Chapter 4- A Nightmare of Memories
"Hey there pretty thing, what are you doing in a place like this?" A dun wolf asked a drowsy Rune. "You should be moving with your pack." Another added. Rune struggled against her restraints. "I have no pack." She snarled. "And if you value your lives, you will set me free and leave me alone." She snarled again. "Oh, a feisty one are we?" The dun asked her. They came at her with a leather collar and chain. She growled and snarled her warnings. They didn't seem to affect them at all. They came closer and closer until they were nearly upon her and one of them grabbed her muzzle. A dangerous move. She snapped and growled but all that did was make them more eager to collar her. "I don't do collars!!!" She growled again. "Well, you'll get used to it after awhile." The dun answered. "What are you doing?" Their leader appeared. "Just collaring her to work, Zali." The dun and his cronies replied. "She's a wolf, not a common dog, we don't collar our own kind." Zali said harshly. Just then Rune would have loved to hug him. Zali went on. "Especially not a female." She really wanted to hug him then. He turned to her. "What are you doing here anyway?" He asked her firmly. "Just passing through. I'm sorry if I used you territory as a shelter for the night, but I haven't slept in days." She felt pathetic. Apologizing to the enemy? What kind of a wolf was she anyway? A stray, she knew, but even a stray wouldn't surrender to the enemy. "You are a rouge are you not?" Zali's voice was cold and harsh. She nodded and said "I prefer to think of it as being a wolf without a pack, rouge just seems to harsh." She said in a voice that she was trying to make polite. Zali continued. "What is a stray wolf doing here in our town anyway?" He asked her. "Just passing through, I didn't mean any thing by it." Zali untied her ropes. "How long are you planning to stay?" He asked. "As long as necessary." Rune replied. "I'm going to be nice this time and let you stay with us until you are ready to go. But only on one condition, you work for us." Rune nodded her reply.
The four companions jumped the wall surrounding the city. "You smell flowers huh, all I smell is the incinerator burning daily garbage." Hige said to Kiba. "What a crappy city." Tsume muttered. "Do you think there all afraid of us?" Toboe asked. "Not used to visitors, that's for sure." Hige said quietly. "What the hell are we supposed to find here anyway?" Tsume asked. "This is some Paradise." He added. Kiba remained silent. Rounding a corner, they heard muffled voices and the crackling of a fire. "Maybe we aren't alone after all!" Toboe said excitedly. A group of men stood around a small fire lit in a garbage can. One of them noticed them. "What are you four doing here?" He asked, his voice cold. "Just passing through." Kiba replied. "Where you from?" Zali, their leader asked. "A city to the north." Kiba replied. "Well where are you headed?" Toboe was puzzled. "Huh, to Paradise!" He said, putting his hands on his hips in annoyance. Zali and his pack started laughing so hard, some of them doubled over. "Kiba, why are they laughing?" Toboe asked. "Because they obviously don't know a thing about Paradise." They stopped laughing. "We know all about Paradise." Zali said. They dropped their human guises. "Paradise is nothing but a legend." Zali said. "Legend?" Toboe asked. "That's right, kid, there's no such thing as Paradise." A dun wolf said. "What makes you say that?" Kiba asked. "Maybe because we've been there, we've all seen it, and I'm telling you it was no Paradise. That place was more like hell." He answered. "Well that's no surprise." Tsume said. "You all will find out soon enough." Zali replied. "You'll see Paradise, is not what you are looking for." He added. "Now get out of town before dawn is that clear?" He finished and turned back to his pack.
Rune had just returned after her little walk when she heard the muffled voices of Zali and another man, who seemed to be human. "Do you need more workers?" Zali asked the man. "Yeah, but everyone you bring me is always too old." The man replied. "Don't worry, I have a young girl that just dropped by today and agreed to work for us." The other man snorted. "A girl!? Do you honestly think that she could handle work here? I mean come on, women don't have much strength to begin with, let alone enough to handle the kind of work we do here." He said coldly. Rune felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Who was he to call HER a weakling? After all, she was a wolf.