• Chapter Three: Voice

    I trudged through the snow past all of the small huts. Everyone was in their home, which meant training must have ended. The only one outside was me, but I didn’t have a hut anyway, so that wasn’t really surprising.
    From the looks on their faces after I fought Seeme, they probably hate me now and I’ll never get a place to get away from the snow... I heaved a sigh as I remembered the fight. It still bothered me that they were so surprised and scared. They should be able to fight better than me, they’re all much stronger and bigger than I am!
    With another sigh, I shook my head to clear out the thoughts and looked around. There weren’t any more huts, only rocks and snow. My jaws gapped in a quick yawn before my paws took me farther. It might be a good thing to find somewhere to sleep soon...
    My mind was completely cleared while I walked, completely unaware of where I was going. Before long, I saw many dead trees in front of me. They were bent over, almost creating a tunnel. A mysterious aura came from the passage in front of me. I stopped to stare for awhile and noticed that it was a forest. But there didn’t seem to be any life at all. My head cocked to the side as I debated whether to go in there or not.
    I wasn’t able to explore very much, but it was getting dark and I was tired... So I just decided to go in. Maybe there would be somewhere to rest inside. My paws felt heavier with each and every step, but I pressed onward. There would have to be a place to rest... But the forest got darker and the gravity suddenly seemed stronger. Without thinking about it, I began panting in exhaustion. My knees began to buckle under my weight and all thoughts got jumbled and mixed together before turning into a gigantic headache. Things just kept getting worse until I had completely no sense of direction. It was then that I blacked out.
    “Kuro! Kuro!” someone shouted. I must have been hallucinating, no one would be looking for me. Would they? The shouting continued, but I knew it couldn’t be real. Was I dying... again? There was a sudden chorus of barking and growling and I couldn’t help but wonder why I was imagining this. When an image came with the sound, I got even more confused. It was an image of a pitch black sky. Slowly, thousands of small, bright lights appeared, one by one. The voices of other wolves vanished as the lights came. W-what’s that? I wondered, a little scared. There had never been anything like that in the night sky, only a bright moon.
    Soon, the image faded and I saw a different scene. All around me were the walls of a hut. As I stood up in confusion, I saw a warming fire blazing next to me. It was the same scene as the time two of the Oina Tribe saved me from freezing to death. Oh, I’m alive... I though. My head whipped around to see Steldi. He bowed in greeting. I just blinked.
    “What’s going on?” I asked, my voice sounding weak.
    “You got lost in Yoshpet.” he answered. My ears twitched.
    “What? You mean, that dead forest?”
    “Yes, younger wolves like you perish a lot quicker there than most wolves.” he sounded very calm, but I expected him to be afraid of me. Though that didn’t change the fact that I was still very confused. Instead of getting any answers about who I was, more questions formed by the minute!
    “That forest has the power to confuse beasts. We stay away from there for that reason.” Steldi continued. Well, it was good to finally know something! I thought to myself for a little bit before deciding to ask about the lights in the sky.
    “Um...” I started. Steldi cocked his head to the side but then nodded for me to continue. “What does it mean when you see a vision of a night sky that has strange little lights?”
    “You mean stars?” Kucojen’s voice startled me and I turned to see him laying down on the other side of the hut. He stared at me as if I was crazy. “You don’t even know what stars are?” he asked in dismay.
    “Stars? Are those what the lights were?” I blinked in confusion. Kucojen sighed. His head fell to his paws and he quickly fell asleep. I growled in aggravation.
    “I’m sorry, Kuro.” Steldi bowed in apology. Turning to him, I sighed, wondering what Kucojen had against me. “Stars are lights in the night sky... Have you never seen them?” he asked gently. I shook my head.
    “Only the moon.” He seemed surprised.
    “Does it look the same every night?” his head cocked to the side again. I nodded.
    “It’s always really full and round. Why? Don’t you see it the same way?” if he was in his human form, he would have gone pale.
    “Well, no. The moon goes through phases. It’s not supposed to be the same all the time. Sometimes, it’s not even there at all.” I could tell Steldi was trying hard to stay calm. By now, I was sure there was something wrong with me.
    “I think I’ll just leave now.” I announced in frustration. As I started to the door, Steldi opened his jaws to say something, but just let me go.
    It didn’t feel cold outside anymore. The sun was shining brightly, causing the snow to sparkle. My eyes narrowed through all the light. The only thing I was focused on right now was getting away from everyone. Even though it wasn’t like me to get so mad, it’s hard to stay calm when everyone either hates you or is afraid of you. For now, I’ll just learn more about this place.
    Before long, I found myself back at the large, wooden gate. I looked up at it, thinking about how to get it open. My eyes examined it again and it took awhile for me to realize that one part of the door was separated from the other. I blinked at the sight, would it really be this easy to open the gate, after everything that happened last time I tried? Slowly, my front paw began pressing on the right side of the gate. It was to good to be true, the gate was stuck. But I wouldn’t give up. Backing up a few steps first, I ran into the fence. It moved a little, so I repeated the procedure a few more times until the crack was open wide enough for me to squeeze in. I bounded off into the distance before anyone found out I got in.
    While going up a slightly crooked hill, I felt a strange aura coming from up ahead. My ears pricked up; the aura was completely different than the aura of the forest. In fact, I couldn’t really tell what kind of feeling it gave off.
    At the top of the snowy hill, another wooden gate stood. I growled but then saw a small opening was cut on the left. “That works.” I mumbled to myself. My paws carried me through the opening and into a giant clearing. There were snow covered cliffs with a large cave opening at the top of one. A huge frozen lake was right in front of me. But the weirdest thing was frozen inside the lake.
    In the middle of the lake was an ark almost as big as the body of water it was lodged in. The ark looked as if it was made out of some kind of metal with odd markings on the sides. I stared in awe and began walking up to a stone platform. The sword that was placed in the middle of the platform barely caught my attention. I sat down at the edge of the stone, staring up at the two tall masts that lacked sails. Something about the strange ark seemed to be calling to me. My stare was locked with the markings on the sides. They were symbols of what seemed to be ancient monsters. One of a suit of armor with a sword, an eight-headed serpent, a spider, a fox with nine tails, and a sphere with zigzagged lines.
    There was an extremely evil feel coming from the ark, but I was calm. It was as if something was telling me not to be afraid, that everything was ok. Something was calling to me, but I couldn’t figure out what or how.
    “Young one! Get away from there this instant!” a sudden voice broke the small connection between me and the aura. I immediately turned around to see someone staring at me from the wood wall with fury. It was the same adult that stopped me from coming to this place before. My ears flattened down. I was caught, what was going to happen now?
    Without further hesitation, I ran up to the Oina Tribe member. “I’m sorry, the gate was already open when I got up the last slope and it seemed like something was calling to me! I didn’t open the gate!” I explained quickly. His glare moved from me to the sword placed in the middle of the stone platform. I looked at it, too. “I didn’t touch that, I barely even noticed it!”
    “Then what were you doing, young one?” he asked, turning his glare back at me. My honest stare turned back to him, too.
    “Only looking at the ark, nothing else!” I promised. He sighed.
    “Fine, then. Come out immediately.” he turned around and began walking out of the area. I followed obediently. We walked through the wooden gate, which was now fully opened. It closed automatically when we came through to the other side. I looked back at it in surprise.
    A low growl suddenly sounded in front of me, so I turned to see the source. Seeme was crouched in front of me, snarling and growling with anger. A sigh emerged from my lungs. I just ignored him and looked up for the older Oina member, but he was gone. “What the...?” I mumbled.
    “Looking for Kemu?” Seeme growled. “He’s gone.” I looked at him in confusion.
    “What do you mean, gone? He was just here!” then I remembered that the Oina girl that had stopped me here before said something about “Chief Kemu”. Was the person who was talking to me really the leader of this tribe? If so, how did I get off so easily?
    “You didn’t touch Kutone, did you?” Seeme growled.
    “Kutone? Is that the name of the ark? Or the sword?” Seeme looked mad at me for being so calm and asking so many questions.
    “The sword. But don’t tell anyone I know that, or else!” he straightened his legs to look at me face to face. His eye’s narrowed. “Have you grown since yesterday?” he asked suspiciously. Before I could answer, he shifted to human form and started dragging me down the slopes by the scruff of my neck. “Come on, I have to report this to everyone else!” he said as he pulled at my fur.