Life with Koga
Chapter 6
By Alicia Maxwell
Koga and I had troubles almost daily for the next couple years. At first, our main problem was joining the tribes. They refused to join after the western tribe reportedly called the eastern tribe a "group of stupid, brain-dead country hicks" and the eastern tribe was claimed to have called the westerners "foreign mutts who we wouldn't welcome into our region, much less our dens." Koga and I stayed up night after night trying to fix this problem. Sometimes, the two of us got so fed up with it that we would simultaneously get up, walk over to the den wall, and bang our heads against it. Then the mere fact that we had both thought to do such a stupid thing at the same time would make us laugh and we'd forget the troubles and go to bed.
The problem of joining the tribes eventually ended but that wasn't the end of our problems. Almost daily, we'd get six or seven complaints from the other wolves. For example, one day, we were asked to solve the following problems: "One of those flea-bitten eastern boys touched me!" "Some lousy western bitch threw me over the waterfall just cause I touched her!" "The eastern boys smell like garbage! Get them to bathe once in a while!" "The western girls keep complaining that we stink!" "One of the western girls stole my guy!" "Hakkaku and Ginta are sleeping on guard duty again!"
As you can see, we were quite busy every day with multiple problems. Thus, we didn't have much time together to solve problems between ourselves. Actually, we didn't have much time together to even create problems between ourselves. However, we eventually got used to the daily complaints and began to solve them quicker, which left more time for us to be together. A couple seasons passed and I had our first litter.
Three cubs- two boys and a girl. The oldest one was a boy. He had white fur, gold eyes, and hair that was navy-colored in front and a light silvery blue in the back. This led some of the wolves to joke that it was actually Ginta's child, seeing as it did look like Ginta. The middle child was the girl, Moro, named for my late mother, the highly exalted wolf goddess. She had brown fur, gold eyes, and red hair with a tiny blond highlight in the front. The youngest was what everyone had expected a child of Koga's to look like. He had blue eyes, and black hair, and he looked exactly like his father, except his fur, mysteriously, was solid black. We named him after my brother, Heroki.
I puzzled the logic of the third child repeatedly. Black fur wasn't in the genetic code of the eastern wolves or the western wolves. Black fur was only found in the northern wolf pack. It didn't make sense. How did a child of the east and the west end up with a trait only found in the north? Finding no answer after months of pondering it, I gave up on thinking about it and put all my focus into balancing my new job as a mother with my job as an alpha female.
Normally, all cubs of the pack would be handed over to a den mother, whose sole job as a member of the pack was to watch over the cubs. However, my human nature wouldn't let me hand my kids over to someone else. Of course, Koga had issues with that…
"You're a leader of the tribe! She's a den mother! You have lots of things to do! She has nothing to do but sit around and watch kids!" Koga yelled. "How could you possibly even think that you'd be able to raise three kids and lead the tribe at the same time!?"
"I don't know how I'll do it," I said calmly, "but I'm going to raise my own kids. Don't worry; I'll keep the tribe's best interest in mind."
"That's not the issue here! The issue is that you're attempting to do the impossible and you don't give a damn that it is impossible!"
"I'm going to find a way, Koga! I'm going to find a way to do both things at once!" I shouted. "My only problem is that, when women in my time have important jobs and kids to take care of, her husband is usually a bit more supportive than you're being now!"
"How do you expect me to be supportive of something that can't be done!?"
"Even if it can't be done, you should still support my decision!" I yelled. "When you love someone, you support them, no matter what!"
Koga tried desperately to come up with something to combat my statement with. I could see it in his eyes that he was in deep thought. He really was completely opposed to my idea! So much so, that he would argue against me even after my last argument!
"There are two options open to you now Koga," I said. "The first is to say that you'll support my decision and let me mother my own children. The second, is to say no to my request, in which case I'll leave the tribe and go back to my own time, where I'll raise the kids as a single mother. It's your choice, Steel Fang."
"I'll never see you or the kids again if I say no, will I?" he asked.
"Not unless you can find a way through Bone Eater's Well," I answered.
"It's a crazy idea, you know. But… I really couldn't stand to lose my kids much less my woman," Koga paced about. "So I guess my only option is to support you." With that, he gave me a smile.
"Oh Koga-kun! Thank you!" I jumped up and hugged him.
"Down, girl! You just had your first litter a couple hours ago. You wanna be carrying another litter around this soon?" he chuckled.
"Go ahead! Laugh it up!" I snapped. "Maybe one day you'll have your guts ripped out. Then you'll understand the pain I went through today."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Koga said. "God! You sure have gotten touchy since you were reincarnated as a human, Suni!"
"I was always this touchy, Koga," I smiled. "I just used to be afraid that you wouldn't hang out with me if you knew that."
"Really? Ah come on. You really think I wouldn't hang with you because of that? I'm amazed you hung out with me!"
"It's true… The typical goddess doesn't associate with demons unless she intends to slay them. But… I'm not just a goddess… I'm a demon too," I said. "I'm a demon-goddess."
"Correction- an insane, deadly, slightly homicidal, slightly pyromaniac demon-goddess who earned the nickname 'Hydro Bomber' at an eighth grade graduation party," Koga laughed.
"You're so mean!" I said before bursting into hysterics myself.