was facing towards the crowd and as his head cleared he looked upon the faces of the wolves. His enemies were snickering and laughing at him. He was already expecting his enemies to be mocking him, but he wasn’t expecting what else he saw. His own pack mates were glaring at him in disgust and pity. It would seem that his own pack mates had lost faith in him. Janus noticed his hopeless expression and laughed. He leaned over James’ shoulder and whispered menacingly in his ear. “Yes boy, your pack doesn’t believe in you anymore. You are all alone now.”

He then chuckled quietly. James looked in despair around all the faces until he found the face he was looking for. Even amidst all the jeering and yelling, Jenna still had a worried look. James’ heart skipped a beat. Here he was, losing horribly in a useless fight, and yet Jenna still cared for him. He felt strength and hope rise in him. He wouldn’t give up. He still had a reason to fight. He then angled his head slightly towards Janus, who was still behind him. “You should have killed me.” James then swung around and threw out his paw trying to hit Janus in the face. Much to everyone’s surprise, especially James', the blow connected, hard. James’ claws hit Janus’ cheek and they snagged. When James pulled, his claws dug into Janus’ cheek and cut along his cheek, down his muzzle, all the way to his nose. There was now a large gash along his face, with a bloody piece of skin hanging off his face where his cheek used to be. The entire circle of wolves went silent. Janus didn’t move, but his voice was quiet and deadly. “You are going to regret that.” James grinned slightly. “Probably not, that felt pretty good.”

As he said this James tried to sound cocky, but his voice shook pretty badly. Before James could even think to move, he felt himself flying through the air. Janus had rammed him in the chest at full speed. James felt all the breath leave him as he hit the ground. He never go the chance to regain his breath, for as soon as he had hit the ground Janus jumped on him, and bit into his chest. James held in a scream as Janus bit into him. Most of James’ chest and underbelly was dyed crimson from the blood pouring out. James tried to roll over and get up but Janus had gone down and grabbed his neck again. This time though, he didn’t throw him or try to rip out his throat. He just simply started to squeeze, cutting off James' air supply. James was already losing consciousness from the loss of blood and this only made it worse. The pain was immense, to the point where James could no longer stand it. He opened his mouth to scream but only a struggled gurgle came out. His vision then got blurry and was starting to turn white. Suddenly the pain seemed to disappear. He began to feel warm and good. He was suddenly in a land of white. There seemed to be nothing else. He then saw the white wolf. The wolf was very tall, about four feet tall, with beautiful pure white fur. What caught James’ attention though, were the wolf’s eyes. They were a bright ocean blue and they seemed to have infinite depth within them, as if the wolf had seen hundreds of generations come and go. It wasn’t just that though, for as the wolf locked eyes with James, he could see the warmth and infinite love that seemed to pour out. James knew this was no ordinary wolf. This was the great she-wolf spirit, “Aniu…” James whispered in disbelief.

Aniu smile and nodded. When she then spoke, her voice was like the marvelous and melodic sound of the most beautifully made bells in the world. “Yes, James.” James then finally guessed why he was seeing her. “I’m… I’m dead, aren’t I?” Aniu shook her head. James cocked his head, confuse. “But then…why? How?” Aniu walked up to him and put a paw on his shoulder. “You see, James, at the moment your spirit is in, what you might call, limbo. You are not in heaven, yet you are not on earth either.” James was still confused. “Does that mean I am going to die in a few minutes?” Again, Aniu shook her head. “No, for it is not your time yet.” “Then…why am I here? Well minus the fact that I got to see your beautiful figure, of course.” James smiled half-heartedly after he said that. Aniu smiled and chuckled. “Well, thank you. To answer your question, you are here to learn that your destiny will be coming to you soon.” James widened a bit. “Really now… So, what will I have to do?” “Sadly, I am not allowed to tell you that. You will have to find out that for yourself.”

James then began to feel a slight bit of pain in his throat again. “I am going to give you one last piece of advice though. Hold onto Jenna, and continue caring for her. Soon you’ll be the only person she has left. Now I must go. I wish you luck James. I will see you later.” She then turned and disappeared into the white abyss. James could only stare after her in confusion and awe. He finally whispered, “Good bye, Aniu… and thank you.” He suddenly hears someone scream, “no!” James’ mind snapped back to reality then. He felt the full searing pain in his throat again. One thing he seemed to no longer be able to feel though were his lungs, for he had been completely out of oxygen for a while. What was left of his oxygen deprived mind wondered what the scream he heard was. It was a quarter of a second later that he found out. He felt a slight tug on his throat, and then he was somehow free! He then began to gasp and cough as his deflated lungs began to once again take in air. He then heard a loud yelp and a thud as someone’s body hit the floor. He whipped his head around towards the sound. What he saw made his blood run cold.

Jenna was lying on the ground about ten feet from James. She was bleeding heavily from a large wound on her face and through her left eye. The fur on her face had already been dyed crimson from the blood. The worst part though, what that she wasn’t moving. “No…Jenna…” Janus was standing over her, angered. “Stupid runt.” He had a large bite mark on his side. It wasn’t until James saw that wound did he realize what had happened. Jenna had saved his life. She must have run up and bit Janus before he could finish James off. At this realization, James’ love for Jenna got larger and more reinforced. He got unsteadily to his feet and tired to walk over to her. As soon as he took that first step though, all hell broke loose. The wolves from James’ pack broke out of the circle rushing towards Janus. Not even a second later the wolves from Janus’ pack began to attack their enemies. In trying to get to Jenna, James was hit across the face by one of Janus’ wolves. He stumbled, and then tripped. He landed about a foot away from Jenna’s seemingly lifeless body.

Now that he was closer to her though, He could see her chest rise and fall to her breathing. She was only unconscious. He crawled the rest of the way to Jenna. He gazed upon her for a few seconds, and was amazed that, in the midst of all this fighting, and even though she was heavily injured, he found Jenna to still be immensely beautiful. He gently laid his upper body on her to try and protect her form being trampled. He then felt a kick to the face and his head went fuzzy and he could feel himself slowly sinking into unconsciousness. James leaned forward only a bit, to kiss Jenna gently on her uninjured cheek. “I’m…so sorry Jenna…I didn’t want this to…happen…I know it doesn’t mean much…but I am sorry….and Jenna…I love you.” He then let out a sigh as the darkness overwhelmed him.