Hay all, sorry this took so long to get up, but a college life of a mathematics major is one full of late nights and frustrating misunderstandings that result in ability to grasp the concepts due to a horrible teacher…*sigh* anyway, here it is, the next chapter, the chapter that may change your view of me for the rest of the time. I do hope none of you kill me, but the hunt may be on soon. Just promise, no shooting. If you do I really can't write anymore and I doubt you want that…just read and please, please, pretty please…REVIEW. I want to hear what you all have to say!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters pertaining to the Wolf's Rain cast. I do own Pice and the female version, but as for the story, sorry to say, but most of it has to do with the show….but I have added my own twist. A little tweak that the mind will not be able to grasp, or maybe you all already know…I do hope that is not so, for it will ruin the surprise, a surprise that will expand onto a world I created…lol. So without further or do, I give Chapter 11…….

Chapter 11

Oh the awaking, it was not something my mind was fully ready to accept, but it did. It rose slowly to the warmth, the slight heat from the arms of a male figure, strong and sheltered by clothing on the arms and part of the chest. It was filled with frustration, joy, comfort and separation…a need to be far away and unaccepting. A part of me wished to draw close to it embraces the warmth in a delusional way, but knew the lie that would befall them both…she knew falling would only make things worst for he could not let her in even if he knew the truth. His heart was too far off, and would never belong to her. But for one instance, she could feign fatigue and let him hold her, though with a small peak up at his face she saw some distress in his face a simple sparkle in his eye…a sparkle moist in its appearance that I just had to reach up and brush his check. My own hand, of its own need for contact, took on such action and her fingers traced the eye lightly taking the tear from it before he could acknowledge his own weakness let alone her own awakeness.

"Kid, how long have you been awake?" He grumbled as he placed me on my feet.

"Not long….wow!! My ankle feels great!" I began to twist and turn on my legs. Toying and playing, like a ballerina just trying on the perfect pair of ballet shoes. But there was no pain…no feelings of stabbing pain that was beyond mortal bounds

"Just don't say anything to anyone…"he mumbled as he turned away and trying to ignore my excitement on being able to move without falling into a comatose state due to utter pain.

"Hum…I guess I can. After all I sorta owe you…" my voice was filled with childlike delight as I spoke to him and off I bounced the in the direction of Kiba. "Kiba, Kiba!!" I chide as I went toward him in a rush. But stopped when I saw the burden he carried, as intese he was set on insuring her safety upon his back.

"Kiba has been carrying her since he realized she was starting to wither. A lot happened when you passed out…"it was Pice who spoke as he crept up behind me sending a chill down my spine…I did not appreciate his sneakiness. Tsume didn't seem to appreciate him doing that action very much. But no action was taken even with the evil death glare that was radiating from my large angel.

"I think we should go right," said Hige.

"Do you smell water over there?" growled Kiba. His voice was intense and was heated with anger and rage from frustration.

"No, but standing here isn't helping!" replied Hige. The air was heated and only one sound was able to break the silence that was the reason for the heated hatred in each voice.

"Not that stupid bird again!" raged Tsume. I liked up at where the flutter came from and the growls were directed. It was an owl…a small little brown owl with a look of curiosity in its eyes.

"Here isn't helping. Hear isn't helping." It chide.

"Maybe it can help us," I piped up. What else was there to do in a situation like this but try to present ideas to the table that could maybe help especially with the present confusion in all the eyes of the heated wolves around me.

"Fine…"groaned Kiba. "Where is there water?"

"It can't be helped if there is no light. It can't be helped if there is no water. It can't be helped if the flower is withering."

"You stupid bird. Just tell us where there is water!" steamed Kiba. He was on the peak of breaking and killing. Killing the damn bird that would not tell. Instead, the bird flew off speaking in even more riddles.

"Go astray. Go astray my good wolves. Answers always lie in confussion." We followed after it, the guys yelling profanities to the wind in hopes of them stopping the bird from speaking as the riddler. It even continued with its words, weaving even more complex webs. "You will never find what you are looking for. If the searcher found what he was looking for, it would become a mere object." He then perched upon a branch, hooting and acting as innocent as it wished it was.

"What are we doing here? Why did we follow that Damn bird?" Tsume growled fiercely.

"The answer always lies within darkness. The answer always lies within confusion. Only those who bravely enter will be rewarded." The owl then flew back into the forest as though to leave behind all that it had done, and to hide from all it knew was coming. It was as Judah, turning its back own one that is among its kind, feeding it to the deadly deed…a hell like no other.

"Hige, what does it mean?" I asked with pure confusion.

"It means, kid, that we have to enter the cave," Hige replied.

"Oh…" that was all I was able to say. But Kiba was the first to take action in response the idea. Determination was truly written on his face as he moved toward the darkness.

"Let's go!" he yelled back to us. We all followed instinctively given the order. It was darker and unexpectantly more confusing then the trees and forest we had left behind. First we went left at the turn, but before we knew it, we arrived back at the same spot. Frustration within Kiba was rising as fast as the weaken in Cheza was withering her. "We will go right this time"

"Do you think we should have trusted that owl?" asked Hige. Within seconds, the air was heated and Kiba was growling and bristling at Hige.

"Well, Hige. Can you smell water anywhere?" Hige Did not answer. This incited Kiba to look fiercely into Hige's eyes posing a new question. "You have no answer?...we are going to follow my sense of direction and I say we go right."Kiba started forward with heated determination that was blinding him to the concept of truth. He had concept of what was real and what was fantasy…all he saw was Cheza, Cheza alone…a blindness that made him stubble over som rocks resulting in an outrages outburst of, "Damn Rocks!" his kick yelled an outcome of hatred beyond all bonds and rapidly growing uncertainty among the rest of us.

I wanted to help and saw how Kiba was growing weak, so I stepped forward asking, "Do you want me to carry Cheza for a while?"

"Can you carry her?" he asked with pure rage. "I didn't think so kid!" I moved backward out of fear and complete uncertainty.

"Kiba, what the hell has gotten into you? A leader is suppose to be able to keep his cool under pressure," lectured Tsume.

"Well, I don't need any help!" lashed out Kiba.

"That flower sent is clouding your judgment. Let someone else take her or lead." stated Tsume. This agreement was deeper than any other battle that had take place in the past.

"You should just back off!! All of you!! Don't try that puppy dog look on me, Toboe. It won't work!" The fur went up, and I backed down, backing slowly away from him out of uncertainty. A sound rippled through the air resounding off the walls, it was the sound of creaking. The very bones of something small breaking under foot. As horrible as the sound was, the sight was even more horrific.

"There are bones here!" I whimpered slightly. Pice came over to study them, but that was not the only thing in his sights at the time.

"They are bones, like the type of a bird," he spoke.

"But..But…But…" I stuttered. There was a few seconds of confusion and surprise then shock as from within the ground emerged a huge bug, a bug so big and grey in color like something out of a horror movie. It moved speedily toward one of our, jumping with great veracity toward Cheza. It dug its feet into her, embedding itself deeply without warning or concern for her welfare. It wished to eat her alive. That is what the purpose of its life was…kill and hurt others, but we would not let that happen to our flower maiden.

I reached up with what strength I could muster, and grabbed the monstrous bug with my hands and pulled it from her back. I heard Cheza's pain, but it would be worst if I could not get the bug off her. But I did, I pulled it from her back and throw it giving power to Hige to squish it beneath his foot.

Then from above, Tsume spoke with power, "Kiba, throw her up here!" It was as if the world came to a standstill and the two made up with the simple toss of Cheza to higher ground. Then with her safety Tsume jumped down and joined the rest of us as we faced off with the thousands of other friends of the bug that we had just killed.

"Are a pack of wolves going to lose to a bunch of bugs?" Kiba asked with a sinister remark.

"Though I must admit that we do like to hang around with flowers," I spoke to get a laugh in.

"Nicely put runt," said Hige.

"Couldn't phrase it any better myself," stated Tsume.

"Are we going to fight, or just stand here and talk?" asked Pice. There was something in the tone of voice that made me believe that there was a memory luring in the back of my mind pertaining to the past. I was too stubborn to accept the past and too set on preserving the future that instead of dwelling on how and what he said, I dove into the bloody massacre that was the battle between wolves and bugs.

The slaughter was on. My fangs bared, they ripped and tore at the exoskeleton of the bugs. I felt it shatter between my fangs as I tossed and threw my head with it between my jaw. Green blood filled my mouth; its taste was nothing bug that of garbage. Rage grew within me flooding every muscle and filling all my need to kill, a lust so deep that it flood every instinct within me. I was heartless to all, growls ripped through the air breeding more hatred. A hatred that was spreading among all of us even as the bugs themselves risked all to try and destroy my friends and I. Risks so deep that even we knew it was hopeless, for our risk was higher. Our risk included another life along with a few others which would include the journey to paradise. If she was lost, so was our hope. This was something that we could not let happen.

The scene, as horrible as it may sound, was not something that can be fully described. What we felt and what we saw was all just a massacre. It was an intermingling of blood, a blood thirsty struggle for survival. There was only the fur, the blood, the exoskeletons, the growls, the fangs, the deadly battle that was the end, but at the same time…a beginning.

What we did that day was not a battle of masses, nor a battle of control. It was a survival. A survival of my kind and theirs. One of us needed to die and in doing so bones needed to be crushed. Shells needed to be cracked open and jaws were needed to do so. To attack…that is what we did. Grabbing them with our fangs and clawing them with our paws. We were hunting, but not for food…we hunted to protect. Each new pain. Each new horror. It only bleeds away with the blood that was within our veins. It flowed across the ground making the flood wet and staining it forever as the remainder that to live, others sometimes need to be sacrificed.

And though the number were larger on their side, and though or bodies became weaker with the attack, we moved on. We persevered hoping to make. Make it farther then the others who tired in the past. We probably would not have had not we had one thing. One thing the other side did not. An angel. Well to be more precise, a flower maiden who heard something we had not and insured that we would have somewhere to go. She fell, fell from the sky as though her wings had broken and moved through the land of the suffering as a runner just trying to reach the end of a race before all else had been lost. She moved with pain and strength in her voice crying out to us speaking, "This one wants to help. This one can help."

Her feet and body moved even with the attacks of the enemy upon her. She moved leading the rest of us through. All of us, specifically Kiba followed with confusion and certainty. They were determined to help her no matter the cost though the cost may have been our lives. "Cheza, wait up." Kiba felt he was losing her. One could see it in the way he cried out to her and the way he bore down upon the enemy bugs in rapid speed to defeat them and get to her.

We moved and though it may have seemed to be no end, there was some…one small point where the very ground ascended down toward a land where the was dark and unforeseeable. Cheza tumbled down it without even a conscious thought, though the rest of us were uncertain and slightly hesitant at first. It seemed the only likely choice. A choice that required risk, one risk we were all willing to take.

"This one heard their pain," Cheza spoke. Her words held all the meaning in the word for in front of us lay a grove of Venus fly traps, large enough to take out the whole pack of bugs that tried to hunt us and the flower maiden.

"They eat the bugs," commented Hige.

"They eat the bugs, so all of the bugs know to stay away from this area. Those that venture down become food," expanded Kiba. Our eyes fell upon the friends of Cheza with confusion and curiosity. The very mind was able to grasp this unique change and challenge that faced all of life's creations…the Circle of Life. There was one part in watching, one creature our eyes fell upon as it slowly and cautiously approached a sentence…a death sentence that involved the slowly closing of the plants jaw around the insect crushing it till there was nothing, nothing but the flow of juices and the disintegration of the body of the creature that was the plants food. That was the way of life…to sacrifice one for the life of another.

"Come on. Let's get going." Kiba tailed Cheza and led up out through the garden of death. We weaved and climbed avoiding all that could have killed us. And with this death trail, we were able to find life. The life that consisted of even more searching, but at least it also held onto life and the concept of being alive.

The first sight we saw when we had found our way into life was the moon. The silver orb lit the sky fully with its glow, its beautiful silvery light that glistened as a diamond within the sky(way better then the Edward from the Twilight movie…lol).

Author's little note: I do like Twilight, but was annoyed with the movie…Edward was suppose to sparkle like diamonds, NOT LIKE GLITTER!! There are deferentially better CGIs (computer generated images) that they could use. Now that I have ranted…we shall continue with the story at hand…back to the story.

The next thing that incited our instinct the need to run for joy was the pond. The pond, with the simple light of the moon, made the passive feel of accomplishment. An accomplishment that insisted that we were free from one of Dante's levels of hell that the world insisted on placing on earth. By surviving, we had reached a new land of hope. A hope that meant that the water could be a place of rebirth. And what a rebirth it was as four of us, Tsume, Hige, Pice, and I all raced with playfulness toward the water. There were waves and arms wrapped around one another. Hige's hand that grabbed me and forced me under the water in sibling playfulness. There was me wrestling with Tsume when Hige pushed me under. There was the joy filled anger that filled Tsume when I pulled him under with me. Instead of hunting me he chased Hige, but dive bombed Pice when his pray moved to avoid being caught. I laughed, let the joy of the day fill me all the way for even if it only lasted an hour, the memory would be there for a life time. For the first time in my life here after the death of my grandmother, I felt alive and like I was living with a family.

And with this family, there also came the flower maiden whose delicacy led to Kiba carrying her slowly and gently toward the water to feed. The rest of us fell quite during this sight for she was beautiful under the light of the almost full moon. The way she sat upon the rock with grace was so inciting even as a female. There was just something there that I wished I could have, yet at the same time something I wished I could find. Something all the other wished they could hold onto.

And with the simple movement of a foot crystals of clear liquid shimmered through the air catching Kiba full on. His face looked toward Cheza with confusion as on hers a show of joy and antagonism spread. The rest of us began to howl with laughter at this display of competition. Kiba on the other hand took it as an insight to start….to race toward us and with a simple leap landed with great spread in the water instituting a wave so fiercely it nearly knocked me from where I floated. We broke out again in our male-bonding as the arms flew and heads were forced beneath the surface. It was fun, though. The way we all just accept each other with the ways of fighting that did not kill but instead instituted playfulness. A playfulness that tired us out and let us be ushered into a sleep. A sleep that was also persuaded on by the gentle note of Cheza's as she hummed her lullaby for us. It was as if the notes themselves caressed the eyelids making the mind cloudy and eyes droopy. It was if a blanket coated all of us and to the realm of dreams did we travel beneath the light of the moon and upon the grass. That was the world we knew…the open air and the gentle lullaby of Cheza's voice.

Author's other note: A part of me wishes to leave you all here…here beneath the stars and the night sky that is the realm of Toboe's mind as a girl. But I believe this is too kind to you. Way too kind so I will give you more. So much more, you may believe that I should have just let happiness dwell in the world that will one day be the world of death…but hay, I have to be heartless all the way and make you all SUFFER. So I will continue…and even if you don't want me to, and though many of you may plea that I should have just let the happiness lay still for a while, I will persevere as Toboe and the wolves did through the mountains of bugs they had to attack. After all, I sorta owe you all a long, very long chapter…

My mind wondered under the stares beneath the darkness that was the eye lids that held tight. They were in paradise with grandma. They were the gentle hum that was Cheza. They were the perfection of my new family. But using family did not incite a good feeling nor a good sight. For my mind wondered farther and deeper into a land that was not something I wished for. A dream, that may have been real, or was it fantasy. I did not know for all I saw was this:

"Dear Toboe, come over here," a lady with the gentlest and motherly of voices spoke with arms open wide waiting for me to move toward them. Her hair was long and brown. A brown deeply rooted in a shimmer or red as she moved. Eyes more green than any other animal could have. And a body of beauty and grace, older in the phase passed that of young mother, but still a motherly feel. She was a red wolf in color, a tone like none other than I had seen in the past. She was calling to me, readily embracing me. "Don't be afraid, my dear."

I moved cautiously toward her, my heart racing my hands and step small like that of a young child, maybe age four at the time. How I knew that was all confusing in my mind, but it brought about more to the scene that began to play out. For from my mouth the question arose. One that filled my soul with the established ideal of who I was talking to. "Mother, what is it?" Her tongue fell upon me, cleaning and calming me with its movement. It was a motion that she used when she wished to hide her face from me. But why did she wish to hide it from me. I did not seem to comprehend this. Nor could I remember anything that was to happen. There was nothing I was able to predict. "Mother, what is wrong?"

"Nothing my dear, nothing so, so horrible. I just wanted to…" her voice never found the strength to finish what she wished to speak. Her language was one filled with uncertainty and incomprehensible. It was a male figure, huge in size and brutal in appearance. His strength was something beyond that of any male I had met. He was the alpha, one could see this sight in his eyes and more importantly and obviously in his back fur and wolf build.

"Toboe, the pack expects you to help it and I believe this is the best choice. Be strong for the pack, for deals needed to be made." His voice was gruff and discompassionate in tone and motion. "This is Dicey, your fi…." The word dwelled off into a world of reality as my eyes began to open.

I was being called back with the gentle hand of another wolf. My eyes opened and a cold sweat could be felt funning over my body. I shivered and turned over to look up at the face of the person who awoke me. What I thought to see was golden, but no, my luck was not so great. Above me stood the grey eyes…eyes so intense and heated with evil and something else. Something beyond all the bounds of interaction among two beings.

My eyes diverted from his as I slowly got up feeling all the other members of our group draw close with concern in their movements and looks. I panicked and knew that I probably spoke something from behind my sleeping voice. My need to flee grew and with a swift and slow motion filled with shaking that I tried to hide, I drew myself onto my feet and pulled from my back the sweatshirt that was Pice's. I did not want his sent on me nor did I wish to have him near me at all. Something was not right about him and I knew it and just needed to get away from him. Ever since his arrival, nothing felt right and the past and dreams of sorrow swarmed my night sleep and made me wish I had not been in the pack. A pack that I wanted to be in so badly, but his presence pushed me away from it for fear.

My body moved robotically threw the sweatshirt on the ground. Hands pulsed and heart raced as I moved away, fleeing with great speed in wolf form knowing all to well that they would not follow so suddenly. I just needed air. I needed to race and forget. Push away the past that was making my brain hurt and heart pulse too fast. I wanted to keep smiling, but the memories, they hurt so much like pulling on a bandage on one's elbow that ripped the hair from the arm. To pull it fast would make all the pain come quickly then subside. But by pulling it slowly, the pain was small, but lasted way longer. I wanted no pain. I just wanted to keep the walls up.

My paws beat across the ground, my body weaved back and forth around the trees that make up the forest I was treading through. I breathed in deeply trying hard to subside the ache and to clear my mind. I all just drifted away as the scents and sights filled my mind with each new movement and action that took me farther away from my friends and closer toward the beating that was the past and the scent of a land I never once knew.

I did not remember how long I had run for nor how far I had come. I did not even remember the way I had come nor the scent I was chasing. All I knew was what I saw and what I smelt and felt. All of which was the water, a new pond I had come across that was filled with a new sent and a clean feel. I knew right away that maybe if I just rinsed from head to toe I could clear my mind. The feel of clean liquid on my skin and in my fur would only make things better especially after such a run. A run that took me who knew where. So with a quick glance around, I found safe rock to place my clothes on and my boots next too so that I could clean myself before all was lost.

I stripped, boots, socks, shirt pants, underwear, and cloth that bound my breasts. My skin was so tightly wound over my bones, the very feel was not that great, but there was some fat. Some more flesh even in the spot that I wished to hide. I saw that my boobs were growing and it was a shock at the same time as a fear. I moved to enter the water, cold was it against the bare human flesh that I used to hide my true form. The cold trickled up my spin making m body shiver in response to cold. But it also felt so good to get wet while baron of all my cloths. My head, I dipped letting the crystals fill each strand and tickled my face. So clean, so cool, so much better now that the smell of grim and dirt was washed from me. But the happiness could not last. It would not last once in my world, for heard a slight rustle and felt a growing unease in my frame.

Moving toward the rock I slowly began to dress first with precision out of uncertainty and cautiousness. I wanted to rush, but I also want to savor the freedom of being able to breathe. Still to watch myself came more important to me, after all it was based on a promise. A promise bent on my safety. The binding, my cloths..they were easy to put on and the buttons and zippers slide into place as though I was meant to be a guy for all of them. But was that really suppose to be it. Was that really suppose to be my only form?

These questions filled my mind and I knew I was safe because I saw how much hope I had still to hold onto. Plus there was no scent. There was no more noise, only a rustling of branches from the wind. I just wanted to rest. And that is what I did. Beneath the sun that filled the sky and land with its light, I lay myself down up the rock and let my mind drift off. Drift into the world that I neither knew for truth or lies. It was the mind that I headed and as complex as the brain maybe, so was the place I traveled to when I closed my eyes and just drift into the world of unpredictability.

I lay like that, drifting in and out as the sun began its decent into darkness and the stars began to reveal themselves lighting the way for a lost passerby. I was feeling close to getting up and heading back. My mind and body felt ready to face them again and allow the world to return to the way it was of the past. But as fate would have it…nothing gold can stay.

I did not hear it. I did not see it. I did not even smell it. I felt it, and there was no escape for it was too late. Around me it wrapped its arms pulling me fiercely toward it without compassion without need or care. It just pulled me toward its body without care for the pain that it was inflicting with its hand around my mouth and another around my body pulling me toward its chest with persistence. I was defenseless as horrible as that may sound. I was without strength and without protection. I was without warning and was without certainty. I was with fear and with uncertainty. I was with the knowledge that I was without control.

But I still had a mind and knew that there was hope. And all I needed was for him to make a wrong move and that move would come soon for all make a mistake when they do not think before they act. And it was exactly as I predicted. He was stupid for with the hand that he held me with he moved it to my head and his leg wrapped around mine. But I was free of one hand that wished to embrace me and that gave me an edge. An edge that instituted a freedom movement. I shifted to wolf form, and felt him grow unbalanced that gave me a chance, a change to cry out for help. I moved and felt him fall as I too went onto all fours and raced. I also felt him crash onto my back, but my mouth was free of him and the words were able to come. "HELP ME!!! TSUME, HELP ME!!!!" I howled into the sky as I felt all the weight of him pull me under him and he was on top. I looked up into the eyes of this person, this thing that would not let me go and I knew it was not a good thing.

"Toboe, why are you screaming?" His voice was gentle, but I knew it was not the end and I also knew that there was no way to fight. I was also to shocked for it was him. "Toboe, don't you rember me? I know you do know who I am if it has not occurred to you. Think back Inu-chan…think way back."

I looked up with fear. A fear that racked my body through with complete uncertainty at this predator. Memories flashed. They invaded every part of me make fall. "NO, it can't be…"

Author's Note: So, I have reached the end of the chapter. I guess if you didn't know, you can tell that I just wish for you to suffer. But I guess if you think you may…may be able to solve this…but I won't tell. You will have to read the next chapter that comes out...Whenever that may be. So, please reply people…my dearest of readers for the more that I hear back the sooner the next chapter will be able to get up….and thank you all for those who have in the past. I do hope you all continue to review. I do hope this quells your hunger for a while!!