Ketavi trotted p*censored*ed a few trees and came out from behind a few bushes. She then stood there, frozen in fear at the sight of a human lying on the floor, covered in blood. There were scents of wolves from her pack, and they smelled fresh. "There had been fight!" She murmured then ran in the direction Zallion's scent came form, ignoring the humans she had to pa$$ by.

Lucian spotted Dethal then ran over to the hunter. "Dethal," he panted. "Any sign of a human with Jazz?" He went to stand at the edge of the river, not too far from Dethal, then looked around. His fur was bristling and his teeth were bared slightly.

Akari could smell humans' and wolfs' blood in the air. She trotted over to Lucian and inquired anxiously, "What happened there? And what happened to Jazz?" 

Zallion felt his muscles grow weary. Nevertheless, he tried not to slow his pace. The truck was far from clearly visible in the dust, and Zallion wondered where it was going. He could hear humans' voices in the distance, and managed to dodged the few shots fired at him. That was close, he thought as one of the deadly metal pellets whizzed past his head. Growling softly, he wondered if he would be able to rescue Jazz, or get caught himself in the process.

Sirius glanced at Tolto. "What do you think 's going' on?"

Tolto shrugged, getting into a sitting position. "Hopefully nothing bad." He murmured, looking around camp with intrest.

Dethal shook his head. "No," he growled.

"Humans came and fired at us with their guns not too far form here," Lucian growled. "And then one of them took Jazz away in a truck. I'm hoping that human lives there." He pointed his muzzle to the village across the river.

Sirius looked at Tolto. "Wanna explore?" she growled playfully, swishing her tail. The pup wasn't feeling as downcast as a pup would, because she just couldn't seem to believe that her mother was dead.

Akari followed Lucian's gaze. "What now? How are we gonna rescue her?"

Zallion followed the truck as far as a few miles, or so he felt. It doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon, he thought, when an idea struck him. With all his strength, he threw himself onto the vehicle. For a moment, he thought he'd lose grip, but managed to hold on. The wind blew wildly through his fur as he clambered onto the top of the truck.  

Lucian shook his head. He wasn't sure. The village had way more humans there, and he has noticed that almost each of their large dens, which they called houses, had guns in them. "I don't know," he replied, his voice sounding mixed with helplessness and anger. "But I don't know if that human who took Jazz even lives in that village."

Tolto glanced at Keevler then back at Sirius. He nodded, although you could tell he was hesitating. "Okay, but I don't want us to take too long." He replied, not wanting Keevler to be worried.

Akari bit her lip. She felt angry and impotent, and angry at her impotence. She stamped her feet in annoyance. "Is anyone following the human?" she asked Lucian, and snarled, involuntarily, in disgust.

Sirius swished her tail excitedly and led the way to the camp boundaries. Although the pack had not yet accepted her, and perhaps not even noticed her, she still felt quite home with them, which was rather strange. 

Zallion clung on for dear life. His paws ached from the running, and he felt his body had overheated. He took huge gulps of air and laid still for a few seconds, until he felt considerably steady. Quietly, he crawled forward, wondering what to do. Suddenly, an idea struck him. Placing himself in a rather precarious position, he poked his head through Jazz window. "Jazz?" he whispered to her, whisking his head up just before the driver could spot him.

Lucian thought for a moment. "I think Zallion is following it," he replied. But can he catch up with that truck? He has seen one of those things go really fast down at dirt path across the river, so he wondered if a wolf could be able to get near it.

Tolto followed Sirius, his tail wagging excitedly. What were they going to see while they explored? Something fun and exciting? He wondered then glanced at Keevler. Hopefully he wouldn't notice, right away, that they were gone.

"Go ahead, if you want." Lucian answered then sighed after. "Becareful, though." He tasted the air then looked into the river. If they tried crossing it the water would reach up to their chests, maybe even necks, but there wasn't a current or anything like that so it was probably easy to cross.

Tolto stopped near Sirius then looked across the river. It sounded fun to play with those small creatures. "But how do we cross the river?" He asked then looked around, trying to find something they could use to get across.

"Thank you," Akari said courteously and bowed to the beta. As she walked away, she wondered how to follow a truck for so long a distance. 

Akari could see tire marks on the ground. They were quite deep on the sand, from which she deduced that it was a truck's. As she sniffed the road, she could catch her brother's scent. She followed the trail for some time, but had to keep hidden for there were two-leggers on the road. Now what am I going to do? she thought, annoyed, as she watched them. If they see me, they're sure to kill me. I wonder how Zan got through this. Akari glanced back, wondering if she should give up.

~

Sirius approached the river cautiously. "Why don't we swim across?" she suggested, dipping her paw in the water. "It doesn't look like there's a strong current." She swished her ebony tail in excitement, tossing her head to get her white forelock to a side. 

Lucian gave a nod then watched Akari walk away before looking back at the village. He tasted the air again but no scent of Jazz came from the village. He was almost tempted to go across the river, but he stopped himself. Risking himself getting hurt in that village probably won't do anything to help find Jazz.

Tolto gently dipped his paw into the water. There wasn't a strong current, and when he pulled his paw out and looked around he couldn't find anything they could use to cross. "Okay," he replied, unsure. "I guess we could try that."

Dethal watched Akari walk away then sat down, his fur still bristling. He was a hunter, but when in a situation that had to do with humans he could look like a pretty stong fighter. Although fighting still wouldn't be his specialty.

Akari groaned. Man, I'm never gonna get past these humans. But she decided to give it a try whatsoever. Unsheathing her claws, she quietly made her way through the foliage. Her brown-and-gray fur made it easy for her to remain unspotted, but the leaves rustled loudly in her ears, and the humans were rather wary. Slowly, she proceeded, avoiding the stones. Suddenly, a human glanced in her direction, with a frown on his face. She knew she had been spotted. He took a revolver from his pocket and, cocking it, aimed it at her. Akari didn't wait for another second. She swiftly leapt out of the bushes and sprinted away, missing the bullet by a few inches.

"They're here, they're there, they're everywhere!" she growled exasperatedly, running into the camp. She let out a small sigh and sat down beside Dethal. "Poor Jazz," she muttered sadly. "I tried following their trail, but the humans are blocking the way."

Sirius jumped into the water. Her mother had taught her how to swim, and she had grown to love it. "It's okay, Tolto. Come on!" She thrashed her legs about, feeling a spray of the cool water on her face.

Luthien padded over to them, smelling human and wolf blood in the air. "I see things are not quite right. What happened here?" 

Dethal sighed. "I wish they'd just stay there across the river," he growls quietly, but loud enough for Akari to hear. "They act as if they own the place. But we've been here before them." He added to hismelf, not sure if Akari had heard him.

Tolto padded into the shallow part of the river then eventually went deeper in. He let out a yelp of alarm when the floor suddenly disappeared from underneath him and began thrashing his paws about. He was about to try as best as he could to get back on s*censored* when he realized that he was floating. He moved his paws for a while then slowly inched toward Sirius.

((Who did Luthien pad over to?))

OoC: Just near the river.

"Yeah, but what do they care about that? Disgusting little creatures." Akari spat, digging the earth with her claws. "Why don't they just leave us alone?"

Sirius wagged her tail underwater, sending a splash of water on Tolto's face. "Oops, sorry." she said with a laugh. 

Tolto laughed then flicked one of his front paws, sending a small splash at Sirius. He wagged his tail then looked across the river, where the humans' village was. "Are we still going to go there?" He asked, liking the feel of the cool water on him.

"Humans captured Jazz when Zallion, Bryr,(were they the only ones?) and I went to get rid of some traps that hurt Felan." Lucian said in almost a growl, but before that he bowed in a respectful way to Luthien.

Dethal slid down so he would be in a crouching position. He bared his fangs as an adult human went p*censored*ed a house and toward another, wanting to give a snarl or bark at it but stopped himself. It could cause more trouble, and he didn't want that.

Ketavi tasted the air but couldn't pick up the scent of Jazz and only a faint scent of Zallion. Sighing angrily, she dashed back toward camp, wondering what she could do now.

Felan licked is wound then slowly got up on his paws. He winced as he did, but after a while was able to handle the pain. Sighing slowly, he hopped on three legs to his den, wishing that he was more careful when he was after that rabbit with Bryr.

Jazz's mother died giving birth to her, the rest of her siblings had died in the wombafter Emerald died. Aria, Emerald's best friend, had taken her in. Luckily one of the other pup mothers had milk at that time.

By this time Chaos had stopped panting and made his way to Aria. She was whimpering quietly, her body shaking. Jazz and Aria were very close... Chaos thought as he sat down beside her. I can't even begin to imagine. "Aria? You ok?" He asked. He leaned on her a little for comfort, wrapping his tail around her back.

"No..." Aria growled. She she showed her teeth at the ground, her fur bristling wildly. "Those humans.... they have no right!" She barked. "I'll... I'll... Jazz..." She whimpered again. "I'll bring her back." Chaos promised.

Jazz poked her head up in the bag she was sitting in, "Zallion? I-is that you?" She whimpered desperatly, hoping that it wasn't in her head.

The truck turned suddenly and came to a complete stop inside of a village not too far from the wolf camp. The man opened the forr, slammed it, and walked around the front of the truck.

Zallion crouched as low as he could to avoid being seen by the human. "Yeah, it's me, Jazz. Don't worry, I'll get you out." he whispered re*censored*uringly. Fixing his eyes on the human, he swiftly slid down the hood of the car and pounced onto the man's back, slicing his claws into his shoulder blades before he could move his hand to his gun. He was angry enough to maul him, but restrained himself from doing so, for it would only cause more trouble. The man fell to the floor and slipped into unconsciousness. "We must get out of here before more humans arrive!" he barked as he pulled at the handle of Jazz's door. 

~ 

 Sirius gave a wolfish grin. "Yeah." she said, and laughed as her forelock fell over her eyes. Tossing it to a side, she crawled onto the bank and shook herself dry, then turned to wait for him.

Akari dipped her head at Luthien, but said nothing for the beta had said all there was to say.

Luthien acknowledged Lucian's and Akari's bow with a quiet nod. She watched Felan go and gave a soft sigh. "I'm not sure how we can get Jazz back, but of course, we must, and we will." She looked around her. "Zallion has gone after them, hasn't he?" She shook her head. "Be careful, guys. The humans have more firearms than we can imagine; enough to destroy more than one wolf pack. Try to stay out of their way unless they become too annoying." Luthien walked away, wondering how to rescue Jazz, and hoping fervently she was unhurt. "I wish I could crush that human's head in my jaws," she added quietly to herself.

Humans screamed when they heard Zallion attack the man, and watched him fall to the ground. "Thats Alex!" A man shouted as women and children ran to their small makeshift houses for protection. "He was supposed to get a wolf pup for the camp!" "Then what are we waiting for, we need that pup!" Another shouted.

"Zallion! Im inside of something!" Jazz barked frrantically, "I can't see and I can't open the entrance!" She called as she heard scraping near her head.

Chaos stood up, "When do we leave?" He asked. "I'm coming!" Aria growled, standing up. "No you're not!" Chaos countered. "I'm sorry, but you're in no conditio-" "You do not order me around Chaos! I'm the Beta and I order you. Remember your place!" She snarled, rounding on Chaos. "Jazz is my responsibility, not yours." She turned her back on him. "And I'll go after her no matter the risk."