(sigh) I've started new guidelines for myself. I'm not going to update this fic till I have at least 4 reviews for the chapters. I feel really bad about this for Whiskers and Female Heero Yuy cause you guys have been the best! So here (hands Whiskers and Female Heero Yuy a jug of pocky) thanks for reviewing so fast!!!
Really these self issued guidelines won't change much. I have a hard time updating now because my dance classes have started back up in full force for nationals. That, along with school (sob---waves bye bye to summer) art classes and piano classes I just don't have very much free time.
But hey now the tension can build up, right!? Ok that was a lame excuse for not getting my sorry butt in line -.- To make up for taking longer to update, the chapters will be longer---at least I think they will be---that is my goal anyway. (pumps fist in air) Enough self loathing---off to the next chapter!!
Side note-- this might be a smite confusing but when there are very slight drifts in time it will be marked with %%% just 3 percent signs, every other scene is changed with the normal line.
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6 pairs of intense, glistening eyes laid fretfully upon Hige's calm profile, waiting for ghastly pain to impede his tranquil face. Hush filled the heavy air, drumming relentlessly on each individual pair of anxious ears.
Hige's soft claret eyes widened in fear as he drew trembling hands to his quaking stomach. His soft profile fell to the yellow carpeted floor sending a fuming, musty cloud through the air.
"Hige!" Toboe whimpered, slipping from his knees to the ground beside his quivering friend. His gentle hands shook his companion's stiff body, "Hige please are you okay!?" Once more a blanket of silence covered the stale room.
"Ju---ju don't theenk 'e's dead?" Ameya gulped, fighting the mournful tears swimming about her soft emerald eyes.
Toboe's drew his tender hands from his friend, turning his back, he erupted in deep, painful sobs over the loss of his comical friend.
Tsume gulped, refusing to be beaten he drew a hand once more to Hige's thin shoulder. "Wake up, idiot. Just wake up." Waiting, he continued to hold his grip till giggles pulsated through his russet-haired companion's body.
"I-I can't believe you guys fell for that!!" Hige choked through his laughter, clutching his stomach once more from sheer entertainment.
Tsume's head pounded in anger as he clutched his fist tight in irritation. "Asshole." he seethed through his clenched teeth before pounding his heavy fist to the surface of the knotted, worn table.
"H-how could you do that?" Toboe cried, feeling overwhelmed by the betrayal of his older, humorous friend.
Hige's hunched body sifted, "Ok ok sorry runt I didn't know you'd get so emotional!" He laughed struggling to rise to his feet only to draw a hand to his stomach and collapse to the floor once more.
"H-Hige I won't fall for this again you know!" The pup pouted, turning to sit once more at the long wooden table.
"The runt's right, we won't fall for that stupid trick again." Tsume glared, waiting for a response to escape from Hige's clasped, silent lips. His muscular arms shook with anger as a single bead of sweat caressed his soft forehead, "Hige, you're asking for it! You've brought this joke too far!" With those simple words his foot slipped forward, meeting Hige's husky torso and sending him rolling to his side. A ribbon of blood fell from his taunt mouth, burning it's mark into his pale skin.
"I don't think he's joking this time." Yasuo whispered, studying the vacant eye's of his passed out comapnion. He withdrew a steady breath and slowly slid 2 quivering fingers under Hige's delicate neck before quickly contracting them to his own warm breast. "He's not dead but his pulse is very weak. He's definitely unconscious, that much I can tell you."
Toboe jumped from his seat sending his creaky chair crashing to the floor. The pack grew still, lightly waiting on their restless feet to run if the need may arise. "S-so that old lady, she---"
"We have to leave now." Yasuo interrupted Toboe's quivering voice, reaching to pull Hige's limp form over his muscular shoulder. "I think it is apparent our welcome has grown short."
The companions nodded, each holding faces distraught with fear and distrust. They quietly slunk to the door that would lead them to their dark haven, only to hear the long creak of the kitchen door opening behind them.
"Well well, where are you going?" The old woman snickered, eyeing the pack with dull, brooding eyes. "You haven't even touched your drinks," she cooed in a thick, greasy voice. "Aren't you thirsty?"
Kuri and Goro quickly rushed in front of their leader, hoping to hide their unconscious friend from the sinister woman's glare.
"Uhh that's okay, we're bout ready to leave. Hoping to see you again, mam." Goro nodded, hiding his fear with a toothy false grin. The lanky man turned his jaded head from his foe, trying desperately to seethe his friends into the anodyne darkness beyond the illuminated house.
Toboe rushed through the entranceway, quickly hastening to the shadows he had once feared so deeply. Ameya followed the auburn-haired pup closely, tenderly pushing him forward by the apple of his smooth back. The two stopped yards from the house, watching with fervent eyes to the light flooding through the open door, piercing the darkness with sinister shadows.
The night was silent, no words were spoken as Ameya and Toboe waited patiently for their friends to reach them. The wind danced across their tearful faces, twirling their silky hair around soft shoulders. Every breath weighed upon their heavy chests till the silence was broken once more. Broken by the loud twang of a single vengeful bullet.
Toboe jumped back with fear, gripping a sweaty hand to Ameya's glossy champagne robes he fell to his bony knees. "W-was that a gun shot?" he whispered lightly, fighting his tense throat to make even the tiniest noise. He rose his head to receive consoling words of encouragement but received none.
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(A/N: with Blue shortly before the gunshot)
The copious, murky darkness swirled around Blue's wolven head, numbing her senses in a vast, never ending sea of black. The melodic pants escaping her smooth black lips was the only noise comforting those delicate ears.
She turned her enchanting blue eyes to the monotonous sky above. The glistening stars once penetrating the deep night sky were gone, where ever her gentle eyes fell nothing but brooding darkness could be perceived. If not for the scuff of her soft pads on the gravel road, the earth and the sky would be transposable.
Only thoughts of being happily reunited with her friends kept her feet from rapidly fleeing the phantom city. "They must be here." She comforted herself, hoping the sound of her own soothing voice would return her senses. "This is insane, it's like my senses are dead. How can this be?"
She sighed to herself, it was silly to get upset over such trivial things. Was she a pup? Still afraid of the dark? Far worse things had impeded her voyage, things that could physically harm her. Darkness was nothing, only our minds conjured up the danger within, right? Right!? Her thoughts swarmed her already pensive mind making her shake her fatigued head in stress.
"This is just so stupid." She told herself, forcing her feet to speed their decelerating progress. She continued to tread in complete silence, perhaps the second most dreaded thing next to darkness. The absence of clamor left the mind to wander, more often than not to things the beholder no longer sought to dwell on. However, for Blue the stillness inhibiting her pounding mind would not last long.
A deafening shot broke her thoughts, momentarily quaking the earth underneath her black, chapped paws.
"What the hell?" She whispered with bated breath. Her mind swarmed with thoughts of Hige and the rest of the pack lying dead, victims to an angry bystander's bullet. "Please God let it have been thunder," she shivered closing her eyes in concern before speeding toward the echo pulsating through the darkness.
She doubted her hopes would be correct. Traveling with pops got one quite acquainted to the hum of a bullet, and she was nearly positive the offending twang had been such. Still, it had served as a guide through the dark wasteland of dilapidated buildings.
She sprinted through the maze of construction carefully following the echo of a bullet still lingering in the muggy air, slightly relieved that her path had a destination once more. Turning her head from side to side to avoid any buildings obstructing her way, she caught a faint movement dancing across the shadows.
Blue's soft feet steadied their pace and she quietly slunk to where the movement was. Through her azure wolf eyes she could barely make out the dim profile of a human body. "H-Hige," she whispered, only to draw the attention of the unknown person. Slowly the profile stepped swiftly toward her quivering stance, leaving a faint cloud of dust in its wake. "Hige, if that's you this isn't funny." Her temper rose as she slowly took a step back.
She fought the natural instinct to attack or run while she watched the person vigilantly move their hand to their jacket pocket. This can't be good, Blue thought to herself, baring her long white teeth to the stranger. Her thoughts were affirmed as the person slowly rose a gun to where she stood, once more leaving a loud bang of a bullet to haunt the sultry air.
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(A/N: back to the group)
Tsume swiftly turned his head as a second gunshot sounded through the air. "So the old woman has allies does she?" He growled, tussling to help Yasuo pull Hige through the open door.
Goro and Kuri had held the struggling old woman to the floor after she had fired that gunshot. Good thing old women had no aim, instead of puncturing Goro's head she had merely left a nasty hole in the doorframe.
Tsume turned his golden eyes to where the girl and the pup once stood, ready to bark commands at them to come back to the house. "Dammit!" He snapped, growing angry at the situation engulfing him. Men he recognized to be Darcia's minions poured through the buildings, 2 of which already had their pistols pointing casually to Ameya and Toboe's heads.
"Goro, Kuri forget the old woman, as long as she's unarmed she's no danger," Yasuo chimed to his friends, recognizing the dangerous situation settling around them. "We need your fighting skills with us!"
The two men were quick to obey. Kuri quickly lifted the woman's abandoned pistol from the floor then loosened his grip on her arm while Goro ran to his leader ready to obey orders.
"Goro, find somewhere safe to hide Hige, then come back here and help us fight!" Yasuo wailed, quickly handing over Hige's limp body before sinking to his beige wolf form.
Goro nodded his head and lifted Hige to his shoulder, entering the house they had once wished to flee. He quickly sidestepped out of the way as Kuri's dark brown wolf body flew through the door, eagerly joining Yasuo and Tsume in the growing swarms of soldiers. "Tha' was close," he laughed under his breath before briskly searching for a place to hide Hige, "I was almost done in by me own companion."
Few moments later Goro's soft ashen wolf form sprinted out of the house, having safely stowed Hige in the bathtub, curtain drawn. One swift glance over the situation at hand was enough to see the odds were against them. 7 wolves, one unconscious and two with their lives on the line, against hundreds and still growing soldiers.
"Dammit, if we can at least get the pup and girl back they can help us fight." Tsume growled to the others, ripping his sharp teeth through the throat of the nearest soldier.
"And how exactly are we supposed to get to them?" Kuri snarled sarcastically while jumping, claws bared, on the soldier closest to him.
Yasuo rose his busy fighting head to think of how they would escape this seemingly impossible situation. Time wasn't on their side, that much was sure. With Toboe and Ameya in such a precarious situation it would be dangerous to detach them from their captors. However, without them, their chances of winning this battle were little to none. Not to mention the fact that Hige lay dying wherever Goro had found it safe to hide him.
He ripped his head around thrusting his teeth into the warm hand of the soldier attempting to choke him from behind before once more turning to his companions. "Kuri," he yelled above the clamor, having made up his mind. "Kuri, do you think you could jump over these soldiers heads to reach Ameya and Toboe!?"
Kuri lifted his head from clenching his teeth around a fat man's beefy arm. "You know I can!" He called back cockily. The profession he was involved in before joining Yasuo had required stealth, without it you would go no where in the business.
"Great, Tsume can you act as a distraction!?" Yasuo turned his head to the white-haired man, pausing momentarily to clamp his muscular jaws around a bare neck.
"Mm," Tsume grunted, mouth busy with his brute fighting methods.
"Ok, then Tsume you cause the distraction while Kuri, you jump over and do your best to get the gun away from Toboe and Ameya."
Tsume's brow knitted in awe, he had never seen Yasuo like this. He had seemed so timid before, but now he sputtered orders as if being a leader was second nature. Of course that wasn't important, he quickly concentrated his mind to how exactly he could go about distracting a whole flock of soldiers.
He turned his glossy, golden eyes to the infinite black swirls above. "Of course!" He whispered, mentally hitting himself on the head for being so dense. Without further contemplation, or much effort for that matter, he swiftly jumped atop the collapsing shingled roof of the house behind him and withdrew a deep warm breath. Slowly the heads of the soldiers shifted and the din clouding the once quiet house was pierced by Tsume's haunting, melodious howl.
Kuri noticed his chance, praying to himself the soldiers wouldn't turn their guns on Tsume along with their attention. His muscular wolf legs contracted to the ground before lifting once more, shooting him rapidly through the air only to land once more with a graceful thud before Toboe and Ameya's nervous feet.
Ameya choked back the pearly tears forming in her striking emerald eyes. "Kuri," she gulped before he thrust his sharp, blood tainted teeth in the arm of her subjugator.
"Ameya, help me with Toboe!" He yelled, realizing his choice to rescue the girl first could very well risk the lanky pup's young life.
No words escaped her hard pressed lips as she fell to her true wolf form, quickly turning to Toboe's captor. Her soft emerald eyes gazed into Kuri's blood red ones, passing her plan to him with one furtive glance. The crimson-eyed wolf lightly nodded his head, as he watched Ameya slink to the shadows. He sat back on his haunches, building speed within his tight muscles.
With one slight glance to where Ameya was sitting, he sprung forward quickly tightening his brawny jaw around the black, metal pistol staring at Toboe's shaking head. The gun-bearer jumped pulling the trigger with a click, leaving a procession of bullets to stream through the air. Toboe shrieked, shielding himself waiting for angry bullets to meet the bone of his skull, only to fall to the earth with a thud mere moments before his death had come.
"Ameya," he whispered, cuddling his tearful, shocked eyes into her silky champagne robes as she attained her false human image. She had pulled him down by his foot, luckily her speculation of the gun-bearer loosening his grip in fear had been true. Though Toboe still noticed a slight rip in the soft fabric of his shirt where the man's nails had held.
Toboe was left no time to think as Kuri, who had easily defeating the armed man, strode briskly to the two. "Can the two of you fight?" He asked, not wanting to force them into fighting after such a frightening experience.
Ameya laughed, "I can fight, eet wasn't that bad reelly." She ruffled Toboe's thick brown hair with her hand before falling once more to her speckled brown wolf figure and sprinting into the raging battle.
"And you?" Kuri inquired staring down at the trembling wolf below him. He saw the fear in the small boy's eyes, knowing he couldn't be much help in this situation he cleared his rough throat. "Actually Toboe, it might be better if you go watch Hige, he's in that old house somewhere---"
"You just think I'm going to be in the way!" Toboe whimpered, jutting out his jaw in indignation. "I can fight just as good as the rest of you!" His voice strengthened as he clutched his hands to his chest, hiding their quaking state from Kuri's watchful eyes.
Kuri wasn't a fool, the pup was in no condition for fighting, though he couldn't stop his thin lip from rising in a sneer. He admired that the runt wanted to fight, even knowing his weaknesses. "Really, Toboe," he insisted. "Hige could die if some one isn't in there, you could at least look for an antidote. I mean where there's a poison there's bound to be it's remedy, right?
Slowly Toboe nodded his head, maybe in a normal situation he would continue to fight, but at this moment Kuri was needed. Besides, Hige probably could use some help. "Ok I'll do it!" He shot his glistening golden eyes to the sky before dropping his human camouflage and revealing his true wolf body.
"Can you make it through the fight with out help?" Kuri asked before realizing he was probably wounding the poor pup's ego even more.
Toboe simply disregarded the statement, knowing it was hard to think properly in such a hectic situation. "No, I think I can make it on my own." He simply stated before charging swiftly into the battle.
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(A/N: irrelevant to the story but YAY I finally reached 3,000 words!!)
Toboe tumbled into the doorway of the old woman's house. He rubbed the scratches across his soft arms, formed from the battle outside. "It's really scary out there," he mumbled to himself, rising a nose to find Hige's scent. The rusty smell of blood flooded his wolven nose, but luckily he caught a faint draft OF Hige's faint scent sieving from the bathroom.
Nervously he stepped forward, the door had been left wide open, who knew if soldiers were hiding around each corner. And what about the old lady? "Not like she would be any match for me as a wolf," Toboe whispered to himself, trying to gain reassurance from his own tender voice.
Finally he reached the white bathroom door only to hear a faint slosh as his feet neared it. "What?" Toboe gasped as he looked to his boots. A thick stream of steaming water was seeping from beneath the yellowed, rotting door; water tainted with the transparent red of diluted blood. "Hige!" He screamed, taking on his human form he reached his thin fingers around the bronze, rusted doorknob only to find it locked. "Hige!!" He wailed again, hammering his tense fist against the door with all his strength, leaving a large hole in the rotted wood.
Without a second moments thought he slipped his slender arm through the fist-sized hole, wincing as his pale skin was scratched by the splinters of the jagged opening. Drops of the runt's scarlet blood dripped across the door's dull surface, but he ignored the pain as his touch slowly grasped the lock. He twisted it with a clack and opened the door, pushing it roughly from the weight of the torrents of water streaming through.
Toboe fell to his knees, soaking his knees with the steaming floods of water pouring from the bath's faucet. "B-Blue," he gasped staring at the black-haired girl's jostled figure as she cradled Hige's head in her lap. Blood was sliding off her shouler, more than likely she had been trailing the pack and got shot when fighting through the swarms of soldiers.
"Are you okay," Toboe asked rising once more to his feeble legs to take a step forward. "W-what happened, and how did you get here, and why is the water running?" Toboe fumbled with his questions, unsure which he wanted answered the most.
Blue slowly rose her pale blue eyes to Toboe's distraught face, finally acknowledging the small boy's presense. "What happened--------what happened to Hige?" She asked, seeming haggard and emotionally drained from the voyage she had been through.
Toboe blinked slowly, she hadn't answered any of his questions but the fact that she was speaking was good enough. "Th-there was an old lady and she gave us drinks and Hige drank his but we told him not to but he did and----------and he----" Toboe's golden yellow eyes filled with tears as he struggled to speak.
"It's okay, I understand." Blue sighed, gently curling a finger around a damp lock of Hige's hair. "But do you think there is an antidote around this house?"
Toboe took a step back, sloshing the water around his feet as he remembered the task he had been sent for. "Yes, probably, at least that's why I came here. But Blue--you look like you got shot in your shoulder. Are you sure you're okay?" Toboe asked, concern knitting his furrowed brow.
"I'll be okay," Blue replied, a thin smile spreading through her chapped lips. "I've been hurt a lot worse than this before, I'll be fi---" Her words were cut short as her blue eyes widened in horror. "TOBOE!! LOOK OUT!!" She yelped, gently placing Hige's head on the wet bathroom floor before rising to her own shaky legs.
Toboe shifted to turn his head only to freeze at the sight of the old woman standing behind him. Normally this sight wouldn't have frightened him, but in her old, wrinkled hand she grasped a sharp jagged kitchen knife. The knife cast long ominous gleams across the wet floor, reflecting the crazed look in the old woman's eyes as she slowly rose the weapon, striking it forcefully upon her target.
Toboe yelped as he flinched, moments ticked through his head. Was he dead? It sure didn't feel like it. He slowly opened his clenched eyelids peering blurrily at his surroundings.
"Oh my gosh!" He gasped, falling to his knees with a faint splash. In front of him the old lady lay sprawled across the floor, red crimson blood flowing from her wrist. "W-why----why!?" Toboe gulped back tears, stunned by what had happened. He slowly lifted a shaky hand to the woman's shoulder, shaking her gently.
Slowly her elderly blood-shot eyes opened, but she continued to lay on the drenched floor, to weak to rise. "I'm so sorry." She whispered, pearly tears falling from her old eyes.
"Sorry for what?" Blue asked, once more sitting to cradle Hige's head.
"I---I didn't want to do it. Didn't want to poison you boys." She whispered, still gazing upon Toboe's gentle face.
"Then why, if you didn't want to why did you?" Toboe asked, removing his hand from her bony shoulder.
"I didn't have a choice, Darcia came to me. Said if I didn't deceive you boys he would destroy my house and kill my husband." She stopped in a fit of coughs. "But he lied," she gasped out rising a sleeve to her mouth. "He killed him anyway, my husband," the tears feel like a torrential rainstorm from her eyes. "Said if I didn't help him, he'd kill me too. But it doesn't matter anymore, now I can join him in heaven!" She yelped raising her hand sbove her head as if waiting for her dead husband to retrieve it.
"You can't die!" Toboe rose to his feet, remembering in grief the death of his own granny. "Please, you can't die, you can't!"
Blue rose her voice above Toboe's pleas. "He's right, you can't die yet. It wouldn't be in peace." She stated simply. "Not until you tell us the antidote for Hige's illness will you truly be free of crime."
The old lady slowly shook her head, sending ripples through the water. "Darcia's scientist made the potion, he said it was made by the flower maiden's blood. He said the only antidote was a moon flower."
"Where the hell are we supposed to find one of those!?" Blue cried, slowly losing her cool. "We'll never find one in time."
"Are you so sure?" the old woman cackled, slowly lifting her foggotten hand beside her head. The hand was drawn in a fist that she slowly opened, revealing the milky white petals of a moon flower. "It was a present from my husband, he---," she stopped in a procession of deep gurgling coughs. "He was an archeologist, and on his last trip, about a week before Darcia came here, he found this. He thought it was so beautiful he wanted me to see it, too."
Toboe eyes opened in wonder before gently lifting the silky white flower from her hand and carrying it over to Blue. "Where did he find it?" Toboe asked, casually turning around to see the woman face down against the flooded floors. He gasped and ran to her side, "you'll drown if you don't lift your head!" He shrieked struggling to get her to a sitting position.
"Toboe. She's dead." Blue told him quietly, feeling uncomfortable at the way he was shaking her body about.
"Sh-she can't be," Toboe sobbed as tears stremed down his pale cheeks.
"I know it's sad, but it's what she wanted. She died in peace instead of under Darcia's hand." Blue comforted him while slowly getting Hige to swallow the slightly crushed petals of the moon flower. "Why don't we go out and help the others." She offered, satisfied that Hige would be better soon.
Toboe only nodded, tears still falling from his golden eyes. "Yes, Tsume probably needs my help by now!" He tittered half-heartedly, stepping to help Blue lift Hige up from the damp bathroom floor.
They slowly wobbled their way to the front door, Blue holding Hige under his shoulders and Toboe holding him by his feet. The young pup listened contently, he expecting to hear the intense clamor of a roaring battle only to hear the soft voices of his companions. He released his grip on Hige's feet as he and Blue reached the door and set off outside.
"Where are all the soldiers?" He asked, noticing that all was left of the fight was a few fires and his thrashed friends.
"They all just left, not two minutes ago." Goro replied, stunned at what had just happened.
"What do you mean, how could they just leave?" Toboe inquired, growing confused.
"Darcia's aircraft came and they all just evacuated, what was left of them at least." Tsume snarled, wiping his bloodied mouth with his wrist. "But what about you, runt? What happened to Chubby and the old lady?"
Toboe turned his eyes to the ground. "The old lady, she died--," he let the silence drum against his ears for a moment. "But not before giving us the antidote for Hige. Blue's right at the doorway with him." Toboe slowly pointed a finger to the light streaming through the still open door.
"Blue!? How the hell---" Tsume asked, mouth agape.
"Oh yeah I forgot, she got here not sure how yet. But c'mon she got shot in the shoulder and might need some help." He waved a hand indicating for the pack to follow.
Everyone started to walk back to the house before Yasuo's voice broke their steps. "Wait, this isn't right. Why would Darcia just leave, he didn't intend for us to die tonight. No, he must be just trying to scare us wear us down so we're unexpected when the real attack comes."
"If that wasn't a so called real attack what the hell is?!" Tsume asked, placing his hands on his hips.
"I don't know, that's the problem we'll never know. We'll just keep trailing them. Thinking we're going to get back your friends. But we won't, we aren't trailing, we're being trailed." Yasuo shot back.
"How do you know that?" Toboe whimpered, walking between Tsume and Yasuo's bodies.
"How do I know what?" Yasuo inquired, thin eyebrow rising in puzzlement.
"You don't know Darcia's motives. You can't, so we have to keep going. We have to help our friends and keep trying to reach Kiba and Cheza. I mean I think that's what they would do for me." Toboe's voice strengthened as he voiced his beliefs.
" I---guess so." Yasuo replied, having been forced to see the situation through eyes other than his own.
"Good!" Toboe smiled, "Then let's go help Blue and Hige!" He cocked his head, turning back to the dilapidated house as the darkness thinned, allowing the eerie light of the moon to join the house's jovial illumination.
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WOW!!! An almost 5,000 word chapter! Good Lord I didn't know I had it in me. And here I should be studying for a History quiz. LOL! Well I hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter as I enjoyed writing it. And sorry it took me sooooo long to post.
For everyone to know I mentioned Kuri's past job before (does anyone remember that) Well it will be brought up again in a later chapter, in fact all the new character's will have their pasts revealed. For now though, I have a Kiba and Cheza chapter to write. Farewell!
Like always Please R&R : )
Really these self issued guidelines won't change much. I have a hard time updating now because my dance classes have started back up in full force for nationals. That, along with school (sob---waves bye bye to summer) art classes and piano classes I just don't have very much free time.
But hey now the tension can build up, right!? Ok that was a lame excuse for not getting my sorry butt in line -.- To make up for taking longer to update, the chapters will be longer---at least I think they will be---that is my goal anyway. (pumps fist in air) Enough self loathing---off to the next chapter!!
Side note-- this might be a smite confusing but when there are very slight drifts in time it will be marked with %%% just 3 percent signs, every other scene is changed with the normal line.
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6 pairs of intense, glistening eyes laid fretfully upon Hige's calm profile, waiting for ghastly pain to impede his tranquil face. Hush filled the heavy air, drumming relentlessly on each individual pair of anxious ears.
Hige's soft claret eyes widened in fear as he drew trembling hands to his quaking stomach. His soft profile fell to the yellow carpeted floor sending a fuming, musty cloud through the air.
"Hige!" Toboe whimpered, slipping from his knees to the ground beside his quivering friend. His gentle hands shook his companion's stiff body, "Hige please are you okay!?" Once more a blanket of silence covered the stale room.
"Ju---ju don't theenk 'e's dead?" Ameya gulped, fighting the mournful tears swimming about her soft emerald eyes.
Toboe's drew his tender hands from his friend, turning his back, he erupted in deep, painful sobs over the loss of his comical friend.
Tsume gulped, refusing to be beaten he drew a hand once more to Hige's thin shoulder. "Wake up, idiot. Just wake up." Waiting, he continued to hold his grip till giggles pulsated through his russet-haired companion's body.
"I-I can't believe you guys fell for that!!" Hige choked through his laughter, clutching his stomach once more from sheer entertainment.
Tsume's head pounded in anger as he clutched his fist tight in irritation. "Asshole." he seethed through his clenched teeth before pounding his heavy fist to the surface of the knotted, worn table.
"H-how could you do that?" Toboe cried, feeling overwhelmed by the betrayal of his older, humorous friend.
Hige's hunched body sifted, "Ok ok sorry runt I didn't know you'd get so emotional!" He laughed struggling to rise to his feet only to draw a hand to his stomach and collapse to the floor once more.
"H-Hige I won't fall for this again you know!" The pup pouted, turning to sit once more at the long wooden table.
"The runt's right, we won't fall for that stupid trick again." Tsume glared, waiting for a response to escape from Hige's clasped, silent lips. His muscular arms shook with anger as a single bead of sweat caressed his soft forehead, "Hige, you're asking for it! You've brought this joke too far!" With those simple words his foot slipped forward, meeting Hige's husky torso and sending him rolling to his side. A ribbon of blood fell from his taunt mouth, burning it's mark into his pale skin.
"I don't think he's joking this time." Yasuo whispered, studying the vacant eye's of his passed out comapnion. He withdrew a steady breath and slowly slid 2 quivering fingers under Hige's delicate neck before quickly contracting them to his own warm breast. "He's not dead but his pulse is very weak. He's definitely unconscious, that much I can tell you."
Toboe jumped from his seat sending his creaky chair crashing to the floor. The pack grew still, lightly waiting on their restless feet to run if the need may arise. "S-so that old lady, she---"
"We have to leave now." Yasuo interrupted Toboe's quivering voice, reaching to pull Hige's limp form over his muscular shoulder. "I think it is apparent our welcome has grown short."
The companions nodded, each holding faces distraught with fear and distrust. They quietly slunk to the door that would lead them to their dark haven, only to hear the long creak of the kitchen door opening behind them.
"Well well, where are you going?" The old woman snickered, eyeing the pack with dull, brooding eyes. "You haven't even touched your drinks," she cooed in a thick, greasy voice. "Aren't you thirsty?"
Kuri and Goro quickly rushed in front of their leader, hoping to hide their unconscious friend from the sinister woman's glare.
"Uhh that's okay, we're bout ready to leave. Hoping to see you again, mam." Goro nodded, hiding his fear with a toothy false grin. The lanky man turned his jaded head from his foe, trying desperately to seethe his friends into the anodyne darkness beyond the illuminated house.
Toboe rushed through the entranceway, quickly hastening to the shadows he had once feared so deeply. Ameya followed the auburn-haired pup closely, tenderly pushing him forward by the apple of his smooth back. The two stopped yards from the house, watching with fervent eyes to the light flooding through the open door, piercing the darkness with sinister shadows.
The night was silent, no words were spoken as Ameya and Toboe waited patiently for their friends to reach them. The wind danced across their tearful faces, twirling their silky hair around soft shoulders. Every breath weighed upon their heavy chests till the silence was broken once more. Broken by the loud twang of a single vengeful bullet.
Toboe jumped back with fear, gripping a sweaty hand to Ameya's glossy champagne robes he fell to his bony knees. "W-was that a gun shot?" he whispered lightly, fighting his tense throat to make even the tiniest noise. He rose his head to receive consoling words of encouragement but received none.
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(A/N: with Blue shortly before the gunshot)
The copious, murky darkness swirled around Blue's wolven head, numbing her senses in a vast, never ending sea of black. The melodic pants escaping her smooth black lips was the only noise comforting those delicate ears.
She turned her enchanting blue eyes to the monotonous sky above. The glistening stars once penetrating the deep night sky were gone, where ever her gentle eyes fell nothing but brooding darkness could be perceived. If not for the scuff of her soft pads on the gravel road, the earth and the sky would be transposable.
Only thoughts of being happily reunited with her friends kept her feet from rapidly fleeing the phantom city. "They must be here." She comforted herself, hoping the sound of her own soothing voice would return her senses. "This is insane, it's like my senses are dead. How can this be?"
She sighed to herself, it was silly to get upset over such trivial things. Was she a pup? Still afraid of the dark? Far worse things had impeded her voyage, things that could physically harm her. Darkness was nothing, only our minds conjured up the danger within, right? Right!? Her thoughts swarmed her already pensive mind making her shake her fatigued head in stress.
"This is just so stupid." She told herself, forcing her feet to speed their decelerating progress. She continued to tread in complete silence, perhaps the second most dreaded thing next to darkness. The absence of clamor left the mind to wander, more often than not to things the beholder no longer sought to dwell on. However, for Blue the stillness inhibiting her pounding mind would not last long.
A deafening shot broke her thoughts, momentarily quaking the earth underneath her black, chapped paws.
"What the hell?" She whispered with bated breath. Her mind swarmed with thoughts of Hige and the rest of the pack lying dead, victims to an angry bystander's bullet. "Please God let it have been thunder," she shivered closing her eyes in concern before speeding toward the echo pulsating through the darkness.
She doubted her hopes would be correct. Traveling with pops got one quite acquainted to the hum of a bullet, and she was nearly positive the offending twang had been such. Still, it had served as a guide through the dark wasteland of dilapidated buildings.
She sprinted through the maze of construction carefully following the echo of a bullet still lingering in the muggy air, slightly relieved that her path had a destination once more. Turning her head from side to side to avoid any buildings obstructing her way, she caught a faint movement dancing across the shadows.
Blue's soft feet steadied their pace and she quietly slunk to where the movement was. Through her azure wolf eyes she could barely make out the dim profile of a human body. "H-Hige," she whispered, only to draw the attention of the unknown person. Slowly the profile stepped swiftly toward her quivering stance, leaving a faint cloud of dust in its wake. "Hige, if that's you this isn't funny." Her temper rose as she slowly took a step back.
She fought the natural instinct to attack or run while she watched the person vigilantly move their hand to their jacket pocket. This can't be good, Blue thought to herself, baring her long white teeth to the stranger. Her thoughts were affirmed as the person slowly rose a gun to where she stood, once more leaving a loud bang of a bullet to haunt the sultry air.
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(A/N: back to the group)
Tsume swiftly turned his head as a second gunshot sounded through the air. "So the old woman has allies does she?" He growled, tussling to help Yasuo pull Hige through the open door.
Goro and Kuri had held the struggling old woman to the floor after she had fired that gunshot. Good thing old women had no aim, instead of puncturing Goro's head she had merely left a nasty hole in the doorframe.
Tsume turned his golden eyes to where the girl and the pup once stood, ready to bark commands at them to come back to the house. "Dammit!" He snapped, growing angry at the situation engulfing him. Men he recognized to be Darcia's minions poured through the buildings, 2 of which already had their pistols pointing casually to Ameya and Toboe's heads.
"Goro, Kuri forget the old woman, as long as she's unarmed she's no danger," Yasuo chimed to his friends, recognizing the dangerous situation settling around them. "We need your fighting skills with us!"
The two men were quick to obey. Kuri quickly lifted the woman's abandoned pistol from the floor then loosened his grip on her arm while Goro ran to his leader ready to obey orders.
"Goro, find somewhere safe to hide Hige, then come back here and help us fight!" Yasuo wailed, quickly handing over Hige's limp body before sinking to his beige wolf form.
Goro nodded his head and lifted Hige to his shoulder, entering the house they had once wished to flee. He quickly sidestepped out of the way as Kuri's dark brown wolf body flew through the door, eagerly joining Yasuo and Tsume in the growing swarms of soldiers. "Tha' was close," he laughed under his breath before briskly searching for a place to hide Hige, "I was almost done in by me own companion."
Few moments later Goro's soft ashen wolf form sprinted out of the house, having safely stowed Hige in the bathtub, curtain drawn. One swift glance over the situation at hand was enough to see the odds were against them. 7 wolves, one unconscious and two with their lives on the line, against hundreds and still growing soldiers.
"Dammit, if we can at least get the pup and girl back they can help us fight." Tsume growled to the others, ripping his sharp teeth through the throat of the nearest soldier.
"And how exactly are we supposed to get to them?" Kuri snarled sarcastically while jumping, claws bared, on the soldier closest to him.
Yasuo rose his busy fighting head to think of how they would escape this seemingly impossible situation. Time wasn't on their side, that much was sure. With Toboe and Ameya in such a precarious situation it would be dangerous to detach them from their captors. However, without them, their chances of winning this battle were little to none. Not to mention the fact that Hige lay dying wherever Goro had found it safe to hide him.
He ripped his head around thrusting his teeth into the warm hand of the soldier attempting to choke him from behind before once more turning to his companions. "Kuri," he yelled above the clamor, having made up his mind. "Kuri, do you think you could jump over these soldiers heads to reach Ameya and Toboe!?"
Kuri lifted his head from clenching his teeth around a fat man's beefy arm. "You know I can!" He called back cockily. The profession he was involved in before joining Yasuo had required stealth, without it you would go no where in the business.
"Great, Tsume can you act as a distraction!?" Yasuo turned his head to the white-haired man, pausing momentarily to clamp his muscular jaws around a bare neck.
"Mm," Tsume grunted, mouth busy with his brute fighting methods.
"Ok, then Tsume you cause the distraction while Kuri, you jump over and do your best to get the gun away from Toboe and Ameya."
Tsume's brow knitted in awe, he had never seen Yasuo like this. He had seemed so timid before, but now he sputtered orders as if being a leader was second nature. Of course that wasn't important, he quickly concentrated his mind to how exactly he could go about distracting a whole flock of soldiers.
He turned his glossy, golden eyes to the infinite black swirls above. "Of course!" He whispered, mentally hitting himself on the head for being so dense. Without further contemplation, or much effort for that matter, he swiftly jumped atop the collapsing shingled roof of the house behind him and withdrew a deep warm breath. Slowly the heads of the soldiers shifted and the din clouding the once quiet house was pierced by Tsume's haunting, melodious howl.
Kuri noticed his chance, praying to himself the soldiers wouldn't turn their guns on Tsume along with their attention. His muscular wolf legs contracted to the ground before lifting once more, shooting him rapidly through the air only to land once more with a graceful thud before Toboe and Ameya's nervous feet.
Ameya choked back the pearly tears forming in her striking emerald eyes. "Kuri," she gulped before he thrust his sharp, blood tainted teeth in the arm of her subjugator.
"Ameya, help me with Toboe!" He yelled, realizing his choice to rescue the girl first could very well risk the lanky pup's young life.
No words escaped her hard pressed lips as she fell to her true wolf form, quickly turning to Toboe's captor. Her soft emerald eyes gazed into Kuri's blood red ones, passing her plan to him with one furtive glance. The crimson-eyed wolf lightly nodded his head, as he watched Ameya slink to the shadows. He sat back on his haunches, building speed within his tight muscles.
With one slight glance to where Ameya was sitting, he sprung forward quickly tightening his brawny jaw around the black, metal pistol staring at Toboe's shaking head. The gun-bearer jumped pulling the trigger with a click, leaving a procession of bullets to stream through the air. Toboe shrieked, shielding himself waiting for angry bullets to meet the bone of his skull, only to fall to the earth with a thud mere moments before his death had come.
"Ameya," he whispered, cuddling his tearful, shocked eyes into her silky champagne robes as she attained her false human image. She had pulled him down by his foot, luckily her speculation of the gun-bearer loosening his grip in fear had been true. Though Toboe still noticed a slight rip in the soft fabric of his shirt where the man's nails had held.
Toboe was left no time to think as Kuri, who had easily defeating the armed man, strode briskly to the two. "Can the two of you fight?" He asked, not wanting to force them into fighting after such a frightening experience.
Ameya laughed, "I can fight, eet wasn't that bad reelly." She ruffled Toboe's thick brown hair with her hand before falling once more to her speckled brown wolf figure and sprinting into the raging battle.
"And you?" Kuri inquired staring down at the trembling wolf below him. He saw the fear in the small boy's eyes, knowing he couldn't be much help in this situation he cleared his rough throat. "Actually Toboe, it might be better if you go watch Hige, he's in that old house somewhere---"
"You just think I'm going to be in the way!" Toboe whimpered, jutting out his jaw in indignation. "I can fight just as good as the rest of you!" His voice strengthened as he clutched his hands to his chest, hiding their quaking state from Kuri's watchful eyes.
Kuri wasn't a fool, the pup was in no condition for fighting, though he couldn't stop his thin lip from rising in a sneer. He admired that the runt wanted to fight, even knowing his weaknesses. "Really, Toboe," he insisted. "Hige could die if some one isn't in there, you could at least look for an antidote. I mean where there's a poison there's bound to be it's remedy, right?
Slowly Toboe nodded his head, maybe in a normal situation he would continue to fight, but at this moment Kuri was needed. Besides, Hige probably could use some help. "Ok I'll do it!" He shot his glistening golden eyes to the sky before dropping his human camouflage and revealing his true wolf body.
"Can you make it through the fight with out help?" Kuri asked before realizing he was probably wounding the poor pup's ego even more.
Toboe simply disregarded the statement, knowing it was hard to think properly in such a hectic situation. "No, I think I can make it on my own." He simply stated before charging swiftly into the battle.
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(A/N: irrelevant to the story but YAY I finally reached 3,000 words!!)
Toboe tumbled into the doorway of the old woman's house. He rubbed the scratches across his soft arms, formed from the battle outside. "It's really scary out there," he mumbled to himself, rising a nose to find Hige's scent. The rusty smell of blood flooded his wolven nose, but luckily he caught a faint draft OF Hige's faint scent sieving from the bathroom.
Nervously he stepped forward, the door had been left wide open, who knew if soldiers were hiding around each corner. And what about the old lady? "Not like she would be any match for me as a wolf," Toboe whispered to himself, trying to gain reassurance from his own tender voice.
Finally he reached the white bathroom door only to hear a faint slosh as his feet neared it. "What?" Toboe gasped as he looked to his boots. A thick stream of steaming water was seeping from beneath the yellowed, rotting door; water tainted with the transparent red of diluted blood. "Hige!" He screamed, taking on his human form he reached his thin fingers around the bronze, rusted doorknob only to find it locked. "Hige!!" He wailed again, hammering his tense fist against the door with all his strength, leaving a large hole in the rotted wood.
Without a second moments thought he slipped his slender arm through the fist-sized hole, wincing as his pale skin was scratched by the splinters of the jagged opening. Drops of the runt's scarlet blood dripped across the door's dull surface, but he ignored the pain as his touch slowly grasped the lock. He twisted it with a clack and opened the door, pushing it roughly from the weight of the torrents of water streaming through.
Toboe fell to his knees, soaking his knees with the steaming floods of water pouring from the bath's faucet. "B-Blue," he gasped staring at the black-haired girl's jostled figure as she cradled Hige's head in her lap. Blood was sliding off her shouler, more than likely she had been trailing the pack and got shot when fighting through the swarms of soldiers.
"Are you okay," Toboe asked rising once more to his feeble legs to take a step forward. "W-what happened, and how did you get here, and why is the water running?" Toboe fumbled with his questions, unsure which he wanted answered the most.
Blue slowly rose her pale blue eyes to Toboe's distraught face, finally acknowledging the small boy's presense. "What happened--------what happened to Hige?" She asked, seeming haggard and emotionally drained from the voyage she had been through.
Toboe blinked slowly, she hadn't answered any of his questions but the fact that she was speaking was good enough. "Th-there was an old lady and she gave us drinks and Hige drank his but we told him not to but he did and----------and he----" Toboe's golden yellow eyes filled with tears as he struggled to speak.
"It's okay, I understand." Blue sighed, gently curling a finger around a damp lock of Hige's hair. "But do you think there is an antidote around this house?"
Toboe took a step back, sloshing the water around his feet as he remembered the task he had been sent for. "Yes, probably, at least that's why I came here. But Blue--you look like you got shot in your shoulder. Are you sure you're okay?" Toboe asked, concern knitting his furrowed brow.
"I'll be okay," Blue replied, a thin smile spreading through her chapped lips. "I've been hurt a lot worse than this before, I'll be fi---" Her words were cut short as her blue eyes widened in horror. "TOBOE!! LOOK OUT!!" She yelped, gently placing Hige's head on the wet bathroom floor before rising to her own shaky legs.
Toboe shifted to turn his head only to freeze at the sight of the old woman standing behind him. Normally this sight wouldn't have frightened him, but in her old, wrinkled hand she grasped a sharp jagged kitchen knife. The knife cast long ominous gleams across the wet floor, reflecting the crazed look in the old woman's eyes as she slowly rose the weapon, striking it forcefully upon her target.
Toboe yelped as he flinched, moments ticked through his head. Was he dead? It sure didn't feel like it. He slowly opened his clenched eyelids peering blurrily at his surroundings.
"Oh my gosh!" He gasped, falling to his knees with a faint splash. In front of him the old lady lay sprawled across the floor, red crimson blood flowing from her wrist. "W-why----why!?" Toboe gulped back tears, stunned by what had happened. He slowly lifted a shaky hand to the woman's shoulder, shaking her gently.
Slowly her elderly blood-shot eyes opened, but she continued to lay on the drenched floor, to weak to rise. "I'm so sorry." She whispered, pearly tears falling from her old eyes.
"Sorry for what?" Blue asked, once more sitting to cradle Hige's head.
"I---I didn't want to do it. Didn't want to poison you boys." She whispered, still gazing upon Toboe's gentle face.
"Then why, if you didn't want to why did you?" Toboe asked, removing his hand from her bony shoulder.
"I didn't have a choice, Darcia came to me. Said if I didn't deceive you boys he would destroy my house and kill my husband." She stopped in a fit of coughs. "But he lied," she gasped out rising a sleeve to her mouth. "He killed him anyway, my husband," the tears feel like a torrential rainstorm from her eyes. "Said if I didn't help him, he'd kill me too. But it doesn't matter anymore, now I can join him in heaven!" She yelped raising her hand sbove her head as if waiting for her dead husband to retrieve it.
"You can't die!" Toboe rose to his feet, remembering in grief the death of his own granny. "Please, you can't die, you can't!"
Blue rose her voice above Toboe's pleas. "He's right, you can't die yet. It wouldn't be in peace." She stated simply. "Not until you tell us the antidote for Hige's illness will you truly be free of crime."
The old lady slowly shook her head, sending ripples through the water. "Darcia's scientist made the potion, he said it was made by the flower maiden's blood. He said the only antidote was a moon flower."
"Where the hell are we supposed to find one of those!?" Blue cried, slowly losing her cool. "We'll never find one in time."
"Are you so sure?" the old woman cackled, slowly lifting her foggotten hand beside her head. The hand was drawn in a fist that she slowly opened, revealing the milky white petals of a moon flower. "It was a present from my husband, he---," she stopped in a procession of deep gurgling coughs. "He was an archeologist, and on his last trip, about a week before Darcia came here, he found this. He thought it was so beautiful he wanted me to see it, too."
Toboe eyes opened in wonder before gently lifting the silky white flower from her hand and carrying it over to Blue. "Where did he find it?" Toboe asked, casually turning around to see the woman face down against the flooded floors. He gasped and ran to her side, "you'll drown if you don't lift your head!" He shrieked struggling to get her to a sitting position.
"Toboe. She's dead." Blue told him quietly, feeling uncomfortable at the way he was shaking her body about.
"Sh-she can't be," Toboe sobbed as tears stremed down his pale cheeks.
"I know it's sad, but it's what she wanted. She died in peace instead of under Darcia's hand." Blue comforted him while slowly getting Hige to swallow the slightly crushed petals of the moon flower. "Why don't we go out and help the others." She offered, satisfied that Hige would be better soon.
Toboe only nodded, tears still falling from his golden eyes. "Yes, Tsume probably needs my help by now!" He tittered half-heartedly, stepping to help Blue lift Hige up from the damp bathroom floor.
They slowly wobbled their way to the front door, Blue holding Hige under his shoulders and Toboe holding him by his feet. The young pup listened contently, he expecting to hear the intense clamor of a roaring battle only to hear the soft voices of his companions. He released his grip on Hige's feet as he and Blue reached the door and set off outside.
"Where are all the soldiers?" He asked, noticing that all was left of the fight was a few fires and his thrashed friends.
"They all just left, not two minutes ago." Goro replied, stunned at what had just happened.
"What do you mean, how could they just leave?" Toboe inquired, growing confused.
"Darcia's aircraft came and they all just evacuated, what was left of them at least." Tsume snarled, wiping his bloodied mouth with his wrist. "But what about you, runt? What happened to Chubby and the old lady?"
Toboe turned his eyes to the ground. "The old lady, she died--," he let the silence drum against his ears for a moment. "But not before giving us the antidote for Hige. Blue's right at the doorway with him." Toboe slowly pointed a finger to the light streaming through the still open door.
"Blue!? How the hell---" Tsume asked, mouth agape.
"Oh yeah I forgot, she got here not sure how yet. But c'mon she got shot in the shoulder and might need some help." He waved a hand indicating for the pack to follow.
Everyone started to walk back to the house before Yasuo's voice broke their steps. "Wait, this isn't right. Why would Darcia just leave, he didn't intend for us to die tonight. No, he must be just trying to scare us wear us down so we're unexpected when the real attack comes."
"If that wasn't a so called real attack what the hell is?!" Tsume asked, placing his hands on his hips.
"I don't know, that's the problem we'll never know. We'll just keep trailing them. Thinking we're going to get back your friends. But we won't, we aren't trailing, we're being trailed." Yasuo shot back.
"How do you know that?" Toboe whimpered, walking between Tsume and Yasuo's bodies.
"How do I know what?" Yasuo inquired, thin eyebrow rising in puzzlement.
"You don't know Darcia's motives. You can't, so we have to keep going. We have to help our friends and keep trying to reach Kiba and Cheza. I mean I think that's what they would do for me." Toboe's voice strengthened as he voiced his beliefs.
" I---guess so." Yasuo replied, having been forced to see the situation through eyes other than his own.
"Good!" Toboe smiled, "Then let's go help Blue and Hige!" He cocked his head, turning back to the dilapidated house as the darkness thinned, allowing the eerie light of the moon to join the house's jovial illumination.
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WOW!!! An almost 5,000 word chapter! Good Lord I didn't know I had it in me. And here I should be studying for a History quiz. LOL! Well I hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter as I enjoyed writing it. And sorry it took me sooooo long to post.
For everyone to know I mentioned Kuri's past job before (does anyone remember that) Well it will be brought up again in a later chapter, in fact all the new character's will have their pasts revealed. For now though, I have a Kiba and Cheza chapter to write. Farewell!
Like always Please R&R : )