Title: Untameable Fires

Author: Lexa (yatenshiweb.de)

Disclaimer: child Lexa: "Mommy, can I own Wolf's Rain? Pleeeease!" puppy eyes

Mommy of Lexa: "No! Do you know how much work you have with wolves? Be contend with torturing them in your stories!" scold

Child Lexa: pout "Now you know!" --

Rating: (none)

Author's Note: reads reviews I knew I started writing in English for a reason X'D Yume no Zenchou: one of the best?! You must be kidding Anyway, thankeeeeees lonegreywolf: argh, thanks, stupid spelling mistakes ;; It's not my first English fanfic (my first ones have been much worse sweatdrops), only my first Wolf's Rain ficcie… anyone else: you readers simply rock .V

Well, if someone'd like to play my beta-reader (especially in use of words and grammar), I'd be more than happy… smile

And yes, I know, it's a bad habit to change POVs in the middle of a story… chapter one just turned out this way, but after that… first person narrator wouldn't fit. shrugs just in case anybody wondered…


Chapter 2 Separated

Ich tue das woran ich glaube / Ich lebe meine Wahrheit /Ich traue meinen Augen /Ich gehöre meinen Worten

(Böhse Onkelz, „Ich mache was ich will")

(I do what I believe in / I live my truth / I trust my eyes / I belong to my words)

growl

"No. You're so not serious," Kiba sighed in annoyance at the sight of a sheepishly grinning Hige. "You're not hungry again!"

Slowly, even the usually composed alpha started to loose patience. It'd been hard enough to make the two younger members of their dysfunctional pack get up as soon as the sun emerged to start its journey across the sky, and he had so hoped that after one night's delay, they'd finally start searching for Cheza for real, but at that rate, they wouldn't even make it out of this desert before dusk!

Though his little nightly "walk" with Tsume had taken the edge of his restlessness a bit, it was by no means soothed, and the longer he was kept from looking for the Flower Maiden, the more irritable he grew.

The moon knew what could be happening to her right now, she could be in pain or whatever- and here he was, listening to the collar-wearing brown wolf complaining about how hungry he was, instead of following her scent feverishly as he so desperately wished to do.

Breathing in deeply, he tried to keep his voice calm and to not shout at his comrade as he said: "We've just eaten at the Indian village, remember? How the hell can you possibly be hungry??"

"He'd starve, you know, if he doesn't get to cram his stomach full every three hours," Tsume commented dryly.

"Hey!" Hige protested vehemently, "I just think we'd better eat in stock!"

Between irritably clenched teeth, Kiba growled: "We – don't – have – TIME – for – hunting!!" and stared into the brown wolf's eyes in open hostility.

"Come on, guys, don't fight," Toboe dared to interfere. "And besides, Kiba, he has a point- we don't know when we'll get to eat next, and since we'll need all our strength, maybe it'd be…" The pup trailed off, flinching under the glare Kiba was shooting at him.

The white wolf was almost ready to shout, his painful, blinding need to find Cheza making him deaf to any logic in his friends' words… when suddenly a strong hand, both calming and restraining him, fell onto his shoulder.

"Kiba." His name, spoken in Tsume's low voice, contained hundreds of meanings- a warning to get a grip on himself as well as a reassurance of loyalty and a soothing of his fears, and the dark-haired youth felt a strange, pleasant warmth emanating from that simple touch.

"Alright," he finally gave in before meeting Tsume's gaze steadily, thus failing to notice the baffled look Toboe was giving him at seeing the unusual intimate interaction between the two older members of their pack.

"Anyway, hunting in such a large group is pretty pointless in this deserted area. Let's split up," Tsume said, taking his hand from Kiba's back and crossing his arms in front of his chest again.

Kiba nodded. "I'll go with Hige… so he won't eat anything by himself," he decided while shooting the brown wolf a dark glare.

>I'm really looking forward to it, Hige thought but kept his opinion carefully to himself lest to irritate the white wolf any further.

"So it's me and the runt, ne?" Tsume dropped his human illusion and nodded his head in the Southern direction in order for Toboe to follow him.

Kiba watched the two wolves run off for a moment longer than necessary.

There was another reason why he'd chosen to hunt with Hige, one he'd never have admitted- he was certain that having Tsume with him would have distracted him to say the least.

Though he loved to watch him fighting, with that feral fire in his eyes, amber orbs that threatened to burn anything in their wake…

"You smell that, too?" Hige interrupted his musings after a while.

"What?" Kiba turned to him, puzzled.

"Do you also smell something amiss here?" the collar-wearing wolf repeated.

The white one sniffed the air briefly, but couldn't find anything out of ordinary. "No, do you?" he asked back.

Hige let his suspicious gaze wander along the horizon for a moment. "Nope. Must've been my imagination," he said slowly, then hurried along to Kiba's side again who'd already started to head off into the opposite direction.

Hige sniffed again… nothing.

Strange… for a moment, he'd been so certain…

>Motor oil… and humans…


"Ne, Tsume…?"
"What?"

"Do you really think we gonna find something eatable here? Seems completely desolate, this place…" the younger wolf wondered.

The grey one simply shrugged as well as he could in his true form. "Guess so. Nothing large around here, mostly small rodents or something, but if Porky claims we'll have luck… his nose is quite reliable if it's about eating."

"Oh… alright."

Silence for a while as they chased over the dusty ground, keeping their eyes, ears and noses open for any sign of life in the desert.

"Ne, Tsume…?"

"What?" The reaction came much more irritated this time.

"Is that a town over there?"

The brown wolf had stopped, looking to the left where, in some distance, the grey silhouettes of houses interrupted the constant line of brown-yellowish ground and blue sky at the horizon.

However, the older one didn't bother to slow down, forcing Toboe to hurriedly go after him. "Only ruins," Tsume finally answered, "not even a whiff of a human smell around here. A dead city."

"Oh…" Toboe murmured while trying to keep up with the grey wolf, and took one last look at the deserted town.

So sad… what might have happened to the inhabitants? Maybe this desert hadn't always been such a desolate place, or how else could people have lived here?

Or perhaps it was a former mining city, and after exhausting all resources, the miners and their families had left to find another place.

>Loosing home is terrible… The young wolf could barely finish that thought as suddenly the soil seemed to shift beneath his paws, causing him to stumble and loose his balance.

Over his shoulder Tsume, having stopped, threw a questioning look at the pup. "I…I think the ground just moved," Toboe stammered and looked around in puzzlement.

The grey wolf was just about to scold the brown one for his foolishness, when he heard…

"Ne, Tsume…?"

… the grinding of steel on steel and…

"RUN!"

… the sound of machines and cracking earth.

Barely in time Toboe had managed to stumble to his feet and jump out of the way, retreating to the safety of Tsume's side as the soil seemed to open up, revealing a dark cave and several glinting armed robots, automatic warriors not unlike the one they'd encountered at the beginning of their journey in the deserted military base, the only difference being that these ones possessed some kind of arm instead of a cannon on their side.

They'd had a hard time defeating the one from the former military area, and there had been only one.

Now, however, Tsume and Toboe faced no less than three of those artificial soldiers…

>Oh shit.


>Why do I slowly get the feeling that this whole 'hunt' is for naught?! Kiba wondered as he watched Hige for what had to be the hundredth time sniffing the ground intently without finding any trace of something else except dust.

The brown wolf realised his lack of success as well.

>Alright, maybe there's really nothing to eat here. Yet… his gaze darkened as it drifted over the monotonous desolate landscape. >I can't shake off the feeling that something's definitely amiss here… if only I could point a finger on what it is…

Kibe felt his temper rise again, the foolishness of this situation gradually eating away his already paper-thin patience. "Hige…" he started, but couldn't voice his thought, since suddenly a breeze carried a strikingly, horribly familiar howling to their ears, together with a faint hint of blood…

"Toboe!"

"Tsume!"
Without exchanging any more words, the two wolves raced off into the direction the hollow sound had come from.


>Oh shit. With a low growl, Tsume took a step in front of Toboe, assessing his opponents with narrow eyes. Three of them would be hard, though he had clear advantage due to that, this time, he wasn't hurt. Better forestalling their plans by attacking first.

Without second thought, he rushed forward at the robot soldier in the middle, dodging the whipping 'arm' it raised in order to repulse him, and digging his teeth deeply into the thing's throat, feeling the metal crush beneath his jaws.

During his time of leading train robberies, he'd fought more than one of these creatures, enough to know where their vulnerable points lay.

The tubes providing it with energy that lead from the head to the torso were cut off by the wolf's ripping claws, oil and gas alike spilling and staining the grey fur, and Tsume winced as, in his last spasms before collapsing, the machine threw his arm up convulsively and delivered a deep cut to his left shoulder.

Alright, one done, two more to come, he let go of the robot warrior's throat ready to turn on the next one… when a high whimper caught his attention.

>Toboe!

The young wolf hadn't moved from his spot, frozen by fear, and obviously the second creature wasn't willing to give him the moments he'd need to regain his composure, instead moved towards the pup… causing him to cry out quietly, almost a call for help hat turned into a brief bark of surprise as he found the machine being pushed aside.

Tsume flung himself at the robot, teeth bared in a feral snarl, burying his claws in the thing's neck, ripping out some tubes and causing it to back up, however it wasn't about to get down yet, and as the grey wolf landed on his feet again, he realised his mistake- in his eagerness to protect Toboe, he'd let himself end up with his unguarded back to the third of the robots… and the machine's electronic brain recognised the chance before Tsume could react in any way.

He only felt something hit the side of his head with the force of a cannon ball, sending him crashing to the ground.

"Tsume, you alright??" Toboe had been shaken out of his momentary paralysis by the sudden turn the events had taken, and hurried to the grey wolf's side worriedly as the robot warrior moved toward them again.

The young wolf growled. Not again!

He'd defend Tsume, just like the other wolf had protected him, had been hurt because of him, and Toboe wouldn't allow that to happen again- he'd promised not to whine anymore, and thus, gathering all his courage, he stepped in front of Tsume, teeth bared and doing his best to look fearsome… yet the machine just seemed completely unimpressed by his sudden display of bravery, wiping him aside with a forceful movement of his metallic arm like he was nothing, sending the brown wolf flying with a strangled cry, before taking a step toward Tsume again.

Its impassive mechanical gaze rested on the grey wolf who desperately struggled to get to his feet again, trying to ignore the terrible light-headedness and the fact that his view refused to focus again, that all sounds seemed to be dimmed… apparently the blow had hit his head harder than he thought.

He saw the next strike coming, could make out the exact movements and determine the moment the impact would hit him… but his body simply refused to obey his orders to move, and he could only close his eyes seconds before the metallic limb collided with his skull, his eyes rolling back at the force of the attack, he skidded several meters over the rough, dusty floor, little rocks scratching his skin beneath the fur, and after he came to a halt, Tsume knew with certainty that he wouldn't be able to get up again.

His limbs felt completely outside of his control, especially the hind legs that he couldn't feel at all, everything in front of his eyes was a blurry mass of colours and undeterminable forms, his ears were literally ringing… all he could be sure of was the violent pain raging through his head, so that he almost welcomed the darkness that threatened to swallow him.

Although it was strange… they hadn't killed neither Toboe nor him, even if they could have done so quite easily, instead merely knocking him out… he wondered if that was a bad sign… those were his last conscious thoughts before Tsume blacked out.

Toboe could only watch in horror from his position on the ground as the only unharmed robot soldier, the one that had knocked out Tsume, reached out with his mechanical arm and grabbed the grey wolf's limp body, lifting him from the ground with something akin to care before, accompanied by the damaged one carrying the robot Tsume had defeated, returning to the subterranean tunnel they'd emerged from, vanishing into the darkness beneath before the ground slid close again, leaving no trace of the cave beneath and the ones that'd disappeared there.

The brown wolf jumped to his feet, rushing to the place where just had been a trap door, only to see nothing but dust and dirt, nothing but the lingering stench of motor oil.

Realising that his efforts were for naught, Toboe sat on his hind legs, laying back his back and uttering a low, desperate howl, hating himself more deeply than he ever had.


Kiba and Hige found him still in that state of self-loathing when they arrived at the scene some minutes later, his voice bare of any emotion except bitterness as he told them what'd just taken place here.

Ignoring the young wolf's feelings, Hige started to sniff the ground immediately, trying to trace the stench of machines and to determine the direction they'd taken underground while silently cursing himself. He should've known! He'd smelled the motor oil, his keen nose providing him clear advantage in that, so why hadn't he warned the others?

"They've headed East, probably for the abandoned town over there… maybe an underground base," he finally informed the other remaining members of their pack. "If we hurry, we might catch up on them!" He turned around, sniffing the ground again before trotting eastward… as he noticed that Kiba made to move to follow him.

"…Kiba?"

"We have no time, remember?"

Hige couldn't believe his ears. Kiba just couldn't have said what he thought he had heard him say…

"You want to leave him here?!? Tell me that you're not serious!" the brown wolf demanded.

The older one's head was lowered, hair shadowing his from view, his expression unreadable. "We have no time," he repeated darkly. They really hadn't. After that long a delay, they might never find Cheza if they didn't get going now!

Growling darkly, Hige took a menacing step towards the alpha, glaring at him as angrily as Kiba had glowered at him earlier. "So you intent to leave one of your pack, a friend, here in order to pursue Cheza. Did I understand you correctly?"

He was angry, as angry as he rarely got- but to see Kiba actually considering letting Tsume down was more than he could really stand.

"So all your talking about finding Paradise together was just nonsense? A lie? Are you willing to betray friends if it serves your 'purpose'? Answer me, Kiba!"

"Go." Both Hige and Kiba started at the single, yet infinitely meaningful word spoken in Toboes high-pitched voice, the bitterness in his tone something they'd never have associated with the pup. "Just go if finding Cheza is more important for you. I'll go alone."

"A-alone?!" Hige stammered, trying to digest the second stunning statement in less than five minutes.

The young wolf got to his feet and, without looking any of them into the eye, started walking in direction of the abandoned city. "He saved me again and got hurt- again. It's because of me that he's got caught, and I owe him that much, even it kills me."

"Bu—hey, Toboe!" Hige made a move to follow the pup, yet paused in mid-stride. "Kiba. I realise how much you want to save Cheza… but so want we!"

Only silence came from the white wolf.

"Do you know what Tsume said to me after we lost you? He told me that, having met you, he just couldn't give up and would keep looking for you. He never gave up on you. Bear that in mind," Hige said softly, then, after once again receiving only silence as an answer, he went after Toboe, hurrying as to get to his side quickly.

Together, they headed off to the desolate town, and Kiba's gaze followed them.

Though his face was a mask of blankness, his insides were reeling around as two strong conflicted impulses struggled to get the better of each other.

He wanted to go after Tsume, to save his comrade, the one that hadn't stopped looking fo him, the one that'd soothed his uneasiness away one night ago, he didn't want to continue his journey without him… but just as powerful was the urge to drop everything and track Cheza, his world, his light, his life. Without her, he couldn't live. Yet… his new-found friends, his first pack since he'd lost his family…

The ones that'd taught him more than anyone else of loyalty, friendship and who, everyone of them in their own way, had become something he didn't want to miss.

Had Hige been right? Would he betray his own pack for Cheza's sake?

Yes, he'd done so before… after Darcia's castle had been destroyed, he'd taken after the airship that'd brought his most precious treasure away, without thinking of what fate might have befallen his pack. He couldn't have cared less, with nothing but Cheza's sweet scent filling his head, he'd left and almost died.

Tsume had come after him. Could he come after Tsume?

>Never thought I'd let my friends down just like that… Then again, he mused bitterly, before meeting his three companions, he'd never had friends, at least not ones like Hige, Toboe and Tsume.

Battling himself, Kiba watched the two brown wolves running, their forms getting smaller as the distance between them grew, and suddenly his heart wrenched.

They… would not kill Cheza. Not immediately, anyway, she's too valuable, and even despicable Darcia had treated her with strange care. Tsume, however, might not be lucky…

Even though they, according to Toboe's report, hadn't killed him right away, maybe the robot soldiers or their master might alter that later on… he couldn't leave the grey wolf in the hands of who-knows-whom. He'd hurry up and resume his search for Cheza with as little delay as possible.

His friends- no, his pack. He wouldn't let them down.

Having made his decision, Kiba started to run in long strides until he'd caught up to his packmates.

Meeting Hige's approving smile, he replied to the still unanswered question: "It was no lie. And I won't betray my friends."

With that said, the three wolves continued toward the abandoned town, not really knowing what or whom they'd confront, but willing to take the risk.

>Tsume… wait for us.


Author's ramblings at the end:

Mh well… maybe I pushed Kiba too far by assuming he'd consider letting his friends down for Cheza's sake, though I've always wondered how he'd choose if need be- his single life-long purpose and meaning, Cheza, or his new-found extraordinary pack?

Actually, the scene with the robot warriors took me pretty long, I simply hate writing fighting scenes >. They annoy the hell out of me, I've got it all in my head and just can't put it down on paper properly hates And it won't get any better in the next chapter, I'm already scared of writing it ;; the only things forcing me to write it anyway are… the need to finish this story in order to finally get Tsume and Kiba together P, and second, your reviews… so please, support a poor authoress struggling with her own brain by donating some comments .

one or two more chapters to come, depends on how the story turns out… this humble piece of literature has surprised its author more than once already XD