The Successors

I sat beside Kiba as Toboe gently laid healing herds on his chest and arms. A couple was laid on my neck from where Zali bit me but it had stopped bleeding a while ago.

"I think this will help a little" Toboe said. Hige groaned.

"Damn it, Kiba never thinks things through..." I spoke up for my alpha.

"He couldn't just stand by when he saw what was happening" I muttered.

"He shouldn't have butted in, though" Tsume said. Toboe turned to Tsume

"Tsume!" he snapped.

"Let's just get the hell out of here" Tsume said tiredly. I shook my head.

"But Kiba can't get moved yet" I argued.

"Which is why we should've left yesterday" Hige said back.

"I thought you said that living here had more going on than you thought" Tsume said. Hige grunted. I perked up as I heard Kiba waking up. He grunted as he sat up.

"Let's go!" Toboe and I dove for him and restrained him.

"You're not going anywhere with these wounds and an empty stomach!" Toboe said. I nodded.

"you could get more hurt" I whispered.

"Actually, one of us here does have a stuffed gut" Tsume said. Hige glared at the wolf.

"Hey, you were the ones who didn't eat" Hige defended himself. "You turned up your noses at the food Cole was nice enough to bring us!. It would've have been ride to let it go to waste. So I had no choice but to eat it all by myself"

"You could have left us some" Toboe moaned out.

"You were the ones who wandered off by yourselves" Hige said

"And that's why you had your little "Date" with here, huh?" I giggled as Tsume said the truth. Hige sighed.

"There was something about her that seemed... lonely, somehow" Hige said, scratching his face. Toboe moaned again.

"So, what do we do now?" Toboe asked. Hige sat up with a grin on his face.

"Go impose on Cole's hospitality for a while?" I gave the beige wolf a dull look.

"Give your hormones a rest would you?" I muttered.

"Go find us something to eat! By yourself!" Tsume finally snapped.

"By myself!?" Hige yelled. Tsume took a step forwards with a growl.

"All right, I'm going!, I'm going..." Hige said as he walked off. I laughed.

"I can clearly see who is more of the alpha" Toboe laughed with me. Tsume gave us a death glare. We stopped and looked innocently at him. He rolled his eyes and leaned back against the wall.

"I'll go pick some medicinal herbs" Toboe said quickly. I eyed him as he left.

"Coward" I whispered. Tsume sighed.

(Break)

I tiredly opened my eyes as Tsume stood. I yawned and snuggled further into myself for warmth. Kiba's coat was draped over my body.

"Hey, we wasted a lot of time because of you" Tsume's voice woke me further up. "The others have gone off to look for food. What the hell were you up to last night?" I yawned again and was just to tired to get up.

"You didn't get all those wounds at the station last night. It's not like a care or anything..." he trailed off.

"I saw them once when I was little" Kiba said. "I was still a cub. Where I was born, they blossomed all over"

"What are you talking about?' Tsume demanded.

"White flowers that only bloomed under a full moon... they were lunar flowers. They were all burned" Kiba gasped out. I opened my eyes and watched him.

"What the hell brought this on?" Tsume growled.

"A fire that broke out in our territory burned all the flowers in an instant. Along with my friend, whose escape was cut off in an instant" I was scared. It was like a human horror story they told kids at night.

"I was the only one who survived... why just me...? why me...?" I sat up and moved closer to him, wanting him to take comfort that his pack was there for him.

"I don't have a pack anymore. The only place I have to go is paradise" he whispered.

(Break)

I jumped as did Kiba and Tsume as we heard a loud crash.

(Break)

I helped Kiba stand and handed him his coat.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tsume asked.

"I'm alright. I can move" Kiba assured us. My ears perked as I heard Toboe's rings jingle.

"Kiba! Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. Sorry.. your by yourself?" Kiba asked.

"Where's Hige?" I asked as I slipped my jacket over my shoulders.

"that's just it! He's in big trouble! Hige got caught in a trap, and he was taken away some where!" Toboe yelled. I gasped.

"What?" I demanded. Tsume sighed.

"All he has to do is fool the humans who caught him and get away" Tsume said. Toboe stomped his foot.

"Buy he can't! He was knocked out by the wolves who live here!"

"Why the hell would they do that!?" Tsume growled "Where were they headed?"

"I don't know!" Toboe yelled.

"Why didn't you tell us by howling!?" Tsume pointed a finger at the wolf. "You should've followed them!"

"Oh, right..." Toboe trailed off. I growled at his stupidity. Kiba walked forwards.

"Let's go" he ordered.

"Where Too?" Tsume asked.

"The city" Kiba panted. I walked right beside him, Toboe following me and Tsume following us. We started to jog, Kiba couldn't even keep up.

"We're burning daylight here..." Tsume snarled. He grabbed Kiba and threw him over his shoulder.

"Cut it out!" Kiba demanded.

"Hurry! If we don't hurry, they're going to kill him!" Toboe shouted. We turned and started to run. We ran down ally ways and past confused people.

"Tsume, put me down! I can walk on my own now!" Kiba yelled. Tsume slowed to a stop and leaned Kiba against a wall. He rubbed his shoulder.

"All right, let's get a move on" Tsume said. I sniffed the air and pointed.

"Kiba! Look!" it was Cole, the female member of the other pack.

"That's the lady from yesterday..." Toboe said. We ran after her. We turned the corner and there they stood. The cowardly dogs. They looked up as we stopped. I snarled at them in anger.

"Well, well. Looks like last night's beating didn't get our point across" one of the snickered. I snarled louder. They laughed but then they got a scared look on their faces. I looked back and saw Zali, the pack leader.

"Zali..." Cole murmured.

"You ordered this?" Tsume growled.

"What?" Zali asked.

"Don't play dumb!" Tsume snarled.

"What are you talking about!?" he was confused. I smelled it on him.

"Is it true that you sold out our friend to the humans?" Kiba asked.

"How low will you people sink?" Tsume continued to growl. Zali looked over at his pack of dogs.

"What's going on here?"

"Beats me" one of them said.

"That guy said to kill him! You told them to kill him!" Toboe screamed and pointed at the wolf with the orange hat.

"Moss!" Zali growled. Kiba ran at Moss. I growled and started forwards but was held back by Cole, she wrapped her arms around my thin frame. Zali ran past us and pushed Kiba back. Kiba fell against the wall as Zali punched Moss.

"This is MY pack!" Zali growled at Kiba. "Why did you sell out there friend?" he asked Moss.

"He's an outsider" like that made it right!?

"isn't it you who's selling out your friend, Zali!?"Another one asked.

"What?!" Zali demanded. I shook away Cole's grasp and moved up to Kiba to grab his arm.

"it's the truth! You Don't even do a dog's work!"

"do you really mean that?" Zali asked. Moss glared. We looked on as I witnessed my first pack fight. A real pack fight.

"I do what I have to do as leader of the pack. I can't let my personal feelings rule me anymore. I've done what I've done to protect the pack" Zali said.

"Nobody sees you as the leader anymore!" Moss roared and lunched at Zali. Moss punched him in the face as the rest of the pack surrounded him. Kicking and beating him. Kiba went to help the older wolf.

"Stay out of this!" Zali shouted. I looked away. This was plain cruel.

"Stop it!" Cole shouted, grabbing her head. I went over to her and hugged her around her waist. Since I was such a young pup and my mother died when I was just a few days old, Any female wolf I felt safe around.

"Just stop it!" she begged again. I growled at Moss.

"That's enough... stop it!" he ordered.

"Wait..." Zali said "Where was their friend taken?"

" I Don't know... I Don't know!" they snickered at their ex leader and walked away. Cole ripped away from me and ran over to Zali

"Zali!" she knelled at his side. She helped him up. Tsume walked up beside me.

"You don't have any idea where he might have been taken?" he asked Zali.

"He was on an orange truck" Toboe informed.

"If you're going to give up on paradise and turn back, now's the time" Zali said suddenly.

"I've got nowhere to go back to. So all I can do is move forwards" Kiba said.

"Even if hell is where we're headed" Tsume added "You people might not have found it, but we're going to. We'll find Paradise" Tsume said. I breathed out a breath of relief and smiled brightly.

"Tsume.." Toboe trailed off. Zali stood with Cole's help.

"Come on"

"Zali!" Cole said in concern.

"I can still run" he assured her. Zali ran and we went after him. I turned back to Cole.

"We'll be careful!" I shouted to her. She smiled slightly. I waved and ran to catch up with Kiba and Zali.

(Break)

There was Hige, in a cage and behind an orange truck. I sighed as Zali and Kiba ran in front of the truck. The humans screamed and lost control. They hit the wall and the cage went flying. I walked up to the cage and leaned over Hige.

"Long time no see" I teased. He sighed and got up.

"Damn it, do you guys have to be so rough?" he asked. Toboe scowled.

"Just be thankful you're alive!" he shouted.

"Come on, get out of there. You can do it yourself, right?" Tsume asked. Hige scuffed.

"That barbaric stuff isn't my thing" I sighed and leaned down to help bite the cage with Kiba. I looked up as the humans opened the door. I let ho of the cage to growl at them.

"Damn mad dogs!" he screeched. He grab his gun and started to fire. I yelped as one almost hit my paw. Zali ran at them from behind and grabbed his shoulder. Kiba got Hige out and ran for it. I followed Kiba and Tsume, Toboe and Zali followed us. And we ran.

(Break)

Zali led us down the pipe carefully. Kiba behind him, me behind Kiba, Toboe behind me, Hige behind Toboe and Tsume behind Hige.

"Is this road really safe?" Hige asked.

"I'd day it better then being burned with the trash" Tsume said. Zali jumped out and the pack after him. I sniffed the air and found nothing dangerous.

"This is as far as I can go. Go the rest of the way yourselves" Zali informed us.

"Your not coming? You're going to keep living here?" Kiba asked Zali.

" I don't know if the place we had looked for is real or not but I'm sure there are this who can go to paradise, and those who can't. I'm convinced of that" he said "find out for yourselves id the real Paradise I at the end of this road"

"You know, you don't seem much like a wolf" Tsume insulted. I glared at him.

"Tsume!" Tsume looked over at Zali.

"A wolf only protects his own pack" Zali turned with a smirk.

"Yeah. I've gone to the dogs" Kiba glared at Zali before running past him. I groaned and picked up my feet. The pack after me.

"Kiba! Wait up!" I shouted. Toboe laughed at me. I heard Zali's voice as we ran through the pipe.

"Even if they've vanished. They haven't gone extinct. Almost like wolves" I ran faster between the group, my paws digging into the ground and propelling me forwards.

"Flowers wont die so long as there's a moon and neither will we wolves" Zali's words echoed in my head and his words lifted my spirit. Maybe this journey won't be so bad after all.

End Episode

The Successors