Author's Note: I apologize if this chapter seems a bit slow.

Character Notes/Response to Reviews: Thanks to all those who have reviewed this story! Now, Blanke's past is a very mysterious one, but like the previous interlude, a little bit of it will be revealed at a time. So… yes. :P

Wolf Interaction: (Going to post the past statement I made – just to get it into your heads.) 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 (Taken from last chapter. This will be the default disclaimer from now on.)

-…-

"I tell you now the words of the Book of the Red Moon:
From the Great Spirit was born the Wolf…"

-…-

Wolf's Rain :00: An Other Story
Chapter #Five: Maybe this time tomorrow
Current Ages (Wolf):
Tiben: Four
Jakken: Four
Blanke: Three

The wolves ran – faster and steadier than any of them had ever before. Perhaps it was because they were filled with the age-old wonderful instinct of migration that exists in all creatures. The very instinct that caused the human of the Earth to move from town to town, city to city.

Or maybe it was because the scent of humans were still lingering in their noses, and the wound that was throbbing on the shoulder on the brown-eyed wolf was still lingering in all their minds. Either way, they wouldn't stop running until they had to.

Their tongues hanging out of their mouths, their feet making sharp and distinct paw prints in the shape of a wolf's. Their tails held high and free.

Of the three, only one wolf had not experienced this rush before. The cream-coloured wolf flanking the grey wolf with the brown eye's left. Her eyes were wide with newfound knowledge and amusement. Never before had she experienced such a rush – it was wonderful.

She took and running leap and howled briefly while in mid-air, letting her voice ring and echo in the empty expanse of land and air around them.

"This is wonderful! I've never felt so alive before, guys!" She panted after landing on the ground again, falling into pace with her comrades.

The brown-eyed wolf rolled his eyes, while his near-twin took a sparing glance over his brother's body in between them and grinned the wolf-grin.

"Isn't it great?" He responded, and turned his attention to the landscape around them.

They had been running for at least a day now, without stop or falter in their steps. However, truth be told one of them was growing weary.

"Hey guys? I'm getting' kinda tired. Can we please stop somewhere? I'm sure we must've lost Jagara's troops by now, even if they did realize that we didn't get blown up…" She sighed, and looked at the other two.

Tiben hesitated before answering, "I suppose so. Even so, let's take shelter in those rocks for tonight, just in case. I am not going to be found curled up in the wide open prairie to be the only target for miles." He responded, as the three changed course for a couple of boulders, the only uprising of the terrain for miles they had seen.

"Relax, brother." Jakken spoke reassuringly, "If you did sleep on the plain, there'd still be me and Blanke for target-practice too!" He chuckled.

-At the rocks-

"Hmmm… this place looks nice enough to stay!" Blanke sighed as she flopped against the nearest rock, sides heaving and her tongue out of her mouth.

"I'm pooped!" She heaved a great breath and put an arm over her face, peeking at the two brothers from underneath it.

Jakken helped his brother sit down against another rock, while Tiben attempted to wave him off with an irritable expression on his face.

"I'm wounded, Jakken, not feeble." He said coolly, giving his brother a look.

"All right, all right – sorry for worrying about you, brother!" He said in a lighter tone, sitting down next to him.

For not the first time, Blanke winced at their kinship and attitude with each other, feeling alone and isolated as though a thousand miles away; though in reality they were sitting not more than five feet from her.

-That night-

Blanke jerked awake suddenly, wondering for a split second where she was and to remember what had happened during the past two days. She looked around sleepily, to see moonlight filtering through the opening in the cave.

The brothers were in the same places as earlier that day, and Blanke blinked as she saw something in Tiben's hand.

He was nearest to the opening of their cave, his eyes half-closed in contentment. He was smiling, though it was a dazed and distracted smiled, one that was both unfocused and completely obsessed with another item. And that item, resting in Tiben's hand, was a small pale pink and purple flower petal.

Blanke's mouth opened in a small, 'Oh!' of surprise and wonder – she had never seen such a beautiful thing in her life. Despite its size, she felt as though it could be ten times the size it was now, and smell just as wonderful. But it seemed as though it would soon die, for despite its beauty, it was wilted, and faded in colour.

Blanke had never smelled such a thing before in her life. She had always lived in Treols, and there hadn't been many good smells there to begin with. But there was something different about this one – it was clean. Purest in the most wonderful aspect of scent. And something mysterious about it too, something as wild and untamed as the wolves themselves.

"What's that?" She asked suddenly, raising her head to wipe her still-sleepy eyes.

"Hmmm?" Tiben looked up, and his smiled changed, this one more of a greeting to her. "Oh, Blanke. I didn't realize you were awake." He nodded at his brother, whose mouth was wide open and sagging as he snored slightly, head back against the rock wall.

Blanke smiled, and chuckled lightly. But her eyes still held question in regard to the petal in his hand.

"Oh, yes. The petal. Well it's something that's very important to my brother and I and we've had it for – "

"But it's wilting!" Blanke said, interrupting him. She quickly put her hands over her mouth and winced, feeling a reprimand coming her way. "Sorry." She whispered.

Instead of correcting her in his usual fashion, Tiben put his finger to his lips and said, "Shh," a mysterious smile on his face.

He took the hand that held the petal and put it into the ray of moonlight that lit up the first part of the cave.

The petal, formerly wilted and faded, seemed to shine briefly, and in an instant, it was whole again.

"Ohhh…" Blanke said with an amazed expression on her face. "That's so lovely!" She said in an awestruck voice.

"Yes, I suppose it is." Tiben said with a soft voice.

-Later-

Blanke had fallen back asleep a few minutes after Tiben had gently put the petal away into his pant's pocket. She held the blank collar that was around her neck in one hand, the other across her lap. It seemed it was the only thing she could rely on.

Jakken had woken up, smelling the petal even in his sleep. He looked around distractedly, muttering, "Wha – Where's the petal, Tiben?" He asked groggily.

Tiben rolled his eyes, "I put it away, Jakken." He said, wincing slightly at a small movement.

Jakken nodded once, then looked as though he would fall back asleep when a sound arose in the night. He winced, and immediately leapt off his behind and stood at watch at the entrance of the cave.

"Nobles…." He growled.

Tiben looked over to his brother, and the look in his eyes were enough.

"Come back here, they might see you." He whispered, and Jakken quickly returned to his brother's side.

The two brothers sat shoulder-to-shoulder, staring up at the ceiling in anxiety.

The eerie and buzzing sound of a Noble's flying behemoth ship filled their ears with a strange droning sound, as thousands of feet above them a giant ship sailed the skies. Its size so huge, it covered the moon with its vastness, and the few creatures of the plains stopped in their activities and stood still, as the noise filled their heads as well.

It might've lasted minutes, or it might've lasted hours, the brothers weren't sure. But however long it was, they sat stock-still as they waited for it to pass. The only sound that they feared was this one itself.

Nobles, the rich and gluttonous people – the humans – that had gorged themselves while the rest of the human population withered and scavenged for food. Neither caring for others around them nor for their own rich kind, there were numerous alliances that had been around for years. For the longest time, the Nobles had been held above all others, in their aristocratic deals and blood-alliances, and others were forced to live off their so-called kindness.

Both cold-hearted and fearless, relying on others do to the dirty work for them, they were in reality weak, and fearful that one day they would lose it all.

The only deviant of this pathetic display of humanity, was the mighty Jagara. Perhaps she was the only Noble unafraid of displaying her power and relishing it with satisfaction.

The brothers didn't know if they would ever know for certain.

As soon as they couldn't hear the eerie sound of the ship any more, they relaxed, and both looked at each other with a strange mix of happiness and fear on their faces.

"I was wondering, Jakken," Tiben spoke up, quietly at first.

His brother looked at him with a questioning look on his face.

"What is it, Tiben?"

"Blanke's collar…" he said, motioning towards the sleeping wolf.

"What about it?" Jakken asked him, raising his eyebrows and giving his brother a stranger look.

"Well, what do you think?" The oldest brother asked, fixing his brother with a stern look.

Jakken paused, then sighed saying, "Well, I can't deny it gives me the creeps. I mean – look at her! She said when we first met, 'This thing is the only clue to my memory.' That's not natural, right? And what about her abandonment? And about the cry she described…" The blue-eyed teen shivered, remembering the voice Blanke had used when she described hearing it.

"I know, I know. Blanke may be our friend, but there are many things still unknown about her. And everything we don't know about her…" Tiben looked at his brother expectantly.

"…gives us more reason not to trust her. I know, I know! How many times have you drilled that into my head? But still, I mean, we had to take her with us. We couldn't just leave her in the mercy of Jagara's troops!" He said.

"It's all very mysterious. Everything is so…" Tiben sighed, tilting his head back and resting it against the wall.

"Bad? Doomful? Hopeless?" Jakken offered dryly, his face concentrated in thought of more words.

"Ha ha." Tiben looked across at each other. "You know what I mean. Everything seems to be changing now, more than every other year we've been searching. The Lunar Flower… Blanke… and the fact that Jagara is now after wolves." Tiben's brow narrowed, looking up into the sky from the entrance.

"I don't think we can trust the world as we used to, brother. Things are changing from what we knew." Jakken said simply, his face lit an eerie blue from the light cast by the moon. "Remember what happened nearly three years ago? What the boy said? 'That somewhere, far, far away… Paradise was found.' Is our journey even worth pursuing?"

Tiben seemed to sag a little in his posture. "C'mon, things aren't that bad. Yet, at least." He smiled, and patted the ground next to him. "Get some sleep, brother. We're going to be traveling a lot tomorrow."

Jakken smiled gratefully, and sat down next to his brother, soon lost in a dreamless slumber.

Tiben watched his brother sleeping for a moment, then looked across to Blanke, and finally getting up and hobbling over to the entrance, staring at the sky and gripping the wound on his shoulder. "Sometimes I think you may be right, Jakken." He whispered softly, his brown eyes reflecting an unknown emotion.

"Sometimes I fear you truly are right."

-Early Morning-

"Well then, I s'pose we should head to…" Jakken trailed off in his thinking, stretching as he spoke.

"Theriopolis. Theriopolis is the city located closest to here." Blanke repeated, raising her eyebrows. Actually, that's a lie." She added as an afterthought, tipping her head into a thoughtful pose.

The brothers stared at her.

"Then what are you trying to say?" Tiben asked in a short voice.

"I mean – it's the most reasonable city to go to from here!" Blanke recovered quickly, grinning sheepishly and nodding quickly.

"What do you mean?" Jakken asked, still staring.

"Well, I figured we must've gone at least twenty miles or more from Treols… maybe east or west - I never could get those right – judging by the sun's position… so there are numerous smaller cities and towns (I figured we want to avoid those if there are soldiers there) and the biggest one, Theriopolis, is around fifty or so miles from here. There's also a railway around here somewhere… which if we want to we can hitch a ride. Though I wouldn't exactly suggest that either…"

Jakken quickly lost interest, staring at the progress of a small rabbit some distance from where the three stood. Tiben, however, stared intently at Blanke, as she rambled on.

"…So basically the only thing I would warn you guys of is that Theriopolis is awful close to Lady Jagara's Keep." Blanke nodded thoughtfully, ending her speech.

"Good. You can be our navigator, then." Tiben said briefly, and by some unknown movement Jakken grinned and nodded in agreement with his brother.

Then, without another word, the two started to jog off, laughing.

"Hey! I can't believe you two! You mean you two know nothing of where you are!" Blanke screamed after them.

"Nah… we've never gone this far North before, though." Jakken spoke over his shoulder in a lax manner.

"Boys…" Blanke growled, before grinning a small smile.

The two wolves began to run faster and faster, stopping a distance before staring back at Blanke with expectant looks on their faces.

'I wonder what it would be like… to have a family. A new one… Since my old one has faded away…' Blanke paused, her vision blurring for a moment as the image of a green-eyed black wolf filled her head before she blinked away the moisture.

"Wait for me, guys!" She called, springing off from her position and running after them, keeping the old memories hidden for the time being.

Wings: -waves- Thank you for making it this far! Since it took me so long to get this one written, here's a preview of the next chapter:) (From what I think it will be so far…)

'Running, running as long as they could breathe. The three wolves did not stop and think, even as the harsh rain hit their faces and mud spattered their coats with mud. They couldn't stop – not now. Because they were on their way to the railway.

There was also the fact of the battalion of soldiers on their tails and after them who were relentless in their own journey as well.'