"Down With the Sickness"

Quick note before you start reading this chapter: the rabbit in the moon thing in this chapter is actually how the Japanese see the moon. Instead of seeing the man's face, they see a rabbit. Personally, even after having grown up in America my whole life, I still see a rabbit, so that's what I used in the chapter.

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

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

Chapter 6: The Forest of Strife

I had run with my pack to the demented forest, Kojiki. It was a haunted place, the center of many rumors in Agata. Yet, hardly any had traveled through this forest. Though it covered the rest of the continent, according to the people of Agata, there were never any travellers. No paths were beaten into the forest's earth. It was untouched, a virgin land.

My paws were happy to be off of that hard concrete and onto the packed dirt of the forest's floor. My eyes were unhappy, though. The branches of the forest's trees were so thick that even the light given off by the full moon couldn't penetrate them. It was near pitch black; even a cat would have trouble getting through the forest.

"Kisei?" asked Kairi, timidly walking closer to me. I could almost smell the fear she felt.

"Yeah?" I replied, already knowing what she'd say.

"I'm scared. Do we really have to go through here to get to the north?"
"Yeah. The forest covers most, if not all, of the continent. Even if we ran to the edges of the continent, the forest would still be there."
"Gettin' a little scared, are we, bitch?" taunted Seifer, playfully biting at her ear. Her yelp echoed throughout the forest. Seifer was soon pinned to the ground by me, my teeth close to his neck. I eventually let him out of this position, but he was submissive and didn't talk.

"I know you're all scared," I said, some time later. "But to get to our goals, we need to get to the north, like Aerith said."

The pack looked at me blankly.

"Look, a journey isn't a journey if you don't encounter obstacles. You can't achieve any goal without getting past the obstacles that are in your way, no matter how small they are. Never turn around and follow your past footsteps. Life is a journey, and you always have to keep moving forward, no matter what stands in your way. Right now, this forest is our obstacle. To get to our goal, we have to get past it."
The pack stared in admiration.

"You're right," Riku said, finally speaking. "I...never thought about journeys like that before. I guess I always expected them to be easy, but this one isn't. It isn't for any one of us."
If I were human, I would've smiled in pride. "Yeah. Let's go."

We had run past the drooping branches, followed the path through the damp, dark forest. The moonlight still didn't penetrate the forest, much to our dismay. We had come to a dark tunnel, and we knew that sight would be limited.
"Hey, boneheads, what do you do when you need light?" Seifer asked.

"Turn on the light switch," replied Riku sarcastically.

"...You make a fire," said I after some thought.

"That's it! A fire!" Kairi said, standing up excitedly. "We could make a fire to get through the tunnel!"

The attempts at fire-making were useless. The wood was much too damp, and we were lacking the appendages needed to hold the stones and wood in place. We had gotten it to spark, once or twice, after extreme effort. But we were really just wasting energy; this wasn't the place to be wasting it. If you died here, you never could be found.

I walked into the tunnel, my body held up bravely. My heart was fluttering in nervousness. I was certain that the others felt the same way. The tunnel was damp and dark, much more so than the forest. The air was humid and hot and sticky, making simple breathing become much more of a chore. The floor was smooth under my paws, made out of the same packed dirt that the forest's floor was made out of. The walls of the tunnel seemed to be rippled and stone, or extremely hard earth. Once or twice we came across a bat that would flap its wings and leave us without help. Occasionally, a spot or two of moonlight could be seen coming in the roof of the tunnel.

"Cloud, we need to turn back," Kairi said, slowing down her pace.
"Why?" I asked.

"This tunnel isn't safe. We could've just stayed in the forest."
"She's right," Riku pitched in.

"We already went through this," I said, stopping. "But look at the roof. Patches of moonlight are coming through. We might be exiting the forest or coming to a plateau or high hill to see our surroundings."
"Look, Cloud," said Kairi, "We need to get out of here."

I already knew my response to the question.

"Fear...it's something that you can control or have control you. Right now, fear's the one controlling you. That's why you want to run with your tail between your legs. Fear is something that we all feel; even poor little Seifer over there feels it. If you can control your fear, you can keep going strong, even through this tunnel."

"This journey's turning out to be a big pain in the ass," remarked Seifer. He was laying on the ground.

"An adventure isn't always easy. You have your rough spots, and you have your good spots. But that's what makes it fun. Even when you hit a rough spot, you can't stop. You have to keep going. You can turn back, but I'm still going to follow the tunnel. I have a goal in mind, and the journey to obtaining it is a large adventure. This tunnel is a large rough spot, but I'm going to keep going anyway."

And with that, I resumed my fast, steady pace. I was surprised to hear the footsteps of my packmates behind me.
"It's good to see that you want to keep going, too."

We kept walking through the tunnel, crawling when it got too narrow to walk. I learned just what my packmates' goals were. Kairi wanted to see Sora again. Riku wanted to get back home, a place that he hasn't spent much time at recently. Seifer wanted to see two people named Fuu and Rai, whom I assumed were his friends.

The tunnel had finally ended. I climbed up the steep rock at the end that blocked a gentle sloping path. I looked upwards and was amazed at what I saw. The sky. It was filled with thousands upon thousands of little twinkling stars, with a large full moon staring down at us. The rabbit in the moon seemed to be much more lively here than in Agata. It seemed to be almost alive. I had never seen such a beautiful night sky, no matter where I went.

I trotted out to the end of the large rocky cliff, my spirits lifted. The view of the forest down below was amazing. It was amazing, a sea of dark-colored branches as far as the eye could see. Here and there, branches would curve into the air, making a wave-like appearance. Far, far away, I could see a mountain coated in a brilliant white.

I never want humans to settle this place.

I heard Kairi, Riku and Seifer stop walking behind me, just as amazed with the view as I was. There was nothing that could ruin this moment, until I felt something crawl its way onto my paw. I removed the offending insect from it as the moon came out from behind a black storm cloud. My eyes widened as I suddenly realized why the texture was so rough and uneven. The cliff was made of bones...human bones.
"This cliff is...made of bones..." I said, staring in awe and fear at the ground.

"What?" Kairi questioned, before looking downwards. I couldn't tell whether she was confused, scared, or both.

"From the human bones that you beasts have killed," said a familiar, baritone voice. His crimson eyes held anger that seemed to lace with his voice as he spoke. I whirled around to face him.
"Wolves..." he started, staring at me, figuring out how best to torture me, to kill me. "You have destroyed many lives. Here they lie, in this forest of Kojiki. Cloud, Kisei...you know too much now."
With that, without questioning myself or my actions, I lunged at him to protect myself and my pack. Though he smashed the side of my head with the butt of his gun right before I reached him, Seifer came to the rescue, biting down on Vincent's right arm - the arm he used to shoot his gun.

Seifer's eyes widened and then closed as the claws on Vincent's left arm burrowed into his skin. Seifer was thrown off the cliff; Vincent made the action seem effortless and easy. Kairi and Riku were by my side, Kairi licking the slight gash on my head while Riku growled in front of me, protecting me from harm.

"Riku, Kairi, run..." I said, struggling to my feet.

"No. We're not leaving you," Riku replied, growling at Vincent with more feriocity than ever before.

"Don't question your leader. I know we'll meet again," I told him, stepping in front of him. He stared at me with confused eyes before leading him and Kairi to safety. Though Vincent attempted to shoot at them, his injured arm prevented him from shooting as accurately.

We slowly circled each other on the cliff, as if we were doing a sacred dance. Thunder echoed throughout the area, making the cliff shake and vibrate. Lightening lit up the night sky; black clouds blocked the moon from appearing. I suddenly found myself on the ground, belly up. Vincent had pinned me to the ground, and his neck was out of reach for my teeth.
"Tell me, wolf...why did you -"
He didn't have time to finish his statement. I bit the closest thing to me, his injured arm, right on top of the injury that Seifer caused. The pain caused him to recoil slightly, giving me enough room to push him off of me.

The battle continued on through the storm. We both gained numerous injuries. I wouldn't be surprised if my coat stayed crimson for the rest of my life as a wolf. He shot at me with his right arm, but the bullet was easy to dodge. I saw the shock and fear in his crimson eyes for a second as I bit his leg, causing him to stumble backwards...and off of the cliff.

The anger returned quickly, though. As he raised his gun again, I believed that he was going to shoot at me. I was surprised as he missed me by a large distance, only to hit a bone instead of me. The bone fell towards the ground, making the distance between me and the earth seem suddenly very large. Vincent fell into the trees below, possibly dead. The cliff vibrated and began to collapse right under my feet. I fell to the ground and blacked out, the pain from the fall too much for me to handle.

I awoke later, hungry, cold and tired. I struggled to my feet, my legs complaining the whole time due to the injuries given to the them. I suddenly felt very alone and very afraid. The branches and trees seemed to crowd closer and closer to me, making me feel claustrophobic. Branches were snapping occasionally, the leaves were rustling occasionally. I lost my sanity for a moment. I sprinted in a random direction, I didn't know which, just to leave this forest of strife.

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I thought I was never going to get done with this chapter. It seemed like everytime I started writing, I would get interrupted and after doing whatever needed to be done, I would be too tired to write! But I did get it done, which is what counts. So, what did you think of the chapter? Send me a review. Once I get three reviews, I'll put up the next chapter as soon as it's done.