Chapter 4: Learning to Howl

The winter three years later was a very snowy one for Jasper and Humphrey and Gary had been going logboarding nearly every day. They were having a great winter together, sliding down the hill, getting snow whipped up in their faces, and still crashing into rocks at the bottom. Braking was still a problem, and the logboard they had been using was getting battered and was staring to chip away in some spots.

Ever since last winter, Martha and Gary had been very busy with Humphrey and Adam’s younger sister, who they had named Kenya. She was a very unique omega who had shocked everyone the moment she was born. When Humphrey and Gary rushed back to their home to see Martha and the new pup, what they saw was completely unexpected. There, lying next to Martha, not even a minute old, was a purple wolf pup. Gary was astonished. Humphrey even more so, for he had heard the stories of his ancestors that had vibrant purple coats, but he never fully believed them. At least not until now.

There was a large group gathered around Martha and her newborn, because in a pack as small as theirs, word tends to travel almost instantly and soon, the entire pack was marveling at the young purple wolf Martha had just delivered.

Kenya’s fur coat was a beautifully vibrant purple that stood out against everything else around her. Her mane, short as it was, was a gorgeous violet with strands of fur hanging down below her small ears and curling forward just below her jawline. The fur on her face was a lighter tone of her purple hue and it matched her beautiful purple eyes perfectly. The fur on her body was also covered with the same, lighter shade of purple and her chest and underside were covered with very light, almost white, purple fur. Kenya’s snout was short and broad but would later narrow out as she grew into an adult.

By the time Kenya’s first birthday rolled around, Humphrey’s parents finally began to have more free time to spend away from the den. Humphrey and Gary seized this opportunity to have a little bit of father-son bonding on the hill.

But now it was time for Humphrey to get a lesson from Martha. Humphrey had become great at playing and Gary had taught him well. But now it was Martha’s turn, and she had something very special to teach him, something that would go on to help him win over the wolf of his dreams. It was time for Humphrey to learn how to howl.

Martha took Humphrey to a small clearing in the forest where the sun shone down upon the white snow and the presence of trees was totally absent. They sat down in the center of the clearing, in a spot where the sun’s light was particularly warm against their cold fur.

“Knowing how to howl is very important, Humphrey,” Martha told him. “It lets everyone know where you are in case you need to find them quickly and it will also help keep other wolves from getting too close if you don’t want them to come near. But most importantly,” here she leaned down toward Humphrey’s ear a little bit.

“It’ll help attract girls. When you’re old enough, of course.”

She smiled at Humphrey who laughed a little.

“It’s true,” she said, happily.

After all, it was Gary’s magnificent, if somewhat unorthodox howl that had first attracted her all those years ago. That was also the reason why she was doing this and not Gary. It may have been his howl that brought them together, but it was Martha’s responding howl that had made their relationship permanent.

“Now,” she said, beginning to get underway. “The most important thing to remember when producing a strong howl, is to channel it from your heart. Reach inwards and let your emotions guide your howl. Like this.”

Then, Martha gave out a beautiful, harmonious howl that resonated throughout the forest. The tone produced was unlike anything Humphrey had ever heard before. It was a very angelic sound, Martha’s howl. It had a happy, joyous tone to it, and yet, there was something more to it, something that Humphrey couldn’t quite place that made him feel warm inside. It seemed happy, yet calming at the same time, as if a wave of peace had washed over him and all the tension inside of him was suddenly released. To say it was beautiful would’ve been an understatement. It was simply, indescribably wondrous.

“Wow,” Humphrey gasped, still mesmerized as the breathtaking howl slowly began to die off and the forest turned quiet once more.

“Now it’s your turn,” Martha said.

“Okay,” Humphrey said, nervously.

He tried to do what his mother said, to let his howl come from his heart. Humphrey inhaled, paused for a moment, and then let out the best howl he could. It started out pretty well, but he was trying too hard and eventually pushed himself to the point where the howl’s pitch began to fluctuate, going up and down rapidly and then it ended in high note that made his chest sting and Humphrey began to cough. It wouldn’t be the last time this would happen in his life. It would just be a very long time, many years later, that he would hurt himself while howling as part of a distraction to save one of his own pups.

“Oh, ow!” he exclaimed.

“It’s okay,” Martha said. “Your father sounded the exact same way when I met him.” She then made another remark, more to herself this time. “He still does.”

She turned back to Humphrey.

“Don’t force it out so much. Make it sound smoother, with just one breath.”

“I’m trying,” he replied.

“Don’t try, just do,” Martha said.

“But…wait,” Humphrey said, confused. “W-what does that even mean? How can I do something if I don’t try to do it?”

“All it means,” Martha explained. “Is that if all you do is try; it means you don’t truly believe you can succeed. So instead of trying, You may fail, but at least you gave it your all.”

“I, think I understand.”

“Let’s see if you do.”

All the rest of that week, Martha and Humphrey would go to the clearing and practice Humphrey’s howling, and eventually, it did get better. By the end of the week, Martha decided that it was good enough for them to stop practicing.

On their last day in the clearing, while heading back from practice, Humphrey and Martha were having a nice little mother-son talk.

“You know, Mom,” Humphrey was saying. “You’re really very different from Dad.”

“Really?” Martha asked. “How so?”

“Well,” Humphrey hesitated. “Uh…just, um. Okay, don’t take this the wrong way, but, Dad likes to have more fun and you’re more serious.”

“So, you’re saying I’m not fun?” Martha asked, smiling.

“Um, in a sense.”

The two were now arriving back at the den and when they got there, they noticed Gary a couple of feet away with his back to them, unaware that they were there.

“Not fun, you say?” Martha asked. She leaned down and whispered in Humphrey’s ear.

“Watch…this.”

Martha went ahead a little, while Humphrey stayed back. Martha turned around and faced Humphrey. She looked behind her and saw that Gary still had no idea that she was behind him. She turned back to Humphrey and smiled. Then, using her back legs, she kicked up a bunch of snow onto Gary, who was caught completely by surprise. Martha kept kicking up snow and buried Gary under a pile of it.

Gary started calling out to her.

“Okay, okay! Stop, stop, stop.”

Martha quit and rushed over to him with a happy grin on her face, followed by Humphrey who was laughing hysterically. They both stood over the snow-covered Gary, laughing. Then Martha turned to Humphrey.

“And you say I’m not fun?”

“Ha, ha. Very funny,” Gary said, sarcastically. “Can I get up now?”

The two laughing wolves began to dig Gary out of the snowbank. When enough snow had been removed, Gary got up and shook the rest off.

“Very funny, you two,” he said, turning around to face them. He looked at them both with a playful smirk on his face.

Without saying a word, Gary reached out with his back leg and kicked a small, nearby tree, which dropped a load of snow onto Martha and Humphrey. He walked up to them laughing and soon all three of them burst out with a bout of laughter that echoed throughout the woods. Kenya and Adam came running up to see what was going on, only to find their parents and their brother playing around in the snow.

The two jumped into the large pile of snow that Martha and Humphrey were stuck in, digging around and tunneling through it, and soon, the entire family was happily enjoying themselves in the snow. It would be the last, truly happy moment they would ever have together as the same man who was watching them during Kenya and Humphrey’s birth, began to walk away and head off toward the nearby human town.