Tsume

The light was blinding.

Or maybe it had been thanks to how dimly lit everything was before? Either way, it hurt his eyes badly. The wolf had to shut them tight, then slowly reopen them. He expected anything. Most of all just a field of green, maybe a lake or two...his friends...

Wait.

This wasn't it. The bright light...it wasn't the sun. Suddenly his vision turned a suprising bright red, and he slipped on whatever he'd been standing on before.

That feeling you get when you fall? That's what it felt like. Only it lasted way too long. Much too long.

He thought it would never end, until a sudden sting rippled through his body. Had he hit the ground?

The wolf dared to open his glinting amber eyes. As soon as the pain had come across him, it was gone, and left him confused and wondering.

His vision was slightly blurred, but it would come into focus soon enough. His ears pricked at a voice. "Tsume? Tsume? C'mon, you lazy furball..."

Immediately the grey shoved himself to his paws, nearly regretting it as black dots covered his sight, but they eventually went away. "Rowan?!"

The stunning white wolf infront of him only tipped her head. "Well about time you woke up," she muttered, before smirking and nuzzling him slightly. "You've been out for...I dunno, an hour?"

An hour? It only felt like a few seconds. The grey blinked for a moment, and finally spoke. "Where are we?"

He heard a mutter of "idiot" and a laugh. Now it was his turn to tip his head, and he lifted his amber gaze to see his surroundings.

The fields of green he'd been imagining; they were there. Bright, warm grass under his paws. A shimmering lake was just ahead of them, and he could already see elk grazing not too far off. The sun was shining but there was a cool breeze, the temperature just right. This was Paradise.

"Paradise," she said, mimicking his thoughts. "Where the hell else?" Rowan rolled her blue eyes and then turned, racing down the hill towards the lake. Tsume let this all sink in for a moment, before lunging after her without thinking.

Finally...Paradise. That was all he wanted, to live forever without any problems, with Rowan.

...For now.

Toboe

"GAH!" Toboe yelped, feeling the same falling sensation as his pack brothers had. Only it didn't last as long for him, though when he hit the ground it hurt just as much. A small whine escaped him, however.

Immediately the young wolf opened his eyes and quickly tried to figure out his surroundings, what was going on, everything. This was freaky. The last thing he remembered was walking past that invisible line, and then a bright light.

Fields of green, shimmery lakes...elk, boulders, meadows, but...where was everyone? The red wolf jumped to his feet, eyes wide and glancing in every direction. No one. Not even a trace, a scent.

"Where are they?!" He yelped outloud. One thing he couldn't stand; to be alone. Especially from the pack. They had become family in the last two lifetimes.

But then his ears pricked at a soft whisper in the wind. He couldn't make out what it said, who it was...just that it was a voice. Might as well follow it...

So Toboe warily started walking forward, trembling all over but it's not like there was anywhere else to go.

Tsume

Tsume shook his pelt, water droplets flying in every direction, and lunged out of the lake onto the ground. He turned, expecting Rowan to follow as usual, but she stood frozen in place in the water. "Rowan?"

"...Where is everyone?" She asked, as if just now realizing that they were the only two there. Her blue eyes narrowed in thought. "We should all be together, as a pack. But it's just us."

The grey also narrowed his eyes. Where were they? "I...I don't know." He flattened an ear, half guilty at the first thing he thought. Sure, they were pack--ok, family--but he was happy where he was. Alone, just with her. Didn't she want it that way too?

Then again, everyone could grow attatched to that stupid runt. Maybe even the overly-wise(perhaps too much for his own good) Kiba. Now Tsume too was consumed by wonder, maybe worry.

"Well shouldn't they be here? Kiba was the first one to go into Paradise, and then us...Toboe went after, right? So where is everyone?" Rowan whined slightly. "This makes no sense..."

Tsume hated this new side of her personality; it made him feel horrible for her and himself. Weakness? No, just worry for her. That had to be it. "Hey, we'll check this whole place. They probably just got sent a bit farther off. Come on," the grey nudged her slightly.

Rowan glanced at him with a sigh. "Sorry...I guess I've grown attatched to them, huh?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Tsume muttered with annoyance at how true that was now.

Rain

The grey-blue wolf sighed, lying on a large cliff that seemed to be thousands of feet high, with the ocean waves hitting the sides not too far below. She crossed her two front paws and flicked her white tipped tail, staring out at the blue sky that never changed.

What was real and what was not, she just didn't know anymore. The wolfess sighed and put her head on her paws, ice blue eyes drooping after a while from boredom. Though the fatigue of being tired never washed over her, as usual. She never felt hungry, tired, thirsty, nothing. Hunting here was just a sport, and everytime an animal died a new one was born anyway.

This was the true Paradise...or that's what everyone else was saying. They were...wrong. This, to Rain, was not Paradise. Sure, she had hours to catch up with her mother, but what she really wanted...was her friends. Her real family. Her pack.

Besides, if this was Paradise and all a wolf had to do was die to get there...Tsume would be so pissed.

Rain didn't realize until she could hear pawsteps that two new wolves had just come up behind her. She turned slightly, and nodded to the jet black wolfdog and the gold one at her side. "Blue. Hige."

Blue sighed, eyes soft and caring. "Rain, you've been moping for too long. This is ridiculous. They'll be happy in their Paradise until they join us." Hige sat down beside her, nodding in agreement.

Rain flattened an ear. She didn't believe this. "But...I miss them. Do they miss us?"

Blue tipped her head in thought. "Well...I don't know. I always thought wolves had their own Paradise when they got there, separated from everyone they didn't want to be with truly. But death...is different. We're all together here."

That wasn't a good enough answer, so Rain just put her head back on her paws. "I miss Toboe."

"I know, and I'm sorry we can't be with them too." Blue padded over to Rain, standing by her. Rain held back a growl; it was just wrong to growl at the motherly wolfdog. The grey-blue flicked an ear, and Blue went on, "But I'm sure they're happy...I hope so, anyway. I wouldn't want them to miss us."

"You want to be forgotton, then?" Rain turned to the black wolfdog.

Hige spoke this time, still calmer than usual and probably because he missed the others as well, "Not forgotton, just hoping that the others don't go through what we're going through."

Rain guessed she could understand that, but it still annoyed her. Why did they have to die? Why did the others get to be in Paradise? It wasn't fair...

Rowan

The white wolf lashed her tail, glancing around the area and sniffing, before continuing to run across the meadow. Tsume followed not long after, then the two spread out.

After a while Rowan turned and met up with him again. "Not a single whiff of another wolf! Not one!" Trying not to panic, Rowan quickly stopped talking so to hold in a whimper.

Tsume seemed to realize how close she was to losing it, and Rowan silently thanked him for starting to talk. "We still have a ways to look, and the whole day. We'll find them."

Rowan nodded slightly, and followed when he continued to run in search of any scent. The only other mammals Rowan could scent was the casual rabbit or elk, or other rodents of some sort. No wolves, or canines of any sort. Not a trace that one had even been around.

Were they stuck here alone forever?

Your bottles' almost empty
You know this can't go on
Because of you my mind is always racing
The needles' breaking your skin
The scar is sinking in
And now your trip begins but
It's all over for
It's all over for

-It's All Over; Three Days Grace