Hanzo sat at his campsite the next day in silence and in thought. He tore a chunk of dried deer meat off the strip he had cooked that morning. The wolf girl had left it for him in the middle of the night, maybe out of pity. Hanzo hated to be pitied and he certainly didn't need her pity. After her scolding, the day before Hanzo had grown both frustrated and bewildered. How did she know his name and the things he had done? She must be a demon but if she was wouldn't she had killed that child she had found in the forest? Maybe it was set up. Something to make Hanzo think that she wasn't a yokai.

"I'll kill you!"

Her threat echoed in his mind. He pictured the white wolf that was usually with her. Then the thought of those long fangs ripping him apart also came to mind. Hanzo definitely didn't want to be on their bad side which he already kind of was. It would be smart to leave but Hanzo thought that he couldn't just go back to the settlement empty-handed. He also wanted to know what she was exactly. There was the only way to know.

Hanzo stood up and grabbed his bow. In his quiver, he noticed he had only two arrows left. That wasn't good. He sighed heavily in frustration and threw his quiver over his shoulder. He would have to be extra careful so he wouldn't run into the wolf beings. Hanzo walked to the tree line, leaving his camp behind with the skin and the pile of firewood behind. He walked through the forest at a relatively fast pace. He was on a mission and he attended to complete it.

The forest was shrouded in fog now. Hanzo could only pick out the outlines of the trees around him. He stepped over a large tree that had been knocked down before Hanzo had even come here. Once was over it he picked his way through the thick brush that surrounded the small meadow he had been in many times.

When he stepped out into the meadow that was now covered in the thick fog he looked up at the small stack of rocks. Nothing stood at the ridge above him. Suddenly from above him, a flock of birds took flight from the trees above him and into the air. Silence followed them along with the chills that ran through Hanzo's spine. He tensed and listened for any other sound that would give off her location.

A low growl came from behind him on the ridge. Hanzo slowly turned and looked up to see the outline of a giant wolf. Hanzo quickly grabbed an arrow from his quiver and brought his bow up to its head. The wolf slowly emerged from the fog and jumped down from the stack of rocks into the grass below it.

Hanzo fired for the wolf's head. The arrow flew and hit the wolf in the forehead...and did nothing. The minute it made contact with the wolf's skull it fell down on the ground below the wolf and didn't even pierce its skin. Both of them stared at the arrow for a moment before the wolf glared up at Hanzo again. Hanzo's eyes widened at the sight of the red wolf looming over him and looking like it was about to attack. He then turned and began to run. He didn't get very far.

He felt something sharp grab the cloth of his tunic on his back. He let out a cry of desperation as he clawed the ground while the wolf lifted him up in the air. He hung in the air for a few moments, twisting and turning like a cat being picked up by the scruff of its neck. Suddenly the wolf turned its head and threw him over its shoulder and upon its back. Hanzo landed on the thick coarse fur of its shoulders. He quickly grasped the red and grey fur in his hands as he sat upon its back.

"Uhh…" he stuttered while looking down at the ground below him. Suddenly the wolf began to move.

"Whoa! Wait! No, no, no, no, put me down!" he cried but the wolf didn't listen. Instead, it lunged forward.

Hanzo cried out of desperation as he laid his body down flat on the wolf's back as it took off into the forest. He squeezed his eyes shut and held on for dear life. The wolf had a weird gate. Its stride was long and sweeping but strong. Hanzo buried his face in its fur and didn't dare look up or even open his eyes. All he cared about now was not falling off. Hanzo felt tree limbs fly over his head as the wolf loped through the forest at a fast stride. Hanzo gripped the wolf's fur tighter.

The wolf suddenly leaped up into the air and landed a second later, making Hanzo's eyes snap open. He looked back to see what they had jumped over and found it to be an old log getting further and further behind them. The wolf let out a soft bark, making Hanzo look forward at the wolf's head. It was looking back up at him from the corner of its eye. Hanzo slowly then sat up on the wolf's back so he wouldn't lose his balance.

He felt the wind whip the ribbons tied in his hair back behind him as he gazed ahead of them. A group of deer were scared by their sudden appearance and scattered to get out of the way. Hanzo watched them bound away into the trees and fog before catching something white a ways away from them running through the trees with his eyes. A white blur weaved in and out through the trees before it appeared to be the large white wolf that was now beside them. It was larger than the red one, much larger actually. Hanzo then came to the conclusion that it might be male since it was also stockier as well. The wolves shared a glance before suddenly the red wolf pushed themselves faster. Hanzo gripped the fur tighter on its back as they increased speed. They surged into deeper into the forest it seemed. Hanzo had to duck to avoid low hanging limbs as they got deeper and deeper into the fog.

Hanzo caught sight of something red on the trunk of the tree when they went by it. He looked back to see it was a red X. Hanzo soon saw that all the trees around him had red X's on them. The wolves weaved and dodged the trees with the marks on their trunks until they suddenly stopped. Hanzo was caught off guard by this and didn't have a chance to react. When the wolf under him stopped, he was thrown forward. He flew in the air, over the wolf's head, and onto the ground hard.

He laid there for a few seconds, the wind had been knocked out of him. He should have seen that coming. Hanzo rolled onto his back and took deep long gasps to catch his breath. Suddenly the wolf girl was beside him and looking down at him. Her mask was covering her face once again and her ears were pricked forward down toward him.

"A dramatic entrance," she said, the white wolf was suddenly looming over him too. He looked around and found that the red wolf wasn't present. Where did it go?

"Where are we?" Hanzo asked, and coughed a little before sitting up. The girl was silent and she walked around him. Hanzo looked around to see them on some sort of hill, he thought. The mist was so thick he couldn't see any trees around them.

"See for yourself..." the girl murmured darkly, Hanzo slowly stood up and walked toward her standing on the top of the hill.

He looked down at the valley below them and saw something that made him rethink completely.