My night was anything but comfortable. All night I was rolling around on the ground trying to get comfortable. Everywhere I tried just seemed even less comfortable than the last. Then there was the nonstop thoughts that went through my mind. Mostly about Kate and our fight. I knew I was stressing over nothing. Couples have fights all the time, it's normal. Its just that Kate and I have never even raised our voice towards each other, much less than fight.
Then when I did actually get to sleep it was only for maybe a half hour, forty-five minutes at most. This went on the whole night. I couldn't do anything to get to sleep. I was actually still up by the time the sun started to rise. I sighed deeply upon seeing this knowing that I hadn't got any sleep.
It was no use in trying to sleep anymore so I just decided to lay there leaving only me and my thoughts. Still the memory of yesterday lingered. It just wouldn't go away. I knew I was going to have to talk to her sooner or later to clear everything up, or this would be the only thing on my mind for a long time.
I lyed awake for what seemed to be hours. It was so long that I wittnesed Earl come into the den. He told me he'd be back to his den around mid morning. I had officialy gotten no sleep.
"Hello Humphrey, sleep well?" He greeted.
I realeased a big yawn before responding. "Yah, it was fine." I lied to him.
"That's good. Heard anything from the patient?" He asked, pointing over to the unknown wolf.
"No, he was unconscious all night." I told him.
He nodded his head. He looked like he was going over some things in his head before nodding to himself while whispering some words that I could not hear.
He then directed his attention over to me. He walked straight over to me and sat down in front of me. "So Humphrey, are you going to tell me what's going on between you and Kate?" He asked.
I was at a loss of words, not expecting him to say that. I just looked at him blankly and stayed silent.
"Come on Humphrey, we've known each other for years. You can trust me." He said.
I thought about it. Earl and I had known one another for quite some time. I spent a lot of my time in his den from all my injuries I gained over the years, and in that time I had really gotten to know him. He actually helped with a lot of things in my life.
In a lot of ways he acted like a father towards me. Since I didn't have any parents with me anymore I was glad to be able to have Earl in my life. He taught me many things that only a parent could teach. He had some really good practice.
I sighed deeply and began to tell him what happened last night. But before I coukd get any words out, we heard groaning coming from the side of us. I looked over and saw the mystery wolf I saved last night finally waking up.
I looked back at Earl. "We'll finish this conversation later." He told me while walking over to his patient.
I followed behind, stopping right in front of the wolf.
"Morning!" I greeted with a warm smile.
Once I had spoken I immediately regreted it. His eyes shot open and his head popped up. He looked at me with a killers glare and released a vicious snarl.
"Let me go you you bastards." He yelled while taking a swipe at me with his massive paw. His voice was low but powerful making it plenty intimidating.
I yelped as I nearly avoided his aggressive attack on me. "Whoa, calm down dude. I'm frienfly!" I yelled at him, but he didn't even bother to pay attention to my words.
He continued with his assault, trying his hardest to get to me. Luckily, he had missed every time. Though you could tell that he was very discombobulated, one could only imagine what would happen if he wasn't.
The wolf was about to swipe at Humphrey again, but before he did he let out a slight yelp before collapsing on the hard Rock ground of the den. I looked out behind him to see Earl looking down at this wolf with sympathy.
"How did you do that?" I asked.
"Easy. When you're the doctor of the pack you learn a lot of things. One of those things include pressure points. I'm not the biggest wolf around so that's what I use to take others down when need be. Case in point" He explained to me while pointing down to the wolf that attacked me.
"Why did he fricken attack me?" I asked out loud.
"I don't know, but I'm guessing he thought we were hostile." Earl said.
"Why would he think I'm hostile?" I questioned.
"Judging by his injuries, I'm assuming before you found him he had been attacked. And judging by his size and scars he is definitely some sort of soldier. He's just freaking out thinking he's still being attacked." Earl explained.
I nodded, sort of understanding what he was telling me. Guess he was just kind of having some sort of panic attacks.
"Humphrey I need you to go and get Winston and Garth for me." Earl ordered me.
"Why?" I asked him, wondering why he would need those two.
"We need to report this to Winston immediately, it's just the rules. And I need Garth to be able to restrain him just in case he goes insane again." He told me.
I nodded and immediately left to go and do what Earl wanted me to do.
The first place that I was going to go to was to find Winston. The main den was the closest place to the healers den. I figured that would be where Winston would most likely be.
I ran up the slope that lead to the main den. I peaked into the den and called out to Winston.
"What is it, Humphrey." I heard him call back.
"Earl sent me to come and get you. He needs you down at the healers den." I told him.
He walked up to me from the depths of the cave. "What's wrong? Is everything alright?" He asked me with concern.
"Yah, theres just this wolf that I found and brought him to Earl. He just told me to come and get you. SaI'd tgat it was the rules." I told him.
He nodded his head in understanding. "Lead the way." He said.
"Ok, but first we have to go and get Garth." I told him.
"Why would we need Garth." Winston questioned.
"Well, the first time he woke up, he kind of turned hostile. Earl said it was something about him being a soldier or something." I explained to him.
"I see... well then let's get going. We're not getting anything done just standing here." He said.
I nodded and we headed out to go and find Garth. "Any idea on where he would be?" I asked.
Winston looked up. "Judging by the sun, he should be getting back from the morning hunt any minute now." Winston commented.
As if on cue we saw the hunters coming out of the tree line, returning from their hunt. In the midst of them I spotted Garth dragging a large caribou. I pointed him out to Winston and he nodded. He walked over to him.
"Hutch, take this from Garth. He needs to accompany us at the healers den." Winston ordered them. The two nodded and Garth walked over to us.
"What's going on, is everything fine?" He asked.
"yah, but we need you with us at the healers den. Doctors orders." I told him.
Garth looked at me with a little concern. It kind of looked like he was upset with me, yet he also looked sympathetic for me. Why? I couldn't tell you.
"Alright, let's get going." He said.
We then left from that spot and continued on back to the healers den. No one spoke as we walked, not that it really mattered. We weren't walking that far. So there was no need for a conversation.
But as we approached the den we started to hear shouting and loud growling coming from in it. We all looked at each other nervously before sprinting into the den. When we got there we saw the unknown wolf attacking Earl. Earl looked fine, except for a little scratch that he had on his side.
"I'll kill you all." He snarled at us with extreme hostility.
Garth immediately took action and stepped in front of Earl.
"Finally, a wolf who looks like he can actually fight." He spat, a killer look eched in his eyes.
"Calm down soldier, we are not your enemy." Winston yelled.
"First of all im not a soldier, im a lone wolf. Second, if you're not my enemy then why am I here, locked in this den." He asked viciously.
"I saved you." I told him. "I found you passed out after you rolled down a hill. I brought you here, to our healers den." I explained.
That seemed to calm him down a little, but not much. "Where am I?" He demanded.
"The central pack of Jasper Park." Winston told him.
That made him relax completely. He then started to look very bad. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry about this. I could of sworn that I was somewhere else. You have no idea how sorry I am." He apologized.
It was kind of weird to see a wolf that looked like this, and who was only moments ago trying to kill us, now apologizing to all of us.
"I hope I didn't hurt you too badly." He said to Earl.
Earl just chuckled,"I've had worse." He said.
"I'm sorry sir for intruding on your pack and attacking your wolves. I've already caused to much trouble, I really should be leaving." He insisted.
"Uh uh uh, not so fast son, I can't let you leave yet. You are definitely in no condition to be traveling." Earl told him.
"And I want some answers from you before you leave." Winston said.
The unknown wolf seemed like he was trying to come up with some sort of excuse to get out of this. But he sighed in defeat and put down his head.
"Fine, I guess you guys win." He mumbled uncaringly.
Something about what he said kind of made it sound like 'Its your funeral' and I didn't like the sounds of it. This wolf kind of made me uneasy.
"Great, now that that's settled I only need to know one more thing. What's your name?" Winston asked.
"The names McCabe." He told everyone.
"Great, now if you'll excuse me I need to take care of some things." Winston said.
"But sir, shouldn't someone watch after him." Garth asked.
Winston thought for a second. "Yah, let Humphrey look after him. I'm pretty sure they'll get along nicely. Now come on Garth." Winston ordered him as the both of them left the den.
"Well, I'm going to go and get something to eat. You two behave." Earl said, him leaving also.
That just left me and McCabe in the den alone. We awkwardly tried to avoid eye contact, not wanting to look directly at one another. I honestly didn't know how I felt about this wolf. He was obviously deadly, yet he was very respectful once he found out that we weren't trying to harm him. This was going to be awkward.
