Chapter Three: The Journey Begins
We traveled for three or so days in a snow blizzard, tonight would be that last night of the full moon before the cycle starts again. The run felt so good on my muscles and nerves, it made me remember running in the forest with the wolf pack back home. The pack I was named after, the Lunar Pack. They mostly hunted at night and it was said that they were the only true blood line left of our legendary heroes.
The Lunar Pack had about twenty members or so and they varied in color and size. The pups were always so energetic and wanting to learn all they could so they'd be ready to take up their ranks. I never saw a more majestic pack: kind, graceful, beautiful and deadly.
Sadly my memories left me when we stopped running to take up shelter in a rock cave to wait out the storm. I guess their curiosity grew too much for them because the next thing I knew, they were staring at me while Toboe came to sit next to me.
"We haven't learned your name yet. I'm Toboe." He said to me with a brilliant smile. Toboe, now that I think about it his name sounds familiar to me and so does Tsume's. The way Toboe stared at me made me mentally groan. I instantly knew he was like my little brother, he would be able to win me over when I don't want to be won over. Cheer me up when I want to be miserable.
"I'm Luna, nice to meet you." I said softly as I looked to all of them, they were all still in their human forms. Why, aren't they cold? The way the chunky one with the collar looked at me, I guessed he wanted to see mine.
"Oh no!" Toboe's random and unexpected cry made me jump. "We left that strange smelling human girl behind! She was so badly hurt when we found her in the park and all, we just left her." I noticed when he talked about the girl that was really me. He was looking at my side. "She was already gone when I got back. Good riddance too, stupid female." The leather lover stated boredly causing me to growl. "I am not stupid!" I snapped and stood up where I was laying.
They all stared at me for a long time, blinking from confusion once in a while. I know I had a stupid look on my face, even in wolf form. "What?" I asked. "You are the girl from the park? I knew she smelled like wet dog but I couldn't tell she- I mean you, were one of us." Hige stated with a blush. "You couldn't tell because I'm not one of you really. I'm different from you all." I stated.
For awhile no one said anything. We just sat there, waiting out the storm. But a question I had kept bugging me, okay a couple questions really. Might as well ask them now, I got nothing better to do. Now they were all in wolf form like me so we were pretty much at eye level.
"Can I ask, um, where are you all headed anyways?" I asked. This little question stirred so many emotions from them. I had to be quick to catch them all. From Toboe: Excitement, hope and pure joy. From Hige: Interest, in me though he's not my type, and cluelessness. From Tsume: Nothing at first glance but since I'm really good at reading people I picked up. Laughter, confusion and anger. Lastly from Kiba: Pride, Stubbornness, happiness, and something else.
"To Paradise." Kiba finally answered my question. "Paradise?" I asked, shocked at his answer. Paradise is what my homeland is called. How strange and interesting. "Yes. This world is dying; the moon has turned red and is heading for earth. Opening Paradise is the only way to save the earth and ourselves." Kiba explained. I gasped and my mouth hung open, my eyes went wide and I got weak in my legs.
Impossible, was this some sort of joke? This can't be because Paradise is open. I was born and raised in Paradise. What he says makes no sense at all, unless, no I couldn't have. Did I travel through time? Impossible.
When I was little, about three or so, my great Grand told me stories of the legendary Four Lords who saved the world. It was with their blood, along with the hybrid's blood and the incomplete flower maiden's power, that demons' and all things mythical were born. She used to tell me that if they had had someone of elfin blood to help them, along with our wolf demon brethren they would've lived long enough to finish opening Paradise and the humans would have been the endangered ones, not us.
"It's because they died that Mother Earth opened her arms to all, including the horrible humans." She used to always finish her stories with blaming the lords. She resented them for dying and not finishing the change, allowing the hybrid's blood to mix in with theirs, changing our world for better or worse, we don't know. I on the other hand, was and still am proud of them for at least bringing us this far, for giving us a fighting chance. For saving the world, it's because of them we had the chance to live and see the dawn of the new world.
"How can I help?" I asked before I could stop myself. They all looked at me weirdly. "I would like to tag along to Paradise. Can I accompany you four?" I asked, lowering my head in a bow which caused Tsume to growl and scoff at me. "Don't tell me you believe him too?" Tsume said, he sounded so angry. "Kind of, I was- uh, never mind. Just listen when I say Paradise is real and it will be so beautiful once the gates are opened." Probably not the best idea to tell them I was born there, seeing that it would be impossible since it isn't opened yet.
The snow storm was near its end by morning, it had let up a lot so we left. Hige and Toboe complained about hunger and Kiba said we should bask in the moonlight till we came across food. They can go a month or two without food, I on the other hand can go without food for about a year. As long as I have water, sunlight and moonlight. Thanks to my being what I am, demonic and child of the earth.
Kiba made us run for a long time, I don't know how long we were running but we covered a long distance because the landscapes changed. Desert, that's all I could see in every direction but I could smell a hint of a forest. Hige got really excited when a breeze blew in the smell of a dead deer or a cousin to the deer. Kiba, Hige and Toboe started eating it. Tsume and I on the other hand found it repugnant and it made me sick just looking at it. Tsume started snapping at them when Toboe offered him some and I slipped away.
As I walked farther away, I found the ruins of an old demolished city. I saw human skeletons, tanks and all sorts of things. How sad it must be, being human. Born wanting nothing to do with the beauty of Mother Nature, only wanting to build and destroy repeatedly. Oh and reproduce like rabbits. Nasty. Why can't they see the beauty of nature? What about how the earth feels? The one who makes life possible for all, how can someone use her and kill her so heartlessly? It's sickening.
In my anger, I kicked some trash around. I was in my human form, putting my hair in a ponytail with a sigh. I walk to ledge that was once a wall to a tall building and look down at the ruins below. "How sad and hurt you must feel Mother Nature. These humans are killing off all your resources and children." I whisper to the wind. The warm breeze caressed my face and made my mid back, platinum blond hair dance around me even with it in a ponytail.
"Hey Luna!" Toboe's voice pulls me from my thoughts, I turned to him. He looked worried and out of breath. "Toboe." I acknowledged him. "Have you seen Tsume? He stormed off shortly after you left." Toboe whined. He must really like Tsume to try and find him. He looked at me with his doe-y brown eyes, silently asking me to help him.
"I haven't seen him." I said and watched him look at the ground. "But I'll help you find him. You try and call him from here and I'll try to sniff him out below." I stood and jumped off the ledge. Toboe stood there calling out Tsume's name while I walked around, scenting the air. With a grunt I continued on. Toboe started howling, lonely, heartbreaking howls. Out of nowhere, Boom! Something exploded not far off behind me, I flew in the air and landed on the hard ground with a thud.
I turned around to see a big cloud of smoke, dust and debris fill the air. A big block of cement flew passed my head with a squeak from me. As the dust and everything started to clear away, I could just make out something big and shinning moving around in the shadows.
"What the hell?"I mumble, instantly my mind went into 'find Toboe' mode. I got up and ran towards where he still stood. I could just make out his details, he was in wolf form when Tsume ran up to him in wolf form and tackled him off the ledge. It all went by in slow motion when I saw Toboe in wolf form. Everything happened in flashes: Toboe stood staring at me, Tsume ran up and tackled him, they fell off the ledge at the same time a big gun went off, blood sprayed from Tsume's hind leg and they ran towards me.
"Holy Mother Nature!" I shouted in surprise and yelped, yes even in human form I still make my wolf sounds, when I was tackled like a football player. BANG! I think I went deaf of a minute. "Damn it Luna, I said move it!" Tsume snarled at me as my vision blurred. I had hit my head and it was bleeding. Thanks a lot Tsume. My vision doubled but I wouldn't let that stop me. With unsteady legs, I followed the two Tsumes' and Toboes'.
We stopped at a destroyed bridge and I tried to catch my breath, slow my beating heart and clear my vision. The sound of caterpillar wheels and a loud, old engine was getting closer. Just what was after us, some type of old robot?
I looked to Tsume and my heart sank. "You're hurt because of me." He was pressing his hand on his right leg and his left arm was bleeding, both were bleeding badly. "This is nothing." He growled at me. I rolled my eyes and looked down, over the bridge was a long drop down and I couldn't see the bottom. With a whistle, I looked for an easy way we could get down there without being seen.
"This way, it will be easy to get down from here." I said quickly, making Toboe go down first so I could help Tsume. BANG! Another bullet whizzed by me and Tsume, it crashed into the broken bridge and the bridge crumbled under our feet. I could hear Toboe calling out our names as he grabbed the ledge.
I caught a small glimpse of our shooter, it really was an old robot covered in all types of guns, dents and rust. The explosion must have rebooted it somehow. The cold air brought me back to the now and with some effort I hugged the wounded Tsume to me as I believed we could land with little to no damage done.
"Let go of me you idiot! You're going to die if you don't!" Tsume ordered as he tried to push me away with his paws. He was too weak and I was too determined. "You saved me twice already Tsume it's my turn to save you now." I stated. He growled at me again and tried once again to push me away.
"Mother Earth, hear me. Your child Luna is in need of you. Please help me." I whispered to the wind. The wind howled a low and strangely soothing tone. I closed my eyes to the world and pulled Tsume closer. I tuned out all noises and tried to numb myself, to bad I didn't have a lot of time.
Thud, crack! I collided with the ice, snow and pieces of bridge on the ground but thankfully I wasn't dead. "Thank you, Mother Earth." I panted and let my arms fall away from Tsume. He slumped down next to me, continuously mumbling about how idiotic I was. This is how Toboe found us, he was crying and repeatedly calling our names. "We're okay." I stated.
I closed my eyes to the world as we limped off and when I opened them again when we stopped moving. We were inside a cave made of ice and Toboe was asking Tsume about the X-shaped scar on his chest. I didn't mean to ruin their moment but I couldn't hold back the groan of pain when I moved to lie down. My whole body was sore and my limbs were stiff. As I moved my joints cracked and popped, taking away a lot of the pressure and pain. I ran my hand along my sides and felt my ribs, I had to have at least three fractured ribs but thankfully they were nowhere near my vitals and would heal just fine in the light of both the moon and sun.
Tsume sat up and watched me as I moved around, ripping the cloth on my deerskin shirt off around my stomach. I placed some fresh, clean snow on it. "With this skin and ice water of Mother Nature, with my healing blood I offer it to this wolf in need. Grant this child of Nature a fast recovery." I chanted under my breath as I let my blood, which ran down my arm, drip onto the snow. I then wrapped it around Tsume's leg and tied it.
"What are you?" Tsume grunted as I tightened the knot. Toboe looked at me in awe as I rubbed the snow covered blood on another piece of deerskin before tying it on Tsume's arm. "I am called a Child of Nature. Well, where I come from I and many others are called that anyway." I said and became a wolf to lie between Tsume and Toboe to keep all of us warm. Toboe became a wolf too and we lay on both sides of Tsume to keep him warm for he was badly hurt.
The cave of ice was filled with a peaceful silence for a little while and it was nice. Till a humming sound filled the cave and then the large icicles above our heads began to shake. The robot had managed to get down here and was fast approaching. How did that thing find us already? Crap this isn't good, Tsume shouldn't move and my head is still bleeding, I shouldn't move either.
The wall of ice that was blocking the entrance to this cave exploded and the robot was before us. Its lenses reflecting our wolf forms at us. My white coat was so dirty and covered in blood that it looked orange and pink! If I made it out of this I was defiantly going to roll around in a puddle or something.
The robot aimed its rusty guns at us and I launched myself at it. With a couple of really high pitched, ear bleeding noises from the robot, I managed to use my weight to knock off the rocket launcher as well as one of his eyes. At the same time, Kiba seemed to come out of nowhere and pushed a giant icicle into one of its machine guns, the gun exploded throwing me and Kiba into the side of the mountain near us. I got debris in my eyes and Kiba hurt his side on the ice.
Momentarily blinded, I felt a body bump into mine, like it was backing up and didn't notice me. The owner of the body pushed me back against the mountainside and a round of bullets hit the mountain behind me just above mine and the other person's head. Damn my luck is bad. This stupid robot was annoying and it just wouldn't die! It trying to kill us added on to the growing list was really getting me mad. The stupid robot is old, beat up and rusted, it shouldn't take this long to run out of juice. Ugh!
When my vision cleared and my dizziness stopped, I found myself bumping into Kiba. "Ah, I'm sorry." I whined and tried to look past the robot, into the destroyed ice cave. Tsume and Toboe were nowhere in the cave but trying to run up the almost straight mountainside that Kiba had ran down. "Go Kiba, I got an idea." I said, he nodded and ran off to distract the robot.
I stood still in my human form, listening to everything around me. "Beautiful cold ice of old. Hear me. Burst free and cleanse this area of the evil that destroys your beauty. Fight back and burry it deep under your beauty and age." I chanted with my hands clasped together as if I was praying.
The ground below shook. I turned to warn Kiba, the robot was still shooting at him. Well, till Kiba took out his gun and landed next to me that is. "We've got to get to higher ground quick." I warned him and together we ran up the mountainside, though I was behind and slow, plus the robot was still shooting at us making it hard to get up the mountain. The bullets whizzed by so close that they left cuts and gashes on me and Kiba. Goddess how many freaking guns does that thing have anyway? We took out like three or four already.
I stopped on a small landing, it wasn't very sturdy but I couldn't move anymore. Kiba though made it all the way up, he was used to running- I realized I needed to work out more. The ground shook once more when the ice cracked and broke. Ice and snow filled the valley below and it buried the robot so deep it would never make it out. Ever…
