Feudal Friends

Chaper One: Trouble


"I'm hungry. Are we ever gonna stop to get some food?" asked Toboe, right when his stomach growled loudly, causing everyone to look at him strangely. "What? Well, I'm sorry, but I haven't eaten forever!"

"None of us have, runt," said Hige. He tucked his hands in his jacket pockets and, looking around, said loudly "Has anyone else noticed the lack of wildlife in this forest, or is it just me being paranoid?"

The four boys(who were actually wolves simply disguised as boys) were standing in the middle of a thick forest. They had been crossing a huge desert, but early this morning had found themselves here, and now it was late afternoon. The forest may have been the desert for all the animal life they had come across. Not a bird sang, or squirrel scampered, or anything. It was throughly creepy.

"You're definately paranoid, but you still might be onto somethin' there, porky," said Tsume, ignoring Hige's glare as he leaned against a tree for a moment. "This isn't the liveliest place we've ever been before."

"We'll pass through the forest and get out of here soon if we keep moving. There's probably a village around here and they've hunted this forest out," said Kiba, trying to convince the others and himself of it as he continued walking.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, fearless leader," grumbled Hige, following after him. Tsume continued to lean against the tree, eyes closed, and said loudly "Come on, Toboe," before turning to follow the others.

"Wha? Oh, coming!" Toboe had been looking at a bunch of mushrooms, wondering if they were edible. How did Tsume do that? He always knew what Toboe was doing and didn't even have to look at him. It was like an older brother power, or something close to it.

Not wanting to be left behind, Toboe took a few steps before catching movement from the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw a large deer grazing off to the side, apparently unaware of Toboe's presence. Toboe stood, mouth watering uncontrollably. The deer was huge, at least sixteen points on its antlers, and big enough to feed four starving wolves full to bursting.

I have to kill it, Toboe thought. If I kill it by myself, it'll prove to everyone I can take care of myself. He knew everyone still saw him as a cub, a cub that had to be watched over constantly. Hige seemed to have even forgotten his real name and called him 'Runt' almost exclusively, and Kiba hardly spoke to him. And Tsume...he needed to prove himself especially to Tsume.

The boy that had been standing there was suddenly replaced by a lanky red wolf, its golden-brown eyes staring right at the deer. Having never hunted before, Toboe didn't try to sneak up on the deer, but instead ran straight for it, snarling.

Tsume turned around to see what was keeping Toboe when he saw the boy as a wolf, staring at something in front of him. Tsume looked to where Toboe was facing and saw....nothing. There were only trees and underbrush. There was no wind, so if something was there, he would have smelled or heard it. But there was something holding Toboe's attention, and Tsume got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Pulling out one of his knives, he was about to take a step forward when Toboe lunged.

He didn't hear Tsume yell "Wait, Toboe!" as he raced for the deer, which lifted up its head in time to see a wolf snarl hungrily at it. The deer leapt away into the forest and without thinking twice, Toboe followed it, disappearing into the underbrush in seconds.

He may not have ever hunted in his life, but what Toboe lacked in strategy he made up for in speed; there were several time when he was literally nipping at the deer's heels. If hunger had not been driving him and desire to be respected clouding his judgement, Toboe might have noticed that the deer's hooves never quite touched the ground, and even though he was less than a foot away, he never smelled its scent. Had he been clear-headed, he might have seen the trap before he fell into it.

One minute, he was running after a huge deer; the next step he took never hit the ground, but went through it. The leaves gave way to darkness, and Toboe yelped in surprise as he tumbled down into the hole. His body landed at the bottom with a thud, surrounded by total darkness. Hey, what happaned? he wondered.

Toboe stood up a few minutes later and shook the dirt from his fur. He looked up to see the top was a very long way up, about three stories up actually, but figured he could easily make it with a couple leaps. The pit was deep, and about fifteen feet wide at the bottom, so there wasn't much room to manuvere. Toboe ran across the pit and leapt up, pushing himself up as his paws hit the wall, but he went down instead of up. It took a couple more tries for him to realize that the walls were so smooth there were no footholes anywhere. He was truely stuck, and the others didn't even know where he was!

"What am I gonna do?" he whimpered, sitting on his haunches at the bottom of the pit. If he had been human, he probably would've been curled up in a ball, crying. In fact, he was fighting the urge to do that right now. "No, I'm not gonna cry," he said to himself, closing his eyes tight to stop the tears threatening to fall. "I got myself in here, I'll get myself out." He stood up and walked around the edges of the hole, trying to catch any scents of anything that could help him escape at all.

A few minutes later, Toboe gave up his fruitless search and sat down. There were no grips nor footholes anywhere, and there was no plant growth that he could use as ropes. It was the perfect trap, and he had been stupid enough to fall in it.

"Look at me," he said. "All I did was prove their point; I really am a cub who can't look out for myself. If I get outta here and back with the guys, I'll never hear the end of it! I'll always be 'Kid' or 'Runt' forever!" Finally, Toboe did cry, not because he was trapped, but because Tsume would scold him like a baby, and he couldn't handle that.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Where'd Toboe go?!" Tsume snarled, looking around the forest, bewildered and angry. Goddammit, it was like Toboe had just disappeared off the face of the earth! There was no sound at all, no bugs or birds, the wind didn't even blow, and there was no scent at all, not even the scent of trees or grass.

"How should we know?" asked Hige, looking around. "We're following you!"

"What was Toboe chasing?" Kiba asked, standing beside Tsume.

"I don't know! I didn't see anything. Toboe was having a staring contest with a tree, then took off!" Tsume snapped angrily. He was angry with both himself and Toboe; mostly himself because he'd lost the kid. If something happened to Toboe, he'd never forgive himself.

"Hey!" Hige said suddenly, looking to the right, eyes focused intently, his noseflared as he took a deep breath. "I can smell Toboe!"

"What? Where is he?!" Tsume said.

"I think he's that way. But I smell something else, too. Whatever it is, its friggin' big, and is in serious need of a bath!"

"Its probably headed for Toboe. Come on!" said Kiba, and the three wolves darted towards Toboe, disappearing into the unnatural forest.

~~~~~~~~~~

The tears had stopped flowing, and Toboe was feeling a little better. He looked up the walls again, and shivered. It was too quiet, there was no noise at all, and Toboe wished that at least a bird would sing or something. The quiet was drving him crazy!

"Wait a second. If it's this quiet, they'll be able to hear my howl! They'll come and get me outta here, I'm sure!" Toboe sighed in relief; he knew the others would figure out a way to get him out. He was about to howl his lungs out when he heard the sound of moving brushed above the pit. The hunter! Toboe thought. If this was a trap, then there was a hunter who made it, and that was probably him! Toboe cowered close to the wall, trembling slightly. If that is a hunter, he won't be able to shoot me if I stay in the shadows. And if he does come here, I'll rip his throat out!

"Well, what do we have here?" hissed a voice, and Toboe saw someone standing at the edge of the pit. It looked like a man, but it had large bug eyes that took up half its face, and its mouth took up the other half, full of hundreds of teeth. It had long arms with longer fingers and even longer claws on each finger. It grinned down at Toboe, and he lost all resolve to rip its throat out. He was too scared to even tremble.

"It looks like a wee little wolfie. I haven't had wolf in forever," it hissed again, and it rose up in the air, allowing Toboe to see that below the humanish waist was a thick, snake body, at least three Toboes wide, and it never seemed to end. The creature began slithering down into the pit, its eyes glowing red. "Mmm. Prey always tastes better when its scared," the creature said, opening its mouth extra wide to swallow Toboe whole. Toboe closed his eyes tight. "Tsume!" he cried out.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!!!" roared a voice, and Toboe opened his eyes to see the creature get thrown, as if something had hit its body hard. "Tsume!" cried Toboe, reconizing the voice. The creature turned and slithered up, saying "More wolves! Its my lucky day!"

It made it to the top of the hole and was attacked by two blurs, a grey one and a white one, Tsume and Kiba. There was the sounds of snarling wolves, snakish hissing, and crashing trees as they fought. A yellowish wolf looked over the edge in the hole, Hige. Even as a wolf he had a smug look on his face. "Hey, Toboe! You still alive?"

"Yeah, get me outta here!" Toboe called up.

"As soon as that thing's dead, we'll get you out!" Hige promised, and disappeared to join the fight. Toboe listened to the crashes, roars, and snarls, praying fervently. Please kill it and be okay, guys. Please kill it and be okay! Suddenly, there were loud whines,several thuds, then silence. "Aw, they're all dead! Too bad," the creature said, and Toboe turned pale. They're...dead?!

"Which shall I eat first? Ah, this grey wolf will be good. Its only fair that I pay him back for all the damage he did to me, after all. Its bones will add a nice crunch!" the creature cackled.

"Don't you touch any of them!" Toboe shouted, and the creature peered into the pit, letting him see that it was holding Tsume's limp wolf body in its claws. The creature opened it mouth to say something when a loud voice roared "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!!"

The monster bucked in pain as something unseen attacked it. There was a blinding light, and the creature seemed to be slahsed into ribbons before falling to the side with a loud, ground-shaking thud. Toboe stood stunned and scared. What had just killed that monster? And was it going to kill him next?

"Kagome, did you just make me kill a demon over a couple of mangy wolves?" asked a voice, the same voice from before, Toboe realized.

"No!" said a girl's voice. "I swore I heard someone..."

"Down here!" Toboe called. "Help me, I can't get out!"

A little head poked over the side, and it looked like a little boy with small fangs and fox ears on his head. "Hey, there's a little wolf down there!" he said.

"Are you sure? It sounds like a kid," said another male voice.

"Whoever it is, they need help!" said the girl's voice.

"Kilala," said a second woman's voice. "Go down there and pick up whoever's down there."

"Wait a minute," said the original voice, his tone cold and harsh. "I don't like this; it could be a
trap. If it is a wolf, he might come up here and try to eat someone. I say we throw his friends in with him and let 'em rot!"

"I promise not to eat you!" Toboe said, then grew mad. "I wouldn't eat anyone! That thing was trying to eat me!"

"You should be nicer, Inuyasha," said the first girl's voice. "Kilala, would you please save whoever's down there?"

A large, cat-like creature jumped into the hole and gracefully flew down. She was as big as a horse and was white with black stripes. The cat, Kilala, had two long fangs growing from her jaws, and had two long tails. The most interesting thing was that flames engulfed her paws and ends of her tails. Kilala landed gently at the bottom of the pit despite her size, and found a boy crouching near the ground, his scent that of fear, sweat, and a wolf.

Kilala looked at the boy confused. Didn't Shippp say there was a wolf down here? He smells like a wolf, but looks like a boy. Is he a demon? Well, if he was, he was a nice one; he didn't attack, but looked at her cautiously. Kilala purred and crouched closer to the ground, a sign meaning "Come on, I'm not gonna eat you!"

Toboe stood up, and slowly crawled onto her back, worried about the others. Were they really dead? He had to know! "Please hurry!" he said, and Kilala, noticing the fear and concern in his voice, quickly flew back out of the hole. The brightness of the forest blinded him for a moment, but he quickly got his sight back. The second Kilala touched the gorund, Toboe jumped off and looked around.

Lying off to the side and everywhere else was what was left of the snake demon, fallen trees lying everywhere, the stench of blood overpowering. Standing before him was a girl in a white and green school unifrom, a small boy with fox ears and puffy tail, and a silver-haired, golden-eyed man dressed in red robes with a sword at his side. He had silver dog ears on his head, and fangs poked out from between his lips.

He looked to the little boy, golden eyes narrowed. "Hey, Shippo, I thought you said there was a wolf down there."

"There was! Or, I thought there was," said Shippo defensively. He looked at Toboe, eyes wide. I swear I saw a wolf! he thought.

"Where are they? Tsume? Kiba? Hige? Where are they?!" Toboe asked frantically.

"Quit shouting!" said a voice, and from behind a bush stood Hige, fallen twigs and leaves in his untidy mess of brown hair. His face was screwed up in pain, and as he stumbled forward, Toboe saw Hige was limping horribly, blood on his jeans.

"Hige!" Toboe said, running over to boy. "You're hurt! What happened?" he asked, getting under Hige's arm and helping him walk over to the others.

"Well, after you ran off, we followed after, of course. We followed your scent to see that...thing...trying to eat you, so we attacked. It kicked our asses, though. Tsume and Kiba may never survive
the crush to their pride!' He smiled, trying to blow off his pain. Toboe helped to sit on the ground, and the girl in the school uniform knealt beside him. " Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Hige, caught of guard by her beautiful aura. "Just looking at that pretty face of your's could heal any injury."

"Are you...serious?!" she squeaked, blushing bright red.

"What did you saw to her?!" the silver-haired man roared, putting a hand on his sword hilt. Hige threw up his hands. "I'm sorry! Man, no need to blow a cork!"

Before the other could make a move, a man in purple robes with a golden staff stood up from beneath a tree that Toboe had not noticed, but saw now a brown-haired boy in a black jacket, white t-shirt, and jeans, Kiba. "There's one over here, but he seems okay," the robed man said.

"Over here!" came a voice, and Toboe turned around to see a woman in a white, purple, and green kimono with a boomerang bigger than her whole body on her back walking towards them from the fallen demon with an unconscious boy in her arms. He had short silver hair, a few strands forming a long rattail, and dark skin, and was dressed in black leather.

"He was under the demon's hand. I'm not sure the extent of his injuries, but-"

"Tsume!" Toboe cried, and ran up to the woman just as she laid him on the ground. He fell to the ground beside his friend. "Is he...?" Toboe croaked, looking at Tsume's closed eyes. The woman shook her head. "No, he's just unconscious."

Crying with relief, Toboe hugged Tsume close, apologizing over and over again. "I'm sorry, Tsume, I'm sorry! I'll never run off again, I promise, just wake up!"