1st Chapter “The Kazuki Outcasts”

Kiba was running. The night was pitch-black and the leaves and branches cracked beneath her paws. Somewhere, the penetrating screech of a crow was to be heard. A chilly breeze blew through the treetops, carrying the green to brown-shaded leaves away into every wind direction. It blew through Kiba’s fur and in her cobalt-blue wolf eyes, which started stinging with tears in the biting cold. However, Kiba wasn’t concerned with the pain; she didn’t even mind the deadly cold racking her body down to her bones, because all she could think of was her only aim: She had to keep running, running further… as far as she could… in order to survive. Because they were chasing Kiba, and they were fast and unpredictable. They would keep chasing her to the borders of their land and much farther, and she was well aware of that.
Suddenly, there was a rustling sound in the bushes to her left. As a reflex, she threw her head in the direction of the sound with panicking fear, trying to see through her burning eyes, as well as she still could, whether there was anyone or anything to be seen or, even worse, whether her followers had already caught up with her. And then, all of a sudden, she felt something hit her head violently when she collided with a tree in full speed. She yelped with pain; her head was droning from the hard collision and everything around her seemed to be rotating, before she fell unconscious and her body hit the ground.
When Kiba opened her eyes again, she failed to see clearly through her half-closed eyes. She was still lying on the ground, her head pounding and something red and sticky running down her nose and into her eyes. Still, Kiba felt the pain only partly, as she seldom gave up and was now focusing on the thought of surviving. ‘Maybe… it’s not too late after all… maybe I can still escape from them…’ She tried to stand up, but an agonizing flash of pain burst though her right foot, which wouldn’t react when she tried moving it. “Broken… dammit…“, she whispered hoarsely. “I guess that’s it.” She feebly sank back to the ground. Now she was just lying there, unable to stand up and flee from her hunters, waiting in agony which would have driven other 13-year-olds insane.
An endless seeming eternity passed by until Kiba could hear footsteps. Footsteps, cautious and quiet, growing louder with time. She mobilised her last strength to get a glance at the figure, or maybe there were even more, Kiba didn’t know, who was approaching her. The steps stopped and blazing red eyes, filled with rage, stared at her while warm wolfbreath with an unpleasant smell blew at her. The wolf, rigidly pointing his ghastly eyes at her, moved a few steps backwards as if he was wondering about what to do with his prey. Then he suddenly ran up and jumped with an insane roar at the wolf who was now absolutely frozen with fear. “Outcast of the Kazuki Clan!”, the obsessed wolf yelled, before he stormed at Kiba in rabid hatred.


Kiba awoke very suddenly. Covered in sweat and gasping for air she stoopingly sat in her little cave which had once been built by badgers and left by those as well. “Oh Ivor, god of wolves! Let those awful nightmares end at last! They are driving me insane!“, she sobbed, slamming her shaking fists down on the small wool blanket lying on her lap. The blanket was the only thing she had left from her homelands, except from a few memories of some friends and her repudiation. Why she had been sentenced to be chased away she didn’t really know herself, maybe it was somehow connected to some old legend. What she did know for sure was that she had been born to the farther part of the Kazuki family. The people from her pack were practically servants to the main family and thus responsible for farming, cattle-breed and similar. The members of the main family were honoured throughout the whole country for being an influential trading family. It was considered a severe crime as well if descendants of the two different families met or became friends. … and that seemed to be the most probable reason for her sentence. Two years ago she and her best friend Waka from the main family had used to meet up in secret often; rhapsodizing about how great it would have been not to have to keep their friendship hidden any longer. Kiba could remember that wonderful time well, a time that had ended abruptly when the two of them had been seen together after all. Waka had been banned from the village the day after while Kiba had been chased away a week later so they wouldn’t find each other again. Not even Wakas foster parents shed tears for the, back then, twelve-year-old. “It’s a disgrace, having to raise such children”, they had said, although Kiba didn’t know up to now what they had meant by “such children”. Waka had never told her about having a brother or sister, had he? She couldn’t remember anything like that. There was only one last thing she knew about her clan and this was he most useful knowledge to her; it was that every member of the Kazuki Clan could from the age of ten on, by some magic which’s roots had never been clear, transform into a wolf. “Without this ability”, Kiba thought often, “I would’ve starved a long time ago.” That was about all she knew about her Family because she had never really paid attention during history lessons, and now she was sitting in her deserted badger’s sett, reflecting about old times whilst staring holes into space with her eyes still filled with tears. She was about 5.25 feet tall and weighed around 110 pounds. Apart from that, she had raven hair at shoulder-length with a long, blue, flame-shaped braid going down from her hairline to her shoulder. Those blue patterns had about the same shade as her eyes. In addition, she was dressed in an already worn-out and dirty taupe shirt which was inwrought with the same blue patterns at the back. Her trousers were black and knee-length, having a flame-pattern as well, which split up into the trouser-legs at her hips and ended shortly above her knee-joints. She had already lost her shoes a few weeks ago; they had just disappeared while she had been washing her clothes…

The sun was up high in the sky when Kiba finally managed to stop her “daydreaming” and her “staring holes into space” and peeked out into the normally gloomy but now bright woods. A crow was screeching somewhere and Kiba flinched. It reminded her of the dream she had had the night before. She shook her head and blinked into the sunlight to get rid of those horrible thoughts, looking up into the sky that was partly hidden behind the treetops. “Cloudless sky! That’s gonna be a nice, warm day”, she rejoiced and climbed out of the cave entrance through which she just fitted exactly. She stretched when she was outside and breathed in the fresh air of the woods deeply. Suddenly, her stomach was growling awfully loud, making Kiba think of how some birds nearby might have flown away angrily because of her. Only by then she realized how hungry she in fact was. She rolled the big rock which lay beside the cave entrance over to block the hole so there wouldn’t be any uninvited guests entering or moving in. Then she changed into her wolf form and sniffed the ground in all directions, looking for the trace of something edible, like a rabbit or something similar, which might have passed by her home. It didn’t take her long to catch the fresh scent of a rabbit which led deeper into the forest. And with a joyful, “Breakfast, here I come!”, she followed the track, a hungry shimmer in her vigilant wolf eyed, perkily proceeding deeper into the forests…