Here we go again! Chapter three! Woohoo!
"Care to explain any of this to me?" I finally spoke up after running silently next to Hige for over an hour. The pack, which I couldn't quite bring myself to think of as including me, had left the domed city far behind and were now galloping over the hard packed earth of a looming forest. Frost had worked its way into the dirt's bones, it seemed, as every step brought a shock of frigid cold to my paw pads.
"Explain what? It's pretty self explanatory. We run around for a bit and then find Paradise. Simple."
"But how am I supposed to help you find it? It seems to me that I'm running at the back of the pack, not the front." I realized how that sounded. "Not that I want to be up there, I mean. I have no idea where we're going, and I don't even believe in our destination."
"It's not really about finding Paradise right now," Hige said.
"Then what are you looking for?" I asked, confused.
"A lunar flower. She's the one who is supposed to lead us there."
"She? How can a flower be a she?"
Hige shrugged. "I dunno. I don't even know if a lunar flower can be a person. But Kiba is convinced that he remembers a lunar flower girl that can show us the way." He shrugged again. "Kiba's been right about everything so far, so I guess he must be right. But I've never heard of something like her. She's lost somewhere, Kiba says, and we can't find Paradise without her. Kiba's instincts must not be enough."
"Remembers her? Like, from a dream?" A lunar flower girl? This Paradise myth was getting stranger and stranger.
"I guess so," Hige assumed.
"And how am I supposed to help with this?" I asked. I knew of no flower girl.
"You probably can't," Hige said amiably, a smile creeping into his voice. "I just thought it was a good excuse to have you tag along." He winked.
I groaned. "Being sexist again, are we, Hige?"
"All the time," the other wolf laughed.
"Well, then," I countered, "You'll have to be good enough company that I don't regret the decision to be dragged after you guys."
"Trust me; that I can accomplish." He flashed me a cocky wolf grin – how he replicated human expressions so well was beyond me – and fell back into a silent run, leaving me to mull over what he had said and my place in all of this.
I had decided to come along without really thinking about it – I had been caught up in the notion of going somewhere and accomplishing something. It wasn't the lure of Paradise, a place I was sure didn't exist, but maybe I was a bit lonely. Even if I felt awkward in a pack full of wolves that could be human in appearance any time they liked, at least I wasn't rejected here as humans rejected wolves. Even if Tsume did hate me, it wasn't the same. I halfway belonged here.
But still, this mission sounded completely insane, to put it bluntly. Kiba seemed more and more bent on fairy tales every day; forget what I had said about his possible intelligence. Now we were chasing a flower that might just exist and maybe might just be a girl, too? This goal was even more far-fetched than Paradise itself. If some such girl existed, why didn't she come and find us? And where was Kiba getting all of this information, anyway? If he was leading us from some dream, then I was wary of his leadership skills. No one else seemed to doubt him, though; well, except Tsume. But Tsume was the exception to everything.
As I pounded along behind the pack, I wondered how much of their day was spent dashing aimlessly towards some distant fixture of the land. Did we even have a concrete goal? Not used to all of this strain, I was beginning to tire. Not to tire like a human might – wolves are built for stamina – but to feel a weary ache in my bones that was creeping in and settling down to haunt me. And the silence they kept up was unnerving. They weren't a chatty bunch, but couldn't they at least say a word to each other every now and then? Buy maybe it was just me, who never got to talk to anyone, that wanted to talk.
Hige had stopped talking, but I decided to start up our conversation again and maybe get some answers. "Hige, where are we going?" I asked bluntly. "And please don't say something about Kiba's instincts. Are we going somewhere in particular?"
Hige looked over at me, an amused expression stretching across his face. "Yeah, we're going somewhere." As he left it at that, I felt inclined to push on.
"Do you know where?"
Hige shrugged. "Not really." His words made me want to throw human hands up in exasperation. Didn't I just say not to say something so abstract? "We're following the scent of the lunar flowers."
The statement made me want to stop up short. More legendary references? We were never going to get anywhere. But Hige wasn't done talking. "Every so often we'll catch the scent and follow it to wherever it leads. Kiba says that, since the flower maiden is a lunar flower, we'll find her wherever the flowers are. Can't you smell it?"
I inhaled after he said so, but even before I did I knew I wouldn't smell anything. I hadn't noticed any scents like that before. "Uh, no."
Hige looked at me curiously. "Must be a bad nose." I supposed that it was a valid reason – not that I had anything to compare my nose to, but it didn't seem very reliable. "Well, the scent's pretty faint right now, anyway. Even I'm having trouble getting it." He flashed me a self-confident grin and I rolled my eyes. So typical of him.
The minutes rolled into hours as I ran mindlessly behind the pack, and my thoughts dulled into a soft, tired commotion that I paid no attention to. I was so lost in the rhythmic thud of my own paws that I almost didn't catch Tsume's mutter.
"I know this place," he said, voice quiet as if he hadn't meant to say the words aloud.
I looked up as he spoke, and the growing speck of a city we had been running towards was looming in front of the pack, consuming our vision with its magnitude. It was much different from my own domed city; not that that surprised me. Domed cities had been something of a last shot of protection against our deteriorating, unpredictable atmosphere, but when they didn't work many of them had been torn down and replaced by other strange attempts at defensive cities. The new cities being built were always odd contraptions, misshapen and unusual. The humans tried everything to save themselves from the world around them – giant veils, domed cities, even underwater tank cities. None of it worked, but it didn't stop them. Humans are desperate creatures.
This city, however, was surprisingly normal, if not plain. It was obviously an old structure – it was very black and made almost completely of gothic spires that rose above flatter, mundane squares. The spires may have served some function, but I didn't see any humans stationed anywhere on them. In fact, I didn't see anyone at all. I glanced at Tsume, but he wasn't doing any explaining of his earlier statement, just staring up at the city.
Straight to the point, Kiba asked, "You know this place?" His eyes held veiled interest.
Tsume looked at him, a faintly sour look on his face. "Yes," he answered shortly, but there was a slight reluctance in his voice. Without waiting for some comment from Kiba, he pressed on, "You want to go in, don't you?"
"The scent of the flowers is strongest there." It was no yes or no answer, but it was clear from the steady determination on Kiba's face that he planned on leading us in there.
Tsume shook his head. "Follow me." I was beginning to realize that he looked permanently disgusted. Kiba let him pass and Tsume lead the pack forward and into the city through two exceptionally spindly towers. No city inhabitant stirred as we entered, and I was becoming increasingly suspicious of the place. But even without people, I had to be a forward thinker. What about when we did meet the people here? The rest of the pack would be able to act as a human, but I would stick out.
The pack had settled into a tighter group, which made me feel uncomfortably unsure of myself (what if they didn't want to walk this close to me? They hardly knew me!). But it gave me an excellent opportunity to talk to Kiba without having to run after him and flag him down. I felt another twinge of discomfort as I turned to him; I had never really talked to him before, so I didn't know what he thought of me. What if he saw me as an unacceptable tick riding on his pack? But I pushed those thoughts down; I wasn't usually so unconfident, and I didn't need to hesitate now.
"Kiba?" I started. He turned to look at me as we walked, but didn't say anything. "What about hiding me from the humans? If you want to keep a low profile, having me hang out with you won't be a good thing."
Kiba looked like he was about to reply when Tsume cut in. "It doesn't matter," he said, obviously scornful of my concern. "It's probably best that we all remain as wolves."
What did that mean? Were there no humans here? It certainly didn't look like there were – maybe that was what he meant. But I doubted that I was right. The wolves seemed to have a handle on the situation and a knowledge about what was going on that escaped me. That sort of confidence was a resulted from their belief in their fantasy, I supposed, but I still envied them.
Kiba gave Tsume a considering look but didn't say anything. He was so unlike me, I noted absently as I walked behind the pack. If I were him and running this operation, I would have had Tsume telling all by now. I had a thousand questions, and I didn't even have much of a clue what was going on. I imagined that the pack must be burning up with curiosity by now. Hige and Toboe, at least, were staring blankly at Tsume. Obviously, they didn't know anything about this.
Tsume lead us into one of the squat, square black buildings that dominated the city floor. The city was all made up of nondescript squares, I noticed; these short little buildings were perfectly square and so plain that one could easily miss the door. Even the roads ran in a square, uniform pattern that I assumed was the same throughout the city. The only things that stood out, literally, were the seemingly useless spires that pierced the sky.
As we pushed through the short little door, nothing heralded our appearance. No humans rushed at us, no guns rang out. In fact, it was completely dark. But I didn't need light to see that the entire building was empty. There was not much anyone could have fit in there anyway; its appearance from the outside was deceiving. It was incredibly small in here.
"What's in here, Tsume?" Toboe asked, curiosity in his voice.
"Our door," was Tsume's only reply. Ah. So this was only an entrance to wherever we were going. But if so, where could this door possibly lead? Back outside? And what about all of the other buildings? Was there anything in them?
I heard a sudden bang and jerked reflexively, startled. It was just Tsume, though, yanking back a trapdoor with his human hands. The door sprung open and then clattered back to the floor, revealing yet another square. Only, this square was a hole in the ground, and faint light glowed out of the opening. "Down we go," Tsume commanded, and to my surprise, Kiba didn't object. By the way he scented, though, I guessed that he smelled something. And knowing our journey, it was probably a lunar flower.
The scent hit me, too, as the wolves shuffled towards the entrance to who-knew-where. It was faint, but it was definitely unlike anything I had ever smelled before and irresistibly alluring. No wonder Kiba runs after this stuff all the time, I thought wonderingly. It was like a drug.
"Is this it?" Toboe's voice again, only this time he sounded thoroughly awed. I caught Hige's expression in the dimness and even he looked surprised. I thought I knew what he was thinking, 'It's this easy? This is Paradise?' Kiba's face was carefully restrained, but it looked like he knew something the others didn't. Like he knew that this hole in the ground couldn't possibly be Paradise. Me? My blood was seething beneath my skin in an unexpected reaction to the flower scent. My heart rate was even speeding up in something I could only call hope. Wait. Hope? I didn't believe in this place. Disgusted at the drug's effect on me, I shook my head slightly and watched as the others transformed back to humanity.
"Not quite," Tsume said gruffly, and my spirits fell. Thank you, I thought dryly. I hadn't enjoyed having my emotions run rampant on me. With them subdued, I felt more in control of myself.
Tsume stepped over the lip of the hole and disappeared. I felt surprised for a moment. What about the humans? How did they get down without seriously injuring themselves? The wolves could simply jump down without risk, but if there was no way down for normal people…but this was assuming that there were humans here. I couldn't shake the assumption, though, even if there was no evidence of human life in this old city.
The others followed suit, and I quickly found myself shoving myself through the hole. It wasn't made big enough for someone with four legs, I thought absently. But I slipped through without much trouble. On the way down my hind leg scraped against something cold and distinctly rusty – ah. So there was a ladder.
I landed on my feet, thankfully, and shook my fur as I looked up to the others. They became wolves again at Tsume's cue, and I remembered his strange advice that we remain as wolves. Why was that? Agh. I had so many questions, but I didn't feel like I had the right to ask them. Not to this pack. Even though they had let me tag along with them, I didn't feel accepted. I felt like an interloper, creeping behind their path though they didn't want me. But there was no time to reconsider the intelligence of agreeing to come with the pack already starting off down a short hallway.
I trotted after them to keep up, pricking my ears as faint murmuring started nearby. It wasn't someone from the pack, that much was certain, as all of them looked uneasy at the sound.
"Go stop them." This voice was clear and louder than the ones before, and I found myself tensing up, as if a fight was inevitable. I noticed that the other wolves did the same. Was this voice talking about us? How could they even know that we were here? No one was in sight, though, and I saw for the first time that our hall ended with a wall. There was no door. It wasn't a dead end, though; right before the wall two openings appeared, one on the right side of the hall and one on the left. A girl skidded through the left opening, starting all of us to a halt.
Kiba was the first to react. "What do you want?" He snarled, showing the first bit of emotion I had seen out of him the whole time I had been with this pack. But she ignored him, instead looking straight at Tsume with narrowed eyes.
"You betrayed us, as I recall," she said to Tsume, boring her eyes into his. "What are you doing back here?"
I feel deeply unsatisfied with this chapter. And you probably do, too. I know, I know. It's been a series of fillers so far. But it will get better! I promise. The plot has yet to reveal itself. ;)