Disclaimer: I do not own Wolf's Rain!
Part Four:
The girl hesitated before answering, "I don't have a name."
Everyone was taken a-back by this statement. Kiba's eyebrow shot up, Tsume's eyes narrowed, Blue and Hige looked shocked, and Toboe voiced everyone's opinion, "Don't have a name? How could you not have a name?"
"I've never needed one."
"But don't you have any family? What do they call you?"
"I never had a family either."
"This doesn't make any sense!' Hige shouted in exasperation.
She replied, "Yes, it does! To me…" the girl lowered her gaze in apparent embarrassment.
After a moment's silence, Kiba asked, "So you live alone here?"
"Yes."
"How long?"
"For as long as I can remember."
"Which is…"
"My whole life."
Of all the answers Tsume had expected, this was one of the least expected, so he asked, "What about your parents?"
The girl lifted her face to look at Tsume, "If I had any, wouldn't I have a name?" she said bitterly.
Changing the subject, Kiba asked her, "Do you live around here?"
During this whole conversation, the girl kept hugging her shoulder, attempting to ward off the cold night air, "In a cave near here. To the east." She nodded over her left shoulder, the one that wasn't injured.
"If you want, we can help get you back there so you're not sitting out here, freezing to death." Kiba held out his hand for her to take in order to help her stand, but he forgot that she was wounded. Then, he just took her by the left elbow and tried to lift her to her feet.
The girl started to protest loudly at this, "HEY! Let go of me! I can do it myself! Thank you very much!" Kiba, however, did not release her, but continued to raise her up until she was standing. The girl pulled her elbow free of Kiba's grasp and almost fell back to the snow before Blue, who was closer than Hige or Toboe, caught her.
"Careful!" Blue said as she tried her best to support the girl's injured shoulder because she was on that side.
The girl mumbled something in reply that only Blue could hear, "Thank you…" Blue gave a small smile in return.
"Which way is it to this cave of yours?" Kiba asked.
"I already said: to the east. If I could point right now, I would be pointing to my left."
Without a word, Tsume began walking in the direction the girl had indicated. 'Maybe her cave is big enough to spend the night in,' he thought.
"Tsume, where are you going?" Kiba demanded of him.
"We might as well get going before it gets too dark to see. Unless you want to get lost…" he replied.
"You won't get lost," the girl hissed to Tsume, as she was led forward by Blue, "I know this forest like the back of my paw. I've lived here my whole life, remember?"
Tsume growled under his breath. He hated her attitude. But then again, she might be a nice, different touch to their clan…
LATER…
The cave the girl had described was actually a small opening in the ground. The opening was kind of hard to see at first. Kiba and the others couldn't see it at all. But the girl could obviously tell it was there. She quickened her pace, which separated her from Blue, who had been supporting her.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Blue asked, surprised.
"To my cave." The girl responded without turning around.
"Where is it? I don't see it." Tsume said sarcastically.
The girl continued to walk forward towards a group of pine trees, "Trust me. Its there."
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I just barely made it to the first of the pine trees when I fell. I just felt so tired. The gray wolf had said that I had lost a lot of blood already. I just collapsed out of sheer exhaustion and blood loss. I couldn't go on any more. I sat there, panting, as the other wolves ran to help me.
"Geez! Are you alright!" someone said.
"We need to get her out of the snow."
One of the younger ones whispered, "It's a full moon tonight… right?"
Then, I was lifted up by someone and was carried to who-knows-where. All I knew was that I was going somewhere. Then, I blacked out.
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"Is she going to be okay, Kiba?"
Kiba didn't answer Hige's question. Then again, he couldn't. Kiba couldn't tell if the wound this girl had suffered was fatal; he was no doctor. He then watched Tsume lift the girl up and begin carrying her inside the concealed entrance to the cave. As he did this, Tsume said, "It's a full moon tonight. She just might live till then." Tsume then placed the girl down on the rocky floor of the cave, "Until the moon rises, we should try to stop the bleeding." Once he had relieved himself of the girl's weight, Tsume walked back over to the cave entrance and looked up at the sky. 'No moon yet…' he thought.
Blue knelt down beside the girl. Kiba helped to steady the girl's body while Blue torn off a substantial piece off the bottom of the black coat the girl wore. Blue then began wrapping the gunshot wound in the cloth. "This will have to do for now," she stated as she finished.
Tobeoe then asked, "Now what?"
"Now… we wait."
"Wait? For what?"
Hige rolled his eyes and said, "The full moon, stupid!" He gave Toboe a slight shove. Of course, this started a whole shoving war between the two, which escalated over the next few seconds.
Until Kiba said, "Cut it out, you guys." At the seriousness of Kiba's tone of voice, the two younger wolves quit fooling around. It remained silent in the cave for about an hour or so afterward.
In this time, Hige sat down, leaned back against the opposite wall and fell asleep. Toboe also sat down and got so bored he eventually fell asleep. Blue did her best to stay awake to keep an eye on their 'patient', but she found it too hard and gave in to sleep. The only one's who actually stayed awake for a substantial amount of time were Kiba and Tsume, who was still keeping an eye out for the moon from the cave entrance.
Kiba found himself staring at the back of Tsume's head. He wondered what the gray wolf was thinking, or possibly even feeling. He had noticed the way Tsume had acted since meeting this mysterious girl. The girl with intoxicating green eyes… This thought made Kiba consider what he, himself, felt about meeting this strange girl who had lived here for her whole life… A girl with no name… Kiba turned his head downward to look at the unconscious form of the girl on the cave floor. That's what was strange about her: she had no name. 'We should really think of something to call her.' he thought.
Just when Kiba was about to mention this thought to Tsume, the gray wolf called him over, "Kiba. Get over here. I want to show you something."
Kiba stood up and approached Tsume at the cave entrance, "What is it?"
Tsume gestured towards the sky, "Look up at the sky and tell me what you see."
"Why?"
"Just look."
Kiba looked up at the sky. He didn't know quite what Tsume wanted him to see, but after a few moments realization hit: "There's no moon…"
"Yeah. At least not that I can see from here, anyway."
"But if there's no visible full moon tonight then our new friend won't be able to heal quickly."
"Right."
Kiba glanced over his shoulder at the girl, "I wish… never mind…"
"What?"
"Never mind. It doesn't matter."
"What? What did you want to say? Spit it out."
"I just wish there was something we could do… for her… To keep her alive…"
"Oh. Is that it?" Tsume smiled slightly at this, which made Kiba wonder just how much Tsume really cared about the lives going on around him. Then Tsume said something Kiba would never expect him to say, "Or could it be that you feel something for this nameless girl?" Tsume turned to face the girl as well, but soon leaned in towards Kiba: a threatening motion.
Kiba's eyes narrowed in response. "Sometimes… the things you say, Tsume…" Kiba muttered under his breath as he walked away from Tsume outside of the cave to get a better view of the sky. While staring upwards, Kiba noticed the abundance of clouds.
"Hey, Tsume?" He called over his shoulder, "Has it been cloudy all day?"
"What a stupid question! Of course, it's been cloudy all day! Where do you think all the snow has come from?" Tsume responded from where he knelt by the form of the girl in the cave.
In response to this, Kiba spun around and re-entered the cave, "Then, maybe we really will see the moon soon. If the clouds clear…"
"If--- they do---