Chapter 4: Let's sing about the Lunar Flower~

They headed out the next morning; the only two that seemed to really be awake was Toboe and Yuki. They were running around, every so often Yuki would jump on Toboe's back and laugh when the boy would almost trip.

Ikier watched them while using Hige as a crutch so she could walk around.

"Are you sure that you're ok? I mean if this isn't normal you have to tell us." Hige seemed a little concerned about the older girl.

"I'm fine. I just wish I had some sugar or something." Ikier sighed sleepily.

Yuki ran up, his tail wagging happily and his ears perked "I know where you can get some, Ikier!" He looked at Kiba and laughed.

Hige and Toboe held back snickers as the white wolf glared at the new boy.

"And I'm sure she wouldn't mind at allllllllllllllllll." Yuki laughed harder.

Kiba made like he was going to attack, causing Yuki to yelp and run behind Toboe.

"Knock it off. He's only teasing you Kiba." Hige said after finally laughing.

Kiba shrugged as he quickly took the lead, "Whatever. Runt, keep your pet in check."

"I'm not a pet!" Yuki pouted then giggled as he went to help Hige with Ikier, "Ikier! Wake up, or do I have to splash you with water when I find some."

"You do and I promise you will thoroughly regret it." Ikier pointed a finger at Yuki while looking kind of drunk.

Toboe went into step with Kiba, "He's not a pet Kiba. Why'd you call him that?"

"They don't exactly know what a pact is Toboe. You don't suddenly spring something like being someone's-"

"I know, but you didn't have to call him a pet just cause you're too stubborn to admit what he was joking about was-"

"Toboe!" Yuki jumped him again, once again causing the boy to stumble. He quickly caught himself and held onto Yuki. "Hey, Kiba do you know where some sugar is? Ikier's no fun when she's all tired like this."

He just looked at him then back at Ikier, "Why? Can't she wake up like a normal person?"

"No, she is addicted to the stuff and can't function without it." Yuki started to mess with Toboe's hair. The younger wolf blushed a bit at the feeling.

Both the older boys laughed "Sounds like Tsume." Hige finally spoke as he took a deep breath.

"Does not! And he said he was trying to quite." Toboe protested.

Kiba rolled his eyes "Yeah when pigs fly and I fall for a cat."

"You already have." The brothers answered in union.

"Again! When I fall for a cat again. Happy now?" Kiba growled trying to throw off their comment.

After a long time of walking and some fighting, Yuki suddenly let out a scream.

"Why are we shrieking? I don't want to be shorter!"

Ikier, who was slowly waking up, jumped at the sudden outburst "What? We're- when did the grass suddenly shot up over or heads?"

"When you weren't paying attention. There's a mist that we went threw that shrunk us, it's suppose to happen in order for us to find Cheza." Kiba answered as if it was a common thing.

Yuki shook his head and quietly mocked Kiba, causing Hige and Toboe to laugh. He laughed with them.

Ikier slowly turned away from the trio to talk to Kiba "She's the one that's going to help us both right?"

"Yeah, and no she won't be able to get you any sugar. Besides this could be a good time for you to get off the stuff."

Ikier pouted "What? But it's my blood!"

Yuki laughed "Be nice Kiba or I'll…. Do something to you." Hige gave him a look and he shrugged.

Kiba just rolled his eyes, "If it was your blood then you'd be even more fucked up then we are."

Ikier was about to respond when Toboe spoke up.

"Hey guys I think we found it." Toboe broke in as they entered a garden of flowers.

All around there were many types of flowers, from daffodils to buttercups and roses. There was even a lake (but in actual size a pond) of water lilies. Over at the edge of said lake was a girl humming as she kicked her legs in the water softly.

Yuki gasped as he took in the scent and moved over to the girl with pale skin and soft purple hair. He sat next to her with a slight blush on his face, "Um…" Yuki was cut off with the girl petted him between the ears gently.

"Who's that? And why is Yuki acting so funny?" Ikier pulled on Kiba's sleeve.

Toboe moved forward to join Yuki and the girl as Hige gave a soft laugh "That's Cheza; she's the flower maiden."

Ikier gave an odd look "The flower maiden? What does that have to do with why all of you are acting weird?"

"She was made from lunar flowers," Kiba looked down at Ikier. "It's hard to explain why… " He frowned briefly before joining the others.

Ikier followed closely as Cheza got out of the water.

The lunar flower smiled "This one is happy to see new friends. Please tell this one your names."

Yuki stood getting all bouncy again "I'm Yuki and my friend here is Ikier. We would like your help, if you don't mind." He blushed a bit then laughed.

Ikier gave him another odd look "I think you're high, Yuki."

"No, just hyper." The younger boy's tail waged.

"I can't help that one." Cheza pointed to Ikier. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare.

Yuki looked like she was about to cry as Kiba asked, "What do you mean?"

"I can't help that one, she isn't one of you." Cheza shook her head softly.

Ikier was in shock "Of course I'm not one of them I'm human and so is Yuki!"

The guys all exchanged a look but remained quiet.

Cheza shook her head "No, he is a wolf and you are something else."

Yuki held Ikier's hand as the older girl looked at the lunar maiden in shock and other mixed emotions.

Yuki whimpered a bit resting his head against Ikier's arm "I'm feeling a bit dizzy again…"

Ikier jumped from how cold her friend felt, "Yuki… Yuki are you okay?" She nudged the boy a bit.

Toboe started coughing hard and dropped to his knees as the wolf boy collapsed.

Hige moved to help his brother while Cheza stepped toward Yuki, "Let this one help, this one can help that one." She knelt down next to the shivering boy.

Ikier hesitated before moving back and drawing her knees to her chest. Kiba watched her silently.

Cheza hummed softly as she began helping Yuki; Hige had Toboe sitting up as he continued to cough, there was a faint smell of blood coming from the young wolf, but his coughing was slowly becoming less rough.

After awhile Cheza stood and turned in Ikier's direction "He will be fine now. This one made sure of it."

Ikier looked up at her "Are you sure?"

"If this one wasn't then Toboe would still be coughing like he was before."

Ikier looked over at said wolf; he was washing his hands in the lake to get rid of all the blood he had coughed up. Ikier stood with confusion and relief on her face "Thank you Cheza…but why was Toboe reacting like that when Yuki fainted?" She asked while looking around.

Hige kept his head down while busying himself as Toboe began washing his face. Ikier looked at Kiba for help.

Kiba waited a moment before sighing in defeat "Because the pact that Toboe made with him connects them. If one dies the other shortly follows." He looked at Ikier who still seemed confused, "Earlier Yuki didn't faint. He was dying and Toboe, being the one that made the pact with him, had felt it and was slowly dying along with him."

Ikier looked at her friend for a second before shaking her head, "Gods… this is all too much this early in the morning. Once I wake up or get some kind of sugar in me then I'll probably be able to understand this all… Or just be able to be mad at you."

Cheza giggled. "This one understands your rush to get here, but you should have stopped for nourishment on the way."

"I told Kiba that, but he never listens to me." Hige sighed.

"That's because you're always talking about food." Toboe spoke after wiping his face.

Hige made a motion like he was going to punch his brother, but then thought against it. Cheza watched them, clearly amused, waiting patiently for everyone to settle down.

Ikier paused a moment then looked at Cheza, "You wouldn't happen to have something for us to eat would you?"

"Well this is a garden." The flower maiden smiled, "This one is sure you'll find something if you look hard enough… maybe even some sugarcane."

Ikier laughed "Yes! Bring it on!" she almost sounded hysterical.

Kiba gave her an odd look before rolling his eyes. "Tweedles, go find some food I'll stay with these three."

Toboe was about to protest when Hige cut him off "If you stayed then they wouldn't be very safe now would they?" Toboe frowned and grumbled as they both took off into the tree sized grass.

Not long after everyone had eaten and had watched Ikier devour anything that Cheza said had sugar in it (which wasn't much). Yuki finally woke up, and was now watching everyone until Ikier tackled him back to the ground.

"You're awake!" Ikier squeaked happily, "You really have to stop giving me heart attacks."

"Sorry." Yuki hugged her back, "But at least I'm back from that stupid limbo…" He gave a small sigh and shutter at the thought of where he had been. "Is there anything to eat around here? I'm starving."

Toboe brought some food over to him, "We managed to save some from Hige for you." Said wolf just stuck his tongue out at his brother.

Yuki laughed as he ate. "So where to now?" He said after wolfing down a good chunk of food. Ikier hadn't let go since Yuki had woken and was falling asleep on Yuki's shoulder "We should find sugar."

"This one believes all the sugar cane is near the Caterpillar's part of the garden." Cheza chimed up after a long moment.

Kiba let out a groan as he got up, "You're kidding. We actually have to go near him?"

Cheza shook her head innocently, "This one is not kidding."

Toboe jumped around happily, his tail wagging like mad. "Yes! We get to go see Tsume! I haven't seen him in forever!" He was beaming with joy.

The older tweedle laid flat on his stomach and covered his head, "Why do you like him so much? The wolf's a freak. He's always taking some cocktail of some weird shit, all while trying WAY too hard NOT to be gay."

"He is not! Take that back, he said he was getting clean." All joy seemed to slowly deflate from the pup.

"Yeah, that's a true as shit. Sure he didn't just mean he was taking a bath?"

Toboe flinched as he went to speak only to close his mouth again.

Yuki got up quickly and took Toboe's hand in his, "Hey they're just being mean. Come on Toboe, if he made a promise like that to you then I'm sure he kept it."

The pup looked up from the ground, "Yeah?"

Yuki nodded as Kiba snorted. "Don't even know him and you're defending him."

"Of course," Yuki glared at the white wolf, "Because I haven't met him, I'm not going to bag on him until we've met."

Kiba was about to retort when Ikier slapped his leg.

"All of you shut up. I could care less about how you all feel about some caterpillar. All I care about is the Flower maiden said he had my blood." Ikier stood up and motioned for the pack to move, "Now then let's get our asses into gear."

Hige reluctantly got up from the ground as the band moved on. He smacked Toboe in the back of the head as he passed, receiving a growl from Yuki in the process.