True Wolf ch 4

True Wolf




True was on the hunt, sniffing about the rooms in different places. Her prey was a sneaky little thing called a ‘Ritte’, that liked to hide in various places where ‘Ritte’s’ thought they could hide without being found. That never stopped True from using her nose. True knew she was getting closer when she heard giggles coming from the bathroom and she followed her nose all the way to the tub, barking when she got to it. The ‘Ritte’ poked her head out from the shower curtain and laughed.

“Okay True! You found me!” Ritte jumped out of the tub giving a small ‘oomph’ as she landed on the tiled floor. True licked her small face, causing the four year old to laugh even harder.

It was snowing outside and Hide-n-Seek was the only entertainment that the four year old had. Her Daddy was sick and in bed, Mommy was always in the kitchen doing something.  Denzel and Marlene were at a friends house doing homework, so that left Ritte no one to play with, except True. True was a master of hide-n-seek. She could always find Ritte, but Ritte always had a hard time finding her.  

Ritte was currently walking down the stairs after playing with True, who was following her down the stairs, to see what Tifa was doing in the kitchen. It was warm downstairs, and when Tifa saw her daughter come down the stairs, she made some hot chocolate for her.

“Hi Mama!” Ritte said as she came into the kitchen. True went right to her water bowl and lapped up the water that was still in it.

“Hey Ritte, I have some hot chocolate for you.” Tifa handed the cup to Ritte, who flinched when she took it into her hands. “Let it cool down a bit before you drink it.” Tifa continued cooking the soup that was on the stove.  “When your done, we’ll bring some soup up to Daddy. Okay?”

“Okay Mama!” Ritte said with a giggle. “Mama, when is the baby coming? I want it to come soon.” Being the four year old she is, Ritte didn’t know anything on babies. She just knew they were small, annoying, and they were meant to replace you, at least that is what her friend Danny always told her.

“The baby won’t be here for another seven months. So, you have plenty of time to get ready.” True went and sat next to Ritte, who was drinking her hot chocolate. “Sweetie, you have a mustache on your face.” The cream from her drink was stuck to her face, so Tifa knelt down and whipped it off of Ritte’s face.

“I had a mustache?” Ritte giggled, thinking it was funny. Tifa laughed with her, then nodded.

“Are you ready to bring the soup to Daddy?”  Ritte nodded as she put her cup on the counter, which she couldn’t reach. Tifa pushed it far enough from the edge so it wouldn’t fall, then grabbed a bowl and put soup in it for Cloud. “Okay, lets go.”

Cloud had been awake for the last five minutes, waking up because he was soaking wet from curling up in blankets to get rid of the fever he had. It always worked to curl up and sweat the fever out of your system. It may have been uncomfortable, but it worked. Now he was hungry and needed a shower. He was tired of being sick. He was sick for the last four days and it wasn’t fun.

“Just a sinus infection, they said. More like a sinus overtake.” He mumbled to himself getting up from the bed. He sat back down when Tifa, Ritte, and True entered the room with a tray of food, which held a nice hot bowl of soup on it. He licked his lips. “That looks good.”

“Daddy!” Ritte ran and jumped onto the bed latching onto Cloud, who just hugged her and smiled. “Are you feeling better?”

“Much.” He kissed the top of her head when Tifa came over to him and set the tray of food down on his lap. “So, Ritte, what did you do today?”

“Well, it snowed all day today, so me and True had to play games inside. We played hide-n-seek, True won every single time.” Ritte giggled a bit then cuddled up next to Cloud as he ate.

“Well, I guess I’ll leave you three alone, I’ve got things to do in the bar before we open.” Cloud nodded to Tifa before she closed the door behind her.

“What do you want to watch?” Cloud asked Ritte when he picked  up the remote from the nightstand.

“I don’t know. What’s on?” Ritte said as True jumped in the bed. Cloud didn’t mind True in the bed when Tifa wasn’t in it, otherwise there was no room for the wolf. “Can we watch Animal Planet?” True put her head on Ritte’s lap.

“Sure. As long as it’s not on bugs, like cockroaches.” Ritte smiled as Cloud turned on the TV and switched channels till he found Animal Planet. It just so happened that there was a show about wolves on. Ritte just listened to what they were saying on the TV, while Cloud was still eating his soup.

“Wolves can’t survive on their own without the pack.”

“Daddy, what do they mean by that?” Cloud who wasn’t paying attention looked at Ritte.

“By what sweets?” He put a spoon full of soup in his mouth.

“They said that wolves can’t survive on their own without the pack. What does that mean?” Cloud put his spoon down and turned to Ritte.

“It means, that a wolf on it’s own, gets so lonely that it needs it’s family to love and care for it. Just like True. If I didn’t find True, she wouldn’t be alive.” Ritte looked up at Cloud, eyes wide with surprise. “True has a family though and she will survive.” True started howling when she heard the wolves on the TV start howling. Cloud and Ritte laughed at True who jumped off the bed going over to the TV and sitting there just howling away.

“True, you’re funny.” Cloud said and True barked as a way of saying ‘I know’, then continued howling.

Downstairs, Denzel and Marlene were helping Tifa get the bar ready for opening time when they heard the howling upstairs. They stopped what they were doing and looked at each other.

“What is going on up there?” Denzel shrugged at Marlene when she asked.

“Oh it must be a special on wolves on the Animal Planet.” Tifa said from the bar as she whipped down the counter. Denzel and Marlene looked at each other a shrugged.

“Whatever!”


When nine o’ clock rolled around, Ritte and True were sleeping while Cloud was channel surfing. He was bored. Flipping through channels wasn’t helping either. He was feeling great, to great and just wanted to go somewhere, but it wasn’t happening cause his dearly beloved daughter was sleeping on his lap. He just couldn’t get out the bed. He didn’t want to wake up the little girl, but he really had to go to the bathroom.

Cloud gently lifted Ritte’s upper body off of his lap and put her back down on the pillow next to her, this disturbed True. The wolf curled up next to Ritte and went back to sleep. Cloud sighed, getting up from the bed and walked over to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

Cloud came out of the bathroom a few minutes later and got back into bed. He turned off the TV and Ritte cuddled up next to him looking for warmth knowing he was there. He turned on his side facing her and took her in his arms. He stroked her hair and kissed her on the forehead. He wasn’t tired, but he would just lay there with his daughter and her wolf, who he was thankful for. True was a member of the family, she would survive. He rubbed True’s ears and the wolf opened her eyes.

“Thanks True.” The wolf responded by licking Cloud’s hand.



An hour later Cloud got up and took Ritte in his arms, bringing her to her room. True followed Cloud and jumped in Ritte’s little bed when they entered the room. Cloud gently removed Ritte’s clothes, then put on her pajamas while she slept. He tucked her into bed, giving her a kiss on the cheek, then left the room. Little did he know there was a shadow outside Ritte’s window watching him leave.

True felt that something wasn’t right. There was something outside of the window. True was restless, whatever it was, it was making her nervous. She didn’t like it, so she just laid on the bed watching Ritte. She knew if she left the room, whatever it was, it was going to come after Ritte. Maybe, she didn’t need to leave the room to make whatever ‘it’ was to come for Ritte. It was to late though.

The window shattered and a man flew in. Ritte woke up and True went into action. She pounced on the man biting down hard on his arm. The man punched the wolf’s side with enough force causing her to fly and hit the wall, knocking True out.

“DADDYYYYY!!!!” Ritte screamed, but the man shut her up by hitting her on the back of the head. Not hard, only hard enough on that soft spot to knock her out. He grabbed the blankets off of her bed and wrapped them around Ritte to keep her warm, then jumped out the window leaving the wolf by herself.


Cloud was downstairs in the kitchen drinking a cup of hot chocolate. Something didn’t feel right to him. It was like something was going to happen, he knew it too.  Just a few minutes ago, he had put Ritte in her bed and came down to the kitchen. There was something wrong.

“DADDYYYYY!” Cloud jumped up from the table. It was Ritte.

He ran up the stairs as fast as he could possibly go, to Ritte’s room. He opened the door to find the window broken and Ritte missing from her bed. He looked around and saw True laying next to the wall, out cold and on her side.

“TIFA!” Cloud was scared.

“Cloud what’s wrong? Is Ritte…” Tifa came into the room and stopped when she saw what was in there. “Cloud, where’s Ritte?” Tears started to well up in her eyes and she went to stand next to Cloud.

“I don’t know, but whatever got her nearly killed True.” He went over to where the wolf was and picked her up gently. True woke up when Cloud picked her up, yelping a little when he did. “She may have a broken rib.” Tears were in his eyes. Tifa was crying next to him as they headed out the door.

Cloud put True down on the counter in the kitchen, then went into the bar to usher all of the customers out, coming back into the kitchen with Denzel and Marlene. True just laid there with Tifa petting her on the head.

“Will she be okay Cloud?” Denzel asked while rubbing one of True’s ears.

“Yeah, but we have to find Ritte.” Cloud checked over True, not finding anything wrong. “There’s nothing broken. Just her pride.” Tifa started to cry again.

“What are we going to do? We have to go look for Ritte.” She hugged Cloud and cried into his chest.

“We will.” He hugged Tifa close. This was every parents worst nightmare. “Denzel! Call Vincent and Cid. I’ll get a hold of the Turks and get some answers.” Denzel went over to the phone and dialed the number for Vincent’s phone.

“I’m going to go up to my office and call Reno. He might know something.” Cloud kissed Tifa. “Don’t worry. I’ll get her back and I’ll need True’s help to do it.” He picked up True off the counter and carried her up stairs with him.

“Marlene, can you get some food and water for True.” Marlene, who was holding Nikki, nodded and did what she was asked to do, taking it upstairs to Cloud’s office.




Tifa walked into Cloud’s office as he hung up the phone. She walked over to True and rubbed her ears. True licked her hand and went back to sleep.

“Reno said they had nothing to do with this, but there was something going on and that he a Rude were investigating that.” He sighed and put his elbows on the desk, with his chin resting on top of his hands.

“I hope she’s okay. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to my baby.” Tifa said and he felt her wrap her arms around his shoulders. She cried into his shoulder. “I just want her back.”

“I know. I’ll do everything I possibly can do to get her.” He closed his eyes and took her left hand in his, rubbing her wedding band. “I promise.”

“CLOUD!” Marlene came running in the room, the two adults turned around and looked at her. “There was a note on the door. Here.” the girl walked over to the warrior and handed him the note.

Strife,

I bet you are wondering where your precious daughter is. Well, meet me in Kalm at the Darwin Inn in two days at 9:00 pm. I look forward to seeing you there.

Nero


“Tifa, I’m going to have to leave for a couple of days.” She looked at him.

“Okay.” He hugged her. “Just as long as you take some backup.” He knew what she was talking about.

“I’ll call Vincent and see if he could meet me before I get to Kalm.” She sniffed.

“It’s cold out there, she could be sick.” He held her. “Are you taking True?”

“I have no choice, she has the best nose and she knows when people are lying.” He let Tifa go and turned around to look at the wolf. “She is fine, just sad. She saw her best friend get taken away by someone really powerful.” He walked over to the wolf and stroked her white fur. True opened her sky blue eyes and looked into Cloud’s. She knew what he was thinking.

The wolf got to her feet and barked. Cloud smiled, she had caught on to what he was thinking, he always had that psychotic link. It was because of the Mako in his body. Ritte had it too, but not as extreme as Cloud.

“I think I know what to do Tifa, but it’s going to take some work.” He walked out of the room, whistling for True when he got down the hall. “Come on True!” The wolf ran after him, leaving Tifa alone in the room. She walked out and to Ritte’s room.

Tifa sat on Ritte’s bed holding the stuffed chocobo that the little girl loved. She started to cry when True walked in the room, Cloud following. He sat beside her and she wrapped her arms around him, letting herself cry even more. He held her close, but not without shedding some tears himself.

“I thought you were going to get ready to go.” She said between sobs. He kissed the top of her head.

“I heard you crying and I turned around, True wasn’t behind me anymore. I knew she came in here.” He felt True jump on the bed next to him. She laid her head on his lap and whined a little. Cloud rubbed her ears.

“Come on Teef.” He got up and held out his hand for Tifa, who took it. He led her back to their room where they climbed into bed and fell asleep.



True stayed in Ritte’s room, sitting in the bed looking outside at the stars. Her story was about to begin. It wasn’t going to be easy to get her best friend back. The Alpha, Cloud, would need her help and she would give it freely. She wasn’t just any old wolf. She was better than that.