Disclaimer: I do not own Wolf's Rain!
THREE
I turned and left my kill behind. What was most important was getting away from the gray wolf behind me. I didn't know what to do. I had never met another wolf before, and I didn't want to. I liked being alone… sometimes…
I wove in and out of the trees I had passed just moments before, not really paying attention to where I was going. I needed to shake the gray wolf off of my trail. Each passing second, I kept thinking, 'He's right behind me! I've got lose him!'
Up ahead, I could see the end of the tree line where the clearing began. 'If I make it there before he does, then maybe I can circle back around to my cave…'
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As Tsume rounded the corner, he never expected to run into another wolf. And one he didn't know, at that. The red wolf dropped whatever was in its mouth, a recent kill: it's blood seeped into the white snow. The new wolf ran in the opposite direction.
"Hey! Wait!" Tsume shouted and took off after it. And man, was this wolf fast! Tsume had a hard time keeping up with him because he had to keep swerving in and out of the trees. By the time Tsume got past about twenty trees, the red wolf was about to cross what appeared to be the end of the forest line. 'Who is this guy?' he thought to himself.
"Wait! I just want to—
But the red wolf had already exited the forest. A few seconds later, Tsume heard a loud
!CRACK!
This was followed closely by the agonized yelp of an injured wolf.
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!CRACK!
The sound echoed throughout the silent night of the forest. Kiba's ears perked up as he came to attention, and so did Blue's, Hige's, and Toboe's ears. What was even more frightening to Toboe was the yelp of pain that was mixed in with the terrible sound of a gunshot.
"Tsume!"
"We've got to save him!"
"He's in trouble!"
All four of the remaining wolves jumped up from where they were and tore off towards the source of the sound. While running, Hige could hear Toboe saying, "Please don't be dead… Please don't be dead… Please don't be…"
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Another bullet whizzed past him as he attacked yet another of Jagara's men. 'That stupid red wolf! How could he not have sensed the presence of these men?' Tsume brought the man down to the ground with his fangs lodged in the throat. But before he could finish the man off, Tsume heard the sound of yet another gun being cocked. He leapt off the prone body of the man he had just killed, and twisted to his left before a bullet could hit him in the back. Tsume could feel the fast moving object as it brushed slightly against his fur, 'Dang! That was close!' he thought.
Just then, Tsume heard an agonized scream from one of the men. He glanced out of the corner of his eye to see the red wolf attacking one of the other men.
"Quick! Sho---!" The leader of the soldiers shouted, but the command came to late and was cut short. Tsume already had his teeth in the back of his neck. Soon, there were no more men left to kill. The leader was the last one of them.
Tsume turned to face the red wolf, but it had disappeared. All he saw was a trail of blood leading from where the red wolf had fallen. 'He can't have gone very far.' Tsume then looked around the clearing. He spotted the red wolf trying to run into the trees.
"Hey, you! Wait!" He shouted at the retreating figure. The wolf glanced hastily over its shoulder at Tsume, but it continued to trudge towards the trees. By the time Tsume caught up to the rogue, the red wolf had collapsed to the ground. When Tsume was a little closer, it was no longer a wolf. And it was no longer hard to tell its gender.
There was a yellow-haired girl wearing a long, sleeve-less, black coat. She was sitting on the snow-covered ground, holding onto her shoulder. This was apparently were she had been shot. Tsume could tell because some blood ran down her arm.
"You're hurt." He said from where he stood a few feet away.
The girl glared up at Tsume, "I'm fine--- Stay away from me!"
"You don't look fine to me." he replied to her demand.
The girl continued to hold onto her bleeding shoulder and made sure she didn't look at her interrogator, "I can take care of myself."
Tsume rolled his eyes at this, "Right. That's why you're hurt." He doubted that she could take care of herself, "Besides, you got yourself into this by following us. Didn't you?" When the girl didn't answer, Tsume asked again, "You were following us, weren't you?" He asked her this in all seriousness, but she still didn't answer his question. Tsume decided to change the subject, "Let me take a look at your shoulder." He walked towards her a few steps, knelt down beside her, and reached out to take the girl's now blood covered hand from her wound.
The second his hand lifted hers, however, the girl slapped his hands away and began to yell at him, "Don't touch me! I'm fine!"
'That tears it!' Tsume thought.
"Just let me look at it! I'm trying to help you!" He yelled as he grabbed the hand that had just slapped him and flipped the girl over onto her stomach. He pinned her in place and twisted her uninjured arm behind her back.
The girl winced in pain at the roughness of it, "Get off of me!" she shouted.
Tsume ignored her plea. He could see that the bullet had hit her just at the back of her shoulder. Now that he had an unobstructed view of the wound, Tsume made his assessment aloud, "It's bad. You've lost a lot of blood already. You wouldn't last a day out there on your own."
"You don't know me, then."
"What do you mean?"
"This is my territory. I know more about it than you or your friends. I've lived here my whole life, and I'll die here if I have to."
Tsume was slightly surprised to hear this come from her. 'Then again, maybe she's just putting up a façade—a tough girl routine. Well, I've seen this before.' He thought. Before Tsume could release her from his hold, a familiar howl reached his ears.
"Tsume! You're alive!" Toboe and the others (Kiba, Blue and Hige) bounded out of the forest and stopped nearby at the scene before them: the bodies of the dead soldiers in the clearing and the unknown girl Tsume held captive before them.
Blue stepped forward and said, "Tsume, what's going on? Who is this?"
Tsume nodded his head in the girl's direction, "I was just about to ask her the same question."
"Get off of me!" the girl growled from her position in the snow.
Kiba noticed her bleeding shoulder, "Let her go, Tsume. She's bleeding."
Tsume frowned. He released her and offered his hand to the girl on the snow. She refused his help, again refused to look at him, and immediately paced her uninjured hand back over her wound, "I don't need your help." She said defiantly.
Within the icy glare she directed in his direction, Kiba noticed the intense green shade of the girl's eyes. 'What's with this girl?' Kiba thought. Instead, Kiba demanded, "Tsume, what's going on here?"
"I think she's the one who's been following us." Tsume stated simply.
Kiba turned back to the girl, who was still sitting on the snow, "Is that true? Are you the one who's been following us?"
"Yeah! Why have you been watching us?" Hige added.
The girl turned her glare on Hige, "What's it to you what I do with my life?"
"Just answer the question." Kiba demanded to get the girl back on track.
"I wanted to see if you were a threat! Wouldn't you if you spotted intruders in your home? I stopped following you, but I guess I was wrong when I thought you weren't going to threaten me!"
"Threaten you? We were just passing through! We'll be leaving tomorrow." Tsume answered.
"Good! I'll be glad when you're gone!"
Blue turned to Kiba. "We can't leave her here, Kiba. She's hurt."
Kiba's eyes narrowed, he wasn't sure what to say. "She'll stay with us…" He glanced at Tsume, "For now."
Tsume instantly pulled Kiba aside, "What are you doing? How do you know that we can trust her?"
"If she was against us, she would have attacked us already."
"You're making a big mistake, Kiba."
"How do you know, Tsume? What would you do? Leave her to die all alone?"
Tsume didn't know what to say to this. In a way, Kiba was right. 'What would he do if he was in Kiba's place in this situation? -- Kiba's right. I can't just leave her to die here. -- Where did that thought come from!'
Kiba again approached the mysterious girl with his next question, "Do you have a name? I would like to know to whom I'm speaking."
The girl hesitated before answering, "I don't have a name."