• Chapter Four: Moonlit Escape

    Seeme took me to a snowy clearing filled with people from the Oina tribe, all in human form. He dropped my neck before joining the circle of the tribe. They were all staring at me in fear and anger, except for Steldi, who was looking at me with sympathy. It seemed like he was the only one on my side. Kucojen stood next to him, glaring at me as if I was some sort of dangerous spy.
    My ears flattened to my head as all the eyes burned into my fur. No one said anything or even moved. Fear rose up inside me and I wondered what they wanted. A snowflake gently landed on my nose. I looked up to see that it was snowing again, but very softly this time.
    The sun began setting, turning the clouds and snow into a bright red. A wave of loneliness swept over me at the sight. I had no friends, no family. By how everyone seemed to hate me, I never would. My eyes gently closed and my head dropped down from the sky. Ears pointed to the ground, I opened my eyes slightly and began to walk to the edge of the circle.
    “Where do you think you’re going?” an angry voice asked as I began to push through everyone. I didn’t stop or look up. There was a grunt of anger before someone moved in front of me to stop me from leaving.
    “Why are you trapping me here?” I demanded without looking up. There was no answer. A low growl emerged from my throat and I asked again.
    “You’re from the ark, aren’t you?!” someone accused. My eyes widened in confusion.
    “What? That giant metal ark?” I asked, turning around to face the one who asked me. Many of the tribe gasped at my comment, reminding me that I wasn’t allowed on the other side of the gate and I had just admitted that I was there. It was then that Seeme spoke up.
    “I saw him by the gate, he must have gone in! And he is also as big as my wolf form now, even though he was a lot smaller than me yesterday! He must be some kind of monster!” I could see that everyone believed Seeme. They all glared at me even harder, causing me to whine in confusion and fear. What were they talking about? Was I really a monster?
    It seemed as if the whole area started spinning in circles. I had no idea what everyone was talking about. All I knew was that they were trapping me in this small area and accusing me of being something that was going to kill them. I just wanted to get out of here!
    As if my wish was heard, one of the tribe members leaped out behind me, purposefully giving me a chance to run away. I stared at the opening for a few seconds before leaping through it. The whole tribe began to run after me, but someone jumped in their way. He didn’t look familiar to me, or the anyone else. They all looked at him in dismay, as if he was a god that just fell before them. I half expected my savior to be Steldi, but when he turned around to watch me run away safely, I saw that they looked nothing alike. My savior wore completely different clothes, his hair was the same color as my fur and there was no mask covering his face. But the thing that was the weirdest, was when he turned around to face me, I saw that his eyes were the exact same as mine.
    He smiled at me before I had to make a sharp turn around a cliff, disappearing from the scene. There was no way I could stop running now, but I wanted to go back. I wanted to figure out who my savior was, why he looked so much like me except that he was in human form.
    Before long, I came to a tall frozen waterfall. Stopping at the bottom for a moment, I looked back, only to see the path I took to get here and nothing else. With a sigh, I searched the area for a way out. I decided to scramble up the ragged cliff next to the waterfall and continued running at the top. Darkness spread throughout Kamui as the sun vanished under the horizon. The full, round moon shone through the snow clouds. Falling from a run to a walk, I tilted my head upward to look at it. Every cloud around it floated away as if the moon chased them away. A sigh escaped my lungs as I realized I would never be accepted here, and I would probably never find out who I was. So I had to leave, find someone that might be able to help me.
    I leaped to my paws and started walking through the night. Though I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going, I didn’t stop to think about it. The only place to go was away from here.
    Soon, I came upon a small lake that had a little island in the middle. Past the lake was a giant, open space that I could easily sneak past without being seen thanks to my dark fur. My head whipped around, but I didn’t find any way to get around the lake. With a huff, I dipped a paw into the freezing lake. There was a thin sheet of ice dusting the surface of the water, but it was easily broken away. Stepping back a few paces first, I leaped into the water and started flailing my legs about. At first, I didn’t move at all in the water, but I got a hang of it after awhile. Thin layers of ice broke away as I swam into them, creating a small canal of liquid.
    When I got to the small island, all I did was jump back into the water on the other side. My only focus was the large opening that seemed to be calling my name. I shook my fur free of the freezing water at the shore and shivered all the way to the passage. I traveled through the opening and looked up at the night sky once again as I went. The moon was the only light I saw, no stars like Steldi and Kucojen were talking about. I still wondered what stars were, and what their significance was.
    On the other side of the opening, there was a wide clearing filled with snow. The clearing split off in to two directions. One of them I recognized from when I wandered into the dead forest, but if the forest is here, how did I get there without getting completely drenched? In confusion, I turned around to look back at the lake. There were two obvious, rock paths that would easily take me around the lake. I sighed when I saw that all of the energy used in swimming was stupidly wasted, but thought about it no more as I studied the second direction. Because of the darkness and snow, I couldn’t see far down enough to see what the path led too. I looked at my surroundings one more as I started down the place I had never explored. The path took me to another lake, but I easily found my way around it this time. I walked through a tunnel that led to a smaller clearing secured with rock ledges that a wolf could easily hide under if needed. Large cliffs perfectly enclosed the areas that the rock ledges didn’t. “This is a good place to stay.” I thought to myself, looking around the area. My head turned to the right and a break in the rock ledges caught my eye. Slowly, I walked up to it. There was a tunnel at the other end of the break, almost like a secret passage way.
    “There really are a lot of different directions to go around here...” I muttered. I took one paw step to the secret way, but as if I triggered a disaster by doing so, all light vanished from the sky. My head thrust up in the air to see what was going on. Thick, ominous clouds covered the moon and light snow clouds. My tail shot between my legs and my stomach flattened to the ground. There was a horrible feeling of evil coming from the passage way. Black mist began emitting from the opening to the tunnel, and a large roar thundered through after it. The mist and the roar only came through the passage, as if the tunnel was a conduit of some sort to a land far away. But no matter how far away the evil was coming from, it still reached here.
    I’m not sure exactly how long the evil lingered, but it seemed like years before the mist cleared away and the moon came back out to brighten up the land. Still shaking with fright, I stood up and straightened my tail out behind me. Continuing my walk towards the tunnel, I became very cautious and hesitant this time. But curiosity sparked in me even more than before. What was that? Why did the evil suddenly come?
    “KURO!” when Kucojen’s furious howl sounded from behind me, I realized with anger that I might never find out the answers to the questions. I doubt anyone in the Oina tribe would be willing to tell me. “Get over here at once!” Kucojen yelled. I obeyed, walking up to where he was standing behind me.
    “I thought you all hated me.” I growled as he started leading me back to Wep’keer.
    “Just shut up and come with me.” he snarled. Despite his usual sour personality, Kucojen seemed very unaware of the evil that just appeared. I knew I might regret it later, but I decided ask him about it, anyway.
    “What about that evil?” I asked. He looked down at me in surprise.
    “Huh? What the Heck are you talking about?” he growled.
    “The evil. You didn’t notice it?” I looked up at him, mirroring his surprised expression. Kucojen huffed out a lung full of air before saying anything else.
    “The only evil here is you.” he said in a level voice. I stopped walking and stared at him. He looked back at me but didn’t stop; he didn’t seem sorry that his words had shocked and hurt me. My head started spinning with confusion as the words repeated over and over in my mind. The image of every Oina tribe member standing over me with fury, their confused expressions when they found out I couldn’t see the stars. Their terrified eyes when they saw my attack against Seeme. Who am I? Do they know something about my that I don’t? Why am I labeled as evil? Was the evil through the tunnel caused by me?

    WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!