The stars tonight shone bright just like the moon above us. I will admit it's one of the best things that I've ever seen in my life. Plus the air around us had dropped to a cold temperature. It felt good through my black wolf fur. We didn't utter a single word while running. The only sounds that I could hear was the sound of our wolf paws hitting the ground and the wind rushing by us. I ran in between Tsume and Kiba, who were a couple of inches ahead of me.

"Look! Shooting stars!" Toboe excitedly pants, getting my wolf ears to raise. I take one look up and see a few shooting stars whoosh by us in a blink of an eye. They did look pretty flying through the black sky. Secretly, I was thrilled and happy to see those shooting stars because I haven't seen those since I was a pup. I can't tell how long it's been since… even as an adult she-wolf, I still find them pretty and hopeful to look at. It gave me a warm feeling.

By the time day arrived, we all had arrived at the frozen sea. From as far as the eye could see, no other signs of life were around other than just the five of us. It was freezing by this time. The ice in the sea slowly flowed through the open water. "Is that an ocean?" Toboe asked. "It's an iceflow." Kiba responds. "What is that?" the pup asked again. "A frozen sea." Tsume answers. "This is the sea that that humans were talking about." I add, looking around the flow. Kiba then takes the lead of bouncing down off the cliff. Then it was Tsume, me, Hige, then Toboe. After that, we jumped over a gap in the ice to make it to the other side.

"That's cold!" Toboe yelped from behind us. I gaze behind me to look at the pup. Looked like he accidentally stuck his wolf paw into the icy cold water. "You need to be careful. You do realize that we're on top of water?" Hige scolded annoyed. I shot him an irritated look. "Hige, he's not stupid. I think he knows that." I scold. Hige shot back with an offended look. "She's right! I know we're on water! C'mon!" Toboe exclaimed defiantly. He jumps over the gap and runs right by us while we all looked in disbelief. "What're you four waiting for? Hurry up! This cold air feels amazing!" Toboe shouted. He's way too enthusiastic for being out in below freezing weather. "What the hell's got him so happy? It's freezing!" Hige comments. "He's such a pup." Tsume adds coldly. At least he's happy because I sure as hell aren't. What wolf would like to live out here? Certainly not me.

After a bit, we run through the frozen tundra in wolf form. Kiba had taken the lead while Tsume and I took the right. Hige took the left. Toboe wasn't with us but I knew he'd catch up eventually. Only four of us jump swiftly over a wide ravine. It was no trouble getting over it. I look over my shoulder to see the growing form of Toboe running towards the ravine. He skids to a stop once he reaches the edge. Even though he's quite a distance from us, I could tell he was unsure about jumping to the other side.

"Hey, what are you waiting for? You scared or something?" Hige calls. "I was just getting ready to, okay?" Toboe replied. This confused the dun wolf. Toboe ran back a few feet back to jump over the ravine. The jump he made was a success however his landing needs some work. He ended up falling flat on his face when he made it over. I walk over to him to see if he was okay. He lifted up to his knees and put his hand on his head. Kneeling down, I look over to him with a concerned look. "I'm okay, Luna. Don't worry." he assured. I grinned at this. Then, out of my peripheral vision, I saw something. I turn my eyes to see… a pile of bones.

I picked it up with just two fingers. "What is that?" Toboe asked, seeing what I was holding. "It's possibly a bird bone." I say, inspecting it. Hige then takes the bone from my hand to look at it. Toboe and I look up at the tan wolf. "Hmm… not so much as a scrap of meat on it." he said. I stand back up and stretch my limbs. "Don't worry. We should find something in the next town up ahead." Kiba assured lightly. "Yeah, you're right. The sooner we get the hell out of this frozen waste dump, the sooner we can eat. You still in one piece Toboe?" Tsume agreed, glancing over at the pup.

"Well of course I am! Let's go!" Toboe answered, pounding his chest with a clenched fist. He then stands up and takes off running adjacent to us. Hige sighs and looks up at the sky with defeat. "C'mon birds. Let's see some flying up there." he groaned. He won't starve. I know we'll find food soon. I hope at least. We run in wolf form again through the tundra. I stuck by Tsume, who was on the left side of me. Hige was on my right. Toboe however… was starting to fall behind again. I turn my wolf head to look back to see him far behind us.

The wind seemed to drop completely the more we ran. It was very still. "Shake a leg, runt! You're falling behind!" Hige called, turning his wolf head the other direction. I'm sure that he'll catch up. I took notice how there was absolutely no wind. When I let my wolf ears rise and fall, I didn't hear any. At this rate, we'll make it to Jaguara's in no time. Just thinking about that bitch made my blood boil. I want to kill her with my fangs. She murdered my pack. She needs to pay.

After a while, we make it to a large pit that was filled with nothing more than skeletons. Walrus skeletons. I will admit that it sent shivers down my spine but I kept it to myself. Something told me in my stomach that something bad was going to happen. "Man, this is just a junkyard for bones." Hige says, getting a good look at the pit. "I've got a bad feeling about this." Tsume inquires. "Yeah. So do I. Something doesn't seem right." I agree, feeling a cold shiver run up my spine. "That may be. But we still need to go through it." Kiba said. I cross my arms and roll my eyes. What gave the indication that he'd say that? It was pretty obvious.

"I figured you'd say that." Hige groaned. He didn't like it either. At least we're on the same page. I look to my right to see Toboe standing behind Hige. Something caught my eye as I looked at him. His arm was bleeding from his elbow. "Toboe? What happened to your arm?" I wondered. The red wolf looks down and quickly covered his arm as if he's trying to hide it. He gave a nervous look and tried to brush it off as a scratch. Why would he be trying to hide a cut like that? The scent of wolf's blood will surely draw something.

"Why don't we rest for a while?" Kiba suggested. This only irritated Toboe and he grunted from frustration. He looked off to the side with his eyes shut. "Don't baby me! I'm fine, okay? Let's go! We're burnin' daylight!" he says, running ahead of us. We all look at the red wolf as he ran through the barren ice. He was moving as if this conversation didn't happen. "If he's got this much energy, then he must be okay." Hige said. "I don't know Hige. Something tells me that that blood won't be hidden forever from whatever the hell is out there." I disagreed. "She's right. There's no telling what will attract it." Kiba agreed. "Well, at least whatever it is, we'll be able to eat it." Tsume said optimistically. Just as he said that, the feeling of my stomach growling arose. I blushed from embarrassment. "Looks like I'm not the only one hungry." Hige said, giving me a nudge. I growl at him. "You'd better shut up before you're gonna be on the menu." I sneer. This made Tsume and Kiba chuckle lightly.

The four of us make it through the graveyard of bones. It led us back to the incessant array of ice that lay ahead of us. I look over my right shoulder to see the small form of Toboe fall behind again. I skid across the ice so I could stop. The others also stopped. If Toboe was going to catch up, we had no choice but to stop. I just watch as Toboe manages to catch up. Slowly but surely. We probably should've rested a little bit because he looked half dead.

When he did catch up, he tripped over his own feet and fell face first into the ice. I just sigh at this. Poor kid. "Hey, runt, you good over there?" Hige asked, raising his voice so Toboe could hear him. Toboe mumbled something in response but I couldn't make out what he was saying. There was silence for the next few minutes. He seemed to verklempt on trying to keep up with us.

He then tries to get up but in doing so, a loud rumble causes the ground to shake a bit. Toboe looks from side to side to try to find the source of the noise. He does manage to stand up however another louder reverberation. "What the hell?" Hige whispered. My heart started to pound in my chest. Suddenly, something immense broke through the ice into a thousand shards in front of Toboe.

"What the hell is that?!" I cry, backing up a little bit. Hige gasps loudly at it. Whatever bursted through the ice then drops down onto Toboe with a heavy impact. My heart jumped into my throat at this. "Hige runs to the spot where Toboe was and the red wolf pops his head out of the water with a gasp of air. "Get out of the water!" Hige exclaims, waiting for Toboe. Hige helps him out with his arm over Hige's shoulders.

However, before getting far, they were knocked over by another eruption of the ice. What caused this was nothing more than a walrus that was bigger than most walruses that I've seen in my life. Toboe and Hige looked at it and it didn't take long for it to figure out that we're wolves. Kiba, I, and Tsume run at the walrus in our wolf forms as it roars ear splittingly. I lunge at the walrus with my wolf fangs bared.

I land on it's flipper and dig my wolf fangs into it's skin as deep as I could. My strength against this creature was no match for either of our wolf fangs since we were easily knocked off by the walrus. I ended up flying across the air and I landed on my side. The land alone gave me whiplash and it didn't register that the others were still fighting the walrus.

A shrill of pain brings me out of my pain. I look up to see Kiba getting attacked by the walrus. "No!" I yell, quickly getting up and sprinting towards the walrus. I jump on the walrus again in my wolf and growled loudly. I dig my wolf fangs into its head and start shaking my wolf head back and forth in hopes of doing some damage. Tsume and Hige were also on it in their wolf forms also. I was trying my damndest to hurt it but it didn't seem to do anything.

Suddenly, I look up and catch a quick glimpse of Toboe sinking his wolf fangs into walrus's eye. The walrus yells out in great agony and starts leaning back. I didn't know what was causing Toboe to do this but I couldn't do anything but watch as the red wolf unleashed his wrath onto it. We then fall backwards into the water with a loud crash.

Tsume, Hige, and I floated to the top. The air was freezing when I breached the surface and I sucked in a huge breath. Hige and Tsume soon popped out of the water a second after. "Are you three alright?" Kiba asked, running at us. "Yeah. Where's Toboe?" Tsume said, getting out of the water. He turns around and helps me out of the water.

A booming sound came from behind us and we all turn around to see the walrus run through the ice with Toboe hanging off of it's eye. From what I can see, he was determined to hang onto it. That walrus was doing everything it can to get the red wolf off such as leaping through the ice flow and into an iceberg. My stomach dropped heavily at this because Toboe could be getting hurt by this and we can't see it from this far.

Then, they went under the water again and this time, they didn't resurface this time. We stand up and stare off in that direction. Anxiety flourishes through my body and I was worried for Toboe's safety. "That damn kid went crazy." Tsume says in disbelief. "What the hell happened to him?" I say, trying to not choke on my words. I felt my heart hammer against my rib cage.

"This sucks… this really sucks. Why won't he come back up? C'mon, Toboe… TOBOE!" Hige yells, cupping his hands around his mouth. As if on cue, a loud splash came from behind us. We look behind us to see the walrus coming out of the water with large ice cicles sticking out of it and blood cover what was left of it. Toboe was still hanging off its eye and it amazed me how there was not a scratch on him.

The walrus throws him off and he lands on his wolf paws swiftly and he snarled at the walrus with his wolf fangs bared. His wolf tail was also sticking up, looking like he wanted another fight with the walrus. The weakened walrus looks down at him before collapsing onto the ice, a cloud of smoke flying up. He stands in his human form with his fists clenched.

"Toboe!" I yelled, sprinting to him. The others followed suit. "Are you okay?" Hige asks in relief. "I can't believe it." Tsume breathes. "What the hell got into you?" I ask, giving him a concerned look. At this, the red wolf falls to his knees and breathes heavily. "Something… I… Something must've snapped inside of me… all of a sudden." he says. This subtly amazed me because he, in my eyes, was no longer a pup. He fought like a real wolf.

"You must be joking…" a low voice gets us to look up, "Not one have I ever been defeated here. I've been the one to protect it since ages ago after all of my brethren have died off. But in this world, it's kill or be killed. But I will NOT die a victim. I… want… to… save you." It's large, crimson filled eye opened for a moment before clouding over and the wind blowing, signifying that it died.

Seconds after, Hige's stomach growled. He starts to walk over to it but Kiba stops him from doing so. Kiba leans down and puts a hand on Toboe's shoulder. "He's your kill. You eat first." the white wolf offers. Toboe nods at Kiba with a pleased smile. We look on at Toboe in our wolf forms as he makes his way to the now dead walrus. He begins to eat it and about 10 seconds after, we start to fill our stomachs.

Night time was approaching and we had almost completely devoured the walrus. I had become full and sat on the sidelines. My wolf ears were raised and I looked up at the moon calmly. It was beautiful tonight. "Luna?" Tsume said, getting my wolf ear to twitch. I glance behind me to see the grey wolf standing a couple of feet behind me. The moon gave his smokey grey fur a silvery glow. "What is it, Tsume?" I asked. "We're about to leave." he says. "Okay. I'll be along in a minute." I reply, looking back at the moon.

He sits on my right side. "Are you alright? You seem a bit shaken up by what happened today." he wondered, talking to me in a soothing voice. This was surprising coming from him. I glance at him for a moment with a tilted head. "To be honest, I'm not sure. That was crazy how Toboe went ballistic on the walrus. I wonder what really caused him to attack." I reply. "I don't know but he did save our lives." Tsume retorts. We sit there under the moon in silence for a few quaint minutes.

"Yeah… I guess you're right. With all the times we protected him; he was returning the favor." I say, looking back at Toboe, who was still eating. "Yeah that's true. That runt is not a pup anymore." Tsume chuckles. I glance at the grey wolf and saw how his yellowish green eyes glowed under the moonlight. The beating in my heart escalated like the last time. Was what Hige saying about Tsume and I's relationship blossoming true? Was I truly falling for him? And was he falling for me? I can't ask him bluntly.

When it hit moonhigh, the five of us move out towards Jaguara's city.

After many months of waiting, here it is! I'm finally getting back into finishing this story. So stay tuned for rest of this.

Don't leave any negative comments because they will be removed.