"Gin," I offered, "I might not have the estimated time of when or how Scimitar will get here. But, if he is coming here, with the same intent to kill everyone in your pack as he had with my own, I'm afraid it's all over."
"Who is Scimitar?" Gin questioned.
"He's a wolf," I responded. "He's a black wolf with ash-grey mane sprouting from his neck. He has a scar in the shape of an upside down cross over his left eye. Both of his eyes are a . . . terrifying shade of icy blue."
"What was this wolf's personality?" Gin proceeded.
"Pure demonic evil," I whispered, unable to stop myself from pissing myself in horror. "I had met him when I was only three weeks old – and that was the first and last time in three years of my life. He had massacred my entire pack, killing every . . . single . . . dog in my family. He didn't care if they were young or old, pup or adult, big or small. He even slaughtered my own mother right in front of my eyes, all so he could relish in my heartache and horror."
"Did he at least have a reason for doing all that he'd done to you?" Gin asked in a calm manner.
"No," I responded with a growl. "He had no other reason other than the sick-ass joy of watching others suffer, scream, and bleed."
Gin narrowed his sky-blue eyes in disgust. "I've never heard of such a dog or wolf that would do such a thing," he whispered. "Hougen and Sniper had done what they had out of power-lust. Akakabuto was driven mad by the loss of his eye. Gaia, even though he was a wolf ruler of the underworld, had committed his crimes out of tyranny."
"Scimitar is a fucking hell of a lot scarier than any wolf, dog, or bear," I whimpered. "And for everyone's sake, I hope that none of Weed's pack members, Weed himself, or yourself have to even catch a glimpse of him."
"If he really is as sadistic as you say he is," Gin said with a nod of his head, "then starting in a few hours, I'll have every single dog – big and small, pup and adult, young and old – in Weed's pack train to their fullest. I'll have Retsuga, Tesshin, Akame, Jerome, Weed, and myself train them in every trait – speed, strength, skill, evasiveness, endurance, and claw and fang power."
"Do you mind if I go outside of Futago's Pass to look for more soldiers we can train?" I asked the scarred Akita.
"Of course," Gin replied with a kind smile. "I want you to bring as many strong dogs as you possibly can."
Nodding, I made my out of the borders of Gajou, crossed the gorge easily, and slowly strolled along the path outside of Futago's Pass. For a couple of hours, I was almost defeated, not from exhaustion, but of the thought that there wouldn't be any dogs around to help out with the fight against Scimitar.
Just as I was about to give up, a scream of agony rang through the forest, causing me to bolt to my left. Peering from behind a few boulders, I finally caught sight of a bleeding black and white Siberian Husky with two scars running vertically down his left eye. Instantly, even though I haven't met the dog personally, and judging by Gin's story of his past comrades, I recognized the dog . . . Hakuro!
Unfortunately, that wasn't all I saw. Mercilessly and brutally tearing into him with their wickedly sharp fangs were five German Shepherds – four of them male and one female. One of the males had scars all over his body, giving off a menacing appearance. The second male's right eye had possibly been shot out by a hunter. The third male's snout had been ripped clean off by some knife or another sharp object. The fourth male was unscarred. Finally, the sky-blue beautifully deadly female had nothing to bare but four glistening white fangs.
"Ha ha ha!" the scarred male laughed sadistically. Compared to Scimitar's voice, this Shepherd's laugh sounded more annoying than menacing.
"You think you – a puny little Husky – can stop me from taking over this land?" he went on, leering down at the bleeding Hakuro with arrogant triumph. "I'm Victor the strong! You have no damn clue who you're dealing with!"
"Perhaps not," I growled, leaping out from behind the rocks and standing directly in front of Hakuro defensively. "But I know you're nothing more than a wuss who's nothing compared to the real devil that's out there massacring little bitches like you!"
Victor impulsively leaped for my throat, only for me to quickly turn around and kick him right in the lower jaw with my hind paws. The force of the kick sent him sprawling to the ground, allowing me to stand over him and press a paw down on his jaw.
"Whath doo ye thikk yurr dooin?" Victor roared, unable to speak properly with his entire mouth shoved into the earth. "Giitt huur!"
The bone-jawed Shepherd aimed for my unprotected neck, unable to react in time when I whirled around and bite him on the tail. Without giving him a second to react, I began swinging him into the other two male Shepherds, knocking all of them over. Finding that the males were stunned, I threw the bone-jawed Shepherd into the air and released him so that he would fall to the ground.
I steered my head away to look for the female, only for four fangs to wrap around my hind leg. However, she was less fortunate when I had kicked her right in the face, causing her to release my leg. Finally regaining my stance, I leaped at the female, tackled her, and we both rolled around on the floor biting, growling, and scratching furiously. The fierce struggle ended up with me finally pinning her down with my right paw at her throat.
"I really don't want to resort to being such a monster lie Scimitar," I hissed, "but if I have to force you in order to join me then so be it!"
"S-S-Scimitar?" all four of the Shepherds gasped in horror, causing me to glance around them in confusion. "He's here?"
"You actually know that bastard?" I demanded, not even bothering to look down as I lifted my paw away from the blue female's throat.
"He's called Scimitar the Kinslayer," the blue female whimpered, trembling in horror. "He's called that because he had killed so many of his own kind. He even killed his own brother in order to gain control of his pack." She began to cry. "But he's not looking for power or control. He's looking for fear, agony, and torture in any way he can. He's even killed wolves of the underworld, or what was the left of the Sirius Canine-Warriors of Darkness. He just slaughters innocent or even the not-so-innocent, all for the sheer pleasure – for the highest peak of joy – of watching others suffer."
"Is that why you want to 'recruit us', bitch?" Victor demanded. It was then that I finally saw the doubt in his eyes. "You want us to join you in order to take down such an evil warlord?"
"Of course," I replied with furious honesty. "You might be brutally murdering this poor dog, but – due to my ability to understand forgiveness by my Leader – I'm going to forgive you all because you're really strong, but merciless and cowardly by attacking one dog like a pack of wolves and a moose."
"Why would we ever want to join a bitch like you?" the one-eyed Shepherd asked coldly.
"If you don't," I warned him, "then you'll have to watch as Scimitar brutally kills every . . . single . . . one of you at a time. You might be cruel Shepherds, but Scimitar is a heartless, sadistic bastard. He'll kill all of you without the slightest ounce of remorse."
Victor turned to the rest of his males and female, watching as they all nodded. Finally agreeing with their response, the heavily scarred Shepherd said in a cold and reluctant voice, "Alright. We'll join you."
"Thank you," I said, looking towards Hakuro with sympathy. "I'll take him back to Gajou. You'll have all day to finally catch up to me. I'll introduce you to Weed's pack once you get there. Give me a howl when you're ready."
Lowering my body down to the ground, I motioned for Hakuro to climb onto my back and – with my speed – leaped off into the distance in search of a healing spring. Eventually, we came to one of the springs, allowing me to slowly lower Hakuro into one of the warm and healing water.
-Four days later-
Finally seeing that Hakuro's wounds have healed, I lead him out of the pool and we ran together towards the Shepherd pack that attempted to kill him. "Let's go," I ordered, tossing my head at Futago's Pass and leading them towards the gorge to which they all leaped over with ease. As soon as we came towards Gajou, Weed, Jerome, and Hakuro's children were the first to appear out of the rocky structure.
"Father?" Seiryu asked timidly. "Is that you?"
"Hakuro?" Gin asked, a smile of joy spreading across his lips.
"It's me," Hakuro greeted, allowing his children and his long-time friend to gently tackle him to the ground.
"Who did you fi–" Jerome stopped in an instant when he caught sight of the beautiful blue Shepherd that was gazing back at him in lust. "H-H-Hello there, miss. What is your name?"
"I'm Lydia," the blue female said in a kind voice. "This is Alam–" She tilted her head towards the bone-jawed Shepherd, "–Victor–" She glanced at the scarred Shepherd with uncertainty, "–Bozlev–" She flicked an ear at the unscarred Shepherd with her ear, "–and my brother, Maxime." She finally grinned with pride at the one-eyed Shepherd."
"Well done, Tamashi," Weed said, pride glowing in his eyes. "You did very well. You decided to spare them instead of killing them out of hate when they'd been hurting Hakuro."
"You mean you actually spied on me?" I gasped.
"I had Bat spy on you," he replied honestly. "I had to see through his eyes that you would follow my example on peace. And you passed the test – General Tamashi."
"'General Tamashi'?" I echoed, watching as every single dog before me bowed their bodies in respectful submission. After gaping at them with awe, I welcome their bows towards me and announced, "Thank you, Weed. I shall follow you, guide you, and accept you as my Leader!"
"Praise for our new General!" Weed howled to the sky, allowing every other dog to cry out with joy.
Awesome! Tamashi just became a General of Ohu! Should I continue?