Final Fantasy VII 1. Prologue

The Truth Within the Darkness

By: Spice

Prologue

It was dark and cold and quiet. This lonely place I dwelled in. I wasn't aware of much here and my mind and memories where dull from the length of time I spent sealed away in my self made prison. Never did I truly know how much time passed as I slept on neither did I realize why I had sealed myself away. Time and rationality stopped for me and so too did my sense of self. I became scarred and worried that eventually I would forever lose who I was and what I was. These thoughts plagued my mind nearly every second I slept, when it didn't occupy my mind I thought of nothing.

I didn't know how many years I slept in this freezing, cold, desolate place, that was until a disturbance occurred. I didn't notice anything different at first, so far gone I was in my slumber, until the cold went away and was replaced with a burning heat. Where once the only sound I could hear was the fierce wind blowing at random times, now I could hear voices. These voices were many and odd to my liquid filled ears and I had trouble understanding what was being said. I tried and tried to understand but after all this time alone and asleep made my understanding of languages nearly none existent, the sounds of the voices and the words they spoke greatly confused me. All I could tell was that there were males and females around my self made prison of crystal-like stone.

As I warmed up more and became more aware, I felt an intense urge to be free of my crystal prison. I can't really recall what happened next, all I remember was an intense, eye searing white light, then a explosion of sound, then blissful darkness as I fell unconscious. I next awoke to the same blinding light of a world outside my crystal prison which surprised the beings that where standing near what was left of my crystal prison, I surprised them when I had awoken once again. Five of the beings surrounded my person so after speaking rapidly in a language I couldn't understand. 'What are these beings?' 'Why are they so loud.' 'Leave me alone!'

I freaked out at all the noise and the lack of space around my person that I did the first thing my instincts told me to do, I lashed out towards the beings, screaming my fear loudly which caused the beings to step back quickly for fear of becoming injured by my long, curved, sharp, red claws. Suddenly there was a being in front of them with a black, shinny object pointed at me, I didn't know what it was called until much later, and out of it came a small, rounded, fast object that pierced my scaly, hard, black skin in which I roared in agony at the pain that little object caused. All I saw was a crimson red cover my vision and then the blackness of losing consciousness once again. When I came too a third time I noticed one of the beings was dead, decapitated and covered in long, angry, red slashes, and that my claws were soaked in blood. I knew right away that it had been myself that was responsible for the being's death and regretted it immensely. I turned to the other beings that were still watching me with fear and crooned out in a small, quiet, voice that I was sorry for the death of one of their own. They jumped in surprise at the noise I made and looked at me weirdly. I noticed that they didn't understand what I was saying just like I couldn't understand them, so I got up on unsteady hind legs and moved toward the being's dead body and started nuzzling it, licking it clean and making it look the way it did before my claws had gotten into it's skin. I turned my muzzle up at the other beings and started pushing the body toward them with my ears laid flat on my head in a submissive gesture.

It was the old looking male that understood what I was trying to tell them first. He moved his clawless appendage onto one of the other being's shoulder in what I could only guess was supposed to be reassuring. It was then that I noticed the smell of salt water which caught me by surprise. I looked up and saw that the small, slender female of the pack had the salty smelling water going down her huge, green eyes. I stopped pushing the dead being toward them and started moving toward the female instead. The female and the other beings noticed this and stopped moving for fear of setting me off once again, the other beings in the room that I hadn't noticed before took out more shinny, black objects like the other one had. The old odd smelling male noticed this and spoke in that strange language to the beings holding the shooting thingies to put them away or at least I think that's what the male told them, as they put away the shooting thingies.

I continued moving toward the female who had become so afraid of me that she had fallen to her knees because her legs couldn't support her anymore. It only took me a few seconds to reach her where she kneeled on the ground shaking like a leaf. I moved my head up to her face and started licking off the tears hoping she would understand what I was trying to say. 'Please stop leaking salt water from your eyes.' I moved my clawed hands and grabbed her moving her closer to my form so I could move my muzzle up to her head of long, smooth, soft fur she had on her head. I started nuzzling her odd fur that was on her head in what I hoped she realized as a gesture of bonding. Luckily she did and started relaxing as I continued to groom my new pack mate. The other beings looked in awe and disbelief at my actions. I didn't quite notice though as my eyes where in the female's fur still nuzzling her. Deep in my throat I made little purrs and growls indicating that I liked her and didn't see her as a threat. The other two beings that smelled funny moved closer to study me more. It was the old being with the odd smell moving a little too fast that I saw that caused me to stop grooming the female and growl at the incoming male. This caused the female to turn around to face me and start cooing at me in a soft, sweet voice that I finally calmed down to allow the two male beings to come closer than what I was comfortable with.

Hey guys how do you like this so far. Should I continue with this story? This story was born from my love of Final Fantasy 7 series so it is a fan fiction of sorts while being an AU story. Please leave a comment or a review.


	2. Chapter 1 Great Discovery

Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Great Discovery

Chapter Text

What had disturbed the creature in the crystal had been a team of humans that had discovered the crystal in a place that was called the Northern Crater which was a frozen wasteland with huge mountains and a gigantic hole in the planet which form the Northern Crater itself, it was in this gigantic crater that the crystal was found. As soon as the scientists that were studying the crystal figure out what it was and what was inside said crystal they would be returning to the crater to do a few more searches to see what else could be found there to study and experiment on with. The whole excavation was funded by Shinra Electric Power Company which was ran by a man simply called President Shinra. The lead scientist was an old man name Farimis Gast and another scientist simply called Professor Hojo. These two scientists had one other with them named Lucrecia Crescent who had been the student of the famed Grimoire Valentine, a well known scientist whom had died during an experiment carried out by Mrs. Crescent herself. Both her and Grimoire's project where shut down and the funding stopped putting Mrs. Crescent under the guidance of Gast and Hojo.

"This structure is simply amazing!" said Professor Gast, "Whatever it's made from it's extremely strong, it's already broken all of our drills."

"Yes it is. Prof. Gast." said the hunched man next to the old man named Gast.

"What should we test this crystal for?" asked Gast.

"Well I would like to find out what exactly our scanners picked up on." said Professor Hojo, the hunched man that was standing next to Gast.

"Well we should move it to Lab 1 then if we want to get a few solid readings on it." said Gast.

"How though it took nearly forty men just to transfer to this Lab from the trucks." said Hojo.

"Maybe we don't have to move the crystal but the equipment instead." said Gast looking down at the creepy scientist.

"Well alright then." said Hojo before turning to yell at Gast's assistant to fetch the equipment they needed to start studying the crystal and it's mysteries within. "Mrs. Crescent, would you go get the EMG and the other portable equipment from Lab 1!" he barked to the timid girl who was staring at the shinning crystal before her.

"Oh.. Um.. Alright." the girl named Mrs. Crescent stuttered out before hurrying off to get the supplies needed, but before she got far all three scientists heard a loud snap and crack coming off of the crystal. They turned back toward the crystal only to be blasted back a few feet, shrapnel flying at them from the crystal breaking from the inside along with a puke green liquid gushing out of the huge hole that the crystal now had. The puke green liquid continued to spread outward and was followed by a huge creature which had never before been seen. Fully stretched out of course the creature wasn't standing up but if it ever did, it would reach a height of about eight feet fully standing. The creature was mostly covered in a thick, black as night fur that was slicked down due to the liquid, the fur appeared to be rough to the touch but most likely was soft although none of the people in the room wanted to go and touch the creature just yet. From it's wolf like head were two large horns that jutted up and out a few feet above the wild mane of fur that tuffed outwards from the back of the head, down the creature's back where sharp, curved spine like protrusions which ended at the base of a long whip like tail that was headed by a long, curve bone like blade. The creatures back legs were dragon like in appearance with scales going down from the inner thighs to the creature's ankles. It's arms were long and thickly muscled and also covered in both fur and scales, and so was it's chest area which by the look of things indicated that this creature was female as it had two bumps that were exactly where a human female's breasts would be, only covered in shiny, hard looking black scales. The creature's head and face looked like a wolf's with a long canine muzzle and large dog like furred ears. The creature's eyes however where what the three had all their focus on, they were a stark blood red that glowed in the bright light of Lab 2, the pupils where slit and small due to the intense light of the room and they were focused on the three scientists in front of the creature, that was however before the creature's eyes rolled up in the back of it's head and passing out.

"Um.. Well looks like we've figured out what was in that crystal." said a stunned Gast who turned to Hojo.

"We can still study it's crystal while it's passed out." said Hojo who was still focused on the crystal.

"How though, the creature's right in front of it!" said an astonished Gast.

"We move the thing out of the way, of course!" shot back Hojo pissed off at the idiot he had to work with.

"What if it wakes up?" asked the terrified girl.

"Hopefully it won't walk up, then idiot girl!" spat back Hojo.

"Hojo, don't call my assistant an idiot, she has a name please use it." said Gast turning to Hojo with an angry expression on his face.

"Fine! Lucrecia! Are you happy now, Gast!" shouted Hojo at Gast still utterly pissed off that no experiments had been started yet and hating that President had assigned him to work with these two idiots.

"Yes now let's get started on moving the creature out of the way of the crystal so we can start scanning it." said Gast exasperated at having to deal with creepy Hojo.

"You over there, move this thing out of the way!" commanded Hojo to one of his assistants that had been watching the whole confrontation between their employers with disgust.

Three assistants came up to slowly and carefully move the creature from in front of the crystal to it's left side. They had to go slowly because every movement caused the creature to grumble in protest. After a hour of them moving slowly and carefully they finally got the creature far enough from the crystal that their employers could start working on the crystal without having to watch their steps.

As soon as the creature was out of the way another assistant brought up the equipment from Lab 1 to Lucrecia, Gast, & Hojo for their use. Even after five hours straight of scanning and a few heated arguments between Gast and Hojo they still knew barely anything about the crystal, only that it omitted a strange energy field that was coming off of the still unconscious creature not to far away. It wasn't until Gast's and Hojo's seventh argument about what to do with the crystal that they finally noticed that the creature was awake and staring at them looking confused as hell about them. Both Gast and Hojo forgot all about following protocol when dealing with foreign specimens that they moved toward the creature intending to see if could answer their questions about the crystal in which it came from. Lucrecia could see the creature's confusion and stayed back a little when her superiors started crowding the poor thing. She then knew that something would go very wrong very quickly and tried to tell both Gast and Hojo to back away from the thing. Her words went unanswered when suddenly the creature made a most horrendous screeching noise and made a swipe at the two scientists in front of it. The two were lucky to have moved away from the creature fast enough because where they had just been standing where the creature's huge, sharp, curved claws now stuck in floor. The creature removed it's claws from the floor leaving five extremely deep gouges in the floor that had a lime green liquid pooling in the bottom of the gouges which made a hissing sound as the floor was eaten away by the acidic like substance. Lucrecia's heart jumped up into her throat at the thought that those gouges could have been her superiors just moments before they had moved. This action and the damage the creature caused made the two scientists' guards, a group of seven men wearing blue suits that were known as The Turks, to jump to attention and surround the creature that was still hissing and looking around at the fast moving guards wildly. One of the Turks moved in front of the two stunned scientists and raised his gun and aimed at the creature. The Turk than took a shot to the creature's left shoulder enraging it to the point where it's eyes went completely red. The creature lunged forward, opening it's wolf like muzzle and bringing it's claws to the front of it's body before using it's legs like spring boards, shooting toward the Turk with it's jaw wide open. It's clawed hands moving toward the Turk slinking it's claws in the man's shoulders and turning it's head slightly sideways brought it's powerful looking jaws down upon the man's jugular spraying the creature with the man's blood and soaking the mane of fur and the face and chest of the creature in blood. The creature however was not satisfied with just ripping the man's throat out and took things further by ripping the man's head right off with it's jaws still attached to the Turk's neck all the while slashing those acid covered claws down the man's chest to his thighs, slicing clean through his breast and stomach area and spilling his guts all over the floor and spilling even more blood upon the creature. Just as quickly as the man was brutally killed was it over, the creature throwing down the body and passing out a third time.

The time the creature was unconscious was short lived though with it almost immediately afterwards waking up, this time with it's eyes back to their normal red with pupils which had disappeared when it had become enraged. The creature blinked a few times before looking at the body of the Turk and then it's claws before moving toward the body making a soft keening sound, everyone was on alert weary of what the creature would do. To Gast's surprise the creature started licking the wounds it had made clean, it's saliva slowly closing the wounds and causing them to disappear. The creature went so far as to even reattach the Turk's decapitated head and slowly started pushing the body with it's own head toward him and the other two near him. This motion of moving forward caused the other Turks still nearby to raise their guns, the creature took notice of this and started keening again looking at the Turks and their guns shuddering in fear of the weapons.

"Put your guns down, there's no need for them now!" I shouted out to the guards.

"But sir what if it attacks again?" asked one of the Turks.

"It won't. Can't you see it's regretful of it's actions, the creature is paying it's respects to your fallen comrade." he replied back.

"But sir…" started the Turk once again before I cut him off.

"No buts that was an order follow it!" I said angry before turning my attention back to the creature. I noticed that Lucrecia had fallen to her knees in fright as the creature had gotten closer to us with the body still being pushed forward.

The creature noticed Lucrecia falling to her knees and took an interest in her completely forgetting about the body it had been pushing earlier. It started moving towards her going as slowly as it could. I could tell that the thing didn't want to scare her anymore than it already had. The creature then did something no one had been expecting, it started licking Lucrecia's tears from her face and cooing at her looking to all the world like it was trying to comfort her and stop her from crying. Lucrecia did eventually stop crying which stopped the creature licking her tears, only for the creature to move onto nuzzling her hair with its muzzle as if it was combing her hair or grooming her like some species of monkeys and wolves do. However the creature also moved it's arms so the limbs where wrapped around Lucrecia's stomach area, to me it looked like the creature was almost hugging her while grooming her and purring and cooing at her. The guards were still weary of the creature and were afraid to move or do anything lest the creature react badly and harm their charge. Both myself and Hojo started moving slowly toward the creature so it wouldn't react badly to us.

We got as close to it as we could before it noticed us and started hissing a warning, that was until Lucrecia turned to face the creature and bring it's attention back toward her. She slowly started talking to it in a soft tone to get the creature to understand that we did not want to harm it but study it. It seemed like the creature was understanding her as it stopped growling and allowed us to get ever closer to it. Soon we were crouched down next to where Lucrecia was. I lifted my hand so it could smell me. The creature looked at me curiously before slowly moving it's snout to sniff my hand before rubbing it's head against my palm in acceptance. However when Hojo tried this the creature nearly bit his hand off indicating that it did not like his scent. Luckily enough he didn't lose his hand and the rest of the day was mostly spent letting the creature get used to us and it's new surroundings.

It was torture, the creature got into everything, smelling and licking everything it came across. It even sniffed all of the guards making sure to stay well clear of the sides they had their guns on. We noticed that it continued to make many sounds as it explored the entire mansion, it's grounds, and laboratories. We found out that when it was sad or sorry it would keen softly, when it was happy or found something it liked it would croon and purr, if it was upset or angry it would growl and hiss, if it smelled food it would yip and yap to be feed, and boy did it eat a lot, if it started becoming tired it would make squeak like sounds and start circling in an area it liked before pawing at the ground and slumping down to stretch out and sleep. The creature didn't sleep for very long though, the longest was two hours before it was back up and wagging it's whip like tail wanting to explore something new or even something it had already seen. Rarely did the creature walk on two legs but when it did it was taller than all of us, reaching a height of a solid eight feet tall. It mostly trailed after Lucrecia though, following her around everywhere and yipping and yapping at her making what appeared to me conversation even though we couldn't understand it and it couldn't understand us, at least I think it can't, that will have to be something we test it on.

It had been nine hours since the creature came out of the crystal and we still didn't know what it was nor what the crystal was. The creature was finally showing it's exhaustion and started squeaking like crazy. We found one of the big storage rooms that had a camera inside that was mostly empty as we had just moved into the mansion only a week ago. It was decided that this would be the creature's 'room' until we could figure out what the creature needed and where to put it. Lucrecia and a few of my other assistants when to get something for it to sleep on and when they came back with their arms loaded down with blankets and pillows the creature took them right off of them going to immediately set up what looked to be some sort of nest before snuggling down and falling asleep on us.

"Well this certainly has been an interesting day." I said.

"Yes it certainly has. I hope we learn more about this creature. I want to be able to start some experiments on it." said Hojo a bit distracted with the thoughts of what he could do to the creature.

"I'm certainly interested as to why it likes me." said Lucrecia, curious as to why the creature had followed her around all day.

"Well it's late and I think we should take a page out of the creature's book and get some sleep. After being well rested we can start some tests on the creature to see exactly what it is and what it's capable of." I said before turning around to head off to bed.

"Yes you're right, running around all day after that creature was tiring." said Hojo before he too turned around to head to bed.

"I think I'm going to stay here a bit longer before I get some sleep." said Lucrecia.

"Alright, be careful though. We don't know what mood the creature will be in if it's awoken." I said to her before leaving with Hojo.

"Goodnight." Lucrecia said before turning back to the room and heading inside to study the creature some more.

Alright here's chapter 1. I'll tell you all right now, my writing style is much different than Structure's and this story will be written in an odd way at the beginning at least. Right now what I'll be doing with the story is continue to switch from the creature's perspective to Gast's, Hojo's or Lucrecia's perspective or from a third person view. I know this can be confusing most of the time, but you will notice that right now the creature's POV is much different than Gast's POV. The creature has been sealed away and asleep inside the crystal for 2000 years and has lost most of the human knowledge it once had, it will be slowly relearning human things and speech but until then it will continue to call the humans beings and referring to things with the mindset of a dog or wolf would or other animal.

Please leave comments, I want to know what you all think of this story.-Spice!

Notes: I'm just starting this story, it's been in my head for a few weeks. I apologize for all the spelling and errors, I'm not that great at writing on my own, I'm great at editing others' stories that I like and that need help in spelling and grammer but when it's my own work, well like I said I'm not that good at it. This is a project I'm going to do on my own for now, until I can meet up with Structure again and get some help. Hopefully my past tense- present tense mix ups aren't that bad. I'll sometimes start writing in past tense then write a word that's supposed to be in present tense, normally I'm not that bad but it's hard for me to spot them in my own work without someone spotting them for me. I hope you all like this and wish for me to continue with it. Please comment, Kudos, Hit, and Bookmark. I want your input on the story.


	3. Chapter 2 Tests and Troubles

The Truth Within the Darkness

By Spice

Chapter 2: Tests and Troubles

* * *

I woke early in the morning a little confused for all of five seconds before remembering that I had been released from my crystal by the odd smelling beings. I sat up and stretched out hearing a few cracks and pops in my bones and muscles. I had slept well for a first night in a new place. By now though I was starting to get bored but as this was a new place for me I didn't want to risk getting lost. All that I had seen and smelt yesterday were fuzzy in my memories due to the mansion being so big and filled with so many different rooms. So I sat and waited for the female being or the old being to come and check up on me. I really didn't do well with waiting though and started pacing the room just for something to do and keep me from becoming bored. I hadn't realized just how early I had awoken when I spotted one of the beings with the shooting thingies yawning as he walked by the open door of my 'room'. It was funny watching him come back around to look inside the open door as I think he hadn't noticed it at first. He backed up a bit once he had spotted me and I turned my head in confusion voicing it as well with a little yip.

He said something in that strange language and I just stared confused. He pointed at me and made a 'come here' gesture which I got. I decided to follow him as he would likely take me to the female being whose voice I was starting to miss even though it had been only last night since I last heard her. I kept pace with the being, strolling alongside him, my claws clicking on the stone floor which each step I took was the only sound that was made between the two of us. We went through a few hallways before stopping at a set of stairs which were wooden and didn't look like they could take my weight even though they looked to be new. They did which was good although I had a hard time getting up them even while being on two legs. Walking upright like the beings was difficult for me because I was way off balance most of the time. As soon as we got to the top of the stairs I was grateful to be back on all fours, I had stubbed my talons on nearly every step leaving deep holes in the wood. To say I was embarrassed was an understatement, I kept my head mostly down the rest of the walk.

It wasn't until a most wonderful scent had caught my nose that I sprang my head back upwards before sprinting off in the direction of the smell. The being shouted before trying to keep up with my speed. Down a few more halls and a bunch of twists and turns later I slammed full speed into a double door where the scent was coming from knocking the doors right off their hinges in my haste to get to the wonderful smell. Behind the now fallen doors were the three beings I spent the day with yesterday, standing up and looking surprised at my entrance. The being who I had followed had finally caught up and skidded to a halt next to me before putting his clawless hands on his knees and heaving to catch his breath back. I moved toward the long, wooden, standing by it own thing which had the wonderful smelling things on top of it. I heard the female say something to me but I wasn't paying attention to her but to the 'food' I think on the wooden thing. In an instant one of the things the 'food' was one was hooked by my claws, my jaws opening to swallow the 'food' whole. 'Holy this is yummy' I thought when the flavor of the, what I now knew as, food exploded in my mouth. I chewed it all up as fast I could and swallowed what I could whole before moving on to as many things of food as I could all the while the beings were yelling things at me. I didn't care nor did I understand so I just kept eating until I was full and then slumped off the wooden thing onto the floor to snooze for a bit.

I woke up suddenly when icy, cold, wetness was splashed on my head. I shot up straight and quick and started growling and hissing at the being who had thought it was good idea to wake me that way. They backed away afraid of me when I started moving toward them. It was the female who came forward and calmed me back down again before turning to yell at the being who threw ice cold water at me. I took the chance to shake that freezing water off my fur, I hated getting wet because I always stank afterwards and would end up sneezing because of said stink. Not to mention that the water was bloody freezing! I still huffed a bit at the treatment and glared the rest of the time at the being until the old being beckoned me to follow him and the other two. I was curious as to where they where going so I followed, trailing alongside the female. We walked through the same halls that the other being and I had and once again I came upon the dreaded stairs. I hissed my displeasure at them before finally hoisting my body back up on two legs slowly and carefully making my way back down to the basement.

I finally made it down the stairs, this time without punching a hole in any of the steps and was finally able to go back on four legs again. We started making our way deeper into the basement passing by my 'room' and the room that had my crystal. Pretty soon we reached a huge, wide open room with all sorts of shiny beeping objects which I had seen yesterday. The female and old male being led me up to one of the things and pointed to the flat piece of shiny polished square and stepped on it then off and looked at me. I understood that they wanted me to step on the flat square so I did. I heard a beep after and saw a bunch of strange numbers flashing on the grey indent on the flat square thing which the male being looked at before scribbling the symbols on a flat wooden thing with thin white stuff on it. After that they took me to one of the far walls that had more symbols on it and a bunch of little small lines scratched on it and pointed at it before demonstrating to me what I had to do. Reluctantly I stood back up on two legs and lined myself up with the lines, stand as straight as I could, while the female this time scribbled down some of the symbols on the same white stuff attached to the thin wooden thing. The weird smelling being with the glass on his face took out a long strip of yellow with the same lines as the thing on the wall and stretched it out from my shoulder to the floor and scribbled down the symbols on his wooden thing before taking that yellow strip and stretching it out from my snout to my outstretched tail.

The old male being took one of my paws and checked my claws noticing that the red that they had been was gone and that they were black instead. He took out this little jar thingy and pressed his clawless finger to it indicating that I should do the same. I called up my poison and stabbed the top of the jar thingy and let the liquid flow out of my claws into it. He made a gesture with his hand for me to stop so I did. After that they directed me to a thing that moved and the old being stepped on it and started to run on the moving thing and then got off pointing at it then at me. I hopped on it and started running, every few minutes they increased the speed on it so I had to run faster and faster until I was about to mess up in which they stopped the thing so I could take a break before moving onto whatever else they wanted me to do. They took a solid black block and the old male opened his mouth which I copied. They placed the block in my mouth and the old male shut his mouth which I copied. I understood that they wanted to see how strong my jaw was so I clamped down on the block as hard as I could which ironically broke the block in half.

For a long time all that day was test after test. They tested my strength with heavy blocks to see how much I could lift up with my clawed hands, they tested me on my reflexes and how fast I could react to certain things. They tested how I reacted to cold or hot temperatures as well as my intelligence and how smart I was. They tested my hearing, my sense of smell, sight as well as taste. They tested how accurate I was with throwing things at a target and how good I could remember a pattern or how I could match things in a certain order. By the time we were done it was starting to get late and I was starting to become tired and hungry. We made our way back up to the room where the food had been and had a nice supper before I was showed to my new, official room instead of the storeroom I had slept in before. The female was the one to bring up my nest which I set up again. I made my way to it, circled around a few times before settling down for the night and falling asleep quickly.

It was close to midnight when I felt a odd pull in my chest which woke me up suddenly. I sniffed to check if any of the beings were awake and all was quiet. I got up and retracted my claws with the intent to see what was causing the sensation. I didn't want to wake anyone up so I made sure to be absolutely quiet. I made my way slowly to the door and nudged it open making sure it didn't creak while I was opening it. I tiptoed my way out into to the hall checking again the scents in the air for anyone out and about before making my way to the dreaded staircase that led to the entrance hall. I leaped up at a tilt and latched my claws onto the wall of the staircase walking along the wall and avoiding the stairs before leaping off and landing lightly on the top of the stairs. I continued making my way through the halls to the entrance hall where the grand oak doors stood baring my way to the outside world. It took ten minutes of sniffing and navigating for me to find the doors to the outside and another few minutes of trying to get the door open with my nose. Then I tried my fangs jingling the door tying to open it. I hopped up on my back legs and tried my front paws to open the door with, finally getting the damn thing open. I bolted outside feeling the fresh, cold, winter air passing through my fur.

The chilly air rustled through my fur as it began to become scarce yet enough remained to breathe almost normally. The odd sensation that had woken me up continued to pulsate in my chest region directing me to travel north towards the Nibel Mountain Range. I turned towards the mountains and set off a steady trot. Racing up trails and pathways I came to a stop in front of group of boulders lightly coated in snow. Imprints of the beings I had encountered were pressed into the snow and rock that lead over the boulders and to the valley that the pathway continued. Striding through the valley, and up the other side, I came across a rickety wooden bridge. The bridge was missing planks leaving the rest rotted and covered in moss, which seemed to me in desperate need of repair. I glanced down into the gorge that the bridge spanned across and looked on to a frightening inky black abyss that even my own eyes could see no end. I backed up as quickly as my hind legs would let me, and began pacing the ledge of which the bridge was attached to. A keening whine escaped my throat at the predicament I had gotten into. All the while I was thinking of how I could get to the other side without falling to my untimely death.

I turned back at the gorge and came to the conclusion that I would not cross that bridge unless it was my only resort. I turned back to the valley and started racing looking for a way up and around the gorge. Finding none I whined in frustration and turned back to the bridge glaring at that damned gorge. A small seed of an idea sprouted in my mind, one that I hoped would not end in my annihilation. The pulsating impression in my chest was starting to drive me to the brink of insanity with its need to drive me north. I shook my head sharply trying to dispel my negative thoughts to attempt crossing the gorge without failure. I lunged forward opening my jaw to grab the rope around the wooden post that held one side of the bridge up and shook it. Seeing that it held without breaking in my sharp toothed jaws, and that it withstood my shaking it, I hunched my bottom downwards coiling all the muscles in my legs producing a springboard effect. I leapt forward releasing all of the pent up energy in my legs, which launched myself up into the air and landed, legs spread wide open, on the rope.

Before my weight could pull the rope down any further, I spread the two wings that I kept enclosed on my back wide open pushing them upwards creating an updraft, which I used to keep myself balanced and steady and lightweight on the rope. My tail also stretched out was used for balance. The appearance of my tail was ridiculous due to it not being covered in any fur. It looked, in essence, like a rat's tail, only much longer and thicker. As soon as I felt myself be as steady as I could be, I awkwardly made my way forward looking as if I had a stick shoved up my ass. Every so often I had to stop because of the wind that tore through the valley. It felt like forever when I finally reached the end of the bridge. The moon which had been in the center of the sky at the beginning of my journey, was now almost halfway down to sunrise. I leapt off the rope and onto the heavenly earth beneath my paws. Ecstatic to be back on solid ground, I shot off into what was left of the ebony night heading north once again.

Tired and exhausted at the dreadful journey, I slowly scrambled up the side of the mountain, claws extended to help grip into the stone. I made my way up the first rise of the mountain. I was resolute in my goal to reach the top. After much struggling, and nearly slipping several times, I, exhausted as all hell, achieved my goal of reaching the peak. I looked down into the huge vast bowl-like area which housed a gleaming metal smelling structure, there was also the smell of acid in the air. I had been intending to make my way down when I heard a distinctive loud growl coming from my left. I turned and saw a pack of huge wolves. They clearly though I was invading their territory and growled aggressively and without warning, attacked. I was quick enough to leap aside growling and snapping warning them to back off. I hunched down ready to attack in case these wolves did not respond to my warning. Around seven of the large pack circled around me in an attempt, I surmised, to get at me from all angles.

The largest wolf stood in the back of the group of wolves in front me, almost grinning in anticipation of its next meal. Without hesitation the wolves lunged at me snapping their jaws to chew on my hindquarters. I bucked my back legs kicking the closest wolf in it's snout before turning around and slashing its face open gouging out one of its eyes. Maneuvering swiftly, I launched an attack at the wolves remaining that had ganged up behind me. One wolf's head crushed into the ground crushed into the ground by my left hind leg. My right hind leg moving upwards talons catching another wolf's chin and ripped the bottom jaw clean off. I moved on to the third wolf snapping my jaws on the wolf's head hearing a sickening crunch before spitting out the remains of it's head onto the ground. The final met its demise when my whip-like tail choked it to death. I twisted around to face the remaining eleven wolves growling with the blood of their companions dripping down from my open snout trickling to the ground and my fur. My hackles were raised in threat, a second warning for them to back off.

I noticed that they were looking at my face and not my hindquarters. So, in an attempt to lead them into open ground, I growled as I slowly backed away. As soon as I felt my paws even out I quickened my pace towards the bridge. One of the wolves leapt at me as the leader realized what I was attempting to do. I leapt to the side kicking at the wolf as I did, which caused it to yip in shock. Three wolves cut off my path around and to the bridge. I roared in frustration and turned sharply whipping my tail at the wolves smacking two of them in the face knocking them back. Taking advantage of this, I bolted through the remains of the line and slammed my wings open and came to an abrupt stop. The wolf closest to me charged at me growling. Using a small pitfall I was able to catch my talons on a rock. Pushing my leg downward and twisting my body, I back-flipped over the wolf, all the while retracting my claws and pushing my arms forward shoving the wolf. I landed with a heavy thud and came to a realization that I was now in front of the rotted bridge. A large wolf smaller than the beta and alpha lunged towards me hoping to catch me off balance. I noticed at the last second and jerked to the left. The unsuspecting wolf landed in a heap on the center of the bridge disorientated. I heard a loud crack and craned my neck to see the wolf fall into the depths of the gorge howling in fear. The beta wolf, sensing weakness leapt mouth wide open biting at my neck.

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Note: Structure helped me write some of this chapter, the cliffhanger is Structure's specialty. You can thank Structure for this heart-stopper of an ending.

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Final Fantasy VII, Adventure, Supernatural