Paradise ✾ A Wolf's Rain Story ✾

Chapter Four

After days filled with traveling, arguing between Tsume and Kiba and dangerous encounters, the pack finally arrived at a bridge that stretched across a great span of water, the ocean. Nira came to a stop next to Kairi was the wolves looked out into the distance.

“What's out there?” Kairi asked curiously, wondering what could possibly be on the other side of that bridge. There was a lot of fog and the only thing any of them could see was a giant shadow through it.

“Most likely a town. Maybe they have food,” Hige said enthusiastically, causing Tsume to sigh.

“Is that all you ever think about?” he asked in annoyance, looking away from the rest of the pack. His annoyance with all of this had only seemed to grow over the past few days.

“Stop it. The scent of Lunar Flower is here, on the bridge,” Kiba stated, heading down the hill to get closer to the bridge. The rest of the pack followed slowly, with Nira bringing up the rear. She wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of having to cross a giant body of water to get to this town, but she knew that if the others went, she would have to follow. She had found herself getting attached to the others of their small pack over the last few days; her instinct was to form a bond with them, even though she was having trouble trusting anybody anymore.

“Pick up the pace kid,” came a voice from ahead and she realized she had slowed down to a trot. Frowning, she ran to catch up with the others, stopping when she reached Tsume. He had been the one to call out to her, but she didn't like the way that he called her 'kid' all of the time. She was the second oldest of their pack; definitely not a kid.

“Are we going or what? There's no sense in standing here like a bunch of idiots to debate about it. There's only two options. Head back and forget about Paradise. Or continue on,” she stated, crossing her arms over her chest in annoyance when she realized that nobody was making a move to go forward.

Hige frowned slightly before lifting his nose into the air, taking a big whiff of all of the scents around them. Grinning, he looked towards the others. “I smell something! Maybe it's food,” he stated before running off.

The others hesitated only slightly before following after him. Even for Tsume and Nira, the lure of food was definitely too much to be ignored. They hadn't eaten properly in days and they needed some sort of sustenance to keep them sated. Otherwise, they'd probably all just start turning on one another, no matter how close any of them actually were.

The closer they got to the town in the distance, the more nervous Nira got. There was something wrong with this town and while she couldn't describe it, she knew that anything could happen while they were here. The foreboding she was feeling was telling her to stop and turn around, to give up trying to get through the town. Couldn't they find another way? As if sensing her nervousness, Tsume slowed his pace and ran beside her.

“What's up with you?” he questioned, looking down at her in curiousity and maybe just a touch of concern. Frowning, Nira looked off to the side to avoid his questioning gaze.

“There's something not right here. It just feels wrong,” she admitted, watching as the town loomed closer. As they reached the end of the bridge, the pack slowed to a stop and Kiba looked around for any signs of danger, any signs of life. The place was a dump; trash littered the streets and their didn't seem to be anyone living here.

“Let's go,” he stated, leading them into the town. Kairi followed close by his side, almost tempted to wrap her hands around his arm, but she kept her want at bay for right now. Her blue eyes flitted around; she kept seeing movement from the corner of her vision, but she never saw anything when she actually looked.