Okay. I know, first chapter alone can suck. So nvm. I'll just put up the second chapter today as well. Hope you enjoy ^.^
So what, the Chief only lied a little bit. Tomorrow will be a long day, he had said. 'Ha, but it would be a long night.'
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Blood was speechless, and couldn't move. She watched the four boys with bright eyes, about as curious in them as they were to her. Ears lifted to maybe catch any words they threw at her, but they stayed silent. They only watched from a distance, as if they were afraid to come any closer. Then again, who wouldn't if you were a part of the canine species? This place is a hell, as well as a sanctuary. Because for most of the dogs, and wolf, here, there was nowhere else to go.
Blood waited for something to happen, anything really. 'Why are they just standing there though? And why do I care more than I should?' Finally, one of the free wolves, a pup, started to shake. He seemed a little scared, but of course, the smell and scene could scare anyone. And then, the pup backed away and left. The other three still watched, but one by one left the area as well. Blood's ears went down, a little disappointed, but she was being dragged away already. She hardly noticed the tug of the chain, choking to drag her off. 'I must look really pathetic right now…' And she really did.
"Come on Blood, what are you doing? Let's go, back in." Chief had dragged the wolf all the way back to her cage, and then had to shove her in. She didn't snap, which was odd, and didn't bark or growl. She went to the back of her cage, her very small and pathetic cage, and curled up. "Hey, don't get comfortable. We still need to get you fixed up." And the bald many left.
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"Well, well. Good job Blood. You are some kind of bitch. Am I right guys?" One of the dogs had spoken, Blood didn't quite care who though. They were cheering, hooting and howling. Any win the Chief's dogs could get meant a week of peaceful bliss without fighting and with plenty of food. If there was a loss, usually it meant training and a hell of a beat down.
"Hey, Blood, how'd you take the big guy down anyway?"
"Yeah, yeah. How much blood did you get out of him?"
"How big was he?" All these questions, before today, Blood would have been happy to answer with pride. She was, as usual, over confident. But not today, however nobody seemed to notice.
"Hey, Breaker, you're fighting next aren't you? Who's the lucky mutt stuck with light footed you?" The black mastiff, the old one every one respected, teased another dog that was going to fight next. Attention quickly turned away from the wolf, and to the next fighter. Blood was glad, and thanked the mastiff quietly.
"Nothing to it, but you seem distracted. What's goin on?"
"I-," but Blood didn't have the time to finish. Chief came back in with four other men, and he was heading straight for the still bleeding wolf.
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"Come on, we have to clean her up quickly. Bill, I want you to staple the wounds close. The rest of you, help me hold her down. If we're lucky, it won't take us an extra three men to get her wounds to heal." And luckily, it didn't.
Chief grabbed Blood by her chain collar and dragged her out of her cage. She didn't put up much of a fight, still thinking about other things. Only when four men grabbed her and held her down on the ground did the fighting spirit come back. She growled a little, snapped a bit too, but the muzzle was already on. And then Bill, newbie Bill, grabbed at the wolf's open wounds and cleaned them off with a wet rag and some cleaner. He then proceeded to grab the skin at both sides of the wound and pull them together, before sealing them together with staples. Over seventy went of the silver canine's leg alone and others where it needed to be.
Finally, after only five minutes, it was over. Blood beat away the men as they got up and went into her cage growling overly viciously. "Let her calm down before we take off that muzzle, or she'll bite us right here and now." Chief warned, and the others agreed. And then they were gone. It was quiet for a while, but the dogs soon started to bark a little more and Bill came back in to grab the next opponent.
It was a rule, an unwritten rule at least, that during a healing no one barks. When dogs bark, it causes the one with the stapler to miss. Dogs could also get too riled up and bite the humans during the heal. This would only make Chief mad, and when Chief was mad no one, especially the poor fools in the cages, went unnoticed in his wrath. He made sure there would be discipline.
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So Blood stayed in her cage, quiet for a bit until the yelling and screaming of humans in the other tent told her that the next fight had begun. She finally got up, looked at the tent opening, then to the others dogs. She watched them only for a few split seconds, and then turned her gaze to thee mastiff. "It was strange," was all she could say at first through the muzzle.
"What happened?" the mastiff asked once again, his tone deep, but concerned.
"Nothing bad Mal. Well, I don't think so anyway." Blood tried to think if the short encounter was a bad one, but couldn't see why.
"After I had won the fight, I noticed four wolves standing at the tent entrance to the pit. FOUR of them! They just stared at me, and I could only stare back.
"What happened after?" Mal didn't seem too surprised, but he was good at hiding that stuff.
"They ran off, after looking a little shaken. And then I was dragged here."
"Are you sure they were wolves, how come nobody noticed a bunch of large looking dogs right outside of the tent? I mean, I know your kind are good at hiding themselves, but they're pretty much dead right now."
Blood nodded, agreeing with him, but looked at him with surprise in her eyes. That's right, they were wolves, but didn't look it. How come she hadn't noticed? "They looked like humans though, but I could see the wolf behind the illusion. I've never seen that before."
"Blood, you've only seen one wolf in your life, and he was stuck in the exact same cage you're in now. If that was how your kind have been hiding these past few hundred years, then I doubt he was going to give away the secret by changing. And he was too old to run away anyways." Blood nodded her head, understanding, and Mal had an almost sad look to his expression.
"Hey, we won again!" A pit bull yelled out, excited. The other dogs barked happily. And soon the humans were in here healing the dog and slapping him into his cage like they had done before, and then walked away. Everyone wanted to know what had happened, leaving Blood to her own thoughts.
'It's been a while since I've thought about him.' Who she was talking about was the almost forgotten wolf. He was of a dark brown color, a very dark brown, and was very old. Chief had found him almost dead not too far from where they had set up tents a long time ago. Blood was still a pup, a very young pup. She still thought that she was a dog then. Not even Mal, the only dog now who had ever met the silver wolf's mother, knew of the pup's origin. Only when the old brown wolf, Dante, came did the secret get out.
He came in and was set up next to Blood. He saw her, and started to talk to her like they were old friends. Of course, at first, she had growled at him. Dante only laughed a little, and then asked her if she knew who she was. The pup had no idea what he was asking, so he was blunt in telling her that she was a wolf. At first, no one believed him, but it became more apparent as the few months went by.
'Dante used to tell me stories. Some about his own life, what had happened to his pack, and stories about a place called paradise.' Those were good memories, and thinking about him now, Blood missed the old wolf. So did the large black mastiff too, as they became good friends since both had a connection. Both had looked after Blood when she was young.
"Hey Mal, you're up next against a young brat. Beat him to a pulp will ya? And Blood, what are you thinking about? Start barking with the rest of us, we're going to have a winning streak!" The damn pit bull again. Blood sighed and looked over to him. Mal just laughed a little, getting ready to be taken away. Already another two dogs on Chief's team had gone and won, and there had been a break as other teams fought together. Over an hour had gone by while Blood was reminiscing.
'Which means I need to wake myself up,' she thought, shaking about to get the old thoughts out of her head.
"Come on old man," she teased Mal. "You can't possibly lose this one."
"Don't jinx me Blood; you can't always predict the outcome." And then Mal was taken away, his large form going through the tent flap, and disappearing forever in the silver she-wolf's eyes.
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"Maybe I should have eaten after that," one pale-faced boy mumbled. He looked sick, and felt it too.
"Toboe, I'm not sure I can really eat now after that smell. Like a bunch of carcasses. What a disgusting town."
"Suck it up both of you. Hey Kiba, let's just leave this place." Tsume looked at the blue eyed young man, then at the two sitting down and growled at them. "You guys are really pathetic. Toboe, stop getting sick." Like his growling was going to help though. The boy was still pale faced and couldn't move. He had never smelt something so gross, or seen a fight like that happen. The crack of that wolf's leg, and the mastiff's paw still echoed in the poor pups head.
"Hey, we can't leave that wolf there though… can we?" Toboe asked the others.
"Of course we can," Tsume said without a care. "She seemed to be enjoying herself before she saw us."
"I'd feel bad if we left a pretty girl there is that place though," Hige said with a sideways glace up at Tsume. He then turned to the only silent one. "Come on Kiba, what do you think? At least we can go and talk to her later or something. Maybe she's not there because she wants to be."
Kiba seemed to think about it a little then nodded his head. Toboe looked better at this, and Hige looked smugly at Tsume. "I think we should at least talk with her, but later tonight."
"Alright then, you heard Kiba. Let's go rest up somewhere away from that smell and we'll come back later tonight!" Hige was the first to speak, and the first to move away from the fighting pits.
"This is getting aggravating," Tsume mumbled, and then followed.
"Come on Toboe," Kiba said to the pup as he walked away. Toboe, still on the ground, quickly jumped up and after the three, already feeling sick again.
"Hey, wait up!"
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Four hours later, and dark had taken hold of the cold, snowy lands. The four traveling wolves easily snuck up to the pit tent. They looked about, holding their nose, but nobody was there, and no dog surely. "I think they're in another tent, but there are over ten of twenty tents here."
"Shut up Toboe, we'll have to split up. Since nobody can use their nose…" Tsume complained a little in his gruff tone.
"We'll look over here," Kiba said, already heading off in the direction where the bigger tents were. Toboe followed him, and so Tsume and Hige went the other way. After only a minute or two, Hige and Tsume came across a tent where a bunch of dogs were growling and barking. The dogs obviously had noticed the two outside, and were warning them to stay away.
"Pretty brave mutt…" Tsume said, growling slightly back.
"Hey, she could be in here though." Hige seemed a little overly happy, now that the only stench came from the dogs. He might also be a little happy to have found the right tent, finally. Sadly, when they snuck in, none of the dogs were willing to talk about the she-wolf. They had no idea who she was. One, the only one to talk, finally got the wolves to leave when he mentioned that there was more than one tent with dogs in them. Every tent that held dogs held two or three teams in them. Obviously, the three teams here did not have the silver wolf.
"Check Chief's team, and get the hell out," the short bull terrier that talked to them spat.
"Sure thing, and thank you sir," Hige said teasingly as he left with Tsume. As soon as they were half way to another tent, Toboe and Kiba came back. There was only one tent that hadn't been checked yet. "Well, this could be it."
And so the four went in the last tent, cautiously looking about. They were met by growls, but weren't asked to leave like the rest. These dogs seemed quieter, which was odd.
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"What do you four want?" asked a pit bull.
"We're looking for, eh… Chief's team was it?" Hige asked, looking at Tsume who just grunted.
"We're Chief's small band. Still, now, what do you want?" The four boys looked around the tent to find five dogs together, and empty cage in the back, and another filled one in the shadows. Other cages with dogs were on the other side of a large stack of boxes, but this was obviously the whole team for Chief.
"We're looking for a wolf, is this where she's at?" Kiba spoke softly, looking at the back shadow.
"And what would you want with her?" The pit bull spat back.
"Calm down, and what do you guys want with me?" In the shadow Blood sat at the front of the cage shushing the pit bull before turning her gaze back on the four boys.
Toboe shivered in her red, dull gaze, but the other three stood strong. They made their way over to where she was, taking off their illusion to look like wolves again. And soon, there they were, staring at Blood who didn't feel like staring back. She did though, coldly, wondering what they thought of her right now.
She still had her muzzle on, along with her chain collar. They couldn't see the stapled together wounds, but her legs, muzzle, and neck was still covered in dried blood. Somebody would wash it off later, but Blood had almost killed a man an hour ago which was why she still wore the muzzle.
"Y-You don't look t-t-too good in there," Toboe stuttered unsure what else to say.
"Well no duh," Tsume said glaring at Toboe as if he had said the most obvious things. "She looks more like shit than just 'not so well'."
"Will you two give it a break, sheesh," this was Hige, or the light brown wolf with the collar; as Blood saw him. "You're scaring the poor girl."
"Don't pity me," Blood warned, her tone dark.
"Sheesh, why so angry?" Hige asked, and the silver she-wolf growled.
"What are you doing here?" The white wolf asked, his golden eyes staring at Blood's red eyes.
"I live here," was her reply.
"H-H-How did you get h-here?" Toboe still slightly stuttered.
"My mother was caught, and I ended up being born here. Now may I ask, what are YOU doing here?"
"We came to see if you had been caught and placed here against your will. But if you like it here, then we will leave you behind." Blood couldn't believe what the white wolf had said, so growled. This was the only response she knew. And then, the wolf turned away from the four and lay back down. She didn't care anymore that there were four free wolves right outside of her cage, probably discussing how dishonorable one of their kind looked being treated like a dog. But who cared? Right now, she didn't.
"Looks likes that's a no. Come on Kiba; let's get the hell out of here." Tsume was the first to leave, followed by Hige. Toboe and Kiba stayed though, waiting as if she was going to change her mind. Blood lay steady though, unmoving.
"Come on Toboe, we need to find Paradise as soon as we can." Toboe followed Kiba a little down casted, but didn't disobey. Only now, after hearing that one word, did Blood move a little. Paradise was only a story… wasn't it? Eyes watched the two wolves leave, then fell to the floor in thought. 'Could I go to Paradise?' Blood was full wolf, her mother having already been pregnant when she was caught. There was still some doubt.
However, a little part of Blood felt as if she was asked the white wolf's question a million times before. Every time, she would turn her head away. She was always granted freedom, but would rather remain chained. 'Why do I feel as if I've done this before? I want things to change. I want to be a free wolf.'
"You… You should go Blood." The first pit bull who had talked before told the silver she-wolf. "Chief'll be mad in the morning, but after today… You should go."
Blood looked at him, then the other dogs. Nobody shook disagreed, and Blood found a part of her that howled with anguish at her predicament. Her instincts drove her forward, and she was soon beating against the side of her cage. She wanted out, wanted out badly.
The muzzle on her face made it hard to open the cage she knew she could easily do it otherwise. Her growls were wild, echoing in her ears and outside of the tent. Her leg hurt though, however it was healing quite well given the moon. But, it seemed as if the humans beat her to the entrance.
Billy was the first on scene and grabbed a stick to beat Blood away from the cage wall she had been hitting against. And then there were three others soon followed by Chief. All were frantic, wondering why the silver canine was howling crazed. And then, the cage wall gave way and she was out.
Billy was the first to be tackled, stepped on, and left in the dust. Blood couldn't get very far before Chief and his men where on top of her, literally. They held her down like a croc hunter holding down a croc. Blood still trashed about, growling and the other dogs were barking loudly, setting off a chain of barking from all of the tents containing dogs.
"Hold her down damn it!" Chief was yelling furiously. And then, out of nowhere, a howl, followed by a sharp growl. There was a white flash, a grey one then a light brown one. Three wolves, the ones from before, were on top of the men holding them off of the silver she-wolf. The brown and red wolf pup then came and helped Blood up. Both ran to the exit… and Blood stopped.
Before the she-wolf was a white carpet. It was wet and cold though. The wolf touched it lightly, unsure until memory of Dante and snow helped Blood figure out that the land before her was only covered in harmless snow.
"Come on!" The pup shouted, and the hesitant wolf followed. As every foot fell on the ground, she felt better in the snow. 'It's only harmless snow,' she thought. But Blood had also heard the stories of heavy, very harmful snow falls, and wasn't sure what to do.
"You act as if you've never seen snow before," came the grey wolf with the other two.
"I haven't. I've only been told by Dante and Mal… Both who are dead now," was Blood's only reply. 'Yes, Mal's dead too, I have to remember that. His fight this morning was his last one and that newbie brat wasn't so new to the game after all.'
"Wow…" and Tsume couldn't say anything else. He just turned his attention to the road ahead as the once four, now five, wolves ran toward the scent of lunar flowers and away from the people shouting behind them.
'I'm a little scared, but that's okay. I'm free now, and will forever be.'
Alrighty. Please, hope you Review. Next chapter I'll put up if someone will review for me *puppy dog eyes* I'd love you forever!
