Title: The Price of His Past

Author: Ladye Black

Warnings: some bad words

Disclaimer: Nope, me no own.

Notes: Surprise! I updated before it was time! Hope ya like it!

Chapter 11

The landscape never seemed to change. For days, they'd walked through a sort of endless winter wonderland. What was so wonderful about it, Tsume didn't know, but that pup seemed to like it.

"Hahaha! Bet you can't catch me, Hige!" Toboe bounded past the older Wolf, presumably to get away from Hige. Who was plodding along at a sedate pace, looking as if he had all the time in the world.

A second later, Toboe tripped, and Hige made his move. In two quick leaps, he tagged the youngest Wolf. "Gotcha," the Wolf said triumphantly.

Tsume shook his head in amusement, then looked ahead at Kiba. The white Wolf had turned around to see what was going on, and Tsume thought he saw a faint smile on the other Wolf. Then, Kiba looked right at Tsume, and their eyes caught.

There was something there, something that had been there for awhile now. Tsume wasn't quite sure what it was, but he had an idea. Maybe, once this thing with the "Key" was over with, he'd explore it. For right now, however, they had somewhere to be and an end of the world to stop.

Tsume only hoped that there was still time to accomplish the task.


Four days later, they came to a city. It was a city like most of the others, there was nothing to make it stand out, the same run-down buildings and the same run-down people. However, there was one marked difference, at least to a Wolf's nose. The smell of the Others.

This was what they'd been running toward; following. The scent was very strong now; they knew they were close. Now, it was time to be careful, and to end this fight over the Key.

They proceeded slowly through the city, disguised as their Human selves, looking for signs of anything that wasn't Human, but also was not Wolf. It took until they were on the other side of the city for them to pick up a likely smelling trail. It was, of course, Hige's nose that picked up the scent.

"Hey, do you guys smell that?"

"Smell what?" Toboe questioned, curiously looking around him. It seemed the youngest Wolf never got tired of new surroundings, no matter how alike they were to old ones.

"It smells like," Hige took a big sniff, "like something dead. Something that's been dead for a long time and left out to rot."

Tsume took his turn trying to find the scent. "I don't sme-"

"I do." Everyone turned to look at Kiba in surprise. "And, I think it's coming from that direction." He indicated a direction that would lead them out of the city.

It didn't take long until they were out of the city, and the smell was becoming increasingly stronger. Suddenly, at the head of the group, Hige stopped. "Hey, guys, I think we found them."

Tsume pushed past the younger Wolf to see what he was looking at. It was a cave of sorts, junk had been piled around and, Tsume suspected, in the cave. And the smell was emanating from there.

"Right, now it's time to end this."

"So, you agree to give us the Key?"

Tsume froze. "You don't sound like your buddies."

"Of course not," a figure separated itself from the shadows that surrounded the cave. "They are old experiments, and I am something much better."

"But still an experiment," Tsume sneered at the human-looking creature. And perhaps if it were not for the scent, Tsume would have mistaken it as Human.

He, Tsume was pretty sure it was male, had a Human face. It was smooth, like a young boy's, and pale. However, amber eyes not unlike Tsume's own shone from beneath dark brows. Black hair was cut shorter and messier than the rest, which was quite long, reaching to his mid-back; Tsume guessed. He was tall and lithe, that was clear from his close-fitting clothes and stance.

All-in-all, a pleasing looking Human male, though not as pleasing as Kiba was, not nearly. Tsume firmly told his hormones that they could shut up now 'cause he and the others were in some serious shit.

"Uh, Tsume?" The grey Wolf was brought out of his thoughts by Hige's voice. "I think we're in some serious shit now…"

Then Tsume noticed Them. They'd been hidden in the snow, obviously waiting for their leader's signal before getting up and surrounding them. Tsume cursed himself for being so oblivious. "I can't believe I didn't notice," he muttered tightly to himself.

He felt a comforting presence against his shoulder. It was Kiba.

"It's alright," the white Wolf said. "We didn't notice either."

If Tsume was capable of blushing he might have at that moment. Not only was it embarrassing at having been caught off guard, and with the enemy seemingly have known they'd be coming, but Kiba was trying to comfort him. And damn if it wasn't just working the slightest bit. He never seemed to be as down when the white Wolf was near.

He also needed to stop getting lost in his thoughts.

"So, will you hand over the Key peaceably?"

Tsume growled at him. "You haven't even introduced yourself, and now you're demanding things? Hell no! I'm not handing you a damn thing!"

The "man" smiled at him tightly. "You're right, I should introduce myself, call me 'Kei'."

Tsume acknowledged the name with a slight tilt of his head. His eyes never left his opponent's.

"So? Now will you give me the Key?"

"Sorry, the answer's still 'no'."

Kei's grin turned ugly. "I was afraid of that. Attack."

And suddenly, they were buried under a writhing mass of sharp claws and even sharper teeth.

Kei watched with glee. "How long will you last this time, Tsume…my brother?"

TBC…

Hmm, "kei" can mean many different things. This time it is "penalty, sentence, punishment". Later all!

And yes, I realize I said he died…but, I guess he didn't…or Tsume didn't know his brother lived. Yeah, most likely that. Stupid Jess-chan of the Nya Nya Neko, making me work on her plots for "Dreaming of Reality" (great YYH, btw) and then I come up with these things! Grrrrrr…