Chapter 2: Toboe

I felt a deep sadness within me. I'm a 12 week old pup who wandered too far from his mother's sight. Now I've been captured and forced to face the unknown. Is this the end? Am I going to be killed by these humans?, I thought. How can I protect myself? I'm too small, too young to be alone. Why is this happening to me?

I don't know how much time passed. The humans were in the front of the car, talking and laughing for some reason. I could feel the vibrations underneath my tiny paws. The humans were still taking me away, further away from the life I have always known. I hope Mother will be okay. She will probably miss me, but she still has my brothers and sisters to look after. I wouldn't want her to feel sad forever.

Suddenly my eyes felt heavy. The emotional turmoil has drained the last bit of energy I had. I had to sleep. The only way to get out of here would be to save my strength and find a way to break free. It's the only chance I have of getting back home. I closed my eyes and slowly drifted to sleep…

Next thing I knew, the car stopped moving and the humans picked up the crate I was in and carried me to a strange place. I listened carefully to what the humans were saying.

An old lady appeared. She seemed friendly. "Hello. Welcome to the Endangered Wolf Center. How may I help you?"

One of the humans carrying me spoke, "We would like to donate this wolf pup to the research center. We found this little guy alone and separated from his pack. We assumed he was abandoned."

"Poor thing!" said the old woman. She gave me a sympathetic look. There was no hostility in her demeanor. She seemed like a harmless old woman with graying hair and wrinkled skin.

She walked towards the other humans and asked them to put it down. She carefully opened the crate and patiently waited for me to come out. I was scared. Not of her, really but I didn't know her. I was afraid of pain. Would she hurt me if she got the chance?, I wondered. Curiosity got the better of me and I slowly walked out of the crate and towards the kind old woman. She reached out her arms and picked me up.

"Good boy," she said, softly and gently. "Granny's got you. There's no need to be afraid, Toboe."

Toboe? That name sounded familiar somehow. I liked it. My mother didn't give me a name, so I was content with the one Granny gave me.

Granny started to pet me. It felt good. It felt… comforting, almost the same sensation as my mother licking me to show affection, except with a hand instead of a tongue. I relaxed my muscles and cuddled into Granny's thin arms. All thoughts of running away were gone. How can I run away from someone who has shown me such kindness? Before I knew it, the humans who captured me were gone and now I felt at peace in my new life here with Granny.


3 months later…

Kiba

I walked through the streets of Freeze City. I was on my way back to the apartment where my pack lived for the time being. I remember who I was before this life. I kept my original name, because I wanted to hold onto who I was in my previous life. The others have decided to keep their original names too. That was how we found each other. In our previous lives, we met in Freeze City and that was how the pack formed.

Most of us are together now. I found Tsume first, then Hige, and Blue. The only one left was Toboe. For some reason, we were having a hard time finding the naive pup. Cheza wouldn't join us until the entire pack was together. I knew, because that's the way it happened the first time. I sighed. I missed Cheza and Toboe. The pain of their loss from the previous life still stung.

When I died, I wanted to be reincarnated as soon as possible. As soon as I got the chance to leave Heaven and continue my journey to Paradise, I didn't hesitate. I wanted to remember my past life. The sooner a spirit reincarnates into a new body, the easier it will be to remember experiences from a past life. I couldn't risk the possibility of forgetting my destiny to go to Paradise. I don't remember Heaven. No one from the physical world is supposed to remember their experience in Heaven. I doubt Heaven could ever compare with Paradise. Apparently, the others agree with with that. Everyone remembers their past life. By now, all our memories have come back to us over time.

I decided to keep my human disguise during my stay here in Freeze City. It wouldn't do any good to put my pack in danger by walking around in my true form. We all agreed to keep up appearances for our safety.

I just couldn't wait to find Toboe and get the hell out of here so we can start looking for Paradise. Why did he have to die? He didn't deserve to die like that. He deserved to go to Paradise with us, I thought. After Toboe's death, going to Paradise seemed pointless. The only thing that really mattered was preventing Darcia from entering Paradise and keeping the others alive. The latter failed. The only consolation was that he managed to defeat Darcia, but at the cost of my life and everyone else I desperately tried to protect. Toboe's death was untimely and unfair. He obviously suffered a slow death from the bullet wound in his upper back. I cringed. I felt tears of sadness stinging my eyes. He didn't seeing exactly what happened, but he remembered the feelings of remorse and loss when he found Toboe's limp and lifeless body in the arms of the old man who hunted them from the beginning of the journey. That will NOT happen again. I will protect my pack with my life. I will succeed where I failed the first time, I vowed inwardly.

I walked up to the apartment where my friends and I were staying. Tsume and Hige would already be home. Blue liked to spend the most time away from the apartment. She liked having time to herself. Blue worked for a Wolf Research Center or whatever it was called. Blue enjoyed helping our kind who were taken into captivity by humans. Why she liked it was beyond me.

I opened the door and walked inside. I saw Tsume sitting on the living room couch. "Hey." I greeted him.

"Hey," Tsume said, voice emotionless and indifferent. Same old Tsume.

"Where's Hige?" I asked.

"He decided to go with Blue to work today. He said something about helping a wolf adjust to captivity," Tsume said.

"I'm glad that Blue likes her job. We just got here a week ago and she found a job within that time," I said.

Tsume didn't say anything. He had that far away look in his eyes. He was deep in thought about something. After knowing Tsume for so long, it wasn't hard to guess what he was thinking about. Toboe was still a sensitive topic for Tsume. He blamed himself for Toboe's death. Tsume sent Toboe to bring the humans back to the group. He felt that if he hadn't split up the group, Darcia wouldn't have gotten the chance to shoot Toboe.

I sighed. I felt Tsume's pain. I can only imagine the guilt he must feel for what happened. As soon as Tsume's memories came back, the guilt started eating him up inside. I felt guilty too. As a leader, Toboe was my responsibility. I shouldn't have let him go alone. That doesn't matter anymore. We will find him and make things right.

"We're going to find him, Tsume," I said. "I swear it."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Kiba," Tsume warned.

"I have no doubt that we will bring him back to us and he will be the pup we knew before. We have to have faith that he will remember us," I said, confidence in my tone.

"There's no way I'm giving up on finding him," Tsume said. "The kid is the reason I joined the pack. I owe him for that."

I smiled. It was obvious that Tsume and Toboe had a bond. Toboe looked up to Tsume. I understood completely why Tsume wanted to stay behind and say good bye to Toboe. If his loss was painful for me, I can only imagine how much harder it was for Tsume. Toboe was his first friend in the pack.

My thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of Hige and Blue. Hige looked like he was out of breath. "Guys!" he said urgently through his raspy breathing.

"What is it?" I asked, feeling uneasy about Hige's behavior.

"You'll never guess what happened!" Blue said, excitement apparent in her voice.

"Just spit it out!" barked Tsume.

Hige gave Tsume an angry look, but it was instantly replaced with happiness. "We found Toboe."