Chapter 2: Freedom

Niki's POV

"Uh-oh," my brother pulls a face as he sticks his head out of a manhole cover. "Must have taken a wrong turn."

The metal ladder rung makes a ringing noise as my head connects with it, a heavy sigh escaping my mouth. Below me, Kiba snarls quietly. Looking down at him to communicate our shared frustration, I roll my eyes. My brother suddenly stiffens.

"Hey, hey!" he calls joyfully. "It's one of our own!"

Curious as to the identity of this wolf and still cross with Hige, I relish in him crying out and toppling over as I push him out of the way, climbing up the rest of the ladder and glaring at him. Kiba follows close behind.

"That's the last time I trust your nose," he growls.

Hige scowls defensively. "Well, anybody's nose would go numb after a night in that stink-hole!"

Whilst they're having their little spat, I study the surprised-looking wolf. In wolf form, a beautiful auburn colour and no older than fifteen, he has these three strange metal bangles on his front right leg. Scattered and upturned trashcans around him suggest that he was just eating whatever crap was in those things. He stares at us three, caught off-guard.

"You guys?" a young boy's voice speaks, almost to himself. "No way. Y-you're…."

Kiba simply looks at him before glancing at a point behind the wolf. All of us follow his gaze, and the new wolf and I gasp in surprise as we see a young human girl, her arms full of shopping and staring straight at the new wolf. When his eyes lock onto her, he speaks again.

"Leera," he calls softly.

At his movement and voice, the girl starts to shake in fear. Scowling in confusion, I tense in anticipatory defence.

Something's not right here.

Most humans dismiss us as big dogs. But this one seems to know something more. To know him. And the fact that he referred to her by name…. Don't tell me this kid revealed himself to this human.

The boy's voice sounds again.

"Don't be scared. I won't do anything. I just wanted to see you again. I'm so sorry…about your bird." His ears and head lower in sadness and in a non-threatening way.

She responds, but not as he hopes. "Daddy?" she whispers, but her voice grows. "Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?!"

With each word, I tense more, and by the time she screams, I just catch the new wolf jump in fear as I launch myself off the ground and forward, picking my brother and Kiba up by their jackets to speed our escape.

"Come quick, it's the wolf!" her retreating voice shouts. "The wolf is here!"

Luckily the kid is smart enough to be running right behind us. As the fastest, I hurtle around a corner and launch straight into a pipe that leads back to the sewers. I hear Kiba and Hige do the same, but the other wolf takes his time following, possibly unsure of which pipe we've used. I pause and look back, and the others do the same, tense as the girl's voice gets closer. She suddenly gasps.

"Why, Leera?" the boy demands. "Why did you scream?"

She whimpers. "No, stay away! There's-there's something wrong with you. You're not normal. How can anyone ever trust you?"

"Leera, please," the kid begs, and I hear him take a few steps. "I only showed you so that you could trust me."

I raise my eyebrows. Man, I get it that he's only young and she's a cute girl, but a stunt like that was ridiculous.

"Don't get any closer!"

"Why?" he says angrily. "Didn't you come here to catch me?"

She girl suddenly screams, and the sound of her falling echoes faintly down the pipe.

Hige silently agrees with me that enough's enough, and sticks his head out of the pipe.

"Come on!" he urges the wolf, and after a pause he follows us.

Kiba leads us further through the pipe and into the sewers. I follow behind him, the kid brings up the rear in the far back, looking solemn. Hige comforts the wolf with his usual charm.

"Hey, runt, what's eating you?"

The kid scowls impressively, but it does nothing to mature his child-like face. "I'm not a runt! My name's Toboe."

"Well, that's cool," my brother continues as if he'd said nothing wrong before. "I'm Hige, this is my sister Niki and that there's Kiba. Don't be surprised if Niki doesn't speak to you for a while though; she has trust issues."

I'm still not sure, after all these years, if I agree with the phrase "trust issues" or not. But, blunt as my brother is, he at least gets the message across.

I don't think Toboe knows how to reply to that advice, so he moves onto an easier topic of conversation. "Where are we headed, anyway?"

"Where do you think?" Hige snorts. "To the exit, of course."

"To the exit?" The concept seems foreign to the young wolf.

"We're leaving town," Kiba speaks up for the first time since the whole incident.

"You're leaving town? But where else are you gonna go?"

"To paradise," the white wolf responds with certainty and reverence.

"Paradise…." Toboe mulls over the word before slowing to a stop.

"Hey, guys," he calls, and we all stop to look at him. "Do you know Tsume?"

Kiba echoes the unfamiliar name to himself while I shake my head and my brother responds in the negative.

"Is he the one with the scar on his chest?" Kiba asks.

At the description, Toboe brightens up considerably. "Yeah!" he responds enthusiastically. "That's Tsume alright!"

"Okay, what about him?"

Oooh, did the temperature just drop in here?

I raise my eyebrows at Kiba, but he ignores me and just looks at Toboe. From the flat and hostilely indifferent tone, I'd say that Kiba and this Tsume guy didn't part on great terms. Obviously Toboe knows a different side of him that Kiba never met. Although, given what we've seen of the young wolf already, it's possible that he's just delusional about Tsume's character.

Toboe doesn't share my faint amusement at Kiba's tone; his face falls, discouraged by the iciness.

"He's one of us so I thought he'd want to leave too," he explains, smaller and quieter than before.

His crestfallen look is like a knife to my heart. Despite how tough he acts, he's still just a kid, not much older than I was on that horrible night, and he just wants company, friends. I may have just silently criticised his youthful mistakes, but really I'm furious at myself; I had the very same naïveté, and it's what got me in this mess in the first place. Looking at him is like looking in a mirror that reflects the past, and I want to scream: Don't be fooled! Please, just grow up and learn how bad the world is the peaceful way, before it's too late! They're coming for you!

But I don't. Can't, or I would start sobbing for all the things that have been ripped from me.

My inner struggle goes unnoticed by those around me, the fact bringing both a lot and little comfort simultaneously, as Kiba and Toboe stay silent and my brother simply turns fully to the younger wolf.

"Well, I don't know him," he repeats. "Where is he, hiding out someplace?"

Kiba turns away as Hige speaks, and I watch him bend down to examine the floor directly beneath the open grate that leads to the street surface while listening to the conversation.

"I don't know," Toboe replies, saddened. "We got split up."

"Sorry, pal, but it's too late to go back for him now." My brother doesn't actually sound very sorry, but Kiba seems interested in what he's found, so I step closer to see. The spots of blood on the floor grab my attention, too, and a slight breeze to my nose confirms that it's wolf blood. Kiba and I share a look of communication without a message, and I raise my eyebrows in question.

'What do you think about it? What do you want to do?'

"So, what, is he, like, a friend of yours?" Hige asks.

Toboe answers sharply and immediately. "No, he's not!" His voice suddenly quietens again, returning to the sad tone. "He isn't my friend."

My eyebrows scrunch in sympathy for the young wolf as my previous theory is confirmed.

Hige doesn't share my empathy. "So, ditch him already," he shrugs carelessly, turning away from the younger wolf to carry on walking, straight past where Kiba and I are.

Frowning at my brother's back, I marvel once again, as I have many times, at how peaceful it must be to live in his simple world.

"Shake a leg, runt," he goads.

"That's Toboe!" the target reacts sharply.

I look back to Kiba again and he nods at me. Reading his intent in his eyes, I step aside as he rises, and he passes in front of me to walk quickly to the front of the group again, leading us in the direction he wants.

Hige seemingly automatically falls back as Kiba passes, and lets him take the lead once more. I smile at the symbolism.

A small and mismatched pack we may be, but we still have a pack leader.

The city passes above us as we walk mostly in silence. Hige frowns in confusion when Kiba starts to ascend a ladder back to street level some time later, but I nod encouragingly at him before following the white wolf, and the other two clatter onto the ladder soon after.

My eyes search restlessly around us as Kiba leads us surely into a more abandoned part of town. The buildings loom like empty, lifeless trees, their solid and angular shadows among the darkness as ambiguous and terrifying as the mess of branches of trees in the same conditions. The fallen debris of the ruins could hide all sorts of dark creatures, and I keep my senses sharp. See, while my brother boasts of his superior sense of smell, I have the best hearing that either of us has ever known from anyone. At the slightest scuffling in the shadows, my eyes, nose, attention and defence are focussed in that direction until we pass the area and are a good distance away from it. I routinely but quickly check that we aren't being followed either, but my ears tell me that the noises are made by different and non-threatening creatures.

But not too much later, a different sound reaches my ear; a larger creature shifting minutely in the ruin we're approaching. A wolf, no doubt, given the blood that Kiba found and his intention he communicated with me back in the sewer. I tense myself for this meeting; I have seen two very different opinions formed of him – from Toboe and from Kiba – and I'm not sure which one is more accurate. I refuse to think that either of them had the full picture, however; if each came to opposite conclusions then there must be some truth in each perspective.

Toboe and Hige both seem to be clueless to our objective, looking around with apprehensive confusion. Neither complain when we enter into the building though instead of passing by it. Just before Kiba opens the door, I hear a gasp as the wolf on the other side leaps to his feet.

Too late to run now, stranger.

I follow Kia through the door, prepared for the following scene. The wolf is on his feet, as I heard, and in human form. His human body is gripped by dangerous-looking black leather, ripped at his shoulders. Just as in Kiba's description, a huge cross scar marks his chest. In the dim light I can just about make out the cold gold of his narrowed eyes, and his white hair sticks up as a sharp point. Through my wolf eyes, his true form stands as a large imposing wolf of an unfeeling slate colour.

Altogether, not the most approachable appearance.

Somehow completely missing his scent, my brother gives his best first impression:

"What a crap heap. Why the hell did you bring us here?" he says looking disdainfully at our surroundings.

The kid catches on pretty quick though, recognising this stranger from a glimpse from behind Hige.

"Tsume!" he cries out joyfully.

"You," Tsume hisses in a less welcoming tone, his deep voice gravelly and as rough as his predicted personality.

Hige's head flicks back and forth between the two of them. "Wha–? Hey, is this him?"

Kiba had been ignoring them in their interaction, and before the kid can respond, he speaks to Tsume.

"I could smell the blood from your wound."

"What?" Tsume's hostile gaze flicks to the white wolf.

"I smelt it all the way here from town."

Tsume's fists clench. "And you're gonna nurse me back to health?" he snarls sarcastically. "Well, I don't need your help."

I roll my eyes at his attitude. Oh, great; a tough guy. This is gonna be fun.

Toboe won't give up though. "Tsume, look, I…." He looks down, unsure of how what to say, then continues softly. "We're leaving the city. I really think you should come with us."

Makes one of us, kid.

"And just where is this merry band of yours going?" Tsume sneers.

"To paradise," Kiba says with the same level but firm and reverent tone I've heard him use before.

Infuriatingly, Tsume snorts. "You're kidding me. You're going with them because you believe in that crap?"

My nostrils flare as I glare a hole in the asshole's head. 'That crap' just happens to be the story that every wolf is told from as soon as they can understand it. I wouldn't be surprised if every single one of our kind knew that wolves were said to be the ones to open the gate to paradise. And this douche just spat in the face of one of the main things a wolf should be proud of. And can he not see Kiba with his own eyes? Surely I'm not the only one to see it? But then I remember something Hige told me a while ago, that not all wolves were told the full legend, that not all of us would be able to recognise the one when we saw them. That still doesn't excuse this asshole, but it makes more sense, I guess.

Through all my musings, Toboe replies something about living with humans, but I wasn't concentrating enough to be able to process it properly. None of us makes a reply though, until Hige ducks by the window.

"Look, I hate to interrupt, but a nasty stink is headed this way."

Tsume joins him to peer out the hole in the wall. "We're surrounded," he reports.

"Let me ask you," Kiba addresses the whole room, ignoring the threat outside, "why did you guys come to this city? It was because of the flower scent, wasn't it? Well, it's gone now. There's no reason to stay."

Gazing around, I see the others remembering their arrivals, too, their faraway expressions focussing on memories. Regarding my brother but not meeting his eye, I recall the relief we both felt; after running, fleeing and searching for so long, the smell of lunar flowers – a naturally and instinctively comforting smell to wolves – drew us in like a sheltered burrow in a blizzard. But neither of us did anything about it; we knew we weren't the ones.

But Tsume stubbornly refuses to give up. "The flower has nothing to do with it. I'm here because I belong."

"I can see that," Kiba allows. "This city is a dump."

As Tsume's aggressive gaze lands on Kiba, mine flicks to him, too, but he ignores me.

Kiba, I don't like the guy either, but that really isn't helping.

"I still have a score to settle with you," Tsume threatens, skulking closer to Kiba.

"We don't have time for this!" Luckily my brother follows my train of thought and tries in vain to defuse the challenge sparking between these two idiots. He may as well have not spoken, and he glances nervously between the two of them as they continue their exchange.

"The last time we spoke you said something about how your pride wouldn't let you pass off as a human," Tsume accuses, and I can see Kiba thinking that way from what I know of him already. "Well, you look pretty human now. Where did your pride go?"

Kiba's expression doesn't change, thankfully not rising to the fight Tsume presents. "Nowhere. Nothing has changed."

Tsume decides to leave that subject and try for an attack from a different direction. "Do you have the slightest idea what will happen if you leave the city?"

"Yeah," Kiba says firmly.

But Tsume's not convinced as his eyes narrow and he snarls, "You'll just die!"

Kiba is unconcerned. "Possibly," he admits easily, and I glance at him in slight shock. "Everyone's gonna die; it's a natural part of life. But if life has no purpose you're dead already."

I'd only vaguely been aware of the possibility of dying should I decide to follow Kiba, as aware of my fragility as every day of my life. But to have even the leader of our pack confess a weakness in his confidence, somehow makes it more real.

No, my mind stop me as I survey his face. It's not a weakness in his confidence. His face shows no regret nor fear of what's to come. He is completely confident. He just accepts that death could loom its ugly head on our quest. That complete and utter acceptance allows him to be prepared for anything and to do anything to reach his destination.

I frown at that thought as it induces another one. How far will he go? If it were necessary, would he abandon or even kill one of us to get to Paradise?

My frown deepens in worry as I can't answer that question immediately. His driven determination to search for and find Paradise has impressed and inspired me right from the start, and I've had no reason to doubt his loyalty to his kind and his friends yet, but I haven't been with him for very long. If each of those qualities are pitted against each other, which one will win? I guess we'll just have to wait and see, and be wary in the meantime.

His revelation about the meaning of life leaves us all stunned and at least partially convinced. But the enemies below give us no time to contemplate, argue or discuss as a blinding light flares in through the window. Shielding our eyes for a split second as they adjust, we each duck to avoid the shower of offensive metal that peppers the walls as the humans start to fire on us. I have no idea why they're here in the first place, but that doesn't matter; we're leaving anyway, so all we have to do is outrun them. A grin spreads across my face at the challenge. 'Outrunning' is what I do best.

Hige calls my name to check if I'm safe, more out of brotherly love and habit than actual belief that the bullets might have hit me. I leap nimbly over to the other side of the room and tap him on the shoulder to signal that I'm fine before immediately leaping away again and follow Kiba out the door. The footsteps behind me tell me the others are following none-too-reluctantly, and we all split off running down different levelled pipes. It's better if we give the humans more targets to shoot at, and I may be enjoying flipping and jumping through the rare bullet-spray that might catch up with me a little too much. I just have to trust that Kiba knows this is the right way out, and after a few glances around to get my bearings in the city, I know that it is, from my many trips outside the wall to scupper the Nobles' deliveries.

The others aren't faring quite as well as me, being a bit slower. I thought they'd still be alright though, and scans of the surrounding sounds confirm that Hige and Kiba are, but at that moment, I hear Toboe cry out and some metal groan. I pause, glancing back, and see him hanging from a piece of metal that won't support his weight for very long, and it doesn't look like he can hold on long either. Tsume, the closest one to the kid, heard the same thing though, and he's now headed towards him, reaching down to grab him with his teeth and pulls him up. Smiling at how the kid is safe now and at who his saviour was, I continue running.

Tough guy, huh?

"Thank you," I hear Toboe gasp over the spattering of bullets around me.

"Go on, hurry up," Tsume growls.

"You're really not coming with us?" Toboe sounds heart-broken as Tsume doesn't reply.

Their footsteps begin again, but Tsume's pause for a second then continue. He's probably jumped from one pipe to another. The kid's cry of his name as he moves from running with him to running on a different path confirms my theory.

I'm not exactly a big fan of the guy coming with us, but I hope that he's not going to stay here; the humans have seen his face now, and they'll only continue hunting him down. Whatever he had here, he's most likely lost it all now.

Finally we reach some ruins, which means the humans can't just run or drive alongside us; the walls on the ground floor impede their pursuit in a way that few walls can for us. We spring and jump and skip and hop over every gap onto every beam and building we see in our path, and I relish the freedom to use my natural power once more. All these years hiding in this city, using delivery raids as a way to release all the longing for openness, and now I can finally let go. Not only that, but feel like I belong doing everything that I can do around others; my own kind.

But before we're out of the ruins, a sound makes me freeze in surprise to look down the tunnel where it's coming from. Footsteps. And not a human's footsteps. Ones that I heard behind me not a few minutes ago. Kiba has stopped too, and given that my hearing is better than his, I have no idea how he knows.

Yes, you do, my mind counters. He's the one. He just knows.

The other two don't hear it either, and Hige apparently doesn't smell him because he exclaims at the two of us:

"What the hell are you stopping for?"

Neither of us answers, and a few seconds later a familiar figure storms out of the tunnel.

"Tsume!" Toboe cries out joyfully.

The wolf in question merely stops and scowls at all of us, Kiba in particular, as if daring to rub his presence in his face, daring to make him eat his words. But Kiba simply stares back a moment longer before calling out, "This way!"

Tsume springs forward to avoid the bullets raining at his feet, and we jump up a column of a building to gain access to the upper level and continue running along it, now well out of the view of the humans.

At last, we reach the edge of the wall, and Kiba jumps straight off it onto a ruin lower down on the outside, completely oblivious to the defining moment of my life. I've been in this city and played by its rules for years now, and this wall was keeping me in in more ways than one. A part of me wants to pause at its edge to prepare myself for the freedom of overstepping it. Another part wants me to leave this whole place behind me and not look back, preparation be damned. As in many important moments in my life, Hige is on a similar wavelength, and reaches out to grab my hand, still running full pelt, and grins at me, eager anticipation and unconditional support in his eyes. I take his hand gratefully, and smile in return, nodding once before we both launch ourselves off the wall, landing perfectly.

Toboe isn't quite as confident, and he stops, uncertain, at the edge. My brother doesn't share his concern.

"Jump already!" he yells up to him.

An indignant reply comes: "I was getting ready to, alright?"

"Move it," Tsume doesn't allow for him to 'get ready' and simply kicks him off the wall. The young wolf cries out before landing rather painfully on the ground.

But Tsume doesn't follow.

A bullet strikes the floor by his feet, but he doesn't even flinch. I frown, and not because the wolf is being stubborn. Where did that shot come from? We're out of view of the humans who were chasing us.

"Tsume, what are you waiting for? Come on, jump!" Toboe calls.

Another bullet misses narrowly. Who is firing? I swing myself onto a higher ledge and tense up before Hige stops me.

"No, Niki, don't go back up there!"

Reading the concern in his eyes and considering the fact that there is actually someone firing up there, I relent, pushing my confusion and curiosity from my mind.

Tsume still hasn't moved, and so Kiba tries a new angle.

"Are you scared?" he asks quietly, but I know the wolf will hear. The sincerity, placation and lack of judgement in his voice makes me gaze at him in wonder after the hostility I've seen him harbour towards the grey wolf. But the latter responds in much the way I expect after a short pause.

"Yeah, you wish," he snorts before jumping from the wall to join us.

As soon as he lands, Kiba starts running again, and we all follow him into the snow. The wind bites in the open space more than within the city confines, but as I look back at the slowly fading scene, I grin in victory and excitement.

Sorry, boys; I've got better places to be.

Yay, chapter 2! Finally! Sorry it's taken me so long, but I hope it was worth the wait. If you want me to write more, please leave a review! Check out my other stuff, too, if you're interested.

Fly on,

NitnatRide