Don't wanna close my eyes, don't wanna fall asleep……-Aerosmith

All he needed was a couple hours of sleep. Well, it wasn't sleep. Sleep was when your senses were put to rest and your mind was relaxed. What he had was more like some hours of tossing and turning and heavy thinking. You could assume that after those unsettling hours he would finally fall into a slumber. Heck, a dreamless sleep would suffice. But his eyes would not close for more than some minutes and his mind would not rest throughout the whole, entire, long night.

As soon as the night's darkness began to show the slightest change of shade, Kiba rose up, not able to neither sleep nor handle his own fidgeting.

The desert wind rustled his russet hair and picked at his clothes as he stood there, looking straight into the horizon. He posted himself there all morning and had not moved an inch. So far the only things that did moved were his thoughts.

If he were a human, and if he were a scientist…where would he go? What would be a good place to set a…. science center…thing. Whatever humans called those places. How did they track Cheza?

Ironically, Kiba thought, they wouldn't have to worry about Darcia going after him and the others.

His hands at his sides turned into fists, slowly turning white.

As if having Darcia chase after those weak humans were even better. He'd probably kill them all with a few moves and then take Cheza.

Lovely.

Just lovely.

Unless that bastard still thought Kiba had Cheza….

Cheza…

That was his heaviest thought. His greatest worry. Was she all right? Was she in pain? Was she scared? Alone?

He couldn't help but feel his stomach drop at the thought of her. He prayed that when he found her, because he would find her, she was in perfect condition. God help the person or thing that would touch a single hair on Cheza for if he found out, he would show the world what a rabid wolf really was.

Kiba found himself baring his razor sharp fangs and growling lowly yet deeply in his throat. He finally awoke from his daze and slowly calmed himself down. Something caught his eye, far in the distance. The ground seemed to shimmer a bit in a…. light.

Sunrise.

That was the moment Kiba had been waiting for; that little signal.

Turning around, the serious teen looked over to his sleeping pack and walked towards them. Standing before the thrice of wolves, Kiba looked over them. He knew they were as worried as he was.

It was obvious on little Toboe's face, his eyes ever so dreary and full of worry for his 'little big sister'.

Hige's joyful facade was slowly falling apart, the concern for Cheza weighing a ton on his shoulders.

Even formidable Tsume was letting his mask slip a bit. His sarcastic, sadistic, sardonic attitude wasn't enough to hide the fact that he was deeply vexed with Cheza's kidnap.

Kiba crouched down beside a drooling Hige and shook him. Not too hard but not soft either.

"…Get off me…. you…st…stupid…. ssss…. squi…squirrel…" Hige murmured.

Whatever the hell was going on in Hige's dream was something Kiba did not want to know about, so he kept shaking. Hige finally stirred awake and turned to Kiba.

For some reason, Hige smiled softly at Kiba whom was confused for this silly smile.

"You're back…" Hige whispered raising a hand to touch Kiba's face. Kiba deeply puzzled, stayed still.

"Blue my love…"

Before his hand even brushed against Kiba's cheek, Kiba smacked Hige across his face.

"Ow! Blue!" Hige sat up straight, cradling his stinging cheek.

He looked at the supposed Blue and blushed at the obvious mistake.

"Hige," Kiba looked at him with a stern look.

"Yeah?" Hige smiled foolishly, rubbing his cheek.

"If you ever confuse me for Blue or try to touch me again like that, I will kill you."

"Roger that, sir." Hige chuckled embarrassedly, getting up along with Kiba.

"It was the light behind you, y'know. I'm not gay or anything…I was half asleep too…" The tanned wolf mumbled.

Knowing what to do, Hige began to wake up the others as Kiba thought on which direction to go next.

"Come on, Chibi. Time to go Cheza-hunting again." Hige shook Toboe, tickling him as well.

"You have no idea how annoying your voice is in the morning." Tsume's sarcasm poured into the dawn. Hige rolled his eyes and just keeping waking up Toboe.

Tsume's lean body rested touching the hard, scratchy ginger sand as he laid his head against a boulder that seemed to bulge out of the ground. With one light gold eye that seemed to shimmer soft green in the light, Tsume looked towards Hige and Toboe.

The pup seemed to be in a deep slumber, cause he sure as hell wasn't waking up. Seeing that Hige's pathetic attempts at waking him up weren't working, Tsume got up and headed for them.

"Move." He pushed Hige out of the way and picked up Toboe by the collar.

Call it a chain reaction, but when Toboe felt that his body no longer touched the sand and familiar fingers clutched his shirt, his amber eyes snapped open.

"I'm awake, I'm awake! He squeaked.

Surprisingly…a smirk appeared on Tsume's sleek face. "I thought so."

As easily as he picked him up, Tsume dropped him on his feet. Toboe stumbled a bit and shook himself completely awake, inside a little annoyed at the wolf's ways.

Tsume casually strolled over next to Kiba and stared out in the direction Kiba was looking at. After some moments of silence, Tsume spoke. "Is that the way we're going or you're just taking a mental piss?" Sarcasm.

Kiba barely moved at Tsume's witty comment, Tsume could insult him and his being and Kiba wouldn't care. Cheza was the one thing that mattered right there and then.

"We're heading north and this time, we keep going overnight." That was all the alpha of the pack said before walking ahead.

Toboe whined at the new information as Hige cursed under his breath. "I'm gonna weigh lighter than Cheza if we keep this up. No food, just traveling…."

"Let's go kiddies." Tsume grunted, following Kiba's steps.

As the sun began to rise over the horizon, the foursome of wolves ran consecutively, their shadows blown up on the sand. It was a sight anyone would consider inspiring.

Against all the odds, against the human law, against the difference between fantasy and reality, wolves were alive and running.

The fact that they still existed after centuries of being considered mere fairy tale creatures was amazing. How they survived all these years and remained incognito to the human world is as astonishing as the idea of Paradise.

And there they were…. Against everything…. Fighting for paradise.

That string of hope called Paradise.

a/n:

Dear readers and reviewers,

Forgive me for my sudden disappearance and my broken promise. I had pledged that I wouldn't delay for a long time with the updates of my chapters and yet I broke my oath. If you hate me, I completely understand. If you're annoyed at me, you can grab a stick and beat me with it. Degrade me if you wish, but then again…degrading comments and physical fights were the things that got me offline. As you know, life gets hectic and very hard at times. It came to the point where I either went berserk or took some time off and centered myself. I picked the centering part because honestly, I did not want to get stuck in Anger Management again. Had to do it in 5th grade and that sucked. It worked. But it sucked. Now that I'm back to my cheery self, I can continue writing. So expect more chapters! But once again, I'm sorry for my pathetic life getting in the way. So please, continue reading and reviewing if you like.

Sincerely,

Maiden Cheza……