A WildHalf fanfic by Yucca, based on characters and story of Yuko Asami, 
used without permission. Comments & Criticisms needed!

P/S: This happened long ago, taken into account that Ginsei is about 
fifty years old now, it happened about 49 years ago, when he was only a 
puppy...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

                              Inescapable Fate
                                ============
                               Part 1: Prelude
                                ============

     I found him staring thoughtfully at our peacefully but loudly 
sleeping master in the garden, his silver coat waving lightly against 
the soft, gentle breeze, lightened up by the warm evening sun's glow. 
Casting a quick glance at my brother Kuro, we both approached him, 
silently and carefully, not wanting to disturb our master's slumber. 

     He stood, in a position so sturdy and mighty that he reminded me of 
Mufasa from 'Lion King' --looking over Pride Land from the famous Pride 
Rock -- except he wasn't protecting the land, just the master and us, the 
family which he loved so much. 

     And that was enough for me. 

     A warm rush of great admiration and respect towards him swept over 
me, for I know that, he was a dog with the heart of a lion, fearless, 
strong, yet gentle and kind at the same time. 

     "Father," I quietly voiced, though the loud snore from our master 
signified that it was not necessary. "Can I change too?" I gazed up to 
meet his eye with hopeful curiosity.

     Just by looking at him, I could not help but noticed the close 
resemblance between the both of us. Long silver fur, silver eyes, and 
the bushy silver tail... except of course, I was so much younger and 
smaller, and instead of his pointy canine ears, I had Mother's floppy 
ones, with black tints at their ends. 

     Kuro however looked much more like Mother. With his shiny soot 
black and clean white fur, Father's pointy ears, together with the 
bigger size difference, he easily stood out from the rest of us. After 
all, he was the only black and white puppy in the family out of us 
siblings of four, and was the most playful.

     "Yeah, Father, can we? What you did last night was -so- cool!" 
exclaimed Kuro excitedly, performing some ridiculous looking moves. 
"Pow! Hya! Just like that! And those night thieves were down and 
defeated. Wow!" 

     I nodded immediately in agreement, vividly recalling the incident 
the night before, when four brutal men broke into our house and tried to 
steal master's stuffs. Ha! They were sure unlucky, I mused. They met 
Father. 

     And that thrilling night, I saw the most amazing sight! Up against 
the men, Father changed! He turned into a human-like form, attacked them 
and had them bounded up with thick ropes within seconds. 

     No one saw what he did, not even the men against his high-speed 
movements, except for two curious little puppies, wakened from sleep by 
the sound of suspicious footsteps and had bravely decided to 
investigate. Kuro and I witnessed the whole incident with extreme awe. 

     He was so... he looked so... I just can't find the perfect words. 
All I know was that we were beyond impressed. The thieves, -that's what 
I heard master addressed them when he woke up and found the tied up 
invaders in the morning- kept mumbling angrily about some strange, 
unidentified force that had them cornered in a second. Kuro and I had to 
stifle our urge to laugh when we saw master's confused but grateful 
expression.

     I could never forget last night; never forget Father's change, how 
great and strong he looked and was. His swift movements, the quick, but 
careful kicks on those thieves, and the rapid moving hands tying them 
up. I even saw him in my dreams. That's why I had to ask; I had to know, 
whether, if I had that power too...

     Father eyed us thoughtfully. "Maybe," he replied. "You two can 
smell the unique scent of feelings right? And can understand what the 
humans said... I think it'll be just a matter of time before the both of 
you could do what I did last night."
     
     I felt my heart leap. Just the answer I was hoping for!

     "You mean we could too?!" shrieked Kuro in pure delight. "Cool!" He 
said again, his eyes twinkled happily. I knew that mine was too as we 
cast a look at each other, with the same thought. We were both so lucky 
to have such kind of... gift. 

     Shape shifter... 

     That's what Father said we were. We could transform into a human-
like form although we were just mere animals. We could sense feelings -- 
happiness, hatred, grieves -- strong pending ones; Father being older, 
could sense slight ones that we couldn't but would as we grew older. 

     Not only that, we could understand what our human master was 
talking about while our other brother and sister can't, we could talk in 
their language if we wanted to. But we didn't. Father said that it was 
not safe to do so, they might treat us as horrible monsters, just as his 
ex-master treated him long ago. 

     Monsters... No, I didn't want that to happen. We may be special, 
but deep inside, we were no different from ordinary dogs like Mother and 
our other brother and sisters. We also needed a master, their care, and 
their love, just like any dogs do...

     "SNORE!!!" 

     My thoughts were cut off. I turned towards our master, slightly 
annoyed by his interruption. It was not surprising that he was still 
fast asleep, despite the noise Kuro and I had made, since he was always 
such a sound sleeper.

     "Haven't he had enough sleep?" I barked, and playfully jumped onto 
him, stirring him from his deep slumber. Kuro followed and we began to 
covered the now awaken master with wet mischievous licks. 

     "Ok! OK! I'm awake! See!" Master grunted, picking me up high in the 
air as he began to sit up. I took the chance to tickle him with one of 
my quick licks. He bust out laughing, and soft lined winkles appeared on 
his aging face as he did so. 

     That was when I saw the mark -- a sort of scar yet not a scar -- 
right at master's revealed chest, a few centimetres above where his 
heart was.

     "Hey! Come and look at this!" I called to Kuro and waited as he 
half leapt, climbed, and hanged clumsily on master's arms to check out 
the mark.

     "Hey! Kuro! Get down!" shouted master in desperation as he began to 
tilted forward, unbalanced... 

     ... 

     Well, he would have fall if it were not for Father, who had rushed 
and pushed him backwards, toppling him back onto the garden chair...

     "Look! Isn't this -different- three months ago?" I asked aloud, 
pointing to the mark with my nose.

     Was it just my imagination or had this mark grown? Instead of a 
crescent moon shape, when I last saw it, the mark was in the shape of a 
complete, circle. It had grew into a full moon... Strange.

     "Never saw it before. No big deal, I think!" Kuro said idly as he 
examined the mark. "Hmm... But it's really cool looking, you know..." 

     Arghh! Just like what he would've answer, I should have known, what 
else could I expect from him?

     "The mark of a full moon..."

     Huh? I turned at Father's voice, and saw him staring at master's 
chest thoughtfully. "You know anything about it, Father?" I asked.

     "Your Grandpa had once mentioned to me something about a mark in 
the shape of the moon; that it grows, depending on our master and dog 
shape shifter relationship, crescent at first, slowly getting fuller as 
the relationship between us grows stronger and deeper... "

     "Wow... Does this mean that this full moon mark signifies the 
strong relation between master and you?"

     "Cool!"

     "SNORE!!!"

     "Maybe..." he nodded. "It is said that there's something else... 
another reason, another significant for the full moon... " 

     "Another reason?" I voiced, moving closer to Father with extreme 
interest. Everything about the shape shifters fascinated me. Sometimes I 
wondered why were there shape shifters, why were we here, just like the 
way humans wondered about their presence. 

     "So what's that other reason?" Kuro asked as he jumped onto my back 
playfully. 

     "I don't know. "

     "Huh?" We both looked at each other, surprised. Know-it-all Father 
didn't know? That was the first time he said those words.

     "I don't know," Father said again. "Your grandpa never told me 
because he don't know it too. I guess, we'll never get to know..."

     "Oh no! Father said he didn't know! Such deadly words! It's going 
to be the end of the world!" yelled Kuro, jumping wildly. "Aaahhhh!!!" 

     "KURO!!" I had to yell louder for him to hear me. "SHUT UP!!! 
MASTER IS SLEEP-"

     I never got to finish my sentence. A paw shot out, clasped over my 
mouth, and I was pounced to the grass, not to mention, being sat heavily 
on top.

     "Good! Good! Why don't you yell louder, I don't think the master 
hear you!" A sarcastic voice called out from behind. 

     "Snore!!"

     "... Ok! So he didn't hear you! Gee... What a sleeper!"

     "Aghh! Kume, get off me!" I struggled to get up, annoyed at the 
fact that I had been so easily beaten although it was an unexpected 
attack. Always expect the unexpected, that's what Father taught us, yet 
it seemed like I could never remember that. "Come on, Kume! Get off! Or 
better yet... Go away! Disappear suddenly just like the way you appear!"

     "Gee... go away? Nah! And just plain 'Kume'?! That won't do. How 
about a 'please Oneesan' or 'great big sister'... Hey, 'all mighty 
beautiful' sounds nice too..." teased the silver puppy, my almost 
identical sister, making herself comfortable on my back. 

     "Oh -please-! Oneesan? You're the same age as I'm!" I murmured 
grumpily. The sight of just grass a few inches away from me was 
beginning to bore me. 

     "Ah... but I'm more skilful, talented, graceful, and definitely 
much, much better than you are!" said Kume shaking her head with her 
eyes closed in proud triumphant. "Ha! I don't even need to be a shape 
shifter to defeat you! You know, you got to practise more on your 
skills, it's getting useless and..."

     "Ok, Ok, come on, get along with it!" interrupted Kuro impatiently. 
"You are here to show off your skills again right? So what did you learn 
today?"

     "Yeah! And get off me!!!" I cried, swinging my paws aimlessly in 
desperation. Why must she always test out her new learned skills on me? 

     Laughing, she leaped off stylishly from my back. "Ok! Lesson of the 
day, you can't attack blindly. There's always a chance, a weak, 
unguarded moment of the opponent. You could watch for it or create your 
own chance," she explained superiorly acting like a master.

     "Create your own chance?" I asked in confusion.

     "Gee... you're so slow. Ok! What's my name?"

     "Kume. What kind of question was that?"

     "What's his?" She pointed to Kuro.

     "Blackie."

     "Very funny, Baka!" Kuro shot back.

     "Ok! What's his name?" She asked again pointing to a spot behind 
me.

     "Huh? Who? I thought there's no one behind... " I turned around in 
surprised and saw...

     No one.

     I was tricked! But its too late, Kume was on top of me again. Hello 
again, grass! Ah! I got to get used to this...

     "That's creating chance of your own. See, you're unguarded when you 
looked back, that's your weak point! I don't believe you fall for that!" 
laughed Kume, jumping up to flash a victory sign towards Mother, who was 
coming up the garden path towards Father with my brother, Shoun, 
trailing behind.

     "It's time," Mother whispered softly to Father. "Wake master up."

     I watched as Father waked master up. It was quite strange, the way 
Father did, compared to that despite all the noise we had made yet 
master did not even flinched, all he need was to give a short bark and 
master was up and ready.

     It was time for dinner. 

     And after dinner, we were all going for a night walk with master. I 
always loved the night walk; there were so many interesting, strange 
smells of the little creatures, like the squirrels, creeping in the 
woods near the garden. I couldn't wait to go!

     We began to walk back to the house, with master leading. Kuro 
skipped along the way, barking excitingly. "Yeah! After this, is the 
night walk! The night walk! The night walk!"

     Father stopped. "Wait." He turned to Kuro and me. "You two are not 
going for tonight's walk." 

     "Huh? Why?" Kuro whined in disappointment. "I've been looking 
forward for it! That's not fair! That's..."

     "The best words I've ever heard out of you, Father!" exclaimed Kume 
teasingly. "Poor guys!" 

     I kept quiet; Kuro had said all that I wanted to say.

     "After what'd happened last night, I think it's not safe to leave 
the mistress alone in the house. Someone should stay back and protect 
her," His words were firm and serious, yet I could see an unseen smile 
lingered across his face, and his gentle, silver eyes were proud and 
loving. "And I think that the both of you are qualified for that."

     At his words, I felt a surge of pride flowed into me filling me 
with warmth. "We are?" I asked in an unsure voice.

     "No, you're not! Please recall! I had just easily pounced you to 
the ground, twice, remember?" said Kume proudly.

     "Yes, believe in yourself. You'll be an excellent protector... " 
Father reassured me with a lick. "You're a shape shifter, remember?" He 
added softly.

     "Nah! I don't think so!"

     "Kume! Stop interrupting! We won't treat you dumb even if you don't 
talk, you know!"

     "Same goes to you, Kuro! Biiirrr!!" Kume shot back, sticking out 
the tongue.

     "Let's go," Father stated softly, trotting after master wagging his 
tail, and we followed, trailing nonchalantly behind.

     Pacing slowly in ease behind, I stared after him, full of 
admiration and respect. Oh, how I had wished then to grow up just like 
him.


          #          #          #          #          #  

     My absent-minded eyes peered wearily through the warm, enduring 
flames, cracking constantly to give off tiny fire ashes at the old-
fashioned fireplace, and focused on the burning dull blackish embers 
with small bits of red flickering fire lingering slowly among.

     Warmth. It was so lukewarm, so cosy, and very comfortable in here, 
so unlike outside in the garden, where it was dark cold, and yet...

     I shifted myself around in the sleeping basket again. "Kuro?" I 
called to the half-asleep puppy beside me. "I'm bored."

     "You're not the only one," answered Kuro mindlessly. "This isn't as 
cool as it seems at first, huh? I wish I had gone to that night walk."

     I sighed, grinding my teeth in boredom. "Yeah! Me too."

     "Aghh! I can't stand this anymore! Why aren't any the night thieves 
coming?!! Come on! We're ready!" yelled Kuro giving off a battle cry. 
"Hyaaaa!!!!"

     In split second, a scream broke the silence of the cold, dark night 
in his reply. A scream filled with agony... and fear.  

     "That voice!" I cried, picking up my ears sharply. I recognised 
that voice. It's...

     "Master!!" 

     In an instant, we sped out the house and were confronted by the 
thick scent of terror in the air. The outcry had died out as immediately 
as it came, causing an eerie silent throughout the night, which I did 
not know whether to be glad of, or to be even more worried. 

     The garden! We got to get there quickly!

     Kuro was already on his way. Further and further away from me he 
ran, rushing anxiously to find master, rustling against the dried, 
fallen leafs with his running paws. 

     "Wait! Kuro! Wait for me!" I cried, quickening my pace, but he 
seemed so distant away by now, and the sound of his pattering feet was 
no more. 

     My chest tightened. I didn't want to be left behind here all alone! 
Not after that horrible scream! 

     Somehow, the pale moonlight from tonight's full moon was, somewhat, 
different... I shivered, feeling its cold, silver beam shinning on my 
back, penetrating into my bones, as I ran now.

     That moment, I dreadfully wanted to get to my parents, to hear 
Father's strong, safe assuring voice, and mother's soft, comforting 
words, telling me that all was fine, that it was only Father, who had 
accidentally stepped on the master's foot, making him cry out in such a 
way. 

     Somehow, that didn't seem right.

     I was within reach of the garden before I was stopped by a 
deafening scream -- Kuro's scream. He smacked backwards into a thick tree 
stump behind me. "What?! Kuro..." I cried out in surprise...

     ...And stopped as my eyes travelled from Kuro's fallen body to what 
was before me. That instant, I froze, petrified, clearly unprepared for 
what I saw. 

     A beast! A huge, horrible looking werewolf! Twice the size of 
Father, in terms of height and breath, when he transformed!

     In lightning speed, his tails -- three of them -- flashed at me, 
and there I stood, open and unguarded, too shocked to react. They 
slammed into me, throwing me into the tree beside Kuro. Pain exploded 
throughout my body all at once. I screamed, frightened at the beast 
before me, and at the never experienced excruciating pain, yet all this 
time, my eyes stared unwaveringly at the beast, wide open in horror.

     My mind had gone blank. I couldn't think; I couldn't act...

     Through the shades of the trees, the pale moonlight shone, 
illuminating the silver werewolf like a spotlight. He had his back 
towards us, but his gigantic long, and unmistakably strong silver tails, 
the ones that attacked me, were swinging menacingly in the air like 
poison snakes ready to attack.

     Correction.

     They were attacking! The tails swung at me again, fast. And I 
couldn't move -- too petrified, too scared to do anything. All I did was 
stare, and stare, in pure absolute horror...

     I'm a goner...

     Then a hand... a human-like hand gripped me...

     ...And I was pulled into the air abruptly, away the tree stump 
which was right away smashed into halves by the tails as easy as 
snapping a twig.

     "Snap it out, will you?" ordered the person who had saved my dear 
life. He sounded familiar.

     "Huh? You..." I looked up in surprise at the young, eight year old 
looking, black haired human form shape shifter. "Kuro! You've changed!"

     "You can shower me with thanks later, right now there are more 
important things to do!" stated Kuro as he positioned himself in a 
defensive position. "Haven't you noticed anything?!" 

     He had his back facing me, so I could not see the expression on his 
face, but the shaky voice blended with grief and anger, told me all that 
I needed to know. 

     Something was wrong, terribly wrong. 

     For once, I managed to tear my gaze off the beast to notice my 
surroundings. At the far end corner, hiding and trembling in fear, was 
mother, Kume and...

     No... God! This can't be happening! 

     I didn't want to believe of what I had seen. Aside from the limp, 
still body sprawled on the ground, aside from the bloody red pool where 
Shoun lay, aside from the very well seen tears on Mother and Kume's 
faces... I still didn't want to believe it, but I could not sense him, 
not one tiny bit, and that concluded all. Eyes could deceive us, I know, 
but our nose never could.

     My brother's dead...

     "Shoun!!!" I bellowed. I would have ran to his side at once if it 
wasn't for the beast's tails threatening before me, blocking off our 
path, swinging in between us.

     Shoun! How did this happen?!

     "He attacked us..." said Mother, eyeing fearfully at the beast, yet 
standing bravely in front of her two children protectively. "And Shoun, 
he cushioned our impact... he's... then you two came..." Her voice 
trembled unsteadily.

     "... It must have hurt, doesn't it?" Kume mumbled in a low voice to 
the still, unmoving puppy. "It must have hurt so much... " She broke off 
into a loud sob, and buried her face into Shoun's blood stained fur, 
crying painfully. "I'm sorry, Shoun, I'm so sorry... please don't... 
die...Please!!!"

     Shoun...

     I turned my head away. It hurt so much to watch yet not be able to 
do anything... That horrible beast! I could feel my whole body was 
throbbing in anger. How could he?!

     "The master!" barked Mother. "Don't worry about us! Help the 
master!"

     Master? 

     I remember the scream that had brought us here in the first place. 
Where was he? I couldn't see him!

     All I could see was that... that beast!

     He was still couching at the garden's clearing with his head 
lowered to the ground, just as when I last saw him. Except for those 
gigantic silver tails of his, he had yet to moved from the spot. 

     Then I heard the crunching and slurping eating sounds from the 
beast...

     My heart fell. Suddenly I know where master was. I could smell his 
scent now... 

     The scent of blood... Fresh blood... Master's blood... 

     And the scent of death... 

     A low hoarse sound escaped from my throat, a sob, mixed with anger, 
fear and grief. Tears began to burn my eyes...

     "No! Master!!!"

     The beast's pointy ears twisted slightly at my sudden yell. He 
raised his head, turned and looked at us for the first time. His mouth 
was smuggled with blood, tickling down its thick silver mane. On his 
clawed fingers, he held the limp, still body of our master. Eyeing us 
with those red evil eyes of his, he snarled gleefully, licking his lips 
in pleasure. Then ignoring our presence once again, he howled against 
the full moon, revealing the row of sharp bloody canine teeth. 

     No...

     NOOOOO!!!!!

     Then I felt it. The change over me was quick, but knowing. The 
adrenaline began to flow all over my body, my purse quickened, and a 
tinkling feeling began to burn through on my skin. There was a flash of 
bright, dazzling light. And I found myself in human-like form, standing 
on two instead of fours. My top furs had disappeared to reveal a 
slightly muscled chest and my senses, my hearing and sight seemed to 
grow as well; everything seemed five times better, stronger. Within a 
second, I had transformed.

     "Aghh! Die you horrible beast!"

     Seeing the change, Kuro took to choose that exact moment to attack. 
He charged, snarling through his teeth in rage. I jumped after him in 
his aid, letting my instincts guide me -- the instincts that strangely 
allowed me to move freely and easily at will even though I was in a 
different human-like body. I yelled, loudly, letting out all the 
frustration, all the anger, and all the grief within me. 

     The beast did not even flinch. But as soon as Kuro was within 
reach, one of his tail gave him a swiftly, sudden fatal blow, throwing 
him backwards crashing right into me in mid air. 

     We hit the ground, and rolled away as quickly as we could, the 
piercing pain on the impact was the last thing on our mind at that 
moment. 

     Another tail smashed down severely on to the spot where we had 
landed seconds ago, tearing off a great amount the sand and stones, 
causing them to fly up into the air.

     We were lucky to escape that one... But apparently not fast enough 
to evade the other two tails of his, as they wrapped around us instantly 
and were now gripping us tightly high up in the air, like a python 
squeezing its prey. 

     I glared at the werewolf with a furious yet fearful intensity. I 
hate to admit it, but he was strong, extraordinarily powerful, an irony 
fact that he was almost ten times stronger than Father in his human-like 
form...

     **So you two finally learned how to transformed,** the beast voiced 
in low, rasped voice that sent a cold chill up my spine.

     My eyes widen. He could talk?! 

     **How brilliantly amusing...** taunted the werewolf sarcastically 
into our faces. **With a standard like yours, my tails are enough to do 
the job! Ha! Ha! Ha!** 

     "Shut up! You crazy, stupid, idiotic, cold-blooded killer!" snapped 
Kuro.

     "Yeah! Wait till Father gets here! Then you'll be dead meat!" I 
spat. "He'll save us!" 

     He surely would, I just knew it. Though he was nowhere to be seen 
now, I kept having this feeling that he was just nearby, somewhere...

     "Father will protect us from this!" I yelled at the beast.

     **Father? So you stills think that cowardly father of yours would 
still help you? How pitifully naive of you,** he mocked. **Kume, haven't 
you told them about the other -sad- news?**

     "The other sad news?" I asked, narrowing my eyes coldly at the 
beast, (how did he know Kume's name? But then again, he could have heard 
it somewhere...) and then turned towards Kume for her answer. 

     Kume whined in reply, looking away.

     **Apparently not.**

     In a flash, he was over, standing in front of her. **Dear Kume, why 
don't you tell them now?** He smirked, lowering us towards her.

     "Aw! Why do you even care about what this CHILDISH, EVIL, MANIAC 
MORON got to say!" yelled Kuro loudly. (To whom was he really talking to 
anyway?) "Kume, don't brother! Just ignore him!"

     **Watch that pesky, little babbling mouth of yours, Kuro, I'm 
really hurt!**

     "This is my mouth and what I want to say is none of your business, 
you heartless, shameless, thoughtless, and totally mindless murderer! 
Why if I had it my way, I'll- Argh!!"

     **I said shut up!**

     "Why you utterly despicable, worthless, overgrown werewolf! You 
don't have to squeeze me that hard with that clumsy tail of y- Yeowww!"

     "Stop it! You'll kill him!" screamed Mother. She leaped forward 
suddenly, out of our and the beast's expectations, -he was too busy with 
Kuro to notice her- and sank her teeth into his tail, the one that was 
around Kuro, with all her might. 

     Yes! Way to go, Mother! That would teach him! I cheered silently, 
observing the beast expression as he turned abruptly at her attack, and 
immediately I was glad that I didn't cheer out loud.

     The furious glare from the beast was so deadly that instantly, 
silent rented the air, even Kuro shut up.

     The moment of stillness arose the fear in me once again. What if... 
if he got angry? It's not that he wasn't at all angry now, but if he 
lost his temper... he would... 

     He would...

     Oh god... I didn't dare to think.

     But instead, very much surprise to all of us, the beast smiled, a 
subtle smile that had somehow sent more chill right into my bones, 
adding the amount of apprehension within me.

     **How pathetic!** He mocked, raising his tail to get a better view 
of Mother. **Do you know how much that hurt me?** He broke off into a 
maniacal laugh, flinging his tail in such an abrupt movement that he 
sent Mother flying across towards the garden shed. **It hurt me... as 
much as a mosquito bite!!**

     Mother's terrified scream sailed along with her, and I heard a dull 
thud as she crashed onto the ground, missing the garden shed just by a 
few inches, where she lay motionlessly.

     "Mother!!!" I yelled, pouncing desperately against the beast's 
tail. "No!! Let me go!" 

     I had to get her! She-

     "Aghh! Let me go, you hideous!!!!" shouted Kuro, jerking another 
handful of fur from the beast's gripping tail, leaving yet another patch 
of revealed pinkish naked skin.

     The beast went berserk as he saw what Kuro had done.**Agrr!! What 
have you done to my precious -beautiful- silver tail?!** 

     "It's going bald unless you let us go."

     **I will!** A snarl appeared across the werewolf's angered 
expression. **Why don't you join your Mother!!!** His tails made a huge 
180 degrees swing and then... released. 

     Oh god! We were flying so fast that I thought I was travelling 
faster than a bullet. I got to soften my fall! I got to-

     Crashed!!!
     
     Pain shot through me like knives slashing at me mercilessly, almost 
taking my breath away... The impact had left us creating a creaked 
hollow on the garden shed's concrete wall. I collapsed feebly to the 
ground with a soft thud beside Kuro. Small pieces of debris tore off 
from the wall and showered on my head.

     We were both in our dog form again. 

     Darn! We were still not used to the transformation yet! The energy 
had seeped away on our collision! How were we going to defeat him in our 
dog form?! 

     I swallowed apprehensively, and a salty, ironic taste filled my 
mouth... 

     Blood. 

     God! I was bleeding all over! My silver coat was stained in scarlet 
red, mixed with mud, leaving no trace of its original colour. And when I 
turned towards Kuro, I saw that his situation was no better than mine.

     Seeing that the beast was still fussing over his -damaged- tail, I 
gave my injuries a prompt inspection. Much to my surprise, except for 
the bleeding causing scratches and cuts, there was no broken limbs or 
any other death causing serious wounds! No way ordinary dogs would have 
survived such impacts, I was sure, even if they would, certainly never 
with such minor injuries! Our shape shifter abilities must have somehow 
protected us! Maybe it was because of our high defence... 

     Kume rushed towards us anxiously, fear was written all over her 
face. "You guys OK?" She cried.

     "Do we -look- OK to you?!" shouted Kuro.

     "Mother? How are you?" I asked softly in extreme concern as I 
staggered slowly towards her. I was scared... She was lying motionlessly 
on the ground... Yes, she was still breathing... but... all the blood 
around her... the way her side was painfully rising and falling... Oh 
god! 

     "I'm not going to die yet!" she stated confidently in a low, 
struggled gasp, and through the false confidence she was trying to show, 
I scented hidden fear...

     "Oh, Mother..." I licked her desperately, as if by doing so, her 
wounds would heal, her sufferings would be numbed... Plainly, they made 
no impression at all. She had her eyes squeezed closed, unbearable of 
the pain, though she didn't moan or screamed, her low, rasped breathing 
was telling all about her condition.

     "Don't worry, Mother. Father will get here soon, he'll come and 
save us..." I tried to assure her. 

     Indeed, Father was our only hope now. There's definitely no way by 
any chance for us, mere a few puppies, could defeat a huge werewolf, who 
seemed even much stronger than Father. There's no way... 

     Wait. 

     Something was wrong...

     As soon as I mention those words, Mother and Kume's expression 
altered quickly. Mother's eye snapped opened and so did Kume's mouth. 
The look of fear, pain, and grief for Shoun and master's death were 
still there... but they were clouded away by a new look... Was it shock? 
Indecision? Disappointment? Or... I don't know.

     Kume's mouth went shut and opened again, as if she had something to 
say but was arguing whether if she should. All I could tell from her and 
mother's scent was their troubled thoughts:

     *Gosh! He still doesn't know?!*
     *Such horrible...*
     *How am I supposed to tell him? That Father...*

     "What about Father?!" I demanded, remembering what the beast had 
said. 

     The other sad news...

     What could possibly be worst than things were now? 

     What could compare with finding your brother and master dead, in 
one single night, killed by a huge, extremely powerful werewolf appeared 
out of nowhere? And that we were now forced to face a totally unexpected 
battle, injured and wounded, with no chance of winning because the 
greatest warrior in the family was nowhere to be seen! And the only 
available fighters were three, one year old puppies: two unable to 
transformed shape shifters and an ordinary puppy. Other than that, 
Mother was badly hurt! What else could be worst?

     "Tell us! Quick! I don't think that giant over there is going to 
let us enjoy our moment any longer!" said Kuro, keeping a watchful eye 
on the beast, who was gawking idly in pure amusement and enjoyment with 
a sneer plastered on his ugly face.

     He was toying with us! I realised. He could have killed us easily 
if he had wanted to, but instead he preferred to torture us first, watch 
us suffer, and then finish us off...

     Kume hesitated, but only for a quick moment. She flickered her 
eyes briefly towards the werewolf and then lowered her gazed to the 
ground, refusing to meet my intense ones. "Father..." she voiced. 
"Father isn't going to help us."

     "What?! What did you just said?!" 

     "Why...?" I was almost too afraid to ask the question, but...

     "Because he... he's..." Kume stammered, unable to get the words out 
from her mouth. "He's..."

     A huge form shadowed me completely in the dark, and a chilly, 
rasped voice, directly from behind, shot to complete her sentenced.

     **Because -he- is me.**

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yucca <YRutee@hotmail.com>
WildHalf Homepage:
http://www.geocities.com/wildhalf_99/ 
Sorry to advertise the homepage like this but how am I going to get it 
known otherwise? ~_~