CHAPTER 5

ON OUR WAY

Ayame stood up. Her body shook out of anger. Naraku had been dead for more than two months and he was still causing pain. She had to get back to the mountains as soon as possible.

"Let's go", Kouga said as he took the bleeding wolf demon from Ayame's arms. She looked up at him surprised.

"You're coming?"

"You want me to miss a chance at avenging our comrades and your Grandfather?" A smirk came across his face that answered her question. She gave him a smile in return before nodding in approval.

With Ayame's Uncle along with them, they began their long trip back to the mountains. They rushed past forest after forest, stream after stream and ignoring their tired bodies. But just as Ayame was getting her second wind, Kouga came up next to her and said that they needed to stop.

"What's wrong", she asked him once they had both halted. The sun was beginning to set, giving the forest that they stood in a beautiful orange glow.

"Your Uncle, Ayame…" Kouga held out the wolf's limp body. She took a step back in shock.

"He can't be…" She took the lifeless body out of Kouga's arms and laid him on the ground. Everything in her wanted him be to alive, but after a few minutes of trying to have him respond, she realized that he was gone. Ayame stood up and tried to hold the dead wolf demon in her arms, but her body had gone weak at the moment it finally hit her that, first, her Grandfather was dead and, now, her Uncle, too . Kouga immediately swooped her and the wolf in his arms before her knees gave in completely. With his arms around her, she turned into his chest and began to cry. Her body wouldn't let her do anything else.

"Ayame…" Kouga slid his hand under her chin and lifted her face towards him. "I know you're upset, but we need to bury him before we go back. You can't be like this if you plan to avenge their deaths. You have to be strong, Ayame…" She knew that Kouga was right. If she planned to fight and take revenge on who ever the attacker against her pack and the murderer of her Grandfather was, she was going to have to put her emotions aside to look at the bigger picture. So she wiped her tears away and nodded towards Kouga.

By the time they had finished burying Ayame's Uncle, the moon had come out. It shined down silver rays as Ayame sat down next to a small mound. She was trying to be strong like Kouga had told her to do, but it was getting really hard.

"Are you alright", Kouga asked her in a soft tone. He knelt down next to her to be able to look at her better in the dim moonlight. She turned to him with a blank and expressionless face.

"I'll be better once the bastard that did all this is dead."

"Good. So come on… We have a long way to go." He stood back up and watched as Ayame took off in a whirlwind. Now, she, too, had been dragged into something that he had spent so much time and energy in trying to do… revenge. Maybe they weren't at all too different than what he first thought they were. He let out a sigh before following behind her, also in a whirlwind.

They didn't reach the mountains until late that night. Ayame's heart was pounding at the thought that her pack could be dead. She pushed herself harder to get there sooner, when all of a sudden, a sharp coppery smell hit her nose. Her feet stopped moving. She recognized that smell all too well. It was blood and a lot of it.

"You smell that, too?" Kouga came up behind her. She nodded. He was starting to fear the worst. If the pack had been attacked by a strong enough demon, there might not be any survivors. He turned to look at Ayame. She had been heartbroken enough these last few days, she didn't deserve to be left without a pack. She is too good of a woman to have all these bad things happen to her, he thought.

"Come on. We can't just stand around here", she said as she turned to look at him, but was surprised to see that he was starring at her already. She ignored the whole situation.

"Let's go."

They made their way through the mountains until they finally reached her pack's cave. It was littered in dead bodies and a horrendous stench that Kouga immediately identified as Naraku's.

Ayame couldn't take too much more. She panned the whole area with her eyes and all she could see was the dead bodies of her pack. Every last one of them, dead. This time it was anger that began to fill her. It was more like rage that ran through her body. The smell of her dead pack's blood clung in her nose.

They began to slowly walk through the blood soaked area. Looking down at the ground, she saw the people she loved the most laying lifeless as if they had been tossed aside. Kouga could feel the fury radiating off of Ayame and was about to say something when they heard rocks rustle behind them. They turned at the same time and found a silhouette standing in the shadows.