Author's Note: FINALLY. OMG. My hands are cramping and my brain is half-dead, but I did it. I finished this chapter tonight. Hurray! Sorry for the wait, I got so derailed off my schedule this summer. I barely had time to eat, let alone write. This chapter starts out really choppy and fast, and I couldn't fix it no matter how hard I tried, so I apologize for that, but I think I redeemed myself with the second half of it.

Hopefully this will be a turning point and I can update this more. Thanks for being patient with me!

Chapter 9

"We're going out today."

It was said with such a tone of finality that, for a moment, irritation overcame any sense of melancholy Kiba felt.

"Out?" Toboe echoed from his place on the bed, blinking owlishly at Hige, who was standing at the window with a slight frown on his face. Toboe was lying on his right side with his left arm dangling over the edge of the bed and had been there since early in the morning. He'd been trying to catch up on his sleep all day, still fatigued from his strange episode the night before, and Kiba had been content to let him do so. It was better than talking, at this point.

"Why?" Kiba asked, tipping back his chair slowly until the back tapped against the wall, eyeing Hige curiously.

This was the first time any of them had spoken all day, despite Kiba's promise to Toboe that they would discuss everything that happened after Tsume's visit. That had been his intention, originally, though when Kiba awoke the next morning, the urge to speak with Toboe – to anyone, really – had completely disappeared. So, quiet they all had stayed, Hige by the window, Toboe in the bed, and Kiba in the chair. It wasn't the most comfortable of places – even now Kiba's tailbone was aching profusely – but the boy was afraid that if anything changed, if any one of them shifted, the peaceful calm that have overcome the dwelling would disappear.

"I'm bored." Hige replied with a sigh, shifting his weight onto one leg slowly as he continued to stare out the window. "And I did promise once that I would show you and Toboe how to survive underneath the Pharaoh's nose. Perhaps showing you the territory would be a good place to start."

Barely concealing an exasperated groan, Kiba righted himself before pushing to his feet, hands on his hips as he observed the other laborer. Kiba still wasn't sure what to think about Hige after all that had happened, but he would humor him for now. "All right fine. Toboe, are you up for it?"

Toboe had been drifting off to sleep as they talked, though he jerked himself awake at the sound of his name, lifting his head sleepily and blinking over at Kiba. "Whaa? Yeah, sure, let's go, I'm awake."

"Obviously." Hige chuckled as Toboe got up from the bed, stretching both arms high above his head with a yawn before following Hige and Kiba out the door.

"So, where to?" Toboe asked as Hige shut the door behind them, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the sun's bright light as he considered Toboe's question.

"Well, let's just walk through the streets and toward the river. Kiba and I don't have to work today, so we can afford to be lazy."

Kiba still wasn't used to this whole "work schedule" thing, though Hige seemed to have when they were and weren't supposed to work memorized, so he was content to follow after Hige and Toboe as they started off down the street. "So," Hige began as they walked, "you never did tell me. Why did you guys come all the way out here from Thebes? I heard you mention before that your parents were gone. Did you two live alone?"

Toboe rubbed at his eyes, probably pretending to still be half-asleep as Kiba carefully replied, "We lived with our grandmother after our parents were killed in the raid. But she died suddenly on the night of the last full moon. Toboe and I came here looking for a fresh start."

Kiba wasn't going to mention the fact that Kamiah had been murdered to Hige just yet. It would only open the door to a whole other set of worries that Kiba didn't have the strength to deal with right now. Maybe someday, but not today. "Well, that's too bad." Hige said, sounding genuinely sympathetic as they finally maneuvered onto the main street that was bustling with people, the three of them barely managing to walk side-by-side without getting jostled by passersby. "I did lose my mom, but I can't imagine how it would feel to go through that not once, but twice."

"It's not a good feeling." Toboe commented, rubbing at his arms and watching with curious eyes as a man and woman argued together at one of the stations, the man trying to barter and the woman simply not having it. "I was only five when our parents were killed, and I don't remember much, but that empty feeling was one I was familiar with when Granny wouldn't wake up that day."

Kiba didn't want to talk about that day, and luckily, Hige seemed to sense that. "Hey, is that where you guys used to sleep before we met?"

Toboe and Kiba followed Hige's line of sight, gazing towards a wide street that was littered with blankets and rags that Kiba knew were used as clothes. "Yes." Toboe said, looking to Kiba briefly before glancing away again. "How'd you know?"

"Just a hunch." Hige replied. "People refer to those kind of streets as 'The Slums'. It's not just kids that live there; sometimes adults find themselves homeless, too. This is one of the more well-known ones, and it's close to where we work, so I just wondered."

"Glad I never have to go back there again." Toboe said with a slight shudder. "It was awful. I hate feeling exposed like that."

Kinda didn't quite share Toboe's contempt for the slum they'd lived in for a short while. It hadn't been protected, sure, but sleeping underneath the stars was something Kiba had never experienced before, and he would often lay awake with Toboe curled up against his side, just looking at the sky. It felt nice to be out in the open without the oppressive feeling of stone walls on all sides, but on the other hand, it also felt nice to have a roof over his head.

More often than not, his wolf and human sides battled against each other, and although it was disheartening, his human side usually won.

The three of them continued to walk further and further away from the heart of the city until the people began to thin out and the smell of water became more apparent. Kiba and Toboe had never had a reason to go down to the Nile when it wasn't the full moon, so to Kiba, walking so close to the water's edge for no reason was a new and strange feeling. The last time they'd been this close to the Nile, they'd been interrupted by that awful scream that came from the direction of the palace.

Kiba glanced at it now, much closer than it had been when they were in Thebes, but still a good ways away. He hadn't thought about it much since it had happened, but now, this close, the curiosity was back. Whose scream had they heard that night? Why had they been able to hear it, being miles down the river, far out of hearing range, even if they were wolves? Kiba reminded himself to ask Hige if he'd heard the screaming as well later on.

"The slaves live over there, across the water." Hige said, gesturing across the Nile, toward a moderately sized village that lay adjacent to Memphis.

"Aren't we all just slaves to the Pharaoh?" Kiba inquired, slowing his pace slightly to get a better glimpse of what lay across the water. The village looked no different than Thebes, just larger, the homes obviously more crudely kept than the ones Kiba had grown up around. With his keen sight, he detected movement amongst the shadows, though any work that was happening was hidden from their view, taking place further within the village and its outskirts, where people like Kiba couldn't see. Frown set firmly in place, Kiba wondered how horrible conditions were over there.

"Well, it's a bit different on this side of the Nile." Hige explained, stopping so suddenly that Toboe almost bumped into him. "We have certain benefits that they don't. We get paid, for example."

"What's so different about them?" Toboe asked.

Hige shrugged, looking out across the water as Kiba had done, the frown that had been on his face when he was gazing out the window earlier appearing once more. "Some of them are prisoners of war, others criminals that the Pharaoh's courts banished from Memphis. I don't understand why they're over there, actually, because if a crime is that bad, you're executed. My bet is they said something slanderous about the Pharaoh, stole food to feed their families or just have a different religion than we do."

Toboe made a sympathetic noise in the back of his throat. Kiba couldn't blame his brother. It wasn't right, these conditions under which the Pharaoh was forcing his subjects to live and work, punishing them for simply being. Kiba had had no idea that there were slaves such as those in the world, only aware of the ones that actually lived in the palace. So, the conditions were worse than he'd originally thought.

Despite his best efforts to block it out, Kiba couldn't help but think about the other day, about what Tsume had told him. There were plans to overthrow Darcia, plans that they'd wanted Kiba to take part in. Looking back, Kiba berated himself for acting so impulsively, refusing an opportunity that may never arise again. Kiba wanted to help, but what good could he do, being fifteen and a peasant? And if others knew, would they be willing to accept his help? What if the hatred for the Darcia family ran so deep that they wouldn't even want Kiba around if they knew, even if he did try to help them?

"Kiba?" The blue-eyed boy started as his name was called, having not even noticed when Hige and Toboe began walking again, leaving him behind. He was alone in the middle of the path now, completely still as he turned his gaze up toward his companions. Toboe had been the one to call out for him, his head and left shoulder angled towards his brother with an apprehensive look on his face. Kiba didn't want to admit it, but he could feel the rift between them. Before, Toboe would have stayed by his side, noticed his slowing pace even if Kiba hadn't himself. But now he was sticking close to Hige. So much had changed in so little time, and there was no one to blame but Kiba himself. "Are you okay?"

Nodding, Kiba started to walk again, Hige and Toboe watching as they waited for him to catch up. "I'm fine. I was just lost in my head, is all."

"You sound like me when I was younger." Toboe teased, though Kiba sensed the strain, saw it in his brother's brown gaze. Pretending that everything was normal obviously wasn't going to work for much longer.

But rather than dwell on it, Kiba only smiled and ruffled Toboe's hair as he passed him, walking alongside Hige once more. "Were you an airhead back in the day, runt?" Hige chuckled, commenting on what Toboe had said. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"I was not an airhead!" Toboe protested. "I just . . . well, you know. I wasn't the most grounded of people. I liked my thoughts more than I did other kids. Kiba was better at socializing than I was."

Hige snorted, bumping Kiba's shoulder playfully with his own. The shorter boy wondered if Hige noticed that it was the one with the mark of the Darcia family. "Kiba? Socializing? You gotta be joking."

"No, I'm serious!" Toboe said as they continued their walk, and Kiba glanced out towards the riverbed, tuning the two of them out, noticing a pit of mud a ways down the path. It was concave, like a large bowl, and people were down in it, stomping around in the mud created from the steady drizzle of river water flowing into it, as if they were playing.

But Kiba knew better, and as they drew closer, he noticed how emaciated the people in the pit looked. He noticed hard angles of bone, skin stretched taught over lean muscle acquired from many, many years of hard, physical labor, eyes dull and cautious, completely aware of the guards standing above them, on the path Kiba, Hige, and Toboe were currently walking on. "What are they doing?" Toboe asked quietly, having noticed what Kiba had.

Hige stayed silent for a moment before answering. "Those are some of the slaves I was talking about. They must have boated them over to this side of the river to work in those pits. The mud and sand they stomp is later used to create the material needed to make the Pharaoh's statues."

"They look so sick." Toboe whispered, close to Kiba's side once again. "Like they can barely stand."

"They don't have any spirit." Kiba observed, glancing sharply at Hige, who glared at him in return. Kiba hadn't been misguided when he said there was no spirit left for revolt. Just looking at those people was proof enough of that.

"That would change if they knew there was hope." Hige retorted scathingly.

Kiba ignored him, and the three of them fell silent as they reached the top of the pit, where four guards were standing watch over the slaves below. Kiba tried to keep his eyes on the path, but something – or rather, someone – caught his eye.

It was a slave down in the mud, an old man who didn't look like he was physically capable of the labor he was being forced to do. He was the thinnest of the bunch, hunch-backed and shaky as he paused to take a breather next to a brunette woman who whispered urgently to him under her breath, something along the lines of, "Don't stop, keep going." Something stirred within Kiba as he looked at the two of them, at the man in particular, though he wasn't sure why.

One of the guards turned as the boys approached, eyes and mouth pinched as he raised his spear, signally for them to stop. "What are you three doing out here?" He demanded.

"We were just on our way home, sir." Hige replied, though the guard was staring at Kiba. For a moment, the fifteen-year-old wondered if the man could see Darcia within him, but it passed quickly, and he held the man's gaze without flinching. "We went for a walk after work."

"Where is it that you are employed?"

"In the marketplace, sir. My brothers and I haul sacks of grain from storage to be distributed."

"Brothers?" The guard repeated, glancing from Hige, to Kiba and Toboe, and back again. Kiba was aware that while Hige and Toboe could have passed for brothers, he was the odd one of the group, with stark black hair and blue eyes. And on top of that, Toboe didn't look the part of a boy that hauled grain sacks for a living. Hige had a sly tongue, but his delivery needed a little work. "You three are related?"

"Well, it's complicated, you see – "

Kiba didn't get to hear what elaborate tale Hige would have come up with, his acute sense of hearing suddenly invaded by a screech from within the pit, so loud his ears began to ring. "Wolf!"

Kiba didn't move an inch, didn't allow his gaze to stray from the guard even as the man whipped to the side to gape into the pit, jaw dropping in a silent gape of horror and disbelief. The man was obviously afraid, shouting orders now, and that fear even left Kiba feeling jumpy, though for different reasons, and when Kiba's ears finally stopped ringing, he realized the man wasn't yelling to his comrades, but to the three of them. "Get back!" He bellowed, reaching out with an arm to shove at them, knocking Toboe back into Kiba, who wrapped his right arm around his brother's chest to keep Toboe against him, using his left to grip at his brother's rigid arm.

The guard's obvious concern for their well-being would have struck something within Kiba if he hadn't felt so numb. Stepping back to press against Hige, Kiba gazed down into the mud pit, an uncomfortable weight settling low in his stomach. The guards were sliding down the muddy embankment as most of the slaves scrambled to get out, screeching and crying, terrified of something that Kiba himself couldn't see the danger in.

It was the old man. Kiba just knew it. He was the only human not present, after all. That sense of uncertainty that Kiba felt when he looked at him before . . . he recognized it now. Subconsciously, he'd known the old man was a wolf. But these people were screaming over an emaciated, weathered, and sick animal. If he hadn't shifted so suddenly and in front of them, he could have easily passed for a simple dog. He couldn't even stand up, all four legs shaking, head and tail held impossibly low as he watched his death in the form of four men stagger closer, falling onto his side when the strain became too much to bear.

He was no threat to anyone, with yellow teeth and dulled claws, tufts of gray hair sticking out of his ears, probably hindering his hearing. That wolf had been so sick and weak that he hadn't been able to hold onto his human skin, and he'd shifted without even realizing it, at the worst possible time. Kiba should've dragged Toboe off while they still had a chance, but now, he couldn't even bring himself to move. The three of them were frozen, caught in a Hell that wasn't even their own.

Hige clapped a hand on Kiba's shoulder.

Wolves were to be killed on sight. They were about to witness an execution.

"Hand me your sword!" One of the guards was shouting, but Kiba was completely enthralled by the animal just below him, unaware even as a man that had been in the pit managed to climb out and ran past them, screaming at the top of his lungs, "Wolf! There's a wolf in the city!"

The elderly wolf lifted his gaze then, and the filmy, yellow eyes of an animal that had seen so much throughout his life locked with Kiba's own, blue in his human skin, though the wolf seemed to understand what lay beneath the surface. "Do not weep for me, child." Kiba's breath hitched as the wolf spoke to him, though only he, Hige, and Toboe could hear this wolf's last testament, the words he breathed as the hilt of the sword was lowered with a caterwaul of fear and hatred. This wolf had survived the Massacre, and here he was, half submerged in mud, dying a death unfit for even a pig. "For I have lived a righteous life in the eyes of Khonsu."

Kiba understood then, as the sword came down and blood spattered the mud, why Hige had insisted they leave the house, why he'd showed them the village across the river and the slums, why he'd led them to this place, even if he couldn't have possibly known about what was to happen here. This city . . . these people, they needed a change. They were suffering under Darcia's rule, and in a moment of selfish pride, Kiba had denied them rescue.

Maybe he was only a boy, a peasant, a person worth nothing in the eyes of the world, but this was his country. His people. It was his duty to resolve all the conflict that had arisen while Pharaoh Darcia was in charge. Kiba had to right all the wrongs his father had done to their country. And even if he couldn't deliver, well . . . at least he would die knowing that he'd tried to make a difference.

"Stop your wailing!" The man with a now bloodied sword snarled at the remaining slaves, who were either praying or pressed up against the muddied bank in fear. He stood over the dead wolf's body, still trembling from adrenaline and fear, and Kiba felt enraged that the wolf they'd all been so afraid of hadn't even been capable of lifting his head on his own. "The beast is dead. Remove the body and get back to work!"

No one moved for a moment, petrified gazes still trained on the dead wolf, but someone moved eventually, the only one that hadn't been screaming, the woman from before who had tried to keep the old man focused on his work. She didn't look scared like the rest, just sad, angry even, if Kiba looked closely, and she bent down to tug at the loose fur around the wolf's shoulders while another slave scrambled to help her. "You three!" The guard that had stopped them originally was at their side again, gazing down sympathetically at Toboe, who was wheezing against Kiba's chest, gripping tightly at the arm wrapped around him. "It's all right now. Run along home."

"Thank you, sir." Hige spit out as Kiba pushed at Toboe's shoulders, forcing the boy on down the path. "Thank you, I – Thank you!"

"Calm down." Kiba whispered fiercely, wrapping his left arm around Toboe's shoulders and clapping his other hand over the boy's mouth when he started to make awful choking sounds. "Breathe through your nose. You're okay, we're okay, Toboe, just breathe."

Tears were leaking from his brother's brown eyes, dripping down his red cheeks and onto Kiba's fingers, and Toboe tried to nod against the force of Kiba's palm and do as he was told, though his nose was quickly becoming thick and stuffy with snot. "Holy shit." Hige was swearing on Kiba's other side, tearing at his hair with both hands, amber eyes blown wide. "Oh, my, what the hell? That's not – I never – Oh, my god, Kiba, what the fuck?"

A good distance away from the mud pit thanks to the fast pace Kiba had set for them, the blue-eyed boy bumped into Hige's left shoulder, coercing the other boy with his body into turning onto a vacant street, dragging Toboe along with them. Hige was still swearing to himself when Toboe managed to rip away from Kiba, doubling over onto his hands and knees and vomiting close to Hige's feet – probably too close, although the older boy never noticed.

Kiba dropped down next to Toboe as his younger brother continued to heave, even when there was nothing left for his stomach to expel and he was simply choking on air, crying profusely as Kiba rubbed soothing circles into his back, just as he'd done the morning before their grandmother was killed.

"Kiba – " Toboe sobbed, reaching up with a trembling hand to wipe a trail of vomit from his chin. "I sensed it, I sensed the death all around him, but I didn't see."

Kiba was just thankful Hige was too far gone to really understand what Toboe was saying, though the other wolf was beginning to regain his composure, breathing in a manner similar to the way Kiba had instructed Toboe to. "You couldn't have prevented it, Brother." Kiba said urgently. "What could you have done? What could any of us have done? The odds were stacked far too heavily against us for us to have stood a chance."

"I hate this! I hate it!"

"Shh, be still." Kiba whispered as Toboe turned and threw himself at Kiba, curling his vomit-covered fingers into Kiba's tunic, refusing to let go as he sobbed into his brother's neck. "We're still alive. Shh, Toboe, someone will come looking if we're too loud. Just keep breathing, all right?"

Wrapping his arms around Toboe, Kiba couldn't help but thank the gods that it hadn't been any of them that had been discovered in such a manner, though he still grieved the loss of the man whose blood had just been spilled right before their eyes. He would've fought tooth and claw if someone tried to take a blade to Toboe, or even to Hige, no matter how furious Kiba still was with the other wolf for keeping secrets from them.

Kiba wasn't deluded enough to believe that he could've saved that elderly wolf. Trying to would have only gotten all four of them killed. It saddened him that if it had been either one of his companions, he would have done it, he would have turned and killed all four guards, but not for a defenseless wolf that couldn't even stand up. What leader would he be for this revolution if he cared more for himself and his friends than the general population?

No. Kiba frowned. No more self-doubt. It was what had gotten him into this mess in the first place.

"Hige." The other boy turned to face the two of them when Kiba called out to him, tears that he'd been trying to hide spilling down his face. Kiba smiled ruefully, tears of his own finally starting to appear. For all his acting, Hige wasn't as confident as he claimed to be. Inside, he was scared, just like the rest of them. They were only kids, and suddenly it felt as if the weight of the world was on their shoulders. Hige had been dealing with this way longer than either Kiba or Toboe, and again, Kiba felt disgusted that he had denied them all their hope for salvation, especially Hige, who obviously wanted it just as much as anybody else. "I know why you brought us out here."

Hige's eyes widened in panic, and his chest bounced slightly with a sob. "No, no, I never intended – I didn't know, Kiba, I swear, I'm sorry! I was only trying to - "

"No, that's not what I meant." Kiba clarified, realizing just how shaken Hige was if he was willing to apologize for leading them to the scene of a murder that he hadn't known was going to happen. "I see what you were trying to tell me. Or show me, I guess. I'll do it. I'll help with your rebellion."

Hige blinked at him owlishly, still trying to contain his sniffles. "What? You – You will?"

Kiba nodded, rubbing at Toboe's shoulder blades. "I acted selfishly yesterday, and for that, I'm sorry. I understand now that I have a duty to these people, human, wolf, regardless of class. They all need a change. They all need me to be strong enough to fight for their livelihoods and put an end to decades of hardship. Tsume was right. I was blinded by my bitter feelings toward my family – my real family, the Darcia's."

"Kiba." Toboe whispered, obviously recovered enough to pay attention to what was being said now.

"Hush." Kiba said softly, brushing a lock of sweat-dampened hair from his brother's eyes, reminded of the day when their parents were murdered and he'd coddled his baby brother just as he was now, relieved that he was still alive and breathing. "My mother gave me up to save me from my father. She gave me a new life, an opportunity to make something of myself outside of Darcia's reputation. I owe her everything. And I owe the citizens she loves just as much. I don't know what your plan is, what will happen when the end finally comes, but I'm willing to see it through. I want to help. Please, pardon everything I did and said yesterday. I don't even know who that Kiba was."

Toboe was silent in Kiba's arms, just as Hige was silent in front of them, standing slack-jawed by the mess Toboe had made, and slowly, through the tears and bad feelings, Hige began to smile.

"Whose ass do you think you're kissing? Don't apologize; just be there to back me up whenever Tsume comes back. It'll be worth it to see the look on his face when I tell him, 'I told you so.'"