2. The Black Bloods
"You have to be prepared, Young Grey," Sam hissed. Humphrey glared at him in the dark forest, watching as his demonic Spirit Guide stalked about the trees threateningly. It had been mere hours since they'd encountered Fenrir, and now Humphrey was plagued once more by the Spirit Guide. "Or all will die."
"You know," Humphrey growled. "You aren't very good at your job."
"I get the point through, do I not?" Humphrey rolled his eyes, refusing to admit that he-in fact-did get the point across to him what needed to be done and when it needed to be done. He'd lost his best friends and his mate for not heeding Sam's warnings sooner. If he'd figured them out a mere week earlier, no one would have died. This was the sole reason that Humphrey trusted Sam when he gave him the dark warnings of the future: he always knew that they were true.
Sam padded into the forest, Humphrey following the Dark Wolf closely. The shadows cast by the trees made the darkness deeper, more claustrophobic. He could see shapes moving through the trees-more wolves, perhaps, or the Longfangs, D'Tyoni, or Night Watchers of the southern mountains. Humphrey showed no fear as he walked forward; he'd already seen enough horrors to squander the emotion of fear completely. Sam did not even seem to take notice of the creatures following them.
Humphrey looked up to see that the sky was pure black: no stars, no moon, only black. How could any shadows be cast without a light source above? It didn't make any sense to him, but then again, many things in the past two years didn't make sense. Sam disappeared in the trees, leaving Humphrey alone in a large, circular clearing. He exhaled, his breath visible on the cool air, ice crystals searing his lungs with a singeing pain. He whipped about, expecting the creatures to appear and attack him at any given moment. Instead, he saw that the clearing had stretched into a massive plain; the bodies of thousands of wolves lay bloodied and mutilated across the ground, torn to pieces by claw and fang.
The tangy reek of blood stung his nostrils, Humphrey seething in disgust from the horrid scent. He walked about and noticed that there were many black-furred wolves lying on the ground, all of them bearing a dark red scar running vertically down each of their eyes. Gore lay strewn about, adding to the revolting nature of what was clearly an untamed, insanity driven war. He came across a white-furred she-wolf; she was torn from her breast to her rear, her ribs parted and jutting outward to expose the interior infrastructure of the body. It took no time at all to see that the blood-stained, gore-strewn she-wolf was Lily. He padded over to her and looked at her in sadness and despair. Her violet eyes were lusterless in death, greying and open permanently. He tried to close her eyes but found that it was impossible: someone had tripped out her eyelids. Humphrey placed a paw on her forehead and allowed tears to run down his face as he looked down at his sister in law. Suddenly, he saw her eyes move, darting to look at him. Her jaws parted, and a blood-gurgling moan escaped her lips.
Humphrey sprang back in shock and terror from the hideous sight, looking down at her in insatiable horror. Her body twitched and squirmed about, her internal organs bursting, sending multicolored inner liquids and blood spraying into the air. Her body arched, and her eyes rolled in the back of her head, blood flying from the sockets around them. Humphrey shakily backed away, horrified and disgusted by the atrocious sight he beheld.
"YOU MADE ME DIE!" She screeched, blood shooting from her mouth in a crimson torrent as she screamed it. Humphrey's eyes widened, and his heart stopped when he heard those all-too-familiar words spoken from Lily. He sprinted away from her, along the way seeing more wolves he recognized. Garth was dragging himself towards Humphrey, the lower half of his body severed, intestines and organs dragging out behind him, blood gushing from his mouth as he repeated the haunting words.
Scourge's head was smashed, torn in half and revealing a shattered skull, brain matter beginning to protrude from the cracks and breaks in the bone. Salty was missing his head entirely, his body blundering about aimlessly as his decapitated head screamed the haunting words from several wolf-away. Humphrey howled in agony and terror, the voices breaching into the recesses of his mind with a blisteringly furious pain. Finally, it all stopped as he heard the sweet voice of Kacey coo his name. He wiped away the tears from his eyes, clearing his vision as he looked forward.
The beautiful brown-furred she-wolf walked steadily towards him, her dark pink eyes glistening. She seemed to pay no heed to the bodies that surrounded them, her attention utterly focused on Humphrey. She flashed him a small, weak smile as she neared her mate and Leader Wolf. When she was close, he sprinted towards her and embraced her tightly, closing his eyes as tears ran down his face and into her fur. When he finally opened them, he raised his paws from her back to see that her fur was shedding rapidly, falling off her grey skin. He pulled away to see that her eyes were now filled with desperation and fear. Blood spilled from her mouth and behind her eyes as she began to cry.
"No," Humphrey whimpered, collapsing in pain. "No, no, no!"
"Why did you make me die?" She gurgled, blood spilling to the ground in a torrent.
"NO!"
"You must train yourself to lose what you love most," Sam said. Humphrey's head jerked up to see that he was once more in the dark forest, Sam glaring down at him with his crimson eyes. Humphrey began to sob uncontrollably as Sam watched him. The last time he'd seen someone say those haunting words, he'd lost Kate. Was he going to lose his pack, his new love, Luna, Ryker, Kate, and even Kala? Was he going to lose everything that he'd known all over again? No, he couldn't allow that to happen, not a second time! The pack was already annihilated once by the humans; could they not simply have peace?
"I can't let them go," Humphrey cried. "It tore me apart to let Kate go; how could I let the rest of them? I have three daughters, a son, a mate, a father, sister, brother, and two best friends. How could I ever let them go? How Sam?"
"I cannot dictate how you control yourself, Young Grey," Sam growled. "I can only offer guidance to you."
"How can I save them?" Humphrey asked abruptly. "How can I save my pack? I can't let them die, I can't!" Sam walked away without replying. Humphrey stood up and chased after him. "SAUROMAK!" He screamed. Sam stopped and whirled around, a snarl on his face.
"That name," he growled, "Means nothing to me anymore."
"I'll keep using that name unless you tell me how to save them!" Humphrey pleaded. "Please, help me!" Sam looked at him with a cold yet considering glare and turned around.
"Find the Pack of the Winter Mountains," he said flatly. "They're the only hope your pack has of survival."
Humphrey awoke with a jolt. He pulled away from the ground and looked down to see his mate curled up beside him, their pups sleeping beside her belly to keep warm. Winston was sitting on a rise nearby, keeping watch as he had been instructed. Scourge was resting several meters away, Garth and Lily sleeping close together on the fringes of the group. Salty was on another rise, further away from the wolves, nearly segregated. Faolan was curled up on the grass, Kala beside him. His daughter, however, was awake, standing up and staring at her father with a hard intensity. For a moment, Humphrey thought of asking her what had woken her, and then the memories came back.
Sam had given he, Kala, and Scourge the abilities to telepathically communicate to one another. Useful of a tool as it was, Humphrey still periodically had trouble using the ability with his full will, and sometimes the emotions of his nightmares would transmit to Kala as the two were the closest in the pack. She blinked her amber eyes at him and stretched her lithe body, yawning and displaying her rows of white fangs. She shook her head vigorously and padded over to her father. The moonlight made her silver and tawny-flecked fur pelt shine beautifully, Humphrey smiling. Although she'd primarily adopted his pelt, she had most definitely inherited her beauty from her mother.
Father and daughter walked to the rise where Winston sat, Humphrey beckoning the former Leader Wolf along with him to walk in the cool night air. Winston happily stretched his old limbs and followed them slowly. He was very old, nearly reaching his ninth year. Everyone knew, though no one wanted to actually say it aloud, that Winston did not have much time left. His eyesight and hearing were already becoming dulled with age. It was more difficult for the old wolf to eat and tear into prey. He'd already fully lost his capabilities to hunt, though he insisted that he was fully able to fight when he needed to and would without a moment's hesitation.
Still, they walked slowly as to accommodate for him. For a long time, they walked in silence until they began to hear the sounds of snarling and growling from ahead. Wordlessly, they slunk low to the ground and crept forward over a small hill and peering down into a grassy clearing. There were six black-furred wolves with red, vertical scars over their eyes-the same wolves that Humphrey saw in his nightmarish vision. They were growling at two wolves, a wolf and a she-wolf. A brown-furred wolf was lying on the ground dead, blood pooled around his head. The tear-streaked face of the she-wolf gave away that she had been close to or had known the wolf for a long time.
"Just leave us alone!" The wolf barked at them. He was a black-furred wolf with a white underbelly, dark red streaks of fur running down his flank. Whether it be natural, blood stains, or ochre-painted markings like the Jagged Ice wolves, Humphrey knew not. He looked at Kala's Spirit Markings painted across her face in white ochre. They all had intricate, flowing designs that stretched down her flank and forelegs. The streaks on the wolf must have been blood stains or natural, though Humphrey could tell one thing from him: he seemed truly threatening, giving him a nightmarish appearance not dissimilar from what his first impressions of Sam were before the Great War. His eyes were hard, glaring, dark amber. They bore hatred and insatiable anger, no doubt.
The second was a stark-white furred she-wolf like Lily, though her fur-along with the male's-was rugged and unkempt, lacking the groomed beauty of most she-wolves. Her eyes were light blue with tinges of green upon the irises, giving her eyes a truly striking appearance. Behind her ear was a beautiful owl feather. Across her eyes were vertical red lines that looked to be full ochre coloring. She appeared to be significantly shorter, almost the size of a runt-classed wolf. They did not appear to be part of any pack by the looks of their pelts, their obviously famished and near-starving appearances proving that they must have been lone wolves.
Kala looked hard-set on leaping in to help, but Humphrey shook his head; they didn't know who any of the wolves were, and the last thing Humphrey wanted was for anyone to get hurt over a fight that wasn't theirs. Instead, he decided to watch and listen, and to hopefully pick up something as to what these wolves were fighting over. One of the large black wolves with the vertical red scars stepped forward with a ghastly sneer.
"Whadda ya, think, boys?" He growled, his slurred voice nearly incoherent. "How 'bout the bitch can get 'er full share of matin tonight, eh?" The other wolves growled and howled in laughter and agreement. She fearfully slunk back, the male stepping in front of her and giving a feral snarl.
"If you so much as lay a claw on Kerrigan, I'll-!" He shouted defiantly.
"Ya'll what?" He retorted mockingly. "Ya'll kill us? Don't make us laugh lil runt boy!" The wolves snarled with howling laughter. They prowled forward, and Humphrey motioned for them to leave. Kala, however, looked at Humphrey incredulously.
"What are you doing?" She hissed an exclamation. "We can't just leave them there!"
"We can't get involved, Kala," Humphrey said, Winston falling into step with him.
"He's right," Winston said to her, giving her a sympathetic stare. "We have enough problems to deal with as it is than to get involved with some rival rogue wolves." Kala glared at her father and grandfather hotly and looked back at the hill to where Kerrigan and the other wolf were about to fight.
"Then I'll go myself!" She proclaimed. Humphrey and Winston whirled around to see her dash over the hill.
"Son of a bitch," Humphrey growled, and he and Winston running after her. They leapt down beside Kala, glaring at the black-furred and scarred wolves. The other two wolves looked incredulously at Humphrey, Kala, and Winston. The black-furred wolves, however, snarled gleefully, their bloodlust peaking as they sought for the battle ahead. Humphrey shot a glare at Kala. "You shouldn't have done this, Kala."
"Sorry, Dad," she said, her gaze unwavering from the black-furred wolves. "But I won't abandon good wolves to die." Humphrey glared at the black-furred wolves.
"What do you want with these two?" Humphrey asked him.
"They won't accept transcendence!" One of them shouted. "You must all die!" They leapt forward with fangs barred and claws unsheathed. The five wolves met the six black-furred wolves. One tackled Kala, but not before she could dig her hind claws into his belly and sink her fangs into his neck. Winston dealt with two wolves, holding them at bay. Despite his age and feeble appearance, he was more than prepared that deal with them. In fact, they all were. As threatening as the black-furred wolves appeared, their fighting skills were not on par with their looks.
The battle was over almost as quickly as it begun. The three Jasper wolves darted their eyes about, expecting the worst. They'd been exposed to so much battle and death that it was all they knew anymore. The three turned around to inspect the two wolves. Humphrey was surprised to see that no a drop of blood was on their fur. The she-wolf, Kerrigan, was cowering in fear, shaking uncontrollably. The male was pressed against her flank, trying to calm her down, but her eyes were fixated on the body of the third wolf that they'd been traveling with.
"Who are you two?" Humphrey asked softly. The black-furred male looked up at him skeptically, then took a shaky step forward and stood a bit higher in confidence. Humphrey was impressed with his display.
"My name is Taylor," he said. "I am the Omicron Rank wolf of the War-Eye Clan. This is my friend Kerrigan, Omega of the War-Eye Clan." The three looked at Taylor and Kerrigan, mystified by their strange words. What was War-Eye? What was a 'clan?' And what in the name of the Great Lupus was an 'Omicron?' Pushing these thoughts aside, Humphrey asked another question.
"Who were those wolves?" He asked. "And why were they after you?" Taylor and Kerrigan looked at them as though there was something wrong with their heads.
"Who do you think?" Taylor scoffed sarcastically.
"Those were Saren's wolves, the Black Bloods!" Kerrigan said as though it should be common knowledge. "Come on, who hasn't heard about them yet?" Humphrey shot a look at Winston and Kala, the two looking back at him in worry.
"He's moving faster than we thought," Winston breathed.
"So, you do know about him?" Taylor questioned.
"Yeah," Humphrey said absently. "We knew him not too long ago. It wasn't exactly the best relationship when he tried to kill all of us."
"He only tried?" Kerrigan gasped. "I thought he killed everyone he doesn't like, no matter what! He's a ruthless murderer!"
"He killed one of our she-wolves," Humphrey said downcast, Winston and Kala looking down sadly. "He almost killed us, but he ran off and we escaped. We heard that we're at war now."
"The hell we are," Taylor growled. "Every wolf in the world knows it, especially with the Markers complicating everything…" Humphrey was shocked that word had traveled so fast about the Markers and Saren's army. It was truly shocking to see what he'd done to take the world by storm. At least the Green Marker is out of the way, Humphrey thought. He looked over Taylor and Kerrigan, pitying them. Kala looked at him expectantly; he knew that look in her eyes. Humphrey sighed and looked at the two.
"We have a fresh prey to spare," he offered. "If you'd like to come with us." With that, he left, Winston and Kala falling in step beside him. The two hesitated for several heartbeats…and then followed the Jasper wolves.
**A/N: Thanks to Alexander, the silver wolf, The Dark Shadow, imjustlikehumphrey, Dawn Walker Wolf, Someone Who Isn't Important, LilyAndMe, LoyalWolfHumphrey, and The-crazy-lone-wolf77 for reviewing my last chapters! Also, special thanks to my good friend Crowwolf for the new OCs Taylor and Kerrigan! Thank you all for reading! Until next time!**
**-The Dishonored Wolf**