Chapter 1: The Other Pack
She welcomed the change on. She loved the new feelingof the night in her free form. She was also glad that she didn't have to run alone. She hadtwo other pack friends with her, and they were what kept her alive. She would go mad if she were the only one of her pack that was alive.
The scene of their dead pack mates came flooding back to her mind. The bodies of her pack poisoned and mutilated by silver. The dizzying stench of blood everywhere. Those were the old days, these were modern times now. Most of the ancient pack, her pack, was obliterated of the chance to hunt under the protection of the Moon Goddess, and her mate, the Night.
"You ready?," questioned of voice behind her.
"Yeah," she answered.
"I miss them," piped the voice of a young "child", or better put "pup."
"We miss them too, Rin," said the older sibling, standing next to her, gazing up to the night sky.
"Rin, let's forget about the old times for now okay? Let's go run with their spirits. I can sense they're waiting for us, and they're getting restless."
"Okay, Kagome-onii-chan," answered the pup, Rin.
"Hitomi, you ready?," asked Kagome.
"Yeah, I'm ready. Wouldn't want to keep the pack waiting, nowwould we?," answered Hitomi.
Thetwo older siblings waited for the younger pup, Rin, to start changing.
Rin started changing. First, her hands formed into sharp claws that, on closer look, could shred a full grown bull in seconds. The creak of her changing bones and joints could only be heard by the sharpest ears, which were only Kagome and Hitomi. Like her older "sisters," Rin loved the change, too; the thrill of changing into a free and beautiful creature of the night. Her ears grew to points and her hearing grew more acute. Her fangs became sharper and could pierce the toughest flesh. A coat of soft fur started to grow on her skin. Now, she looked like what humans would call a "werewolf."
Rin only made it half way through the change. At such a young age changing completely was difficult without the pack to help. But she knew that Hitomi and Kagome would always be there to help her through the rest. And, on cue, there they were, to help mold her body using their own magic. Their warm and soft touch helped her body to relax, and for the new magic, that was running through her blood, urge the change on quicker. Before Rin knew it, she had paws and was on all fours. Her body was covered in black fur. She was now in her other form, her freer form. The form of her pack. The form of a wolf.
Kagome began her transformation. Her hands formed into claws, her ears turned into points, and her hearing increased one hundred fold from a human's hearing, but only ten fold from her trapped form's hearing. Her joints and bones creaked at the change and the pang of pain shot through her as her spine began to arch, but it quickly passed. She wasat three-fourths of the transformation, caught between werewolf and wolf.
Kagome squeezed her eyes tightly shut and willed the rest of her change to hurry, and hurry it did. Kagome was now on all fours and had a silky coat of black furwith sea blue eyes. Her coat only seemed black, though. Only the eyes of a fellow pack member could see the specks of blue in her fur. Kagome's sense of smell increased and her eye sight became sharper. They weren't the only pack of wolves in the world, but they only hadone thing in common with the others, which was that they all followed the old ways.
Their pack was much more different, though. Their pack came from the bloodlines of the first werewolves, or "metamorphs." They were the only pack that could remember how to change completely into a wolf. Their senses were sharper than that of an average werewolf. And they could see the spirits of their former pack, and run freely with them. That's what they enjoyed most about their nightly runs.
It was Hitomi's turn to change, but she just stared up at the night sky, a sad expression on her face. Rin walked up to Hitomi andnudged Hitomi's leg,begging her to transform already. Hitomi looked down at both of her sisters. If only the pack could see how much they've grown. thought Hitomi. The pack may have been there in spirit, but not in solid form. They could not see, or hear. All they could do was sense. Sense their presence and the flow of magic that keeps all of the different packs and tribes together.
Hitomi slowly transformed and became the form she most enjoyed, because in this form there were no troubles. Her fur color was white, which was the color of the ancient race of wolves. This symbolized that she was apart of the true blood line of the Moon Goddess, that her blood was directly from the Moon Goddess herself, and wasn't tainted by that of other werewovles or wolfs. Her sisters' furs also were that of the ancient race of wolves. Their coats both symbolized that they were apart of the true blood line of the Moon Goddess's mate, the Night God.
Rin spotted the spirit of their pack first and chased after her pup friends. Kagome and Hitomi trotted over dignantly. Hitomi needed to walk the most graceful. She was the first pack leader that was a female. She had fought in the ancient ways and had won. Kagome would be next in line if Hitomi ever died. The spirits of the pack parted to let Hitomi walk the path, Kagome closely followed. She walked just as graceful as Hitomi, head held high.
Hitomi had made it to the front of the pack. She howled the song of the hunt and the rest of the pack joined in. The song quickly died down and all became silent. Then at neck breaking speed, for a human, Hitomi, followed closely by Kagome, took off with the pack not to far behind. Rin slowly made it to the front; to Kagome. Rin had picked up the scent of a rabbit and quickly nudged Kagome in the direction. Kagome sped up to get next to Hitomi. Kagome nudged Hitomi in the direction of the meal, since there was no way to communicate. Hitomi quickly obliged to the meal and took off in that direction.
As they neared their prey, they slowed down to a prowler's trot. They'd be damned if they were going to lose this meal. They neared a bush to spy on their prey. They liked what they saw. It was juicy and had a lot of flesh to go around. The rabbit did not move an inch to get away. To the rabbit it was like they weren't even their, or more like the rabbit couldn't sense them. Hitomi, Kagome, and Rin could not be sensed by any living creature or animal. Their magic helped them conceal themselves from being detected.
The rabbit sat there and kept munching away on its meal. Yeah, you just go on and enjoy that meal, little one, for it'll be your last. thought Kagome, her mouth starting to water. It was Hitomi's job to catch the meals, and that's exactly what she did. She had pounced onto the rabbit and it was now hanging form her jaws. Blood covered the dead rabbit's coat and the fur bordering Hitomi's jaw.
Rin jumped out of the bushes excited to eat the catch, followed by Kagome who calmly walked over. The rabbit dropped out of Hitomi's mouth at Rin's feet and Rin quickly started ripping the meat off of it. Hitomi went to find another rabbit for Kagome. Hitomi usually ate the left overs. She quickly sniffed out another rabbit and followed the trail to it. As she followed it's trail, another pack was on the prowl....
"Can we turn into our other forms yet?!," whined a little werewolf pup.
"Will you shut-up, Shippo? We've had enough," answered a male werewolf.
"Be nice, Inu-Yasha. Aunt Esme, can we change our forms yet?," asked a female werewolf's voice.
"Yes, we can. I believe the time has come," answered the ancient pack healer, and makeshift pack leader, Aunt Esme.
All of the pack gave a sigh of relief. They all finally got to change into their favored form. Everyone welcomed the change. They all loved the freeness of it. Creaks of changing bones and joints could be heardwith moans and groans of painas their spines started to arch into that of what humans would call "werewolf."
The changes were complete. Alleighteen of the pack members changed into forms between human and wolf. There were more pack members, but they were all left behind.
All the present pack memberslined up, ready to speed off after their pack leader howled the song of the hunt. First, Aunt Esme howled. Next Sesshomaru, then Kouga, Inu-Yasha, Miroku, Naraku, Sango, Kikyou, Kagura, Kanna, Buck, Valenti, Rafael(Rafe), Greg, and Ayame. Then the pups Shippo, Kohaku, and Souta joined in. The song slowly died down, and when it finally died they all sped off to hunt.
When they found a family of rabbits, they slowed and pounced onto their meal. As the adults ripped at their food to their hungers satisfaction, that had grown over the trip here, the pups sneaked away, wandering the grounds of "their new territory."
As time went by, and the adults hungers' were satisfied, they noticed that the pups were gone. They panicked and turned into their human forms so they could communicate. Once they had changed, a buzz of panicked whispers could be heard. Aunt Esme called for silence and asked Sango, Inu-yasha, Sesshomaru, Miroku, Kouga, and Kikyou to search for them. They changed into there werewolf forms and started searching....
As Rin ate her dinner, Kagome picked up the scent of intruders and heard the howl of their hunting time. She kept her growl muffled so that Rin wouldn't worry about the howl, since she still didn't understand what the meaning of the howl was yet. Kagome smeltthree different scents drawing nearer, and so did Rin. They both heard playful sounds. The sounds came closer, and closer, and closer, until suddenly three, what Kagome and Rin had recognized as werewolves, crashed through the bushes.
Rin gave a playful yelp of joy and caught the attention of the three werewolves. Rin neared the three male pup werewolves, but with every step they backed away, afraid of what her intentions might be. Just then, Kagome smeltsix other scents drawing near....fast. In fact, they were drawing near too fast for Kagome's liking.
Just then, thesix scents leaped over the brush and in front of, what Kagome took as their pups, protectively, baring their teeth and growling. And on pure instinct, Kagome jumped in front of Rin. Far off somewhere else, closing the gap between herself and what was left of her pack, Hitomi hurried to thenine scents "threatening" her pack....
Hitomi ran as fast as she could. She ran as if the "devils were at her heels." She hoped that she'd make it before her pack was obliterated. The spirits of her pack were there, and she took that as a comfort because they would protect them, but she sped up just in case they didn't succeed.
It got harder to breath with her catch in her mouth, so she spit it out and sped up even more. Please let them be okay! thought Hitomi as she neared her pack. She finally arrived and jumped over the brush and slid/turned to a stop facing her new threat. Thenine intruders were a bitsurprised at this newcomer, especially since it was female;it was overly protective for a female.
Hitomi barred her teeth and emitted a deep, dangerous growl. Kouga had lunged at Hitomi,taking the threat. Hitomi grabbed Rin by the back of her neck, like a cat, and both Hitomi and Kagome jumped out of the way in opposite directions. Hitomi knew that she wasnow main threat, so she tossed Rin to Kagome.Kagome caught Rin instinctivelyand sped off to a safer location. Inu-Yasha followed, hot on her tail. He would be damned if he let his enemy escape.
The rest of Inu-Yasha's group were surprised once again at this lone wolf's act of protectiveness, and grew more surprised as Hitomi slowly changed to that of a werewolf. I'm glad they can't tell my facial features. thought a relaxed Hitomi. It would be a fight for territory once again.
Kouga had stood there, shocked, but snapped out of it and lunged again at Hitomi's back. Sensing this, Hitomi jumped up to grab a branch and she laughed, well, what was left of a laugh in her, anyway,at him as he continued to trudge forward. She dropped down behind him, and he turned and charged again. At the last minute, she ducked and grabbed a tuft of his fur and kicked him over her head. He slammed into a tree and was knocked unconscious.
Hitomi didn't stick around to face the rest, and instead looked forward to beat the crap out of that other werewolf chasing her pack members. She could feel three of the other werewolves catch up to her, but she didn't dare look back, and, instead sped up. She was nearing Rin and Kagome, and when she got there the scene made her heart stop. There, Kagome was held in the air by her throat by Inu-Yasha, and Rin lay motionless on the ground.
Hitomi's blood shot up to more than a boil. She felt hot, angrytears streak down her furred face and she felt her wolf instinct take over. I won't lose anymore members. she angrily thought. She lunged forward and bit hard into Inu-Yahsa's arm. This made him let go, but Hitomi didn't hold on to his arm, instead she caught Kagome. Kagome fainted from her loss of oxygen. Hitomi quickly propped Kagome up against a tree with Rin nearby.
Inu-Yasha charged toward Hitomi, but he soon regretted that. Hitomi grabbed his throat and squeezed. Her nails dug into his flesh and she savored the feel of the blood running under her fingers. Her eyes started to glow red with anger, which made Inu-Yasha frozen with fear, and he never scared easily. Just then the three members arrived in time to witness this, but before they could even attack, Hitomi threw Inu-Yasha a them. As they looked on, she stood tall and rigged, her eyes still glowing blood red, and for just one moment, one magical moment, thefour of them could see thousands of spirit wolves, eyes glowing yellow, gathered around her feet.
Hitomi calmed a bit and her sight became more then that one color she hated the most, red. She turned around ignoring the stares behind her and walked towards Kagome's and Rin's body. Kagome awoke as Hitomi stood there in front of her. She slowly stood and Hitomi bent down to pick up Rin. Kagome momentarily formed her mouth into that of a humans and said in a language only they could understand, "s'tel og."
"Heay," answered Hitomi, her mouth also changed as Kagome changed her mouth to it's wolf shaped form.
(A/n: It's called "scramble")
Before Hitomi changed her mouth back, too, she said, "Don't ever wander into our territory again." And left. The others stood there spacing out for a moment then snapping back to reality. They sure had news to tell the rest of the pack.
Hitomi and Kagome bathed Rin and themselves and went to bed, ready to go to school in the morning.(like it? Hate it? R/R :)