Hello, everyone! Sorry about being so late. I wasn't satisfied with how the end half was going, so I had to work through the writer's block to figure it out. But now the wait is over and progression on the story should resume as normal. On another note, I would like to let my readers know that someone has plagiarized this story. Yeah-copied the story word-for-word without even changing the title and posted it on another website, passing it off as their own. If you google search "Silver Snow Alpha and Omega" you will find that someone named Full Metal Alchemist posted a direct copy of my story on an alpha and omega fansite MONTHS after my story. The website administrators for that fansite are not helping to remove this story, so I ask my readers for their support. This story is for only. With that said, enjoy chapter 5 everyone!
Chapter 5: The God In The Rough
Snow's ears perked up. She had heard that name before, muttered through the spasms of Silver's pain when his memory returned. Just who was he, and why did she feel a slight chagrin every time he was mentioned?
"You'll have to forgive me if I decline." Silver moved his body back over Snow. The look in his eyes were different from the warm, comforting relief that Snow had seen earlier. Now they were sharp, focused, and screamed that he was more than capable of ripping even the mightiest beast in half. But the Wiley Wolf across from him wasn't even entertaining the thought of fear. On the contrary, a bemused grin spread across his face, like he wanted Silver to refuse.
"Well that's too bad, because the boss had given me specific instructions to make sure you get the invitation—even if we have to beat it into you." At this, the other wolves let out dangerous, greedy snarls, ready to leap at even the slightest inclination of attack.
"Silver…."Snow breathed, "Who is this guy? Why does he look like he's ready to try and tear us apart?"
"Just a puppet." Silver hissed.
"Keeping secrets from your little girlfriend, Silver? Man, you must really not trust her all that much. Or—" A sly grin appeared on the Wiley Wolf's face, "You actually don't want her to know what kind of monster you really are."
"Monster?" Snow blinked, ignoring Silver's warning growl. The word had unwillingly triggered something in her mind, and she felt guilty for even associating Silver with it in the slightest. But the image of her mate as a pup surfaced; the image of him standing triumphantly atop the dead bear; the image of his midnight fur sleek and glossy in the moonlight, with crimson blood dripping from his claws and fangs. That had been the only real time she had ever feared that Silver would actually take her life.
"My, isn't this special?" The wolf started to pace, though his eyes never left Silver's. He pointed his claw to his head. "Yes, that's right. Behind that peace-loving omega façade lies the mind and instinct of a blood-thirsty killer. A god among wolves, but a slave to instinct—the real 'puppet' between us."
"That's enough." Silver put his paws protectively over Snow's ears, "She doesn't need to hear this." But Snow involuntarily felt herself move from his grip. She wanted to know, whether she was prepared to accept it or not. The wolf continued.
"There was once a great wolf spirit of the moon named Yue. Yue was greedy, so much so that he began a blood-thirsty reign of imperialism. His punishment would not be in death—no, he was too powerful for that—and so instead, he was suppressed, his power riven in two separate entities. For centuries, the entities would fight, one hoping to triumph over the other in the hopes to become whole again. But every fight resulted in a stalemate, and each stalemate warranted a new cycle of life. Miss wolf—" The wolf pointed his claw dead at Silver, who glared, "Your precious lover is nothing but a recycled half of a being beyond your comprehension."
Snow didn't know what to say at first. This was the second time that story had been brought up. She felt like she was being punked, and soon, Arin and Bianca would come jumping out of the bushes to make fun of her. But the pranks never came. There was no laughter. There was no group jar to make fun of how easily she fell for such a little pup's story. The glare in Silver's eyes were way too serious for that.
"Y-You can't expect me to believe that…" The uncertainty in Snow's voice was more noticeable than she realized. Snow looked to Silver, hoping for him to agree. He never even looked at her, his gaze transfixed like a sniper's sights.
"Of course not." The wolf tapped his cheek.
"So it's not true."
"I never said that. He just needs some…convincing."
If there had been a queue to attack, Silver had clearly missed it; the wolves that had been edging the tips of their claws were suddenly airborne with their killer wolf weapons poised towards the two below. Silver's first instinct was to fight—to rip asunder anyone with the gall to put Snow in danger. But through the soupy lake of instinct, he knew that fighting was the very last thing that someone like him should do. Instead, Silver rolled Snow onto his back and darted off like a bat out of hell, leaving a bunch of thudding noises behind from the landing wolf attackers.
"Running away? Pfth! As if!" The Wiley Wolf barked and the troop under his command lashed forward. Silver didn't answer any of Snow's questions, only half aware she was even asking any to begin with. He had to focus on two things, one of which was obviously tearing through the burned-out forest like a pounding streak of black and white. His second worry wasn't so cut and dry. With his memories pieced back together, he quickly realized that he had been breaking a promise he had made to himself; a promise that the old wolf who had given him shelter when he had none asked him to consider seriously. Silver had been Lapsing; experiencing temporary regressions to his own aggressive nature that came on whenever Snow's life was in danger.
"Silver, I said watch out!"
Before he knew how disconnected his thoughts were from his body, Silver felt his legs collide with something hard enough to break his balance. Snow was thrown off his back and the two of them rolled against the terra firma. Silver coughed, his nose heavily irritated by the ashen debris along the ground. He immediately snapped his head up, scanning the area for Snow. What he found was his snowy-white mate piled on top of a struggling otter and a seriously disgruntled blue bird.
"Off! OFF! Lose some weight or get off!" Bianca flapped her wings in sporadic beating motions, in vain of course.
"Thanks for calling me fat…" Arin feigned an offended look and wiggled his way from under Snow. The female wolf raised to her paws and shook the ash off her fur.
"Tried to warn you…"
"Well aside from that head-banging reunion," Arin rubbed down the frayed spots on his fur, "Is everything alright now?"
"Not exactly," Silver was suddenly using his body to shield over Snow again, a deep, low growl escaping his throat. It hadn't taken long for the perusing wolves to catch up. They poured out of every corner of the trees, converging like shadows in the dusk of the sinking sun. The only instance in which their ranks parted was when the Wiley Wolf stepped through the middle. His grin was playful—or maybe psychotically giddy, they couldn't really tell.
"See what a pain running is? I guess it's time for some incentive." The wolf's gaze turned to Snow and she jumped. Silver's eyes narrowed. Don't do anything that would cost you a limb, they spoke.
"Are you gonna make me do that?" The wolf asked. Arin ran forward and puffed his chest up to look intimidating. It might have actually worked, had his legs not been trembling the entire time. Still, he jabbed a finger forward towards the onslaught of wolves with a bravado that would have sent anything greater running.
"You have no clue who you're dealing with! I'll—"
"I'm gonna bite your face."
"—Silver'll Kung Fu the hell outta you in less than ten seconds flat!" Arin tagged Silver's paw and darted from the vicinity of the provoking wolf.
"Idiot," Bianca slapped her wing to her face.
"Enough," The Wiley Wolf's voice had laced with a sudden seriousness that caused Silver to become dangerously attentive to the wolves around him. Glimmers of blood-red light began to glower from the insignia of the arms of the wolven army, and the air began to tense with a forbidding heat. Snow had barely seen it coming before Silver's body lunged towards the trio of burnt-grass-colored wolves that had made their way towards her. His claws clung to the middle wolf's shoulders and sent him crashing down into the ground; but just as quickly as Silver had defended, the other two wolves and seized his shoulder and leg in their fangs.
"Silver!"
KABOOOM!
The ground rattled slightly and Snow's voice was drowned out by a loud exploding sound; a burst of flames had erupted from the mouths of the wolves and Silver suddenly found himself spiraling across the ground and crashing harshly against the tree. Ash shook like burnt falling snow from the brittle branches onto the groaning midnight wolf's fur. Snow's voice caught in her throat, trying to fully comprehend what she had just seen. Arin and Bianca stood with their mouths agape, as though someone had just snatched whatever confidence in their knowledge of the world that they had and partied all over it. But the proof of what just happened was plain in the flickering flames that escaped like breaths from both their mouths and the insignias of the two wolves.
"Wha…" Arin's bravado was all but crushed and his legs gave way to his knees. "What the hell was that…?"
"Still nothing?" His voice was one of mock disappointment, but the Wiley Wolf's amusement was as clear as the grin on his face. He glanced back from Silver to two of his henchwolves. "The girl." They didn't question him, and Snow found herself slowly backing away from the two on-coming wolves. Her warning growls fell on deaf ears. Even if she was sure she could've taken at least one of them, the flames crackling from their maws sent chills running up her spine. Snow's rump pressed against the back of a tree and she swore under her breath. A paw clasped onto her shoulder and before she knew it, she was being wrestled down onto her back, two pairs of fanged mouths aimed at her throat. Snow cringed; it felt as though a furnace was cycling heat from within their bodies through their mouths and her fur seemed threatened to catch fire on the spot.
"Snow—" Arin suddenly slid backwards. Both he and Bianca pressed back to back, a few of the wolves circling them like grounded vultures. The steel in their eyes dared them to even so much as entertain the idea of escape.
"This isn't seriously happening, is it?" A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Arin's cheek.
"Well, it could be worse, right?" Bianca said.
"Oh yeah?"
"We could be back at your psycho village with your psycho princess." She shot.
"Are you kidding? I'd rather…" Arin's left ear perked up as his mind flipped through the pages of memory, all the while gazing at the flames dancing from the wolves. "On second thought, burn me—burn me to a crisp."
"S-Snow… Silver's paws wobbled as his body tried to rise. Pain in his shoulder and leg wracked against him as though someone was breathing searing flames right into the muscles. But it was nothing compared to the roar of instincts that were raging inside of him. Snow's neck was wedged between the jaws of his attackers, and one fell move could spell instant death for her. And that was something he was under any circumstance not willing to accept.
"Hmm…." The Wiley Wolf's bemused look turned into boredom. Silver didn't look like the great wolf from the stories; the wolf who made his enemies cower; a god among wolves. No, now he looked frail and wilted beneath his own unnatural kindness. He scoffed. "Man, this is so lame." The wolf turned and walked away with his tail flicking the wind. "Kill the girl and let's get on. No sense in bringing back a dud to Lord Garnet."
Snow cringed. She tried to squirm her way from underneath the wolves, but their grip on her was so strong that she barely even budge. She could feel a powerful heat coming from their furnace-like mouths, and the wolf closest to her neck pressed his fangs against her skin. It would only take one snap; one instant to crush every bone and sever every nerve and tendon in her throat, and she knew it. Snow closed her eyes and gently let his name roll off her tongue.
"Silver…"
"The loud snap of bone and skin gave a sickening echo against the ashen trees. And then, there was nothing but silence. The pupil's in Arin's eyes shrunk, for all he could do was stand stone-still. Bianca wasn't aware of just how far her jaw had dropped, nor just how silent even the own beating of her heart had gone. Snow lay motionless on the ash-covered ground, eyes closed.
But there was no pain. As a matter of fact, the weight that was once pinning her down was suddenly gone. Her paw reached up and felt her neck. There was no blood and no fang marks, though a residue of heat still lingered. She poked an eye open. Arin and Bianca looked frozen in fear, but their gaze wasn't aimed towards her. Their line of vision lay a few feet away from Snow, to the trio of wolves that were slumped motionless against a nearby tree. A trail of thick, red blood pooled beneath the mass of fur and soaked through the dead grass in sickening trails. Snow gasped, her paw to her mouth.
"Guess that actually worked." The Wiley Wolf looked back towards Silver. The midnight wolf was almost unrecognizable. He stood powerful with his back arched. His silver eyes were cold and calculating like the chill of death itself. But what was really amazing was the pair of long, sleek, black feathered wings protruding in a folded arch over his back. Snow was both awestruck and rooted in fear.
"Now that's what I wanted to see—" It almost happened too fast for any of them to see; Silver's whole body moved like a sleek, black shadow, his forehead colliding into the Wiley Wolf's muzzle. Blood flecked the air as he tumbled dramatically across the ground, crashing into an old, rotted tree. The wolves in standby threw themselves at Silver without hesitation. Flames flailed from their mouths and paws, but Silver's glare was unwavering. His paws moved like a black wind as he weaved and ducked from flyby claws or fangs; a wolf rushed towards him in a head-on tackle, only to find the midnight wolf using his powerful fangs to crush his shoulder. Whimpers of pain filled the air as Silver lashed his natural animal weapons, throwing wolves left and right and leaving them with broken limbs or sleek with blood. A waning group of wolves dropped down onto Silver, had pinned him to the ground. A roar of flames erupted from their mouths as they bit down onto his body all at once. But a loud snarl ripped from Silver's throat and a powerful spiral of air not only hurtled the wolves skywards, but left them motionless once they crashed to the ground in a slew of harsh cuts all over their bodies. The area was littered with broken, whimpering wolves and Silver stood amidst the carnage, glaring straight at the Wiley Wolf. The wolf spat blood and met Silver's gaze.
"….." The wolf raised upright. His paw slowly, so very slowly, trailed up the side of his face, across his muzzle, and fell tender on his now broken nose. Blood flecked the pads of his paws. "You…" He started to tremble. "You little…how DARE you touch my perfect face…" The flame insignia on his arm must have been burning like crazy, for a billowing cloud of steam was wafting off the mark onto the air. Minute puffs of flame erupted from his bull-flaring nostrils. But Silver only stood in the same position, cold and silent. Snow, Arin, and Bianca stood huddled on the sidelines as though every supernatural movement of the scene before them was a deafening slap to the face. And though Snow couldn't deny it, she couldn't bring herself to fully believe it. This Silver before her; a Silver who could easily snap bones and tear flesh asunder; could he possibly still be the same Silver? Her Silver?
"You ruined my perfect face!"
Snow's reverie was quickly broken by a roar of intense wind and flames. The young she-wolf's eyes could barely follow the constant clashing of Silver and the Wily Wolf. Their fighting was more like a loosely coordinated dance, roaring winds capable of slicing the trees billowing off of Silver, and searing flames capable of incinerating entire forests radiating from the wolf. Silver's movements were quick, but the Wiley wolf seemed just as skilled when it came to dodging Silver's claws and fangs. The two roared off the ground and into the frail branches above. Trees wailed as they were toppled over like staggered dominoes; ash whirled through the air in thick clouds, making Snow, Arin, and Bianca gag. Silver's thoughts had never felt so cut off from himself in a long, long time. "Save Snow, Kill wolf" repeated over and over like a metronome in his head. His paws bounced light across the tree branches, easily pulling him into the wolf's reach, and just as easily frustrating him when he fell out of range again. The two wolves crashed down onto the ground so hard that a gust of air overturned the grass and threw Snow back on top of Arin.
"To think you would mar my perfect face." The Wiley Wolf spat. "Tch! I can't wait to make mince-meat out of your woman. Or maybe," A sly grin spread across his maw. "I'll just keep her as my own little personal pet. Whadda' ya say to that, huh?"
Siler's left eye twitched; the only physical sign of the enraged annoyance the wolf had provoked out of him. And then, he was suddenly gone. A few black feathers floated from where he had once stood, and Snow quickly regretted blinking. The Wiley Wolf let out a gasp when Silver's paw moved like a phantom down on top of his head. All it took was one push and the wolf slammed face-first into the ground so hard that the land shook around them. Rage was like thunderclap in Silver's ears. His other paw slowly raised over his head, his talon-sharp claws poised towards the wolf's neck. The Wiley Wolf frowned, but said nothing. He was too busy staring at Silver's claws; waiting for the instant death would come to meet him.
"Silver…" Snow's voice squeaked out, but her beloved didn't hear her. And by the look in his eyes, it seemed that he was too far gone. Silver let his paw drop down towards the wolf's neck. "SILVER, STOP!"
"Huh?" Silver's ears shot up, and it felt as though someone had delivered a punch of reality to his face. His cold, murderous gaze flickered like a fading star and the wings dispersed into vanishing flecks on the ground. His paw pressed against the top of his muzzle as if to physically take hold of himself. The fangs of his instinct were chocked back by the leash of reason again and he could feel himself resurfacing. And then, he was suddenly calm. Silver slowly looked down. The Wiley Wolf's fangs were clenched tight, eyes glaring daggers up towards him. Trickles of blood splattered onto the dirt below; Silver's claws were only inches into the wolf's flesh, but it was enough to slick his neck down in rivets of crimson. A sickening feeling gripped Silver's stomach as he slowly lifted his paw away, gazing at the red-stained tips.
"Fool!"
Snow gasped; a flare of flames spewed in a rabid spiral, not actually capable of singing Silver's fur, but enough to throw him halfway across the ground. The Wiley Wolf leapt up from the dirt onto one of the higher tree branches. He gazed back to the awe-struck Arin and Bianca, the angered Snow, and Silver, who was too preoccupied with his paws to even realize that he had been repelled from his assailant. The wolf heaved, that ridiculously bemused look reappearing.
"First my face and now my neck…I can't wait to rip that pretty little face of yours to pieces, man..." His eyes lingered down on Silver. Though he tried to hide behind his entertained façade, the chagrin was painfully clear. Still, he seemed to think better of rushing into a round two and darted off into the shadows of the trees.
Snow waited until the wolf was completely out of sight before finally letting her breath go. She didn't realize how much she had been on the precipice of tension until she noticed the grooves her claws made in the ground. And who could blame her? What she had just witnessed was like something out of a fairy tale gone horribly awry. The land was racked with scorches and tears from the wind and fire. The bodies of each fell wolf was now nothing but a pile of ashes. It was a level of supernatural that Snow wouldn't have believed if she hadn't witnessed it. The snowy white wolf gave the broken land another once over before she slowly found her way over to her mate. Silver was staring heavily at his paws. His ears were practically pressed into his headfur and had he been standing up, his tail would've been tucked between his legs. His head whirled with the memories of battle, and he cursed himself inside. He promised he wouldn't let himself slip; that he wouldn't give into the him that could easily kill, and rip, and tear, and shred. And yet, had Snow not reached out to him, who knows how far he could have taken it? But it was too late now. His friends and beloved had already gotten a taste of the monster inside him.
"Shut up..." It was as if Snow could hear his thoughts. But even as she put a comforting paw on his shoulder, he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eye. So Snow leaned over so that she could do so instead. It was still hard to believe everything that transpired; hard to believe that her mate was literally something out of a fairy tale. "Don't beat yourself up by thinking something stupid." She said. Silver slowly raised his head, probably so he didn't have to keep eye contact.
"You did what you had to do—"
"That could have been you." Silver interjected. His expression had gone hard. But Snow just shook her head.
"You wouldn't hurt me. You promised, remember?" The snowy white wolf lifted his chin up with her muzzle. But Silver wasn't hearing it. He had already broken one promise, he didn't need to break another, especially to the woman he loved the most. Determined not to let defeat completely mar his voice, Silver cleared his throat.
"We had better get out of here. This place wreaks of bad memories." Silver rose to his feet. It pained him to even think so, but as it stood, Snow wasn't safe around him; not while he had no control over who came after him and how; not while he had no control over himself. Snow looked as if she was about to say something to him, but he dismissed it with a quick shake of his head. Snow huffed, though kept right on his toes when he walked off.
"Arin, Bianca, let's spread out again. Maybe if we look really hard, we could find something." She stated. However, the sound she heard following wasn't what she had expected. As a matter of fact, she had heard nothing at all. The snowy white wolf craned her head back only to see that her two friends hadn't budged an inch. Bianca stood perched on a higher tree branch while the witty otter had his back pressed so firmly into the tree trunk that his claws were tearing into the bark. The both of them had terror whipped into their eyes; an uncanny fear that one would only show when they feared for their life.
"What are you two doing al the way back there?" Snow tilted her head in question, but deep down somewhere, she felt the answer was all too obvious.
"That's not right…" Bianca whispered, and Snow had to strain even her sensitive ears.
"What?"
"I said that's not right!" Bianca's wing snapped in Silver's direction, "Just what are you trying to pull, huh? Huh?"
Silver didn't look at her directly, or even turn around for that matter. His eyes slowly fell close, and the only acknowledgement for his attention was the flicker in his ears.
"What was all that? You pal around with us—treat us like we're your friends—only to go ripping and slashing through anything that moves?" Bianca stammered. The words were just rolling off her tongue like lead now beyond her control. "I always thought there was something off about you. I don't even know what the hell you are!"
"Bianca!" Snow barked, more offended than Silver, it seemed. "That's not fair! Or did you not notice that Silver just saved our butts?"
"Did YOU not notice anything, Snow? Notice that he does things that you couldn't—that you SHOULDN'T—be able to do?" Bianca snapped, "He lost it out there. The look in his eyes; those cold, cold eyes that had no heart were all too clear. This wasn't just a case of self-defense—he has blood lust. Silver wanted to…he wanted to kill them. He looked no different than the ones trying to burn us to death—something I'm still trying to wrap my head around."
At this, Silver glanced down at his paws, still stained with blood. Was he really no different…?
"That isn't true at all! We're still standing here, Bianca."
"For how long, Snow? How long before he turns on YOU, Snow? You honestly believe that he can keep it together if it happens again? He wouldn't have even stopped if you hadn't called out to him."
"Then it's a good thing he has me around."
"But will you be enough next time?" Bianca's expression had gone hard, the bird's gaze piercing and serious. Snow wanted to punch her. Punch her dead in the jaw and possibly send her careening into the thicket of trees beyond. Sure, she understood that Bianca and Silver didn't exactly get along so well, but this was just plain hurtful. She looked to Arin for some kind of support, but quickly realized that she'd have gotten more cooperation out of a hunter and his gun than the shell-shocked otter before her.
"You're absolutely right." Silver had returned calmly to the conversation. All eyes turned to him, Snow's desperately searching for some flicker of disapproving emotion in him; Bianca fearfully rejecting someone who may have gained even a fragment of her trust; and Arin looking as though his brain was still having trouble processing the unbelievable events from before. Silver felt his stomach turn. It's always one thing to hear the truth from a stranger, but something completely different to hear it from a friend. Responsibility weighed against his own selfishness as he spoke, but Silver skillfully masked any internal conflict from his friends.
"There's no telling what might happen in the near future. There's a chance that I could completely turn on you, and that's a risk I'd rather not take. His eyes wavered only for a moment. "So I'm going to ask all of you to go home and stop following me. Don't worry about the Asimi Bloom—I'll find it for Eve and come back just to return it. But as of now—" Silver turned his back on them. The truth of it was that he couldn't in all honesty continue to hold his poker face. But as he walked off down the ashen trail, he managed to save enough façade for one last statement, "Don't follow me. Go home, all of you." If anyone had said anything, he didn't make an effort to hear. He was already gone amongst the distance of trees. Everything would be behind him now…everything…
-)()()()()()()()()()()()()(-
Silver wasn't really sure how far he had actually gotten. Hell, he wasn't even sure he was paying enough attention to go the right way, wherever that was. He had promised he would find the Asimi Bloom for Snow, but now he realized he had no clue where to find it. After all, they had completely combed the area—and his thoughts stopped right there. There was no longer a 'they' anymore. 'They' had to be sacrificed for the good of their lives. He had to do it for them—selflessly do it for her, and that hurt the most. Silver forced the faces of Snow and the others out of his mind to focus on the task at hand. He knew the flower grew around vast amounts of fresh water, so if he could quickly find another such place, there still may have been time. Silver began to take off in a sprint, but was suddenly stopped in mid-run.
"Silver!" It was Snow. She came bounding over fallen branches and overgrown rotting roots until she slid to a halt before him. Silver's heart leapt in instant betrayal of his decision. He forced the overjoyed expression off his face just as fast as it had come. Remember what could happen, his inner thoughts snarled.
"You got pretty far pretty quick. But then, I guess I know why that is now." Snow spoke with that heightened spirit that Silver had come to fall so deeply in love with; that light that broke through the darkness like a blaze of fire. But indulgence was a cruel mistress sometimes.
"What are you doing here?" Silver sighed. He hoped it sounded as annoyed as he intended it to be.
"What do you mean 'what are you doing here'?" Snow turned the corners of her maw up. "I'm sticking by my future mate's side, that's what I'm doing."
"I can't be that." Liar, Silver's inner voice stung. But Snow was unwavering.
"Of course you can and you are. You know, I really don't care what Bianca said back there. I know you won't hurt me, Silver."
"You don't know that, Snow." Silver immediately turned to walk off. Snow brushed the tuft of headfur back from her face; back behind her ear the way she knew Silver liked it. She knew it elicited the same response from him as it did from Garth for her mother. She had inherited those eyes; the eyes of wild beauty and passion like windows of her soul reaching out to be united with her mate's. Snow spoke lowly.
"Even if you did hurt me, Silver…If you did, I wouldn't care. I'd keep loving you because I know that in your heart, you're mine. You'll only want to protect me."
Silver stopped dead. Words like a sharp-pointed arrow struck his heart. He felt his façade fading fast. He clawed the ground; it was seemingly all he could do, physically anchor himself to keep from rushing Snow in a rage of affection.
"You're crazy." Silver felt his lame comeback double back with chagrin. Snow walked around him just enough to where their faces were close; just enough to press her nose firmly against his. Instantly, all efforts to save face melted away, and Silver's response was a very passionate kiss. His mind wiped blank of his previous plan in an instant; surely he couldn't leave her now. Snow pulled away just barely to talk.
"Silver…from the time we were pups, we've been through so much together. We've been through danger and craziness; good times and bad times. And I have long since decided that I would never be ready to give that up, even if it meant we had to go through hell and back. Your past is your past, unchangeable and undeniable. But we have a past too, and that means that we are unavoidable."
Silver let his mouth turn up in a warm smile. There was no use fighting it anymore. Even if he did walk away again, Snow would just follow him. So instead, he placed his paw on her head and ruffled her headfur into a wild mess.
"Hush. It doesn't sound right when you start to make that much sense."
"And I don't like it when you do that." Snow stuck her tongue out, though she let her headfur stay like that for a while before fixing it. "Now let's go find that flower so we can go home."
"Might not be so easy." Silver frowned, upset that there was something already dampening the mood. "We have to find another area that may have the flower and time isn't exactly on our side." He could see the worry on Snow's face, but she quickly shook it off.
"We'll find it. We've come this far."
"And that might be far enough." Silver and Snow's ears perked up and the two turned back towards the path they had walked. The voice wasn't a hundred percent reassuring in tone, but it was warm enough. Arin came slowly walking down through the path of ash-ridden trees. Bianca was perched on his forehead, though she couldn't seem to look anyone straight in the eye.
"Arin! Bianca! Did you decide to change your minds?" Snow asked, clearly overjoyed to see them. Silver's tail wagged, his initial response towards seeing the return of his friends. However, that wasn't the only thing he spotted that made his spirit lift completely off the ground. Arin held it delicately, as though its shimmering white pedals would suddenly burst into flames like the rest of the godforsaken land around them. The stamen were so long and curly that they draped like long bronzed braids down the flower's side, and the green of the plant remained as vibrant as ever despite having been picked from god-knows-where.
"Is that—"
"Yup, it's that." Arin flashed a grin and thumbs up.
"Really" Snow damn near rushed the small otter. She reached out and touched the flower, as though the sight of the plant was too real to believe. "But where—how? We searched this place all over!"
"Bianca was the one who found it." Arin poked Bianca's side. She jumped with a ruffle of her feathers. Her look indicated that she could have just as easily bit that finger. "She was about to take off when she spotted it overhead. It looks like the fight with Silver dug it up from whatever rock it was hiding under."
"You two…" Snow clasped her paws around the flower. She was almost on the verge of tears. Here was hope literally laying in her grasp; here was the proof that she wasn't just a dreamer, and more importantly, that Eve's life now had a chance of being saved.
"Look…" Arin busied himself with twirling his foot in the ash, as to avoid direct eye contact with Silver. "Silver, I didn't mean to get all weird on you back there. It's just…all this—this is a lot to take in, you know." And then his expression went energetic. "I mean really, how cool were you, kicking butt like that? I guess I should've realized that you don't leave your friends hanging even when things get bad…or dangerous…or totally scary beyond all living reason—but not so scary as zombies or vampires or worse, my whacked-out fiancé. More like—"
"Arin, I get it." Silver nodded his head. It wasn't that he was expecting an apology but it really made him feel more at ease.
"Your turn." Arin looked up at Bianca. She still refused to look at Silver, and if she did give any kind of response, it was drowned by another ruffling of her feathers. For a while, the blue bird said nothing and stubbornly kept her cheek to him. Silver walked over, just close enough to not make her feel as though he was threatening her space.
"Thank you, Bianca. Without you, we'd probably be screwed right about now."
"You're a dumbass." Bianca chirped, "Let's just get moving on already, we're on a time limit."
"You're right. If we head back now, we can get there within a few days." Silver put the flower behind Snow's ear. Aesthetically speaking, it was ridiculously beautiful on her. I matched her fur like silver snowfall during the first real signs of winter creeping in the night. But as beautiful as she looked, Silver could tell that the thought of travel being as long as a few days was troubling.
"That'll take too long." Bianca fluttered into the air. "While I was looking—"
"So you were looking, not flying off like you said."
"Shut UP, Arin. Like I said, while I was flying, I found a train heading back the way we came. If we hurry, we can make it."
"Seriously?" Snow exclaimed.
"Let's hurry then—"
"Wait." Bianca landed on Silver's muzzle. She was frowning dead in his eyes and her wings crossed over her chest. "When we're on board, we'll have some time. You owe me—owe us a full explanation from start to finish."
Silver nodded, and though Bianca tried to remain indignant, a small smile crept on her face.
"Then let's get moving." She fluttered off and the others followed after.
-)()()()()()()()()()())()()()()(-
Night had come on faster than they had expected. By the time they were hiking alongside the weather-worn railroad, the sun was already nearly below the horizon. The rumbling freight train had slowed to a stop at the landing dock, and that's when Silver, Arin, Bianca, and Snow took the opportunity to stow away in the nearest boxcar away from the humans loading various anonymous objects into the others. The floor of the boxcar was cold, and the stench of hay and metal stung Silver's nose. Still, after all the walking and running they had done, the train was a godsend. The train engine car let out a loud bellow, a hiss of murky steam, and then slowly started to take off from the depot. Snow had snuggled against Silver with her head laying on top of his. The two of them watched the trees roll by one after another, as though the forest were some endless reel of a film. Arin looked exhausted, but fought sleep by dangling his feet out of the side of the boxcar door.
"Alright, Silver." Bianca perched herself annoyingly atop Silver's muzzle, and he resisted the urge to swat her like a gadfly. In truth, he had rather not speak about his past, but he did owe Bianca some closure at least.
"Well, as you know, I am the wolf from the legend. Both me and my brother, Garnet, were once one and the same, split by our own greed. Ever since then, we had been destined to fight each other, each trying to regain his former self." Silver glanced at his paws. "But there is a misconception. Everyone is under the notion that power is the only reason we've been doing this for decades. When my brother and I were torn, we lost ourselves; a part of each other always missing in the other half. Our fight is also a matter of identity and completion. For hundreds of years I've lived on, fighting to hang on to what little bit of me I had and to chase down the rest of me to be complete. But after a while, I got tired…'why do I need to be complete?' I would ask myself. 'Why is it so important?' And the more I thought about it, the less important for me it became. Eventually, I decided that it wasn't worth chasing and instead of seeking Garnet out, I ran. I ran as far as I could, traveling the world around, because I figured that if I kept moving, Garnet couldn't keep up with me."
Silver laid his fingers on the beads wrapped around Snow's wrist. She had gotten so used to them being there that his touch was like a reminder that they were still present. "Eventually, I came upon my village. I had been born as a pup again, so I figured that they would lend me food to eat. But the more I got to know them, the more fascinated about them—or maybe their lives—I became. The pack was actually a group of misfits from many other packs: those lost; those exiled; those abandoned. They had all come together as a family. In a sense, they had compensated their missing parts with each other, and I felt myself longing for that again…" Silver stopped for a moment. His expression had gone soft as the memories played with his mind. "My grandpa…well, he wasn't my real gramps. He was an alpha who had been overthrown from his pack for starting wars wantonly with rival packs. Oddly enough, his mate was the only wolf from that pack loyal enough to follow him into loneliness. He knew…somehow, he knew about me; knew about the conflict inside me, and offered me a way out. He took me in. he trained me; scolded me when I was bad; praised me when I was good. He was always there for me…I had found a home I never wanted to leave from. Even if I outlived my old family, I would grown through the generations with my pack forever…But forever is cruel sometimes. Garnet had found me faster than I'd have imagined. He challenged me right in the middle of my village—told me that there was no use delaying the inevitable. I refused, told him that I didn't want to be that wolf anymore; that if there was a way for me to give all my power up to be normal, I'd had done it." Silver frowned and dug his claws into the ply of the floor.
"So what did he do? He attacked me, right then and there. He didn't care how many other pack mates he hurt; he didn't care when he and his own misguided followers burned the elderly or slaughtered the innocent that stood in his way to protect me. My whole pack leapt to my rescue. It both moved me and made me hate myself for making them love me so. In the end, my grandpa was killed for trying to shield me from my brother. I had nothing again…and when Garnet torched the village, he left me for dead, scorning how 'soft' I had gotten. But I guess he didn't expect me to survive, though I was barely hanging on to what life I had. The shock of it all was too much, and the trauma erased my memories. All I could do was drag my burning body to the river. And that's when I met Snow…"
When Siler looked up, everyone else was starting at the floor. Snow's ears drooped to the sides of her head; Arin was (a bit overdramatically) bawling; but Bianca looked utterly shaken. It was as if someone had sucked all the heat from the room, leaving a poor defenseless Bianca all alone amidst the cold. Silver had no intention of making anyone upset. Hell, he didn't even want to tell the story to begin with.
"I didn't know…" Bianca managed to squeak out. She had been alone. She knew what it was like to be alone. But this was on a completely different scale altogether. "I didn't know and I said all those things back there."
"It's okay. Like you said, you didn't know."
"No, it's not!" Bianca turned away from Silver. She couldn't face him, not after hearing that; not after saying that. 'How long till he turns on you?' she had said. What was she thinking? "I'm a horrible friend…"
"You were scared." Silver reluctantly removed himself from beneath Snow. He sat down once again close enough to gain that empathy feel, but not so much as to invade Bianca's personal space. "I know you didn't mean any of it. I mean, you've already saved my ife and you found the Asimi Bloom we needed to find so bad. We fight, but I'll always consider you my friend, Bianca…"
At first, it looked as though she didn't believe him. Bianca kept her back to him without so much as a peep. Silver was about to give up and turn away when the tiny blue bird hopped over to him. Slowly, her wings wrapped around one of his legs and she leaned her head against him. It was so out of character for her that everyone looked to her as though she were something surreal.
"Really…?" She asked.
"Really."
"Good…oh, and by the way, if this hug leaves this train car, I swear I'll kill all of you."
"Sure." Silver patted the blue bird's head.
"There is something that's been bothering me, though." Arin rubbed the rest of his tears away from his face. "I was always lead to believe that you and your brother were the only ones with that kind of power. But back there, all those wolves were blowing flames all over the place. How is that?"
Silver's expression had once again gone serious. He gazed out of the boxcar and up at the clear starry sky passing by overhead.
"The story doesn't contain all the vital information about us, especially our individual abilities, except that the wind personifies life and the flames personify destruction. Creating subjugates is when Garnet or myself pass fragments of our power into living beings. They become endowed with a small portion of it, but at a cost." Silver frowned, "Subjugates are irrevocably bound to their master, and will die when he dies. And subjugates' free will is only maintained at the whim of their master. It's not a very happy life to lead, always under someone's every beck and call. I'd never do that to anyone, not even an enemy."
"But if those wolves are loyal to your brother, won't they try to come after you again? What if he comes and tries to…" Snow didn't finish her thought, but Silver understood. He had thought of that; wondered if Garnet was so bold as to go and attack Kate's pack just to get to him. But they wouldn't suffer the same fate. Not while he had Snow.
"Snow, I made a promise to you." Silver said. He placed his paw gently atop hers. "And I won't break it."
-()()()()())()()()()()()()-
Well, it seems that things have finally taken a turn for the better...at least for now. Just so you all know, another reason why this took so long is because there will be a prequel to this story. It was a long time in the making, but I had to make sure the format of the prequel was consistent with the main story. Chapter 6 won't be long in coming since it's already written, I just need to proof it, so look forward to it either at the end of this week or early next week!