Wolf's Rain: The New Journey
Just wrote this today, not sure if I should continue on with this series. I'll let you, the readers, decide whether or not I should keep writing this fanfiction series. Comment and tell me what you think. (oh, and I'm not sure what will happen CONTENT wise)
Summary: This story takes place BEFORE the events of the wolf's rain television show. When a young white wolf, Haru, goes on a journey to find paradise, she and her pack discover that the gateway to paradise, resides in a human boy!
Chapter 1:
The pack was far behind her now, and she had to admit at this point, that this may have been a very bad idea. Of course, she always made bad decisions. Pin needles of ice jabbed against her side, and the young female wolf felt as if the lord of the storm was performing an operation on her small feral form. Indeed, the large icy hands were moving fast, as she felt her fur begin to crystallize. She knew that if she didn't find shelter, that she would most certainly die. The mountains sounded like the best place to go, not many hunters journeyed into the mountains, and her solid white fur would keep her camouflaged in the snow to help her avoid bear attacks. As she treaded on, she later theorized that this was possibly the spirit of her domineering and stern mother punishing her for her stupidity as she did when her daughter was just a young pup. At least this humored the young white wolf, allowing her to crook her mouth to the side a little bit. She imagined her mother's once voluptuous white form now disintegrated into billions of shards of ice, now jabbing into her daughter.
Alas, through the blanket of icy wind, the wolf could see a shining beacon only a few yards away, except this beacon pointed horizontally instead of vertically. She realized she was staring at the head lights of some sort of large vehicle. As she approached further, she could see it was semi-truck parked in front of a large loading station. The wolf darted forward with haste, and once at the loading station, she crept around to see what was going on, and to stay away from the humans. The humans seemed harmless, just workers, loading big crates into the back of the large truck parked into front of the dock. The wolf waited patiently for their work to be done, and once she saw her moment, she stealthily went to the back of the truck. The humans were busy conversing and saying their goodbyes before they departed, this gave her just enough time to hop onto the back of the truck, and find hiding place behind one of the larger crates. Right as she laid herself on the cold floor of the bed, all the light from the outside was extinguished when one of the humans closed the door. There the wolf remained as the truck slowing began moving to unknown destination. The wolf didn't care where they took her, as long as it was away from the storm, plus, she had a sense that she was being taken to where she needed to go. Just call it her intuition.
This wolf's name was, Haru, she was only a year and a half old. For the first year of her life, she lived in the large metropolitan of, Ashikan city. Her pack at the time was small, consisting of only eight members. Her fondest memories were of that time in the city, her pack was closer then, relying more on each other for survival. Once she was a year old, her mother was killed by a police officer after being caught stealing food. Her father, in a vengeful rage, killed the same officer and another. After this, their pack was constantly hunted, and her and her father, along with some of his loyal friends, were banished from the rest of the pack. They fled into the wilderness where they have remained ever since. It wasn't until recently, while hunting for game, that Haru came across an unfamiliar scent, the smell of some sort of flower. Uncertain and drawn by an unknown tug at her heart, she consulted with the eldest of the pack, Gin.
"What is it you smell my child?" The old steel colored wolf asked. Gin was large and mighty, the largest wolf in the pack and once the leader as well. Despite his powerful appearance, he was actually quite calm and peaceful.
"I smelled a flower", Haru began, "it was unlike anything I'd ever smelled before, and as I continued to inhale the scent... it felt as if something was tugging at my chest, like something were trying to pull me."
Gin eyes went from their usual peaceful glance to a more serious, and even a little creepy stare. "The lunar flower..."
"What?"
"My child... you have been chosen.... to enter paradise."
Paradise, a term that was common in Haru's mind, but was only referred to her as a fairytale by both her father and her mother. She often wished paradise were real, a place where only a few chosen wolf's got to spend the rest of eternity in utter bliss. It was simply a dream to her, but now, it was being revered in the most serious way by the elder of their pack, and to her!
"Paradise... it's real?" Haru's head twitched to the side.
The old wolf nodded, "It has always been real, but in the past few years, so many wolf's have forgotten it and unrecognized it's existence, that the scent of the lunar flower hasn't been permitted to enter the nose of any wolf in the most recent generations. I too believed that paradise was lost to us.... now I have no doubt that paradise is reaching out to you, my child."
Haru fell silent for a minute, her astonishment and child-like wonderment kept her in a daze. It wasn't until Gin nudged her with his nuzzle that she was finally able to speak.
"What must I do... to find paradise? I mean, from what I've heard, no wolf's ever been able to find it..."
Gin smiled. "That's because wolves that do find it, are no longer around to tell it, those wolves now need never to worry about anything again."
"But... there were many others who said they never found it!" Indeed, there have been countless wolves that had tried to find paradise, all of whom never found it. These wolves are what led Haru to believe that paradise was only a fairytale, because these wolves that sought paradise were often driven to insanity.
"I have faith in you child, when you were born, I knew there was something special in your heart. Now, you must start a journey, as all the chosen wolves must do, and you must find the gateway to paradise."
"But how? If all those other wolves couldn't do it, then how could I?"
Gin smiled once again, "Just follow the scent of the lunar flower, child."
With that, she left Gin's presence, to ponder over what she had just been told.
Over the course of that week, Haru's mind was troubled with the advice the old wolf gave her, and the smell of the lunar flower never left her. She asked around the pack if the other wolves smelled any unique flowers around, all of the wolves said no. Towards the end of that week, the smell grew stronger and her thoughts were now only revolved around that paradise that she knew awaited her. When she told her father over the matter however, he nearly took off her ear. This was that final push that drove her adolescent anger to leave the pack. That night, while everyone was asleep, she fled to the mountains, beginning her journey towards paradise.
The truck came to an abrupt halt, Haru's body jumped nearly a foot into the air and she was knocked against a crate. "Oww! Shit!", she yelped.
When the truck finally rested, she laid on the floor rubbing her forepaw on the top of her bruised head. Her ears darted up when she heard the mumbling and footsteps of humans beside the truck.
"Damn it, I'm going to have to make a run for it."
Haru knew that her exposure was imminent, so she moved from her hiding spot to the middle of the truck bed, she was actually standing right in front of the door. Her body was poised to leap out as soon as the door was opened. She didn't have much reaction time, all she saw was the sudden beam of sunlight shining through the now open door, and all she heard was the deep voice of a human yelling, "What the hell?!"
With that, her body sprang forward, she felt her hind paws hit the human in the face and briefly heard him collapse onto his back. Once her paws touched the ground she was off, her only goal was to get away from the humans. Haru didn't even look around at her new surroundings, she just kept her eyes open for an exit as she dashed by the shocked humans who moved out of her way. In the distance she spotted a hole in the fence that could fit a wolf just her size.
"Bulls eye!" She barked just as she pushed her way through the opening in the gate.
She turned her head back to the compound she escaped from, she could now see the humans already running towards the gates with guns. "Thank God, I got out of there in time".
Once she was a few yards away, she came to slow stop and saw with delight a city in the distance. It wasn't just the fact that it was a city, it was her city. "Ashikan".
It took her nearly four hours to finally reach the city, once there, she made her way to alleys to avoid being seen by a lot of humans. The city still looked the same, for some reason she imagined that it would be loads different. Tons of humans flooded the streets along with tons of cars, electronic billboards consistently flashed moving advertisements, and as she remembered, the city had the most foul smell to it. Of course, this didn't make her forget the smell of the lunar flower, which to her amazement, was even stronger than it ever was before.
"It must be here... it's got to be here!" Haru grew in excitement as she continued to follow the scent which led her through various different allies. Her nose was up in the air and she wasn't paying attention when out of almost nowhere, a humongous black dog stepped in the middle of her path. Haru stopped dead in her tracks, she and the dog were of equal size, but she could tell that this mutt would probably put up a decent fight (and judging from her poor fighting ability, it may even win). The dog snarled, baring his teeth towards her. Haru growled back, she must have stepped into this dog's territory.
"Listen... I'm just trying to make my way around this city... please let me pass."
The dog acted deranged, this didn't surprise her though. Dogs didn't have anywhere near the intelligence wolves did, not even close to the humans. She knew that somehow, she would have to force her way past him. Haru stood her ground, and the black behemoth was already poised to kill.
"Crap... I don't know if I can do this..." Haru's legs shook. Haru was always considered the weakest in her pack, not that she had anything wrong with her body. It was simply her laid back and calm personality that never made her a good fighter (which also brought upon more disapproval from her father).
Haru readied herself, and just as the dog was about to strike, a tan brown wolf suddenly leapt from above and landed firmly on the ground in front of Haru. This wolf was humongous, nearly three times the size of the black dog and was about four and half feet tall at the shoulder. This wolf was much older than Haru, and she could tell it was a female by the scent. In fact, after just a few moments, Haru was able to recognize who this wolf was!
"Musha!" Haru joyfully cried to the once familiar pack member. Musha, the large, tan brown wolf, ignored Haru's call, and continued to give the black dog the death stare. Musha's teeth barred toward the smaller canine, and her eyes were filled with that furiousity familiar among female wolves when their young were being attacked.
"You best leave big guy..." Musha growled.
The black dog yelped in terror, and turned his tail and ran. Once the dog was out of sight, Musha slowly turned her head and glared at Haru. Haru felt tense, and now wasn't sure of Musha's intentions.
"Uh... Musha? Is that you?" Haru shivered, for if this wolf wasn't Musha, she knew that she would most certainly be killed by this wolf.
Then, the large wolf gave her a crooked smile.
"Damn you, Musha!" Haru barked and ran forward towards Musha.
Before Haru could do anything, Musha playfully leapt forward and tackled Haru to the ground, making them roll all over.
"I've missed you little girl!" Musha cried out as she licked Haru's face.
"It's been forever old woman." Haru played.
"I'm not old! You're just too young! And the young need to learn respect!" Musha tugged on Haru's left ear.
Musha, she was Haru's mother's good friend back when Haru's pack was still together in the city. Musha was six years old, the same age Haru's mother would be if she were still alive. Musha finally let Haru up, and she gave her an affectionate nuzzle.
"We were so worried about you little one, and your stubborn father too. Is he here with you?"
"No.... I came on my own." Haru's ears folded, she remembered the fight her and her father had before she departed.
"What?! A youngin' like you shouldn't be traveling this far alone!" (actually, Haru was old enough to travel alone, as seen in the wolf community, but Musha was an overprotective motherly type).
Haru paused awkwardly for a moment, she wasn't sure what to tell Musha. She knew Musha would disapprove of her venturing on her own, but she wasn't sure how she would react to her goal of reaching paradise.
Musha cocked her head to the side while she waited for a response, then grew a little worried at the look in Haru's face. "Haru?"
"I just.... missed this place ya know", Haru gave a canine smile, "Wanted to come back and see everybody."
Musha could sense the lie in Haru's voice, but she also sensed her purity and gave her a lick. "Well, I'm sure everyone will be happy to see you, our pack has grown since you left too, so their will be plenty of new interesting folk. Come on, I'll show you."
Musha turned and started off down another alley, Haru stood there for a moment. The lunar scent, once amazingly strong, was now beginning to grow fainter. Haru knew this isn't what her path laid out for her, but in concern for her friend's feelings, she followed along behind her to meet with her old pack.
She would have to put her journey for paradise on hold.