Disclaimer: I do not own Wolf's Rain! Neither is the song titled "Less is More" sung by Relient K.

Note: To get over my writer's block on this story, I decided to actually watch the end of the series. Where I got a huge IDEA! But for now, I have to keep quiet about it until I actually write it. But anyways, I just wanted to let you all know that I shall be using the song titled "Less is More" sung by the band Relient K in this chapter and possibly another chapter to follow. So the lyrics and music for that song are not mine!

Red Snow

PART SEVEN

…. DREAM….

The smell of flowers… A voice is calling…

"Akiko…"

I do not know who it is. It sounds distinctly female.

"Akiko… you must find me…"

"But where?"

"Paradise…"

As I get closer to the source, she is singing…

"Jesus, I pray/ Take all my mistakes/ Throw them away/ Destroy them for my sake…/

"Jesus, I call/ out cause I'm sorry/ because I fall/ so short of your glory/ To the best of my ability/ I'm practicing humility/ And I lay myself before/ cause less is more…/

"All that I have/ I lay before/ with my pride on the floor/ cause to you less is more/ All that I have/ I lay before/ with my pride on the floor/ Cause to you less is more…/"

But I cannot find her…

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Tsume paused with his nose to the snow. He had been following the girl's scent for some time now. When all of a sudden:

"Tsumeeeee!" Toboe's voice rang clearly through the chill winter-y air, causing Tsume to pause and glance behind. He could see Toboe leaping over the mounds of snow in order to catch up to him. "Wait for me!"

When he finally caught up to Tsume, Toboe was slightly out of breath.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to help."

"I don't need help."

"But I would like to talk to her…"

Surprised, Tsume didn't know what to say. But after a second's thought, and a roll of the eyes, "Oh, alright."

At this, Toboe smiled, happy to be able to come along. "Alright then! Which way did she go?"

"I think she's just through there." Tsume indicated the area ahead where the trees began to thin out a few hundred feet in front of them. But before they could even start forward, they heard someone singing nearby.

"Where's that coming from?"

"It sounds like… well, it's not Kiba, Blue or Hige, that's for sure."

'How can he tell?' Tsume thought.

"Wow… it's a really pretty tune…" then after a moment, "Who else could that be but her!" Toboe said, and he instantly took off toward the singing, followed closely by Tsume.

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"That's a nice song. Where'd you learn it?" At the sound of this voice, I turned and jumped slightly at the sight of the young rust-colored wolf, from earlier.

"Don't worry. It's just me, Toboe."

"You brought someone else with you, too."

"Yeah. But it's just Tsume and me though."

"Why can't you and your friends just leave me alone? I thought you all would have left by now."

"Well, you see, we were worried---

Tsume rolled his eyes slightly at where this conversation was going.

"You were worried, eh? You shouldn't be, Toboe. You have no need to be. You don't even know me."

"Well, it's not just me who's worried. It's me, Blue, Kiba, Hige, and," Toboe turned to Tsume, "you were worried too, weren't you, Tsume? That's why you came, right?" From where he was leaning against a nearby tree, Tsume shrugged in response.

Toboe then approached where the girl sat in the snow, "Sometimes it's good to know other people care about you… Us? We're like a family…" When he continued to get no response from her, Toboe asked, "Can you teach me the words to that song you were singing?"

The girl stared at Toboe, apparently confused for a minute or two, then, "Well, it's not really a song I know… it's more of a song I heard someone else sing."

"But if you live here alone, where did you hear it before?"

"You'd laugh at me if I told you…"

"No, I won't."

"I heard it in a dream I had…"

Perplexed, Toboe didn't know what to say.

"Well, it wasn't really a dream… I'm not really sure what it was."

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Toboe decided to broach the subject he wanted to talk about, "You should come with us."

"To Paradise, right? That's where you're headed?"

"Yeah."

"I don't think I can come with you."

"Why not? Kiba and everyone else thinks' you should."

Tsume could keep quiet no longer, "Enough, Toboe. If she said 'she can't come along', then she can't come. Besides, she doesn't even know us, and we don't know her. So why would she even want to come?"

"We didn't know each other when we started this journey either." Toboe responded. He turned back to the girl, "Then, if you don't come with us, at least show us where the other end of the forest is, and say good-bye to the others."

When Toboe didn't get a response, Tsume said, "I'm gonna head back. Let's go." As Tsume turned back, Toboe followed him away from the girl. Just as they reached the tree line, they heard the girl say:

"I'll go too."

Toboe, hearing this, spun around to face her, "Really? To Paradise?"

"Possibly," came the response.

Toboe smiled.

"Whatever," Tsume said, "I don't care what you decide to do as long as you make a decision." Tsume then, with hands in his pockets, began once again to walk back in the direction of the cave. Toboe waited for the girl to catch up a little then turned to follow Tsume. After a few seconds, the girl was then walking through the snow next to him.

"Maybe sometime I will teach you the words to that song… Toboe."

Toboe looked at her, startled for the moment, then smiled and nodded, "I'd like that."

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Note: there! Finally, I have written chapter seven! I think its pretty cute chapter. Toboe is my favorite character anyway. Anyways… I hope I lived up to your expectations on what to expect from this chapter. But I promise I'll make my next chapters, up until the end, worthwhile. And now…

A WARNING: I may end up spoiling the end of the series for those of you who haven't finished Wolf's Rain. So if you'd rather not find out what happens to some of the characters at the end, you might want to take this chapter (Part Seven) as the end of this story. But those of you who have already seen the end of Wolf's Rain, you should continue reading! And I hope you do!

REVIEW PLEASE!