Author's Note: Wheet-whoo! I've made it this far. Hope you enjoyed the last chapter. Didn't go exactly as planned but hey – beggars can't be choosers! …That didn't make sense.

Character Notes/Response to Reviews: I cannot answer any questions at the moment, although I regret to say that as of yet, I have no plans for introducing Blue and Quent into the story, because of their last known position in the manga.

Wolf Interaction: Now, in this story I have many references to where the wolves in here change from wolf to human without me saying/typing so – it's the way that I type this story that you have to interpret if they're human or wolf at the moment. If you get confused at how you read a sentence – if it doesn't make sense, just think if it would make more sense if they were human or wolf at the moment. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Wolf's Rain; or any aspects of it. Or the song 'Gravity.' I only consume the copyrights to this story's plot, Jakken and Tiben's personalities, and dear sweet Blanke:3

I dearly hope you enjoy reading this next chapter! (And I apologize for it taking so long. Things have been very busy with my life lately, and sometimes I don't even have the inspiration to keep writing.)

-…-

"While none of us were looking, I guess we somehow all got mixed up in a world of legends and faerie tales."

-…-

Wolf's Rain :00: An Other Story
Chapter #Four: Or Have the Tears Deluded Them?
Current Ages (Wolf):
Tiben: Four
Jakken: Four
Blanke: Three

-...-

-Eighteen Hours Until Sundown-

"Daddy! DADDY! Mommy, where's Daddy? …Mommy? Mommy!" A small grey wolf yelps fearfully, as flames grow around the ruins. He runs, and stumbles, looking this way and that, desperately searching for his family.

Suddenly he sees a tall wolf, standing high with pride, ferociously fighting off the other wolves attacking him.

"Daddy!" He whimpers, as he sees the last wolf fall. He yips happily and wags his tail.

"Tiben." The tall wolf smiles, and begins to lean down to grab his pup.

Suddenly a crack, as loud as thunder and echoing as an earthquake sounds through the air, as the wolf is thrown into the air, a stream of blood pattering down from the sudden hole that had been forced itself through his body.

Time slows down, and the young pup's brown eyes grow wide, and begins to tremble, shaking madly as his father slowly collapses on the ground, motionless and un-breathing.

"Daddy!" He runs over, nosing his father's still head with his snout, harder and harder, trying to wake him up.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" A maniacal laugh is heard, closer and closer, ringing through the small pup's head, seeing a tall, impossibly huge dark figure walking closer and closer, his gun smoking from the last blast.

A snarling beast is by his side, teeth ferociously huge while bared in anger and hatred. It is held at bay only by a leash held by the man's hand. Its body is writhing and shaking with muscle, snapping furiously at the young pup.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" The man's evil, maniacal laughter is still ringing through the smoke-ridden air, as the pup backs away from his father's still body, and whimpers, shaking his head and whimpering with fear, anger, and sorrow.

"Stop it… Stop it! STOP IT!"

Tiben threw the meager sheets that covered his body into the air, trembling and sweating profusely. He put a human hand to his mouth and tried to overcome the waves of nausea that were in a storm in his stomach. 'No… not again. Not again… I can't stand that nightmare…' He thought weakly, and ran a hand through his damp hair, standing up weakly. The wound in his shoulder still hadn't healed, and it wouldn't for a while. He winced at the thought, and braced himself against the wall, gritting his teeth.

'I can stand. I can do this. I can survive.' He thought, and glanced at his younger brother, who was resting as close as he could next to his older brother, paws folded elegantly across each other, ears laid back against his head.

Tiben smiled, and took a look at the other wolf that was with them. A smaller, collared wolf lay on the other side of the small house they were staying in, asleep as well.

Tiben wouldn't blame them. It was – by a quick glance at the moon from a nearby window – around sometime early in the morning. Too early for anyone to be awake.

But he couldn't sleep. Something was telling him – something was wrong. Maybe that was why he had that horrible nightmare… of his father… and the man… - suddenly a crack from outside broke his concentration.

An unnatural crack, like that of a concrete being shifted, and broken off from the piece it was attached to. A scuttle of a small pebble being kicked across the same concrete. A click of a weapon.

"Jakken! Jakken, wake up!" Tiben hissed, kicking his brother weakly in the side, trembling from the effort to keep from falling down.

"Wha…? What's wrong, brother?" The wolf looked up, and his ears pricked up quickly, and then cocked his head.

"Just wake up Blanke – we need to get out of here. Don't you hear that? There are men outside! I don't know how, but somehow they've found us. We must find another place to hide."

But even as Tiben finished, Jakken had picked his way carefully around the rubble covered ground of the house, nosing Blanke gently to ease her awake.

He whispered something into her ear, and almost immediately her pale silver eyes jerked wide open, and almost began to tremble, and would have if Jakken hadn't nipped her gently on the ear.

The two wolves padded over to Tiben, who continued sending desperate glances outside the window, checking to see if the people outside were getting any closer.

Two human children each took a place under Tiben's arms to support him, and together the three of them leaped from their spot to a hole in the ceiling.

Just as they escaped through the hole, bullets ripped into the small room, jagged holes appearing in everything imaginable – walls, crates, floors, and the medical supplies that Blanke and Jakken had bought only a few hours earlier.

The soldiers moved in carefully, lighting the corners with their flashlights and sweeping the whole room with their guns. After it was clear that no living creatures were in the vicinity, a soldier looked up, spotting the hole and speaking coldly into his communication device:

"Sir, I think we lost them."

There is a moment of silence before a message, jumbled and slightly garble, returns, "THEN GET OUT THERE AND FIND THEM! DO YOU KNOW WHAT'LL HAPPEN IF WE DON'T FIND 'EM! WE HAVE TO FIND 'EM BEFORE TODAY!"

"Y-Yes, sir!" The soldier responds, and indicated to his fellow teammates to keep going.

-Later-
-Twelve Hours Until Sundown-

"I can't believe we almost got caught!" Blanke gasped as the trio hid themselves safely in an alley.

"No kidding. If it weren't for your ears, brother, we would've been caught!" Jakken smiled at his brother, while glancing into the street that led into their alleyway.

Tiben simply nodded grimly.

"We should get farther back in the alley… we might be spotted from here…" He looked around, holding a hand on his wound and grimacing.

"Okay!" Blanke saluted and she and Jakken repeated their action that got Tiben out of their previous hideout.

This process took several minutes, and soon they found themselves at a rather tall wooden fence – decaying even as they stood there.

"We should be able to leap this if need be." Tiben rapped the wood with his knuckles before sliding down the fence and collapsing in a heap at the bottom.

Jakken nodded, and began to speak before Blanke cut him off, shushing him.

"Shhh! There are people on the other side," she whispered, gesturing at the fence, "I think they're soldiers!"

At once the brothers fell silent and the three wolves listened in on the plan, ears cocked.

"…Well I don't care if they don't leave – it's their own fault! Those stupid townspeople don't know when they're being saved; we don't even have to tell them the town is being destroyed!"

"I know, I know! But it's their own choice – d'you see us giving a hoot about that? Let them die. It's their own fault for hiding the wolves from us. They're the ones who got Lady Jagara angry."

"Yeah, you got that right! Come sundown, this town's going up!"

The pair's laughter was harsh and cruel but eventually faded as they walked off.

Both brothers glanced at each other before looking at looking at Blanke, who is shivering.

"Blanke…" Jakken nudged her gently with his snout, attempting to break her out of her funk. Blanke didn't respond for a moment, before shaking her head and throwing back her head as if to howl, but didn't, and simply hung her head, tongue out of her mouth and looking dazed and confused.

"Hey!" Tiben snapped at the small wolf, which yelped in response and glared at him reproachfully.

"What the heck was that for! Back off, you DON'T know what I'm going through." She growled back, her tail swishing back and forth irritably.

"You're right. I don't. But you know what?" Tiben, despite his injuries, stood tall and glared angrily at the cowering Blanke, "But I really don't give a crap. Jakken and I are going to go find out all we can about our petal, and if you don't come along, FINE! We seem to have gotten along well enough before we met you. Come, brother." And with those words that left Jakken and Blanke shocked, he leapt over the fence with some assistance from a nearby trash pile and began to walk away, his arm holding his human shoulder, teeth gritting from pain and irritation.

"Jakken… you believe me, right?" Blanke looked at the younger brother, hope in her eyes.

"Remember what I said earlier?" Jakken walked towards the fence, placing a hand on the rough wood and his gaze away from Blanke. "Well you might want to remember that before you come with us." His eyes were cool and collected when he spoke tersely to Blanke, before leaping over the fence and leaving a stunned, small, cream-coloured collared wolf behind.

-Two Hours Until Sundown-

"Brother, have you found anything?" Tiben asked, glancing over his shoulder weakly to see his brother tapping furiously at the computer's keyboard.

The two had snuck silently into the makeshift base – which had nearly been cleared out, because of the destruction of the town scheduled. A few guards had been… incapacitated after deciding that letting a couple of wolves into the pathetic looking base (a bunch of army tents strewn together in the side part of town) and looking for information wasn't the best idea.

A large computer console was the only device still working, and Jakken was working as fast as he was able to find anything about their small flower petal.

"Nothing… wait…. Wait…" The tapping of a few more keys before a small electronic 'blip' sounded and Jakken grinned. "Yes! There seemed to be a project… this petal we have… something else… 'Lunar Flower'… Crap!" He slammed his fist on the keyboard, causing the screen to flicker and the keyboard to send small sparks in the air.

"What is it?" Tiben limped over to his brother, his nose sniffing curiously at the computer. Jakken was always better at the 'computer' thing.

"It crashed… too much data, or something." Jakken sighed, running a hand through his blond hair.

Tiben nosed his brother's hand reassuringly, before shaking his head sadly, reminiscing over something, "It's all right. You tried as best you could. It's fine. Besides, we now know the name of the petal. Let's just… get out of here. I'm sure we can find something else somewhere… No more pouting." He limped cautiously to the door, waiting for his brother.

Jakken paused a moment, then padding up to his brother, the two touching cool wet noses, before Jakken hooked his brother's arm over his shoulder and leapt away, leaving their foiled plan behind.

-Somewhere Else In the City-

-One Hour & Fifteen Minutes Until Sundown-

A small wolf huddled weakly in the petite and discreet alley, pulled together in a tight circle, shivering madly. Its ears were flat against its head, its tail pulled tight against its body.

She opened her eyes, looking mournfully into the air – the sky painted a deep scarlet and orange, the soft tones or purple and blue already seeping into the air, a somewhat foreboding sense of peace.

"What… am I doing here? …Why couldn't I go with them…? Why didn't they attempt to help this town! Us!" Her beginning sad tone turned bitter and into a small snarl, as her mind reflected to other things – other times, other memories.

Her collar was rumpling her fur, and she picked her head off her paws and opened her mouth as though to howl – and did so, the mournful cry of the saddened wolf echoing through the city.

People passing by – the townspeople who were beginning to evacuate their doomed town paused for a moment, and many of them shivered. They didn't know why Jagara and her men would want to destroy their home for a couple of God's creatures, let alone a species that had supposedly been wiped out two hundred years ago.

'Madness.' That's what they called it, and many of them suspected it. The Nobles were mad with their greed; their hunger for new things, and their longing for power.

Some of them had gone too far.

The She-Wolf closed her mouth, and got up rather shakily as her cry echoed its last call through the hollowing buildings.

'What'll I do…?'

-Thirty Minutes Before Sundown-

Tiben and Jakken ran freely through the emptied town, their tongues open in the air in the exhilaration of it all.

Jakken was still supporting his brother, and often took quick, frenzied glances at the horizon, to see where the Sun's position was.

"We must hurry, brother!" Jakken murmured to the wolf at his side.

"Let me recall – who was shot in the shoulder again?" Came the quick and snippy reply.

"I'm sorry, brother. But I must insist haste. We must get out of here before someone spots us." Jakken replied.

"I know, I know. I think - " But Tiben's reply was cut off by the shout and sudden rapid sound of gunfire.

"There they are!"

"The two wolves!"

"Take them!"

The two wolves ran faster, dodging into a nearby side street and running desperately for cover - the harsh clatter of gunfire right on their tails.

-Fifteen Minutes Before Sundown-

Two boys sat gasping for breath on a hillside outside the town's limits; apart from the other townspeople who were gathered in a large group, and far apart from the soldiers that were keeping the townspeople at bay.

The sunlight shone like a razor sharp blade across the groups, causing many people to squint at their old home. Many of the former inhabitants of Treols were crying, tears streaming silently down their cheeks. Others were silent, their faces set with grim determination. Still, others were shouting angrily at the soldiers keeping them at bay, throwing themselves at the soldiers, yelling furiously at them: "Why are you doing this?"

"You have no right to tear us from our homes!"

"Let us return!"

"There are no such things as wolves!"

In return, the soldiers grew even more violent, pushing back the swarm with the butt of their guns and roughly handling the crowd:

"You'll have to deal with it!"

"Shut up and get back!"

"Don't make us have to use force!"

"It's too late now to do anything about it.

"Your town is doomed…"

The soldiers laughed at the peoples' sorrow in obvious mockery of their pain. Now most of Jagara's soldiers were watching the land, waiting for the moment when the Sun would touch the land's edge, and give them permission to destroy the town with the explosives that had littered across town.

Connected with one wire, with the press of a button of the controller that the soldiers held in their hands, the town would be blown to pieces.

"Tiben…" Jakken murmured, clenching his fist angrily, "Why can't we - "

" – I know what you're thinking, and no. We've all we can." Tiben spoke gravely, sighing and looking up at his brother from his place on the ground, "These peoples' concerns are not ours. They must accept what has and will happen to them – without any help from myself or you, just as we have." Tiben took the small petal the two brothers had in possession and held it in his hand, to catch the last few dying rays of the sun.

"And this petal. We have learned so little… and yet the gain is great. …'Lunar Flower…' This is good. We will fine more information about this flower, and why our parents sought so desperately to find it. In time."

Jakken nodded, so proud to be the brother of this fine wolf.

Both were silent, while Tiben gently placed the petal back into his pocket. The Sun was slowly creeping towards the Earth's rim – leaving the townspeople to murmur even more about their inevitable fate.

"Brother…?"

"Yes?"

"What about… Blanke?"

Tiben sighed, "She had a choice, Jakken. You have to understand that. That was her choice – her own personal choice to make."

"I know… I know, Tiben. But sometimes I wonder…"

-...-

A short distance away from the other townspeople was a small girl, hugging herself tightly despite the warmth of the setting sun. She cocks her head up, tears welling up in her cool grey eyes as the soldiers count down the fate of her town.

"Five!"

'This wasn't right…'

"Four!"

'It wasn't supposed to be this way…'

"Three!"

'How will I survive…?'

"Two!"

'Will I live…?'

"One!"

'Or die…?'

-...-

A deafening explosion rocked the land, as people, soldiers, and wolves alike shook and tried to hold their balance against the rock of the explosion.

Shops, homes, parks, the water towers, all of them were detonated in nearly the same explosion, as the crumbling and fearfully loud explosions mixed with the tears of the townspeople and the laughter and clink of champagne glasses from the soldiers.

It was over. It was through. Treols was not the first city to fall at the hands of the mysterious Jagara, and it would not be the last.

-...-

Tiben got to his feet, wavering slightly in his step, holding onto his brother's shoulder for support.

The two looked grimly at each other, their eyes locking and agreeing on an unspoken bond.

They turned to go – leaving the burning rubble of the city behind, and stopped, seeing a small girl standing over the hill, her back to them.

The brothers kept silent, and both stared at her.

"…Where you're going… where you two are going to go… are you going to help things? Are you going to change the way that things are? Can you really think that you two can change the way this dung-heap of a world can be changed – just by you two and the hope you so desperately cling onto? …If I go with you…" She sniffed, her back stiffened and shivering slightly, her head cocked back towards the sky, towards the rising moon.

"Will it be able to help these people? Will it be able to fix it? Because that's all I really want. …That's all I really want."

Tiben and Jakken both stayed silent for a moment, as they simultaneously began to walk towards her, each relying on eachother for their strength to walk.

"…Yes." Tiben spoke, his brother echoing after him.

"It is quite possible."

Blanke nodded, and took a hand to wipe away the tears that had run down her face, before she turned to face them – red-faced and smilling.

"Then let's get going, slowpokes!"

The townspeople are left in their misery and woe – some moving on while others stand still, unsure of what to do. Whatever the case, none of them knew that the only hope they had was racing away, running as fast as they could in the direction of the faded sunlight.

-...-

'Wait a minute, tell me something. You really going to fight Jagara alone?'

Claw's face tightens.

Whiskers grins.

Howling nods.

Fang responds without hesitation, 'Whether I'm alone or not, I'm always going to fight to protect the ones who need me. No matter what.'


Author's Note: Whew. Sorry for the ridiculously long delay. Really, that was bad. I'll try not to let it happen again. :)