Disclaimer- For crying out loud, we all know that nobody owns any of these books/shows/animes/comics/movies! I don't own Wolf's Rain, and Lupus and her dead friend are my original characters, dammit! Sorry 'bout that...just had to say what I was thinking.... For once, it wasn't something completely corrupted and...uhh....don't know how to describe it.

Chap.III

Usually, I had a tough time feeling pain. But right now...oh, gawd, was that a fucking exception. Pain, pain, pain...every single damn one of my damn thoughts was filled with swearing and pain. I couldn't remember a damn thing...only thing I could focus on was that stupid pain. Sights, sounds, even scents just melted together, like they were wax statues thrown into the pits of hell. It drove me insane. Damn it all. Dammit, dammit, dammit....just go away, stupid pain...

Hold it. Why does this seem...familiar? All this pain...this kind of pain...the way it felt...I'd felt this before. I had. I was positive. I knew it. But...when...?

It's that sickness! The one I'd caught a year earlier...the one that I barely survived...the one that killed...her (the dead friend. Don't worry about reading this too many more times. I'm getting her name out this chapter.).

Memories flooded my mind. "Don't tell me you walked into another pole, Lupus!" "Hey, as long as you're ok with it, I'll do it." "Are you sure you're not a guy who got a sex change? You sure seem like one!" Her voice echoed through my head. Images of her white wolf form and her fashion-obsessed human form surrounded me, until a single image drew itself out from the bottom of my mind.

It was at our run-down abandoned-building home. I was lying down, my arms behind my head and eyes closed, while she sat staring at the setting sun.

"What do you think of life, Lupus?" she asked.

I thought about it for a minute. Not changing my position, I answered her.

"It's like a book. I mean, life could be crappy, mushy, hilarious, action-packed, just about anything. Books are like that, too. Then...you start on page one, oblivious to everything. The next few chapters get you to learn about...stuff. Like the characters, the setting, the plot. You get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah."

"Then you get to the climax-the characters actually dealing with their problems, and stuff happens in between. Depressing stuff, sappy stuff, funny stuff, all that crap. But eventually, it all ends. It could end pretty happily, sad, whatever, even if the characters screw up and leave everything unfinished. And sometimes you want it to end. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes you've got no clue. But the entire time, you know it's going to end. There's no denying it. You can close the book at any time and stop reading it, but if you don't, you're eventually going to run out of pages and get to the end. Life's just like that, y'know?"

There was a bit of a pause before she spoke. "You're right. Life is just like that. But you forgot something."

I sat up. "What? I thought I had it pretty much all in there."

"You did. You just missed that...that someone's always writing the book. They control it all. Everything...it's just like a giant puppet. They pull the strings to make it do something. But they can't control it completely, and it does things of its own will."

I was speechless. She'd never gotten so...philosophical before.

"But...you're the exception, Lupus. You're your own master. You've got no limits. And you have no idea of how powerful that makes you." What the hell was she yammering on about? "Me...I'm a different story. I'm just a puppet in a book. And...even though the book isn't a tear-jerker, it's a.....tragedy." It all began to fade.

Don't go. You're not a puppet. You're you, Viatora (I've finally revealed her name. No more 'dead friend's!). Nobody controls you. I wanted to scream those words at the top of my lungs to her, but it was like breathing underwater. It just wouldn't happen. Her voice, her face, everything surrounding me was fading away.

"You're your own master. You've got no limits." Her face disappeared.

No! Quit saying stuff like that! You're the one with no limits! Your name even means 'traveler' or something like that!

"You're your own master."

SHADDUP, YOU IDIOT!!! YOU SAY THAT ONE MORE DAMN TIME...

"You're your own master."

SHUT IT, ALREADY!

"You're your o...." Her voice faded away.

No........don't leave me...all alone.... My anger subsided.

"Vi...a...tora..." My voice finally returned...as she disappeared. I felt my leg throbbing. I couldn't see anything, but I smelled...wolves. Wait...did I go blind or are my eyes just closed?

"What the hell's she mumbling about?" a completely new voice asked.

"I dunno! Why're you asking me?" That new voice...it was kinda high...like a pup's or something...

"I wasn't asking you, runt."

"IT'S TOBOE."

Hang on a second....didn't I 'talk' with a pup a little earlier? And he mentioned the name 'Toboe' somewhere. I slowly cracked open an eye. Ok, so I wasn't blind. Thank gawd. Living in a world where all you could see was black would drive me insane...that is, if my leg didn't do that first. It seared with pain every damn few seconds. Didn't I have enough pain already? Wait...what happened to the other pain? The one that came from the sickness...

I didn't give a shit at the moment. As a shot of sharp pain spread through my leg once more, I couldn't help but groan.

"Hey...she's waking up..." The pup's voice was starting to grow on me. It was kinda comforting, for some reason. I completely opened my eyes, greeted by two guys staring at me.

"What the hell are you gawking at?" I moaned. I felt drained of energy...dammit, of course I did. I'd been attacked by those knight thingies.

"Damn, you're a feisty one!" One of the guys turned away, shaking his head. There was this dog collar on his neck...made him look like an asshole dog (by the way, in real life, I don't hate dogs. Just letting you know.). I would've told him if it wasn't for that damn dullness and drowsiness. Looked like it showed, from the way the other guy's worried look.

"Hige!" The little guy gave an angry glance at the other. "Are you okay?" he asked. Damn, he had an innocent voice. Wait...Hige...I heard that name somewhere...dammit. I'm such an idiot sometimes. I'd talked to these guys earlier.

"Hey...I talked to you a while ago..." I said, still sounding drowsy. Damn it all...

"Oh...so you're that babe that gave me the death threat...." The guy with the dog collar looked a little disappointed...he must've been the fat pervert. I about was ready to kill him for calling me a babe.

"Shouldn't you be a little more worried about your leg?" The little guy just had to bring it up. Dammit, I was just getting my mind off of my injured leg. But as I slowly looked down, I saw why that little guy had cause for worry. The spear had left one hell of a deep wound that'd barely stopped bleeding. To me, though, it looked a lot worse than it was.

"Don't worry 'bout it..." Damn everything to hell...I still sounded weak. Of course I sounded weak...I felt weak. Just speaking was a pretty big of a drain on me. Damn.

"Yeah, after you get rid of about half of a noble's troops? I don't think so..." Whoa...did he mean those knights? How'd he know about that? "By the way, what's your name? Can't keep on referring to you as 'you'..."

I didn't feel like answering the question. Just falling asleep, then answering stuff later sounded good. I relaxed and willingly let my consciousness slip away again.

I finished this chapter at 12:29 A.M. I think you can kinda tell...

To my reviewers...boy, you don't know how good it feels to get reviews like that on your first fic. Really appreciate it, guys. (and to one of my reviewers, poohbear1990, to answer your question, I have no need for bishi guys. They must go...to HELL WITH THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE!!!). I'm finding it easy to imagine people reading this sweatdropping right now....sudden sugar high!!! (now would be a good time to read and review before I go hyper. That's hell. Trust me.)