The next thing a remember was being woken by Tsume. We walked to an abandoned warehouse thing. It was a hard journey. We were all injured but, Kiba was hurt the worst. We stayed the night there but, no one but Hige slept. Cheza was gone.

Kiba had not spoken since Darcia took her away.

We were all sad and tired, just when we had started to move around and talk we heard some guys yelling outside "Get back here!" "Come back damn it!" A few seconds later a large black dog came running through the door. It was the hunters dog.

As the dust cleared we saw her as a human. "Wow, what a babe." Trust Hige to say something like that. Some human men came in after her "She's got friends. Hand over the girls." There were only three men, easy to deal with. One of them went for me and Tsume the other went after Kiba and Toboe. The last one went for the dog and Hige. We all dodged them easy. Kiba tripped one of them, Tsume punched the one that went for us and Hige tackled the leader.

They started screaming and we ran for it. Later in the town dump Tsume was laughing about what happened. "Did you see the looks on there faces?"

"I know, that felt terrific. Kiba are you all right?" Toboe turned to Kiba when he sat down.

"Yeah" Kiba replied

Hige asked the hunters dog if she was okay. "Yeah, thanks for helping me."

Tsume heard her "We didn't do it for you. Those idiots just happened to catch us in a bad mood, that's all."

"She was just thanking us, why do you have to be so harsh? It's not like we run into girls everyday."

"Hige where have you been? Tsume's always harsh and you've been travelling with me. You run into at least one girl everyday." What was I? Chopped liver.

"You don't count, your with Tsume already. By the way I'm Hige" He looked back up at the hunters dog.

"I'm Blue. It's been awhile, huh?" She said looking up at us

"You did some pretty nasty things to us when you were with the human." Tsume stated

"Where's that old man you were with?" Toboe asked

"Something happened and we were spilt up."

"He was still tracking us in the last city we were in." Kiba told her.

"I know he was, that's why he was there. Pops would track down a wolf to the ends of the earth. Hey that other girl, isn't she with you? You know the other one you were travelling with. She had a really strange scent."

"The girl? You mean Cheza?"

"That's a bit of a sore subject right now, I'll tell you later." I promised

"I know, why don't we look for some food. I mean, we did just bump into each other and all, besides there's a whole lot of danger for a girl in a town like this." Hige was right, not even I was going to wander this town alone. Not without one of the guys with me.

"Not a chance porky. As if I'd even hang with her, not when she was doing everything she could to hunt us down." Tsume snapped.

"Tsume, Hige is right. As much as I hate to admit it this town is to dangerous for a girl to wander around on her own. We shouldn't leave her by herself." I argued

"Forget it, I don't wanna hang out with a bunch of kids either." Blue said then she just walked away "see ya 'round" This is why I didn't try to understand other women.

"Aren't you guys being a little cold." Hige yelled at us before running off after Blue.

Tsume sat back down "His tail wags whenever there's another girl around, just let him go."

"When we were back in that city she found out she was half wolf, Cheza told her." Kiba told us. "That side of her must have woken up after meeting Cheza."

I sat next to Tsume for awhile. The remaining group didn't speak much. It was sunset and Hige still hadn't come back. "I wonder where Hige is." Toboe sat up.

"Once he gets dumped he'll come sulking back." Tsume said. I could feel the vibrations in his chest as he spoke. I had my head on his chest and one of his arms was around my shoulders.

"Well I'm gunna go look for him. Just take it easy 'till I get back." Toboe walked off.

"That's the same crest that was on the castle where we found Cheza" Kiba commented

"This area must still be part of that nobles territory."

"The curse of the house of Darcia. That's what the guy back there said when he saw us."

"Humans have always seen wolves that way, that's why there so scared of us. Why didn't you let him have it back there? I would have expected you to jump at the chance to rip those humans to pieces. It's not 'cause of your injuries is it?" Tsume asked Kiba. I stayed quiet it was just Tsume and Kiba talking.

"Even if we had killed them I doubt they would have tasted to good."

"Cant argue with that." We stayed quiet waiting for the others to come back. I wouldn't mind if Blue came with us.

We jumped up when we heard some guys coming. They had guns with them this time. They were the same ones from before but, the leader bought more people this time. The leader started shooting at us.

One of the shots hit my right leg. One of the bullets grazed Tsume's arm. We ran but, they just kept shooting. We arrived at a camper van and an old woman came out ans saw us "What's the matter? Have you been hurt? Are you alright?" An old man stepped out of the van with a gun aimed right at us. "Elmira, come over here now."

"We have no intention of hurting either one of you" Kiba told him.

"For heavens sakes, put the gun down, their only children." The old man nearly yelled at the man.

"Don't be stupid, their strays and their dangerous."

"What are you talking about? Have you lost your senses?"

"Elmira, I may be an old man but I am not going senile. Take a close look at those three."

Hige, Toboe and Blue came running up to us. The man shot at them but missed. "We're not going to do anything to you so, just leave us alone. I don't want to fight if there's no reason to, I don't want to kill." Kiba said quietly.

"Those people want to capture us and sell us to the highest bidder, it's up to you whether we can avoid bloodshed." Tsume looked up at the man. He nodded.

Quickly as we could Toboe, Hige and I laid out on the ground and the others hid in the van. The old man shot around us being careful not to hit us. It turned out the old couple were good actors and the men soon left.

The sun had set and we were sitting around the van eating the wonderful food the old woman had bought out for us. She was so nice. They told us about Darcia's castle in the west. Apparently it was in ruins, that's where we would go next. That might be where Cheza was so, we would go there. If she wasn't there we would keep searching.

My leg was painful but I could handle it. It was going to take a lot more than that to slow me down.