Eight years had passed since anyone had seen Viggo and while he was still on their minds, they weren’t as tense about it. One day, in late autumn, Humphrey was out wandering in the woods when he suddenly felt a sharp, stinging pain in his side that burned like fire. He collapsed to the ground, yelling in pain. When he looked at his side, he was surprised to see an arrow sticking out of it. He looked up and noticed Viggo not far away, grinning.

“Such a beautiful weapon isn’t it?” he said looking at his bow. “The deadliest things often are. Take your viper friend for example. Gorgeous snake with her vibrant red and yellow scales, yet a small amount of her venom could cause me to lose an arm or even my life. It’s a good thing I’ve stocked up on anti-venom.”

Humphrey’s side was still in intense pain as Viggo drew nearer and he knew he had no choice but to fight him. However, the arrow in his side would be a major hindrance and Humphrey knew that it had to go. He didn’t like how he had to do it, but there was no other way.

As adrenaline flowed through his body, Humphrey got to his feet and rested the shaft of the arrow against a nearby tree. He took a couple of deep breaths, mentally preparing himself for the pain he was about to endure. Then, in one swift motion, he twisted his body, snapping the arrow off and leaving a small stub sticking out of his side.

“Oh, a fighting spirit, I love it,” Viggo said. “This should be fun.”

Humphrey bit his lip and groaned loudly in pain before doing his best to ignore it as he faced down Viggo. As the wolf approached him, Viggo drew his sword from its sheath on his back and stuck it into the ground. He wouldn’t need it this time around. He just wanted to toy with Humphrey first. He would go easy on him, make him think he actually stood a chance. Then he would put him in his place.

As Humphrey leapt toward him, Viggo simply sidestepped him, holding his hands behind his back, and letting Humphrey land back on the ground. Viggo then began casually walking away from him. Humphrey rushed toward him and leapt at him again when Viggo suddenly spun around 360 degrees, grabbing Humphrey by the neck, and then spinning back around and slamming him to the ground.

Viggo turned his back on Humphrey again and Humphrey took this chance to bite down on Viggo’s leg. He was successfully able to pull Viggo off his feet but was forced to let go when Viggo kicked him in the face with his other foot. Humphrey then leapt on Viggo while he was still down. Viggo caught Humphrey with his hands but Humphrey managed to claw him across the eye.

Viggo reeled back for a moment before he headbutted Humphrey and tossed him to the side. Viggo stood up holding his hand to his eye. As he wiped the blood away, he slowly opened his eye, surprised that Humphrey’s swipe had missed it. Humphrey quickly rushed Viggo again, but when he did, Viggo grabbed him and stabbed him in the side with a small pocketknife made from a wolf fang. He only pushed the blade halfway in, though. He didn’t want to kill Humphrey yet. But he was going to make him wish he was dead.

Humphrey suddenly gasped in pain as Viggo twisted the blade before pulling it out and letting Humphrey fall to the ground. Humphrey got up and tried leaping at Viggo, but Viggo simply caught him around the neck and slammed him to the ground once more. Humphrey rushed at Viggo again but ended up receiving a deep cut on his side from Viggo’s knife. As Humphrey desperately tried to get a hit in, he received more cuts, from his chest, to his shoulders, back, and abdomen and even across the bridge of his nose.

Viggo then grabbed one of Humphrey’s front legs and brought his arm down on it, snapping it in half. Humphrey yelled in pain before Viggo elbowed him in the jaw. Humphrey stumbled backward and Viggo grabbed him by the skin on his back and threw him into the trunk of a tree. As Humphrey tried to get up, Viggo kicked him back against the tree, then proceeded to grab him around the neck and lift him off the ground.

Viggo looked at the pain in Humphrey’s eyes before throwing him back down to the ground again. Humphrey laid on the ground, desperately trying to find the strength to get up, but his body would not give it to him and as Viggo picked him up again, he simply wanted this all to end. Humphrey was wishing for death when Viggo suddenly rammed his knee into Humphrey’s back, breaking it but miraculously not paralyzing him. He then threw Humphrey to the ground and kneeled down next to the bloodied and broken wolf.

“Before I go,” he said, fingering the knife in his hand, “I wanted to give you a little something to remember me by. A parting gift, to remind you that no matter where you go, I will always be there. You can never hide from me and be safe. I will always find you. You will spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder for fear that I will be there. Now normally, this mark means something else entirely, but I’m willing to make an exception for you.”

Viggo then began to carve a V around Humphrey’s left eye, starting on one side of his eye and ending on the other. Humphrey didn’t even have the strength to cry out in pain. Once Viggo was finished, he wiped the knife on the grass before pocketing it.

“I imagine that’ll cause some problems for you in the future,” he said.

Humphrey weakly groaned in pain.

“No, you’re not going to die,” Viggo said. “There was never any danger of you dying, but I imagine the pain you’re in makes you want to. I’m sure you’ll survive, barely. Besides, you can’t die yet. The game has only just begun. Know this, Humphrey. Once you’re healed, I will pay a much-needed visit to your friends and family in the valley. I have been waiting a very long time to meet them. And it’s been so very long since I last saw your pups.”

With that, Viggo stood up and began walking away.

“Y-you st-ay away fr-om th-em,” Humphrey struggled.

Viggo turned around and smiled at him.

“Or what?” he said. “You’re in no position to make threats, my boy. I’d be more worried about surviving the night if I were you.”

With those words, Viggo turned back around and disappeared into the forest. Meanwhile, as night fell, Leyla and Viper began to grow worried about Humphrey again. They eventually went out looking for him with Viper leading the way. The night was cold, but they weren’t going to give up until they found him. As they came upon the area where Humphrey and Viggo had fought, all Viper saw was a confusing mess of large orange patches scattered around the area. And then she found him. She could make out an orange lump back in the trees.

“I found him!” she cried. “Humphrey!”

The two rushed over to him as he painfully shivered in the cold.

“Oh my goodness,” Leyla said, looking at the arrow stub in his side and his many cuts and bruises. “What happened to you?”

Humphrey only groaned in pain.

“That doesn’t matter right now,” she replied, taking her jacket off and laying it over his body.

“Leyla, what do we do?” Viper asked, scared.

“It’s too dark and too dangerous to try and move him right now. We need to keep him warm and hold out for the night,” Leyla replied. “You stay here with him and don’t let him move. I’m going to go get some sticks and branches for a fire.”

Leyla got up and headed out into the woods to look for some firewood while Viper stayed behind and kept Humphrey company. She wanted to do more than just sit there and watch him shiver. Part of her resented the fact that she was just a small viper and not something bigger like a python. Something that could wrap itself around him and actually help keep him warm.

Leyla returned around five minutes later with quite a few sticks and dead branches, along with some dead leaves to help get the fire started. It wasn’t long before she had a decent fire going and things were slowly beginning to warm up.

All that night, Viper and Leyla stayed with Humphrey, talking to him, trying to keep him awake. When morning came, Leyla got up and began heading back toward her house.

“Where are you going?” Viper asked.

“Before we move him, we need to make sure his back is stable, or at least as stable as we can get it,” Leyla replied. “I have some boards back at the house that I can use to support his back. I don’t have anything to help with the pain, though, so it’ll be a tough ride to the hospital.”

With that, Leyla ran off toward her house, coming back twenty minutes later with some narrow wooden boards and some rope. It wasn’t perfect, but she was able to stabilize his back as best she could. Next, she carefully slid a large board underneath him and slipped a rope through a hole in it and began to slowly pull him back to the house. Once they got back, Leyla carefully moved Humphrey and the board into the back of her truck and then got in herself.

“Wait,” Viper said, “I’m coming too.”

“Viper, I’m taking him to a town filled with people,” Leyla said.

“I don’t care,” she replied. “I want to be there for him, for as long as I can.”

Leyla smiled. Viper’s undying loyalty to Humphrey was very admirable.

“Get in,” she said, letting Viper slither in through the open car door.

Leyla then began to carefully drive Humphrey back to the town she had first taken him to, and she was hit with a feeling of deja vu as she recalled the first time they had met almost seventeen years prior. When they arrived at the animal hospital, Leyla told Viper to hide under the seat since she was going to go get some people to help her with Humphrey. Leyla then rushed up to the door and called for help. Several employees rushed back to the truck with her and moved Humphrey into the building.

Once inside, they asked Leyla to wait in the lobby. It took some time before anyone came to talk to her, but it was a different man than the other two times she had been there.

“Well,” she said, “how is he?”

“Honestly, I’m surprised he’s still breathing,” the man said. “What happened to him?”

“I don’t know,” Leyla replied. “I just found him like this in the woods.”

“Well, whatever happened to him beat him up pretty bad,” the man continued. “He’s sleeping now. We had to put him under to make sure he didn’t try to move. We had to do some minor surgery to get the arrowhead out of his side, then we had to shave all the fur with the dried blood off. He needed no less than a hundred stitches for all the cuts on his body and we had to insert a tube into his side to reinflate one of his lungs before we could fix it. We also put an IV into his good arm before we wrapped him up in a full body cast.”

“A full body cast?” Leyla asked in shock.

“He broke nearly every bone in his body. His back and ribs took the brunt of it all. His organs were surprisingly untouched. I’m surprised he’s not paralyzed, let alone dead. He got very lucky, but he’s far from out of it. He’s going to need to stay here for a while until he can come out of the cast. We’ll need to do pretty much everything for him. Drain his bladder and give him nutrition and hydration through his IV, all of that. Even when he’s out of the cast, it’ll be a long recovery. I understand you’ve been here with him twice before. You two seem to have a connection. I’ll be sure to give you a call first thing after he’s out so you can come get him.”

“Thank you,” Leyla said, before walking out.

As she got back into the truck, she sighed deeply, and Viper slithered up to the headrest of the driver’s seat.

“Well?” she asked. “How is he?”

“Not good,” Leyla answered solemnly. “They said he’s broken almost every bone in his body, and he’s been put in a full body cast. They said they’d let me know when he’s out but until then, we just have to wait.”