• Chapter Two: Training Begins

    The blizzard finally stopped two days later, and I got a chance to meet rest of the wolves. It seemed as if I confused a couple of the wolves that Steldi introduced me to with my strange questions, also. But I really just wanted to know who I was and where I came from. Maybe one of the wolves would know?
    It turned out that the wolves were all part of a tribe called “Oina”. They were able to switch from a wolf to human at will and they all wore masks. The snow covered land that they lived in was called Wep’keer and the country was called Kamui.
    I only knew a small part of this village, so I wanted to explore. But a black and gray wolf stopped me before I could go anywhere.
    “You’re Kuro, right? I’m Numai, the trainer here.” he said. “Since you are able to walk and possibly go off on your own, I have to teach you how to fight.” I turned around to face him. What, I have to learn how to fight now? I silently complained to myself. Was it going to help me find out about myself, because that’s all that I really wanted to do. Maybe if I explored Wep’keer or even Kamui as a whole, I would find out something.
    But I decided not to argue and followed Numai to a snow-covered clearing surrounded by boulders and frostbitten trees. There were a few other wolf pups waiting there, all of them a little bigger than me. When I appeared with the trainer, they all stared at me with disgust.
    “There’s no way I’m gonna get slowed down by that weakling!” one of them spat. I turned my head to the direction of the comment and saw an amber wolf glaring at me. He snarled at me when I started to stare at him. In response, I crouched down and growled furiously. He doesn’t know my power, so he shouldn’t be aloud to talk! Come to think of it, I don’t know my power either... I wondered if I could really fight.
    “Seeme, there’s no reason to act like that! You have to be nice to Kuro, he’s our newest member.” Numai defended me.
    “Then where’s his mask and who are his parents?” Seeme snarled. Numai didn’t answer. Yuck, I don’t want to wear one of those stupid masks! Even though they gave me a name, I’m not gonna let them make me wear one of those! I closed my eyes while thinking that so no one would catch the comment by reading my expression.
    Numai suddenly yelled and my eyes flew open to see what was wrong. The first thing I saw was Seeme charging at me at full speed. I waited for him to appear in front of me, then I jumped. The cold air twirled me around until I landed safely behind Seeme. He looked back in surprise, but the new emotion quickly dissolved into an even stronger rage. In an instant, he was charging at me again. When I dodged, he yelled at me in anger. “I’m not going to let you slow my training down! Have you seen your size? You must be a lot younger than me! There’s no way you could defeat me!” With that, he again bolted towards me.
    I guess I should just get this over with. I said to myself, still eager to explore Kamui. An idea for an attack came to me quickly, so I crouched down and got ready for impact with the other wolf.
    At first, I leaped into the air again when Seeme neared me, but this time grabbed his neck and brought him with me into the air. When we were several feet up, I spiraled down to the ground, shifting so that Seeme’s body was shielding me from the impact. The impact of his head with the ground sounded like two rocks colliding. I was flung back into the air by the pressure, my paws scrapping and sliding against the ground for a couple feet before completely stopping the movement. Dirt that was flung up from the impact still clouded Seeme’s body that was still with pain and surprise. The other wolves were awestruck and filled with fear.
    So, this is my power? I stared down at my paws in awe. Slowly, my head lifted up so I could see my victim. He was slowly beginning to stand up, stumbling every few seconds.
    “Y-you... What did... you do?” he asked, gasping for air every few words. His body trembled in fear and pain. Everyone else began to back away. I whipped my head around to look at them. When my eyes rested on them, the shrunk down in fear. My ears flattened to my head.
    “I didn’t mean to do that, it’s just that he attacked me...” I said quietly. No one answered. Seeme still struggled to catch his breath. My head drooped down in shame. “Sorry Seeme...”
    “Why would I forgive you?!” he suddenly snapped. My eyes rolled up to look at him. “That really hurt, how did you do that anyw-”
    “Don’t state the obvious! Of course it hurt you idiot! Just because I’m the one that attacked you, doesn’t mean that I don’t know that!” I cut him off. Seeme fell silent in anger.
    “K-Kuro... Maybe you should c-calm down.” Numai stuttered. I turned right to look at him, and he immediately slunk back. Why is everyone so afraid of me? Can’t they attack like that? I thought before sitting down and thinking of how to calm them. My head tilted to the side. Numai slowly began to stand up straight.
    “Maybe you should train on your own from now on... We wouldn’t want you to kill anyo- I mean! We wouldn’t want you to get hurt...” he said with a shaky voice.
    “Huh? But I’m new here and I don’t know how you fight yet!” I complained, but I was actually excited for a chance to be on my own.
    “No, you should probably go off on your own! You don’t need our help...” Numai insisted. I shrugged and began to walk away, happy that I was finally able to be on my own for awhile. The more I walked, the harder it got to ignore everyone’s eyes burning into my fur. Their glares began to feel heavy, like they were throwing rocks for me to carry on my back. I sighed and started running.
    They were trying to intimidate me, but it wasn’t working. It was just a really sad attempt. And why was everyone so afraid anyway? I asked myself again. They should be able to attack like that, maybe they would even be better than me.
    I disappeared from the clearing as soon as I had appeared. My paws carried me up a few ramps made entirely out of snow and ice. There was a small hut at the top of each slope, but the one at the very top of the slopes was bigger and a little fancier. I stared up at the hut for a little bit before my eyes began to wander to the right. There was a giant fence standing there. My head cocked to the side. What’s behind there? I wondered. I took a cautious paw step towards the fence, then another until I was really close to it. My head moved closer and I examined a small crack that ran down the middle of the fence, indicating that there were doors there. Slowly, I moved my paw to the fence, about to attempt to open it.
    “Hey, you! You should know better than to try and open that!” I jumped at the sound of someone’s voice. I whipped around and saw the person standing beside the hut. He was in human form, a catlike mask covered his whole face. Dang it! I’m already being bothered by someone else?! complained.
    “Sorry... I was just exploring...” I dipped my head down in apology.
    “Do you even know what’s behind that gate? It’s off limits!” he answered.
    “Why? What’s behind there?” I asked. He just shook his head.
    “There is no reason for you to know.” he crossed his arms and I narrowed my eyes. Before I could ask why not, he turned around and walked back into the hut. I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to the fence. It looked really hard to open, for someone like me, anyway. But I didn’t just want to explore snow all day. Now that I could be on my own, I could do what I wanted. A forbidden area sounded interesting, too!
    “You won’t be able to open it.” a voice interrupted my examination again. With a sigh, I turned around to see a small wolf, only a little bigger than me. It was one of the wolves that was at the training spot, the one that had dark orange and white fur. “Only Chief Kemu can open it.” she said, looking at the hut to her left.
    “Oh well! Can’t I at least try?” I asked impatiently, growing tired of all the interruptions. She shook her head.
    “There’s no use in even trying. You can’t open it.” she looked up to the top of the fence. “Just give up already.”
    “Already?” I exclaimed. “I haven’t even been here for five minutes!” The wolf shrugged and turned around to walk away. My ears flattened to my head and I scowled. Turning back to the gate for what seemed like the hundredth time, I sighed. No one will leave me alone! Oh well, at least I wasn’t attacked. I thought.
    After staring at the gate for several minutes, I finally decided to come back later. A weird feeling started to nag at me, like the older person was glaring in rage at me from inside the hut. With a sigh, I turned around and started down the slopes, in hope that the feeling would go away. Sure enough, it died down after I got down the first slope. Dang, it really was that older person... Was he going to attack me if I stayed there much longer? I wondered. Why was staying away from the gate so important? It just made me more curious... But I would rather go back when people were less likely to bother me. Until then, I would just explore other places