Golden eyes looked across the expanse of dead earth and cold hard ground with a tired expression. Beside him were the tired and worn bodies of his pack, even Blue.
After the mess with Darcia, the Lunar Flower pack had more or less gone along with the idea of Paradise out of habit, rather than the belief that had kept them going for almost a full year.
Kiba in particular had been hit hard losing Chesa. But for some reason, he still held on to hope. And as the Alpha of their pack, he kept it alive for the others, even if he knew they were beginning to lose their trust in him.
So on a bright Hunter's Moon, Kiba did something that would change their fates.
Rather than have them hunt for food, despite being starving, or tell them to hold on to hope, Kiba found a nice tall perch and looked at the moon. For a moment, he did nothing though he was acutely aware that their attention was entirely on him and nothing else.
Then he started a long, low howl as if calling out to the moon in prayer. It took barely a few moments for the rest of the pack to join in on his howl.
The moon above seemed to glow brighter, almost illuminating Kiba to the point he was glowing silver.
With a soundless crack of lightning, something appeared in the near distance. There were trees, flowers, and fresh game. The moonlight was shining brightly with nary a cloud in sight, and they could hear and smell a clean brook through the forest.
The pack wasn't going to question their luck, or even what was happening. They were almost dead, and would likely die soon if they didn't find a territory to claim. And since they were such a small pack with only one female, it would be difficult to hold any decent territory from other wolves eager to escape death.
Kiba lead the pack on a dead run to the strange portal. His footsteps glowed brightly, almost like Chesa's had when she was following the full moon.
The moment Hige's tail cleared the strange portal, it snapped shut without warning. Kiba stopped glowing, but there was still a subtle aura around him.
"What the hell just happened?" asked Tsume, not entirely sure what was going on.
"I have no idea. I just thought we might as well make one final howl together before our last attempt to find somewhere to live..." admitted Kiba.
Hige had already taken out an unlucky rabbit.
"Who cares? There's game here, clean water and I don't smell another wolf outside of us for miles!" he said happily.
Considering their hunger, they weren't going to question this change of fortune. Instead by mutual consensus, they took out two deer and feasted on meat that wasn't scrawny or diseased from the world around them. The water was delicious and barely held the taint of the human world, the air was so clean that theyw were feeling invigorated and positively energetic.
Was it possible they had accidentally found Paradise from some lingering gift of Chesa?
For a while, it genuinely seemed as though that was the case.
And then they found their first human in months.
Discreetly following him revealed a society close to the one they had left, but it was brighter, more alive than the almost defeated one they had come from.
It wasn't Paradise, but it still better than what they had before.
Another perk...no one knew about Wolves or the legend of Paradise. There weren't any wolf-hunters, or those who knew the signs.
It made stealing human food when they couldn't hunt laughably easy.
But the thing that brought their spirits up most, more than leaving the desolate landscape that they had lived in for their entire lives was this.
Kiba felt the pull of the Lunar Flowers again. Stronger, more powerful than before. It was unlikely another Flower Maiden had been created, as the flowers had been rare even back home and the technology all but lost. Perhaps there was still a chance to find Paradise.
If not, well this world was still better than the one they were before.
Lead by Kiba's instincts that could detect even the faintest hint of the rare flowers, and Hige's superior sense of smell, the pack slowly but surely made their way up to the wilds of a land called "Scotland".
The forest they found was dark, almost ominous. It had a sinister feel for the unwary.
But the game was plentiful, it was very remote and far, far from any smelly modern technology, and despite the salt-water lake there was a deep river that fed from the mountains that was clean enough to drink.
More than that, there was this subtle hum that seemed to call to them down to their very bones. Hige couldn't smell any wolves, though there was a tainted hint of one from the castle. Naturally they avoided the human settlements.
Tsume looked at the downed spider he had killed with annoyance.
"This place is infested."
"Eh... it's kinda chewy but it's not too bad. Goats taste worse," said Hige, eating a smaller one.
"It's a bit depressing, but still better than that last place," said Blue.
The place they had arrived in was great...until summer came. Then it was practically infested with humans and 'campers'. To make it worse, there were these rangers who made a point to chase off the pack when they found out that they were there.
The pack knew very well what a gun was, and while these were loaded with tranqs, they had no desire to be 'relocated' to a zoo once caught.
Shape shifting was useful, and the rangers had no idea they were talking to the very wolves they were hunting. Tsume was particularly vocal about not going to some zoo to be gawked at and treated as less than pets for the humans.
Toboe might be able to live with being a pet, even Blue could tolerate it, but being cooped up in a cage never to hunt or roam freely under the moon was absolutely unacceptable.
"From what I can tell, this place is unclaimed and remote enough that we would hear any people or machines coming from miles away. There's plenty of game even if it's spiders and water to drink," said Kiba.
This place called to him more strongly than even the Lunar Flowers had.
It was relatively safe for the pack, there was plenty to eat and drink, and the humans rarely (if ever) ventured this deep into the forest. Even the spiders rarely came this far into the forest.
After a few days, the pack settled in enough to start spreading scent markers.
With the first full moon, as had become habit now, Kiba lead the pack into a howl that reached far and wide. It wasn't to try and get back to where they had come from, but more to honor the moon and the hunt. As they began the howl, Kiba's fur began to glow and the moon shone that much brighter. His eyes took on a golden hue, almost like like the sun. Each of the pack had started to develop that same internal light and created a strange sort of scene for the forest.
However in this place, that effect seem magnified, almost to the point that the light itself could be seen over the treetops.
In a decrepit shack, a ragged looking hound lifted his head. He heard the howl of wolves, the feel of the call. His canine ears picked the sound up, whereas his human ones could hear nothing.
In the castle, where a tired werewolf teaching class had left the window open for some fresh air, lifted his head and felt the distinct and powerful urge to howl. His human side kept him from doing so, if only to avoid the inescapable fact that if he did, he'd get in more trouble than the urge was worth.
But it did plant the desire to run around the forest while under the potion rather than lock himself up. So long as he was careful, he could make it look like he was coming from Hogsmeade after a night of drinking and make it appear that he wasn't a werewolf.
No student would question the bedraggled state of a man who smelled like he had been drinking all night, and it might very well throw the Ravenclaws (or a certain third year Gryffindor female) off his tail.
Especially after Severus had the brilliant idea to point them to all the clues they needed if they cared to look about Remus' illnesses.
Being a drunk was far less damaging than being a werewolf among the magical community.
Sirius Black was on a mission...for once it wasn't tied to his plan to find and kill that traitor Peter.
No, he wanted to find the source of that weird howling during the full moon.
He knew what Moony sounded like when Sirius initiated a howl. This sounded like an entire pack of actual wolves, because there was always this tortured sound to Remus' voice.
So Padfoot went into the forest, avoiding the Acromantula and the centaurs. He even skirted the herd of unicorns, who most certainly wouldn't want his presence around.
He was almost to a freezing cold stream he only knew of because of his forays with Moony during his moons when he heard the distinct and unmistakable sound of a canine growl. He didn't have to look far to see a massive black and gray wolf with a cross shaped scar across it's chest and not-so-happy eyes glaring at him. It clearly had no hesitation in going after him if he didn't leave. NOW.
Nearby he heard more growls, though none as fierce or terrifying as the black and gray one. If he knew pack mentality, then the black and gray one had to be the alpha. And he had walked right into a wolves den that didn't want outsiders.
All that went away when he saw the lone wolf not growling at him in a manner that spoke of bad things happening to him very soon if he didn't get lost.
It was a white wolf with stunning golden eyes that seemed to peer into his soul. It had scars, and he could see from the subtle positioning that he had gotten the pack order wrong.
The scarred black and gray wolf wasn't the alpha. He was very much the top beta.
This wolf was the alpha, and he seemed to hold a great deal of magical power in him.
Padfoot could feel the magic coming off him, and he realized that it was possible he had stumbled into a new den of magical wolves, long thought extinct.
One of his best friends was a werewolf. It was only natural he had actually delved into his family library when he found out to see if he could find a spell or potion to ease the transition for Moony.
It was the only reason he knew of the mythical wolves that were said to guide wizards and witches to areas of pure magic like Avalon or Tir na Oog. Legend had it that these wolves drew power directly from the moon and were blessed by multiple Moon goddesses from various religions.
They were considered extinct because one wizard went mad centuries ago and hunted them down to the point where they died off or were bred out.
If there was the possibility of a pack surviving to modern times, it made sense that they could be hiding in the Forbidden Forest.
The white wolf jumped down from the rocky outcropping, with the black and gray wolf standing to his right and just behind him in a way that made it clear he was protecting his alpha.
This was a tight knit pack, one that would not hesitate to protect each other. It was actually rather humbling...and slightly depressing. He had thought the Marauders were like this pack, tight-knit and practically family.
They had never accounted for the weak link of Pettigrew.
The white wolf growled at him in it's own language, and it took a few moments before Padfoot was able to mentally translate it.
Spend twelve years as a dog and you'd pick up the canine language out of boredom too.
"What are you doing in our territory, human?" asked the white wolf.
This was bad. They knew he wasn't a real dog.
"Speak, human!" growled the black wolf.
Padfoot thought fast, then figured what the hell. He didn't really have much to lose and if nothing else he could leave and not return. So he told them about his 'pack' and how he had recently escaped being caged by the other humans because one of the pack betrayed him.
Then he got to reason he was in the forest now.
He had heard the call of the wolves that had been silent to the humans, who would have almost certainly thought they were a pack of werewolves.
The white wolf was clearly surprised to hear about the broken pack and the fact that only canines heard their howling...but he wasn't a foolish alpha.
There was no way they were going to enter the human's castle to find a single rat, no matter how much Hige would have gladly helped to kill the traitor. He didn't mind eating rats. However the game was plentiful enough that they could tolerate his presence in the area to hunt, so long as he did not draw attention to the fact they were in the forest.
He wouldn't be part of the pack, but they could tolerate him. It wasn't like he could tell the other humans that there was a wolf pack there, since they were more inclined to chase him out first.
When Padfoot was "escorted" by Blue out of the general area the pack had claimed, Tsume turned to Kiba.
"Why didn't you let me chase him out sooner? Being around humans has brought us nothing but trouble!"
"I know him. I recognize his scent from when I was younger, before I left my original pack mother," said Kiba simply.
That stopped any rant from Tsume cold.
Kiba rarely spoke of his past, and he never spoke of his pack mother. They knew he had been abandoned at a young age, not old enough to hunt by himself, but nothing about his mother or his original pack.
So for Kiba to say that this human-dog was familiar...well it spoke of things they couldn't describe.
"He's out of the area. I don't think he's hunted for some time... even I can see the ribs on him and he stinks of human garbage," said Blue.
"Yeah, that poor guy looks about ready to keel over if he doesn't eat a full meal soon," agreed Hige.
It was an unspoken fact that Blue and Hige were a mated pair, and that when Blue went into heat Hige would be the one to cover her.
Even if they didn't really have any females in their pack, they acknowledged the fact that Hige had claimed her. Kiba had no desire to mount her himself, so it worked out well enough.
"I don't like this..." said Tsume.
"You can keep lookout for any other humans this way. I've been smelling something human but not near where the spiders are a few times and I think that it might alert the humans in the castle to our presence if it spots us," said Kiba flatly.
Tsume growled in acknowledgment. Whatever his feelings were about Kiba's strange ideas and questionable leadership abilities, his dislike of humans and being found out by large settlements usually overrode them.
The last thing he would ever want was to become some sort of pet or exhibit for a human.