Guide

Episode 1: The City of Howls

    We first see a snowy countryside, fresh wolf tracks in the snow. It is Kiba, though we do not know this at first. In his white wolf form, he speaks of rakuen as he lays collapsed in the snow from exhaustion. He introduces us to his internal struggle of how he is constantly pulled to find this paradise, yet he doubts such a place exists. But the voice pulls him to find what may not be there. Cuts to scene of trains in heavily falling snow at night. Bandits in jeeps are following the train, firing upon it with guns, desiring to loot its contents. Unfortunately for the bandits, the train is equipped with its own powerful firearms. Many of the bandits have successfully boarded the train, engaging in combat with the people on the train. In the chaos, one of the bandits, a young boy, is thrust onto the moving train. He is petrified by the sight of the giant robotic firearm that is blasting away at his comrades. Before he is discovered and killed, a man clad in black leather and sunglasses, who we learn is Tsume, destroys the machine, thus saving the boy's life. Damaged from the attack, the train grinds to a halt, and the bandits, who had since gotten back into their jeeps, speed away, cheering and carrying their loot from the train. Their excitement is quieted when a massive noble's ship, black with red lights and generating a high-pitched noise, flies overhead. The bandits make their way back to the nearest domed city.
    Inside the dark, domed city, we are first introduced to Quent Yaiden and his dog Blue. Quent is an older gentleman with graying hair, and is dressed in a tan trench coat and hat. He enters a bar carrying a suitcase, leaving Blue, a large black dog with pricked ears and striking blue eyes, tied up just outside. Quent orders a drink and makes small talk to the bartender. In his conversation about how cold and miserable it is outside, casually mentions the wolf. The bartender tells Quent of the legend that when the world ends, paradise will appear, a place that only the wolves will know where to find. Quent immediately becomes offended, claiming that wolves are messengers of death. The bartender informs him that wolves have been extinct for over 200 years, and that he shouldn't be so concerned with fairy-tales. But Quent seems to know better. Blue, still tied up outside as her master drinks, watches as the bandits pass by the alley opening. Among them is Tsume, to whom she immediately reacts by heatedly barking and growling when he pauses to look at her. Hearing the sound of Blue barking, Quent leaves the bar, his gun in hand. The gang is long gone by then, but he spots wolf tracks in the snow. Tsume runs through they alleyways, his gang struggling to keep up. They pause briefly when the other men complain about his speed. He informs them that they are going to raid again tomorrow, much to their chagrin. One can assume here that Tsume is the leader of this gang, by the way that he gives the orders, and how the other humans will follow him without much opposition. It is obvious, however, that he is using them, and to what degree they know this or even care is not evident at this point. The following morning, the gang is gathered around a large tree, staring at something in a hollow at its base. There are two men crouched next to the opening of the hollow, and they believe the thing to be a large dead dog. Tsume knows better, however. As one of the two men reaches in to grab the dog and drag it out, it regains consciousness, leaps out of the hollow, and kills one of the men instantly with a bite to the throat. Dodging crossbow fire from the other man, the white wolf lunges for his throat, killing him as well. The wolf then stares straight at Gehl, the young boy, who is so frightened he cannot move. Tsume knocks Gehl out of the way, saving his life yet again, and confronts the wolf. Tsume runs off, encouraging the wolf to follow, which he does. Gehl gathers his nerves and decides to follow the pair. Separated from the group a good distance away, Tsume pauses and turns to confront the wolf, knife in hand. For the first time here, we see that Tsume is a wolf as well, a grey wolf. They start to talk; the white wolf defending his own actions as Tsume chastises him. Kiba's overwhelming pride shines through in this first conversation, and it is clear that from the start these two very dominating personalities will clash. After arguing briefly, they fight physically. Blood is spilt. Next scene, we see a young girl, dressed in a tight form-fitting body suit, tied up in some sort of green fluid-filled tank. Her eyes open slightly, which doesn't go unnoticed by two laboratory workers. Back to the wolves. They continue to fight, and Gehl follows the sounds of growling and chuffing to their location, and is startled when he sees two wolves, one grey and one white, fighting on the roof of the building. He blinks and shakes his head, and once again Tsume appears to be human. In a sudden spurt of bravery, Gehl rushes in between Tsume and the white wolf, swinging his mallet. He doesn't make contact and hardly intimidates the wolf, but nevertheless the wolf backs off and runs away, leaving an aggravated Tsume behind. He takes out his aggravation on the boy, whose only intention was to return a favor for saving his life, not once but twice. Gehl also tells him how grateful he was, considering his previous actions contradicted the rumors that Tsume never would help his companions even if they were in danger. Tsume answers his gratitude by insisting that he is not his friend and walks off, leaving the bewildered boy behind. Back to the girl in the tank. The two lab assistants bring on the doctor, Cher, who analyze the girl's actions. We learn that the girl, named Cheza, will respond to the scent of wolf's blood. We also learn that Cheza is known as the Flower Maiden. A wounded Kiba makes his way slowly through the outskirts of the city. He is badly injured, as evidenced by his pronounced limp and blood-soaked fur. People look on in disbelief, probably thinking it was just some big dog. Unfortunately for Kiba, Quent has spotted him, and he is armed with a rifle. Blue charges at the wolf, and Quent opens fire when he has an opening, seemingly killing the wolf. Quent, it seems, had been taken into custody. He is questioned by the police back at the station, presumably for opening fire in a city. It is learned that Quent was a sheriff from another town. Hubb Lebowski is the one doing the questioning. He wants to know what Quent is doing in their city, especially with such a powerful firearm. Quent answers Hubb's questions with one of his own. He wants to know what happened to the wolf he shot, which had been confiscated by the police. Hubb tells him it is dead, but Quent insists it is not, because he knew he didn't make a killing shot. Hubb doesn't believe Quent's rantings, and we learn here that not only have the wolves been extinct for over 200 years, but in this time the forests have been burnt down as well, so we can assume that the rest of nature is virtually destroyed in this time period. Meanwhile, Kiba is being held captive, although unconscious, in a large metal-barred cage somewhere in the police station. Cheza is reacting quite a bit this time, sending out ultrasonic waves that are undetectable by humans, but causing water in a glass to ripple. Kiba awakens to see a large, brown wolf standing in front of his cage, while Quent and Blue reluctantly leave the police station. Tsume and his gang, having since rejoined, drive in their jeeps to their next hit. Hubb and Cher, together, go into the holding room where Kiba is incarcerated. It is obvious from their speech that they were once together as a couple. They walk in and see Hige, who was the large brown wolf, standing in front of the cage. Claiming he is a lost janitor, Hige makes an excuse to leave the room. Looking at Kiba, Cher makes the comment that she hasn't a clue if he was a real wolf, as she had not seen one before, but she can assume he is based on Cheza's reactions. Hubb just gets depressed, claiming that it was Cheza that broke them up. We can assume then that Cher was too involved in her work and did not have enough time for a relationship. Back to Tsume and his gang's newest raid. It is at a facility where cargo is brought in on trucks and unloaded. They wait in the shadows of pillars for nightfall. Now that Cher and Hubb have left, Hige returns to speak to the white wolf. Hige, with his happy-go-lucky attitude, almost teasingly asks him why he is locked up, telling him also that he could smell his scent, which led him inside the station. Kiba seems confused as to why Hige stays in his human form. Hige informs him that wolves are feared, and that it is easier to "hide" in human form, to live among the humans without fear, and to survive. This answer angers Kiba, who feels taking human form as a type of betrayal, and that one must keep one's pride above all else. But it was Kiba's pride that got him caught. Alarms sound. The raid had taken place, and Tsume and his gang are being fired upon by the security guards. They flee across high-beam like pipes, several stories above the ground below. Amidst all the confusion, Kiba manages to escape the cage, and leaves the police station with Hige, and for the first time we see Kiba in his human form. As they walk out, both of them cast wolf's shadows. No one cares about two young boys walking casually out of the station, as everybody is concentrating on getting the raid under control. Gehl, running with his arms full of loot, slips on one of the pipes. Tsume runs back to save him, and grabs him with what looks like his hand, but what the boy sees is the grey wolf's jaws clamping down on his shoulder. Gehl screams from terror, and Tsume drops him accidentally. The boy falls to his death. Back in his home, Quent looks at an old picture of him, his wife, and their son, and Blue as a puppy. At this point we do not know what happened to his family, but we can assume that they are either gone or dead. The episode ends with Hige and Kiba sitting on the rooftop of a building, talking. Kiba tells Hige the reason he came to this city was because he smelled the scent of the Lunar Flower. The decide to stick together, and Kiba tells him that he plans to find Paradise.

Episode 2: The One Who Won't Cry, Toboe

    Next the screen is in an alleyway with blackbirds and garbage cans everywhere. A brown and tan wolf with bracelets on his right paw appears and lunges at the birds, hoping to chase them away and make a meal. But with one peck from the birds, he is backing away, and then running from the aggressive birds. He perks at a noise and we see two people, and young girl and her father carrying groceries. One of the potatoes slip from the girls bag and rolls down a few stairs, into the actual alley. The wolf walks up, sniffs, then prepares to eat it when the girl reaches for it, sending him whimpering away. She squats down and offers him three sausages, and after some convincing, he eats. Her father calls her, “Leara!” He is standing in front of a truck. She says bye, then leaves. The wolf starts to follow, but Leara tells him that she wouldn’t be able to keep him, in response; he sits. She mentions how was almost like he understood. A man is running through an alley, then caught by police. We see there are more like him, being loaded up into police trucks. Next, two ladies are gossiping. One states, “Did you here, someone saw a wolf in town!?” “You don’t suppose it’s just a big dog do you?” We see a pug cowering behind its owner, and Kiba and Hige walk by, in human form at first, but then we see them as the dog sees them, large wolves. Hige walks by a vender with hotdogs, and then runs to catch up with Kiba. Hige sits on a stair way, then tosses Kiba a hotdog, while he starts on his own. Kiba comments on the awful tastes, and Hige says if he sees a deer, he’ll catch it for him. Hige glances at some birds, and says more idiots are being caught, after being asked, he tells Kiba they probably get taken to the same place he was. Kiba plans on going back because a scent is coming from there, much against Hige’s consent. From Hige we learns that Cheza, the scent, is a Flower Maiden made from Lunar Flowers. We see Tsume, he is thinking of Gehl right as he fell. One of the gang members mentions a bounty now on their head; they want to play it low for a while. Tsume tells them simply that the next raid was that night. Cher is talking to Hubb again. She tells him that the hair on Gehl wasn’t the same as the ones in the cage, and there was even a third set of hair. A short scene with Quent telling Blue not to let the wolves get away. We see Leara walking with a bag of food and a boy cuts across the screen. He walks up and thanks her for the sausages. She’s confused, and gets even more confused when the boy, Toboe, tells her his dog is Toboe, and so is he. Toboe laughs it off, and we hear clanking in the background, from bracelets on his right arm… Tsume is walking down an alley when he comes to a truck being loaded with people, Kiba among them.

Episode 3: Bad Fellow

    A man dressed in black walks out of the laboratory with Cheza, the flower maiden. His name is Lord Darcia, and he is a noble, one of the few who "rule" over this world. He looks down at Kiba and Hige from a ledge, and thanks them for awaking Cheza. Darcia can tell that they are wolves, even though they are in their human forms. He then says that he will meet them in Paradise, and takes Cheza by her neck as tears stream down her face. As they both begin to disappear in a flash of light, Cheza screams. Toboe and Tsume, who are together but far away, can also hear the scream. Kiba tries to catch up with Cheza and Darcia, but by the time he reaches the ledge where they were, they are gone.
    Quent Yaiden is drunk at home, trying to explain to Inspector Hubb Lebowski that the claw marks on his hand are from a wolf. The claw marks were made by Tsume when he rescued Toboe. It’s common knowledge that wolves have been extinct for 200 hundred years, so Lebowski doesn’t believe him. Yaiden says wolves can now appear to take the form of humans, since his "attacker" went from a wolf to a boy. Lebowski laughs to himself as Yaiden takes another drink.
    Tsume and Toboe are at an abandoned building. Toboe is holding his hands over his ears, even though Cheza’s scream had already stopped. Toboe knows who made the sound, but Tsume doesn’t believe him. Tsume is more practical and says that it’s a robot malfunction.
    At Yaiden’s apartment, Lebowski wants to know what the boy looked like, but Yaiden can’t remember. Irritated, Lebowski begins to leave, and Yaiden tells him that he has been charmed by the wolves. Lebowski thinks that the whole thing is a made-up story by a drunken old man. But some part of him must believe it, or why else would he have come to Yaiden’s apartment to begin with? Yaiden says that wolves don’t really turn into humans, but somehow trick the human mind into thinking and seeing a human instead of a wolf. He then continues on to explain about the Red Moon and the Book of the Moon. He says that God placed wolves on the Earth, then the wolves placed the humans there to live beside them. Lebowski leaves.
    Back with Kiba and Hige, they are wandering around in the sewers below the police station, trying to find food. They eat the sewer rats and talk about what just happened. Hige wants to forget everything and leave town, but Kiba refuses to let it go.
    Inside a noble’s castle, a strange festival is taking place. People are in cages, in weird outfits, dancing with snakes, breathing fire and doing other twisted things. A noble talks to himself about the White Flower.
    Tsume and Toboe are at a large tree, which seems to be growing out of a fallen building. It’s most likely Tsume’s favorite place to hang out, since he’s often seen there. They are eating rolls that they found in a box. Toboe starts talking about Leara, the girl he met earlier, and Tsume tells him to forget about her. Toboe had killed her bird on accident, and "transformed" in front of her. Tsume continues to say that he doesn’t want Toboe to hang out with him anymore. This makes Toboe upset, so he retorts that Tsume only wants to be with humans because he can boss them around and intimidate them. Naturally, this makes Tsume really angry, and he throws his roll at Toboe telling him to leave. Sadly, Toboe does as he’s told.
    Cher, the lead scientist working on Cheza, is at the hospital. Darcia had knocked her out with his eye to capture Cheza, and Cher needs to recover. Lebowski comes to visit. Obviously still thinking about his earlier meeting with Yaiden, he asks if she knows about the Book of the Moon. She says yes, and asks him why he wants to know. He tells her that Quent Yaiden had told him about it, and said things about humans being born from wolves. Strangely, this causes Cher to have a terrifying flashback of Darcia. She tells Lebowski that it’s all a fairy tale, but you can tell she doesn’t think so. Lebowski leaves, saying she needs her rest.
    Meanwhile, one of Tsume’s former gang members points out Tsume to the police, most likely to escape punishment himself. Tsume manages to knock out the three police officers following him and heads back to the tree. By the tree, the former gang member and a police officer are waiting. Tsume quickly knocks out the policeman, and confronts the man. Tsume holds a blade to the man’s throat and demands why he did this. The man replies saying that the gang and dispersed, but everyone had gotten caught, so it wasn’t fair that Tsume got away clean. The man gets to live, though, because a fallen police officer gets up and goes after Tsume. Tsume runs away.
    Leara, the girl Toboe met, is with her father, carrying groceries. She seems to be looking for something, probably Toboe. Her father is telling her that it was all in her head, so she must have told him about Toboe going from a boy to a wolf. When she runs off, her father chases after her, and accidentally bumps into Yaiden.

Toboe is running at crows, evidently still angry with Tsume. He’s trying to get at the crows’ food, and prove that he can take care of himself. Hige and Kiba appear out of a manhole a few feet from Toboe. They’re eating garbage, when Leara appears, terrified of Toboe. Toboe tries to convince her that he won’t hurt her, but she’s too frightened to listen. She starts screaming for her father, and yells that there’s a wolf. Both Leara’s father and Yaiden hear, and they come running. The three wolves run off. Toboe soon reaches a dead end, with huge pipes sticking out of the surrounding walls, and Toboe decides to try one more time to talk to Leara. Unfortunately, she’s way too scared to listen, and doesn’t understand. Hige sticks his head out of one of the huge pipes, and calls Toboe to come with him. Toboe disappears into the pipe just as Leara’s father and Yaiden appear.
    The police are still after Tsume, and suddenly Blue appears in front of him, blocking his path. She growls at him, and since they’re on a ledge, he can’t move forward. Desperate, he runs right at her, and Blue lunges at him. He is in human form and she’s a "dog", and she bites him on the arm, pulling both of them to the ground. Fortunately, they land on a pile of crates, leaving Blue unconscious, and Tsume to run off in wolf form.
    Meanwhile, Lebowski and a fellow police officer are standing in a field of dead birds, with feathers falling from the sky.
    When Yaiden finds Blue, she’s regained consciousness. Hairs from Tsume are visible on her coat, and Yaiden figures out what had happened to her.
    Hige and Kiba are back to running through the sewers, but this time, Toboe is with them. This is the first time Toboe has seen them, and Hige introduces them, explaining that they’re trying to find a way out of the city. He tells Toboe that they’re trying to find Paradise and the only way to get out of the city unnoticed is through the sewers. Toboe wants to know if they’ve seen Tsume, but the other wolves tell him to forget about him. Soon, Kiba finds blood on the ground below a gate and looks to the stairs.
    Lebowski is at what seems to be a police station, trying to look up information on the Book of the Moon. He doesn’t have much luck. He’s then interrupted by a police officer telling him that they found the leader of the gang that caused the trouble the other day. He doesn’t fail to mention that there were two dogs with him. The shocks Lebowski, and decides right then that the rumors were true. Then, Yaiden bursts into his office.
    Tsume’s sitting alone, in a dark room, when Kiba, Hige, and Toboe come in. Kiba tells Tsume that his blood hangs heavy in the air, which explains how they found him. Toboe immediately begins begging Tsume to come with them. They’ve all determined that they’ve got no reason to say, and they’ll never fit in. Even Tsume declares that the scent of the Lunar Flower was what had brought him to the city in the first place. While they talk, the police surround the building. They start shooting. The three wolves escape onto the pillars and ledges that surround the building. Toboe trips and falls, barely grabbing on to a pipe in time. Tsume sees this, and remembering when he killed a boy while trying to save him, goes for it anyway. The scenes are frightening similar. As said before, the wolves don’t turn into humans, but only appear to look like them. Therefore, the wolves don’t have hands, and can only grab with their jaws. Since Toboe is a wolf, this doesn’t shock him like it did the boy, and Tsume looks a little relieved at this. He tells Toboe to go on ahead, just as the gunfire starts up again. Miraculously, none of them are injured, and they escape the police and the city. At the edge of the city, on the border wall, Tsume hesitates. Meanwhile, both Lebowski and Yaiden arrive at the scene. Yaiden starts shooting at Tsume, but Lebowski, who sees humans, yanks down his rifle. He yells at Yaiden, saying that they’re humans, not wolves. Tsume decides to go with Kiba, Hige and Toboe. The four wolves run out into the snow-covered world, leaving the human city behind.

Episode 4: The Scar Of The Wilderness

    The episode picks up where episode three left off. The four wolves are running in the snow, leaving tracks that quickly fade under the constant snow. They run for four days on both snowy and sandy landscapes. Finally, during a massive snowstorm, they rest in a cave. Toboe and Hige start complaining about the lack of food, until Tsume, who is just as tired and hungry, tells them to be quiet. Kiba, who didn’t live in the city like the others, says that he’s lived for a month without food, only surviving on the moonlight. Tsume actually jokes around and says that they can always eat Hige and Toboe if things get too bad. While Toboe tries to get Tsume to stop the fighting, Hige suddenly smells something and sprints out of the cave. Startled, the other three follow him to a decaying carcass. All but Tsume begin to eat up, while Tsume himself just looks disgusted. When they start talking about Paradise, Tsume gets irritable, and storms off. Toboe follows him, until Tsume yells at him to not tag along with him.
    Alone, Tsume walks the desert at sunset. He’s in what looks like an ancient military base. All the buildings are falling apart, and there is broken military equipment is everywhere. Toboe is still following him, calling his name. He steps on an object that makes a strange sound, but ignores it. Tsume can hear Toboe, but doesn’t leave the building he’s in. Meanwhile, the thing that Toboe stepped on is pushing it’s way up to the surface. It looks to be a robot warrior, and it starts scanning the horizon, locking on Toboe. It moves quietly through the debris, towards Toboe. Tsume sees the robot, and is suspicious. When the robot extends a gun, Tsume realizes that it’s after Toboe. He sprints out of the building towards Toboe, who is oblivious to the danger and is standing on a cliff. Gunshots are heard, but all you see is the sky.
    In the city that the wolves left, Lebowski and Cher are having dinner in a fancy restaurant. Cher seems to be bored, while Lebowski is ecstatic. She startles him out of his one-sided conversation by handing him her house key, telling him to water her plants while she’s gone. Apparently, she’s going on a vacation, but she doesn’t say where. She starts to leave when Lebowski starts talking about wolves. She gets into a waiting car, which Lebowski sees, leaving as he exits the restaurant.
    In the desert, it is night, and Tsume is stumbling along. He’s injured, while Toboe is unscathed. They keep going until they reach a broken street. The robot finds them, and Tsume takes Toboe’s hand and jumps off the edge. You can easily tell that this was a battle zone, for there are human skulls and weapons everywhere.
    Meanwhile, Kiba and Hige are deciding whether or not to follow Toboe and Tsume. Kiba is defending Tsume, but Hige doesn’t trust him. As they lay beneath a full moon, Kiba is remembering something. In Kiba’s memory, we see a Lunar Flower and a native person sitting with a wolf in front of the fire. The native person is chanting.
    Toboe and Tsume are still trying to escape the robot, but as they are fired upon, the ice beneath them cracks and collapses. They are sent falling into a cavern.
    Kiba and Hige finally hear the gunfire and crashes, and can smell the gunpowder. They run off after their missing companions, and find the military base.
    Tsume awakes in cave. Toboe has dragged him there, and had been tending to his wounds while he was unconscious. The robot quickly finds them, and Toboe uses himself as a distraction so Tsume can get away. It doesn’t work, and the robot captures Tsume anyway. Just in time, Kiba finds them, and in wolf form, attacks the robot, getting it away from the injured Tsume. It goes after Kiba, but fails to wound him. Seeing an opportunity, Kiba takes an icicle and jams it into the robot's gun. This causes the gun to explode, but it keeps coming after Kiba. Finally, it runs out of ammunition, and all the noise it made causes an avalanche, which buries it. The wolves escape the avalanche, and the next morning, continue onto Paradise.

Episode 5: The Fallen Wolf

    Many passengers sit on a train, in winter clothes, holding a lot of baggage. Four wolves run some alongside the train. Stopping to rest briefly in the snow, one of them, Toboe, talks about Paradise. Then they continue on to a bridge that stretches across an ocean. As they cross the bridge in the blinding snow, they come to a tiny island with a small town.
    One inside, they search for food, but this town is even more pathetic than the one they left. The streets appear to be empty, until they find another pack of wolves, proving that they aren’t the only wolves to exist. The pack, unhappy about the arrivals, are hostile. They only become crueler as they find out that the other wolves are searching for Paradise. They claim to have been to Paradise, and say that it’s a waste of time. After leaving the pack, all but Kiba want to leave the town. Kiba is convinced that the key to Paradise is in the town, and refuses. He thinks that because there are so many wolves, and that their own search for Paradise had brought them there as well.
    Zari, who is the scar-faced leader of the pack, is in an alleyway. He agrees to something, and when he leaves, he meets Cole, the only female in his pack. She reminds him about the four wolves, and speaks about their way of life, which she doesn’t seem to agree with. Unfortunately, we know practically nothing about their way of life.
    While looking for food and a place to sleep, the four wolves come across a cemetery. While in the cemetery they see a mangy old wolf. He is digging a hole, and when he pops his head out of it, he manages to scare Hige and Toboe badly. He tells the wolves that he is digging his own grave, since he believed that death was coming for him. Kiba asks him about Lunar Flowers, and this makes the old wolf excited. He claims that the whole island had once been covered in them, and all wolves came here to find Paradise. The wolf then leads them to what is supposed to be the entrance to Paradise, but it reeks of death. He tells them that many wolves entered the hole, but none returned, so the rest stayed on the island. Then Zari appears to take the old wolf home, and orders the four wolves to leave by morning, for their presence will no longer be tolerated.
    As the wolves are left in the cemetery, alone, Tsume and Kiba begin to argue about Paradise. Then, Hige smells food and they see Cole coming up the hill towards them. She’s carrying a bag of food, but only Hige gives in and eats. The other three are disgusted by him, and leave. Distracted by food, Hige lets them leave with no fight. Once the food is gone, Hige asks Cole where she got the food. She replies saying that if he wanted more food, he needed to come by the train station in the morning.
    Meanwhile, Tsume is with Toboe, and Kiba is alone. Tsume and Toboe decide to sleep on a bench in the train station, while Kiba meets the pack from earlier. When they provoke them, he responds angrily, saying that they were too cowardly to find Paradise. He also calls them dogs, and this sends them into a violent fury. Since there are more of them, Kiba barely walks away alive. After walking some distance away, Kiba falls into unconsciousness in an alleyway.
    As expected, Hige goes to the train station in the morning, where he meets up with Tsume and Toboe. Zari comes and gives the man he made a deal with earlier a whip. The three wolves look below and find out how the other pack had been surviving. The pack, in wolf form, were pulling crates on a sled. The whip Zari gave was being used to make the wolves go faster. As the pack attempts to pull a huge load up an incline, the three wolves watching see the old wolf they had met last night. Disgusted and still shocked, they also see Zari, watching while his pack worked. He did nothing. As the wolves finish pulling the tremendous load up the incline, they are given a rest. You can easily tell how tired, worn out, and just plain exhausted the wolves are. While they rest, the humans above dumb a bucket of raw meat to them, which they fight for desperately. Zari then approaches the three watching wolves, and explains that this is the only way that they can survive. Down below, the old wolf gives his last breath. Kiba, who had been at a distance and unnoticed, attacks. He is obviously outraged by this whole thing, and looks extremely menacing. Zari stops him, and tells the humans that he is only a stray.
    Both the pack and the four wolves watch as the old wolf is buried in the hole he had been digging. When Zari tells the four wolves not to get involved, Kiba tells him he is despicable.

Episode 6: The Successors

    Still on the island of Zari’s pack, many huge, pyramids shaped cages are being loaded onto orange trucks. They are for the four wolves, or the "stray dogs".
    Toboe is putting herbs on Kiba’s wounds in an empty part of town. Kiba is semi-unconscious while Hige, Toboe, and Tsume talk about leaving the town, as Zari demanded. Tsume is angry at Hige for eating their only food, and chases him off. Toboe says that they shouldn’t leave Kiba behind, then leaves to get more herbs. When Tsume is all alone with the still not quite conscious Kiba, he simply looks down on him and sighs.
    Meanwhile, Cole confronts Zari in an alleyway. Zari is depressed, and it seems that he is finally realizes how his pack has been going downhill for a while. Cole suggests that the appearance of the four young wolves are what brought on this realization. He denies this, and says that time will "cure" their desire for Paradise. Then, he tells the story of how his pack came to realize that Paradise was not meant to be. Apparently, they had been just like Kiba, Tsume, Hige, and Toboe. They had come there long ago, attracted by the scent of Lunar Flowers. Zari had led them to the "entrance" to Paradise, in the cemetery. But once they entered, they found out that the tunnel was filled with poisonous gas, left over from humans. Very few of Zari’s pack had managed to escape, and Zari had been left with the image of most of his pack dying before his eyes. Disheartened, Zari decided that instead of returning home, the survivors would live on the island town. There were no plants or animals, so Zari had to make do with the train deliveries, and the only way to do that was to work.
    Back with Tsume and Kiba, Kiba is trying to avoid answering Tsume’s probing questions. He instead tells of his childhood. Before, when he was still a cub, he used to live in a place where pure white flowers bloomed under a full moon. Fire ravaged his home and blocked the exit, leaving many wolves to their deaths. Alone and still so young, Kiba was left with only the will to find Paradise. When his tragic story finishes, Tsume feels that he can understand Kiba now.
    Alone, Hige is out looking for food. There is a lamb leg sitting on the ground, looking very suspicious, but very good. Driven by hunger, Hige goes after it. As soon as he reaches it, the cage is pulled up and surrounds him. Three of Zari’s pack members approach him, and Hige is relieved, but only for a short while. They laugh at him and refuse to help. Angered and disgusted, he calls them dogs, and is knocked out by one of them. A truck has been coming, and it picks up the cage, with Hige in wolf form, in it. Luckily, Toboe has been watching. Quickly, he heads back to the others to tell them what happened.
    Once Tsume hears what happened, he gets mad, and fast. He’s upset that Toboe didn’t go after them, he’s mad that Zari’s wolves had done such a thing, and he’s frustrated that Kiba is still to injured to do much of anything. Still, all three of them go out to rescue Hige. Already pretty grumpy, Tsume decides that Kiba isn’t going fast enough, so he picks him up and carries him!
    Before they find Hige, they find Zari’s pack members. Toboe had told the other two what they had done to Hige, and they are ready to fight. In the nick of time, Zari appears. Only then Zari finds out what his pack did. When he asks Mos, a pack member, if it is true, Mos remains quiet. That is enough for Zari. When Kiba goes to attack Mos, Zari knocks him away, and strikes Mos himself. The rest of his pack say that it was okay to give Hige to the humans, because that’s what Zari did to them. They say they don’t seem him as their leader, and then start attacking him. When Kiba tries to help, Zari says no, that he should not meddle in his pack’s affairs. The pack only ceases attacking Zari when Cole starts screaming and crying. Saying they don’t know where Hige is now, they walk away. Zari thinks he might know where Hige is, and leads the three wolves away. He’s bleeding numerous places and looks pretty bad.
    Hige, about to be dumped in an incinerator, is barely saved in time. Zari runs in front of the truck, causing the driver to swerve and tip the cage over and of the truck. Kiba bites open the cage, while Hige looks terribly embarrassed. The truck driver comes out, and seeing the wolves, starts firing. Zari jumps out at the man, letting the other wolves escape uninjured.
    Meanwhile, Hubb is looking for Quent. He finds him in the usual bar. When Hubb shows Quent the Book of the Moon, Quent doesn’t even flinch. He just gets up, gets his dog, and leaves, to find the wolves. Hubb decides to leave to, but to find Cher.
    Back with Zari and the four wolves, Zari leads the other wolves to the entrance. The poisonous fumes have dissipated long ago. He tells them good luck in finding Paradise, and they enter the tunnel and run forward.

Episode 7: Girl of the Flower

    In another time, in a much prettier place, a couple is happily talking. They are Harmona and Darcia, and they can’t wait to spend the rest of their lives in Paradise. Everything is so perfect, until thunderclouds begin to gather, and Darcia is told that Harmona is ill. It is a strange illness, caused by a mysterious curse. Devastated and determined to find a cure, Darcia seeks out the Flower Maiden, Cheza.
    The four wolves have left the tunnel, and are now wandering a forest. They seem lost, and they are. Since leaving the tunnel and the island town, they’ve lost the scent of the flower that had been pushing them forward. Now they are relying on Kiba’s instinct. As they walk, they are suddenly deafened by a noble airship, which has supremely high pitched noises coming from it. Unknown to them Darcia and Cheza are in it. Darcia is telling her of her creation, while she is near in a tank, filled with green water. Apparently, only part of her needs to be in it. As he tells her that they are going to his castle, the place of her "birth", a much larger ship is seen following them. Inside this ship is Cher and a lot of men, who are in military clothes. The leader, a tall man with a mustache, a big hat, and sunglasses, is telling Cher that she better know what she’s doing. Cher says not to worry, she won’t kill her. In her hands is what seems to be a tracking device. She gives the "OK", and the large ship fires on Darcia’s ship. Cheza has sensed Kiba below, and Kiba has sensed her as well. Distracted by the attacking militia, Darcia fails to stop Cheza as she jumps out of the back of his ship. The military ship hits Darcia’s, and it explodes. Cher’s tracking device tells her that Cheza has disappeared, and Cher assumes that she’s dead.
    Meanwhile, Cheza is not falling, but gracefully floating to the ground, finally landing on a cliff. The wolves race to scale it and get to her.
    Higher up the cliff, Darcia’s castle waits, with the militia ship investigating near by.
    Once the wolves reach the top of the cliff, they begin to follow her scent to a lake. It’s beautiful, and it’s the same clearing from Darcia’s memories with Harmona.
    Cheza, looking so serene and beautiful, sits in the middle of the lake. Overcome by joy, Kiba runs to her. As she embraces him, the tracking device overloads. Their interaction seems to have caused it. Kiba and Cheza walk hand in hand, with the other following. Hige confirms what Darcia had been saying earlier. Cheza had been created in a laboratory, by the nobles, from the Lunar Flowers that used to grow there. Cheza leads them around the garden.
    Encouraged by Cher’s device, the militia begins to surround them.
    Happily, Cheza leads the pack to where she had been created. Expecting others to be waiting, her good mood vanishes, and she begins to mourn for those that were lost. She is cut short, however, by the militia making their move. Cheza tries to lead them to safety, but only Kiba follows her. The others counterattack, but are seriously outnumbered. When Kiba is attacked, Hige and Tsume save him, while Toboe follows Cheza into a small crevice. From there, she begins to lead them to safety through a cave. Cher watches, and is shocked by the emotions on Cheza’s face. She’s smiling! Cheza leads the pack to the back of the cave, where she opens up the roots. Once they pass through, she closes them, giving off the appearance that they disappeared into thin air.

Episode 8: Lullaby

    An old lady sits in a chair and looks out of the window at the moon. It’s nighttime, and she continues to look at the moon, singing softly.
    Cher is a tent with the "Captain". They are talking about what to do about the four "boys" who attacked the militia. They had injured ten of the soldiers.
    Back with the pack, Tsume is still concerned about their current situation. He doesn’t trust Cheza, and he says so. This naturally upsets Kiba, but their argument is interrupted by Cheza, who begins to hum to same song the old lady had been singing earlier. Entranced, they fall asleep, and begin to dream. The dreams are pleasant, and they smile in their sleep. Toboe dreams of sleeping near a fire with his old owner, an elderly lady, while she knits. Hige dreams of being surrounded by female wolves. Tsume dreams of hunting a deer on a snow covered countryside. Kiba’s dream isn’t shown.
    In the morning, the soldiers are questioning the townspeople, using force. Holding guns against their heads, they ask about the wolves. Hige and Toboe are in the same town, and they bump into each other, carrying different things. Toboe has a fur coat, and Hige has pink boots, obviously both stolen. Both of these things are for Cheza. Tsume is still asleep with Cheza. He wakes up startled to find Cheza’s hand on his body. Kiba appears, letting them know that the soldiers have sealed off all exits.
    Hige and Toboe are heading back to Cheza, with an unknown follower. It’s the old woman.
    The captain and Cher are looking over pictures of the wounded soldiers. Once the other soldiers leaves, Cher confides to the captain that the boys might be wolves, and that the Book of the Moon is much more real than anyone thinks. Naturally, he thinks she’s crazy.
    Hige and Toboe have made it out of the town and are running through the woods to meet Cheza. Hige hands Kiba the supplies they had gone into town for, and Toboe puts the coat on Cheza. Surprisingly, as soon as it touches her shoulders, she gets very sad. When Hige puts the boots in front of her, she steps into them and becomes very happy once more. She starts dancing, bursting with joy in her own quiet way, when suddenly stops in mid twirl. She knows the old lady followed them. She walks towards them, and immediately sees the boys for what they are. Wolves. When Kiba tells her to leave, she keeps coming and takes of her sunglasses, revealing eyes exactly like Cheza’s.
    Like Cheza’s reunion with Kiba, the meeting with the old lady creates a reaction on Cher’s machine, but not as big. Instead of alerting the captain, Cher heads to the signal herself.
    In the woods, the old lady says that she is one of the Flower People, Hanabito. Her scent mirrors Cheza’s, but is much fainter, worn away by time. The wolves sense soldiers before they can talk. The lady leads them to a safe place, her house. Once inside, she tells her story.
    Apparently, there once was many Flower People, created by the nobles, but they were unlike Cheza. They were not masterpieces. Hanabito was the only survivor left, because the rest have wasted away. Hanabito escaped the castle and hid in her house for a long time. After a while, she realized that she was the only one left. Cheza herself had been "asleep" until Kiba had found her, so the old woman had not known of her. The woman tells Cheza to abandon the wolves and their cause, because that way only led to destruction and chaos.
    Outside Hanabito’s house, Cher is still following her monitor. Kiba wants to leave, but Cheza ignores him. Tsume interrupts Cher’s wandering by jumping in front of her, quickly followed by Toboe and Hige. Transforming into the white wolf, Kiba takes Cheza and leaves, while Cher stands motionless. The rest of the pack follows, but Cher is still picking up readings from inside the house. The captain ignores them, and drops the equipment, shattering it. Inside, Hanabito is crying.
    Cheza, feeling the old lady’s pain, stops to mourn with and for her. Confused, Cheza asks each wolf if her presence is welcome. They all reassure her, although Tsume is a bit reluctant. In town, Cheza and Kiba walk right past Cher, who doesn’t notice.
    Returning the house in the woods, Cheza tries to give some of her life force to the fading Flower, but she declines. Cheza tells Hanabito that she will be leaving with the wolves, and Hanabito wishes her luck. Then, Hanabito dies in Cheza’s arms. Outside, the wolves are waiting for her.
    In town, Quent and Blue have made their appearance.

Episode 9: Distrust

    Inspector Hubb Lebowski is having a meeting with a strange client. She’s wearing a pink, frilly bathrobe that barely covers anything. She’s surrounded by caged snakes, and she definitely looks rich. She looks like a noble. Hubb gives her some money, and she tells him that Cheza is the last survivor of an ancient Noble family.
    Meanwhile, Cher is extremely busy getting drunk. Quent comes in and sits next to her. He asks about the castle and Cher says that it’s closed off because of the wolves. The locals laugh, probably thinking she’s too drunk, but Quent is startled. Outside, Blue raises her hackles and growls at the passing wolves, but Cheza bends down and speaks to her. Cheza tells her that she is part wolf, but even Blue hasn’t realized it. When Cher comes out they all make a hasty retreat before anything more on Blue can be found out.
    In the outskirts of town, in a junkyard, Toboe and Cheza are hiding in a rundown and rusty bus while the others search for a way out of town. The military men are still blocking all exits out of town. Cheza soaks up the sun.
    Three kids come running, carrying groceries. The groceries must be stolen since there are soldiers chasing after them. One of the soldiers was going crazy saying that his injuries were caused by something, something that was definitely not human. The other soldier laughs, saying that Cher was talking about wolves. The makes the other guy freak out even more, and he starts going on about getting attacked by wolves.
    Looking at the kids, the injured soldier claims that he’s a wolf too, and aims his gun at the kid.
Quent is talking to Blue, saying that his son found Blue when she was just a pup. Drunk, he passes out on the wall. Then Blue sees the soldiers attacking the kid. Infuriated, she goes after them, and knocks the gun out of the soldier’s hand. Terrified, the soldier runs away. Blue walks over to the kid just as Quent wakes up again. He sees blood, the boy slumped against the wall, and Blue by the unconscious boy, and jumps to conclusions. Flashing back, he remembers a huge fire devouring a house, presumably with his family inside. A wolf appears in the blaze. He then takes his gun and fires above Blue’s head to scare her off.
    Cher is at a pawnshop, and she speaks to the owner about the disgraced Darcia family. He tells her of the Forest of Death. It’s a depressing wood that surrounds the Darcia estate. There are legend about people getting lost and never returning from its depths. Behind the owner, there is a painting of Lord Darcia, and he tells her it’s hundreds of years old. It’s an almost exact replica of the guy who hypnotized her in the laboratory, yet he looked just as young as he is in the painting.
    Quent bandages the kid, while lecturing him on staying with his father. The kid lectures Quent right back about parents who abandon their children.
    The injured soldier has found Blue, and immediately starts pounding on her. When Blue goes to defend herself, the soldier shoots.
    Quent turns the corner after sending the kid on his way to find a dead soldier and Blue’s broken collar.
    The pack starts planning to escape the town, but are overheard by some of the militia.
    Cher goes to the Darcia tomb and sees Lord Darcia, who is fingering his eye patch. He’s also carrying a bouquet of flowers.
    The soldiers attack the rotting bus, but the wolves have already made their escape. They’ve gone to the makeshift soldier camp, which is now pretty vacant. Quent sees Toboe, and remembering seeing him as a wolf, gives chases. He stops, however, when he sees Blue, wounded and limping. Blue tries to stop him, but Quent continues chasing after Toboe.
    The wolves have reached the Forest of Death, and see the discarded bouquet left from Darcia. Quent spots them and shoots at them, hitting Kiba as he tries to protect Cheza. This surprises Quent, and when he looks up from reloading his gun, the wolves are gone. After a while, he returns to Blue, but she’s gone, and all that’s left is a bloodstain. He softly says, "Blue…" and in the distance we can hear a howling wolf.

Episode 10: Moon's Doom

    Cher’s soldiers continue the search for Cheza. Questioning the citizens had proven fruitless, and they are preparing to enter the Forest of Death.
    The pack has already entered the Forest, and Cheza is becoming weaker and weaker. There is no sunlight. Though she looks human she is still made from flowers, and like flowers, she needs the sun and water. While they walk through the Forest, which has mostly huge, pale trees and great, big bugs, everyone is getting hungrier. There is no greenery anywhere. Tsume catches one of the bugs and tries to get Hige to eat it, since he has been complaining the most. He refuses, and tries to give it to Cheza. She refuses as well, saying that she doesn’t need to eat, only drink and bask in the sunlight.
    The soldiers have found Quent, and are interrogating him about the dead shoulder. They show him pictures of the teeth marks on the soldier’s neck. Quent answers that he was killed by a wolf.
    Still wandering the forest, Toboe sprains his ankle. Using her special powers, Cheza heals him, and pets each of the wolves. This makes them very happy, and they continue on.
    Cher awakens in Darcia’s castle, with Darcia himself standing over her. He apologizes for doing what he did to get her there. Cher asks where Cheza is, and he answers that Cheza seems to like him as much as she likes Cher’s people. He then goes on to say that Lord Oakum, another noble, stole Cheza from him to show his power. Cher then asks about what his plan for her is.
    Inside the dismal Forest, the wolves talk about sleep and dreaming once they escape the forest. Cheza, weakened badly, nearly passes out. Hige, thinking he hears a bird, goes chasing after it, desperate for food. Tsume tries to warn him, but he’s ignored. After running for a bit, they see an owl. Kiba can tell that it doesn’t have a scent, and later the others realize it too. Taunting the pack, the owl speaks from his high perch.
    Meanwhile, Cheza is reaching a critical stage. She’s practically wilting from the lack of light and water.
    When the owl appears again, it speaks in riddles and the boys ask it where they can find water. Then the owl takes off, leaving the wolves to chase after it. It tells them that what they look for cannot be found, among other things. He tells them that they must be brave to take the right path, for only through that path can they find what they need.
    Kiba takes his advice and starts walking though the woods once more.
    Cher and Darcia are talking. He shows her his data on Cher, and they talk about the Book of the Moon. They even talk about how wolves are the key to Paradise.
    As they continue on Kiba’s chosen path, it soon becomes clear that they aren’t going anywhere. Tsume challenges him, and tells him to leave Cheza. He says that her presence is distracting him and interfering with his ability to make he right decisions. Kiba refuses, but Hige and Toboe step on an owl skeleton. They begin to put two and two together, and figure out that the owl was a trap. Then, the bugs attack. Bugs swarm all over them and all around them. Tsume goes to find a safe place for Cheza, despite his earlier complaints. They head into a cave, and Tsume puts Cheza on a higher alcove, then jumps down to continue fighting. After watching the fight get bloodier and bloodier, Cheza jumps down. The bugs start going after her next, and she runs to a cliff. She slides down, and the wolves race after her. Once they look down below the cliff, they are pleasantly surprised to see Cheza smiling from the bed of bug-eating plants. A little farther in the cave is the exit, where moonlight and water await them.
    Darcia is telling Cher about Cheza’s life span. She is still so much a flower, and her life span is like a flower. The moonlight gives her energy, and after she bathes in the moonlight a few more times, she will die.
    The packs sleeps peacefully under Cheza’s gentle care.

Episode 11: Vanishing Point

    Lord Oakum, the one who stole Cheza, is listening to a chant. It is a premonition about the coming apocalypse.
    Hubb is saved from a prostitute from a coworker of Cher. She tells Hubb that Cher was taken on a mission to find the kidnapped Cheza. She also tells him that the laboratory they worked in had been shut down by the House of the Lords. She is interrupted by Lord Oakum’s officer’s sudden appearance. Investigator Hubb Lebowski is now suspect in Lord Oakum’s House.
    Though Lord Oakum is heavily protected by his guards, Lady Jagara manages to assassinates him. There is one less noble in the battle for the world.
    Cheza and the pack are wandering another abandoned and noble-ruled town. Unlike most of its occupants, they are bursting with happiness, though they still keep to themselves. Tonight is the full moon, which brings energy to both Cheza and her pack. Cheza is practically sparkling.
    Hubb is being "interrogated" by Lord Oakum’s officers. He’s bleeding a lot and looks to be in tremendous pain. Apparently, Cher and Hubb no longer exist. At least, their records don’t. He’s also carrying the "forbidden book" - the Book of the Moon. The beating and questioning is pulled to an abrupt halt, however, when alarms blare and thundering noises echo. The news of Lord Oakum’s death spreads quickly and causes enough panic and excitement to distract the officers from Hubb. Even though he had been tied up, he manages to escape.
    Since Jagara murdered Oakum, she has invaded the city to claim it. Because of this, all searches for Cheza must be stopped for now.
    As Cher wanders Darcia’s castle, she is amazed by its brilliance. She soon comes upon the "Lunar Tomb", a room for Cheza, filled with numerous equipment. Darcia finds her here, and tells her that he is going after Cheza tonight, the full moon night.
    As night falls, the full moon is revealed in all its glory.
    The wolves celebrate by dancing and howling. As Cheza dances, a beautiful path of flowers is created. It is the path to Paradise. Soon the wolves and Cheza are running on this path, still in complete elation. However, the path quickly fades back to the barren wasteland it had been earlier. Darcia’s ship has come. Red lasers shoot out and wound the wolves. First Toboe, then Hige and finally Tsume falls. Kiba is hit, and it looks like all hope is lost. But Kiba won’t give up without a fight. Bloody and weak, he gets up again and again, going after the ship only to get shot down again and again. His beautiful white fur is marred by blood and dirt, and his face is twisted into a terrible snarl. Cheza, knowing that the only way to stop her wolves from dying, gives herself up to Darcia. Kiba watches as she is taken, too injured to move. Before she goes, Cheza heals each wolf a little, giving her help one last time.
    Hubb leaves the city in a stolen vehicle. It’s beat up and old, and it looks like it might not get him very far. The full moon is hanging heavy in the sky, and when he looks up, he’s shocked to see that’s a bright crimson color. He keeps driving, going until he’s a small speck in the huge desert. He’s going to Darcia’s city.

Episode 12: Don't Make Me Blue

    Cher awakens in Darcia’s castle, this time alone. Alarms are blaring. Taking her chances, she escapes, leaving like she was never there.
    When Darcia returns to his castle, he finds his worst nightmare come true. His servant has been nailed to the door, and Jagara has murdered Harmona. Cheza starts to sing to her, just like when the other Flower Maiden died. Distraught, Darcia tells her to stop and he throws her away. In his mind, Harmona tells Darcia that she wants to see him again. His servant comments that Jagara’s soldiers said that they would kill all wolves. Darcia tells Harmona that even if there are no more wolves, he still has his wolf eye, and he won’t stop searching for the cure. Then, he rips Harmona from her life support and begins to beat his head against the wall.
    In yet another desolate town, Kiba and the pack are deciding what to do next. Then, Blue is chased into the building by some sleazy-looking men. Hige, impressed by Blue’s beauty, jumps to her rescue. But the men, seeing the boys in their true form, are frightened off, screaming about Darcia’s curse. Taking advantage of the scared men, they all escape.
    Once they stop to rest, Hige learns that Tsume and Toboe have already met Blue. Blue explains that she’s left Quent, and they don’t need to worry. Then, she asks them about Cheza. Toboe and Tsume still remember how Blue had acted when they first met and don’t treat her with the friendliest attitude. Blue, recognizing the hint, leaves. Hige goes after her while Kiba explains that Cheza was the one who told Blue of her half-wolf lineage.
    Hubb is stuck outside of town since his car broke down. After walking for a while, he reaches a tavern, and is shocked to find out that Cher had been there just a little while ago. Even more surprising was that she had been drinking with Quent. After leaving the drunk Quent, disgusted, he returns shortly. Quent is tired and lost, confused about Blue. He knew about her wolf blood, but he doesn’t know what to do anymore.
    Meanwhile, Toboe has gone off in search of Hige. Hige and Blue are on a bridge, talking. She had always worked for her keep, and that’s why the men were chasing her. She had been trying to get work. Blue then tells Hige about her happy life with Quent. Everything had been perfect until the day when everything had burned down to the ground. Wolves had been surrounding the collapsing house, but Blue didn’t know if they had caused the fire or had just been there. Quent believes that the wolves had caused it, and blames them for all the bad things in his life. Hige, being Hige, tries to lighten the mood by talking about his desires. He stops when he realizes that Toboe was eavesdropping. Before Hige can hurt Toboe, a gunshot is heard.
    The men who had been chasing Blue are back, and this time they’ve got guns. They say that Jagara will pay a hefty price for wolves, and they start shooting at Kiba and Tsume. Running away, the two wolves bump into an elderly couple, and the man can see the boys as what they truly are. Wolves. His wife can’t see their wolf form, and Kiba and Tsume begin to beg that they don’t mean any harm, and don’t want to die. Finally, the old man agrees to a deal with the two wolves. When the hunters catch up to Kiba and Tsume, the old man tricks them into believing that the wolves are dead. The old man pretends that he is the one who shot them. Knowing that Jagara doesn’t want dead wolves, they walk away.
    Now both Quent and Hubb are drunk, and discussing, of all topics, marriage. Quent, though very, very drunk, can see how much Hubb loves and misses Cher. These two decide to pair up, and go to the next town.
    The elderly couple takes care of the pack for a while. Despite the old man’s suspicions, his wife, Elmira, pities them. She convinces her husband to help them out, at least for a little while. The old couple feeds them, and the pack, now including Blue, head out. They’re going west, to Darcia’s Castle.

Episode 13: Men's Lament

    Cher is walking around, looking lost, while Jagara’s army flies above her.
    Hubb is still looking for her, but now he has an accomplice. Quent has joined him, and they’re looking to buy a car, since Quent doesn’t seem to have one, and Hubb’s broke down earlier. Hubb buys one from a boy, but it doesn’t look like it’ll last much longer than the other one. Then, Hubb and Quent head out to the next town.
    The pack has decided to go to Darcia’s castle, to rescue Cheza, and to continue on to Paradise. Blue doesn’t want to join them, because she just wants to figure out who she is, not go on some great mission. Blue knows that returning to Quent would be impossible, but she feels lost, and wants to learn about herself. Hige is ready to stay with her no matter where she goes. Kiba explains to Blue that whatever she does, she has to keep moving forward, so she reluctantly decides to join them.
    Hubb is still reeling from his hangover, so Quent takes the wheel. Hubb gives him a sobering pill, although Quent grumbles about taking it. As Quent drives, Hubb starts drinking some more, while Quent complains that he wants some. Then they begin to talk about their pasts...
    Hubb was a police officer when he met Cher. HE had no choice in his profession because his parents had chosen it for him. They had wanted him to stay out of trouble and danger. They wanted him to be perfect, in a way, and make no mistakes. Quent asks about how met Cher, and he responds, "Through an acquaintance". Then he remarks about it being love at first sight.
    After a while, they have to stop the car. Hubb has to vomit and Quent has to, err, urinate. It’s a nasty side affect of the sobering pill.
    The men keep driving into the night, but a snowstorm is making their way difficult. Quent is still at the wheel, and he slams on the brakes when he sees Blue run past the truck. He gets out and chases after her, but to no avail. After further investigation, the men watch troops heading to battle on the road below.
    Hubb flashes back to some touching scenes of them together, all leading up to their divorce. He first remembers the wedding, and how happy they were. Then, Cher gets an offer to work in a prestigious lab. Hubb advises her to take it, and that he will always be by her side. Apparently, Cher was getting too involved in her work, and neither having enough time to really spend time with each other. He still loves her, though. Quent wanted to know why he didn’t stop the divorce, especially since he still loves her. Hubb starts to talk about Cheza. He explains that Cher told him that he was a bioengineered organism that can survive anywhere, in any conditions. She was created from a special plant’s life energy, and molded into the form of a young girl. Cheza was mostly just a research project, until she had been stolen.
    As morning comes, Hubb takes the wheel. Pretty soon, the car breaks down. As the men start to fix it, a song plays in the background.
    After they get the car fixed, the come by the town where the pack met the elderly couple. Hubb and Quent split up for a little while, since Hubb wants to search for Cher. Quent helps them get their mobile home moving and they invite him for coffee. They, by chance, tell him about the wolves/boys yesterday. Then, Quent hears about Blue.
    As evening comes once more, Hubb is falling into depression. He’s sitting on the edge of a broken fountain, disappointed after searching for Cher for the entire day. As he puts his head into his hands, Cher walks directly into his line of vision. He looks up after a few seconds, and their eyes meet. Running towards each other, they embrace.
    That night they have dinner together. Cher explains that she needs to go to Darcia’s castle, and Hubb insists on coming with her. He tells her that Lord Oakum was killed, and that he saw an army headed to Darcia’s castle. Cher explains that she met Darcia, and he has Cheza. She says that she needs to know what makes Cheza so special, and although she was happy that Hubb came to look for her, she needs to go.
    Quent looks a bit surprised when both of them enter the car together, but says nothing. Then, all three begin to head to Darcia’s castle.

Episode 14: Castle of the Fallen

    As the pack of five make their way through a blinding snowstorm, Hige becomes worried about Toboe and Blue. Toboe, because he is still young, and Blue because she is a girl. Tsume agrees. They decide to stop and wait until the storm passes, except for Kiba. He keeps going, desperate to get to Cheza.
    Meanwhile, Hubb, Quent, and now Cher, are all heading towards Darcia’s Keep as well. As Quent sleeps, Cher and Hubb discuss what has happened lately, particularly about Cheza. Cher explains the Hubb that Cheza was made from a flower, using alchemy, by Darcia the First. Lord Oakum stole Cheza, and began to do research on her to find out how he could use her. It seems that the Flower Maiden is the key to Paradise, and only she can open the gates. Cher also says the Paradise is a place where wolves rule. Quent wakes up and says that if wolves rule the world, he’ll go straight to hell. He then says that he’s going to kill all wolves.
    Kiba has made it to Darcia’s Keep. Darcia, still grieving from Harmona’s death, is alerted of his arrival. Cheza can feel his presence and perks up. Darcia tells Harmona that because she is dead, he has no reason to seek out Paradise. He also says that his wolf’s eye is becoming unbearable. Kiba enters the Keep and begins wandering around, searching for Cheza.
    Soon, the other wolves arrive. Blue is shocked when she smells "Pop", Quent, on the car in the entrance. Everyone is at Darcia’s Keep now.
    Hubb, Cher, and Quent are also wandering the castle. As they look around in awe, Cher explains some things about alchemy and how the nobles used it. The walls are covered in huge paintings depicting lost nobles and their legacy. Apparently, about 200 years ago, the nobles opened up the world to the stars and space/time. But when they began to further their civilization using this knowledge, everything disappeared. Many, many people were lost, and the art of alchemy became a secret only for nobles. The world began to die, and has become a poor shadow of what it once was and could be.
    Cher also says that people didn’t just worship the wolves. It was a complete religion about two separate worlds. One that the humans can see, and one that they can no longer remember. The animals, however, know this. Hubb, with his ever-present animal allergies, begins to sneeze. Quent takes this as a hint that the wolves are there.
    Kiba has found Cheza and Darcia, and they run to each other. Darcia, distraught and angry, takes out his sword. He begins to fight Kiba, yelling about his curse, from both the wolf eye and Paradise. He asks Kiba why he wants Cheza so much, and Kiba tells him that she can show them the way to Paradise. Darcia tells Kiba that Cheza us nothing, something that the nobles had created from the Flower of the Moon. Pointing his sword at Kiba, Darcia asks if he has found Paradise, and what is in it that makes him want it so much. Kiba tells him that Paradise hold the future. No hope, no despair, just the future. Looking back to Harmona, dead, he thinks that he has no future.
    Quent, hearing the battle, runs towards it, his rifle out. A shot rings out. Everyone else, Toboe, Blue, Hige, Cher, and Hubb, run towards the room. Darcia, who had his sword at Cheza’s throat, begins to walk away as Quent points his rifle at Kiba. Before he can shoot, however, Blue runs in between them. Quent is shocked to see her, obviously.
    Then, Jagara attacks. Darcia’s Keep is being torn apart by the lasers and weapons from the aerial attackers. Foot soldiers are storming the castle and blocking the exits. Quent asks Blue about why she would want to save Kiba. Cher goes to grab Cheza, and Hubb helps her. As they try to escape, they are attacked. Blue tries to help, but is shot down. Hubb, Cher, and Cheza are captured by Jagara’s forces. Kiba starts running after the departing plane, trying to get to Cheza. Darcia stands with Harmona in his arms, seemingly oblivious to the destruction around him.
    As the snow begins to fall again, it is almost like nothing has happened. Quent is searching for Blue, in awe at the ruins around him. Toboe is calling out for Kiba. There is no answer.

Episode 15: Ashen Wolf

    This is really just a recap episode of all the previous episodes through Tsume’s point of view. This episode was not shown on Adult Swim.
    Tsume wonders back to how it all started, and how he managed to get this far. He remembers when he was back in the old city, when he had to steal to survive. He worked with humans, yes, but he never cared for them. He always saw himself on his own, with only himself to trust. Tsume hadn’t been happy, but he’d had an almost comfortable life there. He knew what he needed and how to get it. Then Kiba came.
    Some townspeople had found Kiba and thought he was dead. With Tsume looking on, they had begun to move the "corpse" when he suddenly jumped to life, attacking Tsume. Tsume led him away from the onlookers as they fought, Tsume with the obvious upper hand, despite the earlier shock. He had explained to Kiba the "rules of the city", which including no killing of the humans. Kiba couldn’t stand Tsume, and they continued to fight until a man came by and chased them off.
    Later on, Tsume and his gang planned another raid on another train. They needed the food. However, during the raid, Tsume watched as one of his members died. He had failed to save him.
    Since they had been caught in this raid, Tsume’s gang members become wary of continuing on this path. It doesn’t help that the nobles have now put a bounty on any leader of a raiding gang. Holding a meeting without him, they decide to quit and leave.
    In the city, the truth is coming out. Wolves, thought to be extinct, are showing up. For they have never been extinct. Instead, they learned how to disguise themselves as humans. But there are a few die-hard people that still believe they exist, and one of them is hunting them down. A hunter, Quent, is about to shoot Toboe, and Tsume saves him. But Toboe already revealed his wolf appearance to a girl, Leara, when he accidentally killed he pet bird. Tsume, who had been watching saves Toboe again. Tsume decides to "talk" to Toboe about this, and Toboe accuses him of making human friends only because he can bully them. Toboe runs away, leaving Tsume alone again.
    Later on, Tsume’s gang gets caught, and one of them turns in Tsume as their leader. The police finds Tsume and they try to apprehend him. He, obviously, doesn’t let that happen. Wounded, Tsume tries to run. Kiba, smelling his blood, finds him. Hige and Toboe are already with Kiba and they try to convince Tsume to join them in their quest of finding Paradise. They had all been just surviving and long for something more. As they escape the police and the city, Tsume decides to go with them.
    As they head out, Kiba explains that they are going to find the Lunar Flower, or Flower of the Moon. He tells them that he is the only surviving member of his pack, and he has nothing left for him. Like Tsume, Paradise is the only place he can go.

Episode 16: Dream Journey

    This time it's a recap episode through Toboe's point of view.
    Toboe is walking through a forest. He remembers his life in the city.
    Toboe used to protect an old woman. She, in turn, fed him and kept him as a pet. When she died, he blamed himself for it. He continued to live in the city. There, he met a girl named Leara and she fed him. He met her again as a human, and they had the possibility of becoming friends. However, he accidentally killed her pet bird. He had thought he was saving it, but he held it in his mouth too roughly. When he realized what he had done, he began to cry. That turned into howling, which revealed his wolf form to her. Tsume had to save him.
    Later on, he tried to talk to her again, but she was scared and screamed. This forced him to run away, and he met Kiba and Hige. The three of them decided to leave the city for good and search for Paradise.
    Following Kiba, they headed towards another run-down town. There were wolves there, too, and they said they’d been to Paradise. They also said that it was all a lie. They told the pack that Paradise had gone to hell, and it wasn’t worth it to try and get there. They did, however, show the pack the ‘entrance to Paradise’. It was a boarded-up tunnel. Though they had been warned and threatened to leave the town, they stayed. The pack was disgusted to see that the wolves were treated like meaningless dogs, and allowed themselves to be treated this way. They worked hard, for very little food. Kiba tried to tell them that he had seen the Flowers of the Moon, and that Paradise was real, but they wouldn’t listen. When they were given the chance, they sold out Hige, forcing the other three wolves to rescue him. After they do that, the leader of the town’s pack brings them back to the entrance and they enter it, continuing on to Paradise.
    Remembering everything that brought them to this point, Toboe looks around. He looks at everyone one of his friends, reflecting. They also look at each other, also lost in their own memories.
    Kiba finds the scent of the Lunar Flower again and they head towards it. Cheza falls, almost weightlessly, out of Darcia’s plane. Running through the forest, they come to a clearing with a lake in the middle. There is Cheza, waiting for them. She and Kiba greet each other affectionately.

Episode 17: Scent of the Flower, Blood of the Wolves

    It’s Hige’s turn for a recap episode.
    Hige was staying in the same city as Tsume and Toboe because of the Lunar Flower’s scent. He didn’t mind living there, as long as he had access to food. One day, he got curious, and went looking for the source of the scent. On his way there, he watched as Quent captured Kiba. Hige followed Kiba and Quent to the police station/laboratory/miscellaneous offices and tried to get him to ‘change forms’ so that he’d look like a human. That would make escaping much easier. Kiba didn’t want to because he thought it made him more like a simple dog. Hige explained that to survive in a city, it was a necessity. They escaped the building, looking like ordinary teenagers. Together, they started on the search for the Lunar Flower, Cheza.
    Unfortunately for Kiba and Hige, Lord Darcia, a noble, has already decided to capture Cheza for himself. Kiba and Hige are too late, if barely, to save her before he kidnaps her. Darcia only confuses them more by tell them that he will meet them in Paradise. Kiba tries to follow them, but he can no longer find the scent.
    As Darcia takes Cheza to his Castle in his plane, he asks her if she remembers where she was born. Below, on the ground, Kiba catches her scent again, and follows it. Cheza escapes from Darcia, and reunites with her beloved wolf pack.
    Cheza begins leading the pack through a passageway, where she finds out that all the previous Lunar Flowers like her are dead. She is very sad, but meets an elderly woman who is also a Lunar Flower. However, she is different from Cheza. She explains that the Flower will always seek the wolves, and the wolves will always seek the Flower. She also warns Cheza that traveling with the wolves will only lead to destruction. Cheza listens, but does not obey. Instead, she asks the woman to join them in their quest.
    Hige acknowledges Kiba and Cheza’s relationship, but also says that she was happy being with each of the wolves. When it is time to experience the Full Moon with her, they all rejoice. Wolves can survive for long periods of time just by drinking in the moonlight. Cheza also needs it to survive. The day before the Full Moon, the wolves can barely disguise their excitement, knowing inside that something important will happen. The Full Moon rises. The wolves and the Flower dance, and the path to Paradise is revealed in the form of beautiful white flowers. They are Lunar Flowers.
    Their run down the path is ruined when Darcia lands and demands they return Cheza to him. Using his lasers and weapons, he wounds the wolves severely when they try to stop him from taking Cheza. Cheza, absolutely distressed at seeing the pack in such pain, goes with Darcia to save them.
    As soon as the wolves recover, they immediately begin searching for her. Blue, Quent’s dog, joins them as well when it becomes clear she cannot live her previous life. Blue’s wolf form was only awakened when Cheza spoke with her. While she had been happy with Quent, knowing that she is a wolf and how much he hates wolves, she knows she must leave. To stay would only make things worse for the both of them. She does, however, invite Hige to join her.

Episode 18: Man, Wolf, and the Lunar Tome

    This is the last recap episode. It is in Hubb’s, Darcia’s, and Quent’s points of view, although some see it as only being in Hubb’s point of view.
    There is an ancient legend, a legend that most no longer remembers. It tells the tale of wolves and Paradise. It says that when the world comes to an end, Paradise will appear, but only the wolves will know where to find it.
    In the city where it all started, the Northern City, Quent captured Kiba, convinced that he was a wolf. Cher, who is Hubb’s ex-wife, believed he had connections with the Lunar Flower (also called the Flower Maiden, the Flower of the Moon, or the Daughter of the Moon Flower), Cheza. Hubb didn’t believe her.
    When the wolves escaped the police station, Hubb went searching for answers. He went to Quent, who believed in wolves. He told Hubb about the Book of the Moon. The Book is a forbidden book, and talks about the Red Moon, among other things. It also says that God created the Wolves, and the Wolves created the Humans.
    Darcia, a noble, has kidnapped Cheza, but he had to knock Cher unconscious with his wolf eye to get to her. A few days later, Cher disappears, subtly giving Hubb the Book of the Moon.
    Cher had gone to find, and recover, Cheza. When the military group accompanying her attacked Darcia’s ship, Cheza took the opportunity to escape. As Cher saw Cheza smile, which is far beyond the reactions she had been recording in her lab, she became convinced that only wolves could provoke this, therefore confirming her belief of their existence. But, the search for Cheza was no fruitful for some time, and Cher goes out drinking one night. By chance, Quent joins her.
    As Hubb continues searching for answers, and now his ex-wife, he gets arrested by Lord Oakum’s forces. In the middle of his interrogation, however, he is freed when the guards are distracted by an attacking noble. Lord Jagara is attacking Lord Oakum. He continues his search.
    Now, Darcia has also captured Cher. He’s explaining his ancestor’s research using the Book of the Moon. However, his ancestors vanished into Paradise, a world where Wolves rule. Darcia and his darling Harmona are cursed by a disease caused by Paradise, and the only cure lies in Paradise itself.
    Hubb leaves the city and is shocked to see a huge Red Moon, as is foretold in the Book of the Moon, hanging above him.
    When Lord Darcia returns, he finds a gruesome sight awaiting him. His servant girl is nailed to the door where Harmona was. Lord Jagara, who had also attacked Lord Oakum, had killed his beloved Harmona. Darcia mourns violently, banging his head against a wall.
    Quent, talking with Hubb, explains that he always knew his dog, Blue, had some wolf in her. That was the only explanation at why she was so good at hunting them. He decides to join Hubb in his search for Cher, hoping to find Blue as well.
    Hubb’s search for Cher reminds him of all the good times they had, and how they fell apart. They find each other at dusk, and share a happy reunion, before she tells him that she must return to Darcia, and know the truth about Cheza once and for all. Hubb decides that he won’t leave her again, and goes with her.
    Kiba seeks out Darcia on his own, and they fight. Darcia explains to Kiba about his cursed wolf’s eye. Desperate and angry, he asks Kiba if he has found Paradise and what’s in it that makes him want it so much? Kiba tells him simply, "The future. No hope or despair." Quent enters and aims to shoot at Kiba, but Blue steps in and he lowers his gun. Lord Jagara executes another attack, this time destroying the castle. Hubb, Cher, and Cheza are captured.

Episode 19: Dream of an Oasis

    During Jagara’s attack on Darcia’s castle, Cheza is taken. Kiba runs after her, but can’t make it onto the ship.
    As the dust settles and the snow falls, Toboe, Hige, and Tsume search for Kiba, but to no avail. Hige, frustrated and irritated, give up. Tsume decides to have one last look around, just in case. Hige says that he’s out, that Paradise is meaningless to him, and he’s not going to try and get there anymore. Toboe, innocently, asks why they can’t all live together. Wolves, birds, humans, and flowers, together. He says if they were in Paradise, they could, and none of these bad things would happen.
    Kiba wakes up in the sunlight, in a desert.
    Toboe is still searching and calling out for Kiba when he smells something familiar. He can’t quite place it, but he knows he’s smelt it before. When he goes to find the source, he sees an almost dead Quent. Toboe stops and tries to help. Hige is reminded about the fact that he couldn’t save Blue, and punches Toboe, angry with the reminder. Tsume stops them before it goes too far. Hige grumbles about this and storms off. Tsume walks away as well. They want nothing to do with Quent. Toboe lies next to Quent, hoping to warm his frozen body. Quent, sleeping, thinks it’s Blue. He remembers his little girl, Ruth, and begins to cry. Toboe tries to help by licking away his tears.
    Kiba, in a world that is obviously not the one he grew up in, runs around until he reaches a large pond. He drinks from it until he notices a girl sitting across from him. She giggles at him. Her name is Myu, and she is also an animal. She is not a wolf, but where they are, it doesn’t matter.
    Quent wakes up, cold, but alive. Toboe isn’t there anymore. There is, however, wolf hair on his gloves.
    Jagara, who has been attacked nobles Oakum and Darcia, has an army fleet flying around. There is a rumor that the army is looking for and capturing wolves.
    Toboe is walking around, looking for Hige and Tsume. He is alone and is attacked by two people who look like Native Americans. Tsume and Hige arrive just in time and defend Toboe. They demand what the Native Americans were doing and what they have to do with wolves, in general. It turns out that it is all a misunderstanding. The Native Americans thought Toboe had something to do with their friends being attacked earlier. He had been retaliating, but when he finds out that they are wolves, he welcomes them.
    The Native Americans lead Tsume, Hige, and Toboe to their camp, which is nearby. Some of the Native Americans are tending to some injured dogs. These are some of the friends who had been attacked. Everyone, human, wolf, animal, all living creatures, are treated equally here. The three wolves are told that Jagara is capturing and killing any thing that even resembles wolves. Ihk, one of the Native Americans, explains to Tsume, Hige, and Toboe that this tribe, the Mon-tribe, are descendants of the wolves. However, they are not like the nobles. The Elder joins them to speak to the wolves.
    Myu is following Kiba around as he explores this new world. He asks her to stop following him around, but when he turns around, she is gone. When he faces forward again, she’s there! She leads him to a hill overlooking a meadow. In there, there are different animals, all living peacefully. Beyond the meadow is a mountain range. Kiba asks her if this is Paradise, the world where you can live freely. She answers cryptically, saying that if he thinks that this is Paradise, then it is. She begins to run away from him, but playfully. As he chases after him, she asks if he will stay with her, here, forever. He tells her that they are not the same species, and reflects on his first memories.
    As soon as he was born, death surrounded him. A fire ravaged his home and killed the rest of his pack. What was once a beautiful land, lush in Lunar Flowers, was now ash. He was taken in by a Native American, who cared for him and raised him. Constantly troubled by his survival and his family’s death, he asked his caretaker why he survived. He wanted to know what his purpose for existing was. Kiba remembered a voice inside him telling him that he had to move on. This was no longer his place. It was then that the Native American told Kiba that he needed to continue on his journey. He told him that he did not "survive". It was the plants, the Lunar Flowers, that protected him, the land the let him live. The man told him to listen to the voice inside him, and leave. Kiba tells this all to Myu, who listens patiently. After he talks to her, he is surprised at his own willingness to tell this to her. He has never revealed so much of himself to anyone.
    Tsume, Hige, and Toboe are listening as the Elder explains the ancient past. Long ago, when humans were animals, there were terrible monsters on earth. The Earth Mother sent wolves down to earth to kill the monsters and teach the humans. From then, the wolves took a part of their body and created humans, giving birth to the world. The Elder says that if wolves have begun to seek out Paradise, then the time of the humans has started to collapse. He says that when wolves find Paradise, the world as it is now will disappear. He then asks who began the search for Paradise. Toboe avoids the question with one of his own. He asks if they should stop looking for Paradise. He wants to know what will happen to all the people there. The Elder tells him that no one knows what will happen. It is simply destiny.
    Tsume tells Ihk that they are leaving. They need to find their friend, but they have lost his scent. They ask him what lies beyond the mountain range. He tells them that there is a desert filled with bones. There is a legend that says anyone who enters there will experience perfect bliss. In the desert there is a tall grass that guides the souls who rest beneath it to an eternal garden. No one ever returns from this place.
    Tsume decides to keep going, in search for Kiba and Paradise. Hige is going with him, but Toboe doesn’t want to. He wants to stay with the Mon-tribe.
    Kiba picks up a flower and the petals fall apart. Myu points to the grass below them, where the flower stays, still together and blooming.

Episode 20: Consciously

    Kiba is dreaming of Cheza and his friends. When he wakes up, he sees an owl looking at him. Unfortunately, it holds no answers to his many questions. Once it tells him that it doesn’t know who or what it is, the owl flies away.
    Ihk is explaining about the Desert of Bones that lie beyond the mountain range. He invites them to stay with them, in his village. Toboe accepts, and explains that staying in the village makes him feel like he is in Paradise. Tsume and Hige keep going, to Paradise. Tsume tells Hige that Toboe always wanted to be near humans. He asks Hige if he still wants to look for Kiba, even though he’s given up on Paradise. He says that he’ll keep going, no matter if Hige comes with him or not. Hige thinks that Tsume is starting to sound like Kiba, but follows along anyway.
    Kiba tells Myu that he’s been having strange dreams of people he can’t remember. She tells him not to worry, because he’ll forget them sooner or later. She promises to stay with him forever. The owl from earlier is flying overhead, saying that the answers lie beneath the sand.
    Toboe remembers the old woman that took care of him. When she was cooking one of their meals, he was so happy that he knocked her to the ground, suffocating her. Ihk’s horse begins talking to him, asking if he is okay. He wants to know if it was wise to leave behind his quest for Paradise, asking Toboe what his reasons were. Toboe confides in him, saying that he felt he would be only hindering everyone else. And he really does want to stay in the village.
    Tsume and Hige have made it across the mountain range and look down on the desert. One of Jagara’s tanks is already down there, so they head towards it to get a closer look.
    With the Mon-tribe, Toboe can sense that something bad is going to happen. Ihk and Toboe rush towards the direction Tsume and Hige were heading.
    Several heavily armed men are making their way to the grassy area where Kiba’s body lies. Tsume and Hige scare them off, and look down in surprise at Kiba’s motionless body. Ihk warns them not to touch the plant, because it is poisonous. It has a paralyzing agent. He picks up Kiba’s body and brings it back to the Elder.
    The Elder begins chanting, attempting to recall Kiba’s spirit. Inside the other world, Kiba is happily sitting with Myu. She realizes that someone has found him. Myu tells Kiba that she wanted him to stay wit her forever, but now that cannot happen. She tells him that this is not Paradise. This world is a dream world, a world where time has stopped. After a while, everyone who comes here forgets. They forget why they have come here in the first place, and just stay there. Kiba asks her who she is, but she tells him that it is time for him to go. He hears Cheza and remembers her, as the beautiful meadow fades away.
    Kiba opens his eyes and sees the pack surrounding him. They ask about where he has been, and he tells them that he was in a place that could have been Paradise, but it wasn’t. He also says he was kicked out. The Elder confirms that Kiba’s spirit has returned.
    Outside, a Red Moon shines brightly. Tsume says that they should leave once Kiba regains his strength. They realize that the path to Paradise will become harder and harder as they go on. When Kiba recovers, the Elder tells them that Kiba was in the Garden of Eternity. Most people never return from there, but Kiba did. He tells Kiba that he must of experienced a happiness and bliss like never before. Kiba explains that finding Paradise is the only way he can keep on living. The rest of the pack wants to know what happened in the Garden, since Kiba seem different, somehow. All he tells them is that he met a nice woman, yet all the time he was there, he felt as if he was missing something. He realized that he had been missing Cheza and the pack.
    Kiba says he is ready to continue their journey. Toboe says that he won’t bring down the quest anymore. He won’t whine or complain, or run away if he becomes scared. Still worried about the rest of the world, he asks Ihk if it’s okay to continue on. He tells the pack that is fine, and that the spirit is with them. Toboe asks Ihk is his dog could hold his scent, as a favor. The pack leaves, heading for Paradise.
    Quent is muttering to himself, alone, when Ihk’s dog finds him. Ihk talks to him, giving him medicine and telling him that someone had asked him to save Quent. That someone was a wolf. Quent doesn’t believe him, and admits he believes that wolves are ruthless demons. Ihk gives him a bag of food and tells him that no matter who Quent is, he always keeps his promises. Quent accepts the food and walks away, while Ihk’s dog howls, letting Toboe know that they found him.

Episode 21: Flares of the Battle

    In the middle of a blizzard, Kiba leads the pack towards an area of lights flashing the sky. When they spot a domed city, they see a huge battle taking place.
    Jagara’s ships are over a crumbling city, with guards here and there. The remaining citizens of the city are preparing for a final battle against Jagara’s forces. They know about Jagara’s desire for wolves. They’re extremely superstitious and there are tales of their own men being attacked by wolves. Their Captain says that they are soldiers and have no reason to think about why they should be fighting. These soldiers have been drafted by a dead noble, Lord Oakum, wonder why they are fighting a losing battle. Many lives are lost on both sides.
    Jagara’s forces and the city’s soldiers begin fighting as the wolves watch from above. Seeing whom the city’s citizens are fighting, they head down to join the battle. They too begin fighting Jagara. The Captain notices and watches them in suspicion. Once he sees their true form, he begins to interrogate them, demanding to know why they are fighting and why they would want to save his city. Kiba tells him that it wasn’t their intention to save his city... only to fight against Jagara. Hige remembers that the Captain is the one of the soldiers who were chasing them in the forest when they had met Cheza. They ask the Captain if they know where Cheza is, since she had been captured by Jagara. He doesn’t know, but recommends going to Jagara’s castle. The castle is a little farther than the Ocean of Drifting Ice. He asks if they are strong enough to take on Jagara’s army. The pack tells him that they are and they leave. The Captain commands his remaining soldiers to gather together. They are going to attack Jagara’s castle, this time with wolves on their side.
    Cheza and Blue are prisoners of Jagara’s troops. In a prison transport, Cheza asks Blue why she was captured as well, since Blue had had the chance to escape imprisonment earlier. Blue tells Cheza that she’s never been able to fully protect anyone. Not Quent, or his daughter Ruth. She tells Cheza that she’s never been there for the people who needed her. After Cheza revealed her wolf side to her, Blue realized that she never even knew her true self to begin with. But she did know that she needed to protect Cheza. Besides, she says, the boys will rescue them! Cheza can tell that Blue really trusts and believes in Hige, and tells Blue so. Blue openly denies it, but they both begin giggling none the less.
    Cher and Hubb, who had also been captured, are imprisoned together. Hubb breaks the news that they aren’t divorcees anymore. Since their marriage had been erased, so had their divorce. A bump jostles them, and Hubb tries to bite through Cher’s ropes. He doesn’t succeed. She tells him that when they get out of this, she’s going to bake bread. They’ll go to a place where no one has ever met them. He thinks of a house with a big red roof and a garden. He begins to talk about living happily there and maybe even having a family. She tells him that that’s not possible because it’s over. They’re over. She doesn’t believe that they can just start over. She tells him that he’s dreaming, and he tells her that there’s hope. He says that she’s all that’s left of the world and he’ll protect her. Hubb tries to bite through her binds again, and this time he succeeds.
    Cher and Hubb look out of their prison vehicle to see Lord Oakum’s soldiers a short distance away. Escaping the vehicle, they gather some weapons from the dead and begin the search for Cheza. Once they find Cheza and Blue they release them and they all head out, only to walk into an ambush led by Jagara’s men. Hubb escapes with Cheza, until a plane sees them and picks them up. Cher and Blue are surrounded on the ground.
    Oakum’s troops appear and attack, allowing Cher and Blue to escape. After the battle finishes, Cher asks Oakum’s men why they would do this, since both Darcia and Oakum are dead. The Captain explains that this, battling, fighting, is the only thing he knows. Earlier, he had met up with wolves and realized that they had been searching for the Flower. Cher tells him that everything that is happening now had been foretold in the "Book of the Moon". He asks if she wants a ride and she declines the offer. She does, however, request a tank and he (amazingly) gives her one. She needs to go to Jagara’s castle. He’s going to Freeze City, an occupied city, to fight the last battle against Jagara. He says he is fighting "...for an existence I must protect." Freeze City is his home.
    Cher and Blue get in the tank and start the journey to Jagara’s castle.
    Cheza, in Jagara’s plane, senses Kiba and runs to the window.

Episode 22: Meteor Fragment

    Quent is sitting with some other travelers on a train. They are waiting to go to the city of Jagara’s castle. One of them is repeatedly saying, "It’s the end of the world. The world will end soon. It’s the end time." Finally, one of the other travelers picks up the man and pulls out a gun. He says it’s not the end of the world, Jagara is the last bastion. He puts the gun in the babbling man’s mouth and shoots. The man with gun starts waving the gun around and aims at the other passengers. A small child screams, terrified, and the man goes to shoot the child. Before he can hurt the child, Quent kicks the gun out of the man’s hand and pushes him off the train. As he grabs the man ID necklace, he realizes that everyone has given up hope.
    Cher and Blue are heading to Jagara’s castle to rescue Cheza and Hubb. Cher asks Blue why she left Quent. Blue says it’s because she’s what he hates most, a wolf. Although, she does wish she could have been able to talk to him the way she can now. Now, though, her mission is to rescue Cheza, and Cher agrees.
    The pack is making their way across the glaciers to get to Jagara’s castle. Hige makes comments about food and his stomach while Toboe begins to slowly fall behind.
    At Jagara’s castle, Hubb is being led, with other prisoners, by Jagara’s soldiers and sees Cheza unconscious with more guards. He tries to get to her but is quickly knocked out by the soldiers.
    Hubb awakes to find himself in a prison cell, not quite alone. A female wolf in a nearby cell smells Cheza on him and asks why he is there. He explains that he is prisoner from Darcia’s Keep. She says that she was captured and accused of treason. She says all nobles hate them. Everyone who has been captured has been executed in the Great Hall. She knows that her time is coming. Finally, she asks Hubb why he smells so good. He tells her it’s because of Cheza, the Flower Maiden. She says that the Flower Maiden has come, and that it must be the end.
    Hige, Tsume, and Kiba look outward at a graveyard of bones. They’re waiting for Toboe to catch up. When he does, they see that has been injured. Kiba suggests that they rest, but Toboe, being remarkably stubborn, refuses. He wants to keep going. Reluctantly, they do, until Toboe collapses because of exhaustion. Before any of them can get to him, a huge walrus jumps up and shatters the glacier Toboe was on. He falls into the ice. Hige barely manages to rescue him. Then, the walrus attacks. Kiba and Tsume rush headlong at it, but the walrus shakes them off easily. In retaliation, it drives one of its tusks into Kiba’s leg. Tsume jumps on its back to help Kiba while Toboe just watches. Then, something inside of him snaps, and he runs at the walrus, biting its back. The walrus seeks the safety of the freezing water, dislodging Tsume and Kiba, but Toboe holds on. The rest of the pack look around, panicked, until the walrus appears and begins crashing into icebergs, in obvious pain. Finally, the walrus throws himself behind them, and Toboe falls off. Then, the walrus collapses.
    As the pack runs to Toboe, the walrus explains that he has been protecting the island for so long. He says that now he is a sacrifice, and their savior. He dies, and Kiba tells Toboe that this is his kill. They start eating the walrus viciously, with Toboe eating first.
    At Jagara’s castle, Cheza is placed in a green tank as Jagara thinks about the Red Moon. "Become the messenger of the god born of the high god. That work lies in silence and I gratefully accept the blessing of a fiery, glorious ending. The flower basked in the lord of the night’s love and is almost overflowing with scent."
    Cheza is offered wolf meat and the scent awakens her. She is given a glass of wolf’s blood and she drinks. Cheza screams when she realizes what it is. Jagara eats the wolf meat and drinks the blood, saying that the beast will appear.

Episode 23: The Black City’s Heartbeat

    Cher and Blue are headed to the Lost City of the Lost World. It is the last city left that and is ruled by Lady Jagara.
    Quent is outside of the Lost City, with the other train passengers. He enters only to be taken to another entrance point. As he watches others enter, he realizes that they all have the ID necklace that he had taken from the gun-toting passenger on the train. He realizes that is his entrance inside. The camera beeps when he walks through. He is allowed in. He is then taken to escalators, which taken to parts of the city away from the sewers and swage tunnels.
    Cher and Blue are unable to enter the inside city without ID necklaces. They walk around the city looking for some to steal.
    The pack enters through the tunnels below. Hige was the one to show them the way, and Tsume and Kiba are slightly suspicious that he would know about the city. After searching for Cheza for a little while, Hige suggests that they split up. He says that Tsume and he and Toboe can gather information. This only makes the others more suspicious… until Tsume asks if Hige is going out for food. Hige says not to worry, they’ll get enough for everyone. They decide to meet up again when the moon rises.
    Cher and Blue are still looking for ID necklaces when two boys on skateboards come up to them. They start harassing the girls. Cher tells them that unless they have ID necklaces, then they aren’t interested. The boys refuse to leave so Blue attacks them. She doesn’t hurt them too badly, but they skate away any ways, hopefully after learning their lesson.
    As Hige leads Toboe through the city, memories flood his mind. Taking a twisted route, he leads Toboe up a flight of stairs, through a passageway, and to an elevator.
    Kiba and Tsume check the front entrance to Jagara’s castle and decide that they can’t use that.
    Jagara receives a message that ‘twenty-three’ has been confirmed inside the city. It means that everyone is where they need to be, and that they awaited time has come. Jagara picks up a book and reads aloud about the last wolf, who, hidden by the moonlight, will lead her to Paradise. Twenty-three is the wolf that will bring her the last wolf.
    Quent goes to the nearest bar and orders vodka. Inside the bar, some young soldiers are talking about Oakum’s remaining army. Apparently, they’ve been defeated. The men say that the world is now in Jagara’s hands. The bartender sees Quent’s flask and asks him where’s he from. He says ‘the brink of death’ and that’s he’s been searching out wolves. The young men tell him that he’s too late. They got the ‘mission completed’ from Jagara earlier. They say that they’ve already taken care of the wolves; they’re the ‘Anti – Wolf Special Unit’. They also tell them that it’s all thanks to them that there are no more wolves. Quent snaps at them to not be so cocky. He knows that wolves are still out there. The soldiers ignore him and go on bragging, this time about the cop they threw in jail. Quent continues to eavesdrop and hears that they also captured the Flower Maiden.
    Hige and Toboe are still making their way through the city when Hige gets a headache. As Toboe asks him what’s wrong, he takes off, leaving Toboe behind. More of Hige’s memories are coming back to him.
    Tsume and Kiba spot the two boys who were harassing Cher and Blue. They remind Tsume of his old gang, and he figures that they know the way around the castle. They surround the two boys. One pulls out a gun, but when it’s apparent that the wolves have no problem dodging, they decide to help. The wolves tell the boys that they want to get into the castle, unnoticed. The skaters tell them that it’s impossible, but the wolves won’t give up. They tell the boys that they want to rescue a girl from Lady Jagara’s grasp. The skaters still think that they’re crazy, but say that they’ll show them a way in. They warn the wolves that Jagara has a reputation for being a witch, and that she can use powerful and strange spells.
    Blue attacks another pair of men and gets the ID’s they need. Cher and Blue enter Lost City.
    The two boys explain to Tsume and Kiba that the cables are all connected and lead to the base of the castle. The cables were meant to transport energy into the castle. Kiba says it feels like the opposite of being in the moonlight. It feels like all the energy is being sucked out. Tsume and Kiba decide to enter the castle without Hige and Toboe, while they still have the chance. They jump down to the cables and head to the castle.
    As the pain in his head grows, Hige becomes weaker and weaker. In his pain, he sees two guards with rifles, so he jumps a level down. Unfortunately, he is too late, and the guards spot him. They follow Hige and confirm that he is twenty-three. However, when they see that he is alone, they walk away. Hige, still in pain, looks after then, unhurt, but wondering why.

Episode 24: The Scent of the Trap

    Hige, slumped against the wall in pain, is found by soldiers. They check his ID, take note that he is wolf number twenty-three, and leave.
    Cher and Blue have entered the Lost City and are exploring the higher parts. They observe that it is much cleaner in the lower parts. Only people with ID necklaces can enter the high parts.
    Meanwhile, Jagara is performing a ritual.
    Kiba and Tsume make it inside Jagara’s castle. Tsume has a bad feeling about their presence there, but Kiba refuses to listen to him.
    Toboe is looking for Hige, but he can’t even find his scent. Without Hige, he is also lost. Hige is still in pain from his ID collar.
    Cher and Blue look for Jagara’s castle, but they too are lost. They don’t even see any other humans, but they do see other animals. When they find a woman and ask about the castle, she tells them that they won’t get that kind of information around here. Blue wonders why there are no humans here, and a cat tells her that they’re all dead. The animals there simply live day by day, not thinking, not feeling, and not questioning anything. Blue asks about the back alleys of this fake city, and is told to follow the cat. He leads Cher and Blue to bookstore to get a map. The owner quickly realizes that they are not from around there. He knows that the city’s citizens aren’t interested in maps because they aren’t interested in anything. They simply exist and survive, day by day. He shows them a map and shows them where they are and where Jagara’s castle is. He explains that the Lost City gets its energy from a moonlight power plant. Cher asks why the people here don’t care about anything. He tells them that it won’t do them any good to think that way. He says that the only thing they should be thinking of is day to day living. After she tells him what’s going on outside, he responds that if they stay here long enough, they won’t worry about the outside world, too. Cher pays for the map and they leave.
    Quent is in the city, having been able to enter with someone else’s ID necklace, wandering around. He sees Toboe and aims at him.
    Hige is roaming around the city, trying to find someone. He sees the surveillance cameras every where he goes.
    In the castle, Kiba and Tsume are separated when the smell the scent of the Flower Maiden.

Looking at the map, Cher can’t find a way to get into the castle. She comments that it seems that only Nobles and their armies can get in and out. Blue asks about Cheza’s safety, and Cher asks why all the wolves care so much for her. Blue explains that Cheza is the wolves’ guide to Paradise. Cher remembers the Book of Moon, and the words in it. Blue says that when she’s around Cheza, she feels like she’s a complete wolf. In the old city, Curious, she never even dreamed that she was a wolf. But now, Curious isn’t there anymore, and she has no home. Cher says that she would like to go to Paradise as well.

Cher and Blue keep going, exploring the city, until soldiers stop them. They ask them where they are from, and Cher tries to act their way out of it. One of them tells her not to worry, as long as they have ID necklaces and they’re not from Freeze City, then they’re okay. Blue tells him that they’re from Curious. The soldier remembers that Curious is the town that they burned down when he first enlisted. As he recounts his memories, he comments that the town burned down well. Blue tries to keep control, but the soldiers realize that she is a wolf anyway. She attacks and escapes, allowing Cher to get away as well, happy that she finally knows the truth about her past.

Blue runs into Hige, who is exhausted from the pain and the running. He says that he’s happy to know she’s safe. She’s happy because she knows that it wasn’t wolves that burned down Quent’s house and killed his family, but soldiers. Hige asks her if she wants to leave the town with him. Confused, she asks about the pack and Cheza. He tells her that she doesn’t care anymore. When he spots yet another security camera, he panics, and tells Blue that he has to leave the city now.
    Tsume keeps going to the scent of the flower, while Jagara continues her ritual.
    Toboe is completely lost and begins howling in desperation.
    Hige is still panicking, even more so now that Blue has refused to leave with him. Taking one last look at the surveillance camera, he grabs her and runs away.
    As guards surround Toboe, Kiba makes his way deeper into the castle, now having to fight his way forward.
    Tsume makes his way down a corridor where there are stuffed wolves, all in cages. They all have an ID collar on. He realizes the truth about Hige and why he knew the city so well. As he keeps going, a cage falls on him.
    Toboe is also caught by the soldiers, who used a tranquilizer gun on him.
    Kiba continues to fight, even though he is becoming weary, and Jagara calls to him. He defeats the soldiers, but is injured. Jagara continues to call him, for he is the wolf chosen by the flower.

Episode 25: Memory of a Mistake

    Hubb awakes while Tsume tries to get out of his cell. Tsume is pounding on his prison bars, and the beating is what woke Hubb up. The old woman next to Tsume tells him that her entire pack had been captured. She is a wolf, and she tells him to stop trying, because it will only hurt him. She explains that everyone was caught, except for the ones with the collars. She says that they sold out their own kind. Tsume thinks back to Hige’s own collar and realizes that Hige is one of them.
    Hige’s collar is activated and his headaches begin again. As he staggers he gets weaker until he finally falls unconscious. When he wakes up once more, he asks Blue to remove it.
    The old woman tells Tsume that their pack was welcoming to strange wolves, and that’s why they took Hige in. However, when they did, soldiers began coming after them and attacking.
    Blue attacks Hige’s collar but it won’t come off or break. He recognizes now that all his memories aren’t real. Two guards appear and start attacking them, and Blue starts defending them. As they shoot at the two wolves, a stray bullet hits Hige’s collar and it breaks. They manage to escape.
    Quent is still aimlessly wandering around the city, when he meets up with some wolf hunters. When he asks them why they still continue to hunt wolves, they tell him that it’s to keep their country safe.
    Toboe is brought to a cell near Tsume and Hubb. When the guards throw him in a cage, they take the old woman away. They shoot at her with their weapons, and the rest of the pack must watch helplessly as she is sent to her death.
    Hubb is becoming more and more aware, and he finally understands that Tsume is a wolf. When asked why they would imprison a human, Hubb tells the wolves that he had been with Cheza. Toboe is panicking like crazy, saying that they will all die. Tsume tries to comfort him by telling him that they will make it to Paradise.
    Kiba walks up a long flight of stairs, heading to Cheza. At the top, Cheza is in a green pod, unconscious. Just as he reaches her, Jagara appears and captures Kiba. In the fight, Cheza’s pod breaks open and all the liquid falls out.
    In the city, Cher is searching for Blue. When she notices some trucks, she decides to follow them. They lead her to the castle’s entrance, where Lord Darcia is killing Jagara’s guards using his wolf eye. Cher follows him in.
    At the same time, Quent is making a big scene, yelling out that wolves are everywhere. He is very drunk, but that doesn’t stop the surrounding soldiers from beating him up. When they finally walk away, all they say is, "No time for random people. Paradise is about to be opened."
    Jagara is preparing for her last ritual. Kiba is tied up in wires, but still conscious. Jagara plans on feeding his blood into the Lunar Power Plant. Kiba and Cheza are not even in the same room, but he can still communicate with her. He asks Cheza to sing, and when she does, Tsume and Toboe hear her. This makes them try even harder to break free.
    Jagara enters the room where Cheza is deep in a spherical cell. The room is filled with people and they clap when Jagara enters.
    Hige has chosen to stop running and heads out to help the rest of the pack. He feels he got them into this mess, so he should at least try to get them out of it. At the castle entrance, he asks Blue to wait outside for him. He tells her it’s so he’ll make sure he’ll come back.
    As Jagara dances for her final ritual, Darcia enters. He walks towards her and everyone else in the room faints, possibly dead.
    In the other room, Kiba, exhausted and weak, breathes out Cheza’s name.

Episode 26: Moonlight Power Plant

    Two-hundred years ago, Darcia the First tried to open the gates of Paradise, and failed. The effort cost him his life. Before the final ritual, everything that happened was written in the Book of the Moon, which said that the blood of a wolf would awaken the Lunar Flower, revealing the path to Paradise. Paradise was meant for the wolves only, but the nobles want it for themselves. In the Lost City, the city of Jagara, a moonlight plan changes the moonlight to energy, which feeds the city.
    Jagara stands before Darcia, both in masks. Darcia removes his, and both the mask and his wild hair fall to the ground. Jagara does the same, revealing long blonde locks and a face identical to Harmona, Darcia dead love. She remembers a time when Harmona and her were best friends, sharing everything with each other. Then Darcia came and took Harmona away. Jagara also fell in love with Darcia, but he would only love Harmona. She admits to murdering her diseased sister, but claims she did it because she loved them both so much. She asks that Darcia dance with her, dance the last ritual to open Paradise. He complies, and the city is plunged into darkness, and Paradise prepares to open.
    Meanwhile, Blue watches as the city descends into chaos as power fails.
    Cher, who had followed Darcia in, watches Cheza try to bloom, but begin to wither instead. She tries to open the capsule holding Cheza, but the machine shocks her. Kiba calls for Cheza, saying that he can no longer hear her sing.
    Hubb’s cell is across from Tsume and Toboe’s, and as they try to break free, he notices that the power is fluctuating. He instructs them to hit the bars at a certain time, and they break free. Hige appears, saying that he hadn’t needed to rescue them anyway. Tsume confronts him about the stuffed dogs. He accuses Hige of betraying his own kind and becoming the Noble’s lap dog. Hige becomes agitated and says he doesn’t remember anything like that. Toboe tells him to stop being like that and act like Hige again. Hige, his anger gone, says that he can’t be like himself if he doesn’t know who he is to begin with. Toboe says that Hige’s kind, funny, reliable, and a great friend. All Hige says is that he has to do something, and begins running out. Toboe follows him, and Tsume begins to. Tsume hesitates, and opens Hubb’s prison before chasing after the two wolves.
    Blue, watching the city and waiting for Hige, sees Quent. She goes up to him and they talk, but he doesn’t realize it’s her. All he sees is her human form. She asks him where he’s from, and when he says "Curious", she replies that she heard the soldiers bragging about torching the town. He yells at her, claiming that it was all the wolves’ fault. When he turns away, she calls after him, this time calling him "Pops". He turns around to see Blue, his Blue, and runs back to her. He hugs her, and asks why she calls him that. She tells him that it’s because he’s the only thing that ever acted like a father to her.
    Cheza is saying her last goodbye to Kiba. She knows that she is withering, and wants to tell him goodbye. This gives him the strength to break free of the tubes holding him, and begins to run after her. He runs in an almost gravity-defying fashion. As he runs, flashbacks of when Darcia the First tried to open Paradise play. Darcia the First created Paradise, synthesized it, rather than truly opening it.
    Jagara tells Darcia that they should go to Paradise together, stopping time. She says that Paradise has no future, it is simply a place to remember. Darcia, with his wolf’s eye, can tell that this is not Paradise. Angered, he shifts into a wolf and bites her. This "Paradise" is closed.
    Cher, who had been trying to touch the computer and free Cheza, finally manages it. Cheza falls into her arms and Cher holds her.
    The present Darcia and Jagara begin to fight. As her palace falls around her, Jagara stabs Darcia with a dagger. They both take out swords and begin to fight again when Darcia falls to his knees. The dagger was poisoned. Jagara raises her sword to deliver the killing blow, but before she can, Hige appears and attacks her. Blood spurts everywhere, and as Hige is running from Jagara, she throws her sword at him. Blood flows from him and he falls. Cheza, weakened, feels Kiba and cries out. Everyone looks, and there is his. The beautiful white wolf is standing in the doorway. As he runs to attack Jagara, he says that he’s here to reclaim their Paradise.
    Kiba and Hige attack her, but she fights them off. Finally, Kiba bites her throat, leaving a gaping hole. The blood covers her clothes and she falls. As she reaches to Darcia, he goes to hold her. She gasps, for he stabbed her with a sword, hidden in his cloak. Jagara is dead.
    Darcia, becoming stronger and stronger as he walks, tells Kiba that he is the chosen one. He tells the wolves that he’ll meet them in Paradise. He holds out an orb and says that they don’t call for Paradise. Paradise calls for them.

Episode 27: OVA: Soul's Whereabouts

    The Book of the Moon says, "The time has come for this world to end. It's as if the ice is purifying this world in order to return to the beginning of time."
    Jagara’s castle has crumbled, but her soldiers still stand. No one, no matter their intentions, makes it past them. The Lost City is painted red with blood.
    Hige goes to the place where Blue was supposed to wait for him, and finds nothing. He panics, thinking something bad has happened to her. Tsume makes a comment that he didn’t expect anything from her. Cheza tries to heal his wound, even though she is weak, and Hige tells Kiba to make her stop. He looks very depressed and has a hard time walking because of his injury. When Kiba tries to help him, he shakes him. Kiba then tells Hige that once, a little while ago, a smart wolf told him that pride only gets in the way, and that you should accept help while it is offered. Hige, surprised, then allowed himself to be half-carried by Kiba as they continued walking.
    Having already escaped the city, Blue and Quent are walking and talking. Quent is still feeling the injuries from the soldiers, and he isn’t going very fast. It’s very cold, and snowing, when a car appears. It’s speeding, but Quent starts waving his hands, trying to get it to stop. Blue is standing right in the path of the truck, and to save her, Quent jumps in front of it. He gets hit.
    Also escaped from the city, Hubb and Cher are walking, both covered in one blanket. Hubb spots a truck a short distance away, and the blanket is drifts away on in the wind as they run to it.
    When they reach the car, a disgusting scene greets them. There are three bloody corpses in and on the truck, all sporting bullet holes. One guy is hanging out of the door. The truck, which looks like a military truck with a covered back, is empty. The guys, who were probably looters, judging from the jewels in the glove compartment, were smoking and seemed to be celebrating something. Hubb wonders what. Hubb kicks out the dead bodies and starts the car. He turns to Cher and asks, "Where do we have to go?"
    The car doesn’t have much gas, but they get pretty far until Hubb has to slam on his brakes. Quent is lying on the ground, unconscious, with Blue hovering over him. Cher examines Quent and tells Blue not to worry, because he won’t die. He does, however, need to rest. The build a fire and talk a little. When they get in the car, Cher and Hubb stay in the cab and Blue and Quent take up the back. Cher tells Hubb about the fake Paradise that she had seen while in Jagara’s castle. She says that only wolves deserve to live in the real Paradise. Taking out one of the cigars he found Hubb comments that Paradise was probably why those men were celebrating. They don’t talk for a while, until Cher admits that she thinks she knows why they could never conceive. She explains that on some sub-conscious level, they must have known that the world was ending. They knew that it would be no place to bring up a child. She had already given up hope. Hubb says that he never thought that they’d be together again, and here they are! His dreams had come true, so he would keep hoping. He says that he always wants to believe in the future. Then Blue tells them to stop the car.
    Hige, as a wolf, falls. His injury and the absence of Blue have made him weak, and he refuses to even try anymore. Then, Blue appears, and his strength returns. They hug and join up with the other humans. Kiba gives Cheza to Cher to hold in the car. The wolves, minus Blue and Hige, run besides the truck. When Cheza wakes up, her first question is ‘Where’s Kiba?’ Cher says that he is running outside and Cheza falls back asleep, smiling.
    A lightning bolt, or something more supernatural, hits and causes Hubb to lose control of the car. The wolves jump out of the way as the car swerves and flips on the side. Blue, Hige, and Quent climb out from the back, and Hubb climbs out from the front. Cher passes Cheza to Hubb, but before she herself can climb out, the ice below cracks. Before Hubb can even turn around, the ice breaks and falls to ground below, taking Cher and the car with it.
    Once everyone makes it down to the ravine where the car had landed, Hubb is the first to get to the car. He pulls out Cher’s body, which is thankfully still alive. He talks to her tearfully, promising to start a family, bake bread, and even have a bird. He says that he’s not losing hope that she will survive. She smiles at him and tells him not to worry. She gives him her scarf, smiling. Then she becomes quiet. Cher is gone.
    Hubb cries and screams and yells. Gently picking up her body, he slides it into the river, where it sinks to bottom. He jumps up and heads to the truck. It is still on its side and he begins to push it, trying to get it to stand right side up. He struggles for a little while as the rest of the group watches, unsure about what to do. Finally, Kiba stands next to him and begins to push as well. Hubb pauses only for a moment. The rest of the wolves join them until the truck stands up properly. Hubb pauses, exhausted. The wolves haven’t even broken a sweat. He says to them, deadpan, that he’ll take them as far as he can. He says that he doesn’t promise to bring them all the way, but as long as he can keep going, he will. He’s getting them there.

Episode 28: OVA: Remorseful Gun Sound

    Hubb, as promised, is taking the wolves to Paradise. They are in the in truck from the last episode. Suddenly, Quent begins to gasp fore air. He had been remembering the night where his house and his family burned to the ground. Hige, still injured and resting, calls to the others. Hubb climbs to the back and tries CPR, but it doesn’t work. Cheza tries to resuscitate him, but that doesn’t work either. Before they give up hope, he begins breathing again, on his own. He is fine, but Cheza isn’t. She passes out from the strain. They all decide to rest for a moment.
    Toboe sits in the back with Blue and tells her about the time that he saved Quent. They had been up in the mountains and Quent had been passed out on the snow. He had a fever and was delusional. Toboe had kept him alive with his body heat. Blue can tell that Toboe is jealous of her relationship with Quent. She asks him to promise that if anything happens to her, Toboe will take care of Quent. Finally, the vehicle dies. Hubb picks up Quent and everyone continues the journey on foot.
    Later on, Quent become conscious again. He can’t see or think too well, but can tell that there are others around him. Blue and Hubb explain to him that he is traveling with wolves and the Flower Maiden. Disgusted, he walks away from the group, claiming that Blue is no longer his dog.
    Hubb, the only other human, goes after Quent to reason with him. Although he doesn’t openly say it, you can tell that they only reason Quent left Blue was because he didn’t want to be a burden to her anymore. Hubb continues to pressure him about coming back and staying with her until he finally gets fed up and hits Hubb with his gun. Hubb falls unconscious.
    While Hubb was having his conversation with Quent, Hige went to talk with Blue. They are both afraid that Paradise will reject them. Blue is afraid because she is only half-wolf, and Hige is afraid because he had worked for Jagara and betrayed his pack. They promise that they will stay with each other to the end.
    Quent has left Hubb alone and is walking away, trying to survive on his own. He remembers that fateful day and what Blue told him about Jagara’s soldiers. He still does not believe that it wasn’t wolves that attacked, because he remembered one wolf, a wolf with a single golden eye. Quent continues walking and sees a black wolf in the distance. It is the wolf with the golden eye.
    The pack hears the explosions and sounds of Darcia, and Cheza asks to be taken to the origin of the explosions. Before they head there, Tsume tells Toboe to find the men, and he is going to find Hige and Blue.
    Hubb also wakes up to the explosions. Since he is closer, he feels the aftershock, and the snow around him seems to swallow him up.
    Though the wind is treacherous, Toboe manages to find Quent. He tries to convince the man that not all wolves are bad. Toboe admits that he loves humans. Then, the howling winds stop, and before them is the injured Darcia. Quent, noticing his golden eye, asks him if he’s is wolf or human. Darcia tells him ‘neither’. He says he is a noble who wants to rid the Earth of the filthy organisms called humans. He points his gun at Quent and Toboe snarls at him. A gunshot is heard. Toboe’s body falls to the ground, motionless. Quent goes to him, shocked and horrified. He begins to sob, clutching Toboe’s body, while Darcia towers over them both. Another gunshot is heard.

Episode 29: OVA: High Tide, High Time

    Quent is saved when Toboe jumps up, miraculously still alive, and bites Darcia’s arm viciously. All Darcia says is that he no longer feels pain, due to the poison from Jagara’s blade. He tosses Toboe away. Quent grabs Darcia’s gun and shoots him in the shoulder, but Darcia shows no reaction.
    Darcia tells Quent the history of humans, "You are wolves who degenerated into humans. You can’t change back into your old form anymore." Darcia takes back his gun and aims at Quent. Without any hesitation, he shoots Quent, directly into his chest. Then, he walks away.
    Toboe crawls to Quent’s quickly dying body. He tells Quent that he sorry he couldn’t keep his promise to Blue. He asks if he can still rest by Quent’s side. As life leaves him, Toboe dreams of his Granny and his past, happier, life. It is only here that Quent realizes that it was Toboe who saved him from freezing to death in them mountains. Death comes while he holds Toboe close to him, the wolf already gone. Tsume, Kiba, and Cheza find the bodies. Tsume, who could not find Hige or Blue, grieves for the both of them. Kiba chases after Darcia.
    The howling winds are back, making Hubb’s quest for the others difficult. He turns quickly, and sees Darcia right behind him. Darcia takes Hubb by the throat and lifts him, making his feet dangle. Kiba arrives just in time to save Hubb. Kiba turns to Darcia and asks him what is waiting for. Darcia has not hidden the fact that he has the orb that will open Paradise. Darcia looks at Kiba and responds simply, "You."
    By the times Kiba and Hubb come back to the bodies, everyone else has made it there as well. They are all in different stages of grieving. Hubb and Cheza are sobbing, while Hige and Blue are a mix of horror and sadness. Quent manages to give Blue one last smile before he drifts away, forever.
    Darkness falls, and Kiba says that they must get going. Cheza says that the Tree or Beginnings is close by, and agrees with him. Everyone promises each other to go as far as they can, even if they cannot make it all the way to Paradise. Tsume asks if he can stay a little while back to talk to Toboe.
    Tsume answers the question that Toboe was always asking. He says that he got his scar because it is a mark of his sin. When he was in a pack, they were attacked. He ran away, and many were killed. When he tried to come back, he was kicked out. The pack leader bit his chest. He left, and was alone for a long time. So he began believing that he didn’t friends or family, and that he could survive on his own. Then he met Toboe, Kiba, and Hige. Tsume tearfully asks Quent to look after Toboe. Then he turns away and runs back to Kiba.
    The rest of the group has been climbing a frozen mountain to get to the Tree of Beginnings. As they arrive at the tree, Cheza absorbs the life it is offering her. Then, a beautiful, colorful aura covers the sky. Hubb pulls out the Book of the Moon and says that this is the Door of the Seal. The Nobles created it to block the wolves’ Paradise. Kiba says that they must get past it before Darcia does, or there will be no future. Blue asks Hubb how the book describes Paradise, and Hubb says that the last pages are blank. Cheza points upwards and says that the Mountain of Beginnings in the entrance to Paradise.
    They continue climbing, but an earthquake causes Hubb to lose his grip. He holds on to a jagged ledge while Kiba tries to help him. He refuses Kiba’s help and says that this is as far as he goes. Before he lets go he tells Kiba that he believes that Kiba will be the one to open the New World. He lets go. Tsume tries to save him, but it doesn’t help. Hubb is falling in slow motion and hits the ice below with a sickening thud. He has enough energy in him to take out the cigar he found in the looter’s truck, stick it in his mouth, and clutch the scarf Cher had given him before she died. While the fall should have killed him, it didn’t. It’s possibly that he suffocated himself with the cigar and the scarf, just to be with Cher again.
    All is quiet until a deep voice says, "And then the beast appears."
    Kiba turns around and stares into the face of the black wolf.

Episode 30: OVA: Wolf's Rain

    Darcia appears as a large red wolf and makes a move towards Cheza. The remaining wolves try to fight him off. Blue and Hige are fatally wounded by Darcia and lie next to one another. Darcia grabs Cheza and carries her to the top of the mountain. Kiba follows. Blue dies.
    Tsume appears and finds Hige close to death. Hige asks Tsume to finish him off and Tsume reluctantly breaks Hige's neck. Darcia holds Cheza in his mouth and bites her. She calls for Kiba. Darcia throws Cheza to one side and Kiba and Darcia begin to fight ferociously.
    Just as things are looking bad for Kiba, Tsume joins the fight and attacks Darcia.
    The fighting ceases for a short while and Cheza begins to climb to the edge of the crater. Kiba and Darcia race to stop her. Tsume attacks Darcia again. Cheza falls backwards into the crater and spins downwards into the darkness.
    Kiba goes to help Tsume but Tsume tells him to go after Darcia and leave him be. Kiba does so and Tsume howls before dying. Kiba leaps down into the crater.
    We see the red moon above and Cheza lying on the ground. Darcia mentions that this is the place closest to the moon. Darcia and Kiba talk before fighting again. Cheza begins to take root.
    Darcia grabs Kiba by the throat and throws him. Darcia then notices Cheza and walks towards her. Kiba tries to stop him. He fails and Darcia uproots Cheza and throws her.
    Kiba begs Darcia to stop and limps towards him. Darcia vomits the green liquid that came from Cheza and Cheza says that this is poison.
    Darcia is not protected by the flower so he was poisoned. Darcia staggers but then sees a spot that he believes is the entrance to rakuen. He steps on the spot and is obliterated. Only his yellow eyeball remains.
    Kiba collapses but reawakens as Cheza calls him. Cheza begins to wilt and Kiba sits with her. She says that the world will soon freeze over.
    Cheza holds Kiba and then dissolves into hundreds of seeds. Kiba is distraught and yells into the sky.
    It begins to snow and we see the bodies of Quent and the wolves freeze over. Kiba holds what remains of Cheza and begins walking. He collapses and we see a scene similar to the opening of the first episode. The world freezes over and closes.
    The snow turns to rain and falls on The Book of the Moon and the seeds that came from Cheza. The seeds begin to sprout and the blank pages of The Book of the Moon begins to fill with pictures of flowers. Lunar flowers open.
    Where there was once snow there is now water and lush greenery. Kiba is seen lying on top of a blue-green lake. Flowers bloom all around him as he sinks into the water. As he looks up he sees the moon turn white. Kiba drowns. The world becomes beautiful and bountiful. However, Darcia's eyeball seeps dark blue liquid that poisons a flower, perhaps as a way of showing that evil will always exist even in the most perfect world.
    We see rain falling on a gloomy city similar to the scenes in the opening of most of the episodes. We see the four wolves in human form and a lunar flower in a filthy alleyway. Kiba begins to run and the episode finishes.