A sudden jolt, a small bump, brought you back to the land of the living.
Where am I? What am I doing here? Why... is it so hard to move?
You tried lifting your once agile head, with it's quick thinking brain and sharp, piercing eyes, but you felt like it had been replaced with a lump of solid lead. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, your paws, the fur tickling your nose, the bars of the ...
"Where am I?" you whined, jolting to your feet, only to hit your head sharply off the top of the cage. The resounding rattle echoed through your skull, worsening the drug-induced headache you already had. Looking around in a panic, you saw Romano lying in another cage beside you, his shallow ragged breaths and lifeless body causing fear to rattle down your spine in horror. He looked a mess.
But, looking closer, he seemed ok. He had a few cuts and grazes along his muzzle, and one deep gash along his back, but nothing you couldn't fix. You just couldn't get to him through your cage. It wasn't fair! Pack looks out for each other, and you couldn't exactly help him with this stupid cage.
The jeep that you were in turned a sharp corner, the deep throaty roar of the V6 turbo charged engine heard throughout the vehicle. It hit a minor pothole, enough to push you to the side of the cage, where you hit your shoulder blade at an awkward angle. The crack could have been heard a mile away. That, combined with the helplessness of the situation, and being unable to help Romano, was the final straw, and you began to see red.
Ignoring the tearing pain in your shoulder, and biting hard on the cold, lifeless bars between your teeth, you pulled at them, hoping to dislodge them. The terrible sound of grating metal on enamel, combined with the unearthly growling coming from deep within your throat, was enough to make the passenger of the car to turn around yelling in that strange tongue of theirs, and hit the cage with something, causing vibrations that rattled up your teeth and through your body, and whimpering, you let go.
Slumping down on the cage, only to hit your front left paw on the bars as the car rounded another rough corner, you felt worse than useless. You couldn't help Romano, the one pack member you had left! Well, Feli could still be alive, but you hadn't heard or seen him for ages, not even a scent. He had a strong scent of fresh dough and pasta always around him, so it wasn't like you could have missed it if it was there...
Ok, stop and breath. Think. What is the problem, what do I need to solve, how can I solve it? The problem is the cage I can't get out of, I need to solve the problem of Roma's wounds, and for that I need to get out of the cage. First things first, the cage. Pulling at the bars didn't work, but I am a large, strong wolf. I'll just shoulder all my strength against it, hopefully it'll fall over.
A deep breath, exhaling loudly, came from your nostrils, and your eyelids opened with renewed vigour. You had a plan, you had a purpose, you could do this.
Pain in your shoulder forgotten, and standing on four proud legs, you leaned heavily to your left, before throwing your weight to your right, smashing into the cage full force. It heaved, going up onto one side, like a ship about to capsize, and the bars rattled and shook, but not one of them gave way. You repeated this several times, and the bars began to curve in the shape of your body. The cage wobbled precariously for a few seconds before slamming back down onto the floor of the jeep.
Stopping to asses the damage, you could see one bar that looked slightly rusty, jutting out towards you. If I hit that at *just* the right angle, it would snap and make it so much easier to break the other bars. You reasoned. So, with a deep breath, you threw your weight hopefully for the last time, twisting at just the last second to hit it with all the momentum of your body, but it went terribly wrong. The rusty bar smashed straight into where your shoulder hurt, and you saw stars.
The pain was excruciating, completely unbearable. Crumpling to your knees, you looked over your shoulder to see a piece of rusty, serrated metal now firmly lodged into your shoulder blade. Your eyes widened in fear, the prospect of the rusty metal rendering your leg useless sending a rush of adrenaline coursing through your body. You sat up awkwardly and carefully holding your injured leg in the air, as so not to put any pressure on it, you howled.
At the sound of the howling, the passenger in the front turned around again. He had been ignoring the banging and thumping from behind him for the past half hour, he knew the oversized dog couldn't break out of the bars, and he was about to yell at the animal again and bang on the cage, until he saw the state of the poor thing.
Matted, bloody, dirty fur with big (e/c) eyes, with pleading tears and a look of complete and utter hopelessness, looked back at him. A soft whimper alerted him to the injured shoulder, and pushing blond locks out of his eyes, and fixing his glasses, he saw a single piece of rusty metal sticking out of the shoulder blade.
Ouch, that looks painful, Gilbert thought. He had been requested to bring both of them, especially the (h/c) female, back in one piece, and he couldn't risk an infection in that shoulder due to the rusty piece of metal. Uttering a few words to the driver, and receiving a quiet hum of acknowledgement from his Canadian driver, he unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed over the row of seats to where the cages were.
Flicking open the locks on the cage with practiced ease, he braced himself against the wall so he wouldn't fall over if the jeep rounded a corner, and held his arms wide open towards you in a sign of trust. He had seen how Matthew acted around Kumajirou, surely this wild animal couldn't be much different?
You sat there, staring wide-eyed at the albino trying to gain your trust. Even if he was doing the human equivalent of showing you his throat in a sign of complete submissal, you refused to look at him. Humans were not to be trusted, they always had an ulterior motive, they were so two-faced. Turning your back to him and closing your eyes, you essentially were giving him the cold shoulder. Except your shoulder really hurt now. The throbbing just wasn't stopping anymore, and it was ll you could do not to collapse there and then.
You heard a slight sigh behind you, and whimpered in surprise as you were dragged by your scruff out of the cage by long, slim fingers. Scrambling to hold onto anything with your claws, you struggled weakly against his hold, and he easily held you to his strong chest, calming you down with sweet soothing words in that strange human tongue. You turned your leaden head just in time to see him pull the metal shard out of your shoulder.
The reaction was immediate. The lack of metal protruding from your shoulder meant all the adrenaline was now replaced with sleepy-ness, and you collapsed into his hold, hearing a light chuckle of "Kesesesese". Normally you wouldn't sleep near to a human, they could kill you in your sleep, for crying out loud! But this one seemed so... trusting. You didn't know what it was, and didn't have much time to consider before a light sleep overcame you.
~~~~~~~
Matthew looked in his rear-view mirror briefly, smiling to himself at the sight of the Prussian delicately cradling an injured wolf on his lap. It seemed so unlike the loud, obnoxious Prussian, but Matthew would hope it would help him. Gilbert had seemed quite down recently, and maybe, just maybe, this oversized mutt could make him feel a bit better. He really hoped it could.
A/N: ...I'm not dead. Hi. *sheepishly waves*
Sorry for keeping you waiting for so many months. I really have no excuse. I kept meaning to do this, but just... didn't. *whimper* Sorry. I know it's my fault.
Reviews? If I can ask for them without seeming rude, being gone for so long? :)