Way of the Wolf

Chapter 2 Caped Wanderer

Where this all begins, is one of the most excruciating memories of my life. When all the other wolf packs had left, everyone, along with their families, joined the festivities of "Luna Eclipse", where Wolf youkai celebrate "the resting of the moon". Off course, "half breeds" are feared to taint the holiness of such occasions. So I retreated to my section of the Wolf Forest. Everyone else mingles together, no part of the forest kept for themselves. Once again, like the hypocritical people they have become, this rule doesn't apply to me. I own a small part of the forest. The other wolf youkai kids call it
"Half Breed Traitor" forest. Traitor, I am a traitor. For what? For being born.
I enjoy the solitary atmosphere of my forest. Just me, the wolves that often visit, and the birds. I can think and wallow in self-pity at my loneliness. But that all changed the following day.
Morning, the time for hunting. Youkai usually eat Mongrels, weak, and almost powerless demonic creatures. That is what we eat too. But I am subjected to wait until everyone else has gone, hunted, filled their bellies and returned. The youkai my age often torture me by over-hunting and bringing the rest of their kill home as "snacks". By the time I usually get to hunt, only the skinny Mongrels are left, none of the fatter, more clumsy ones left. Hence, I am pretty skinny.
I set off once the last of the pack return. I have all the capabilities of an average Wolf Youkai, not lacking in speed. I race through the forest, branches and bushes cracking and splintering as I run. I make it to the path humans had created through our forest. I stop to listen, my ears swivelling at every sound. That's when my story starts.
"Help me!!! Someone!!!" Followed by screams, and the scent of blood. One thing entered my brain. If it was a Wolf Youkai, and I saved him or her, the pack might accept me! So I run towards the muffled screams and the scent of blood, and Sutoraiki plants. Sutoraiki plants are plants that choke their victims to death, then puncture them to suck their blood out with their giant claw-like attachments to their stems. But sometimes they open them alive if they are resistant. I ran to a clearing. A Sutoraiki is twisted around a tree, and I can still see a figure bulging through the fat stem, wriggling and muffled screams emitting from it.
"Hang on, I am coming!" I yell. Swiftly running to the monsterous plant, I proceed to swipe at if with my claws, thick chunks of it falling to the ground and splattering like fallen eggs. The plant seems to scream a choked, sheep like bleat, then falls with a slump to the ground, releasing the victim. Drenched in blood, the figure stands. I can't see if it's a male or female, as a long black cape with a hood covers half their face and body. Whoever it is, they are bleeding badly.
"Hey, are you-" I stop, as I see a group of bears advancing towards us through the trees. Bears, even attack Youkai, and these ones had cubs running alongside them. I glance worriedly at the shivering and weak figure. Animals are considered holy by the youkai, and if I were to kill one, my act of saving this person would have been for nothing. I run over to the figure and grab their hand. Hood still covering their face, they look up at me. Their hands are unblemished and soft, unlike the wolf youkai. Perhaps this wasn't even a wolf youkai. Perhaps it was a snake youkai, or a peacock youkai lost in our forest, as they live in the woods days away from here. Never matter. I still saved a youkai.
"We have to run." I hiss to the figure. Whoever it is nods, and I hoist them onto my back. The figure gives a slight exclamation of surprise, definitely stating they weren't a wolf youkai. With the person sitting in a piggy-back style on my back, I run fast through the forest. The figure holds their breath, then we reach a ledge overlooking the forest path.
"Hold on!" I yell, and jump. But whoever it is, doesn't hold on at all, and what should have been a perfect landing on two feet, ended up with the cloaked figure sitting on my back whilst I was lying on my stomach on the path. Then I hear shout of "Woah!" and "I should've known!" I look up to see the other wold youkai kids smirking down at me from metres away. One shouts out,
"Should've known you'd shack up with one of em!" Which is rewarded by laughs and finger pointing.
"Huh? Look I just saved-" I stop as they laugh even louder. Another one shouts out,
"What, a youkai? You mean a pathetic bloody scarecrow right?" Again rewarded by laughs and crowing. Whoever is sitting on my back slips off, and the wolf youkai kids run off shouting "half breed shacker!"
I turn and gasp. The hood had slipped off the girl. She had long straight brown hair, slightly messed from our run. It wasn't even a youkai. I had just saved a human girl.
"No-way!" I yell, as I stand up, my clothes drenched in pathetic human blood. The girl looks up, looking scared and down right weak and absolutely pathetic.
"I just saved a human! I can't believe myself!" I yell louder. I spin around and begin to march off. But then I hear slight sobs, and the shivering of a mouse. I turn slightly to see the girl slumped on the dirt, moss covered ground of the forest path, lying in a pool of her own blood. She coughs, blood splattering the tree across the path. She groans, and holds her sides and stomach. I want to help her. But if I do, I'll lose any respect I might have amongst any youkai. I walk back towards her slowly, and kneel beside her.
She opens her eyes, which I see are a lovely hazel colour, and she stares up at me.
"You...are a wolf...youkai?" She asks softly, her voice cracking and blood dribbling down her chin as she opens her mouth. I wonder if I should tell her, part of me wants to sound like an amazing full blooded wolf youkai, but I tell her anyway.
"I am half a wolf youkai." I say slowly, still looking at her, still not sure if I should help her. She speaks again.
"How old...you?" She gasps for breath, wheezing and coughing specks of blood on my face. "I am...16."
Humans still continue to amaze me, why would she want to know who I am, a youkai?
"Why would you care?" I say roughly, hoping to silence her and die without annoying me. But she smiles and softly replies,
"I want...to know...the last person...I meet...before I die..." She stammers, shivering from the cold wind against her blood stained skin.
"Huh. Well I'm 17." I say, annoyed with myself afterwards that I didn't tell her to mind her own business before she died. But I wanted to get to know her too, the first human I actually talked to. She smiles, her eyes closing slowly.
"What is...name?" She asks, her sentences shorter and weaker by the second. I roll my eyes, just like those youkai kids did whenever a fellow wolf youkai spoke like the girl before they died, weakly and softly. I didn't feel any better that I was like them. But still...
"My name is Ashiato." I tell her, leaning in in case she couldn't hear me. She smiles, her eyes brightening up as she looks at me, then she touches my wolf ears with a limp hand, then drops it back down like a stone. Then she whispers so softly,
"Hello... Ashiato. My name... is Wanderer."