"Kiba..." Whispered a soft voice. Kiba stirred a bit in his sleep. "Kiba...!" The voice whispered again, but this time more distressed.

"Nnn... Cheza..?" Kiba asked. He slowly opened his eyes, and the scenery was nothing but black. He slowly got to his feet. "Tsume? Hige? Toboe, Blue..?" He called out with no reply.

"Kiba...! Help this one!" The voice begged.

"Cheza, where are you?"

"KIBA!" Cheza screamed as she suddenly came into view, her hands reaching out for him and her deep red eyes filled with tears. Not only Cheza came into view, there were wolves surrounding her, their eyes glaring and murderous as they looked at him.

"Cheza!" He called as he started to race towards hjer, but was soon surpassed by a dark silhouette, shaped as a wolf. There was only one wolf he knew that could be masked by the shadows so well.

"Miakoda!" He yelped, somewhat in surprise. "Wait for me!" He said as he sped up to attempt to catch up with her, but came to a skidding stop when a line of fire cut him off.

Kiba watched through the flames as Miakoda fought with the wolves, and was slowly getting ganged up on. Gradually she began to lose.

"No, Miakoda!" Kiba yelled outas he ran around the flames, trying to find a way through.

"Kiba! Help this one!" Cheza begged again.

"Cheza!" Kiba's ears then quickly perked up and head swiveled to the side when he heard a loud, pained yelp. Kiba growled loudly as he ran the opposite direction until he was a good few yards away before he turned around and ran full speed towards the fire. When he was at a good distance close, he leaped and managed to get over the flames unharmed, but instead of hitting the ground, he fell into a black abyss.

Kiba quickly snapped his eyes open and head jerked up as he looked around. Tsume, Toboe, Blue, and Hige were lying and sleeping peacefully where they were when he fell asleep. Wait, where's Miakoda? He thought to himself as he looked around, spotting her sitting next to the water-hole once again, looking down at the water. She seemed rather attatched to the water.

Kiba's golden eyes watched her as he sat down, curious if she was going to do anything, and she did. Miakoda lifted her head to look up at the sky that started to turn into dawn. Her ears were drawn back, but lifted again when her eyes returned to the water as she stood up, jumping lightly onto a floating iceberg. It must have formed over night.

Miakoda steadied herself as she simply, sat down on the ice. She looked as if she wanted to howl.

"Do you always do strange stuff when you're alone?" Kiba asked as he got up as well and sat down by the water-hole, leaning down to lap some of the cold water intok his mouth. His eyes remained on her as she almost fell off the ice from surprise, whipping her head back to look at him.

"Do you always sneak up on people and scare them half to death?" She snapped at him.

"It's not on my list of top priorities."

She merely groaned at his response, rolling her eyes and looking back at the water. Kiba blinked at her.

"Why do you always stare at the water?" He asked her.

"To me, it's like a mirror. When you stare back at your reflection, you see yourself, then when you think about it, you see what made you that way. I like to look back, and think of all the things I did wrong and what I should have done at that moment in time..." She explained to him, eyes still on the water.

Kiba blinked and processed herwords as he also decided to look down into the water, seeing his reflection. He looked back up at her.

"I don't get it.." He spoke.

"Get what...?"

"Why you see the past, when you look in the water. Why bother looking into something you can't change? When I look into the water, I only see the future and what I can do to make sure I don't make the same mistake I did back then... Sure, maybe something should have been done at a certain point of time, but you can't change that, but that doesn't mean you can't make up for it in the future... Focus on what can be done and not what has been done..."

When he finished, his golden eyes clashed together with hers as she quickly looked up. He could soon tell that Miakoda wasn't looking at him. He turned around to see Hige on his feet, sniffing around anxiously.

"Do you guys smell that?" Hige asked swiftly, keeping his feet moving and nose sniffing.

"Smell what?" Kiba asked, but then it soon hit him. There was a fire blazing somewhere, a city probably from the burning flesh he could smell.

"Wake the others, we'll cross the ice! It's that fastest way to the nearby city! I'll go on ahead, Kiba, come with me, Hige can wake the others!" She planned as she jumped from the piece of ice she was on and jetted that way.

"She sure learns names fast.." Hige mumbled.

"This isn't time for jokes Hige, wake the others, she's right." He told him calmly as he followed quickly after her.

TT

Kiba and Miakoda ran side by side. Kiba was running quickly, but even as fast as he was going, he could see Miakoda was holding back her speed to be with him, probably fearful he'd get lost.

Black smoke soon came into their views, and it seemed to cloud the whole city, like a deep, dark fog. The buildings were hardly visible to them, even with their improved eyesight. Kiba came to a stop as the flames blazed furiously, and walked to view the damage and danger. Miakoda, on the other hand, ran straight in.

"Miakoda, wait!" Kiba called out, but she didn't stop, and soon she herself was masked in the dark smoke as the others joined Kiba's side.

Miakoda continued to run as her head would whip side to side repteatedly as she looked around for anyone or anything that had life to it. She could hear for Kiba and the others call for her. She wasn't going to leave, no chance.

"Hello?" she listened to her voice echo. "Is anybody here? That's, alive?" She questioned as sher walked, and fell to her side as a murderous scream erupted into her ears. She whimpered slightly, but shook her head and ran in the direction, busting a rusted, but steaming hot door down. In her human form, she rubbed her burning shoulder in pain as she sprinted for the stairs.

"Miss? Sir? Somebody?" She called out again as she went up the stairs three at a time, hissing as ash and embers fell onto her hand. Shaking off the ash and embers, she continued. Taking a wild guess of a room, she kicked down one instead of hitting it against her shoulder. Inside her eyes caught sight of a teenage boy about her age, holding his little sister and baby brother. They were all sobbing as she turned her attention to the side, and saw their mother burning to crisp, the flames licking her black, ashen body.

Closing her eyes and holding her breath as she covered her mouth, Miakoda tried not to gag from the scentof the burning body. It made her skin crawl and belly squeeze and flip. She suddenly felt a bit nauscious, but if she passed out here she wpould die for sure. Shaking it off and making her way to them, she grabbed, luckily, an untouched blanket and put it around them. The boy's dark, sapphire eyes looked up at her questioningly.

"Go out that door and down the stairs! The door is open down there too! Get out of here before the place suddenly decides tro collapse! Is there anybody else in here?" It seemed like a rather large house for only three people.

"We.. W-were the l-l-last four..." Choked out the small girl. So there sickened her even more. I grabbed the baby boy, who somehow escaped the watching eye of his older brother. She covered him with a small sheet, and tucked his face inside of her chest so he could breathe but be safe from the flames.

"Grab her and lets go then." She commanded.

"But Takishima, what about mommy?" The girl asked. The boy, apparently named Takishima, just turned his head away from her as he picked her up bridal style and ran out behind Miakoda. "moomy! No Takishima we can't leave her!" the girl cried as she reached her tiny hand behind her brother towards the burning corpse.

Together they ran out, and saw a small group of other survivors, with Kiba, Tsume, Hige, Blue and Toboe herding them together. Miakoda could barely see a white wolf head pop up between a few people.

"There you are! Dammit haven't you ever heard of think before you leap?" Tsume snapped at her.

"You all came in too?" she asked, still holding the baby to her.

"Well of course we did, you needed help." Toboe spoke with a smile.

"These people needed help too." Blue chipped in.

"You couldn't rescue them yourself." Hige spoke up.

"What they mean to say is that we didn't want you to have to think you needed to do this solo and get yourself hurt." Kiba explained in a simpler way. Miakoda blinked, and smiled at them softly. Then she turned back around to see the boy Takishima having issues controling his grief-stricken sister.

"Let me go Takishima! Mommy needs help! Mommy won't be happy you left her inside there all alone!"

"Sinry, stop this!" He yelled at her as she sobbed.

"No! I hate you! Mommy hates you! How could you leave her in there?"

He bent down to her level and grabbed her shoulders, looking her sternly in the eyes.

"Sinry, mother, is, dead. We both saw it! If she was alive, she would have done what that girl would have done, or she would have followed us out! I don't want to believe it either but we have to face reality and be grateful that we are atill alive!" He told her as the little girl fell to her knees and sobbed. He held the little girl Sinry close to him.

Miakoda watched, and turned her back to the pack as she walked over to them. She got down on her knees, and held their baby brother out to them. The baby was all giggly as reached for the elder brother. Takishima smiled gently at him as he took him, tears sweilling up in his eyes. She patted his shoulder.

"I'm deeply sorry for your loss, Takishima, I am, but you have a beautiful little sister and an adorable baby brother here that need you. You need to be strong for them, for the weaker you are, the weaker your sister and brother will get. You're their new, technical 'parent', and parents' emotions reflect on their children. If you be strong and happy, they'll be the same way." She encouraged as she smiled. He smiled back and wiped his eyes.

"You're right.. Thank you, for helping me and my siblings, and your friends for helping the rest of the city. What's your name?" Takishima asked as it suddenly began to pour down rain, putting the raging flames to rest.

"My name is Miakoda."

The boys eyes went wide, and flooded with fear, then hatred. He rasied his hand and then gave her a hard slap on the cheek that echoed loudly through the skies.

Miakodas' head had whipped to the side from the force, her eyes were slightly wide from surprise. She rubbed her reddening cheek slightly as it stung bitterly with pain. everyone stood there in utter surprise of Takishima's actions.

"...Ow.." Miakoda mumbled. "What did you slap me for?" She asked him calmly, despite the raging anger inside of her.

"Miakoda, the black wolf! Bringer of death! Said to make the skies turn black, make it rain blood and tears!" He yelped out loudly. The crowd gasped and backed up, whispering. Miakoda's expression didn't change.

So they do remember me... Crap. What do I say now...?

"So you don't deny that title? I knew it! Get away from us you Devil!" He screeched again as he threw a rock at her. She lifted an arm up and kept the weapon from hitting her face or head.

"Ow, again..." She mumbled once more as more rocks were being thrown. then suddenl, the rain of pebbles stopped, and Miakoda looked up. Kiba was standing in front of her. "Kiba, what are you..?" She began as she looked up at him. What she could see of his face.. To others, it was calm, but she could see the anger that churned inside of him, the protective and defensive gleam that glowed in his eyes as he stared forward.

"You protect that bringer of death? The devil's spawn?" Takishima cried out in pure hatred of Miakoda.

"Devil's Spawn.. Hey not even your old man came up with that one Blue." Hige joked as he stood by Kiba's side.

" True, but he did come up with the other ones.." Blue agreed, following his example and standing on the opposite side of Kiba that was free.

"What are you doing? Are you companions with that Monster?" He continued.

"Hey! Just because she's different doesn't mean that she's a monster!" Toboe fought back as he took his own place by Kiba, in front of Hige, but still behind Kiba.

"And if she is a monster, then that makes six of us, right?" Hige spoke again as he laughed slightly.

"You don't understand what she has done! what the city has gone through because of that, thing!" Takishima screamed at them.

"So she made some mistakes, not like you're the perfect being, pest." Growled Tsume, as he stood side-by-side with Kiba. Miakoda's eyes widened.

"Tsume.. You're, defending me..?"

"DON'T GET THE WRONG IDEA AND THINK WE'RE FRIENDS ALL OF A SUDDEN, GOT THAT?" He yelled at her, making her jump back slightly as he turned his head away. "I... Just hate idiots like that kid over there..." He mumbled. She smiled slightly.

"Don't you see that by getting rid of that devil, everyone will be safe? Hang around it and you'll only die! just like she killed her own family!" Miakoda's eyes widened as she covered her ears.

"SHUT UP, YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THAT!" She screeched at him.

"MURDERER!" He yelled right back at her.

"Maybe we will die, maybe it will be around her, everyone is bound to die someday, but I can assure you it won't be because of Miakoda." Kiba spoke up. "You speak as if she has killed everyone, and because of that she's a monster, but by killing her, wouldn't that make you a monster too? She has people that care for her, and to take her away from them like that... Isn't that what a monster truly is...? I'm sure your mother would be devastated at the man you have become. Look at what you've done already to your sibling." He nodded towards the little girl, who was crying and staring at her brother in fear. She had never seen him so angry or so violent before. Takishima looked back at Kiba, eyes wide.

"...You mean... You don't care, what she has done before...?" He asked him.

"None of us do." He answered. "We only care about her present and her future, because that's what truly matters. Focusing on what can be done and not what has been done is what we wolves do, because if you spend all your life focusing on the past,and not making a future, what's the point of living?"

All the people looked at each other, thinking and processing his words and taking them to heart. Slowly they all started to cheer and clap. They all hugged each other, and some cried. Kiba assumed it meant more to them because they all had been so close to death, and his words must have given them hope.

Kiba turned around, and outstretched his hand for Miakoda to help her up. His eyes widened a bit. To his surprise, Miakoda's eyes were filled with tears. She looked up at Kiba, her eyes glistening from the tears as she swiftly got up in one movement as she wrapped her arms around Kiba's waist into an embrace. Kiba took a step back from the force, almost slipping from the water. Her forehead rested on his chest.

"Mia...koda..?" He stammered a bit.

"No one.. Has ever stood up for me like that.. Thank you, so much.. All of you..!" She sobbed into Kiba as he felt his shirt began to feel slightly warm from her body temperature and tears. He blinked, then slowly wrapped his arms around her, smiling softly. A giggle caught his ear. He looked up as his smile faded and saw Blue giggling, Toboe smiling softly as well, Hige giving him a thumb's up, and Tsume raising an eyebrow at him. He looked away and let her cry, but it didn't last long before she pulled away.

"So, how did the fire start anyway?" Miakoda asked, not bothering to wipe her eyes since it just looked like rain water.

"It was-" One began.

"Myself, of course. Miakoda, do you really need to ask?" Interrupted a low male voice. Miakoda's head whipped right around as she growled loudly, already in her wolf form, tail straight up as he fur began to rise.

"Shintaro! Why bother setting this city on fire?" She shot at him like poison daggers. The wolf that had spoke had dark, cloudy grey eyes, and his fur was black as well, only her had a small white spot on his chest.

"Simple, because a little birdy told me you were on your way with six other wolves and knew you'd head this way, so I thought I'd tell you you have competition, andwon't live long enought o see Cheza once again." Shintaro replied.

"If you had wanted to address me you should have done so in person instead of involving the innocent people!" She snarled as she sprang towards him as full speed. As Kiba had presumed earlier, she was holding back her speed. Miakoda jumped at him, fangs bared. She landed on his side and they tumbled down, and Kiba watched as Shintaro seemed to make some weird movement, and when they came down, Miakoda smacked the edge of a building. He jumped away as some of the building collapsed down onto her. she yelped loudly in pain.

"Miakoda!" Kiba called out as he ran.

"KIBA NO STAY BACK!"She begged as she managed to get out from underneath the rock. Kiba came to a skidding stop. "Shintaro is more dangerous than you think..." she told him as she got up, back leg wobblying. she limped, one of her ankles broken, and luckily only one. "as you can tell her can already calculate attacks, such as if you're falling down with him..." She spoke as she limped quickly at him, but he merely jumped back away from her jaws.

"My my, so quick to attack aren't you? I was just here to give a warning Miakoda.~ Let's play next time." He practically sang as he jumped out of sight.

"SHINTARO GET BACK HERE COWARD!" She screamed after him, ending in a coughing fit. Blood slightly dripped from her muzzle. She knew she had broken a rib.

"Miakoda, are you okay?" The pack asked, besides Tsume.

"Yeah, I'll last until tomorrow, and then I'll be fine since it's the full moon." she told them. They had forgotten all about it being the full moon tomorrow night.

"Who was that guy?" Questioned Kiba.

"A rival ever since we were little. He's a noble, and a wolf, so he thinks he's better than the rest of us low-class wolves. He always seemed to like to hate me the most,and the worst of it is that he was also one of the bad ones entrusted with the secret of where Cheza is. Anything I want to succeed in, he has tojoin in to beat me, and most of the time he succeeds..." She growled hatefully. "YOU WON'T WIN THIS TIME SHINTARO! yOU HEAR ME? WE WILL FIND CHEZA FIRST! YOU, WILL, LOSE!" She screamed again, but thie time she collapsed.

"Miakoda!" Toboe cried out as he ran to her side, as well as Hige and Blue.

"She's fine Toboe, she just had a broken ankle, rib, she's tired and the smoke inhalation probably didn't help her very much..." Kiba explained as he turned to the people. He pointed the way they came. "A few miles up that way, there's a city, it's called Haruna City. They have plenty of food there for you, you should be safe." Kiba instrusted as they nodded and headed that way. He bent down and picked up Miakoda, placing her on his back."Let's find a place to stay tonight." He said as they nodded and followed him as he began to walk.