To Cheza and Toboe, it was like the sky had melted. A pure, cerulean blue faced them like a wall as they turned. It was capped by a shifting, foaming white.

A pair of arms grasped her and lifted her off of her feet. She looked up long enough to recognize the curves of a jaw line that were Kiba's. Her stomach felt compressed as he leapt high into the air. She observed a tangle of branches and realized they had landed in a tree.

He pushed off again. Her head seemed to be swimming. She clutched him firmly and shut her eyes.

She soon lost track of how many times her warrior protector sprung from one perch to the next. On and on it seemed to go. Cheza could hear a rumbling like an earthquake more distinctively now. A misting foam settled on her face before Kiba pushed higher still.

Then, suddenly, the lurching sensations stopped. Cheza did not dare budge until Kiba finally spoke: "Open your eyes, Cheza."

She complied. They were again on a high incline; a ledge of some sort. She focused on the scene before her, still and mute.

The sky had not bled itself after all. Instead, she saw it was a broken wave that somehow illogically surged forward. It swallowed forest trees whole with only a rustle of protest from them. Wooden debris was scattered along the visible plane, seeming to indicate it had carried pieces of a town along with it.

Cheza pulled herself out her reverie enough to take further notice of her makeshift refuge. The cliff's edge was wide enough to easily accommodate all of the wolves. She could count all of them: Blue, Hige, Toboe, and Tsume, all in various poses of reaction to the scene below. Kiba remained unflinching by her side.

As the pack looked on uncertainly, it was in Tsume that she read the most confusion. Finally, his brow unfurrowed and he exhaled slowly. He saw her face, waiting, and he approached her, letting a broad paw rest on her shoulder.

"Who will you have left to lead, Flower Maiden?" There was nothing challenging in his tone.

"Our people live."

"How?" Challenged Blue.

"Look at us," Cheza reminded them. "We are here-without even a bruise on any of us. All we have had to do was follow the way God sent before us. The others have done the same."

Cheza thought of Maya in that moment. The woman was further inland than Cheza or the wolves were presently. It was entirely possible that that little haven, her cabin, was still intact. The maiden felt no sense of alarm towards any of the other refuges, either.

As she continued to survey the swirling wreckage, her mind worked ahead of the present moment. The pack would now have to push back further West before they could attempt to travel South.

Hige backed up from the pack to make room for himself. Earlier in the day, he had asked to borrow Cheza's sack. Having retained it as he scaled the cliff, he spread it open. Delighted, he savored the spoils he had scavenged: a banana and three pastries. His jaw was just opening when he glimpsed Kiba approaching from the side.

Kiba nudged him. Hige, mouth salivating, just managed to snap his jaws together before he sprinkled saliva all over a fruit muffin. He regarded Kiba uncertainly.

Kiba shook his head at Hige: No.

Hige responded with something as close to a glare as he could get. Still, he sighed and rolled onto his feet. He managed to smirk as he divided the food and presented it to Toboe and Cheza. For Blue, his smile was slow and tender. He then bolted to the opposite end of the cliff once more before she could piece together a thank-you.

Cheza took her share falteringly. She looked to see if the other wolves might benefit more from the little food Hige found, but already, Kiba was still gazing upon her firmly, shaking his head: No.

She reluctantly complied, and broke off a piece of pastry for herself. Its sweetness startled her. The sugared coating dissolved in her mouth as she chewed.

"We should find a way to keep moving," She volunteered.

Kiba motioned her to notice the other wolves. In his true form, Toboe was yawning; his front legs stretching before him as he leaned forward. They both noticed Blue as she strode to the opposite end of the cliff and reclined near Hige.

"Can we wait until early tomorrow?"

Cheza frowned. Even as the pack's nerves were settling, something seemed awry to her. As she scanned her environment, she noticed Toboe. He was leaning over the edge of the cliff, his snout close to the sticky-bubbled foam of the water; a foam that did not dissipate, like boiled syrup.

He seemed entranced by the rhythmic flow of the water. But he was forgetting caution. Cheza knew what was going to happen.

She broke into a sprint and reached the cliff's edge, scooping Toboe into her arms. Unlike her early days with them, the wolves could observe she was growing light and fast on her feet. She reached the end of the incline and pressed herself against Toboe, Toboe himself flat against a rock wall.

The water broke where Toboe had been daydreaming, and raged past the blockade, dousing the two in a thick mist.

Cheza finally pulled away. She, in turn, now seemed imperceptive to everything except her racing heart. In her daze, she finally felt someone's fingers slide across her cheek.

It was Toboe, taking on his human form. Then, he whisked his hand, water flying off. He was smiling.

It appeared that despite her covering him, some water had managed to settle on him, as well. She carefully grazed his forehead with her fingers, and then flicked off the water droplets.

He giggled. She laughed.

Hige had watched the whole scene from his place across the way. He jumped up in protest. He was about to exclaim, Hey, Runt! You think nearly losing your head is funny? when he saw Kiba raising a hand to him to keep his silence.

Cheza was growing again; this time in bravery. And Kiba's heart surged in realization of this.

What remained in life was a theatre piece depicting chaos. All hunted all: for sport, for aggression, for defense. It amused the creature.

The distinction between soldier and citizen was now blurred. Even if their resources were depleted, they could always turn upon each other for sustenance.

The Nobles, at least, pursued who they wanted with thought and care. If they could slip past these guerilla war zones unnoticed, they would be free to mouse for any straggling pockets of Christians, and wait for the moment when Earth was claimed for the best.

He held fast to his intellect, yet he could not help relishing his newer, baser instincts. A rustle in a bush could be picked up by his ears; the movement pushing the full fragrance of the animal upon him. Then it was seamless, there was no thought as his muscles would compress to crouch and push forward to lunge.

Reigning did not simply mean recalling the animals' strength. It meant taking the best of the animals to assume power. The creature marveled that no Noble but him had had the foresight for the commitment.

He yearned to take The Flower Maiden, and to snuff out the lives of the sad little pack she had wooed into joining her. But everything was close. The moment was approaching him.

Blue sat with her knees drawn in, surveying the newly-razed scene.

I am surviving, she reminded herself.

How does someone survive?

She lifted her head and sang.

The other wolves noted her crisp, alto voice as it vied for attention with the wind; "She spun a tale, around and 'round, with care to flatter me. And when she's done, we'd have some fun; the two of us were three."

Hige caught Toboe's smile. "You're not singing," the elder pointed out.

Toboe shrugged. "It's a girl's song."

Hige decided not to mention the song was intended for a male singer. "I can teach ya some songs, if y'd like."

It was not these songs of hope, the voices occasionally forgetting themselves and slipping into soft howls, which awakened Cheza. Instead, she felt a clinical coldness along her wrists, and the same frigid sensation creeping along the tips of her ears.

She dreamed she was bound by steel restraints; her just-curving body raised in a darkened laboratory. Adhesives with wires attached to them monitored her common instincts.

A man emerged from the shadows. He was beautiful; his complexion immaculate. Perhaps he was a noble. It was difficult to know for certain. She had difficulty taking in all of her environment, but she saw that he bore a prominent widow's peak and had an eye patch over his left eye.

"You have a belief in a god, and I respect that," the man explained. "You should know that it is not a god but you who has chosen to punish the world."

He threw his hand in the air, as if batting away an insect. Then, Cheza could see a globed instrument beneath her as it began to glow. She drew in her breath. Beneath her, she was privy to a scene of vibrant green foliage with a limpid river dividing the terrain. One orderly town after another flashed before her. She was able to glimpse the smiles of young people before the locations would shift to another.

"We had to use your gifts against your will to restore balance," the gentleman added. "Why don't you come down and accept your share in this? We have room for one such as you."

Cheza yearned for this sense of stability. She was worn out from the long hikes, and craved a home.

Is this Rakuen? She wondered.

"Will you come, Cheza?"

Cheza started at the sound of her own name. The man had not called her "this one".

Then, something reminded her, You have been asked this before.

She strained her eyes in the dim light to look the man in his one good eye. The man seemed to recognize this, and began to lift his eye patch in what she thought was an act of humility.

Still, something was wrong. This was not at all what her Heavenly Mother had described.

His eye was just so odd…

As he shifted his patch, Cheza managed to shout, "No!" with more force than she thought she was able.

The Noble jerked slightly in place, as if startled. Then, he distinctly glared at the girl. At this, his one uncovered eye began to glow. The darkness covered him like a garment, and Cheza heard a low growling…

A warm dampness covered her face. She frowned and opened her eyes. She was greeted not by a Noble, but by Kiba. He had kissed her awake, though now he had put on his human appearance.

"What was it?" he pressed her.

"A false promise."

"The other side is getting desperate."

"One of the keeps, the one owned by the Noble Darcia, just fell," Blue remarked.

Cheza stretched. "How do you know that?"

"Can't you smell that? It smells like rich stuff and old building parts," gawped Toboe.

"Kid, don't bring that up!" motioned Hige. "You know humans can't smell that well!"

Toboe retreated to Tsume, who groaned but said nothing.

"The ground," murmured Cheza. She was now peering over the side of the ledge.

"Right," agreed Tsume. She had just discovered that the waters had frozen over entirely.

"Is it safe to cross?" she pursued.

Tsume smirked, "If Lardo can make it over fine, it's gonna be no problem for the rest of us."

"But that's not safe," Cheza interjected. "If the ice breaks, how would any of us rescue him?"

"We can't stay up here," Kiba replied. "You had said it yourself yesterday." He paused before adding, "That wouldn't be safe."

Cheza looked to her pack. The two elder wolves nodded in agreement. Blue even managed to almost appear calm about the arrangement.

"Okay!" grinned Hige, "Time to go!" He clapped his "hands" together and then brushed them back and forth. He made a show to everyone as he rubbed his head against Blue's. Blue looked away, her tanned human skin revealing sanguine shades around her cheeks.

Just before he reached the edge, he pressed his mouth to the side of Cheza's face in a human kiss. Then, almost nonchalantly, he dropped.

Despite her misgivings, she found herself compelled to peer over the ravine. Hige was easing his way down the incline, one jutted rock at a time. When his feet made contact with the ice, he held himself rigidly and pointed his nose forward. Then, he proceeded, his steps calculated and his movements deliberate.

In little time, his features blended with the white of the ice and the grey of the sky. Cheza caught herself squinting as she watched what remained of him recede in her field of vision.

"It's fine!" Hige bellowed. The new landscape amplified his voice, providing a slight echo. Cheza started.

"How do you know?" she hollered back. She caught the phrase "…you know?" traveling back to her as if the sky itself were taking a halfhearted interest in following the conversation.

"It all smells of ice! Look!" He leapt high into the air. Cheza estimated that his legs must have been twelve feet from solid ground before gravity took hold again.

"Hige!" she shrieked in alarm.

Even as his name was finished being called, he landed, albeit awkwardly. His legs did not support him, and with the sleekness of the ice, they went from under him; his "hands" catching him before he could fall straight on his back. Feeling the force of the impact, he laid upon the ice, laughing at his own tomfoolery as he occasionally groaned.

For his own part, Tsume had watched more than his fill of foolishness. "Just don't go anywhere," he called.

"…where," the sky concurred.

"Come on," he muttered, eyeing the remaining clan.

Kiba's "arms" enclosed Cheza. He was lifting her now without being asked to.

Tsume being first, they made their descent.

Nothing was of a surprise to Cheza any longer. If Spring became Winter, then deserts could transform themselves into jungles. Autumn could become Summer. No man-made clock could predict whether day or night was upon her.

So it did not amaze her when despite the appearance of a frozen tundra, she did not feel very cold. Her rose-colored cloak, quickly becoming her own emblem, sufficed for protection against the elements.

But the day did not seem to offer Cheza any solace. For the young woman who was usually quiet but of good spirit, she was observed displaying a somber countenance, holding on to the makeshift rosary that a man from one of the safehouses had fashioned for her. It was really just a threaded cord with knots representing each prayer to be said. Still, she made good use of it.

"Please tell me I have misunderstood you, Mother," she plead softly as she proceeded alongside her companions. The wolves eyed each other, but did not remark.

Cheza bowed her head. She was still speaking, still praying, but her words were coming out rapidly, almost indiscernibly. They elided into each other, and looped back to the beginning.

It was making Toboe nervous. He finally ran from behind and exclaimed, "What's wrong?"

Cheza looked to him and smiled in a way he had never seen before. It looked as if the act pained her. She touched the side of his face. Her eyes shone briefly with unfallen human tears.

"We will have to separate," she explained.

Blue turned quizzically. Hige appeared wounded; his head cocked, his lips parted slightly as if stuck in midsentence. Tsume stared in disbelief until Cheza noticed him doing so. Then he quickly looked away, clearing his throat.

"It is just for a little while!" Cheza assured Toboe.

"We are a pack," Kiba reminded her.

"I know." She paused before continuing, "I think it is up to us to be there when God awakens Paradise. The others will follow. Even when a pack is banded, the members disburse then reunite when they each have jobs to do. Is that not right?"

"If it were a normal pack in a normal place," Hige brought up to her, waiving his hand back to showcase the frigid landscape. "An' it's not!"

"If it's what God wants, there has to be a good reason," Kiba reasoned. "We might increase our chances of surviving if we are not all in one spot if a Noble finds us."

"You two will go? And then we'll follow?" Restated Tsume.

"Yes," replied Cheza, "God never breaks His Promises."

"How do you know?"

Cheza brought part of what she had been handling up to eye level with Tsume.

At the center of her cord rosary, there were knots which shaped a cross.

The farewells struck Tsume as being unremarkable, even for a wolf who seldom voiced his emotions. Still, he would have said something to Cheza, had the efficient Kiba allowed the time for it.

Tsume had recalled his mistakes; they were incarnate to him in the glare of a fellow wolf or the startled countenance of a boy. For a time, Tsume could not shut out of his mind the echo of the boy's shouts just as he slipped from the wolf's grasp.

But there was Cheza. Cheza had said that Rakuen was to be a place of new beginnings. She said that God forgave when someone confessed.

He sighed as he recalled her informed optimism. He didn't know how he fit into this grand picture that the wolves were supposed to live, but he did know that he wanted a part in a place where there was a future.

When Cheza had said goodbye to the other wolves, she had looked to Hige the longest. He smiled at her, puzzled, and finally asked, "Whaaaht?"

"You will see," she responded formally.

As it happened, he did not have to wait long to learn what she meant.

He smelled him first; dried blood and old human sweat which commingled with the varying components of the dirt which once covered the plain.

Toboe spotted him before anyone else, and certainly before he had noticed the group. Even in their human form though, a youthful gang would stand out starkly against what was otherwise a blank canvas.

Tsume leaned in towards the other wolves. He spoke without moving his lips. "Just wait him out. Stay calm about it. If he becomes aggressive, then we attack."

Blue gave a brief toss of her head in assent, as if throwing the hair back from her face. Hige stood attentively. Tobe made elaborate skirting motions with his legs to seem casual. After a few moments, he looked to Tsume for approval. In his innocent eagerness, he looked like the boy.

Tsume did not look away. He spoke directly to Toboe, and to his own nightmare, "Steady."

And the man did approach. Any man would have been bewitched by the sight of kids and young adults on their own in a newly barren area, seemingly oblivious to the cold. The wolves noticed the straight path he toward them once they were in his field of vision, as if his mind could only hold a single thought in it at a time. Still, his footing on the ice was unsure, and it impacted his pace. As a figure on the horizon, he slipped twice, his chin just missing contact with the ice.

When he was capable of being sized up, it merely confirmed what the wolves' senses had already observed. He was gaunt and grimy. Blue tried not to grimace at the scent of polluted air and human refuse he carried with him. His cheekbones were carved in like a yield sign, back when those had existed. Yet all of his features were secondary to his mien.

His washed blue eyes were slightly bloodshot. His skin, pink and white, looked chapped from the cold, yet he did not seem to notice it. He did not seem to register any of the abuses placed upon his body, and barely responded to the cold gusts of wind which swept across his face.

By the time he was twelve feet from them, the wolves' semicircle opened, as if they had just noticed his approach. The man had halted, staring blankly towards them.

Hige feigned friendliness. "Hey," he called with shrug. The rest of the wolves mimicked a halfhearted acceptance of his presence without speaking.

The man's eyes bulged. "Wolf!"

The wolves looked at each other. Blue permitted herself a chuckle while Toboe smiled.

"Ya think y' saw a wolf somewhere, eh?" Hige called back.

"Wolf!" the man repeated with fervor. He pointed straight to Hige. The mark on his hand was visible to everyone.

"I'm wolf?" Hige tapped his chest. "You're about two decades too late to catch one."

Tsume broke character first. He intuited what was about to transpire. "Watch"-he began to shout.

And the man lunged forward. His mouth opened as though he was trying to scream in attack, but all he produced were gurgling noises from the back of his throat. This gesture from such a physically weak person might have seemed harmless, or would have even further amused the wolves, except that the hand which bore the familiar symbol had slipped into the pocket of his jacket.

Hige yanked the enemy's arm back faster than he could react. An impressively long and sharp blade from a penknife was being clutched by the guilty hand.

Being so outnumbered, the wolves' attack against the errant man lasted only a few moments. Tsume would have gladly silenced his obnoxious cries, but Hige and Blue had already set to the task of defending themselves. Tsume could have assured himself and Toboe that the aggressor's pain was over, but the wolf knew that a worse suffering was awaiting him.

So there was nothing left to be done. Except…

"He only went for you."

"What?" Hige had placed a "hand" on Toboe's shoulder and was ushering him away from the bloodied remains. At the sound of Tsume's voice, he turned to face his pack member.

"The human just went for you. He didn't seem too interested in the rest of us."

"Yeah…" As realization of that truth broke upon Hige, he slowly shook his head. "How 'bout that."

"Why?" Tsume pursued.

"He was crazy from the chip," Blue broke in, a touch of defensiveness in her gaze. She had allowed herself to appear as a human again, and after a moment's recognition, the other wolves saw the color drain from her face.

"The chip," she quietly reiterated.

Tsume tried to follow her train of thought. Something had to have shaken Blue; she seemed to have arrived at a conclusion, while Tsume wrestled with several ideas about Hige's sudden appeal to the enemy.

"We should see if there are others coming," she declared.

"You think you know why it happened."

Blue nodded.

"Then take care of it if you can. Toboe and I will go look."

Hige was facing Blue. "So what is it?" he wondered to her.

"Where did you get your collar?"

"I dunno." Even though he was picking at the corner of his sweatshirt, Blue knew he was telling the truth.

She watched him for a moment before continuing, "Before you joined us, what were you doing?"

"You mean every day, or just before?"

"Well, I meant every day; but was there something special happening just before you met Kiba?"

He ignored the second half of her question. "Before I met you, I was traveling. You know that."

"What about before that?"

Hige tried to smile, but Blue's sober face withered even his usual blithe disposition. "I don't really remember," he admitted, "I've been hiding in the cities for a long time now."

"Take off your collar," she ordered with a sense of urgency.

Hige thought better than to argue the point with her. He even restrained himself from joking as he began to pull at the artificial leather. "It not coming off," he muttered. Inexplicably, a low ringing sounded in his ears. He dropped the collar from his paws and mouth. The Emergency Broadcast Non-Melody halted. Nervously, Hige swallowed.

Blue was already gesturing him to follow her. Suddenly, she was back in her wolf-dog form. "Let's find a way to make you free of this."

Why? How? Where? Hige wanted to ask, but he was getting apprehensive for the answer.

Blue and Hige were light on their feet as they raced across the tundra. Hige recalled the leaping flight of deer, though he did not know from when. Despite their grace, wolves were always quieter on their feet than deer. Even heavy-set Hige could evade their detection until it was too late for them to successfully escape.

He was still trying to recall more of his past. He could remember being introduced to the scent of the collar as it was fitted around his neck, but when he pushed further to think of the face who had collared him, or where he had been at the time, all he could connect to was the roar of a subway train, the wind of it striking his face as he walked past the port in a human guise.

Blue panted generously as she stopped by a piece of metal protruding from the ice. Hige was close behind her, and it did not take long for him to recognize it as being sharp. It could have been a beam from a former building, or a car part that had refused to sink, he reasoned. Regardless, he understood, and stood to full human height to force his collar over it.

The ringing was now a clamoring. The area behind his eyelids and in his sinuses throbbed. He tried not to flinch before the gentle-yet-strong Blue.

Greater than the pain, greater even than his willingness to impress Blue, was his desire to run free from the waste and emptiness surrounding him. He wondered about himself, but all he saw was wandering without purpose; hiding in plain view. Being no one.

He threw his weight against the metal. It felt as though his skull was being compressed. His vision blurred to one mass of grey, so he shut his eyes. The looping noise grew to an electrical shriek. It was intolerable. The collar was cutting off his air supply. He managed to cough in his little white-washed torture chamber. Then, the sound of a tear was just detectable above the screeching and drilling. He collapsed; the collar slipping from his neck.

Wind. There was the sound of wind, and nothing more. He felt dampness, and knew his companion was tenderly nudging him. Hige opened his eyes. Blue was holding the remnants of his collar. He dared to sit up. As he pushed himself forward, he the world did not spin with him. He was fine.

On the ground, the cheap metal "X" had snapped in half. Circuitry was exposed. Curiosity overcame Hige, and he picked off a piece of the metal. The electronics stuck out in a clumsy, awkward way. It wasn't The Chip. It didn't matter, though, he recognized. It was human; that was enough.

He scanned the horizon for another animal to replace him as a lab rat or a guinea pig-whatever it was the humans had slipped to him. But even as he ruminated the solution of pushing the problem away and on to someone else, he began imagining the human device active and out in the world. There was enough waste.

He pulled out the circuit and showed Blue before he crunched it satisfyingly in the palm of his closed hand.

Blue hadn't known what to expect from Hige. But she had innocently hoped he would look to her and flash one of his grins. She had hoped he would seem relieved after his ordeal ended.

Instead, after he had crushed the circuit they had found in his collar, he withdrew several feet, sitting with his knees drawn in. Blue observed this, and let some time pass before she approached him.

He didn't look up, didn't acknowledge her as she walked toward him and stood next to him, crossing her arms. She fought against her restlessness. Has another minute passed? She waited for a few beats. How many now? she wondered silently.

Blue finally spoke: "Should we go find Tsume and Toboe?"

She thought she saw him blink.

Finding how unproductive her first tactic was, she declared, "It's over. It's done. And we have to keep moving. So let's go."

But without the numbing effects of human technology, Hige recalled his sins. His mind was painting the features of each member of his first pack. He remembered their bodies growing limp when they were hunted down for sport. And instead of howling, instead of snapping when the humans stroked his coat in appreciation, he downed the rich food they brought him in mass supply. He could bury these days, these memories, he knew. He could push them down until it would almost be like they had never existed.

"I was tagged, an' I betrayed my clan!" Hige shot at her. "So what do you even know about running?"

Blue clenched her "fists" and stared him down. "Everything I thought I was was a lie. My family's dead and my Pops could be out there in this cold all by himself. But you know what? I'm free. Cheza was right. Forgiveness is real, if you ask for it. And it's you that I want, if that matters to you anymore."

Hige turned his head to her. There were a few things he could hold on to, and all of them interconnected with each other. There was still God. Hige believed in Rakuen. And there was Blue. It wasn't the attraction of her form or even her alluring scent that defined how he viewed her. It was love.