Wolf's Rain: Pack of Outcasts

Chapter 12- Pack of Outcasts

This has been a long time coming, sorry for the delay, I blame life -_-

Though like y'all must suspect by now. I don't have much of a life.

"FLURRIE! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Tobi shrieked at the top of his lungs.

"Flurrie?!" The rest of the pack hollered in unison. They slowly fanned out, keeping within sight of each other. Tobi stuck his nose to the ground, trying to find a scent trail. The only scent he could find was along the way they had all come.

"Shiego?" Tobi came to a stop. "I don't know but I can't find her scent." He lowered his head. "It's like she just vanished."

"I thought you said you could follow her?"

"Yes… but I can only smell the path we came along."

"So? What if she went back the same way, did you consider that?"

"No I didn't" Tobi perked up at the thought.

"Well what are waiting for then? Get a 'tracking."

"Right away!" Tobi barked as he stuck his nose back to the ground and took off after his nose.

The rest of the pack filed in behind the midnight wolf. Tib took up a spot next to Tobi and started tracking alongside the younger wolf. Shiego trotted closely behind the two other wolves, keeping his eye out for the young she-wolf that had taken off when the two groups ran across each other.

Flurrie ran as fast as her feet could carry her. She was terrified. They had come across the wolf of her nightmares, the dreaded Demon. She couldn't help but run, leaving the pack behind to whatever fate would befall them. She tore through the brush, jerking her head to the side as a branch sliced her cheek. She wasn't sure where to run so she just tried to remember the way they had come as best she could. The last thing she wanted was to end up back with the others at this point. From time to time she could hear someone calling her name on the wind. She would just run faster, there was no point in stopping. To do so would be the end, like it had to have been for the rest of the pack. She felt sorry for them, abandoning them like this but it was every wolf for herself in a situation like this.

"Come on Flurrie, where are you heading…" Tiberius mumbled to himself as the group trotted along. They were making decent time but he feared they still weren't closing the gap between themselves and the frightened she-wolf. They needed to pick up the pace if they ever hoped to catch up.

"Come on, we need to go faster!" Tobi whined, "The scents fading!" He said with a hint of confusion. Why would it be fading so fast? He started to veer left and right, crossing the main scent trail along both sides as he tried to stay on track.

"Tobi… what are you…" Shiego started, getting cut off.

"I can't find it! I CAN'T!" Tobi started panicking. He started running in circles with his nose to the ground. Dashing here and there for the missing scent.

"Enough Tobi. Sit down right now." Tib ordered, the pup was starting to make things more difficult than they had to be.

"But… but…."

"Now!"

Tobi quickly sat on his haunches, clamming his mouth shut.

"Shiego, I'm sorry for all this…. But I don't know what to do right now? The scent is too faded. I fear she's getting further away the longer we go." Tib explained.

Shiego listened carefully, then put his nose to the ground. Working in an ever increasing circular pattern as he searched for scent.

"Shiego?"

"Ssh…"

Tib remained silent, watching the alpha work. Suddenly he made a sharp deviation from his path, leading away from the group and started to pick up the pace.

"Come on, this way everyone!" Tsume ordered, getting everyone's attention.

The pack turned as a unit at the silver wolfs order. Filing in behind the white wolf. Shiego zig-zagged his way from side to side along the trail, each pass getting closer together as he honed in on the scent.

"What's he doing?" Sasha broke the silence.

"Ssh… he's tracking." Toboe whispered to the female. She was just slightly older than himself, but he felt as if his journey with Shiego and the rest of the pack had made him wiser beyond his years. At least he hoped he was wiser. Better not let Tsume pick up on that, or that'd be an argument just waiting to happen. Still, it felt strange being with these other wolves. He, Tsume and Ciri had only known Shiego for several months, and even then he would rarely open up to any of them about the past. These other wolves quite literally were the past. Having lived with and alongside the mysterious white wolf. He had his secrets, but yet, these strangers knew the answers to so many of those secrets. No, they weren't strangers, they were family. He knew that deep down inside, he just had to get used to the feeling.

"Hurry up Toboe!" Ciri hollered back. The pack had picked up pace and was quickly leaving the runt behind as he was lost in his thoughts.

"Hey, wait up. I'm coming." He barked, racing to catch up to the others, his bracelets clanging against each other as he ran.

What was that? Flurry could hear distant voices, they sounded faded and far away, carried on the night breeze. She couldn't make out what they were saying, if it was anything at all. She didn't really want to stick around to find out. Where to now? She knew she couldn't keep going on like this forever, she was already starting to get worn out. Okay, she'd change direction, maybe double back and try to lose them? I would work, wouldn't it? She had run out of options, she felt as if she was running to her death. She shivered at the thought of the terrible end the rest of the pack must have suffered. That's i? Flurry could hear distant voices, they sounded faded and far away, carried on the night breeze. She couldn't make out what they were saying, if it was anything at all. She didn't really want to stick around to find out. Where to now? She knew she couldn't keep going on like this forever, she was already starting to get worn out. Okay, she'd change direction, maybe double back and try to lose them? I would work, wouldn't it? She had run out of options, she felt as if she was running to her death. She shivered at the thought of the terrible end the rest of the pack must have suffered. That's it, there was no escape, and she might as well meet her fate head on, go down fighting. At least then she'd know she at least tried. Flurrie turned towards the voices, they were still getting closer, but were still indistinguishable to her ears. She took one hesitant step forward…

"EEeeekkK!"

Flurrie cried out as the ground gave way under her front paws. She could feel the branches and rocks scratch against her body as she fell into the sinkhole that had become covered by debris over the years. She hit the bottom of the pit. It wasn't too deep. She looked up, the edge was only about two lengths high, I should be able to jump that she thought to herself. She tried to get up.

"Ow…"

Fire burned in her hind leg she put pressure on it. She must have hurt it in the fall. She tried to place it on the ground as gently as possible. Nope, that still hurt, she must have sprained it. Dang, this was not the way she wanted to go. She limped back and forth, clawing at the walls in an effort to get out. It was no use, she was trapped. It would only be a matter of time before it would all be over. She laid down, shaking at the thought. Off in distance she could hear the soft constant chime of metal striking metal. Suddenly it all stopped, everything was quite. She strained to hear anything. She slowly stood up, looking up to the edge of the pit.

"D….de…..demon!?" She stuttered, terrified of the white wolf that looked down at her from the edge of the pit. The moonlight glistening on his fur, sending a ghostly aura of light to appear to emanate from his body. She focused on the scar such a stark contrast to the rest of the wolf, appearing as a black hole in the dark were she knew the eye was boring out at her. She stumbled back against the wall. Gritting her teeth as pain shot up her leg again. The wolf deftly leapt down into the hole, standing put a tails length away from her. She tried to disappear into the dirt walls that entrapped her, staring wide-eyed at the ghostly wolf across from her.

"You're hurt." The words felt as cold as ice, but yet they weren't what she had expected him to saw…. Actually she hadn't expected him to saw anything. Maybe just laugh menacingly or snarl as he went for the kill. It caught her off guard.

"Stay back!" She whined, closing her eyes and slumping to the ground, covering her head with the paws.

"It alright now, we'll get you out of here everything will be okay."

"LIAR!" She shouted at the top of her voice, glaring back at the wolf in the pit with her. "Get away from me!"

"Flurrie come on you can trust me."

"Never! You killed my friends!"

"Your friends? You mean Tiberius and the others?"

"YES! And know you've come after me. Just get it over with!" She cowered at the impending doom.

"Flurrie…." It was Tobi's voice.

She looked up, the black pup standing just behind the other wolf. It couldn't be him, she must be seeing things.

"No! You're not real… you can't be!?"

"Flurrie it's me, Tobi…" He walked up and placed his nose up against her cheek.

She could feel the warmth of his breath against her fur, the wetness of his nose as her planted a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"But… but…." She stumbled to find the right words.

"This is Shiego… my…OUR alpha." Tobi reassured her, motioning to the wolf that waited patiently of to the side.

"But… I don't understand. What about Demon?"

"I am Demon." Shiego spoke up. "He and I are the same. Though I fear the stories you might have heard may have gotten a bit exaggerated."

"You're not… not a…"

"Ghost? Thankfully no. But we do need to get you out of here. Can you stand up?"

"Yes, but I hurt my leg. I don't think I can jump out." She looked up, the pit encircled by many faces. She could see the concern in Sasha's face, Tiberius was there too. And there was a few faces that she didn't quite recognize.

"Well if you can stand, we can do the jumping." Shiego looked to Tobi, cluing him in.

"Uh, yeah. Sure thing." Tobi hesitantly agreed, a grin spreading across his face.

"Hate to crash your party but…" Tsume interrupted.

Shiego looked up.

"CLEAR!" The silver wolf hollered. Sending a good sized log tumbling into the pit with the three wolves.

"Hey! Watch it!" Shiego barked.

"I said clear." Tsume smirked.

"Ugh… ok Flurrie start climbing, Tobi and I will help you out where we can."

"Um, okay" Flurrie placed one paw nervously on the log.

"I'm right here." Tobi reassured her, stepping up beside her.

"Well that was an adventure." Tsume mumbled to no one in particular as they all lay around resting.

"But it was worth well worth it." Tobi tried to scold the older wolf, receiving a disgusted look in return.

Ciri sat off next to Flurrie. She had helped fix her up as best she could, tasking the younger males to digging up some cool flat rocks to help with the swelling. It was definitely a sprain, but nothing that she couldn't handle. She figured they'd be back and ready to travel in a day or two. And she'd make sure Shiego didn't go anywhere until the pup was ready to travel.

"Whatcha doing?" The young sienna wolf piped up, trotting over.

"Hmm… oh nothing much."

"Are you Shiego's mate?" Sasha asked rather bluntly.

"His what? Oh no, nothing like that." Ciri replied, quite taken aback by the younger females rather pointed question.

"His girlfriend?" Sasha cocked her to one side, lifting a questioning eyebrow.

"No, not that either."

"Well why not?"

"Well…. I don't…"

"I can tell you why." Shiego cut in having overheard Sasha's question. Subtly wasn't her strong point, making the whole pack knowledgeable of her question the moment she asked it.

Oh dear, this wasn't going to end well Ciri thought to herself. He's going to say something that I'll make him regret later she thought quietly to herself.

"Well come on! Why isn't she your girlfriend?"

"Because it's too dangerous. I have a pack to take care of and I can't afford to be distracted. Were just good friends."

"Hmmm…." Sasha thought about the answer she had gotten.

"Now go and play or something… Let Ciri tend to Flurrie in peace. You'll have plenty of time later to get to know each other as we travel."

"Oh, okay." Sasha perked up, virtually forgetting her earlier question altogether. She dashed off to screw around with Tobi and Ember, after all they looked just as bored as she did.

"Well you handled that better than I thought." Ciri said, half scolding.

"Well… How were you going to handle it?" Shiego joked back, laughing as he watched Sasha trying to get the boys to play.

"Well…. I don't know, and I guess we'll never find out now will we." She stood up and turned to walk away. She let her tail brush up under his chin as she walked off, allowing it to linger just for a second before she pulled it away teasingly. "You'll never know."

Shiego: HEY LOOK! ANOTHER CHAPTER!

Sierra: Well duh, what's it look like a recipe -_-

Shiego: I wouldn't know… Though by the looks of it I'd say you're a recipe for disaster.

Sierra: Hey, you watch your tongue there mister.

Shiego: Watch MY tongue? You've got to be kidding.

Sierra: Why's tha….. EWWW GROSS! You get back here! You're in trouble NOW!

Shiego: Hope you enjoyed the read everyone, catch ya later, bye!

Well I know it's been a long time since I've written a chapter but I just haven't been that motivated to write due to some things going on in my life. Life has gotten exponentially better in the last couple weeks and is only looking up from here so I committed to 200 words a day. Though I wrote the last 1700 words in one sitting ^_^ I will be splitting my time between this story and another one that will be coming soon. The plot's done, needs a title and for me to sit down and turn out the first chapter or two. So keep an eye out for that. Remember to Fave, Review and Follow!

And I do read your reviews, so feel free to leave me feedback, it's how I get better faster!