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"No...it can't be...."

Anfang watched in horror as Kieshou entered the encampment. She was somehow unafraid of the stranger that was sitting only a few yards away. He wanted to say something, tell her to stop, but he was aware that if he did, they would both be spotted. All he could do was watch, and hope that she knew what she was doing.

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It took almost a week before they stumbled upon this place. Anfang was so ready to "find some action" that he had set off without first deciding on a decent route. He never even thought about what he planned on doing if they actually found the intruder. There was no plan whatsoever. So of course, they were soon lost, and arguing about whether they would continue, or give up and go back. Kieshou wanted to go back, but Anfang knew for sure that something was out there, and he couldn't just give up.

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Something must have wanted them to find it though, because here they were. Just a few yards away from it. Anfang hardly ever showed any signs of fear, at least, he tried not to. But now he couldn't help it. Something had him spooked, and he felt as though he was looking at a ghost. At that moment, he wished that he listened to Kieshou, and the two of them had just gone home. It was like time had slowed down, like a dream where you know something is going to happen to you, but there's nothing you can do about it.

"What is she doing?" He whispered.

Kieshou was completely exposed now, and standing just behind the stranger. His back was turned, and he was tending to a fire. It looked like he was cooking something. She reached out to him, slowly inching her paw closer and closer. As soon as the tips of her fingers touched the first hair, he leapt to his feet and spun around, wielding some kind of crudely constructed knife, and looking scared as hell.

"Mi-Miroshi?"

Anfang didn't care if he was scared anymore, Kieshou was being threatened, and he had to protect her. He ran from his place of hiding, charging at full speed. He didn't even notice that the creature he was charging had already dropped his knife. The wolf just barreled into him, sending the raccoon tumbling onto the ground. He scrambled for his knife, but Anfang saw it and snatched it up.

"Stop it now! Both of you!" Kieshou screamed.

Anfang was confused again, and now Kieshou was running to the other raccoon's side. It was all so obvious, but he still wasn't piecing it together. Then he remembered the murals.

The lupine's eyes went wide. "Is that who I think it is?"

He didn't really have to ask though. Why else would she be crying and hugging him like that? Kieshou answered him anyways, but only with a simple nod of her head. It went on like that for a few long minutes, the reunited siblings sobbing in each other's arms, and Anfang standing over them with his jaw hanging wide open. Nobody said a word. There was way too much to think about. A million questions were racing through Anfang's mind, each one less easily explainable then the last. Like how was he alive, and what was he doing camping here in the valley? But there was one question that had to be answered immediately.

"You were dead....how?"

Both brother and sister looked up at him, then Kieshou turned back to the ghost in her arms. Her big, glistening eyes seemed to be asking the same thing as Anfang.

Miroshi spoke for the first time. "If I explained that, we'd be here all night."

"You think we have anything better to do?" said Kieshou, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

So they all took a seat by the fire, and Miroshi began to tell the tale of his battle with the beast. He said that he was able to dodge most of the bear's attacks for a while, but the more blows it landed, the weaker he got. The story was interrupted often by Anfang, who couldn't stop bragging about how he had the same problems but managed to overcome them. Kieshou told him to shut up, and Miroshi continued.

"Okay, so I knew that I had no chance against such a big adversary, but I figured if I kept him distracted long enough, Kieshou might just have a chance. So no matter how much it hurt, I kept picking myself up and going after him. It sure surprised him, but I think it irritated him more than anything, and each time he put even more power into his attacks. Then, after he laid me out on the ground again, he would turn around and start to head off in the direction that you ran." He turned to Kieshou. "The thought of him hurting you must have given me some extra strength, because I could suddenly move again, and I managed to stand up one last time. I figured I was already a goner, so the only thing I cared about was keeping him occupied. I didn't care if he killed me. I felt something in my chest though, something scratching at it, and I coughed. He heard me of course, and that's when he hit me one last time. I was unconscious before I even hit the ground. When I woke up, the sun had already come out, and I couldn't move at all. I laid there all day long, hoping that I had done enough and praying that you were safe." Kieshou started crying again. "From the very first moment I was able to stand the pain, I set off in search of you. But I had no idea where you headed, or how I would find you when I got there. It didn't look too promising, but I wasn't about to stop searching. I vowed that from that day on, I would never give up until I found you."

The two of them hugged each other again, then Anfang burst in with another on of his inappropriate comments.

"You know, that bear wasn't that tough. I finished him off, no problem."

Kieshou scowled at him. "What do you mean no problem?! I remember it a little differently. Like the fact that you were also knocked unconscious, and you were in a coma for four days!"

Miroshi chimed in. "Umm...Kieshou. Can I ask you how you know this, rather large wolf?"

Anfang cut in again. "Yeah, I saved her life after she nearly starved to death, running from that stupid bear. At least she finally found someone strong enough to protect her."

"Would you shut up already! You're so arrogant!" Kieshou turned back to her brother, and the lupine stormed off. "I'm sorry, he's not always like this. He's my.....friend, and he did kind of save me. I've been living with him right here in this valley, only a day's hike or so from here."

The angered wolf stood in the shadows at the edge of the encampment. Miroshi could feel Anfang's eyes burning holes through him. He felt a little uneasy, and quickly glanced over at him. All he saw was the two golden circles, reflecting the fire's light, and glowing eerily.

"That's nice....I guess. So what are we going to do now?" Miroshi lowered his voice. "It doesn't seem like I'm getting a very warm welcome from your buddy over there."

Kieshou replied in a loud tone. "What? Don't worry about dog-boy. He's just afraid I'm going to leave him all alone again. He's a real baby."

Her brother smiled.

"Hey! I heard that!" Anfang shouted.

"Well of course you did. You're over there listening to every word we say." Kieshou smirked and crossed her arms. "It's kind of rude."

After a lot of arguing between the two of them, mostly on Anfang's part, they agreed that it would be best to stay put for the night. Neither one of them knew exactly where their hollow was anyways, and they figured they would probably end up wandering further away from it in the darkness. Miroshi had a lot of unanswered questions, but he was tired from traveling so much. It didn't help that the small amount of food he had managed to scrounge up was now burnt to a crisp. So they all laid out on the soft grass, and tried to get some rest for the morning's hike. Anfang was about to cuddle up with his companion, but she insisted they sleep alone, because she was afraid of what her brother would think. He complained a little, but eventually they all found their own place of rest, and everyone dozed off.

The next morning, Anfang was jarred awake by Kieshou. He had slept for a long while after the sun rose, like always, but the raccoon siblings figured it was okay. They had a lot of catching up to do anyways, so they let him sleep. But eventually, they knew they were going to have to leave if they wanted to make it back to the cave before nightfall.

"Wake up you lazy bum." she said as she shook him.

"Mmmmm....I'm awake...." he muttered.

"Well you sure don't look like it. Stand up.....we have to get going."

Miroshi grabbed what little belongings he had, and the three of them headed back into the forest. Neither Anfang nor Kieshou really knew where they were going, but they figured they had a good chance of running into the river, and if they did, it would lead them straight home. Miroshi had apparently made a few other knives, besides the small one that he brandished earlier. He pulled out an scarred old-looking machete, which made traveling through the dense brush a whole lot easier. The hike from the mountain to Miroshi's encampment had taken a full day, but with this new tool, it could probably be done in half that time. It was an unusually hot, humid day though, and they were all growing increasingly tired, hungry, and sweaty. It looked like the three of them had all just gone for a swim, but they could only hope for something like that. Even Kieshou's tail, which would normally be standing straight up and looking really puffed out, now just dangled behind her. It actually seemed a lot smaller than usual as well. When they finally came upon some running water, she jumped right in without even thinking. Anfang and Miroshi walked upstream a little, and drank some of the refreshing liquid.

"Hey Anfang!" Kieshou yelled. "Do you think this stream could be the one that leads to the waterfall?!"

"You don't have to yell. I can hear you just fine....it is just a creek you know. I'm thinking this is probably the same one we found on our way to the mountains. ...yeah, I'm sure of it now."

Miroshi stopped drinking. "So you're saying you can find your way back from here?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Well why not?"

"It's not really that I can't...I just think it would be easier if we found the river." Anfang looked up at the bright sun, shielding his eyes with his forearm. "If we followed the creek back, we'd have to keep walking all the way up until we ran into the same clearing that me and Kieshou did earlier..."

"Kieshou and I." Miroshi interrupted.

"What? Oh right, well anyways...it would just make more sense to keep searching for the river. I don't think it should be too hard. Besides if we did try to find our way back by following the creek, we might not even remember where to go from the clearing. It would definitely be a huge mistake."

"Do you know what you're even talking about?!" Kieshou shouted.

"I told you to stop yelling...and get out of the water already, we've taken a long enough break."

"What about finding some food? I'm not leaving until we do."

"Wow. You seem more like her brother than I do." Miroshi laughed.

Anfang knew it was very true, but he didn't want to show it. He jumped across the stream and walked off towards the woods again, never turning to look back. The raccoons both looked at each other, and then Miroshi jumped up and took off after the lupine.

"Wait! What about some breakfast?!"

She got out of the water, and had to run pretty fast to catch up with her brother and Anfang. Then she noticed that she forgot about her bow, and the quiver full of arrows.

"Miroshi! Wait! I have to get my bow!"

Kieshou turned around and ran all the way back to the stream, and leapt across. She scooped up the equipment, threw them on each of her shoulders, and sprinted as fast as she could back down the trail. It was a while before she even saw her brother off in the distance, but she was really relieved when she did. It still took a while before she was even within shouting distance, but she was too out of breath to try anyways. He was crouched low to the ground for some reason, and she didn't see Anfang anywhere.

"Hey, where's Anfang?"

Miroshi covered her mouth with a paw. "Sshhh!"

He pointed to a patch of small bushes, and Kieshou could just barely make out a pair of pointy ears sticking out from the top. Definitely lupine ears.

"What's he doing in the bushes?" she whispered.

Miroshi didn't say anything, he just raised his finger a little, and when she followed it she saw a pair of jackrabbits. It looked like Anfang was going to try and catch both of them by himself.

"He can't be serious." she muttered under her breath.

Kieshou stood up and took the bow off of her shoulder, and held it out in front of her. Then she grabbed an arrow and took aim. Miroshi knew how good of a shot she was, but he still looked a little nervous, since Anfang was so close to the target. She started pulling back on the string, and zeroed in on the smaller of the two. She figured if she got the skinny one first, maybe she would have time to reload before the big one managed to escape. Her arm was locked and steady as she let the first arrow fly. It whizzed by Anfang's head, only a foot or so away, and scared him so bad that he fell backwards out of his hiding spot. The larger jackrabbit heard the commotion he made, and started to bound away. It was too late for the other one though. Seconds later, another arrow came soaring by the wolf, and it too found it's mark.

"Nice aim sis!" Miroshi cheered.

Kieshou grinned all big and cheesy-like. "Thank you, thank you."

Anfang was completely frazzled by the near death experience he just had, or at least he thought he had. But when he saw the two raccoons joking and laughing about what she did, it turned to anger.

"Yeah, that was great!" he said really loud and sarcastic. "Maybe next time you can try it with me standing directly in front of you! You could try and make the arrow jump out of the way at the last second!"

Kieshou was a little frightened, but it wasn't the first time he'd gotten so mad. She figured he was beyond sarcasm though, so she tried to sound as apologetic and sincere as possible.

"I didn't see you there. How was I supposed to know?"

"I believe that! About as much as I believe that you meant to hit that apple!"

Miroshi cut in. "Hey! I don't care what you believe, you're being way too mean to her!" he put his arm around the somber looking raccoon. "If you want to yell at someone, yell at me. I let her do it."

Anfang wasn't used to someone ending his and Kieshou's arguments like that, and he didn't really know what to say.

"I'm sorry okay? I was hungry, that's all." She kicked at the dirt. "I didn't think about the consequences."

"See? She said she's sorry, and besides, no harm done right?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Anfang laughed. "I don't think I would've been able to get both of them anyways."

So after a few more apologies from everyone, they collected the rabbits and Miroshi added them to his satchel. They all decided that it would be best if they waited until they reached the hollow to eat. That is, except for Kieshou, but they eventually convinced her it would be for the best. They all set off again, and before long, they ran into a large river. By then it was about noon, and they all decided to go for a quick swim before continuing. The water was nice and cool, and it re-energized the group, so they didn't stay there for long. Everyone was really excited to finally get to the cave, even Miroshi; having never seen it before, but wanting to eat something badly. His stomach kept cramping up, and it was really starting to bother him. He wasn't one to complain like his sister though.

"There's the falls!" Kieshou shouted.

She ran off ahead of the two males, which were too exhausted to try and keep up.

"Where the hell does she get the energy from?" Anfang asked.

"She's always been like that. She complains about the smallest things, but in the end, she's always a lot better off then everyone else. I never understood it myself."

"She must be storing all that food she constantly eats inside her somehow. You know?"

Miroshi chuckled, and looked at Anfang in a strange sort of way that made him feel a little uncomfortable. He'd only gotten those kinds of looks from Kieshou before. He figured it was probably something that all raccoons do, and he tried to forget about it. Then he checked on the other one, and he saw her standing up on the big rock again. She had her arms spread all wide, like she was ready to jump off.

"Oh great, here she goes again." he muttered.

"What's that?" Miroshi spotted his sister just as she jumped into the air. "Oh yeah, that's one of her favorite things to do, ever since I taught her. It seems like she can't get enough."

"She's gonna really hurt herself one of these days."

"What? You don't think I'm a good teacher?"

"No, I didn't say that...."

The lupine saw that he was getting another strange look, but this time Miroshi wasn't looking at his eyes.

"Hey, what's the deal Miroshi? Why do you keep staring at me like that?"

He chuckled. "I'm sorry, was I being that obvious?"

"What do you mean, obvious? Just what exactly's goin on here?"

Miroshi stopped walking. They were still too far from the edge of the falls to see anything below.

"You mean Kieshou never told you?"

"Told me what? You're starting to weird me out."

"Oh man, I thought for sure you knew..."

"Knew what? Come on, tell me."

"I'm gay."

Anfang felt really scared, and at the same time a little violated. He wasn't exactly sure what it meant, but he'd heard stories when he was little of some "gay" cubs in nearby packs. Back then it sounded like something you'd catch, like a cold. But he was definitely thinking it meant something very different now. He started scratching his ears like he does whenever he gets nervous, and tried to say something.

"Well, If that means what I'm guessing it means, then I'm flattered but...."

"You don't have to say it. I don't even know why I thought you'd be at all interested. I just figured my sister's usually beating the guys off with a stick, and you didn't go for her, so...."

"Wait, why'd you think...."

Then Anfang remembered how Kieshou made them sleep apart from each other last night. They definitely made it seem like there was nothing between them.

"Well, I can see how you came to that conclusion, but we are kind of together."

"Really? I should have guessed from the way you two have been acting. Sort of like an old married couple."

"Yeah, we tend to do that a lot."

There was a short pause, and both of them shifted their weight and stared at the ground.

"Well, thanks for being so understanding. I didn't know what you were going to say."

"No problem, it doesn't bother me at all. I actually think it's great. Now if any other guys come around and try to steal her away, you can take care of 'em."

Miroshi chuckled again. "Yeah, right."

"Oh man did that come out wrong? I wasn't trying to say you were like a sex fiend or anything...."

"Stop apologizing, it's alright. And who knows? Maybe I am." Anfang blushed again. "Have you always been like this?"

"What do you mean?"

"So easily embarrassed. I mean, I can see you're face turning red, even under all that fur."

"Jeez, you can see that?"

"Don't worry about it. I won't tell anyone."

There was another brief pause, and then they both heard Kieshou's voice coming from beneath the falls. She was yelling their names and telling them to hurry up, and that she was hungry.

"That's our Kieshou." Anfang laughed. "Well I guess we better get down there before she throws a full-on fit."

Miroshi didn't say anything, and he glanced over at him. He was staring at the sky. It looked like he was seriously thinking about something, and he was about to ask him what it was, but something made him stop. He never paid much attention to him before, but for some reason, he couldn't stop it now. Maybe it was just because Miroshi had been so flattering. He didn't know what it was. The sun glinted off his silver fur, and added to the already defined muscle that covered him from head to toe. He always thought he was pretty strong himself, but he felt almost soft compared to him. Soon after, he found himself staring at the raccoons strong legs, actually admiring them.

"Maybe there's some hope for me yet."

His eyes shot up to Miroshi's. What was he just doing, and how was he going to try and explain it? Miroshi saw his cheeks turning bright red again.

"Come on, we have to get down there."

He dropped his pack on the ground and climbed onto the boulder at the top of the falls.

"We don't want her throwing a fit, right?"

Kieshou saw her brother getting on the rock, and began to cheer him on. He gave Anfang one more strange look, and then turned away. Then he bent down, and all his muscle seemed to tighten at once, just before he leapt from the rock and did a perfect half gainer into the river below.

To be continued....