically. Somehow noticing my question about her brother's inclusion in my – our – new quest, she looks at him over her shoulder, probably making some kind of face that he interprets as a message; Hige grins at me, chuckling and nodding his head. Niki looks back at me, holding her free hand out to her brother before turning it in on herself, touching her chest before doing so with me: 'We're going together.'

At this new realisation – that others will be joining me, that I'm not travelling alone anymore – I can't help the smile from spreading across my face, and thank her using the first idea that comes to my head; I slide my wrist out of Niki's loose grip, replacing it with my hand instead and holding on to hers. She seems slightly startled by the action at first, then accepts it, grinning at me, and tugs on my hand back in the direction of her brother. As we level our distance with him, Hige takes his hands out of his pockets in his yellow hoodie, crouching slightly before taking off running with us, back the way we came.

"Do we actually have a plan as to where we can stay for the night?" Hige asks.

Niki looks sideways at him and grins, obviously having a place already in mind. She gently frees her hand from mine as she speeds up slightly, leading us now through the winding streets, and I simply enjoy the thrill of running, even if it is on two feet instead of four.

Eventually, Niki comes to quite a stylish stop, skidding sideways on her sneakers easily, making the move look effortless as she stops right beside a manhole-cover that she never takes her eyes off as she slows, bending down to lift it almost even before she's fully come to a halt. Placing the heavy piece of metal – which she surprisingly lifted with barely any strain – on the ground, she straightens up again and gestures to the entrance to the underground.

"Wait, the sewers?" Hige clarifies, horrified. "You never said anything about that. You know how sensitive my nose is, Niki, and I can't spend an entire night down in the stench-ville wasteland of the city. Especially not if you want me to get any sleep."

Niki sighs, then holds her hands out wide, encompassing the entire city in her arms: 'Where else could we stay?'

"You're sister's right, Hige," I support her decision. "I think we've stirred the city up enough on our own today; we sneaked in with prisoners, then broke out, then Cheza goes missing in the same night those happen. If any guards figure out it was us that escaped, conclusions could be drawn that it was us that stole her, and we'd be in trouble. The best chance is to lie-low for tonight. Literally."

By the end of my explanation, I'm crouched by the manhole, and as I finish I drop silently down onto the sewer floor several feet below and wait for the other two to follow.

I obviously can't say much for the decor; even with fancy words you can't do much to improve the interior of places like this. The stone beneath my feet is cold and slightly damp, no doubt with detritus juice from the sewer river flowing deceivingly gently to my left. There's very little light, spare the moon- and city-light from the surface still shining through the uncovered manhole, giving a bit more light to help my natural night-vision. The walls of the sewer tunnel are brick or stone, but again, cold to the touch, the chill seeping disgustingly through my T-shirt and black jacket as I foolishly rest my back against it. Realising my mistake too late, I grimace as I hear a sucking sound as I peel my back from the wall, my jacket retaining some of the slime from the wall. Carefully shrugging it off, I hold my jacket over the sewer river and shake it violently, only stopping and donning the garment again once I'm satisfied that all the slime has been dislodged; even in human form, my pride still has standards.

And, needless to say, I have never regretted my wolf-sharp sense of smell as much as I do now. I can't even describe the stink. Even if I could, I'd save your imagination by keeping the description to myself. But the artificiality of the smell – the tang of metal and other man-made products – is the biggest insult to the purely primal side in me, and I shudder as that urban odour hits me with every breath.

A shuffling sounds from the surface before Hige drops to the floor beside me. Almost immediately he grimaces.

"Oh, yuck!" he complains, his hand flying up to cover his nose. "Man, I'd take smelling the one wolf taking a dump than an entire city of humans taking one any day." His voice sounds odd now that he's pinching his nose together.

A slight clattering above makes Hige look up then move out of the way of the manhole entrance. I follow his gaze, and after a few seconds, Niki's body appears, jumping in the air from the surface, holding what I eventually make out to be the manhole cover in her right hand above her head. As her body descends perfectly aimed into the manhole, her left hand shoots out and grabs a pipe on the ceiling of the tunnel, swinging her body forward until she's almost horizontal against the ceiling. Keeping her right hand perfectly level throughout the manoeuvre, she gently lowers the manhole cover over the entrance and lets go of the pipe once the task is completed, righting herself before landing silently on her feet.

Despite my awkward and lengthy description, the movement flows perfectly and is over in less than three seconds. I can't help but stare, and she catches my obviously impressed look, grinning and flipping her eyebrows again. Then she dusts her hands off on her jeans before deftly skipping round me on the narrow walkway and walking off down the tunnel, quickly jumping over a few stray pipes.

"You're sister's quite the gymnast," I say quietly to Hige as I watch her whilst following, walking alongside her brother.

"Oh, yeah," he agrees. Pride is evident in his voice, even through his held nose. "She's the best wolf I've seen that's adapted to having two feet. She can even switch between them in the middle of tricks like that and make it look like the easiest thing in the world. She's even faster and more agile still in wolf form. Word of advice," he grins suddenly at me. "Don't challenge her to a race."

I have to grin back. I can just imagine the childhood of these two siblings; the main goal in the games was to beat Nikina at a race, and people, mainly boys, would line up ready to take their turn and have a shot at it, confident that they could beat her. Even Hige would have challenged her at least once, if not the most out of everyone. But Niki would always be victorious, and eventually the children would learn their lesson and realise she was their superior in that category.

Yet Niki doesn't seem like the kind of person to rub her successes in others' faces. I think she would have taken each victory with humility and congratulate her opponent on their efforts, possibly giving them gentle and friendly tips on how to improve.

Hmmm…I wonder how fast she really is…

"Niki, Kiba's thinking of challenging you to a race," Hige calls out, breaking me out of my reverie, and I turn to see him smirking at me from behind his hand, a knowing glint in his eyes.

Further ahead, his sister whirls back to us – yet another graceful move – with a huge smile on her face. Her eyes sparkle teasingly – God knows how they're sparkling when there's no light down here – and she races back to us, appearing in front of us in no time at all. She stands in front of me, several inches shorter than me in human form, and folds her arms, obviously waiting for a challenge.

I hold my hands up in defence. "Not yet," I chuckle. "We're both tired. And you have an unfair advantage down here; you obviously know the route, and I've only just come to the city. I'd have to follow you anyway."

She laughs at my point. Out loud. In the prison cell, she'd laughed silently, even though she was grinning. Now, I've actually heard her voice. It's…beautiful. Soft, gentle, soothing, unobtrusive, and happy. Bursting with infectious happiness that I can predict will make me smile in the darkest of times.

As she finishes brightening up the entire sewer tunnel, she gestures further up the tunnel with her head, and takes off at a jog. I grin at her friendly challenge, and pick up the pace to follow her through the winding tunnels.

Eventually she turns right and stops, our route blocked by vertical bars. The floor is higher up than the rest of the sewer, so there's no river running in the middle of the floor, which is covered in relatively dry strips of cardboard, probably obtained from previous boxes stacked among the ones already here. Obviously she has been sleeping here during some part of her stay in Freeze City. There should be enough room for all three of us, if we sleep quite close together, and the outside world is straight through those bars. If we need to make a quick escape from whatever may be following us through the sewer tunnels, we can easily chew our way through the bars. The fresh outside air coming in through the bars also gives our noses relief from the sewer stench, as well as bringing any scents from outside that would give us information about anything going on out there. Plus providing a marvellous view of the waning moon.

Niki walks nearer the bars, reaching behind one stack of boxes and pulling a large hunk of meat out from the hiding place. Beside me, Hige brightens up at the sight. Using her claws, Niki tears it into three more-or-less equal pieces, handing one to each of us. I notice that the one she keeps for herself is the smallest. We all sit down in our little alcove, Hige tearing into his food already. Niki watches her brother, shaking her head slightly even as she has a small, fond smile gracing her human face as she takes smaller bites of her own share. The taste of proper meat – rather than the crap Hige gave me in that thing he called a hotdog – makes my mouth water, and I smile at Niki, thanking her silently.

Apparently, Hige shares my gratitude. "Wow, that was great," he smiles, licking his fingers as he polishes off the last of his meal. "Where did you manage to find real meat?"

Niki looks out through the bars, and Hige and I follow her gaze. From here, we can just make out a railway line that runs into the city.

"You stole from the Nobles' food line?" Hige asks, incredulous, wide-eyed as he imagines the dangers to his sister's safety that she would have faced.

She shrugs, unconcerned but modest. She suddenly grins, reaching one hand behind her and pulling up her black hood to cover her head, stopping halfway down her forehead. Because of the colour, her top half blends in with the shadows perfectly while her pale face shines in the moonlight. I imagine that she must look like what humans would call a ghost, possibly menacing if one sees her teeth glinting in the light too.

Hige snorts. "Yeah, right, I forgot; you're too stealthy to be caught." The lightness of his sarcasms suggests that he is only half joking.

Niki pushes her hood back again, running a hand through her hair, presumably to smooth it down and neaten it but I fail to see how that was necessary. At that point, she brings her hand up to her mouth, but her attempt at hiding a yawn from her brother's sights is unsuccessful.

"Wait a second," Hige frowns, figuring something out. "You stayed awake all last night, but you were with us. You couldn't have got the meat then, and the meat definitely wasn't three days old. Have you stayed awake for three whole days?"

At her brother's tone, Niki at least has the sense not to try to shrug it off again, and rubs the back of her neck sheepishly, avoiding Hige's disapproving gaze.

"No wonder you're yawning; you must be exhausted," Hige scorns her. "C'mere."

He holds his arms open, gesturing with his hands that she come to him. She immediately shuffles over to him, snuggling closer as he draws her tight to him. They both manage to lie down, facing my direction and the direction of the outside through the bars even as they close their eyes.

"You should get some sleep, too, Kiba," Hige recommends.

I agree with him, but remain sitting up, looking down at the pair of them, bathed in silver light that makes them look like something holy. Their position, so loving and yet seemingly so natural to them – with Hige curved protectively around Niki, in both human form and wolf form – the obvious unity of their existence warms my very soul. Neither one of them has considered living without the other, and their love for each other is so obvious and instinctual it represents everything that's good in people these days.

Yes, that's it. The moon isn't highlighting the holiness of the individuals as such; more blessing and beaming in pride at their relationship, their love.

As a small bittersweet smile slowly creeps onto my face, I lie down, turning away from the wide-open sky to gaze in wonder at these wolves – at this display of affection – until sleep forces me to stop looking at them….

Niki's POV

Laughter. Their horrible, arrogant snickers as they circle me, their tails coiling from side to side in anticipation, like snakes preparing for the strike. Their eyes glint in a hollow echo of the moon, only with none of the goodness in the sight, and their fangs drip saliva as they laugh at me.

Bad, my young instincts scream. Get away from them. Move!

I glance around wildly. There must be some way to get out of this circle! My brother, off to the side somewhere, snarling. But he's so small in comparison to them. As am I. I can't fight. I have my speed, but then what if they catch me?

But I at least have to try.

Feinting to the left, I then leap to the right, ducking under a gap between the intruders. But one of them is too fast, and I cry out as teeth bury themselves in my side, pinning me on the ground. The others laugh harder, grouping around me again. They bear down on me, while the first one holds me down –.

Just like now.

The difficulty to move immediately sparks my instincts, and I jump up, turning in midair to face the adversary, baring my fangs to attempt to look fearsome despite my heart hammering against my ribcage in my own fear. Breathing hard, I stare into the face of my brother, still sleeping, illuminated by a soft sunrise. My ears aren't filled with menacing snickers, but with gurgling and bubbling, from a sewer river by the smell of it. The artificiality of the smell tells me I'm not in the mountains anymore.

At that thought, and at the sight of my brother there, not panicking, I breathe a deep sigh of relief and annoyance. I still have the dream, after all this time. I can run from almost anything that chases me, and the one thing that I really want to outrun has to be something as immaterial as memories. My own, no less.

"Niki?"

A voice cuts through my inner musings, and I whirl to face it with another gasp. A handsome human face greets me; skin as pale as my own that shimmers in any kind of light, a black mess of hair that runs all the way to the top of his jacket collar and droops into his eyes, his eyes of the most beautiful and – somehow – least dull gray I have ever seen, staring up at me in confusion and concern.

Even though I have already come to the conclusion that I am not in any danger, the sight of Kiba just kind of…cements that claim. Seeing him, for some reason, makes the belief real, even though I have already seen my brother, my rock for my entire life.

I have the inexplicably urge to curl up next to Kiba instead, to ask him to hold me and, most shockingly, to tell him of the horrors I have seen and experienced.

You can't, I chastise myself. You need to trust him fully before you do that.

"Niki, what's wrong?"

That voice isn't Kiba's, and I turn back to my brother, lying on the floor and blinking sleep out of his eyes as he makes the same expression that Kiba has. Unlike Kiba's, however, understanding dawns in Hige's comforting brown eyes that flick once to Kiba, reminding himself of his presence.

"Did you see them again?" he asks gently, soothingly. I nod once, feeling pathetic, like a cub sidling up to its mother after being frightened by shadows and their own imagination.

If only those nightmares were imaginary. If only I could say that they weren't real. If only I didn't relive the entire experience – the sights, the sounds, the fear, the pain – every single time I had that dream…

Thankfully I am broken out of my spiral into panic as I feel a tug on my wrist. Focussing once again on Hige, I see him smiling gently at me, trying to pull me back down into his lap. I smile half-heartedly back and nestle myself against him again as he cradles the back of my head.

"I won't let you get hurt again," he whispers, pressing his face into my hair and – in a very human gesture – kisses it.

We stay like that for what seems like forever; just the two of us, like it has been for so many years. Then I feel Hige move, and realise he's looking up past me. Turning my head to follow my gaze, I duck my head sheepishly as I become conscious of the fact that Kiba has witnessed that whole exchange. The look of confused sympathy on his beautiful face is almost too much for me to stay silent.

"When she trusts you, Kiba," Hige promises, making the decision for me. He's saying that I'll tell him what my dreams are about when I trust him fully. He's right, of course, but I can't help the thought from entering my mind:

What if he doesn't like me after I tell him what happened?

I shake the thought from my head, worried about the strange depression that that might surprisingly lead to, and decide to wait and see when the time comes.

Kiba nods, seemingly understanding my position, and I'm honoured and flattered when I see no curiosity in his eyes, just worry.

Returning my gaze to my brother, I nod to the outside with my head.

"You're right," he agrees, setting me on my feet. "It's sunrise, so we can start making a move now."

And so, our journey begins.

Hey, guys. So I couldn't get this thought out of my head, and you know me and my bad habit of getting things down, starting new fanfics before I've finished older ones. I kind of took one look at Kiba and…ahem…kind of fell in love with him…. I just always thought he looked so lonely, so I wanted to give him someone. Someone of his own. Let me know what you think, anyway.

Fly on,

NitnatRide