Chapter 10

(A/N: Done with the funeral, and I guess it really didn't hit me until today, the finality of this whole situation. I've only been through one other significant death.. but like I've been saying, she is in a better place. The Priest today reinforced that. So this is the last of this whole situation, and here's the rescue! Enjoy!)

Storm had been unable to do anything but pace around the house, anxious and ready to go. So when seven o'clock in the evening rolled around, Storm was more than grateful. He left feeling like he could run a hundred miles, and do so all in one day. He forced himself to stay calm though, and was also thankful that it was Monday night, so everyone would be going to sleep early as they had to work tomorrow.

Now Storm had to think of how to get inside the building Aniu was being kept. He walked down the quiet street, deep in thought. He supposed he could just walk in, but that would likely get him seen and noticed, then at the very least, thrown out.

"Hey, Storm!" someone called.

The husky in question looked up and saw three dogs, one male and two female, heading his way. Storm groaned inwardly. He knew these three, although their names escaped him at the moment. More than once they tried to get him to partake in activities he was not interested in. And he really didn't care tonight either, they would do nothing but take up his time. So as soon as they stopped in front of him, he spoke.

"Look, if you leave me alone now, I'll do whatever you want me to do tomorrow night, I promise"

"Really?" one asked, her eyes sparkling.

"Yes."

"Alright."

Storm briefly wondered what he'd just gotten himself in to, but he pushed that conflict aside for now, as he was free to move again. Storm hurried to the building where Aniu was being kept.

He decided to climb up onto the roof again, as an idea was forming n his mind. He went around the back of the large building, climbed up the boxes and onto the roof. He looked around for a moment before spotting what he wanted. Storm saw the brick chimney sticking out the top of the roof, and he took a quick glance down it. He couldn't smell any smoke, so he took that as a good sign.

Storm carefully lowered himself down into the hole, his heart rate and breathing quickening with anticipation, but also because of the small space. He managed to slide awkwardly down the tunnel, balancing himself by propping his back against one side of the brick wall, and slowly shifting his paws down.

He landed, out of breath and okay, albeit covered in a layer of black soot, which he realized would point directly to how he got inside, and once he left, it would leave a trail behind.

Storm attempted to shake the soot off, and succeeded in getting most of it off, but he still had a slightly black tint on his grey fur. All it did was make said fur look darker though. He then examined the room he was in. It was completely bare except for the fireplace he'd just come out of. It looked like someone might have lived there once, but was long since gone.

There was only one door leading out of the dark room, which had fallen off its hinges and was currently lying on the floor. He stepped over it and exited the room and came out into a fairly long corridor, presumably leading to the arena where the fights took place. Several doors were on each side of the wall, most of them closed. Storm went quietly down the hallways, trying to scent Aniu.

After six doors he caught her scent, and pushed the door open and went into probably the darkest room he'd ever seen. Storm could see the white wolf sleeping peacefully in her cage, her with an almost luminous quality to it.

"Hey." He said quietly, tapping one of his claws on the concrete floor. Aniu's ear twitched, but she remained asleep.

"Hey, Aniu!" Storm said again, this time a little louder.

The wolf sat up almost instantaneously, her yellow eyes locking onto him, unsure of who he was.

"Storm?" she questioned.

"Yes, that's me. I'm gonna get you outta here."

Storm took a step closer, trying to figure out how to open the cage.

"You have to move those two things," Aniu said, pointing with her nose at two latches. Storm used his claws to unlatch and open the cage door, allowing Aniu to crawl out.

"Can you get this off?" Aniu asked, meaning the muzzle. Storm was understandably weary. This would be his first time near her without her being restrained in some way. He trusted her when she was chained up, but…

"I'm not going to attack you, I promise." Aniu said, as if reading the grey husky's thoughts.

Storm stared at her for a moment, deciding whether or not she was telling the truth. After a long while he seemed to accept what she'd said, and nodded.

"Okay."

Storm took the leather collar of the device in his teeth, and attempted to pull it off.

"Hey, I'm gonna have to-"

"I don't care!" Aniu exclaimed, "Just get this thing off of me!"

Storm tugged once again, this time with all of his strength. The collar broke with a loud 'snap!' and went clattering to the ground as Storm released it.

"Ah, thanks. You don't know how good it feels to have that off."

"I bet I do."

Aniu just rolled her eyes. "How'd you even manage to find me? I thought you were… I thought they had killed you." Aniu finished hesitantly.

"Ya aren't gettin' rid of me that easily!" Storm teased. His eyes met Aniu's, and so the husky and the wolf stood, each entranced by the other, their noses inches apart. Aniu inched her muzzle forward, and Storm copied her until…

"Let's get out of here." The husky said abruptly, turning away and ending that short moment.

Aniu chided herself for staring and acting like that, what a fool she'd just made of herself! Storm was thinking similar thoughts, but both of them were caught by surprise when the door to the little room was flung open.

A large dog stood in the door. Storm's eyes narrowed as he leapt for the dog's throat. Storm plowed him over and smacked his head into the concrete floor, dazing the husky dog.

"I would kill you," Storm growled, "but if I did that I'd be just as bad as you." Storm settled for kicking him and knocking him unconscious. Aniu then dragged him into the cage and locked him up.

"We'll see how he likes that." She laughed.

"Ha-ha, yeah."

Storm took one step outside the room, where seven more dogs stood waiting. Aniu stepped to his side, but Storm pushed her back.

"No. They're mine."

In that moment Aniu saw a new Storm, one who wanted revenge and blood for the murder of his friends. It frightened her a little bit, but she knew the significance of these types of battles, and the meaning that it held for the grey husky beside her. So Aniu sat back, promising herself she'd only help if her friend really needed it.

Six of the huskies moved in a semi-circle, blocking both Storm and Aniu into the room. The seventh, presumably the leader was a silver furred dog, who sat behind the line, his eyes glittering with amusement. He wanted to see them suffer, and it only infuriated Storm more.

Storm became his name, moving like lightning and landing so many blows, while managing to stay untouched himself. A black paw managed to get in his face, so Storm took it in his jaws, crushing it easily in his adrenaline powered rage. He then jerked said limb, pulling its owner in front of him and blocking several more blows that had been directed at him. Storm let the husky drop, clawing another's eye and kicking him too, putting two out.

The fight had brought Storm out into the corridor, and the four remaining huskies regrouped in front of the silver one, each of them a lot more weary now, all having at least one claw or bite mark on them. The silver husky pushed through them.

"Stay out of this." He said in a commanding voice, the others obeyed immediately, scurrying off to probably get help, Storm thought.

The silver husky glared at Storm.

"Let's see what you've got."

He leapt at Storm, who copied the move he'd seen Aniu use and swept the dogs paws out from under him the dog who Storm had dubbed, 'Silver', landing on his side. Silver then kicked Storm in the nose, but he felt nothing at the moment.

Silver rolled away and was on his paws again, this time he would take a more cautious approach. Aniu watched anxiously from the doorway, wanting to hurry up and get out of the building. She hated to do it, but she waited until Silver's back was to her, and she leapt up with a snarl and knocked the dog down easily. Storm repeated his kick and he was unconscious as well.

"I'm sorry Storm," Aniu said quickly, seeing the glare she'd gotten, "but we need to get out of here. They're bringing help."

Storm glared defiantly for a few seconds, but he let the fire in his body die. He knew Aniu was right. As much as he wanted to fight all of them, he wouldn't stand a chance, especially if they brought humans, and especially if the humans had guns. He looked down at the three injured dogs around him, thinking that was quite enough for now.

The one who had the broken leg was staring at them, his eyes glazed over from being in so much pain. Even though it probably wasn't right, Aniu put him unconscious as well so he couldn't tell anyone where they were going.

Storm and Aniu hurriedly left the building through the front entrance, hurrying around to the back and climbing to the roof. Both only barely got up before the shouts of humans could be heard in the building below, sounding very angry.

Storm heard one man say, "The wolf is gone!" followed by a multitude of curse words, and he just had to laugh at that.

Aniu looked at him questioningly, but instead of asking him what he found so humorous, she settled for inquiring their next move.

"What do we do now?"

"Once we get out of town, we can either go back to my masters old place, or you can just leave now. It's your choice."

"I'll decide once we get to the house."

Storm nodded, and set off on the roof path he'd discovered earlier, but being sure to avoid detection. Below Aniu was being searched for, and Storm was sure he was wanted too for causing so much trouble. But night had overtaken quickly, so the people had to cut their search short until morning. Storm and Aniu were easily able to sneak out of the town, and back to Jarrod's house.

Aniu looked at it for a few moments. "I'll stay here for the night."

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure."

Storm stood for a moment, deciding what to do.

"Well, I'm gonna go get something to eat. You can join me if you want to, but it's that dry food again."

"I really don't care what it is. I'm hungry."

Aniu had hardly been fed enough the past few days, and was more than happy to eat even some of the dry stuff. Tomorrow though, she'd go hunting.

After a few minutes of eating their fill, both went back to hide inside Jarrod's house. Storm figured that since his master was gone, he might as well get comfortable. He went into Jarrod's small bedroom, and jumped up onto the soft and cozy material.

Aniu, unsure of what to do, followed him into the room.

"You can sleep anywhere you want," Storm informed her.

"Up there…?" She asked, almost immediately regretting it.

"If you want."

Aniu jumped up beside her friend, and settled herself into the comfortable material.

"Oh, this is definitely a lot better than lying on that hard floor."

"I'll bet so."

Storm made sure to move over a bit, so he wasn't too close to Aniu. She sensed this though, as she was good at doing.

"Look… I can leave."
"No, you're fine, honestly!"

Aniu looked skeptical, but said nothing more, settling her head down onto her paws.
Storm was secretly enjoying the closeness of them, although his rational mind wouldn't allow him to admit that. He knew that he liked the white wolf. Who couldn't be completely enraptured by everything about her?

'Come on, stop that Storm!' one part of his mind argued.

'Why?' the other shot back.

'Because this is a wolf… and not only that, you've only known her for what, a week?'

'So? What's wrong with a wolf? It's not like you're going spend your life with her, she's leaving tomorrow!'

'Good, the sooner the better.'

Storm blinked a couple of times, clearing his frazzled mind. Aniu next to him was thinking similarly.

She knew her attraction to the husky dog was wrong, but she didn't know many wolves even who would've broken into a human building to save her. Although she knew he had wanted revenge, and that was part of the reason he had returned, Aniu could tell that she was the more important of the two. That meant something to her, even if it meant nothing to him. She was also worried about him, or more specifically, what he would do once she was gone.

Aniu suspected that Storm probably still wanted vengeance, and had only cooled off for the moment. She was worried that he would return to town and get himself killed. But she couldn't take him with her… no wolf would accept that, and he would probably end up getting killed anyway, which was stupid, because if they knew the grey husky like she did…

Aniu stopped a moment. How well did she really know Storm? They had spent an entire night talking and laughing with each other, but even then… Aniu glanced over at the sleeping dog beside her. His breathing even, his chest rising and falling rhythmically…

She cleared her thoughts similar to the way her friend had only a few minutes before. Aniu allowed herself to relax, and sleep to overcome her.

…

Storm blinked awake, and finding no sign of his friend, was up in an instant. She better not have left without saying good bye to me! Checking the whole building and finding no sign of the white wolf, Storm hurried outside and found his friend sitting and gazing at the red early morning sky.

"There you are, I thought you'd left."

"I wouldn't leave without telling you. I just like watching the sunrise. Red in the morning, we should take warning."

"What?"

"Some old saying, when there's a red sky in the morning that means something bad could happen later."

Storm nodded and turned his gaze upwards. Neither canine spoke for nigh on an hour, both unsure of what to say. They knew what they wanted, but none wanted to say it. Finally the silence was broken though.

"I suppose I should be going." Aniu said, standing up slowly.

"Be careful out there."

"I will, and Storm, what're you going to do?"

"About what?"

"Last night… I know, you are still angry. I hope you don't do anything stupid, not out of anger, it won't bring them back, and will only ruin you."

"I know that, but what else have I got? At least you've got a family waiting for you, I have nothing."

Aniu took a breath to say something, but it never came out. She had wanted to say, 'You have me, and ask if he wanted to go with her, but quickly realized the problem with said question, and kept that to herself, instead opting for a much more casual reply.

"Well, just be safe. And, thank you… for saving me. I'll never forget that, and I'll make sure that my pack knows of you."

"Nah don't worry about that… I'd have done it for anyone."

Aniu nodded, "I guess this is good bye then. I hope I see you again one day."

"Good bye and good luck."

Aniu said nothing more, turning away and starting off on her journey home.

..

Took me a while, but finally done with this. I think it was pretty good, for me anyway. What do y'all think?

-ANonymouS