This was something that I did for my writing class last year and it ended up being a bit different from the original Missing Parents so I decided to share it.

It was a calm day at Jasper Park in the Western Pack. The pack of wolves were going about their day, but in the den of the leader, there was much excitement. It was Father’s Day and Kate and her husband, Humphrey, were busy getting ready for her parents to arrive. Kate’s sister, Lilly, and her husband, Garth, had come to help as well. Humphrey was busy keeping their three pups, Stinky, Claudette, and Runt out of trouble.

It wasn’t too long before Kate’s parents, Winston and Eve, showed up and everyone began talking.

“Hey, dad,” Humphrey’s youngest pup, Runt, said to his father, “are you going to visit your dad today?”

Humphrey suddenly froze at the mention of his father.

“Yeah, you never talk about your parents,” his oldest pup, Stinky, said. “Why?”

“I-” Humphrey stuttered, “uh, they’re...not really in the picture.”

“Why not?” the middle pup, Claudette, asked.

“We were separated when I was very young,” Humphrey replied. “I don’t know what happened to them.”

The rest of the day passed without much excitement, but Kate could tell something was wrong with Humphrey. He wasn’t his usual, playful, fun-loving self for the rest of the day.

That night, Kate was awoken by Humphrey talking in his sleep. He was clearly having a nightmare about his parents. Kate wanted to help him. She hated seeing him like this. And then she got an idea.

The next morning, Kate approached Humphrey and asked about the night before. He said it was nothing to worry about, but she couldn’t help it.

“Humphrey,” she said, “it’s not alright. This is clearly bothering you, and I hate seeing you like this. We’re going to find your parents.”

Humphrey’s ears perked up a few moments before he did.

“Seriously?” he asked.

“Seriously,” Kate replied. “I’ve already put together a team. We can leave right now.”

“Kate,” Humphrey began, “I-I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

The two shared a quick nuzzle before heading off to get the rest of the team.

The group was made up of Kate and Humphrey, along with Garth, Lilly, and a blind wolf with excellent hearing named Daria. While Stinky, Claudette, and Runt weren’t supposed to come, they kept pushing until Kate eventually gave in. By the time the morning was over, the group left the pack on their quest to find Humphrey’s parents.

They started near the pack border where Humphrey had been brought in by two wolves over twenty years ago. With Humphrey’s foggy memory and Stinky’s incredible sense of smell, they slowly began retracing Humphrey’s steps from two decades earlier. The day was as clear as ever and was perfect for a journey through the forest. As time wore on, it began to get warmer and the group would sometimes stop to relax in the spots of sunlight that broke through the trees. Eventually, Stinky stopped.

“What is it, Stinky?” Lilly asked.

“I smell a pack up ahead,” he replied, “over that hill.”
The group looked up at the hill that was directly in front of them.

“Maybe they can help us,” Garth suggested.

“Don’t be too hasty,” Kate replied. “Not all wolf packs are friendly.”

“Wait,” Claudette said suddenly, “where’s Runt?”

Everyone looked around, but it wasn’t long before they spotted him at the top of a tall tree, looking over the hill.

“Runt!” Kate shouted up to him. “Get down here!”

Humphrey only smiled. “My son,” he thought to himself, “the tree-hugger.”

“Well, what do you see?” Garth asked.

“I see a wolf pack,” Runt began.

“Well, we knew that,” Claudette interrupted.

“It’s quite a big one too,” Runt finished before sliding down the tree.

The group began heading over the hill toward the wolf pack, hoping they might be able to help them or at least offer shelter for the night, since the sun was quickly setting. Once they reached the top, Humphrey noticed a fallen tree at the bottom and suddenly ran toward it. The others soon followed him.

“Humphrey,” Kate said, a little sternly, “don’t just run off like that. Please. I’m already worried about you, I don’t need it getting worse.”

“Sorry, Kate,” he replied.

“So, what’s so special about this tree, anyway?” Lilly asked.

“It almost fell on me,” Humphrey replied. “I was wandering through the woods about two months after I was separated from my parents and there was a terrible storm. Lightning struck the tree and I found shelter with this pack.”

“Wait,” Daria said, “I hear someone coming.”

Sure enough, a figure slowly appeared in the shadows of the trees.

“What are you doing out here?” the wolf asked.

“Humphrey, we should go,” Kate urged. “For all we know, we could be trespassing on hostile territory.”

“Kate, relax,” Humphrey said. “How hostile could it be?”

“Leave. Now! Or else,” the wolf threatened.

“Is that hostile enough for you?” Kate asked.

The wolf stepped into the light of the full moon and Humphrey immediately recognized his face.

“Owen?” he said in shock.

“Oh, it’s you,” Owen said with a hint of disgust. “I thought I was rid of you.”

“Okay, so you two clearly know each other,” Garth said.

“You could say that,” Owen replied.

“And you clearly didn’t leave on good terms,” Lilly added.

“Not even close,” Humphrey said.

“We could use a place to rest for the night,” Kate spoke up, “if you don’t mind.”

Owen was silent for a moment before replying.

“Fine,” he said. “Follow me.”

Owen led the group into the pack and found a few empty dens for them to sleep in. As they settled down to sleep, Kate and Humphrey stayed up for a moment, silently whispering.

“What happened between you two?” she asked him.

“It’s...complicated,” Humphrey replied. “I was injured, tired, and hadn’t eaten in a while when they brought me in. I was accepted into the pack and lived here for a year or so. And then everything changed.”

“What?” Kate pushed. “What changed?”

“Could you guys be a little quieter, please?” Stinky said.

Humphrey sighed.

“We should get to sleep,” he told Kate. “I’ll explain it in the morning.”

The group rose early the next morning and Humphrey explained his history with Owen in this pack.

“After about a year of living here, I had become good friends with Owen’s son, Kyle. One day I was out logboarding on the hill when Kyle came out of the forest and walked right in the path of the log. There was nothing I could do. I ran into him and ended up breaking his leg. Owen banished me on the spot, and I was back on my own.”

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Owen said as he entered the den. “So, Humphrey, why are you here?”

“I’m looking for my parents,” Humphrey replied.

“Your parents?” Owen repeated. His face remained upset for a moment before it softened with a hint of compassion. “I don’t know how much help I can be,” he said. “From what I can remember, when you came in, you told us you had been living on your own for two months. It did seem like you had been coming from the east, so that would be your best bet.”

“Thanks, Owen,” Humphrey said.

“This doesn’t make us friends, Humphrey,” Owen replied. “I still don’t forgive you for what you did to Kyle. But I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

The group began to head east and traveled for a day or two before coming across something troubling. Stinky noticed a human town at the bottom of a hill they were standing on.

“Cool!” Runt exclaimed. “Let’s go.”

“Great idea, Runt,” Humphrey said, laughing nervously, before leaning over to Lilly. “What do they say about brilliance skipping a generation?”

“Come on,” Kate said, “let’s go find another way around.

The group began to turn and walk away when they noticed that Humphrey was still standing at the top of the hill, looking down at the town.

“Humphrey, come on,” Kate said.

She then noticed his nose twitching. He clearly smelled something, but the strange part was that she couldn’t. Not even Stinky was picking up on anything.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I’m picking up on something strangely familiar,” he replied. He then turned to Kate. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I have to go down there.”

“Are you crazy?” Garth asked.

“Does anyone ever say ‘yes’ to that question?” Humphrey replied before running down the hill toward the town.

The group followed him and stopped when he reached the fenced backyard of a house with a doghouse in it.

“Humphrey,” Kate whispered loudly, “what are you doing? We can’t be here.”

“Humphrey?” a voice from inside the doghouse said.
The two turned and looked as a purple dog walked out with a chain attached to her collar. However, she didn’t look like a dog. More like a wolf instead.

“Humphrey,” she said again, “is that you?”

Humphrey’s eyes suddenly widened with shock as he immediately recognized who he was looking at.

“Kenya.”

“I’m sorry, who?” Kate asked.

“Kenya,” Humphrey repeated, still looking at Kenya, “my little sister.”

“I thought I lost you,” she said, crying.

“Me too,” Humphrey replied. “Don’t worry, we’re going to get you out of there.

“Okay, but how?” Lilly asked. “There’s no way into that yard.”

Humphrey looked behind him at the hill and smiled when he got an idea.

“Then we’ll just have to make our own way in,” he said.

He ran up the hill a little bit until he reached a large shell of tree bark he planned to use as a sled.

“You really are insane,” Garth said.

“Well, thank goodness for that because if I wasn’t, this would probably never work,” Humphrey replied grinning. “Now get out of the way.”

Humphrey rode the logboard down the hill and crashed through the chain-link fence. He then rushed over to Kenya and dug out the stake that she was chained to. The two siblings then rushed back up the hill away from the town with the rest of the group. They made sure to get a fair distance away before stopping and resting for the night.

The next morning when the group woke up, Humphrey instantly recognized the area they were in.

“This is where we were taken from our parents,” he said.

“Humphrey,” Kate said, “we need to talk. I hate to tell you this, but we should head back. We haven’t seen any caribou or moose or anything to eat for a while and I never told dad where we were going so he’s going to be worrying about us.”

“What? No, I can’t give up, Kate,” Humphrey said. “Not when I’m so close.”

“We don’t have much of a choice, Humphrey,” Kate replied. “We don’t know where to go from here.”

Humphrey began to get mad.

“Fine, then,” he said. “If you don’t want to help me, then just go home. I’ll do it myself.”

“Humphrey,” Kate said, sadly.

“I can’t give up and forget them, Kate,” Humphrey continued. “They’re some of the only family I have left, and I have to find them.”

“Humphrey, I-” Kate began.

“Just go.”

Everyone was surprised at this. Kate and Humphrey had always been a happy couple and had never fought or argued. Kate looked at Humphrey for a moment, a sad look in her eyes before she closed her eyes, dropped her ears, and lowered her head. Humphrey had never hurt her like this before. Humphrey’s expression suddenly changed as he realized he had hurt Kate. He was ashamed and deeply regretted everything he had said. He looked down in shame before walking back up to her.

“Kate, I…” he began, “I’m so sorry. I know you would never leave me to do something like this alone. And I wouldn’t either. We do things together. We always have and we always will. We are a team and we don’t let each other go through hard times alone. I will always be there for you and I know you will always be there for me. I promised you I would never leave your side and that promise still stands.”

Kate smiled as a tear rolled down her cheek. However, the moment was interrupted by Daria, who asked them all to be quiet.

“I’m trying to listen,” she said.

“What is it, Daria?” Kate asked, walking up to her.

“I hear humans coming,” Daria replied.

Everyone suddenly turned and looked at each other in surprise and panic.

Before anyone could react, they heard the pups crying out for help. They turned around to see a couple of humans picking up Stinky, Claudette, and Runt and putting them in cages. As Kate and Humphrey tried to rescue their pups, they heard the others calling for help too, as they were captured and forced into cages. It wasn’t long before everyone except for Runt, who was hiding in a tree, was trapped in a cage.

Humphrey was determined to get out and keep his pups from being taken the same way he was taken from his parents. He began running headfirst into the locked door of the cage.

“Humphrey, what are you doing?” Kate asked.

“Getting out,” Humphrey replied as he ran into the door again.

His head hurt, but he didn’t give up. He would do anything to protect his pups. Kate eventually joined in and together, they were able to bust the door open, just as a human was reaching up the tree to get Runt. They stumbled out of the cage, but Humphrey shook off the pain and rushed toward the man reaching for Runt. He leapt on the man, causing him to fall over.

Kate looked and noticed another man pointing a gun at Humphrey and rushed at him and knocked him over. Humphrey then rushed over to the other cages and luckily managed to undo the simple locks and open the doors. Suddenly, one of the humans tackled him and he hit his paw on a rock. He heard a slight cracking sound and felt a shooting pain, but he ignored it and continued fighting.

The humans eventually turned and ran away back toward the town. Humphrey limped over to Kate and she noticed.

“Humphrey, are you alright?” she asked.

“I feel fine,” he replied. “It’s not the worst that could’ve happened.”

“We make a pretty good team,” she said.

“Oh,” Humphrey said, raising an eyebrow and smirking slightly, “so you’re quoting me now? Is that what we’ve come to?”

Kate laughed a little before replying.

“I thought you knew better than to make fun of me.”

“Well, you know me,” Humphrey said. “I’m a slow learner.”

Humphrey then walked a short distance away and picked up a small, pink flower in his mouth, then walked back over to Kate and put it in her fur below her ear.

“What was that for?” she asked.

“It’s my apology gift,” he replied, “for earlier.”

“Thank you.”

“We should find a place to sleep,” Garth suggested.

“Well, Stinky,” Humphrey said, “where to now?”

Stinky took a moment to sniff the ground before answering.

“This way,” he said. “I smell a pack not far from here.”

Stinky led the group into the forest and it wasn’t long before they came across another pack of wolves. This one was much smaller than Owen’s pack. Humphrey’s face was one of complete shock as he recognized his old pack. Soon tears began to well up in his eyes as he looked at his puphood home.

“Humphrey,” Kate said, walking up to him, “are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “I just want to say for the record that I’m not crying. I just have a bug in each one of my eyes and it’s irritating each of them equally.”

Kate laughed.

“It’s okay, Humphrey,” she said.

Humphrey and the group wandered around for a little bit until they ran into a wolf that made both Humphrey and Kenya stop in their tracks.

“Adam!” Kenya shouted as she lovingly tackled the black wolf before her.

“Kenya?” Adam asked, surprised.

Adam struggled to get up and when he did, he noticed Humphrey as well.

“Humphrey,” he said, “I thought I’d never see you two again.”

“I’m sorry, who is this now?” Garth asked.

“This is my older brother, Adam,” Humphrey replied.

Humphrey and Adam put their heads around each other's necks in a sort of wolf hug.

“Adam,” Humphrey said, “this is my wife, Kate, and our three pups, Stinky, Claudette, and Runt. That’s her sister, Lilly, and her husband, Garth. And that’s Daria.”

“Humphrey, Kenya,” Adam said, “there’s someone that I’d like you to see.”

Adam led the group further into the pack to a fairly large den and told them to wait outside while he went in. He came back out with two older wolves following him. They looked to be about the same age as Winston and Eve. Humphrey and Kenya recognized them immediately.

“Mom! Dad!”

The four did nothing but embrace for a while. When they finally stopped, they began asking questions.

“What happened?” Humphrey's mother, Martha asked.

“Are you two alright?” his father, Gary asked.

“Let’s talk inside,” Humphrey said.

The others agreed and they all went inside. As they laid down on the ground, the story began to get told. Adam began.

“It all started one day when you all went for an early morning walk. Mom and Dad came back 45 minutes later without you. They said that they were attacked by humans and that they had taken you.”

“Yeah,” Humphrey said, “they showed up and picked us up and put us in these cages in the back of a truck and then drove away.”

“About ten minutes later,” Kenya continued, “the truck hit a bump in the road and Humphrey’s cage fell off and rolled into the forest.”

“I hit a tree and was knocked out for a while,” Humphrey said. “The cage door was busted open and I walked out.”

“Meanwhile, I was taken to the human town and put up for adoption,” Kenya continued. “I was adopted soon after and had been living with that human ever since, until you rescued me, Humphrey.”

“We looked everywhere for you two,” Martha said, “but we never found you.”

“I wandered for a couple of weeks until I came across a coyote who took me under his wing,” Humphrey said. “We became almost like brothers until a few months later, we got separated in a huge storm. We couldn’t see anything, and I got lost. A bolt of lightning struck a tree that almost fell on me and I took refuge in a nearby pack. They took me in, and I was living good for about a year, until I was banished. A day later, I was found by two wolves and accepted into the Western Pack, and the rest is history.”

Kate and Humphrey then told about their unexpected trip to Idaho together and how they had fallen in love along the way.

“We’re so glad you two are alright,” Martha said.

“It’s good to see you, too, Mom,” Humphrey replied.

“So, now what?” Lilly asked.

“Oh, I think we could stay for a few days,” Humphrey said.

And that’s what they did. For the next few days, the group stayed in a few spare dens around the small pack while they got reacquainted with very old friends.

The day eventually came when Humphrey and the others went back to the Western Pack. As they were getting ready to leave, Humphrey approached Adam and his parents.

“I think we’ll get going,” he said. “It was so great to finally see you guys again.”

“Be sure to come visit every once in a while,” Adam replied.

“We will,” Humphrey told him. “I love you guys,” he said to his parents.

“We love you, too,” Gary said. “Be safe.”

“We will,” Humphrey replied, “and we’ll be back. I promise.”

With that, the group began to head home. Humphrey stopped for a moment and looked back at the pack. He smiled in satisfaction and happiness before continuing on.

A few days later, the group got back to the Western Pack and life returned to normal, except for one small change. Every so often, Humphrey and Kenya would go to visit Adam and their parents and sometimes Adam and their parents would come to the Western Pack. Either way, Humphrey had never felt happier in all his life.