The Story of a Lonely Wolf Chapter 4: Search for Toboe

"Hey, Toboe! Hey, where are you?" Tsume called as he looked around the city. "I'm not playing around, Kid. Where are you?" Tsume called. He had heard Toboe's cries for help a few hours before. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this. This is ridiculous," Tsume said as he continued to search. "Hey," Tsume said as he saw Leara and her father drive by in their truck. "Hey, wait a minute!" Tsume hollered and began chasing after them. "Damn I still can't believe I'm doing this."

"Hey, Dad, someone is chasing us," Leara said as she looked in the rearview mirror.

"There is?" her father replied and looked in the rearview mirror. "Great what else can happen today?" he asked as he pulled over. "Can I help you?" he asked as Tsume ran to the window.

"Hey, what happened to Toboe?" Tsume asked.

"Toboe?" her father replied.

"Oh, Toboe, that wolf? Boy? What was he?" Leara asked.

"What was that?" her father asked curiously.

"That doesn't matter just tell me where he is," Tsume said in an annoyed voice. He hated asking humans for help.

"Well, we don't know where he is. He got in a fight with a big black dog then he got shot and ran off," her father said.

"So he's hurt then?" Tsume asked.

"Yeah, he got hurt pretty bad. It wouldn't surprise me if he is dead already."

"You just left him like that?" Tsume asked angrily.

"Oh no, he was gone. We couldn't find him. He was trying to escape when he got shot. Then when Leara was fighting with the black dog's owner he ran off," her father said.

"I got it," Tsume replied now somewhat worried, but more annoyed then anything else, "Do you have any idea where he might be?" Tsume asked. He just wanted to find the runt and go home.

"Yeah, he's somewhere on the south side of town. The fight happened a few hours ago, but judging by his injuries I bet he's still over there hiding."

"Great…just what I need a trip all the way across town. Damn runt always making my life harder then it has to be," Tsume said and then left to go to the south side of town.

"Well, he sure was in a hurry, wasn't he?" Leara's father said and began to drive again.

"Yeah, he was. I hope he finds him," Leara said sadly and leaned her head on the window.

"Now what was that about him being a wolf or a boy?" her father asked.

"Oh, it was nothing important," Leara replied as they drove home, "Look it's starting to snow."

"Yeah it is, let's hope he finds that dog before he gets to cold and freezes to death."

"But he's really warm, Dad," Leara replied.

"I know, but with as much blood as he had to have lost because of those wounds he wont be very warm for long," her father replied as he drove into their driveway.

"Toboe!" Tsume yelled as he reached the south side of town. I can smell the blood from here, Tsume thought to himself and ran to where the blood sent was coming from.

"Alright people let's move it, nothing to see here," a police officer said as he tried to get all the onlookers away from the scene where Toboe and Blue had fought.

"So did you find anything?" Hubb, a man dressed in a white suit asked as he walked up to the police officer.

"No, nothing more then a bunch of blood, a few bullet shells, and some knocked over boxes," the police officer replied.

"Do you even know what happened here?" Hubb asked.

"Not really, nothing other then the reports from witnesses."

"What did they say?" Hubb asked as he looked around and saw all the blood on the ground.

"It involved three people and two big dogs," he said. "One of the dogs got hurt very badly. He's probably dead by now."

"I see, and the people?" Hubb asked.

"They were all fine. One of the men got bit by one of the dogs but he appeared to be fine."

"Where are they now?" Hubb asked.

"Who knows? None of the witnesses got any of their names. They left before we got here," the officer replied as he wrote down some notes in his notepad.

"Oh, well then it must not have been to serious if they just left."

"What do you mean?" the officer asked.

"Well, if someone had really gotten hurt then they would have reported it. No ones reported anything so my guess is this was just a dog fight."

"I see, yeah, you're probably right," the officer replied.

Is that where the fight happened? Tsume asked himself as he saw all the people and police cars nearby. Yes this has to be it. Now I can get the runt's sent and follow it.

"Hey you, you can't come back here," the officer said as Tsume walked past him and Hubb.

"Hey, did you hear him?" Hubb asked as he started to follow Tsume but then stopped.

"What is it?" the officer asked as he watched Hubb begin to scratch his neck.

"My allergies, all these dogs," Hubb said with a sigh.

"Hmm… I wonder why you didn't have a reaction until just now? If there was dog hair around you would have reacted to it before, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, I would of thought so," Hubb said then looked back at Tsume, who was looking around the area.

"Hmmm…." Hubb thought as he stared at Tsume. I wonder…. No… no it's all nonsense. What Quent told me about wolves and people can't be true.

"What's wrong?" the officer asked as he saw a look of confusion and concern appeared on Hubb's face.

"That man, the one with the gun. Did he have a big black dog?" Hubb asked.

"Well the witnesses said one of the dogs were black. They believed it belonged to the man with the gun but they weren't sure."

"And the other dog, was it bigger than a regular dog?"

"It was still very young, but yeah, it looked really big for its age," the officer replied as he looked back though his notes. "Why? Did you find something?"

"Ummm… no… well, I really have to go," Hubb said and began to walk away. "Oh and get him out of there would you?" Hubb asked and pointed at Tsume.

"Uh... yeah… sure," he replied and turned to see Tsume. "Hey where'd he go?" he asked as he looked around for Tsume. "Oh well, one less job I have to do."