Chapter 7
Eneres woke to find herself curled inside the tent, a small blanket draped gently over her midsection. Yawning tremendously, she struggled to get up, but found that her new, life-filled muscles worked just as well as a newborn pup's.
Damn . . . she thought, snarling viciously at her own limbs. It took quite a bit of time (much longer than Eneres liked) to stand up, and even walking frustrated her. As she wobbled over to the flap of the tent, which led outside, her memory of what had happened flooded back to her, of how she had gotten here, how she had escaped, her duty and her mission. These thoughts made her all the more frustrated with herself as she pushed open the flap, stumbling back inside with a yelp anyways, for the bright sun blinded her eyes.
Why am I acting like such a pup? she growled at herself. She took a few extra minutes to calm herself and let her muscles drink in their growing strength; it would fully return in a few hours of running. Taking one deep and succulent breath to refresh herself, she moved her paws slowly, putting one in front of the other as she stepped outside. She almost fell back into the tent when a face greeted her almost immediately.
"Are you okay?" the face asked.
"What the . . ." Eneres whispered, looking into the young wolf's eyes.
"Toboe, back off, she's probably scared enough as it is," another voice said, farther back. It seemed haughty and rough, and frankly rather smug.
"Who said I was scared, hot stuff," snapped Eneres, sensing a mixed reaction.
"Whoa, now, let's not get into any fights," yet another voice said, rather comedic-like.
"Why don't you listen to your friend there and back off," Eneres spat into the young wolf Toboe's face. His eyes saddened a little, and his ears twitched back, but he cocked his head and turned away, tail wagging.
Eneres turned to the left; the soft, barely perceptible scent of Cheza floated around her nostrils, and she took a step to trot away, when Toboe spoke again. "Aren't you even going to tell us who you are?"
"Why?" mumbled Eneres, getting quite irritated.
"Why not?"
"Toboe, leave her alone! Don't you know when somebody's getting annoyed?" came the rough voice.
"Yeah, it's a wonder, with you around." The comedic voice.
"Guys, cool it, all right?" It was Kiba. With interest now tagging at the back of her mind, Eneres turned and looked at the small pack of four, sitting on her haunches and looking at them with distaste. "I'm Kiba," he said, walking up to her.
"Ah, monsieur, we've met before," Eneres said suavely, but quite sarcastically.
Kiba scowled slightly, but continued introductions. "This is Toboe . . ." he pointed to the small one, "and Tsume," he gestured to the rough-voiced one, who hardened his eyes, "and Hige." The comedic-voiced wolf gave a cocky smile and a wave of his tail.
"Hmm, interesting. Well I must be going, ta-ta, pip-pip, cheerio and all that." Eneres walked off, smiling at her 'famous' and favorite dismissal: the blow-off-everything-you-just-said one. Ugh, I don't have time for this!
"Who are you? I believe we have met, but I don't know your name." Kiba ran up along side her, blocking her way.
"Ha, can you believe this, Citegrene? He wants to know who I am! The nerve . . ." whispered Eneres to herself.
"Who are you talking to?" growled Tsume.
Eneres laughed again, but continued, "I am the Way, the . . . Path, if you will."
"Yeah, but what's your name!?" blurted Toboe.
"My name is . . . Eneres."
All was silent for a minute, and Eneres rolled her eyes and walked past Kiba, head held high. With the smell of Cheza pulling her along, Eneres not too swiftly began her journey to find the Flower-Maiden, almost begging that it would lead her to Citegrene in the process. It didn't matter which she found first (although she was almost certain she would find Cheza first anyway), as long as she found them both. She needed them. She just . . . couldn't function without having them by her side. Swimming in her reminiscence, she could almost hear Citegrene crunching in the dirt beside her, and she turned her head to make a comment to her.
"I think tha . . . " But to her horror, it wasn't Citegrene at all. It was Toboe, smiling at her with his biggest wolf grin, looking at her with much playful curiosity. "What the hell!?" she snarled, jumping back, hackles raised and teeth bared. "Why are you following me!?"
"It's not just me," Toboe said sullenly, almost taking offense at her comment. Eneres spun around to find Kiba, Hige, and even the haughty Tsume following her.
"What . . . the hell . . . are you guys doing," said Eneres, low and slow, punctuating every word with every amount of venom that she could muster. Damn, Citegrene, why aren't you making a comment? That's the best I can come up with and you know it!
"We're finding Cheza," said Hige, cocking his head. "I thought you said she knew, Kiba."
"She does; she told me," said Kiba through narrowed eyes.
"When? What did I tell you?" Eneres snarled, realizing what mistake she had cost herself back between the worlds.
"You told me back . . . there, that you would take me to Cheza," growled Kiba, getting a bit tense.
"Um, ya! I told you I would take you to Cheza . . . not your little . . . family fanatics here," she spat back, cursing her tongue.
"They go wherever I go. There's nothing you can do about it," replied Kiba.
Eneres groaned loudly, and set off at a dead run, hoping her speed would throw them off. But of course, being the new, weakling muscles they were, they tripped upon themselves and gave out, and she slid on her chest about 20 feet before stopping and nearly ripping her paws to shreds in the angst of it. The others ran up to her, looking at her curiously, but she merely got up, shook herself off, put her tail up as high as it would go, and trotted off with her nose pointed to the clouds above.
"Ugh, how much further?" Hige and Toboe groaned at the same time.
Well, that's a new one, thought Eneres, not bothering to answer their million-time-repeated question and bristling a tad. Before, Hige and Toboe had been taking turns asking this statement, but them saying it together was a whole new thing.
Kiba was silent, and Tsume was fuming in the back, obviously getting as sick of it as Eneres was.
"We'll get there when we get there," murmured Eneres, trying not to blow Cheza's scent away with her breath.
"What?" Hige and Toboe asked simultaneously.
"We'll get there WHEN WE GET THERE!" Tsume yelled at them, finally losing his temper. Eneres chuckled quietly to herself. The gray wolf was quite efficient at expressing Eneres' untold emotions.
Kiba ran up alongside Eneres in front. "Really, how much further do we have to go? We've been walking for nearly 4 days already and neither of them have had a bite to eat."
"They don't know what real hunger is, do they, Citegrene," whispered Eneres.
Kiba looked at her curiously, but changed the subject. "So, how exactly do you know? Or are you just guessing?"
Eneres spun around and got near to Kiba's face, making him run into her nose a bit, and causing the others to halt behind Kiba. "How exactly do I guess what?" she snarled at him, eyes flaring.
"How do you know where Cheza is?" Kiba asked.
"It's called a nose, it works because of a brain, do you have one?" she spat, and turned back around, picking up Cheza's scent and setting off at a hard trot, making Hige and Toboe groan once again, and leaving Kiba growling at her nasty remark. "We will rest at the next city, 50 miles away," Eneres yelled to the rest behind her.
"WHAT!?" she heard them all exclaim.
"We need to eat something," Tsume growled. "While you and Kiba sat stuffing your faces back at the Indian camp, we were sitting there watching you."
"Not my problem," sniffed Eneres. She stopped and turned around to look at all the sad and disgruntled faces. "If you can't keep up, then you will be left behind."
"Maybe that would be the best idea," said Tsume, and Eneres swore she saw Hige nod his head also.
"What do you mean, Tsume?" confronted Kiba. "She's taking us to Cheza."
"How do you know that? She could be leading us to Darcia . . . or worse," Tsume yelled back. The rest of the wolves shuddered at Tsume's mention of something worse than Darcia.
"Well, then, if you want to leave, go ahead, be my guests, you will just drag me down anyways. Au revoir." Praying to Tor and Fenris that nobody had any objections, she turned around and kept walking.
"She promised me that she would take me to Cheza, and she seems to know where she's going. I don't know what your problem is, Tsume, but I'm going to follow," said Kiba, and Eneres swore under her breath as his footsteps could be heard next to her.
"Me too," said Toboe.
"If it takes us to some food, I'll follow," said Hige, shrugging and walking too. More volleys of cursing from Eneres. Of course, since Tsume didn't want to be left alone, he slowly got up and followed the rest of the gang, grumbling all the while.
The rest of the trip was almost uneventful, with Eneres in the lead, sniffing down Cheza and mumbling to herself. She would often laugh at some unheard joke and say something right back, which confused Kiba and the others quite profoundly. After a while, Kiba permitted Hige and Tsume to hunt for nearby prey, and the small pack stopped to feast on the small pickings, while Eneres merely just slowed her pace, hoping she could get far enough away from them while still conserving limited energy. But, as usual, they were right up along side her in a few more minutes, their muzzles stained red with the blood from the prey.
Eneres inhaled deeply after a long time of traveling, trying to pick out Cheza's scent within the many smells of the nearby city. Oh joy, she thought. The smell of pollution.
"The city is drawing closer," she said. But something had changed. Instead of hearing four paws hitting the ground beside her, she heard two. Turning around, she jumped back and bared her teeth. Kiba, Hige, Tsume and Toboe were all in their human forms, looking at her curiously. "What in Tor's name are you doing?"
"We can't go into the city as wolves," said human-Toboe. "We might get killed."
"How can you degrade yourselves like this?" growled Eneres.
"Well, there aren't any other ways of getting into and through the city," reasoned Kiba.
"Why, do you know any other ways, O Mighty and Resourceful One?" taunted Hige.
"Do I know any other ways of getting through the city, they ask, Citegrene," laughed Eneres. "What foolish pups they are." She turned to the pack. "You are wolves! Fiercest among fierce; strongest among strong; I believe there are other ways of getting through this pitiful human city."
"Who the hell is this . . . Citegrene you keep talking about?" yelled Tsume, getting fed up with Eneres's cockiness.
Eneres dismissed the comment and trotted away into the boundaries of the city as a wolf, calling behind her, "If you want to see Paradise, I suggest you stay as wolf-like as possible. Follow me, o naïve ones."