|The Wolf Den|

Kouga looked down at the valley that stretched out in front of him, trying to decide just where the demon that had been picking off so many of the remaining young wolves could be. Behind him Ginta and Hakkakku came running along, happy that they could go on a small adventure again. They'd gotten quite a taste for it since the events with Naraku had ended.

Kouga clenched his teeth as he thought about that asshole. Naraku was responsible for the sorry state the pack was in now. Hundreds of wolves had been killed by him, and his pack had not been spared of any casualties. All that was left in his care were some Elders and young whelps that had been too young to fight the intruder.

'I'm going alone.' He announced, finally deciding on a direction he hadn't paid much attention to yet. Since he had forbidden anyone to go out alone, especially anyone that wasn't a bona fide warrior yet, the demon had been growing bolder in his attacks. Kouga was planning on taking him out before he attacked any more people.

'B-b-but Kouga!' Ginta protested, with Hakkakku making faint objecting noises next to him. His two longtime companions seemed to be truly upset with letting him leave alone. Didn't they see he was doing this to do them a favor?

'I said, I'm going alone. Stay here and keep a lookout, in case that monster gets past me somehow.' He ordered, his tail giving a quick flick to emphasize his words. There wasn't a chance that would happen, but he had to give them an inkling of purpose. He watched some of the younger men, barely old enough to transform, walk around the entrance to the den. One of the bolder ones, Jodo, stared at Kouga in a way that he would have interpreted as a challenge at any other time. He made a mental note to see if the younger male was planning on giving him a hard time later on.

He started to run down the path, towards the valley their den oversaw. He made some good speed, but still he couldn't help miss the Shikon shards. They had been helpful at times, even if at the end of the run they'd proven to be more trouble than they were worth. Casting the thoughts of the jewel shards - and the added notion of Kagome – out of his head, he sniffed the air for clues.

Most of the scents were the usual ones; water, trees and wildlife filling these parts. But smoke wasn't something that just hovered around in the valley. On top of that, the smell seemed to mix with the heavy scent of days old wolf blood. Had the demon somehow decided to start a fire? Or was he nearby someone who had started a fire in his woods?

|Some Hours Later|

It had taken him longer than expected to track down the sources of the scents. He'd realized that his latter guess had been the correct one the closer he had gotten. Deciding that the smoke source should be inspected first, he headed that way. The smell of blood was close as well, and if the demon picked up on Kouga's wolf scent, he'd probably come running in an attempt to devour him.

And there was the added interest that with the scent of smoke there had been the additional scent of a strange pack. It couldn't be an actual new pack, there weren't enough numbers left for any group to split up. So who was spreading this smell?

The closer he got, the slower he went forward, moving in the trees so he wouldn't startle any of the newcomers. He could hear sounds in front of him, though most of them were incomprehensible. He could make out from the tone however that someone was getting scolded.

Close enough to see the scene playing in the clearing, Kouga couldn't quite believe what his eyes were telling him. A woman was using a stick to fend off a black wolf, while a dark grey one watched what was happening with a mild interest, tail slowly moving back and forth across the ground.

'Valto! Let go of that spear, I spent an hour sharpening it up to catch our dinner! Valto!' she grunted the last word lying on the ground as the wolf proudly pranced off with the stick in his mouth. Still lying there she propped up her head with one hand, looking amused with the situation. Her red hair seemed to glow up in the light of the small fire she had started.

'Give that back here, or you can go fishing in my place. We'll see how enthusiastic you'll be then.'

The wolf gave a snort at the suggestion, moving back to the human. She got up to her knees, mumbling some stern words at him in a foreign language. The wolf cowered down, before rolling on his back. Kouga nearly fell out of the tree when he saw what the young wolf was conveying.

'I'm sorry Mother! I was bored, and wanted to play with you. Don't be angry, never be angry with me.' The message was so pleading, Kouga wasn't surprised the woman seemed to get it as well. With a few soothing words she gestured the wolf to join the other one before she started rummaging in the tattered bag she had with her.

'I told you you'd make Mother angry like a barrel of sea monkeys.' The gray one told his brother named Valto. There was a sense of amusement in the wolf's message, as if he were gloating that he hadn't been the one to make the human angry.

'Mother forgave me, because she loves us. Nothing bad happened.' Valto replied with a soft whine, as if he wasn't quite so sure about being forgiven. 'I'll give her my next mouse, then she'll forgive me everything.'

'You two be good, okay?' the woman, 'Mother', said.

Kouga couldn't believe what the wolves had been saying. Why would they be calling a human that? Why would two whelps listen to anything she had to say? He had a mind to get down there and restore order like a true Alpha.

Something rustled in the bushes opposite the wolves. Kouga cursed when he realized the demon had snuck up on them while he had been too busy looking at what was happening in the clearing. The woman let out a shriek as the two young wolves started to snarl at the intruder. Kouga watched for a few more seconds as the woman moved in front of the two wolves, swearing at the intruder.

Jumping from the tree he launched himself at the demon. The smell of wolf blood hung around it, almost like some sort of cloak. The demon saw him coming, lifting a pale, grey hand as if he wanted to swat the wolf leader away like a fly.

Kouga smashed through the hand, severing it from the owner. In the same breath he lunged for the throat, cutting through arteries as if they were air. Blood spouted from the large demon as it reached for the slash with the stump of his hand. Kouga smirked when he saw it falling backwards, pleased at having slain such a troublesome demon so quickly.

His pleasure didn't last long. He let out a growl when something hard whacked him across the side of the head. Turning around he just managed to dodge the stick aimed for his face. The human woman was attacking him now?

'You stupid demon, I won't let you take them! Take this, you overgrown puffer fish!' she shouted at him, grey eyes flashing with fury as she pressed her attack. He dodged backwards, keeping a mindful look at her two growling companions.

'Listen, I'm not attacking you! I just came here for the other guy!' he yelled back, frustrated that his rescuing her wasn't being met with a bit more warmth. She stopped swinging the stick, but still kept it pointed at his face. Her face was flushed with exertion, arms trembling slightly with panic. The scent of fear came off of her in strong wafts, along with the unmistakable scent of salt and sand.

'Why should I believe you?' she asked, eyes squinted at him. He kept back a growl as she continued to look straight into his eyes, a direct questioning of his dominant position.

'Because you can see what I did with the other guy. And I don't need to explain myself to you, you're in my valley for crying out loud!' he did growl the last part at her, if only because he didn't like the way she was being so very suspicious about him. He had just saved her tail for crying out loud!

Her eyes flashed to the huge grey body that was right behind Kouga. 'You say this is your valley? Do you know the Yourouzoko?'

Kouga scoffed. 'Of course I know them. I'm their Alpha, you stupid woman. Or didn't you notice I'm a wolf demon? More importantly, why are you looking for my pack?'

She lowered her spear, glancing over Kouga's body quickly. Her eyes settled on his tail for a few seconds, before flickering to his ears and eyes, and then settled back on his tail. The two wolves behind her seemed to inspect him just as much, sniffing the air as they did so.

'Well, that's a long story. I'll tell you over dinner, if that's okay with you?'

Kouga nodded, surprised that the woman could be sensible as well.

|Later|

Kouga had gotten tired of waiting for the woman to catch enough fish for him, herself and two young wolves, so he'd gone to catch a deer while ordering her to make the fire big enough to roast the meat. She had seemed surprised at his attitude, but set herself to the task with the air of someone who was used to taking orders. While the two young wolves devoured the meat raw – without a single bit of appreciation – Kouga and the strange woman waited for the meat to roast.

'So, what's the long story?' Kouga asked, casting a sideways glance at the wolves. They had chosen the part of the circle around the fire where the woman was sitting, bloody muzzles looking up every time he said a word. From the communication between them, he could make up they didn't trust him.

She ran a hand through her hair, looking at her companions as well. 'Well, I'll give you the short version of it. A little less than two years ago, I found a dying she-wolf with her cubs. These guys over here, Valto and Aappi.' she cast a loving glance on the two gluttons next to her. They looked up when they heard their names, but when she didn't say anything directly to them, they continued eating.

'So, I felt sorry for her, and for them. And I ended up promising her that I would bring her children back to their pack, so that they could be real wolves. It was like riding a shark whale trying to find you though. You're actually the first wolf demon I've laid my eyes on. If you don't count my guys here. Thanks.' She added the last part as Kouga offered her a strip of roasted meat.

He watched as she tore long pieces of it, hardly chewing at all. The two young wolves didn't seem too skinny, but it was obvious she had lost a few pounds too many during her trip. When she noticed him watching her like that, she stopped tearing off the meat, chewing her mouthful more thoughtful. She apologized for her behaviour as soon as she had swallowed.

'Don't worry about it.' He grinned. 'I've seen worse in the pack.' Though not that much worse to be honest. He observed her as she rubbed off her mouth with a sleeve that had seen so many repairs that he doubted there was anything of the original fabric left.

'What's with their weird names though? And what's yours?' he added as an afterthought. The situation was peculiar, no matter how it was turned. She had to swallow another piece of venison before she was able to reply to that question.

'I'm Chiara. And those aren't weird names. They're perfectly normal where I come from.' She haughtily answered him, giving him a hard stare for that comment. 'What's your name then, if it's so normal?'

'I'm Kouga, Alpha of the Yourouzoko pack.' He replied proudly. When he saw her taste the word 'Alpha' on her tongue as if she had never heard of it before, he added 'That's like a sort of leader, or a prince.'

Her face lit up when she heard that. 'Ah, now I get it. You're the captain on your ship then!'

Kouga gave her a quizzical look, taking a huge bite from his own piece of meat. He wasn't sure what a captain, or a ship, was but he didn't plan on admitting his ignorance. Quiet returned to the clearing as everybody was eating.

Kouga mulled over everything he had learned so far. The woman, Chiara, was a foreigner who had obvious difficultu speaking Japanese. On top of that, the words she did know seemed to belong to some sort of jargon he hadn't the faintest clue about. She'd promised a she-wolf from his tribe to bring her pups to this valley. And from the looks of it, she wasn't really that good at taking care of herself.

He stopped his chewing when he heard her ask a question. 'Come again?' he asked.

'You'll take them then? Valto and Aappi, I mean.' She looked sad somehow, asking that question. Did she think he would refuse the pups?

'We'll take them. After all, they're probably better off with us than with you, right?' he added, thinking she probably really wanted to get rid of the twosome. Somehow she didn't seem to cheer up hearing this.

'Alright. I'm going to sleep now, if that would be okay with you… we can go there tomorrow, no?' she asked him, already getting up and walking to a place with more grass.

'Uh… yeah.' He managed to bring out, really not able to place her facial expression. He would've thought a human would be thrilled about the current events.

Aappi snorted once, flicking his tail around agitatedly. 'You're upsetting Mother.' He announced to Kouga while his brother walked around the fire towards Kouga.

'I am not. We were just talking, that's all.' He defended himself, even more confused with the pup's reaction. Did he really think that the human was their mother? He decided to bring this to their attention. 'Anyway, she can't be your mother, she's not your species.'

Valto growled softly at that, casting a quick glance to an already asleep Chiara. 'Mother is Mother. You don't smell like her.'

Kouga coughed at this statement. 'Of course I don't, she's human! I'm a wolf, like you pups!' he was growing more annoyed with this every single second. He had not come here to start debating the race of two very obvious wolves.

'Wrong. Mother is wolf. You're not our species.' Aappi observed again, giving Kouga what could only be described as a warning glance. 'You're what she said. An overgrown puffer fish.' Valto agreed with his brother, taking another sniff at Kouga.

'I'm not a… a fish! I'm a wolf. See this? This is a tail!' he answered heatedly, not even caring about waking Chiara or not. This was getting ridiculous, how could these two possibly bring themselves to believe that the Alpha of this region was not a wolf. 'I'm the Alpha, I'm the most important wolf you'll see in these parts!'

Aappi seemed to consider these statements for a bit, while Valto moved away from the now standing Kouga. After a few moments Aappi let out an amused yip.
'Fish don't have furry tails. You're a tanuki, trying to trick us!' he observed, seemingly pleased at having it figured out.

His brother huffed amused. 'If an Alpha is the most important wolf, then Mother is Alpha. And Alpha is Mother.'

'What are you guys doing?' Chiara's voice sounded across the clearing. When she spotted the two wolves standing around Kouga, she smiled softly, before patting the ground next to her. 'Let's go to sleep, okay? There's time enough for you all to talk tomorrow.'

The wolves walked away from Kouga, leaving the words 'Tanuki' and 'Puffer Fish' behind them. Kouga grabbed his pony tail in frustration, almost yanking it off his own head. Just what the hell was going on here?!

|The Day After|

'No, it's okay, we can run a little.' Chiara told him as she gathered her few possessions. 'I do it all the time with my… with these two, so I don't see why today should be different.'

Kouga nodded when he heard that, thinking about how far away the den was. Even if she managed to work up what was an easy trot for him, it would be evening by the time they were back. And the young wolves probably couldn't keep up with him either, so he had no choice but to stay with them so nothing attacked them on the way home.

A few minutes later he realized that even an easy trot was asking for too much. The human simply didn't have the energy to run at a pace he considered to be comfortable. To make things worse, the two pups stayed with her constantly, slowing his pace to what he thought was the speed a snail moved.

He waited for them to catch up, before finally giving in to the situation. 'You sure you're going to come all the way to the den? I mean, I'll make sure they get there, so you could just wander off already.'

She shook her head at the suggestion. 'No way! I brought them this far, I'm seeing this through to the end. Right guys?' she asked Aappi and Valto. The two gave an excited bark at the question that was asked with so much energy.
'See?'

'I'll carry you then. We'll go a bit faster, so that should make things easier on all of us.' He offered, holding out a hand for her to take.

She backed away a bit, looking down at his hand with an expression he couldn't read. Distrust? Anger? Repulsion? She looked down at the two pups that called her mother again, and quickly wiped a hand across her eyes. Was she crying?

'Fine. I suppose that the faster this is done…' her voice trailed off, as she accepted his hand while she kept facing the ground.

Kouga's tail flicked in frustration, with both the girl and her unreadable emotions – she smelled sad, but that could just be because she smelt so salty, like tears – and the two pups that had bared their teeth at them the moment he stretched out a hand towards their 'Mother'.

This was going to be a long day.