Chapter 5-Toboe, Who Doesn't Howl

I couldn't think. My head felt clouded, as if a fog had descended and was only just beginning to lift. I felt tired and numb, cold. I didn't know why I felt this way; my mind wouldn't let me try to figure it out. But I thought Darcia must be involved somehow. I kept my eyes shut as I waited for my head to clear.

I was lying down. I could feel the cold, hard floor, like concrete, along the side of my body, along my skin. Bare skin. My senses were getting clearer, sharper. I opened my eyes slowly, the light, though dull, was still too bright. My eyes had been closed for a long time. I needed to see why my body felt so bear, I wasn't naked. My vision was blurry at first, like I'd been asleep for a very long time, which I probably had. I blinked quickly, trying to clear them. The first thing I saw were bars, a little way in front of me, stretching the whole width of my vision. Beyond the bars, a wall, quite a distance away, a door right in the middle of the dull white.

I wanted to sit up, but my body didn't feel strong enough. So instead I moved my head down slowly, hurting my ear as it rubbed along the floor, tangling my hair, and looked at my body. I gasped. My legs, my arms, my tummy, all bare. No wonder I was cold. All I had on was, what looked like, fur underwear. Like a bikini made out of grey-brown fur. Wolf fur, I realized with a start. This made me angry. Was this some kind of sick joke, Darcia trying to mess with me? I growled silently. That man would pay. As I thought of Darcia other thoughts flooded in. I remembered what had happened before I woke up, the blackness surrounding, my friends disappearing. Kiba, I thought desperately. Were was he? I wanted him here, with me, he would make me feel better, feel safe. Or Grace. I really wanted her comforting presence, to stop me from feeling the way I felt now. Alone and scared. What had Darcia done with them? I felt tears prick in my eyes as I thought of them, my friends, my love.

I realized, a little late, that there was something else around my body, a harness. I sat up slowly, carefully, feeling slightly dizzy. I turned my head to look behind me. Attached to the harness was a chain. Attached to the chain, was a wall. I was chained to a wall, and trapped in a cage. Someone really didn't want me to escape. Like I could anyway. I wasn't strong enough. But I knew that Kiba and Grace, and even Blue were around somewhere and I had hope that they could rescue me.

I knew I was trapped. That was it. I sniffed the air. It smelt sterile, too clean. The only smell was the metal of the bars, and the faint scent of the concrete. Great. I felt strange without anything to smell. So I twitched my ears instead. Listening closely, trying to pick up even the smallest of sounds from outside the room. I heard footsteps. Soft, getting closer. I watched the door, cautiously, as they approached. I was half kneeling now, half sitting. My hands resting on the ground in front of me, fingers slightly bent. Defensive. I was breathing really heavily as the footsteps stopped outside the door. My ears were pointing high as the door was opened.

A women, who reminded me oddly of Barbie walked in, slowly. Her hair was very blonde, her eyes very blue, like a clear summer sky. But it was her lipstick that made me think Barbie. It was pink. Light, solid pink. I mentally smiled, but my features stayed the same as I watched her walk further in, closely followed by two men, who looked oddly like guards. Did they really think I was that dangerous? The woman was wearing a lab coat, which instantly alarmed me. They must have realized what I was, decided to do experiments on me, treat me like a monster, as I feared in the beginning. Even though this panic was shooting through my head, I continued to stare evenly at the women.

She smiled at me as she stopped in the middle of the room. A sweet smile. As if I wasn't her prisoner.

"Hello," she said, gently, friendly. She reminded me oddly of the first time I met Darcia, the polite way he said hello. And look how that turned out. I didn't reply, I just glared at her silently.

"My name's Cher," she smiled again. The way she said it, reminded me of someone talking to a little child, trying to get them to talk back. She was patronizing me. I lowered my ears, pointed them back, showing my anger, without really meaning to. She looked a little taken aback by my reaction, but kept smiling at me.

"What's your name?" she asked. Looking at me with a friendly, yet guarded expression. She looked exhausted. I didn't answer her question, but instead found myself blurting out, "Where am I?"

My tone was angry, harsh. I'm not sure why. I guess I was just fed up with the whole thing, angry that I had no idea where my friends were, or if they were even safe.

Cher blinked, surprised, momentarily before regaining her smile.

"You're in our laboratory," she answered simply. I stared at her, wanting more information, but not wanting to ask.

She seemed to pick up on that, and continued with her explanation.

"We found you a week ago, just lying in the street," she smiled, looking slightly embarrassed, "Sorry, we had to sedate you, we saw your ears, and well, we didn't know if you were safe." She laughed nervously. So they found me? Kept me asleep for a week, to do god knows what experiments on me? I had had enough. I stood up carefully, swaying a bit as I did, but regaining my balance quickly. I glared at the women, my hands curling into claws, my teeth showing, lips pulled back.

She seemed, for once, to become serious. She took in the way I was standing, nodded at the guards then spoke softly, and slowly. "Well, we'll give you some time to settle in," she smiled one last time then turned to leave the room, the guards following closely. Just as she got close to the door I spoke again, the question had been burning inside me, but I had only just realized.

"Where are my friends?" I asked, my voice sharp, demanding. She turned back to face me, her face had a confused expression.

"Friends?" she asked, I could see she had no idea what I was on about, "You were alone when we found you…" she continued, carefully, obviously trying not to offend me again. I felt my face drop, my anger simmering, but mixing with fear and worry. So we had been separated. Even before, for all I know we were sent to completely different places. I felt tears prick at the corner of my eyes again. Cher smiled, but in a concerned way, then walked out the room, followed by the guards.

I was breathing heavily again, but this time with anger. Darcia was playing a dangerous game. Kiba would find me, I knew it. I started pacing back and forth in my cage, like a caged animal, too restless to sit back down. I thought about everything that had happened. Thought about my friends. Thought about how the hell I was supposed to get out of here. The answer to that was I couldn't. Not without help. I was weak and human. Well half anyway. But I was also hungry and thirsty, and still tired from the drugs.

I paced for quite a while. My legs started to ache but I carried on. I was becoming more agitated, my anger dissolving more and more into fear and pain.

After a while though, something changed. Something in the atmosphere became different. I stopped and tilted my head upwards, looking at the ceiling, feeling outward with my senses. A strange feeling overcame me. Yet somehow it felt familiar.

There was a noise, small, far away, but still it was weird, out of place. Then I heard it. A crawling sound, scrambling. I looked to the direction it was coming from and saw an air vent in the wall. My heart was beating quickly. Something was coming this way - and it was coming in the vents! It reminded me of horror movies. I tried to control my breathing; I didn't want to alert anyone to my presence. But it was hard. I was terrified.

Then the noise stopped. Right outside the covering, it stopped. I watched, ears back, hands curled, ready for any kind of attempt I could make at defending myself. Then the coving was pushed off, it fell to the floor noisily, making me flinch. And then a head popped out, looked around and was followed by the body. It was a boy. Light ginger hair, with a strange collar around his neck. He crawled out the vent then stood up and looked at me. He looked confused but pleased as he looked me up and down, taking in my appearance. His noise twitched as he sniffed the air, taking in my scent. I watched him cautiously. That is until I sniffed the air my self. Because as soon as I did, my head snapped back to the air vent, as the next person was making there way out. My heart was beating really fast now, a smile spreading helplessly on my face. I'd recognize that scent anywhere, that head. Kiba. He was only halfway out.

"KIBA!" I shouted excitedly, he had found me. He would rescue me, my wolf. I ran forward as he stood up straight, "Kiba, I'm so glad to see you!" I wanted to reach the bars, reach out to him, but my chain tugged tight, preventing me from moving any further forward. He looked at me, his expression caught between confusion and dislike. I ignored it though, he was probably just thinking about what Darcia had done to me. "Kiba!" I called again, wanting him to reply. But the reply I got was not what I wanted.

"How do you know my name?"

I was confused at first, was he playing a game?

"Kiba, it's me. Kiba?"

He looked blankly at me. Then it sunk in. I fell to my knees, tears dripping from my eyes like a broken tap. "You…don't…remember me?" I was trying to hold back the tears.

"I don't know you," he replied, there was no kindness in his voice.

The tears turned to sobs, my shoulders shook with the pain in my heart. Kiba had forgotten. Whatever Darcia had done, he'd made it as if Kiba had never met me. I knew I should have felt angry, by I couldn't. The pain was too much, like someone was trying to rip my lungs out, I couldn't breath. My heart felt like it had stopped beating.

"Kiba, please…" I almost pleaded. I don't know why. I wanted desperately for him to remember.

"Who are you?" he asked, it wasn't his normal gentle way of talking. It was harsh.

I finally took my eyes off him; I couldn't bare to look at him anymore. My eyes slid over the other boy, who was watching with interest at the exchange between me and Kiba, before I looked down at the floor, trying to stop the river of tears as they flowed from my eyes. I felt so empty. I didn't want to answer, that would make it real. If I answered it would prove he didn't know me. But I had to. I couldn't ignore him, not my Kiba, even if he wasn't mine anymore.

"J…Jenny…the wolf….princess," I whispered around my sobs. I added the princess bit, something inside me told me to.

His face looked shocked for a moment, then angry.

"So you're the one who failed us," it wasn't a question. It was a statement. I didn't understand what he meant, failed who? Who was us? Before I could ask anything, the ginger boy spoke.

"You know her?"

"I've heard legends," Kiba replied, his voice clipped.

"And?" the boy asked, obviously interested in the story.

"She was supposed to stop wolves becoming extinct," Kiba replied simply, obviously shortening the story. I thought about the first time he had explained it to me, the wonder, and amazement in his voice. Now he sounded cold, almost angry.

"Huh," the boy said, then he turned to me, "I'm Hige," he smiled friendly at me.

But I couldn't concentrate on that. Supposed to…that would imply that…then I understood. I knew who I had failed. The wolves. But I didn't understand how. Before Darcia did whatever it was he did, the wolves were fine; things were starting to look good, people's opinions were changing. But Kiba had just implied wolves were extinct now…how could that be? I was so confused; I didn't even feel angry, not anymore.

As I thought about what could have happened, I thought about Grace. If Kiba had completely forgotten me, what about her? She must have to, because what me and Kiba had couldn't easily have been broken. That would mean I was completely alone in the world, no love, no friend. I felt exhausted, I felt scared, I felt pain and I felt lost. Where was I without all the people I cared about?

The boy named Hige looked back at the door to the room.

"We should get out of here," he said almost tensely, but still with the air of someone who wasn't really bothered. I looked up at that, at Hige. He was now looking at Kiba, who was looking at me.

"Then lets go," Kiba replied as he turned around and headed back to the vent.

"Wait!" Hige called after him "Are we just gonna leave her here?"

Kiba looked at Hige exasperated, and then he looked at me.

"I guess not," he said, and then there was a white wolf in front of me, what used to be my wolf, his jaw clamped around bars. He pulled back, like a doge playing tug of war, and the bars separated easily. This Kiba was strong. Hige stood and watched as he walked into the cage and walked around me. He bit down onto the chain and snapped it in half easily. I stood up quickly, shook my head to try and clear it of the muddle of emotions, and then followed Kiba out the hole in the cage. It was hard, I was big and the hole was small, wolf size, but I squeezed through. The two wolves, at least I assumed Hige was a wolf, climbed into the vent smoothly, and I followed after them as best I could. It was hard to crawl through, and it was very cold. It made me wonder were my clothes were, and why the scientist named Cher even put me in this ridiculous outfit. Eventually we made it outside. The cold wind whipped across me, blowing my hair into a tangled mess around my face. I looked around me in wonder. This place was strange, the building like none I had seen before. We certainly weren't in London anymore.

We ran forward a little, Kiba leading with Hige, me following sadly behind. Kiba was just going to leave me in that cage. He didn't care anymore. I felt like crying again but held it in. I watched the back of Kiba's head as we walked, taking in its beauty as if he was a new person, and willing him to remember me.

Then Kiba stopped, so suddenly that I almost ran into Hige, who stopped only a fraction after Kiba. A strange man, who had a strange mask on, walked along a bridge above us. He was carrying someone. A girl, it looked like. He turned his head and looked at us as we watched him. His eye, his clothes all so familiar. But it couldn't be, could it? All I could do was stare at him as I made the connection. Terrified as he watched us. But I knew he couldn't do any more harm. He'd already taken away everything. Plus I wasn't even sure it was him. I might've just been so emotional that I was making connections that didn't exist.

"So your wolves huh?" he asked, and my fears were confirmed, "My deepest thanks for awakening Cheza," his voice was ice cold, just as I remember it.

"Who are you?" Hige shouted, sounding agitated.

"I'll be taking the flower maiden," was the only reply.

Then he did something I didn't expect. A gesture, I expect, aimed at the wolves, at Kiba. He held the girl by her neck and then swung her outward. She threw her head back and a high, ringing noise came out her wide open mouth, a non human scream. I covered my ears from it as Kiba darted forward, trying to catch the man, or get the girl. I started after him as soon as I had recovered, but I couldn't keep up. Then, in a blinding flash of light, the man I thought was Darcia, and the strange, inhuman, girl, were gone. Kiba stopped and looked around wildly. I stopped too and walked up to him, Hige following behind. The sound the girl had made had me close to tears. It sounded hurt, terrified and sad.

It sounded the way I felt. Alone.

AUTHORS NOTE: This chapter was completely written by WhiteWolfie666: .com/