Title: Price of His Past
Author: Ladye Black
Warnings: Er, Au-ish, because Cheza isn't in here, sorry but I'm not going to write her in, teensy bit of bad words, and blood (Although, what would WR be without it?)
Disclaimer: Not my characters. Why're all the Japanese people so lucky?
Notes: Um, not really sure when this takes place, other than it being after Tsume and the rest meet and they've become really good friends by then.
Chapter 4
There was a certain scent in the air. No one could really describe it; accept that it was the scent that screamed, Danger! Run Away! Tsume ignored the impulse and stood his ground. Who ever these guys were, they wouldn't be hurting anyone else.
Behind him, Toboe looked fearfully up from the ground, the cut on his leg bleeding profusely. Kiba was right beside with only a couple scratches, and Hige was guarding Toboe on his other side.
The men, who didn't smell Human or Wolf, advanced slowly then stopped. One of them came forward slightly more, its face covered by a swath of black cloth. "The Key," it slightly growled at him, as though it wasn't accustomed to using Human words.
Tsume was confused by the request; unfortunately, when he got confused he got angry. "What 'key'? I don't have any keys," he sneered.
The figure made a sort of frustrated sound. "Hand over Key, no get hurt."
"And I'm tellin' you," Tsume growled, "I ain't got any keys."
Kiba cut in. "If you don't get out of our way, you're the ones who will be hurt," he said, stepping slightly in front of Tsume.
The grey wolf growled slightly to himself at the inadvertent protective gesture. He knew Kiba was just asserting his claim as Leader, but the younger Wolf should know better than to get in Tsume's way.
"No deal with you, Grey One has Key." It pointed to itself. "Must have Key…and Grey One."
Kiba snarled in frustration. "Look," he said, "we don't have any idea what you're talking about. Why don't you just point it out to us?"
The heavily clothed figure looked confused for a moment before one of the others said something to it in a musical language. Tsume froze.
He'd heard that language before, when Te had been killed. He felt an unsettling cold wash over him, and he knew. He knew what they were talking about, and he as well that they shouldn't have it. Not only because Te had had told him never to let anyone have it, but because these creatures were evil. They'd done a good job of hiding it, but now that he knew what they were he could feel their taint.
"We have to get out of here. Now." Kiba turned to look at him. Which turned out to be a mistake.
The creature must have sensed that something had changed, because it lunged at Tsume. Unfortunately, for the creature, Kiba was in the way and took the brunt of the force that the creature had exerted. Which turned out to be a hell of a lot, more than any Human or Wolf should have been able to use.
Kiba felt a rib break as he fell into the snow, but he maintained enough of his motor skills to claw at the creature, ripping its clothes to shreds in the front. Tsume leapt forward, knocking the creature back away from Toboe. Yelling at Hige to protect Toboe, he sank his claws and teeth into the thing beneath him. Then was promptly thrown off.
Recovering quickly, he realized that his back was now to the other creatures, not a good place to be. He was quickly set upon; sharp objects he couldn't see tearing through his fur and flesh.
Suddenly, he was clear from it, a white blur streaked in red speeding past him, "Run Tsume!" it called to him.
They ran as fast as they could, and amazingly, they seemed to have lost their pursuers. For as strong as they seemed to be, the creatures didn't seem to be able to run very fast. Tsume had a suspicion that this was only because their bulky clothing held them back.
Hige, in the front for once, signaled that he saw a rest spot ahead. Though Tsume would never admit it out loud, he was grateful; he didn't think he'd be able to run for much longer.
They entered the cave and traveled along it until they were far back from the entrance. Plopping down, too tired to be graceful, Tsume rested.
"Who were those guys?" Hige panted.
Tsume shrugged as well as he could as a Wolf. "Who knows?"
"Well, they seemed to be really interested in you and that 'Key' thing," the young Wolf pointed out. "Do you know anything about it?"
"No," Tsume lied easily.
"Hey, guys," Toboe said softly. "Do you think we'll be okay here for now?"
"We should be," Kiba answered, then looked hard at Tsume. "And if they are after Tsume for some reason, then we'll just have to make sure they don't get what they want."
The grey Wolf had the uncomfortable feeling that Kiba knew he was lying. That was possible though, their fearless leader seemed to know Tsume the best of anyone, even Toboe, perhaps even Tsume himself.
"You need your wounds looked at."
"Hunh?" Tsume was pulled out of his thoughts by Kiba's voice neared to him than it had been before. When had the white Wolf moved closer to him? He must be worse off than he thought. "I'm fine."
"You're making a puddle," the other Wolf pointed out.
Hige spoke up. "Yeah, Tsume, some of those cuts look really bad."
Tsume blinked, for some reason he felt a little dizzy, and he couldn't seem to hear too well. He looked up at Kiba. "Hunh?" he repeated.
"Tsume?" Kiba looked slightly worried. Tsume frowned, that couldn't be right, why would the enigmatic Wolf be worried about him? He tried to tell Kiba not to be, but his mouth didn't want to work. In fact, he just wanted to sleep.
"Tsume?" The Wolf didn't even try to answer this time. He just laid his head down, and then blacked out.
TBC...
Well, how was that? Sorry for taking so long with this, been on vacation.
