Chapter 3

Over Night Meeting

Hige was in the alley, looking for the dog. He had a hotdog and it was taking him everything he was not to eat it himself. "Here boy." He whistled but he didn't come. "Well.. suit yourself." He said. "I've already looked for an hour. I'm hungry too ya know." And he ate the hotdog.

"Hige?" Kiba asked. "Kiba! Buddy! So. We on for tonight?" He asked. "Yeah. Sure." The wolf replied. He had a small bag over his shoulder with some things that Granny had given him. It was a special herb to calm his nightmares and Toboe had given him a small pillow. Apparently he thought of it like a teddy bear that Kiba could hold and think of him.

"Hey. Wanna go grab lunch?" "I'm broke." "Oh.. right. Well every day I start out with about 50 bucks.. so let's go! Forward March!" And Hige headed to town. Kiba smirked and followed.

"So. Harry's or Donald's?" "Donald's?" "McDonalds'? Ok.. then Harry's it is!" Hige marched off toward a Chinese take out that's name had nothing to do with any guy named Harry. After he got a discounted meal, Hige threw Kiba his take out bag and they sat in the park together.

"Why'd you call that place Harry's?" "Cause my friend who owns it is called Harry." "Oh.." Kiba finished his lunch. He was actually having a few decent square meals. He liked this food better than the hotdog Hige had given him when they first met.

After lunch, Kiba met Johnny. He stayed back while Hige ran up to greet him. "Johnny!" "Hige!" "Hey. Johnny. I want you to meet Kiba." "Who?" "Me and some other guys, a runt and a thug, met him in an alley where he pulled off a cool stunt and then said he knew us." "You sure he's sane?" "Ya. He's staying at my house tonight because he don't have a home. He stayed with the runt last night." "Well where is the mystery dude?" "Kiba!" Hige waved him over and he walked over cautiously.

Johnny looked Kiba over as he got nearer. White tee, jacket, jeans, sneakers, brown hair, blue eyes. "Looks normal." Kiba looked Johnny over. Blue sleeveless shirt, no jacket, jeans, sneakers, short, short black hair, brown eyes, black. "Hmm." Kiba said.

"What's that mean?" Johnny said, taking a step closer to him. "Whoa. Johnny. He's not used to talking to people yet." Hige defended. Johnny looked past Hige to Kiba. Their eyes met. Kiba's deep blue with Johnny's fudge brown. "Whoa.. dude. Your friend.. His eyes.. they drill man.." "Johnny.. Your not making sense. Try using sentences." "He's staring at me. I can't look away." Johnny said, as if entranced. Hige turned to Kiba, who was looking to his side. Johnny blinked. "John.. go home and rest.." Hige patted his friend on the shoulder and Johnny ran off.

A few hours later, after Kiba kept Hige from spending all his money, Hige finally couldn't take it. "So.. Kiba.. want to.. get dinner?" "Alright." He said. Hige jumped for joy and ran over to another take out. "Hige.. you ever think of learning to cook?" Kiba asked as Hige threw him his food. "No.. why?" "Nothing."

They ate on the way to Hige's house. "Mom, Dad, I'm home. I brought my friend with me!" "Welcome home Hige." Hige's mom was very pretty and blonde. She was thin and tall. She wore a long red dress and was soon followed by a tough yet handsome man in a business suit with greased back hair and glasses. His hair was deep red. "Hige. Welcome home. This must be Kira?" "Kiba." "Kiba. right. Well. We have my business meeting to attend. You boys have fun. Good night." "Good night." Hige's mom kissed him on the check as she left. Hige stood there, wiping it off.

"Great. They're gone." Hige said. "So. Your sleeping in my room. Got it?" Kiba nodded. "Not much of a talker are you?" Kiba didn't reply. "Got it." Hige led him to his room through a plain, boring white walled, gray carpeted house. The walls had antique black and white paintings and expensive, small lights aimed up from the floor to light every room. Except Hige's. Hige's room was a boy's room. Or... Hige's kind of boy. It had pictures of Super Models on the walls, trash everywhere, stereo blasting, and black sheet on the bed. Kiba turned off the music where it said power.

"Your sleeping there." He pointed to a blow up bed next to his. "You mind?" "No. Not at all." Kiba replied. "Well. I'm tired from all that walking today. Let's turn in." Hige fell face first into his bed and rolled over onto his back. Kiba sat down on his and had to adjust to sleeping on air.

"Night." Hige turned out the light. Kiba lay there for a while. Hige wasn't asleep. He was waiting for the questions. "Kiba?" And they're off! "Ya?" "What was it like when we met last time?" "Horrible. The world was different before it was reborn. Nobles ruled everything. They would destroy a town if they had to get rid of a dangerous criminal. They destroyed the planet. That's why the world was ending. The built huge domes for the people. Made them worship them sometimes. They even thought they'd made wolves extinct." "Wolves? Gone?" "No.. they were all over the place. They disguised themselves as humans to protect themselves." "Ya right." "One day, when the world comes to an end, Paradise will appear somewhere on earth. But only wolves will be able to find it." Kiba recited. "What's that?" "A line from a book in the old world. "Got any more lines?"

"They say from the great spirit was born the wolf, and man became it's messenger." Kiba stopped. "While I was infiltrating the most evil of nobles strongholds... I saw a mural. It depicted a white wolf standing on a large hill. Above him was a symbol that stood for the great spirit and paradise. Apparently. There was a gateway to paradise that the nobles created. But when it got out of hand, it was sealed shut. I never got the whole story. But it seemed like Nobles worshiped wolves at one point."

"The call of the flower maiden. She reacts to wolves blood. And so the great beast will appear." Kiba paused. Hige hadn't said anything. "You went by yourself? Into the stronghold?" "I'd lost you guys in a blizzard. You caught up.." "Good."

"Kiba?" "Hmm?" "Why do I like the word blue?" Kiba waited. "While we stopped in a town we met a woman with dark blue hair and dark blue eyes. She wore a navy blue jacket over her shirt and a navy blue skirt. She wore high heeled boots." He noticed Hige move. "She was being chased by men. We saved her for no good reason. Then she deserted us but you followed her and convinced her to stay with us. To come and travel with us." Hige moved again.

"During one of the hardest fights we'd had, you'd told her to wait outside the fortress. You told her as long as she stood there, you'd come out. You'd been seriously injured in the fight and when we came out she was gone. You broke. We convinced you to keep going and we found her. You too were in love. It was no secret. And.. that girl's name was.. Blue." Kiba finished.

"Her name? Was blue?" Hige paused. Minutes passed and Kiba thought he'd gone to sleep. "Kiba?" "Hmm?" "How did me and you meet?" "I'd been captured after I was shot by a man. You came in to see me illegally. But you were a good liar. When we finally got to talk I asked you what happened to your pride. You told me.. 'Pride doesn't count for much if you dead.' And after you rescued me.. you pick-pocketed some food and then joined me on my quest for paradise." "Paradise huh? Sounds like it would've been fun." "That's what you said.." And with that they went to sleep.