A/N: Hey again. This chapter is just a little filler/explanation thing that I figured was needed. Also, I won't be able to get the next long chapter up for a little while because I'm writing term papers (eeww). Well, since this is going to be a short chapter, I'm going to take this opportunity to thank all my reviewers and to answer one of them,
Deranged Duck: Hi! Sorry about any confusion I caused you with the whole harness thing, but I can explain! See, I figured that Kiba could tie some knots in the vine if he kind of pinned it down under his paws and pulled it with his teeth. I'm not saying it wouldn't be awkward or that they would be very good knots, but the way I imagined it, he could probably get it to do the job. Maybe that makes no sense, but it worked in my odd little mind, and it was the best way I could think of for them to get Foxfire out of the pit. I tend to think Kiba has the ability to do lots of inexplicable things, anyway – I loved that episode where he ran up a vertical glacier when he was fighting that robot! You know what I mean, right? But I'm sorry if it didn't sound right.
As for Blue being a dog, don't you worry – that's comin' up! I was going to put that in the last chapter, but it didn't seem to fit, so I decided to leave it till later. Instead I kind of hinted at it by making Hige and Blue get angry at what Tsume said, but of course no one listened to them and Foxie just didn't get it. But thank you for finally reviewing and for your helpful and thoughtful comments!
Disclaimer: I don't own Wolf's Rain, like I said before. I also don't own the tiny quote in this chapter – that's from "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns, I think. Anyway, here goes!
Moon's Herald
Chapter 7: A Brief Interlude
So that's how the story begins, how it started with me and the wolves. To understand where you're going, you have to know where you've been, after all. Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that I'd ever be following a pack of strange wolves through a cold forest in the middle of a still autumn morning, but thanks to an odd and utterly unexpected turn of events, there I was with a head full of more questions than I could ever hope to answer. They would all be answered in good time, I can assure you, as the rest of the story will show, but at the time I was more confused and frightened than I had ever been in my life.
Now, I ought to tell you that from this point on, the scope of our tale will widen considerably. Because although I couldn't know it back then, naïve and absorbed as I was in my own personal problems, associating with those wolves in particular was a sure way to become embroiled in something so big and dangerous that my mind wouldn't even have been able to wrap around the concept. The wolves weren't the only ones who knew about Cheza and Paradise, you see. As I was to learn, Paradise was something that everyone wanted, and there were humans as well as wolves who believed in it with all their hearts. They would do anything to get Cheza for themselves. There were certain Nobles, people supposed to be higher-born and more powerful than all other humans, who were not content with having their own paradise and wanted that of the wolves as well. There were scientists who had spent the past many years studying Cheza before the wolves got her, and who wanted her back. There was even a hunter who cared nothing for Paradise or the Flower Maiden at all, but who just hated wolves and wanted them all dead. I had never known what the world was like for wolves, but as Tsume once said to me, I would learn quick enough.
You should also know that, in order for me to be able to tell the story as completely as possible, I was told after the fact of many things that happened out of my presence. Things others did or said or thought, I can tell you all of it. How do I know this? I can't tell you that yet or it will ruin the story. Just suffice it to say for now that someone very reliable told me, someone who was there through it all saw and heard everything. This is the one who sent me. Some of the things I can tell you are important, some are only amusing, but I will tell it all because both kinds of things are important to a good story.
Hmm . . . knowing what I now know, being where I've been, I sometimes can't help heaving a little sigh and wondering how my life would've turned out if I had done what I meant to and taken off in Stonewall, gone off to the humans and left those wolves far behind me. I almost did it, too, but it wasn't to be. It's not really my fault things turned out the way they did, considering the circumstances and all, but you know . . . I wonder. I think there was a poet once who said something about "the best laid plans of mice and men . . ." – how they don't always work out, or something. Can't remember exactly. But I whatever it was, I know it's true, even for wolves.
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A/N: Okay, that's it for now! In case it was unclear, I was basically just saying that there will be some moments that cut away from Foxie, but she knows about them because someone told her. I think it will be a little more interesting if we don't have to stay where Foxie is all the time. See you soon, I hope by at least by next week. Just please be patient with me, and if anyone has any questions or anything, feel free to ask!
