Hullo. Ricky here, at last. Sorry for the delay, and now, please enjoy Chapter 2.
Alright. There's one very important thing you should know about me. And that is: I hate baths. I really, really hate baths.
If you're laughing, shut up; if you aren't, then stay like that. The thing is, water isn't really the problem. It's the shampoos and soaps I'm worried about. I mean, what's the use of 'em? Shampoos can sting your eyes, and they taste real bitter. Soaps, too. I can't even imagine myself bathing with shampoo in my hair and my body covered soap, thinking there are different kinds of chemicals in those products! But no, she just had to force me to take a bath, with shampoo and soap even! And right now, I'm laying in a water half-filled bathtub, with the upper-half of my head surfaced from the water, grumpily making bubbles.
In case you're wondering where I am right now taking a bath, I'm actually in Aika's house. Yeah, Aika Makihara, the brown haired girl's name. After I told her my name an hour ago at the park when she asked me who I was, she hit me in the head like I was an idiot. And then, she invited me to come to her house to talk. Well, invited wouldn't be the right word; more like forced. And the weirdest part was that she told me to go wolf [on which I obeyed], so that she can introduce me to her parents as a big, silver-furred, stray dog. I mean, she already told me that her parents already knew she was a she-wolf, so why hide me then? I couldn't ask her then, because at that time, she already told me to take a bath. After a few tantrums and chasing around the house, she managed to shove me into the bathroom, blackmailing me that if I didn't bathe [with shampoo and soap], no dinner for me. And now, I'm here.
I took my time in the bathroom. I've done my torturous bathing, and I was just killing time in the bathtub. I took advantage of the time to think about the dream I had an hour ago, before I met Aika.
The tribe was in trouble, the Alpha was in danger, Jii-tan was held prisoner, and a bad guy was the cause. That probably summed up the dream I had. So, the hard thing is that I have to choose whether to take Jii-tan's advice, which is to stay safe and not come back home, or go back, fight the bad guy which is super powerful 'cause he had the power to defeat Alpha, and probably meet my doom. The choice would probably be obvious, but this is the tribe I'm talkin' about. My only home. But the Lost Precious... I've spent two years finding it, and if I go back home now, I might not want to leave the tribe ever again. All that hard work... Gah! I don't want to think about it anymore! It makes my head hurt!
I suddenly heard a knock form the door, startling me and making me almost jump up. I barked like a dog in case Aika's parents came to check up on their daughter, but a familiar female voice spoke instead.
"Hey, it's just me," Aika said. "Hurry up, 'cause we still need to talk after dinner."
I barked in response, standing up and getting out from the bathtub. I grabbed the nearest towel and dried myself, and then put on the shirt Aika gave to me. The shirt was her dad's, so the I HATE WAR-printed shirt was quite loose and baggy. I then wore the same end-torn shorts I had from the tribe, and coiled my grayish long scarf around my neck. I almost thought that I didn't need to wear clothing since my clothes would just morph along with my body when I go wolf. But then, I remembered that Aika and I would have to talk later after dinner, probably in her room, so I had to wear clothes if we were to talk in person.
As I was done, I morphed to wolf-me, and then opened the door with my paw. The door was easy to open, probably because the doorknob wasn't the type that you have to rotate it. It was the kind where it had a horizontal handle, which you have to push down to open.
Aika greeted me with an annoyed look on her face, making me whimper.
"Sorry." I apologized, which probably looked weird since it made me look like I was a talking dog.
"Come on," she muttered as she made her way to the dining room. "dinner's ready."
"So, are you going to keep him?" Aika's mom asked, making me look up from my dinner.
Just for your information, my 'dinner' was good 'ol dog food, but trust me, for a wolf, it tasted like dry styrofoam. I don't know what people put stuff in dog foods, but I clearly did not want to know. Anyway, I just told Aika to bring me any meaty food when we go to her room, which she fortunately agreed.
"I dunno. It depends on whether the dog likes it or not." Aika replied, looking at me with her brown eyes. I gave her a small glare, and then I turned to the food bowl in front me, pushing it aside with my paw. She seemed to get the idea, making her sigh. "Maybe the food'll scare him."
I gave a little growl, trying to tell her, Shut up, the food is the one that's scared of me. She just ignored me and continued on with her human food, while I was stuck with styrofoam-flavored dog food. I grunted, watching the Makihara family eat their dinner.
As we arrived at her room, I immediately morphed back to human form, and caught the grilled meat Aika threw at me. I started devouring it as I sat on the carpet on the floor, with Aika staring at me with a disgusted look on her face.
"You're welcome." Aika muttered, with slight sarcasm.
"No prob," I replied, grinning. "though the dog food tasted like styrofoam."
"What?"
"Nothing."
She gave me a suspicious look, but then, shrugged it off and sat on her bed.
"Hey, Toboe," Aika called.
"Yeah?" I responded.
"Who are you, really?"
"Uh... Toboe Riku?"
Aika glared at me like I was stupid, the same glare before at the park.
"I'm asking who you are, not what your name is, dolt," she clarified. "like, are you really a wolf? How old are you? Fill out your biography form."
"Um... Okay..." I said stupidly. "Well, I'm Toboe Riku, I'm sixteen, and I'm a wolf from the Moonlight tribe. I-"
"Wait, hold up. Moonlight tribe?"
I didn't plan on revealing too much information to her, but if she asked questions, well, I think I can trust her. Probably.
"Uh, it's a wolf pack, I guess." I replied, crossing my arms. "Except that we're wolf people, and that we're a, you know, tribe."
Aika just nodded, though the look on her face was either confusion or surprise. I can't blame her, though. Since the Jerio land was isolated from human civilization, only few breakers and collectors know about it. Why those people haven't spread the word about the existence of the Jerio land, I have no idea. It must be one of those cheesy, but just lines like, "People will destroy this place if I tell on them." or those with evil intentions like, "This place is mine! I own all of the beasts and Lost Preciouses here!" But either way, the Jerio land's getting more visitors each year, and the word about us beasts have been spreading slowly.
"I live in a place far away from here," I continued. Now that I think about it, I could have lied to her all this time, but I just can't bring myself to. Why? Probably because of those intense brown eyes trying to melt me down. Or the fact that she's cute, and that it's enough to make me believe she's good hearted.
"Which far away place?" Aika asked.
I sighed, resting my hands behind my head. She's obviously going to ask every single detail about me. But the real question is, why? I mean, I think it's pretty normal for a person to ask a strange person he just met for his name, but the way Aika was asking questions was like trying to confirm some statement she wasn't sure about. I then just put my thoughts aside, and decided to just trust her with Jerio land's existence.
"In the Jerio land." I said bluntly.
I didn't expect her to be surprised or anything, since I highly doubted she knew anything about the Jerio land.
I was wrong.
"I knew it!" Aika exclaimed, snapping her fingers.
I was surprised. Shocked. Stunned. Any more adjective that would make me stare at her with disbelief. My mind was racing, and it was filled with questions. How did she know about the Jerio land? What is she going to do with me, now that she knows that I'm from the Jerio land? Is she going to force me to take her there? I managed to snap myself out of my thoughts, and jerk up to a stand.
"Wait a minute!" I almost yelled, though it was loud enough to get Aika's attention. "How-How do you know about the Jerio land?"
At first, she stared at me like, 'Why shouldn't I know, stupid?' until she realized something like, 'Oh, right! It's supposed to be a secret!'
I stared at her with disbelief. She was now obviously not just a normal person. Well, except the fact that she's a she-wolf, but other than that, she shouldn't be able to know about the Jerio land. Unless... she's a breaker, or a collector. With a high level at that. But it's impossible. For the two years of my life in the human world, I've never seen a high leveled breaker as young as Aika. Well, not that I know of so far. But still!
I didn't realize I was still staring at Aika while I was deep in my thoughts, until she threw a pillow at me. Now, that's one effective way of getting someone else's attention. I hit the ground with my back, and the pillow was kind of stuck on my face. I sat up immediately and let the pillow slide down my face, but before I could even say, 'What'd you do that for!', Aika beat me to it.
"Listen when someone's talking, dog breath!" she half-yelled. "You were the one who asked a question, and yet you're not listening."
"Oh." I breathed out, making me nostalgic because old man Shinku used to always tell me that. Not the dog breath part, though.
"Hmph. Anyway, as the answer to your question, my father's a collector."
"He is?"
"Yes, I just said that. He has a colleague that's an eight leveled breaker, and they once discussed something about a land full of mystical creatures in the house. The-"
"The Jerio land." I finished.
Aika just sighed and nodded, crossing her legs as I situated myself on the carpet more comfortably.
"So..." I breathed out, catching Aika's attention. "How exactly do you know all this?"
"Well," Aika rubbed the back of her neck nervously, which made her look cute, since it made her look like an embarrassed little girl. "I was, you know, around the area, and I heard them talking. So, I kind of, you know..."
"I get it, I get it. You eavesdropped on them, so now you know." I finished for her, although she really did look cute the way she stammered like that.
"Yeah."
There was a short awkward silence after that, and I was about to say something, when a clacking noise suddenly made me perk my ears up. Well, actually, it made my wolf ears appear first because I was startled, and then made my ears perk up. Aika seemed to notice too, and her ears were also morphed. I heard footsteps coming this way, and my first guess was 'Daddy's coming!' I immediately went wolf, diving under the bed like a dog catcher was about to come in the door. Aika, having realized before me, already concealed her wolf ears, and I saw her feet touch the floor.
"Who is it?" she asked before the person behind the door even had the chance to knock.
The door opened slightly and I saw a foot slide in, and it seemed like my guess was right. The foot itself was enough to identify that the person was a male.
"Oh, Ai. You're still awake?" Aika's dad asked, slipping inside the room.
"Yeah, can't sleep." I heard Aika reply.
"Is that why you keep on yelling, because you can't sleep?"
"Oh, about that. I was just..."
I could tell she was thinking of some excuse as her feet fidgeted in front of me, when her feet suddenly stopped.
"Ah, I was just telling the dog not to do stuff he wasn't supposed to do. Like, sleeping on my bed and stuff."
Aika's right foot kicked the side of the bed, like she was telling her dad I was here. Which she obviously was. I saw her dad kneel and look down to see me, a playful smile on his face.
"Tsk, tsk, you have to be more understanding if you want to stay here." he seemingly told me as he stood up, his feet stepping towards the door. "Goodnight, Ai. And no more yelling."
"Yes, father." Aika replied.
And then the door quietly closed, her dad's footsteps slowly fading away.
"You can come out now, you know." Aika pointed out, though she didn't really need to.
I crawled away from the bottom of the bed as I made some grumbling sounds, and then sat up and looked at Aika straight in the eyes.
"What?" she asked uncomfortably.
I kept on staring at her until I went human again, my legs and arms both crossed.
"Oh, sure. Blame the dog." I grumbled with sarcasm.
For a moment there, she smiled, and then she stood up and walked towards the wall beside the door.
"Sorry about that. I couldn't think of any more excuses." she apologized, switching off the lights. "We'll decide things in the morning. Goodnight, Toboe."
She then walked back to her bed, and then lied on it as she pulled the blankets. I stayed seated on the carpet, deciding where to sleep. I eventually just picked the carpet, and so I morphed back to wolf-me for convenience.
"Goodnight, Aika." I said. "Promise not to tell anyone about the Jerio land?"
There was a short silence after that, and I almost thought she was already asleep, but then she replied with a word that felt like a burden was thrown off my shoulders.
"Promise."
Yay! At least now it's a little longer. Please review, people! Ricky is out, peace! \m/