Chapter Two
Hitoban woke with a yawn in a small cave. The small visit Akio had proposed had turned into a two-week stay. She rolled over to smile at Akio and wake him, but found nothing but a few hairs. With a look of confusion on her face, Hitoban got up and walked outside, sniffing at the trail he’d left. It was old, as if he’d left the moment she’d fallen asleep and she instantly knew what had happened.
Akio had abandoned her.
Hitoban looked all around, not wanting to admit the truth, tears welling in her eyes. She was alone again and she didn’t know why she felt so saddened by his departure. She sat down, leaned her head back, and howled, long and mournful. She howled a sad song until her throat gave out and she lay down, tears streaming down her face.
After a few minutes of crying, Hitoban stood up, shook herself off, and huffed. Now she was angry at him. He’d abandoned her when she was just getting used to him and now she wanted revenge. He had told her before of the pack he led in the city, a place she’d been many times before and knew the way by heart. She turned to the east and began walking toward the city. The city was abandoned by humans and, over time, overrun by wolves. Many packs lived there, some allies, some rivals, and some peace-lovers who chose to stay out of the frays. There was a different section of city for each faction and the peace-lovers were right in the middle of it all.
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Hitoban slunk along the alleyways of the wolf city, looking for a way to get to the middle section. There were three peace-loving packs there now and, from what Akio told her about his pack, she had to find the biggest one. She padded along the alley and soon heard whispers behind her. She ignored it and moved into another alley. Not all wolves are welcome in the wolf city and she, being a loner all her life with no protection, would probably be one of the ones not welcome.
She heard claws clipping against the stone of the alley behind her and she let out a low growl. Warning number one. This says, “anyone who is following me had better cut it out or I am going to get angry.”
She turned down another alley and started following her nose, sniffing for some wolf scent. She smelled a wolf behind her and heard the clicking and more whispers. With a snarl she wheeled around to face whoever was following her. She gave a quizzical look when she saw a scrawny little scrap of a wolf, then growled at him.
“Who the hell are you?”
The little scrap then began to mumble and rant on and on. Every now and then Hitoban caught some word uttered louder than the other. He seemed to cringe closer to himself as he muttered.
“Um…name…name. Hey I’m getting to that! Who invited you anyway? Oh, right!” He turned back to her and said, “I’m Tsukikage. My friends call me Tsuki. Or they would if I had any…”
Hitoban raised an eyebrow at his mumblings, and when he spoke to himself she nearly turned to walk away. However, when he finally got a grip she half smiled and relaxed a bit, but her stance was still aggressive.
“So what are you doing here? You have a pack or something?”
He stared at her with a sort of quizzical expression then began to talk. “Well, I was kicked out of my pack a few months ago-you know, the whole ‘you are a male and you cannot stay in this pack unless you have something important to do’ thing. I came here because I smelled…something. Something I had never smelled before. I thought maybe it was food. We have not eaten in a while…” He relaxed a little and smiled, letting loose a flurry of questions flying at Hitoban like missals.
“So who are you? Are you starting a pack? Do you already have a pack? Do you know what the smell is?” He blushed and Hitoban laughed as he said, “Oh I am sorry! I must be talking too much again…”
Hitoban, now with her guard down, sat and smiled at the little wolf. “I am Hitoban no Fokkusu. I am sorry, but I do not know what the smell is. I have no pack but I do plan on taking one for myself.” She suddenly thought of something and tilted her head. “Are you hungry, Tsuki?”
His eyes glittered and as his face lit up, Hitoban laughed. “Come with me, but if I leave an alley, do not follow.”
She stood and walked, the little male following her, and when she left the alley he stayed behind as she’d asked. She crept very sneakily up to a nearby pack from the side. At one point, she thought she saw someone throw a glance her way, so she ducked behind a trash bin in her fear of being caught. As she peeked above the lid, sure enough, a very confused-looking male was looking around, his ears back. Finally he gave up his search with a shrug and went back to guarding his post.
Hitoban let out a sigh and crept up to the food crates. Unfortunately, the food was right beside the makeshift throne the Alphas sat upon, so Hitoban had to be especially quiet. She slunk along the ground until she found a succulent rack of pork ribs and nabbed it from the crate. It made a small squishing sound, and she saw the Alpha’s shadow move. She quickly but silently darted behind the throne and stood, her heart racing, as she waited for the Alpha to focus on something else. Stealing food is a very heinous crime in the wolf city, and if an Alpha found out she was sneaking food from his supply, she would more than likely be killed.
After quite a long while, Hitoban saw the shadow move back to its normal sitting position. She decided to hightail it out of there as fast as she could. She got as close to the ground as her leg muscles would allow without collapsing, and slunk her way back out of the pack’s territory. Once out, she knew the pack couldn’t harm her. She stopped slinking and padded happily back to Tsuki in the alley. With a smile, she tossed him the ribs and said, “Here.”
He smiled a smile that was so big Hitoban thought his face was going to rip in half. When he looked at the food, however, the smile vanished; he looked back up at Hitoban and he got a very scared and uneasy look on his face. He backed away whimpering with his tail tucked between his legs.
Hitoban tilted her head to the side and nosed the food closer to him. A confused veil covered her eyes as she said, “Okay I know I might seem a bit mean but it is not poisoned or anything. Go on and eat it.”
He looked at the meat again, stretched out his neck to sniff it. Once he felt it smelled fine enough, he nibbled at it a bit. The next thing Hitoban knew he had scarfed down the food and all that was left was a little pile of bone. In his haste, he’d even eaten some of that. He started sniffing around, probably looking for more, then seemed as if a light bulb went off in his head and turned back to Hitoban with a bow.
“Thank you. Thank you so much! I…” His thought trailed off before he could finish it and he quickly lost interest in it.
“So,” he said, regaining a shadow of his former focus, “you do not have a pack? That seems kind of odd. Were you kicked out? Looking for a mate or something?”
The thought of looking for a mate made Hitoban’s blood boil. She had been considering Akio for a mate, and instead he had left her. Now instead of fantasies of the future they could have, she had fantasies about what she would do when she finally found him. She forced the thought from her mind and formed some kind of answer to Tsuki’s question.
“My pack was killed by a wolf named Missy. Let’s not talk about that, okay?” Hitoban tried not to coat her answer with the hatred she felt for Missy, but it was inevitable that a trace would be recognizable.
At Hitoban’s slightly irritated tone, Tsuki looked down, giving a small nod. He suddenly looked back up at her.
“So where are you headed? Surely you do not want to stay here forever like the other wolves.”
She decided to hide the part of her true agenda. Instead of saying that she was looking for an ungrateful Alpha, she formed a vague answer to his question. “I do not know. I just kind of wander around.”
“Oh…” He yawned and Hitoban smiled, a motherly feeling coming over her.
“You should get some sleep. You look very tired and I will watch and make sure no one harms you.”
“Thank you…Hitoban…” He closed his eyes and was soon fast asleep, his breathing regular and his tiny, starved sides bobbing up and down peacefully. The peace, however, was short-lived as he began to whimper softly every now and then. In her attempt to hush his nightmares, Hitoban put a paw across his neck.
Suddenly Tsuki woke with a start and shouted “Why do you hate me?” He looked around frantically, covered in a light layer of sweat, then bolted.
Tsuki ran along, panicking, when a voice sounded in his head. “This is why no one sticks by you.” Out of nowhere, a ghost-like form of himself appeared at his side and ran with him. “You will never fit in anywhere. It is better just to run.”
“I don’t need you!” Tsuki howled at him tears flinging from his grimaced face, but run as he might, he could not outrun his shadow.
Hitoban was dazed from the little one’s shouting, but when she regained her focus she bolted off after him. She had long legs due to her Maned Wolf blood, which allowed her to catch up to him relatively quickly. Once she had him next to her, she jumped to the side, tackling him to the ground. She stood over him with one front paw and one back paw on each side of him and said, “Calm down.”
Tsuki thrashed around, banging against her legs for a while, but she stood fast and soon he gave up and broke down in a fit of tears and sobs.
“Where do I belong?” he asked with a sob.
“Stop your whimpering!” Hitoban looked down on the pup with hard eyes and for a minute thought about biting him to snap him out of his pathetic state. But she decided against it, thinking it might only serve to traumatize him more, and soon the look in her eyes softened and she began to lick his face, licking the salty tears away.
Slowly, very slowly, he stopped crying. Hitoban removed her paws and sat down to the right of him, waiting for him to say something. He continued to be silent, just staring into space, until Hitoban finally lost her patience.
“Well?” she barked. “Are you a wolf or not?” When he gave no answer, Hitoban sighed and stood, jumping up on top of the dumpster just to her right. She looked down at him with pitying eyes.
“You were dreaming, were you not? I bet you were an Omega in your pack days. You seem the type of wolf that others like to push around. Now I am breaking you of that. I am giving you a place in this world and it is your choice to take it or leave it. Now…” She jumped down off the dumpster and leaned into his face. “Are you a wolf…or are you not?”
Hitoban saw a change in Tsuki’s features, like he’d been battling with himself, causing him to not be able to speak, and had only just now stopped. She stepped back and sat, watching him.
“I…” he sobbed, “I just want a home, you know?” He looked into the sky, not really looking at the clouds on the blue background, but to a far-off distant place. “Somewhere I really belong…” He looked at Hitoban with a sad smile. “My father thought I was weak…well, I am. I became the Omega, the lowest and sorriest excuse for a wolf anyone has ever seen, so I left. I have been looking for a place called ‘home’ ever since.” He got to his feet and looked at Hitoban. “So to answer your question: I do not know what I am. I do not belong with humans and I have never belonged with wolves. So where does that leave me?” He turned to leave and imparted a few final words.
“I am going to find it, no matter what.” He looked at Hitoban with sad yet hopeful eyes and she smiled back at him. “Thank you Heets. I think I have found the strength to try…” He stared at her, this beautiful wolf who had been so kind to him in her own special way.
“This is something I have to do alone. Do not follow me.”
With that, he dashed off, leaving a tiny trail of wet dots on the pavement where his tears fell.
Hitoban smiled inwardly and whispered to herself, “Good boy…” She was startled to feel a tear roll down her own cheek. It confounded and confused her why she would be shedding tears for a little wolf she’d only just met. She watched Tsuki run down the alley and knew that she could easily follow him if she chose to, but she was indecisive, probably for the first time in her life. She hesitated for a second and then bolted down the alley after him at top speed. She called to him as she ran.
“Tsuki, Tsuki! Come here! Do you not understand?”
She closed in on him and jumped in front of him. She leaned her head down and he crashed head-first into her own skull, causing him to fall backwards. She stood over him as she had before, looking into his eyes with great intensity.
“You are a wolf. Just because you were once an Omega means nothing to me. I cannot be in a pack due to what happened to my mother, and I do not have a pack. Being in a pack, having a pack, they mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Sure, someday I may join another pack, but for right now I am happy just wandering. You have no need to worry about anyone hurting you while you are with me. I will protect you, Tsuki. Can you not see where you belong? You belong with me. The two of us, together. Not as a pack with formal leadership roles like Alphas and Omega, but the two of us, together, against all who oppose us. It would be just like we are a lone wolf. We would be two as one. That was what my mother used to tell me. That is all a pack is supposed to be. A gathering of wolves, as one, against who oppose them and not lording over each other like humans so often do. They forgot that…my mother and father’s pack forgot that rule. When Missy came to attack us, my father took the reigns. He sent all those who were ‘expendable’ out onto the front lines and kept those he favored most close to him.”
Hitoban’s voice began to crack as she spoke. She was sobbing, her words coming out as choking gasps, hot, eye-stinging tears rolling off of her face, most of them landing on Tsuki.
“Then when many had died, those Father had kept close to him started to oppose him. He went power-mad and soon there was an all-out mutiny. Many died under Missy and my father’s reign-my mother included. He didn’t deserve to lord over anyone and he forgot that. He is not even being punished. I am being punished. I did nothing-I was a mere pup-and I was the one who was banished. My punishment? To be forever alone, without a pack, without friends who can trust me. I cannot handle it much longer. The truth is, Tsuki, I need you more than you need me.
She finally stepped off of Tsuki to let him do as he pleased. She turned hastily and ran into another alley to wrap up her crying. She couldn’t stand it when others saw her cry.
“I cannot believe that I told him all of that. I have not told anyone else about it… There is just something about him that makes me talk. Like he needs me and I need him.”
When she was done with her pity party, she padded back into the alley she was just in, only to find that he was gone. He was off to find himself, like he’d said he was. She smiled sadly and sat down.
“How bittersweet this is…”
She looked at the spot where he’d just been lying, and she saw the still-wet spots where more of his tears hit the ground. After her musings, she stood and turned, wandering aimlessly. For some reason, the loss of this newfound friend distracted her from her surroundings, and soon she realized that she was no longer in the bounds of the wolf city and instead in a nearby forest.
“d**n. Now I have gone and gotten myself lost.”
She looked around, trying to find a way through the trees she was engulfed in, when she was suddenly surrounded on all sides by hunters.
“It’s a wolf! Get it!”
She tried to run but there was no hope-she was surrounded and there was no way to escape. They caught her and put a shock collar around her neck as one large man with bad breath bent down and spoke to her.
“Alright, mutt, I know there are wolves in that town there and you’re gonna lead us to ‘em. If you don’t, you’ll get a nice big shock.”
Hitoban tried to bolt but she was pulled back by the leather-covered chain leash attached to the collar, and shortly after received a shock so painful that she fell to the ground writhing in pain. Finally she gave in; she nodded half-heartedly and stood, sniffing the air. The first thing was to find the city. She would formulate a plan once inside. Maybe some of the other wolves would come to her aid. Unlikely though it was, there was still a possibility.
She followed her nose out of the woods and walked into the city. She couldn’t smell any wolves she knew so she followed the smell of two others to a hole in the wall. There was a pair of glowing eyes inside. The hunter with the remote for the collar bent down to look inside and Hitoban took the opportunity to grab the remote, and his hand, in her teeth and smash both the remote and his bones to bits.
Now all she had to do was get rid of the hunters. The fat one that had just been holding the remote had fallen over in his surprise, so she lunged at him and latched onto his neck. He fell to the ground, screaming in agony as Hitoban’s grip grew firmer, and finally he died. His blood seeped out onto the cobblestone alleyway and Hitoban’s teeth gleamed with it. She aimed a vicious growl at the other hunters. They all dropped their guns and ran away with their tails between their legs.
Hitoban was quick to unlatch the leash using her shoulder and her nose, but try as she might she couldn’t get the collar off. The sun was getting hotter and hotter, beating down on the alley and leaving Hitoban with no place to hide from it. It heated the metal collar and it soon became so hot that her fur began to singe. Fearful of what would happen should it reach her skin, Hitoban whimpered and bashed her neck against the wall before calling for help.
“Help me, please!”
Suddenly a gray wolf with yellow eyes dashed out from the building Hitoban had just seen and tried to rip off the collar with his teeth. He pulled and gnawed and twisted with all his might, but he couldn’t get it free.
“Hold on, I will get this off!”
He shut his eyes tightly and gave one final, desperate tug, and the scorching collar snapped in half at the latch.
“Are you okay? You didn’t have to do that you know.”
Hitoban, out of breath and with slightly less fur where the collar had singed it away, looked up at the gray wolf who she had never seen before. She continued to pant while speaking, breaking her sentences into fragments.
“Well it is not… Like I was going to… Rat you out…right? Who are you? I am Hitoban no Fokkusu. Most call me Hitoban though.”
The gray wolf looked a bit confused for a second, obviously taking the time to unscramble Hitoban’s words, but then he straightened his face and said, “The name is Wahya Ayawisgi and you can call me Wahya. Can you walk?”
An indignant expression overtook Hitoban’s features and she said, “Can I walk? Just look at who you are dealing with and ask me that again!”
She smiled devilishly, got up, jumped onto a trash can, jumped onto a fire escape, and jumped off of it, landing safely and gracefully on the ground.
“This is Hitoban no Fokkusu, acrobat of all of wolf-kind! I not being able to walk is like a human not being able to shoot a gun. Only if I were deathly injured would I not be able to walk, and this was merely a bit of burned fur.”
Wahya laughed and said, “Well I do not know about all of wolf-kind, but you are pretty good.”
Hitoban smiled. “Well I have things I need to do so unless you want to help me you should go. And I really do not think you would wish to help me.”
Wahya tilted his head to the side confusedly and said, “But we have only just met. Can’t you stay and visit for a while?”
“I am sure we will meet again. I am a wanderer, so I travel all over. But if you live in this city, I am sure we will run into one another again very soon. I shall not forget you, Wahya.”
“But…” Wahya started to protest but it was too late. Hitoban had already turned and was running farther into the city, looking for Akio.