"She's unconscious. What do we do with her now?"

"Does it look like I care? Just throw her in one of the cages like the others."

The young soldier shrugged, and then smirked at his commanding officer. "You still uptight about that shot?" The older man shot him a menacing glare. "Alright, alright," the younger man replied, raising his hands up in front of him, "I won't ask then. But if you know, it was damn funny. You should thank your lucky stars she only hit your shoulder, she could have easily killed you right then."

"But you won't be so lucky if you don't get the hell out of my face right now!" The older man growled. He held a bloody gauze to his shoulder—in exactly the spot where Yuri had shot him.

The younger soldier smirked again and turned toward Yuri. She was still unconscious; she lay in a seemingly peaceful state, on the floor. The young man crouched down beside her and took her limp body into his arms.

"I can't believe I let myself get caught. This is ridiculous."

"Tell me about it, we're supposed to be looking for—"

"Wait a minute! Someone's coming!"

The flaps on the truck's cargo area parted open, and a young soldier climbed into the enclosure. He held a young woman in his arms, her long auburn hair draped over his arms like a silk curtain. It was a relatively small space—it was used only for keeping prisoners, thus explaining the array of cages. Only four of the cages were being used now, the wolves occupying them eyed him tentatively. The young soldier took no notice of their expressions, but walked casually over to an empty cage and placed Yuri inside, subsequently locking the door. His stomach growled audibly as he turned back.

"Damn, I've been up all night! I'm hungry, and tired. I'm getting some breakfast and…" he muttered, climbing out of the truck again.

"Who is she?" One of the wolves asked, eyeing Yuri with interest.

"Down boy," another replied gruffly, "can't you smell her?"

"Sure I can, she smells like…"

"A human." The second wolf answered, eyeing Yuri suspiciously. A slight wind ruffled the flaps on the truck, combing through the wolf's gray fur and making the cross-shaped scar on his chest more visible.

Kiba groaned loudly as he awoke. He clutched his head with one hand and sat up slowly. For a second, he didn't know where he was or what had happened. He looked around the room, the floor was strewn with mangled corpses of soldier—it all came flooding back to him with overwhelming force.

The city…looking for his friends…the attack…Yuri…he remembered now. He stood up, staggering for a moment—the swiftness of his movement made his head reel for a moment. He clutched it again; his whole body ached. His shirt was crusty with dried blood, which also lay encrusted in his fingernails. Despite the pain he was in, he only seemed to be suffering from some minor scratches and bruises. Besides, there were more pressing matters to think of now—pain was nothing.

The last thing he remembered about last night was watching Yuri get captured by one of Jagura's soldiers. He had to find her as soon as possible, but where could they have taken her? He staggered outside, shading his eyes from the brightness of the sun with on hand. He looked around for wheel tracks—the soldiers had arrived in large black trucks. There were tracks outside, but they all led in one direction—from the city. Or was it, back to the city? Of course! Where else would they go? It was settled. Kiba would return to the city once again and find Yuri—it was his fault she was in this mess to begin with, and he wasn't going to let her take the fall for him, he wasn't going to let her get hurt.

"That's a pretty good haul for two days, isn't it?" A young man asked, leaning back in his chair and patting his bloated stomach satisfactorily.

"I suppose so," his companion replied, he looked contemplative. He wore a white t-shirt now, but still wore the black cargo pants of his soldier's uniform—he was the young soldier from earlier.

"Is something wrong?" the first soldier replied, combing his fingers through thick, curly red hair.

"I hope not. But I was just thinking. Where are the others?"

"The guys we left with the other wolf?" the red-haired man replied. The young soldier nodded seriously. "Well, I suppose they'll be getting here any minute now."

"But it's been hours," the young soldier replied.

"Maybe they all just decided to take a rest after taking the wolf down, I don't know."

"Oh yeah, that sounds cozy. We always like to lie down and take a nap at a battle scene. And besides, they know they're supposed to report here as soon as they've taken care of the target."

"Well I don't know," the red-haired man replied. He groaned slightly struggling to get up. "Man, I ate like a pig. I can hardly breathe." He turned back to his young companion. His expression was still darkened with concern. "Maybe they got orders to report to Jagura straight-away. All I know is, there must be a logical explanation for their delay. But if it's still bothering you so much, why don't you just go ask Commander Morrison?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." The young soldier replied. His red-haired friend patted him on the back before exiting the room. The young soldier remained at the table, deep in thought. He wouldn't ask Commander Morrison, at least, not yet anyway. He'd wait a bit longer; maybe they did get separate orders. But still, he couldn't shake a nagging feeling that something had gone awry.

"None of this makes any sense," Tsume grumbled in his usual manner. "Since when does Jagura capture humans?"

"Maybe they don't know she's human," Toboe suggested.

"Of course they know she's human. They've always been able to detect wolves—they have special gear." Tsume answered. He looked at Yuri. She was small; only a few inches taller than Toboe, and quite slender. She was curled up in a fetal position inside the cage; her slight frame shook violently when she shivered, causing her to curl up into a smaller ball.

"This is all highly suspicious," Tsume continued, "first we overhear two of those idiots say that they're not going to kill us, and what's more, it's on Jagura's orders. Now they're caging up humans? This is getting worse every second."

"Well, have you got a plan for getting out of this place?" Hige asked exasperatedly. He knew they were in trouble; he didn't need Tsume's musings to tell him that.

"Me?" Tsume retorted. "Why should I be the one who thinks up the plan, huh? I'm not the one who got us into this mess!"

"Meaning what? That I did?" Hige returned.

"Well, I'm not the one who thinks that 'let's look for Kiba' is short for, 'let's go find lunch'!"

"Hey, I was looking for Kiba! I just happened to run into some food in the process, and don't tell me you weren't starving too!"

"Ran into food! You stole from a vendor, and in front of a crowd, no less!"

"Well how was I supposed to know that Jagura's men were in this city?"

"They're always--" Tsume began to reply, but he was cut off.

"Guys, please, don't fight," Toboe broke in softly. "Fighting won't get us out of here. We've got to work together."

"Toboe's got a point," Hige put in. "We've got to think of something."

"What about you?" Tsume asked, turning to face a slightly smaller wolf. It had pitch-black fur and strikingly blue eyes—it was Blue. "You've been awfully quiet this whole time."

"I think we should just stay put," she replied coolly.

"Are you crazy?" Hige replied, astonished.

"You heard those guys," she continued, "they're not killing us, but they are taking us straight to Jagura."

"And that's what you want?"

"No, well, sort of. Don't you think that's where they've taken Cheza?"

"Cheza…" Hige murmured. He'd forgotten all about her. They hadn't thought about her very much in their frenzy to find Kiba. After all, it was usually Kiba that kept their minds on Cheza in the first place. "But what about Kiba?"

"I don't think he's here," Tsume answered, looking at Blue. She gave a slight wave of her hand, beckoning Tsume to continue—she was just thinking the same thing. "If he did wander into this place, he's probably long gone. Either way, I don't think he'd waste much time not-looking for Cheza."

Kiba. Yuri was sure she had heard it. Someone had said his name. Her brain may be cloudy from her lapse of unconsciousness, but she could still distinguish his name. She stirred slightly in her cage. "Kiba…" she murmured softly, still barely drifting into consciousness. She tried to stretch her legs out, but they were obstructed by something hard—a wall? "Kiba…" she repeated, louder this time. The clouds parted. She remembered what happened. "Kiba!" she cried, bolting upright into a sitting position. She hit her head hard against the roof of the cage. "Ouch! Oh, damn it!" She uttered, rubbing her head. She gasped.

Suddenly aware of her surroundings, Yuri now found herself locked inside a cold metal cage. She clutched at the bars, straining hopelessly against them. She stopped suddenly, out of breath—she was aware of something else. Yuri was now cognizant of four pairs of eyes fixed intently on her.

Her eyes widened nervously. The wolves had remained in their human forms—they wanted to talk to Yuri, and they couldn't say much to her in their wolf forms. A small squeak was emitted from Yuri's throat. She didn't say a word.

A lean man in black leather eyed her with great distrust. He had silver hair and a cross-shaped scar on his chest. Bringing his face out of the shadows, he was the first to break the silence. His voice was stern and harsh.

"How do you know Kiba?"

The Winter Break is over and I am depressed. I have a major report due next week, rough draft due Wednesday, and I haven't started it. Crap, procrastination is a deadly art. Thank for reading, please review!