Chapter 2

"Alpha!"

I look up from starting down at my feet to see Hazard leap over me, landing in a tree as he shouts. "Alpha! Hazard came back with Cold One! Just like you told Hazard!"

I sigh as I walk over to the metal beast that stood still next to a large, broken round building. It was long like the old structures, ones that clean ones used to travel around. This one has died though. It was abandoned, like a puppy that grew too big.

I walk up to the thing and opened it's side. The inside of it looks like any other old clean dwelling, a nest in the back and a long flat thing you ate on. The front end had no use, simply places to sit where you could see what was ahead.

I lift my load into it's belly, leaving it on the floor inside as I take out a small green thing I had placed in the basket when I had found it. It swayed to one side, weak and frail. I frown, stepping out and kicking the door close behind me.

Walking over to the round thing, I stoop under and shuffle through one of the holes. I absently hear Hazard still calling for Alpha, but I focus on the green thing. As the space opens up, I stand up and walk over to a different structure. It's like the other one, but it's not quite as beat up.

I open the door and I'm hit by warm air and a sweet smell. I instantly feel better by this welcome, but I don't pause to bask in it.

I stride to a tall bench and set the small thing down gently on top of it. I bend down and open the cabinet underneath, grabbing a few things. I stand back up, ignoring the sight of red droplets now sitting next the green thing.

I place clean dirt in a clear jar, sprinkling light green beads inside and mixing it up. I reach over, only to find my target gone. I look up and find a dark form hanging off one of the high beams, though I know it isn't Hazard.

This figure is dressed in all black, hoodie and jeans, even shoes. Red tape criss-crosses across it's arms and torso, though only one across one of it's shins. blood dribles freely as it's open jaws hiss at me, waving the green at me with it's free claws.

I glare, holding my hand open and up to the being. It growls, but relents as it hands me the green thing. I look away as I gently unwedge it from it's broken thin container. I feel the hunter watch me as I placed it in the new container. Lifting another glass jar, I tip it to give the thing some of the water that had been cleaned.

It's shape seemed to sharpen in appearance, and I gently touch it with a single digit. Satisfied, I turn around and find a turned over, darkened face not even inches from mine. I don't react as I stare into the shadows inside the hood. The being relaxes and loosens it's grip on the beam, flipping from it's upside down place as it's feet hit the ground with a soft tap.

"You came back."

I turn to the side and walk deeper into the area, peering closely at the other, larger green things that I had been collecting for awhile now.

The form pads over to my side as I bend down and study a particular mark on one of the bulky supports for a green thing that becomes topped with a large brown circle surrounded by yellow. Hazard likes it a lot. He tries to pull them and give them to Alpha...

I look over and glare at the hunter behind me.

"What?" The hunter asks, and I gesture over my shoulder, to back outside where Hazard was still calling out for Alpha.

A shrug is the response. "He must find me. That's all there is to it."

I scoff. Standing up, I continue to walk the path between all the green.

"...Why so you keep doing this?"

I ignore the growls as I look at some of the hanging baskets. When I look back down, a black and ashened face is looking up at me, and I see small but brightly lit red eyes.

"Why do you keep acting like prey? Like the clean ones?"

I narrow my eyes then reach forward and tug down the hood. A feminine, pale face coated with blood only blinks in reaction, though one eye doesn't shut all the way because of a heavily knitted scar running down the side of her face, going over the left eyelid. I poke the scar as it reaches down onto her cheek, and her eyes widen.

I don't say anything, but the cause and remembrance of how the mark on her face was created is enough to get the message across.

Why do you keep the truth from him?

She froze for a moment, then began to growl deeply at me. She swiped at my hand, though I pulled away just in time.

I look to her and shake my head. I place a hand over my heart, then swing my arms in an x motion.

"Didn't mean to hurt my ass!" The female hunter roars at me, standing up as she bares her fangs and claws at me. I narrow my eyes, but don't move anymore then that. "What, is the cold one too high and mighty to fight a hunter like me!?" She's screaming now, about to pounce and tear me up. I say nothing.

"Too high and mighty to even talk to someone less then her! When she is she lesser!?" She keeps screaming, and I still do nothing.

But I do speak. I begin to growl under my breath.

"Alpha! Hazard found Alpha!"

With the sudden shouting, we both turn to see Hazard crashing into one of the high beams before he scrambles to sit on it. He notices us, and gawks, "No fair! Hazard found Cold One first!" He trembles, falling from the beam and lands with his face close to the floor. "Cold one did come with Hazard Hazard. She did did did!" The shaking of his form increases, energy spilling out of him, and I look to the side at the Huntress.

"I'm not Alpha." She says simply, catching Hazards attention.

"But but butbut-"

"Chill the FUCK out."

Hazard shut up, shoulders still trembling though they did slow a bit. I watched his jaw loosen and relax, and I felt the black coated one next to me relax also. Hazard, despite his name, always made her calm. Well, calmer.

"I...I found Cold One with more prey things...on way back...sorry Alpha." Hazard whimpers, ignorant to the visual flinch of her body. I simply stand. I'm now just a third wheel.

Turning back to my many green things, I only watch from the side as she crawls to his side and nuzzles the side of his head. She lets out a soft growl, non aggressive as it's a purr among their kind.

...I wish I could share their simple emotions...

The words push against my throat, but they refuse to rise out and make themselves known.

I shake my head, then turn my full attention to my little ones as the pair rumble at each other and walk casually back to the small hole we all crawled through. I hear a change in pace. I turn to see the huntress glaring at me, small thin eyes peeking out from her hood. She then turns and leads the way out for her lower pack mate, who follows with the eagerness of that of a pup. I turn back and keep watering.

Our fight isn't over.

Are they ever sister?