A/N: I hope you're all enjoying this story. As long as I know you all enjoy it, then I'll continue it with no qualm. Please read and review.
Thank you to all of those that reviewed. Your words me the world to me.
Chapter 12
They made it to the cave and the horses were relieved for the rest. The rain was too bad to leave the horses outside, so they laid down inside the small cave. It was so small you could see the back of it. Rocks were piled against the back wall as if it had been a cave-in at one point in time. That thought made them a bit unsettled about staying there, but the rain was too thick and thehour was too late to be looking for another cave to house them the night.
They all sat down, quite cold and wet.
As they sat there in the blackness they could see things better through the very high cave opening. The opening was twice the size of the cave itself.
Asriel and Sephiroth sat next to each other, quite close on one wall, leaning on their saddlebags. Ryo, Sye, Rowen, and Seiji were on the other, sitting close to each other for warmth. Rowen asked Ryo politely and Ryo agreed to heal his arm.
After it was done, they heard the same ominousheavy padded footsteps as an hour before; only this time the steps werewalked slowly and with a skip every other step, as if the creature only had three legs.
Seiji and Rowen leapt up, with their swords ready, as the Wolfoz walked to the entrance of the cave and looked in, waiting. He was drenched as well, with one legarched up in the air and bleeding heavily. Seiji and Rowen stood strong in their positions againt this beast and it put everyone else at ease.
When Seiji started to approach the creature, ready to kill it, Sye jumped up and tried to stand to the best of his ability.
"No!" Sye cried out. "Leave him alone!"
"Sye, he'll kill us!" Seiji replied angrily. Ryo tried to get Sye to sit again, but he wouldn't.
"Seiji, don't you dare touch him!" Sye warned as he grabbed his satchel and unsteadily walked over to them.
"Sye, stay back!" Rowen ordered trying to hold him back without hurting him. Sye escaped his grasp fluidly.
"Stay away from him!" Seiji demanded.
"No!" Sye snapped. He walked over to the beast who stayed completely still. Rowen tried to grab Sye, but Seiji held him still.
"Wait." Seiji told him, and everyone held their breath at Sye's approach.
They watched as Sye came closer to the large horse-sized wolf. The Wolfoz's eyes were on Sye heavily.
"Hello." Sye whispered solemnly. "Remember me?" He asked tenderly. He wasn't afraid at all. He stood poised as best he could manage, then pulled a piece of fish from his satchel and unwrapped it. The Wolfoz raised its ears and lowered its head, its eyes shining with curiosity. It still stood in the rain, drenched now. "Come inside." Sye told him, leaning against the wall now, trying to stand. The Wolfoz stayed still for a moment, then entered slowly.
Rowen tried to go after it when it was three feet from Sye, but Seiji held him tight. It would be fatal now for Sye if they made any quick movements.
The Wolfoz only paid him a glance, then he looked back to Sye. His head was lowered so that his nose was level with Sye's chest. His entire head was about double the size of Sye's head.
Without warning the Wolfoz tensed his whole body -scaring everyone around him- and abruptly shook his entire frame roughly, throwing off all the water from his long fur until he was only slightly damp from the down-pour. Sye smiled slightly at him, even though he'd gotten quite a bit of that water on himself, he still found it funny that the Wolfoz felt comfortable enough to shake off right there.
Sye sat down, leaning against the wall and the Wolfoz just watched him for several minutes; observing. Then he limped over next to Sye and laid down beside him.
The horses were standing and on edge, trying to move casually as far near the back as they could. They were very fearful of the creature being so close.
The beast lay only one foot from Sye. He could still easily snap off Sye's head, but he remained patient and calm to their eyes.
Sye picked up a strip of fish and held it out to the Wolfoz. The beast opened his mouth. His fangs were the size of Sye's hand in length and two inches thick at the base. He rolled out his tongue to Sye. Sye put the meat on his tongue and pulled his hand back. The Wolfoz closed his mouth slowly and devoured the piece. Sye cautiously pet the Wolfoz's head. He tore off a piece of the cold meat and tossed it into his own mouth. It seemed a struggle for him to swallow it, but he did.
"He's not going to hurt me." Sye told his friends, to calm their tense bodies. "You might as well sit down."
"Why won't he hurt you?" Rowen asked. "How can you be sure?"
"Honor." Sye answered. "I saved his life when I stopped Ryo from hurting him and now I'm feeding him. I'm the only thing keeping him alive, what could he gain from eating me?"
"That thing's pretty smart to know all that." Rowen commented, sitting feet from Sye.
"Yes, he is." Sye replied. He placed the rest of the fish down in front of the Wolfoz.
The beast ate it up quickly, then licked Sye's arm, obviously wanting more. Sye pulled some bread out of his bag and again tore off a small piece for himself. He tried his best to eat it, then gave the rest to the beast.
After that the monstrous creature was satisfied. It tentatively laid its head in Sye's lap and rested there. Sye pet the Wolfoz's wetfur over his ears and neck until he felt too tired to move any longer. He fell asleep -pleasantly absent of dreams the whole while, most likely because of the poison consuming most of his thoughts- and didn't wake until Ryo was next to him in the morning.
The Wolfoz woke immediately when he did and he glared at Ryo, who backed away a step.
"Sye. We should leave now." Ryo's horse was next to him. "Rowen and Asriel have agreed to walk so we could all ride. If we leave now we might be able to make it to the cave by nightfall."
The Wolfoz stood as steady as he could and he nudged Sye, trying to get him to stand. Sye tried, but fell back into place.
"I can't stand." He cried out as he fell again. This poison frightened him terribly as it continued to overtake his body. He ached terribly, not only from sitting in place for so long, but because of his weakened muscles and weak immune system.He was dying, and it frightened him to no ends, but he had to be strong.His had to have faith that his friends would get him home before... Before.So, he calmed his breathing and he looked up to Ryo for help.
Ryo frowned sadly. He reached for Sye and the Wolfoz growled at him. "Don't growl." Sye soothed and the beast calmed.
"Sye, call it off of me." Ryo ordered, a bit irritated with the beast.
"Ryo, why not let him carry me, that way Rowen or Asriel could ride with you?"
"He's wounded!" Ryo replied. "He can barely carry himself." Ryo looked into Sye's eyes and saw what he meant. "No! I refuse to heal that thing! It nearly killed us before." Ryo clenched his fists.
"Please, Ryo. He will protect me and he is much faster than the horses. I'll make sure he stays ahead of you so you can keep an eye on him. Please, Ryo, I'll take full responsibility."
The Wolfoz lowered its head to be beside Sye and Sye wrapped an arm around its head. He pulled Sye off the ground and placed him on his feet with no strain to either of them. Sye leaned against the wall as he stared at Ryo for an answer. The Wolfoz licked Sye's cheek and panted as dogs do.
"Will he allow me to get close to him?" Ryo groaned exasperated.
"This isn't a good idea." Rowen voiced.
"I agree." Asriel nodded with mimiced feelings of worry.
"It's dangerous." Sephiroth smiled wryly. "But I understand what he's doing. Go for it."
"Don't kill yourself." Rowen warned, seeing no one would listen to him.
"He won't hurt you, Ryo." Sye told him. He looked the Wolfoz in the eyes and continued to pet his now dry fur. The rain had stopped some time ago and the sun was actually shining in this dreary place.
Ryo stepped closer and the Wolfoz stayed completely still. Ryo walked up to the creature and timidly placed one hand on either of his temples. The beast closed his eyes until Ryo stepped away. The wound was healed and the Wolfoz bucked his head back happily, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he breathed. He laid on the ground in front of Sye. Sye lowered himself onto the beast and grabbed his satchel.
The Wolfoz stood up straight and walked in circles a few times, testing his new weight. He paced happily around the cave.
Seiji shook his head disdainfully and boarded his horse behind Rowen. They walked out of the cave after Sye.
"Can you ride alone?" Rowen asked.
"I'll be fine." Sye answered. "Where are we going?" He grabbed a fistful of the Wolfoz's fur and held tight. The beast didn't mind at all. He looked back at Ryo, like Sye did.
Ryo rode with Asriel behind him. Sephiroth walked up to Sye.
"Could I ride with you?" He asked reaching out his hand to the tame Wolfoz. The Wolfoz sniffed his hand and snorted, but he didn't do anything else.
"He'll allow it." Sye answered and Sephiroth boarded behind him.
"We're going left and over this cave, through another small valley, and up one more mountain to our desired cave.
They made it through the sunny and cheerful valley with no problem. Quite thehypocrite of the night before.
Sye and Sephiroth were easily riding quite far ahead of the rest of them. They waited in some places for almost ten minutes for the horses to catch up to them.
"Just over that peak, we should be able to see the mountain." Ryo told Sye and he shot off with the Wolfoz reading his emotions and desires easily. They ran to see the mountain, but when they reached the peak, they stopped unexpectedly and shocked.
"What's wrong?" Seiji asked.
"Uh! Ryo? What's the cave supposed to look like?" Sye yelled back to him.
"A cave! What else?" Ryo replied snappishly.This journey and the absence of his lover was having a raw effect on him.
"You're going to want to see this!" Sye yelled to them. As they came up onto the peak they saw why Sye had stopped so abruptly.
It was another rickety bridge that led to the mountain, but that wasn't the problem. The entire mountainside that faced them was covered in thousands of cave entrances spaced apart by about thirty feet.
The mountain moved up in a spiral, with one road going around the whole thing.
"Oh, my god!" Rowen snapped. "What the fuck?! Why? Why?" He groaned.
"We should head across." Sye mumbled and he took a big breath. "I'll go across first."
"Wait!" Seiji called and trotted up next to him. "Stay here. Ryo, Rowen, Asriel, and I will go in. You two stay here."
"Why?" They snapped in unison.
"Some of us should at least stay here in case something goes wrong. Just stay here and wait for two hours. If we don't come out, then just head back, okay? Ryo, give me the map!" Seiji ordered. Ryo dug through his satchel and handed it Seiji. Seiji gave it to Sye. "Please do this." He begged softly.
Surely Sye would die if they did not succeed -which ate at Seiji terribly-but he need not die at the hands of evil, and Sephiroth did notdeserve to join in his fate.
"Alright." Sye nodded easily -knowing he wouldn't win the argument in the least- looking over the map. "Good luck."
"I'm getting a sense of de ja vu." Rowen grumbled as they crossed.
They started over the bridge and easily made it over without one problem.
After Ryo had finally gone across Sephiroth leaned closer to Sye.
"We aren't actually just going to leave them here in two hours, are we?" Sephiroth wondered.
"When Hell freezes over." Sye told him, firm in his conviction.
There was a pause of silence between them as they both thought of the problem at hand.
"What's Hell?" Sephiroth asked finally.