Chapter 14: New Pack

Humphrey didn’t get any sleep for the rest of the night. The pain coming from his tail and the heavy downpour from the storm made sure of it. He laid there all night until the storm eventually began to let up just as the sun was beginning to rise. And yet still, he was powerless to free himself.

Humphrey remained stuck under the tree until around midday, the world seemingly continuing along without him. He was slowly beginning to give up hope that he would ever get free.

Unbeknownst to Humphrey, not a five-minute walk from where he was trapped, there resided a wolf pack that had been hit fairly hard by the storm. The Northern Pack was led by Owen, an alpha who knew how to lead by example and was greatly respected by almost every wolf in the pack.

Owen’s young son, Kyle, was around the same age as Humphrey and unlike the other pups in the pack, he had been intrigued by the passing storm. Sometime late at night, the pack heard a tremendously loud sound as a lightning bolt struck just outside of their borders. When morning came, Kyle asked his father if he could go and look at the damage. Owen agreed as long as he stayed within the pack borders. Kyle didn’t listen, of course, but that decision would soon prove to save Humphrey’s life.

Humphrey was laying, pinned beneath the tree, simply waiting for the end when he heard leaves rustling in the woods, not far from where he was trapped. He called out for help and soon enough, another young wolf pup emerged from the forest. The pup was surprised to find him lying there.

“Oh my gosh!” the pup exclaimed. “Are you alright?”

“Can’t say that I am,” Humphrey replied. “I am actually in a staggering amount of pain.”

“What’s your name?” the pup asked.

“I’m Humphrey,” he said. “Who are you?”

“I’m Kyle.”

“Where’s your pack?” Humphrey asked.

“Not too far away,” Kyle said. “My dad’s the leader.”

“Can you go get him to help?” Humphrey asked Kyle.

“Sure thing, Humphrey,” Kyle said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right back.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Humphrey joked.

About ten minutes later, Kyle returned with four other alphas.

“Humphrey,” Kyle said. “This is my dad, Owen.”

“Great,” Humphrey said, sarcastically. “That’s great. But can we save the introductions for later, please?”

“Right, sorry.”

Owen looked Humphrey over for a moment, assessing the extent to which he was trapped.

“This won’t be easy,” he said. “His tail’s been crushed pretty bad.”

“Obviously,” Humphrey replied.

“This is going to take some thinking,” Owen said.

Owen and the other three alphas stood in a group, trying to figure out how to get Humphrey free from the fallen tree. It took almost a half hour of trial-and-error, but they finally came up with a successful strategy. They knew it was too heavy for two wolves to lift each side, so they decided to have all four lift one side up while Kyle pulled Humphrey out from underneath the tree.

Once Humphrey was free, the extent of the damage to his tail became much more visible. When the tree fell on him, it pretty much completely crushed his tail. It had also almost completely cut off the blood flow to his tail. The little bit of blood that was able to reach it is what managed to just barely keep it from dying. The blood that oozed from his tail had dried to the tree overnight, so when it was lifted off, it pulled quite a bit of fur out with it. The sight of the crushed and bloodied tail caused everyone to stop and stare for a moment. Eventually, Owen was the one who finally broke the silence.

“We need to get him back to the pack,” Owen said. “Apart from being badly hurt, he appears to be extremely malnourished, like he hasn’t had a proper meal in weeks.”

Humphrey was too weak to reply. He only moaned in pain. Just then, one of the alphas spoke up.

“No way,” he said. “There’s no way we’re taking in a…a stray. We have enough of a food shortage as it is, we can’t afford to have another mouth to feed. Besides, he probably won’t make it anyway.”

“Oh, shut it,” Owen said. “We’ll make do with what we have.” Owen carefully picked up Humphrey and began to carry him back to the pack as Kyle and the other three alphas followed.

When the sun rose, the Mysterious Man rose with it. The storm had done considerable damage to his camp during the night, so he was forced to remain behind and clean up, despite how much he wanted to get under way.

It took many long and arduous hours for the man to clean up everything. Some of his possessions had been strewn all over and it had taken him up to an hour of searching to find some of them. When he finally finished and set out once more to hunt his quarry, it was around midday and he had a lot of ground to make up for.

It didn’t take long, but the man eventually came across the fallen tree that Humphrey had been stuck under just moments before he had arrived. He was a very smart man and soon determined that, judging from how far away the tree was from his campsite, and by how loud the lightning strike was, he soon determined that this was the tree that was struck by the lightning bolt that woke him up the previous night. But then he noticed something about where the tree had fallen. The small wolf prints he had been following intersected with where the tree had fallen. And, more importantly, they stopped right where the tree was laying before being replaced with four larger sets of prints. Upon closer inspection of the tree itself, he noticed tufts of wolf fur stuck to the bark of the tree with dried blood on them.

It didn’t take long for the man to put two-and-two together and he soon realized that the pup he was tracking got stuck under the tree in the middle of the night, and that when the lightning woke him up, he had the perfect opportunity to go and get him, but instead, he chose to go back to sleep.

This infuriated and frustrated the man immensely knowing that he had the perfect chance to finally get this surprisingly elusive wolf pup for which he had so much hate for, yet he let it pass without even knowing it. And now, judging from the four larger sets of wolf prints, the pup, yet again, had more protection.

He followed the tracks into the woods until he came across exactly what he didn’t want to find. There, deep in the woods, lay an entire pack of wolves. The man quickly noticed the pup he had been after, being carefully carried in the mouth of one of the wolves. Even from a distance, the man could tell that the pup had been badly injured in the storm. Yet there was nothing the man could do now but wait. Again. Instead of one coyote to protect him, the pup now had an entire pack. But the man would not give up so easily.

He swore to get revenge on the wolves who killed his parents, but now that they were gone, this pup was his only remaining chance to finish what he had started so many years ago. Of course, there was still the purple one back in the town, but despite his extreme hatred toward these wolves, he didn’t want to do anything that would end with him getting into trouble with law enforcement. And breaking into someone’s house and stealing their pet would certainly do that.

Then there was the oldest one who ran off with the rest of the pack during the attack. The man knew going after him would be suicide now. After what happened, the pack would be more hostile to humans than ever. He also knew that they would have wolves patrolling the perimeter of their new territory, 24/7. If he was spotted or if one of the wolves caught his scent, it wouldn’t matter how good of a fighter he was, he’d be dead in less than ten seconds. His only option was to wait for the opportunity to present itself. For now, the man simply went back to his campsite and began planning his next move while the pup was accepted into his new pack.