Light Embracing Darkness: Chapter Ten
The Countess D
Pathetic. That was the only word that could capture the state humanity was in now. Quent could see it everywhere, whether it was in the streets or in the bars. But it had been a long time since he'd seen mankind's sorry state encapsulated so perfectly in such a tiny space.
Blue whined a little beside him, and he frowned, petting her head gently until she laid it across his lap. A few beady eyes turned towards the action, quickly turning away as he raised his gaze to meet them.
In the dark of the railcar, there were only shapes in the shadows, masses that may or may not be human. A single sliver of light stretched over the length of the car, slipping in through the door they'd cracked open to make sure they didn't suffocate in the stench of sweat and misery. The light illuminated bits of cloth, hay, and hair. Quent narrowed his eyes towards the darkness in front of him.
To say he was uneasy was an understatement.
He reached into his coat pocket, silently apologizing to Blue as he disturbed her with the movement. After finding what he was looking for, he popped the flask open and tilted his head back to guzzle down what little whiskey he had left.
It burned on the way down, sending a feeling of being warmed right down to the tips of his toes. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve, noting that more than one shadow was watching him from across the aisle as he did so. The glints in their eyes were greedy and focused on the flask in his hand, betraying their silent request. Speaking to them, he said loudly. "Sorry. All I had left."
It was an explanation. On a deeper level, it was a warning. It wouldn't be the first time Quent had been jumped for a few drops of booze. Blue looked up at him from his lap in understanding before looking out into the shadows herself, relaxed at the moment, but completely prepared to protect her old man should the need arise.
No one bothered them after that. No one looked. All they could do was turn away and hope that they'd reach their destination, hope they'd find what they were looking for.
And all the bounty hunter and his dog could do was hope that those they were looking for still had to be found. After all, it would be inconvenient if those wolves in sheep's clothing were part of the darkness, waiting predators in the barely distinct shadows that had slipped into the railcar beside them.
It was a strange experience to feel the rush of movement without using a single muscle. Even stranger was to watch the world pass by, all white and empty, with only the hint of chill on the windows to remind those watching just how cold it really was outside.
It was new, and it was certainly unsettling for Atra and Kuri at the very least. Tsume, on the other hand, had settled into a position of comfort in the passenger's seat almost as soon as the truck started moving. For the two sisters, the sound of the motor and feel of the wheels climbing over slopes and bumps in the snow reminded them of other times, when the feel of being around humans was truly foreign, and their trip to another city via motor vehicle was anything but a friendly gesture.
It had taken a while for them to find some semblance of security in the backseat of the truck, and the human driving them seemed to have noticed their discomfort and ignored its existence accordingly. Instead, he used his energy to engage Toboe and Tsume in small talk for a majority of their first hour out of the village.
As for Atra, there was nothing but darkness after that. She'd been lulled to sleep by the rocking of the truck and the low talk of those who inhabited it. It wasn't until sometime later until the very same rocking that had lulled her to sleep brought her back to consciousness, the glass of the truck's window chilled pleasantly against her forehead.
She opened her eyes and looked around, somewhat relieved to find that she hadn't been the only one that had dozed off. In fact, the only person that was awake with her at the moment seemed to be the driver himself.
Thankfully for her, he didn't seem to notice.
She let out a soft breath, deciding to make her consciousness known. Turning a little in her seat, she pulled Toboe a bit closer to her, arranging him to lie across her lap and Kuri's. Leon glanced up into the rearview mirror at the motion, chuckling under his breath. "Tsume says you two spoil him."
"Are you two friends now?" Atra said, smiling at him.
He snorted in reply. "Hardly."
Atra grinned in good humor before craning her neck to see the time on the dashboard. Leon spoke before she caught the slightest hint of it within her vision, "We're almost there. Within two hours, we should be at the city gates."
She nodded before looking out the windows on the opposite side of the truck. A railroad track stretched across the snow, though no train was in sight. Atra marveled at it for a moment, wondering how far and long they would have had to travel on foot to see such a thing. "Is that how you find your way?"
"Yes." Leon said smiling even as he kept his eyes focused on the landscape before him. "If you travel far enough to the Northeast, you see it in the snow. And from that point on you just follow it back to its city."
Atra nodded once more, and Leon glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "Hige and Kiba. Are they all right being back there for so long?"
"Kiba's determined to get to the city as quickly as possible. Hige makes a fuss but he'll suck it up if he needs to." Atra explained, "They'll be fine."
"You're not worried about them?"
Atra looked to Leon and smiled. "They're capable of taking care of themselves."
"I see." Leon murmured before putting his focus back on the drive. A silence settled over them, the only sounds in the truck being the whirr of the motor and the breathing of the wolves around them. Atra looked at the radio, wishing that the human would give into the quiet and simply flick it on, dispelling the unspoken questions between them.
But that would be too easy.
Sighing, Atra turned to the window, her lips puckered into the slightest hint of a pout. The sight outside was a conflicting one. Not exactly a winter wasteland, but empty all the same. She frowned. "So much snow."
"You don't like it?" Leon asked the question immediate.
"I almost died out there." She replied, regretting the words even as they left her lips. They were unnecessary, and certainly suspicious. Sourly, she began to wonder if Kiba's warning to her as she got into the truck was warranted after all.
But Leon, to her surprise, showed no sign of shock at her confession. "I'm not surprised." He hesitated before pressing on, "Winter, snow. Ever since the wars, it's hard not to see them as death itself."
"Wars." Atra echoed, threading her fingers through Toboe's hair.
"Its when all this started, you know. I'd heard that a long time ago, it didn't snow here. Or if it did, it was rare. But after the wars, winter never ended." Leon frowned, his expression somber, mournful. "When I was younger, visitors would come through telling us of tropical places, or just forests where the seasons were still intact or where there weren't any seasons at all, besides summer. As I got older, those visitors became harder to find. Everyone that came through our village was weary. Dead inside or dying. All because this winter, this December's spreading. And mankind can't do a thing. The world's so unforgiving now because we made it that way."
Atra stared at Leon, wondering at how such a jaded voice spilled so easily from a boy that couldn't be over twenty-five. She began to notice the bags under his eyes, the thin wrinkles across his skin. Then suddenly, he let out a bitter laugh. "I'm sorry. You live for so long in a place like this and your mind goes places."
"No. I know what you mean." She agreed, remembering how the snow had slowly crept towards her old home. It had touched the base of the mountain they lived on, she remembered, right before the end. And snow or not, it was ultimately the humans – and only humans – that were to blame.
In what seemed to be a forced albeit lighter tone, Leon pressed on. "But you know, even though visitors that give us hope are harder to find, that doesn't mean that they don't exist." He smiled a little to himself. "Just this month there was a guy who came in. Sharp eyes, like he could see right through you. Around… Hige's age maybe."
"He told me about how he'd lost his home; how he'd lost this girl. Me and 'Ma would listen to him talk about her at the dinner table. About how she was passionate. Stubborn. How they'd butt heads whenever they were around each other. Said she was the best friend he'd ever had. He hadn't forgiven himself for losing her, and so… he was looking. He said he had no intentions of giving her up."
Atra listened silently, her heart clenching at the words. Leon smiled, still lost in the memory of the visitor. "Of course, 'Ma and I knew that using 'best friends' to describe their relationship might have been an understatement, at least for him. But either way, it's hard to see that kind of devotion in anyone. But this guy… He was just one of those people you could see searching to the ends of the Earth just to find what he wants, you know?"
"I know." Atra said, noting that one of those very 'people' was currently in the truck bed right then and there. She looked towards the windshield, taking a deep breath of relief when she saw a cityscape growing on the horizon. "Whatever happened to that guy?"
And while Leon had been smiling very warmly at the memory of his visitor, suddenly the curves of his lips became stiff, forced. "The last we saw of him, he was traveling with a group of soldiers. He promised he'd make it a point to pass through the village again in three days time." He hesitated, the curl of his lips lowering until they were simply pressed into a fixed line. "He never came back."
"Oi. Wake up. You've spent enough time sleeping in some human's backseat, it's time to move."
Kuri stirred against the leather seats, scowling at such a rude awakening. Opening one eye, she sent the strongest glare she could muster at Tsume before sitting up and stretching, her arms raised above her head as high as possible before hitting the roof of the truck.
She shook her head before looking around, noticing that Toboe was still asleep across the backseat, the other wolves mulling around against its exterior. The human Tsume was referring to, however, was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Leon?"
"Inside."
"Where's 'inside?'" Kuri said, turning her (albeit weak) glare back to Tsume. The perpetual scowl that resided on his lips seemed to deepen before he took a deep breath.
"A hotel. Leon took it upon himself to call a few friends he had in the city and get us two bedrooms for the night. I had to all but throttle him to make sure he didn't stay the night."
Kuri frowned in distaste, though she couldn't help but agree that having Leon stay another night with them would be a risky move. So while she'd told herself she'd be happy to find an excuse to stay angry at Tsume after the events of that morning, she couldn't deny that urging Leon to go back home was the best decision. "I'm surprise you didn't force him to take back the favor altogether."
"I would have. But he promised a free meal for the night, and even your sister didn't seem to want to pass that up."
"My sister?" Kuri said, looking at him confusedly.
Tsume nodded before leaning against the frame of the truck, looking over to her. "They were chatting it up earlier. Sounded like they bonded pretty well." Kuri let out a soft 'oh' in acknowledgement before turning back to the pup across her lap, watching him sleep.
As she turned, Tsume couldn't help but notice a rustle in her fur past the layer that the humans could see. There were those scars again, souvenirs of what little time she'd spent in the Zali's city. Tsume frowned, his gaze softening slightly as it traveled over them. For once it was the scars, not the girl herself that was beginning to make his blood boil. "Do they hurt?"
Kuri jumped subtly, though not unnoticeably at the sudden address, turning to Tsume with slightly wide eyes. "What?"
"Your scars. Do they still bother you?" Tsume clarified, though the words only seemed to confuse the she-wolf further. She stared at him, her expression changing from confused, to surprised, to disbelieving in an impressively short span of time. Tsume fidgeted before looking away, refusing to believe that the look this girl was giving him was what had caused heat to flood his cheeks. "I'm only asking because you're taking so damn long to get out of the car."
Kuri pouted at the less than sensitive turn in the conversation before roughly kicking Tsume out of her way. Tsume grunted as he moved to the side, watching as Kuri stepped out of the truck. She turned to him, her tone cooler than the one she usually used to bicker with him. "They're fine. Definitely not as bad as the headache I get when you're around."
Tsume watched as she walked around him, looking past her human layer once more to see her tail held high in haughty triumph as she walked away. In spite of himself, he let out a dry laugh.
Kuri walked towards the other wolves, not failing to notice that they all had been more or less watching her display with Tsume. Ignoring the entertained expressions on Hige and even Kiba's faces, she leaned against the truck beside Atra. "I heard that you were talking with Leon."
Atra looked at her, her smile suddenly wavering. Hige looked over with a look of mock surprise. "You didn't tell us that. Are you flirting with the humans now, Atra?"
"Not quite." She replied simply, rebuffing his teasing easily. Hige seemed startled, or at least unprepared for such a calm reply, and Atra allowed herself a few moments of satisfaction in watching him struggle for a response. She then looked over at the next wolf beside him, unsurprised when she caught the curiosity in Kiba's eyes.
But before any of them could speak again, a familiar voice called out from the entrance of the motel. "Not quite what?" They looked over to see Leon approaching them with a grin. "Talked to the owners and they have your rooms all set on the third floor. Dinner's at eight so you have a good couple of hours of rest."
"Which rooms?" Tsume asked, still hovering about the door Kuri had climbed out of minutes earlier.
"305 and 306. They're across the hall from each other." Leon said.
Tsume nodded before leaning into the truck, gathering Toboe in his arms. The pup stirred a little, and as subtly as possible, Tsume rocked him in his arms to lull him back to sleep. Kuri watched them from the other side of the truck, her eyes following them even as the wolves beside her began to say their goodbyes.
"Well, Ms. Kuri. Your room key." Leon's voice drew her back to those around her, and Kuri turned to find the human looking at her with a tender smile. He extended a hand towards her, a keycard delicately held between two fingers and Kuri took it gratefully, smiling warmly at the boy. "I hope you all find what you're looking for. Whatever it is."
"Thank you." She said gratefully, noticing that Kiba and Hige had already begun walking up to their rooms. "I hope you have a safe trip back home."
Leon nodded at her before gesturing the sisters to walk into the hotel ahead of them. He followed them, escorting them through the hotel's entrance and pausing five steps through the door. While Kuri walked on, Atra waited until she was out of sight before looking at Leon. "His name was Fox, wasn't it? The visitor that stayed with the soldiers."
The human looked at her in surprise for a moment before lowering his voice, "How'd you know?"
"I don't see why you would tell me that story otherwise." Atra said, shrugging. Cracking a smile of her own, she added flippantly, "And the way you told it made it pretty obvious. Plus, I doubt there are many other girls named Atra out there." Atra said with a sigh, walking towards one of the chairs in the lobby before plopping herself down on its cushions.
Leon let out a small laugh, running a hand through his hair and moving closer to her. "Did you know he was still alive? After what happened to your home, I mean."
Atra hesitated before answering honestly, "No. I didn't."
Leon nodded, considering his words before simply saying, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Said Atra, thinking back to Leon's words in the car. He never came back. She frowned, "Nothing's changed, anyway."
Leon looked at her with sympathy in his eyes before looking in the direction Kuri had walked. "She knew him too, didn't she?" Atra didn't respond, simply watching as realization dawned on him. "You don't want her to know there's a chance he might still be out there."
Atra frowned before saying quietly, "We have enough false hope as it is." Leon looked at her questioningly, but Atra's gaze didn't stray from the space in front of her. "Giving any of us more hope over some boy the soldiers took prisoner isn't going to help any of us." Finally, she shook her head and pushed herself off the chair.
"Thank you." She said, looking up at Leon before clarifying, "For telling me that he was looking for me, that is."
Leon frowned before nodding slowly. Atra gave him a weak smile before trying to move past him. Leon placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "What are you going to do?"
Atra looked at the boy, the concern in his eyes making him ever more endearing to her. She smiled a bit wider. "I can't just wait for him." Leon seemed to deflate at the words, and Atra sighed, gently shrugging his hand off her shoulder. "But I'll keep an eye out."
Leon nodded, seeming a little reassured at her words. Finally, he took a step back. "Good luck." Atra nodded in thanks, and they stood there looking at each other before Leon turned to walk out of the hotel.
She watched as he started up his truck, watched as he drove away until he turned a corner and slipped out of sight. Once that last reminder of him and the information he brought to her was gone, all the breath in her lungs escaped her in a rush of air.
Despite the rest she'd had over the past two days, Atra felt nothing but exhaustion. She leaned her head back, looking up at the ceiling of the hotel lobby as she considered what she'd heard within the past couple of hours. Finally, she'd gathered enough of her thoughts to realize that Kuri and the rest of the group were waiting in their rooms upstairs.
Turning away from the entrance, she began to follow the path Kuri had taken earlier towards the elevators only to find that her sister had reappeared around the corner, and was staring straight at her. Instantly, Atra knew that she'd heard everything.
The door closed with a slam as Kuri entered the room. Atra watched her with cool detachment, settling onto one of the beds available in the room as Kuri paced across the floor. It had been an interesting development, watching Kuri's expression change from one of disbelief to hurt and then to anger during the elevator ride up. She'd been silent the entire way, but as soon as they'd reached the third floor, Atra could tell that her sister was livid. At the back of her mind, she found the inevitable argument between them almost funny, as if their tempers were proof that they were actually related.
Kuri drew Atra from her musings with a sudden, sharp accusation. "You weren't even going to tell me."
Atra took a deep breath, drawling as she leaned back against the sheets, "You know it's rude to eavesdrop."
"Fox was our pack mate. He's someone we knew." Kuri exclaimed, the volume of her voice escalating. Atra glanced at the door, wondering just how thin the walls really were. "I have a right to know about what's happened to our pack, especially if one of the wolves is out there looking for us as we speak—"
Atra let out a dry, harsh laugh, pushing herself off the bed to sit up once more, glaring at Kuri as her voice rose to match hers. "Whoever said as we speak? Leon met him with a bunch of soldiers. He said he would visit again and never came back. What world do you come from where soldiers like the ones we met in the last city leave any prisoners behind?"
Kuri quieted, seemingly taken aback by this new information. Atra glared at her for a bit longer before looking away, muttering under her breath, "Just like you to jump to conclusions."
Just when Atra thought Kuri might let the whole thing go, however, she spoke again. "But Leon doesn't know that he's really dead."
Atra looked at her sister with a frown, not sure if she'd heard her correctly. "What?"
"He doesn't know that he's dead, right?" Kuri asked a bit louder, determination in her eyes. Atra looked at her in disbelief and Kuri shook her head, "You say I'm jumping to conclusions. How are you any better?"
"It makes more sense—"
"Who cares about making sense?" Kuri yelled suddenly, her frustration clear in her tone. "Sense is all you care about nowadays. Out of the two of us, I'd think that the one that would care most about Fox is you, but you're just throwing him away—"
"Who's throwing anyone away?" Atra yelled, standing up suddenly. "If anyone's throwing away our old pack, it's you! For something that isn't even—" But Kuri continued yelling over her, drowning out her words.
"All because some human says he might or might not be dead!" She let out an uncharacteristically sardonic laugh, rolling her eyes. "But why not, right? I mean, now that you're too good for Paradise, why bother with the wolf that made you fall in love with it in the first place, right?"
Atra flinched, her voice wavering, "Kuri!"
"No, you know what Atra, that's fine. Leave me out of the loop when stuff like this comes up. It's not like you're not planning to throw me to the side later on anyway, right?" Kuri snapped, turning to Atra with a sarcastic, bitter smile flashing across her face.
Atra stiffened, blankly staring at Kuri. Her deal with Kiba ran through her mind, the talk of finding a safe city, the talk of leaving her behind returned to her with such a force that any and all words escaped her. There was a flash of hurt in Kuri's eyes before she looked away, muttering under her breath. "Figures… You always run."
Atra shook her head, allowing her to catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror and immediately hate how the human shell she wore had tears rolling down her cheeks. "I meant to tell you."
"Well obviously I already knew, deep down. It's not like anything's changed." Kuri said stiffly. Another dark laugh escaped her, "It's not like you were there when everything went to hell with our old pack either, were you?"
"Kuri, that's not fair!" Atra exclaimed, her voice cracking slightly.
"No it's not." Kuri said simply before turning another glare on Atra. "Because you were with Fox that time, weren't you? But I guess we're right back to where we started."
A silence settled on the two sisters as they looked at each other, until finally there was a knock at the door. Atra glanced at it before turning away, walking to the opposite side of the room. Kuri watched her go with a soft scoff before she opened it, finding Hige, Tsume, and Kiba waiting outside.
Hige rubbed the back of his head as he chuckled nervously. "Hey. We heard some yelling. Uh… is everything all right here?"
Kuri glanced at Atra behind her before turning back to them, not bothering to mask her anger when she answered with a curt, "Fine." She pushed through the wolves into the hall, turning towards the elevators. "I'm going to explore the city before dinner. I'll be back later."
Hige looked after her in confusion. "But… Wait! Uh…"
Tsume shook his head, muttering before taking off after her, "I'll make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."
Hige sighed, watching the two wolves turn the corner. "What's going on around here?"
Kiba glanced at him before looking into the room, watching as Atra took a seat on the floor, her back against the bed and hair falling in a curtain to obstruct his and Hige's view of her face. There was no subtle scent of salt, but Kiba had a hunch that there would be tears on the cheeks of Atra's human guise nonetheless. He frowned, looking to the wolf beside him. "Hige."
Hige turned to him, "Yeah?"
"Why don't you go watch Toboe?"
Hige looked at him for a moment before looking at Atra. The corner of his mouth twitched as his eyes brightened in realization. "All right then." He gave Kiba a meaningful look, his tone betraying a more suggestive meaning behind his words. "You take good care of her."
Kiba shot him a glare. "Just go." The corner of Hige's lips twitched once more before he shrugged and turned on his heel, walking to the room across the hall. Kiba watched him, scowling when he noticed he'd left the door cracked open just enough to let their conversation be heard. Promptly, Kiba stepped into Atra and Kuri's room and closed the door.
Kiba allowed himself a moment to smirk in triumph when a very muffled curse of disappointment sounded from across the hall before he turned his attention to the she-wolf seated on the hotel floor. He walked towards her, asking gently, "Are you all right?"
Atra nodded, reluctantly pulling back her hair to confirm Kiba's earlier suspicions. Her eyes were red and puffy, the wet tracks down her cheeks fresh. She laughed, the sound ringing of false cheer in Kiba's ears, before saying, "Humans are too expressive. I can't even wipe these things away, with the way this illusion thing works."
Kiba frowned as he looked at her, knowing that while their human disguises were expressive, they were very accurate indicators of how they were actually feeling inside. He studied Atra, sympathy in his eyes.
Atra fidgeted a little under his gaze before pointedly avoiding it, looking to the wall instead. "You know, there are legends about wolves turning into humans. Or humans turning into wolves… Not illusions, but actually shape shifting. I wouldn't be surprised if some of our kind were mistaken for that sort of thing before—"
Atra quieted as Kiba slipped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her tight against him before pressing his lips to the crown of her head. Atra stilled in his arms, shocked momentarily by the act before she relaxed, lowering her head to rest on his shoulder as her human shell cried against him.
For a while, Kiba simply held her, nuzzling her from time to time when a distressed shudder ran through her frame. Finally, he spoke, his breath blowing gently across her ear and causing a shiver to run through her that had nothing to do with sorrow. "What happened?"
Atra thought this over, blinking for a few moments before she let out a shaky laugh. "Well… I told her about our deal."