Disclaimer: If you hadn't figured this out already, then you must be pretty dense. I don't own squat, except for the original characters and the story that you will soon be reading.

Toboe's POV

I must have ran about ten minutes before I realized that I was alone again. Maybe it hadn't been the best idea to run off, but I had to find Ame. She needed me- I had never really been needed before. It was a nice feeling and I didn't want it to go away. So I was running around a stinky, crowded city looking for my lovable ball of snowy fluff.

"Puppy!" A little girl ran towards me, eyes bright and arms outstretched. I skidded to a stop before I ran into her, and she gave me a warm hug. "Puppy puppy puppy!"

My tail started to wag and I say for a moment, glad to rest my paws. I had a feeling that I would be running a lot with Tsume and the others. I missed being cared about. The emotion always felt stronger when I was with Tsume. He acted all tough, but I could tell that he was really a good guy on the inside. I wondered what it was that could make him so bitter, then yelped when the girl tugged on my ear. (That really, really hurts.)

"Mika?" Another girl, this time older than I was, blinked down at me. "Come on inside, Mika."

I stared at her blankly. She was a Wolf, and definitely not one from the city. Something about her was more…alive than a normal Wolf. The Wolf-Girl flashed me a wink and closed the door after the girl. Even after the door was closed, I simply sat staring. Her eyes, even when I caught a glimpse of her Wolf form, were a deep, vibrant green…

Shaking my head, I walked off. I guessed I just hadn't been looking in the right places for a pack…

Agony shot up my right forepaw as a trap closed over it. I yelped in pain and started to struggle, terror setting in. Stories that I had heard about traps flooded my memory and I started to panic. There was no escape.

"Just a pup, eh?" An old man with a rifle gazed down at me, his black dog growling at his side, then sighed.

"Please, mister- help me!" I had changed back into my human form in my panic.

The barrel of the gun rested right before my eyes. I felt my body go numb as I realized that he had set the trap. "Abomination," he snarled, looking down at me with pure hatred.

I heard a soft meow and glanced to the left. Ame, covered in dirt and soaking wet, gazed out at me from an empty trash can. At least she was safe…

The dog next to the man snarled suddenly, blue eyes flashing to the right. A large, multi-colored Wolf fixed their teeth into the black dog's shoulder, letting out a blood thirsty snarl.

"BLUE!" The old man swung the gun to face the two Wolves, who were now fighting fiercely. Blood flew from the oddly colored Wolf's muzzle as she tore a gash in the black dog's leg, a yelp escaping from her mouth as the dog clamped her own jaws around her opponent's neck. The old man was aiming when Tsume knocked him over from behind.

"Hey, kid," Hige said cheerfully, sticking a crowbar into the trap.

"Hige! Am I glad to see you!" I pulled my hand out of the trap, nursing it against my chest. Glancing around, I felt confused. "Where's Kiba?"

"Tranquilizers still making him shaky- he's resting at an orphanage."

"Let's go," Tsume growled, picking me up and starting to run.

"WAIT! What about the other Wolf?" I looked over Tsume's shoulder and caught a glimpse of green eyes. A gasp escaped my throat, and then I was jostled around as Tsume dodged a gun shot.

"Can't save everyone," Tsume answered. "Sorry, kid." He started running again, barely dodging more bullets.

"BITCH!" the old man yelled. A gunshot and a yelp rang out, and then everything was still.

Hige shivered as small whimpers echoed through the streets. "Maybe we could have done something to help her…"

"She was gone when I stopped him from shooting." Tsune gently set me down. "Did you know her?"

"She saw me when I was looking for Ame." I licked y wrist, trying to hide the tears in my eyes. "There was something different about her…"

"It doesn't matter now—she isn't around to be different anymore." Tsume started heading towards the orphanage, hands in his pockets. "Let's go before that old bastard comes back to get us."

"Someone just died," Hige snapped. I didn't know he was capable of getting angry. "Don't you feel bad at all?"

Tsume kept walking. "Everyone dies at some point in time. Why the hell should I get all teary-eyed over some stranger who got shot? It was probably a quick death; she probably didn't feel any pain."

"She died for ME!" The outburst surprised even me; most of the time I was pretty quiet. "Wouldn't YOU feel bad f someone died for you?!"

"No one would," Tsume said flatly. "Let's go. We need to fix your hand."

Hige sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat, and then he turned to me. "He's right, Pup- come on, let's go." He followed Tsume, still looking like he thought he lost.

When we reached the orphanage, Kiba's face was pressed against a window sill. He kept taking in deep breaths, his eyes glazed over with thought.

"What are you doing?" Tsume demanded, grabbing a first aid kit and throwing it at Hige.

"A Flower was here," he murmured, voice thick. His eyes were now half-closed and he seemed to be drifting into another world.

"A Flower?" I repeated, letting Hige wrap my wrist. "OW!" A sweet, alien scent drifted towards me. It made me think about all of the happy ties I once had, when the sweet, woody scent of the fire and the wild, warm scent of my brothers surrounded me; when I caught that scent, even my paw stopped hurting, and it felt like a blanket of comfort was thrown around me.

"EARTH TO PUP!" I jumped to look at Hige, who was offering me a mug of hot chocolate. "You said you didn't have a home, right?"

"It's gone," I whispered, taking a sip of the cocoa. It made me feel good, but not as good as the Flower that Kiba was talking about. "The Elite Forces destroyed it."

"Do you have any where to go?" Tsume asked, sounding bored and unconcerned.

"No."

"That's what I thought." Hige stretched, looking pleased with himself. "Orphanage-Chick said that they would take you in."

"NO!" The hot cocoa burnt my legs as I spilled it. "NO! I don't wanna stay here! I wanna go with you guys!"

"I'm a drifter," Tsume said flatly, giving me a look that said "don't kid yourself". "I'm not letting some snotty-nosed brat come with me."

"I can't even keep my apartment, kid. No chance that I could keep both of us anywhere." Hige glanced at Kiba. "Where are you going?"

"Paradise." His voice was soft, barely above a whisper.

"Pretty Boy's high on his Flower, so he can't take you." Tsume glared at Kiba in distaste.

"I smell it, too," I said, watching Kiba closely for a reaction. His stormy eyes flickered in my direction, sharp and inquiring. "It's a strange, nice smell, that makes everything bad seem to vanish. You have a good nose, Hige- I know that you can smell it. What does it remind you of?"

Hige looked at me in shock. "WHAT?! How do you know that I can smell anything?"

"You tracked Kiba." Something in me just had to justify that smell. "What does it smell like to you?"

"All I can smell is that dog from the alley-way, the one with the blue eyes. Damn scent won't leave my nose." He offered me a towel. "Might wanna dry off."

I took the towel and started drying my legs, my face turning red. "You have to smell it, Tsume."

"I don't smell anything," he snarled, tensing in anger. "Even Porky doesn't smell what you described."

"Liar." Despite its low volume, Kiba's voice was remarkably strong. "You can smell it, and you want to follow it. You know that it'll lead you to Paradise."

"What is this Paradise you keep talking about, pretty boy? I've never heard of it."

Kiba hesitated. "I don't know," he answered finally, looking slightly embarrassed, but his eyes were still full of conviction as he gazed at us. "I just know it's there, and that only Wolves can find it." He sat up and gently ran his fingers across the window ledge. "And I don't care what the hell you say. I'm going to find it."

Tsume snorted. "There is no such thing as Paradise. It's just something you dreamed up so that you could keep going, so that you have something to live for."

"But I can smell it, Tsume!" I looked at him with pleading eyes, begging him to understand. He was proud, I understood, but he was being just plain stupid. There was definitely a scent.

"That just means that you're impressionable and as desperate as pretty boy is." Tsume stalked out the door without so much as a backwards glance.

"TSUME!" He didn't answer. My shoulders slumped and I felt like crying. Something about him had been so comforting and familiar that it hurt to watch him walk out the door. There went another person in my life.

"He'll be back, Pup, don't worry." Hige grinned and pointed. "He left his Red Bulls."

"And he believes in Paradise." Kiba was gazing out the window, face half hidden by his wild hair. "It's one of the few things he does believe in."

"You and Tsume are a lot alike," Hige told Kiba with a broad grin. "You both believe in the same thing…"

"And you're both 'pretty boys'," I added, and Kiba's face turned pale. "What are pretty boys, anyway?" I murmured softly to Hige, who burst out laughing.

Kiba turned away—I could have sworn that he was making a face of disgust. "I don't like being called pretty boy. Don't group me in with him. He's a coward."

"He seemed really brave to me," I said, surprised. "He wasn't afraid to fight any of the soldiers."

"The odds were in his favor," Kiba muttered. "The soldiers always fight the same way, and he knows he can beat them."

"So? I'm too afraid to fight them."

"You're also twelve years old, Pup," Hige pointed out, leaning back in his chair.

"What's your excuse?" I asked, seriously not understanding, and Hige fell out of his chair. "Are you alright?"

He was blushing as he stood up and put the chair back on its legs. "I'm fine, Pup. And, well, I can't fight to save my life. Well, I mean, my life maybe, but otherwise I'm useless in a fight."

"I could tell," I mumbled under my breath, and heard the chair fall over again. "But how does being good in a fight make you a coward? That just means he's really strong."

Kiba gently ran his fingers against the window ledge again, gazing thoughtfully at his own mug of cocoa. "He's afraid to try to find Paradise because he's afraid he'll fail and lose something in the process."

"What does he have to lose? He's a drifter, right? And his motorcycle was already busted up by the soldiers." I hesitated before setting my cocoa down and standing up. "I don't think you understand Tsume at all," I told Kiba. "Aren't you afraid to try to find something like Paradise? You don't know what it looks like or where it even is."

"I've been looking for it since before I can remember," Kiba said flatly. "It exists." And with that he returned to staring our the window.

I left the room to find Tsume and almost ran into a little girl, who was crying. "Are you alright?"

She looked up at me with a pair of familiar looking bright eyes, then sniffled. "Puppy…?"

My heart twisted. It was Mika, the little girl who had tugged on my ears in the alleyway. "Yeah, it's Puppy. What's wrong?"

"Mira…she went outside…and then there was a bang…and when I went outside…" She started to sob, her little body shaking like it couldn't hold in all the emotion. "Mira wouldn't move…"

I got down on my knees and held her, feeling a tear slip down my cheek. So the Wolf with the green eyes had been named Mira. She must have been the person who looked after Mika. "I'm sorry…so sorry…" I was being overrun by guilt; I knew what it was like to be alone, and now this little girl had to feel the same aching pain.

Eventually someone who worked for the orphanage came and took Mika away, leaving me alone, or so I thought. Tsume turned the corner of the hall and fixed me with his intense golden stare. "Stop looking so guilty. It's not your fault."

My hands were shaking as I quickly wiped my eyes. "Her name was Mira."

"What?"

"The Wolf who got shot in the alleyway. Her name was Mira. She looked after that little girl."

"Let me guess- you feel responsible for her death. It was her own damn choice. She probably knew that she would die as son as she jumped on Blue."

"Blue?"

Tsume blinked, then looked away quickly. "The dog had blue eyes, so I started calling her Blue in my mind." He turned his head to give me an angry glare. "You got something against the way my mind works, punk?!"

"N-no!" I took a step back in shock. "There's no problem, it's just…nevermind." I had been calling her Blue in my head, too, but somehow I knew that it was her name. It wasn't just a guess- it was the truth.

We stood in silence for a moment, me watching Tsume as he tried to look at anything but me. Finally, I got up enough nerve to break the silence. "Are you scared?"

Tsume glared at me. "You had it right, Pup- there's nothing for me to lose. And I'll travel with you for a while. There's no way in Hell that pretty boy will find Paradise. Even if he does, how will he get in?" He brushed past me. "Besides, he owes me money for the motorcycle."

-somewhere else-

"Can't you see? Get rid of the blindfold. You know him…why can't you remember?" Even though her eyes were still wide open, she couldn't see the silhouettes of the buildings or the soldiers surrounding her. "Please…remember…see…it's there if you look…"

"This is the one he wants?"

"Yeah. Started out white, then it turned to this." The leader of the Elites nudged her broken body with his toe. "I have no idea what the hell he's thinking, but I'm tired of playing dog catcher."

"Why don't we just finish her off?" A soldier pulled out his gun and aimed at her head.

"Do it and I'll blow your damn head off." The leader's hand gun was pointed at the other man. "Darcia wants her alive. And he'll get what he wants."

"Please…find her." Her vibrant green eyes closed.

-RhapsodicMelody: Heheheh…sorry that it took so long to update. I was just…yeah, slacking. But I really do have a lot of things written in my notebook!! Be patient, and ye shall receive!!! And thanks for all of the comments!! I feel so loved!!!!