Chapter 9

"I don't like sneaking around like this," muttered Tsume from behind a crate.

"Too bad; humans cramp my style," Eneres whispered back. Since she had refused to appear human, the wolves had resorted to sneaking through the city, preying on pigeons and other birds to keep their grumbling bellies (mainly Hige's) from giving them away. It was quite humiliating, but Eneres had already bent that low before. So far, they had only encountered a couple of humans, of which they had silenced quickly with a simple bite on the neck. Eneres was almost desperate to keep her wolf form, and it seemed quite strange to the other wolves, who had no problem appearing human.

"What's her problem?" mouthed Hige to Kiba. Kiba replied with his best wolf shrug he could muster.

Yeah, Eneres, why don't you like appearing human? thought Eneres, making up for Citegrene again, her amazingly sharp hearing picking up on the question. It's not like you're going to be banished or anything. It's easy. Cheza's human-like.

Well Cheza doesn't have the option! she continued, now arguing as herself. And besides; I don't want to take the chance of tainting. I HATE my human form.

How do you know? I've never even seen your human form, so how do I know you've tried it?

Trust me, the best way is the way I'm doing it, right now.

But when will it be the worst way? When you're stuck in a cage?

Eneres slowed, a snarl playing around her lips. Oh, Citegrene, why must you reason everything you see wrong? Eneres looked to the sky, halting her running completely. Kiba stopped as well, and Toboe and Tsume ran into his rear, causing Kiba to run into Eneres'.

"Quit it!" she hissed, the snarl winning over her. Then something in the back of the alleyway they were hiding in caught her eye. Kiba and the others must have seen the look on her face, for they immediately (and perhaps instinctively) appeared human, gazing around the alleyway nonchalantly. Only Eneres was left in wolf form, and she was staring in horror and disbelief, partly at Kiba and the others for abandoning her plan, and partly at the figure who was standing at the end of the alley. She was not in the best position; Kiba, Tsume, Toboe and Hige were looking at the figure, standing like addicts, and Eneres was sitting behind a crate, looking like she was about to pounce and attack them. Shit! she exclaimed to herself as the figure, a guard, clad in black armor, yelled down the other end, calling for his buddies. He held up a tranquilizer gun, and Eneres saw his finger twitch as he pulled the trigger.

"No!" she heard Kiba say as she ducked behind the crate. The dart sank into the crate, and Eneres heard more footsteps as the rest of the guard's team advanced upon the alley.

"Move!" she heard one of the guards shout, and she guessed that someone had jumped out in front of them, trying to block their way. The only escape route for her was into the streets, which was just as dangerous as sitting where she was. Hearing sounds of struggling and a fight, Eneres decided to make a dash for it. She bolted, leaving the safety of behind the crate and running out of the alleyway into the street. Thank Tor that it wasn't rush hour, but it was still busy enough for Eneres to get honked at by a few cars; their tires squealing as they slammed on the brakes, trying not to run over the silver she-wolf. A gunshot was heard behind her, missing completely, hitting a car window and shattering it, the glass coating the road. Eneres made it to the other side of the road with only a small piece of glass in her back paw, and she ran down another alleyway, squeezing herself in a large open pipe stuck out of the side of a wall.

Damn, Citegrene, how could I have been so foolish? she whimpered as she pulled the glass out of her foot.

"You okay?" said Hige, looking into the pipe. "Are you . . . crying?"

"No, I'm perfectly fine," spat Eneres, trying not to sound sarcastic. "And I most certainly don't cry."

"Sure sounded like it to me," grumbled Tsume in the back.

"Maybe you should get your ears checked," sniffed Eneres, climbing out of the pipe.

"Maybe you should check your ideas before you put them into action," sneered Tsume. "Don't you have a good enough reason now to travel through the city as a human?"

"And what reason would that be?"

"Almost getting yourself and us killed?"

Eneres knew this was coming, but rolled her eyes anyways, setting off a low growl from Tsume. Closing her eyes, taking a deep breath, she allowed her form to appear human, which set off gasps from the rest of the small pack. She opened her eyes to find astonished faces from everybody (some more than others). Eneres knew how she looked: silver hair put into braids, which hung over her shoulders down to her stomach; short bangs down to her eyes; an elbow-length maroon shirt and dark jeans that narrowed her legs. But she knew it wasn't any of those things that set off the gasps. It was her eyes. They looked human in shape, but the color . . . oh, that damned color; they looked exactly as they did when she was a wolf; the most piercing golden-green you can imagine, and they set off her silver hair, making it seem to glow.

"What?" she snapped irritably.

"I don't think that appearing as a human will help us through the city, Kiba," mumbled Toboe, staring at Eneres' face.

Eneres curled her lips like a snarl, but only looked at them with distaste. "Do you understand, now?"

"The only thing really out of place is your hair and eyes," reasoned Hige, giving a professor sort of look. "All we have to do is cover your hair and you can avert your eyes easily enough." Hige pulled off his sweatshirt and stuck it on Eneres, much to her absolute disgust, for it was quite overly large, and it smelled really bad. "Just put the hood up and tuck your hair behind and you should be all right."

"Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks," Eneres spat, shoving her arms through the sleeves. Oh, Tor and Fenris, why has my status decreased to wearing smelly sweatshirts?

"We should get moving before another guard team moves in," suggested Kiba, and Eneres guessed that they had killed off the last one.

And with that, they trotted off down another dark alleyway.

A couple of hours later they decided to rest, and Eneres ungratefully accepted the idea, although her body thanked her profoundly when she finally sat down. Hige's sweatshirt smelled terrible, and having to look at the ground while walking through dark alleyways was not quite what she had in mind. Her human legs were all banged up from running into objects in the alleyways that she couldn't have seen . . . because she couldn't look up. It didn't take her long before she curled up on the ground and fell asleep to her silvery braid tickling her nose.

For the first time in a while, Tsume could actually look at Eneres without being glared at, or having to look aloof or angry. He was strangely attracted to the silver she-wolf; maybe it was because she looked so like him; maybe it was because she had a temper to match his; maybe it was because she had the comments to flame up anyone's attitude. Like . . . him. As she lay there, her silvery braid hanging in her face, Tsume was tempted to go up to her and get a close look at her face; the high cheekbones, the perfectly curved lips that looked like they were carved by angels. But he couldn't. Something was nagging at him, and he couldn't say what, but it was partly from the fact that she might wake up and nearly rip him to shreds. He couldn't place a paw on it, but something about her seemed . . . inimitable . . .