"Down With the Sickness"

I'm amazed that this chapter was written so fast. Almost 13 kb in 30 minutes. I was hoping it would be longer, but I just hate those longer chapters that in which, you have to take a break from it, you loose your place and end up reading the whole thing over again. One of my biggest pet peeves.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.

Warnings for the entire story: Violence, language, blood, possible disturbing images

Chapter 2: Human Corruption

I followed Sora's feet like a small, helpless puppy. In reality, I was no stronger than a wolf pup. I was recovering from my dance with death, but I grew stronger with step I took. I followed Sora blindly. He is the pack leader, he can tell me where to go or what to do and I won't hesitate. It is my duty as a member of the pack to obey the leader. As I was not the leader, I carried myself in a semi-submissive pose. My tail hung lower than normal, and my ears flattened against my head slightly. My eyes stared on at the path ahead with curiousity as something new came into my vision.

It was a large town, by the looks of it. Many small houses and apartment buildings were there, but I saw a coal-burning power plant spitting out tons of toxic gas into the atmosphere from which living things breathe. Humans should be able to find some sort of more efficient way to protect our environment while giving themselves the electricity needed to do their daily tasks, am I not right? Apparently, humans weren't caring about the damage they were causing to the environment. Maybe this was why there was a lack of life at that place where I attempted to catch the rabbit. Humans had simply polluted the area so much that nothing grew. If nothing grew, nothing could feed. If nothing could feed, everyone would die. I believe the humans did this.

"You know," Sora says, looking at me smiling, "It's hard to believe that there's other places in the world other than this one. I used to call it Radiant Garden, this town, but now I call it Agata. It's the largest city in the world. There's another town far up north, but it's small and has no technology that this place has. I wonder if they have some sort of communication barrier? Like different languages or something?"

He brought up an excellent point. I wanted to talk to him badly, I wanted to express myself, but I couldn't find the words...literally. He continued, focusing his eyes on the path ahead. "I heard that an island down south has some exiles on it. I think it's called Oyashima. They exiled people there because the journey to that island is dangerous, so dangerous that hardly anyone could make it. Maybe the village up north is the same way. There's that huge forest, Kojiki Forest, that surrounds that white mountain that lies in the middle of the world. It's almost as if the forest is protecting something."

I heard him mumble under his breath, "Maybe my friends are there."

I moved closer to him, and he looked at me smiling. "Thanks, Kisei."

I am a follower. It was my job in the pack to reassure the leader of his abilities and save him from as much emotional turmoil as possible, though I know there's some that I could never protect him from. I glance again at the city-town ahead of us. I suddenly spot a huge castle there, but I don't know how it slipped my vision before. It's...the Hollow Bastion castle? I could tell by the Heartless Emblem that still hung up front. Unknowingly, a feral growl slipped from my throat.
"Kisei? Why are you looking at...let's go, Kisei."

It's nice to know that some people can understand me.

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It was hell, almost literally, getting into the city. The security guards were wary about a wolf entering the city, but Sora managed to win them over with his famous pout of doom. The guards felt so much pity for his fake story about how he had no relatives and only had me left as his only companion. I didn't think it was much of a good story, but it doesn't matter anyway. We got in. Sora proved his leadership skills. That's all that matters. He would be a good leader of the humans. He has all of the traits of an alpha male, but I wonder if someone were to challenge his position, would he be able to defend it easily? I'm sure he would be. I can tell that he has some unheard of strength deep within that fragile body of his. Everyone does, but some people forget that they do. I hope Sora never forgets. It could save his life.

People stared at me in awe as I walked beside Sora. They haven't seen a wolf like me, I guess. Or maybe they thought that I was just a big dog. I'm almost insulted as they point at me and whisper strange remarks to each other, mostly because the remarks are directed more at Sora for not having me on a leash. I have some limits to my submissiveness, and should I be put on a leash, I shall rebel because I'm not a pet. Sora looked nervous at all of the stares coming his way. I could feel the nervousness surrounding him, and I wanted to get rid of it. But it's something that he has to overcome himself. I can't say any reassuring words, but I can reassure him with my actions. I walk with my tail almost between my legs, my ears completely flat, my head close to the ground as if I'm almost ashamed of being in the presense of these humans.

The whispers stop of a sudden, according to my ears. I'm nervous now. The silence of the crowd is frightening. It wasn't long before I understood why the crowd went silent. Suddenly, I felt claustrophobic as the crowd filtered from the middle of the street where we were, to the sides of the street next to the buildings. My back fur bristled upwards, my pearly teeth bared as I whirled around. I was greeted with a bullet to the shoulder.

Time froze for a second as I saw the man. His crimson eyes were violent and full of anger, narrowed at my presense. His metal claw, gold as the metal, glinted in the sunlight. His red cloak seemed to shield his upper body, his lower body being protected by black pants that looked like as if they were made out of leather. His bangs were combed over and fell over one of his eyes; his hair was jagged with several split ends. It also appeared to be as unwashed and knotted as a rat's nest. He looked feral like a beast, but also had that sophistication that only a human would be able to carry.

I saw the man aim his gun at me again as I snarled fiercely at him. I was shocked as Sora threw himself in front of me as the man pulled the trigger. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. I saw the bullet spin in midair as it made its way to Sora's chest. It would be a fatal or near fatal shot, that was certain. As the bullet connected with his skin, Sora fell back. He looked up at me, eyes full of worry and regret.

"Run, Kisei...don't let him...get you..."

That's all I needed. I needed to be known that I was dismissed from the pack before I could run. And run I did. I whirled around and sprinted as fast as my legs could carry me to a location unknown to anyone but them. The people stared at me, shocked that such an event was unfolding right before their very eyes. Children cowered at the sight of me, hiding behind their mother's legs. Even smaller children were swooped up by their parent's loving arms as the children began to cry. The men glared at me; the women hid behind their spouses. It was pure chaos, and it hurt because I knew that I was the one that caused it. I don't want to cause any more chaos, for any reason whatsoever. I'm leaving this city and going to the far north, to the village that Sora told me about.

Unfortunately, I found myself backed into a corner. My legs had failed me, even though this was the city I've grown up in and the city that I should know like the back of my paw. There was nothing I could do now but listen to my instincts. It was coming down to be an event between two feral and wild beasts. It was a battle of instincts; the stronger your instincts, the better chance you have of surviving. Luckily for me, human instincts have been withering since they had became careless thousands of years ago. I learned this when I became a wolf, and had these strange urges to do things that I never would've even thought of doing before.

"Wolf...you vile creature...you're sent from Hell itself," the man said, backing me into the corner even farther. I felt threatened even more. My lips revealed even more of my teeth; my fur bristled skywards as much as it could. "Before I kill you, I would like you to know my name. I am Vincent Valentine, wolf exterminator."

He aimed his gun at me again. I was a lone wolf. There was no one that would come for me now. There was two things I could do - stand here and die shamefully, or fight as the feral beast I am and have a chance of surviving. I choose the latter. I made a mad dash towards him using the strength that I almost forgot that I had. I remember the look of shock on his face. But it has no effect on me. I have no mercy for him. I jump up and lunge for his throat. I pin him to the ground, biting wildly towards the only connection between his head and his shoulders.

I realize that he is shocked. If he recovers from it soon, I'll be dead. I follow my instincts. I run and live to fight another day.

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I ran towards the edge of the city. If there's one thing I want to do, I want to see Aerith one last time. I saw the old church out of the corner of my eye, and changed my path so that I headed towards it. The path towards the church seemed to be highlighted to me in flowers, healthy flowers. I haven't seen such lively flowers in such a polluted place in a long, long time. They seem to almost come to life, as if they were happy and alive just like wolves and humans. They are one with the planet as animals are. But why can't humans be the same?

As I came to the church's entrance, I slowed down to a walk. The door was left slightly open, so using my body weight, I opened it just enough so I could get inside. The door's squeaking seemed to echo in my ears and down the hallways. At the end, I saw that a large section of the back of the church had been destroyed, and the earth now lay exposed to the open sun like it used to years and years and years ago. The earth was covered in flowers, Aerith's flowers, causing it to nearly explode towards me in a weird sensation of color. And there she was, a pink flower amongst the rest. Aerith.

I whined softly, and she turned towards me, almost cautiously. She walked towards me without any hint of caution, however. She stopped suddenly as I laid down on the dirty wooden floor. In that moment, we store into each other's eyes, reading each other. I knew that she was Aerith, but did she know that I was Cloud? Her eyes turned peaceful for a second before turning back to blatantly showing worry.

"You poor thing..." she told me. "You need to get out of here. Vincent's hunting you down, and I don't want to see another wolf like you hurt. There were three wolves here the other day that got injured from Vincent. There's an island, Oyashima, that lies to the far south of here, past a deserted plain that we used to transport exiles to Oyashima. Head to the island. There's something that will help you there."

"Aerith!" That was Yuffie's voice. It was followed soon after by Tifa's.
"Don't move, Aerith!" Yuffie shouted as she threw several shuriken at me. Her aim greatly improved, I noticed with much alarm. If she improved this much within a short period of time, there's no doubt that Tifa would be able to kill me with a single blow. With alarm running through my veins, I stood there dumbfounded. I heard Aerith shout something, and the movements of Tifa and Yuffie suddenly stopped. I took the hint, and I ran.

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I had to loop around the city, running past the guards carefully, unless I wanted to draw Vincent's attention to me. I stopped a good few miles away from the city. I turned back and looked at it, taking it in for one last time. It was my human home, and somewhere over the horizon lied a new home.

With these thoughts fueling my mind and body, I ran into the sunset, with hopes that a way to become human would become apparent to me.

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