Gin slowly regain consciousness as he opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, but it managed to clear up a moment later. Looking around, he saw that he was in a cave, a den. In the middle of the den were scraps and bones from a caribou, and it was fresh. Someone had carried him to their den.

The Akita immediately stood up, only to let out a gasp before gritting his teeth and clenching his shut in pain. He shouldn't have stood up so quickly. The momentum caused his heart to beat faster, and that caused pain, due to the damage it had sustained.

Remembering the injury he had gotten, Gin looked at his chest and saw that the bleeding had stopped. The wolves must've stopped the bleeding earlier.

"I see you're awake."

Gin looked to see an elder wolf walking into the cave. "Where am I?"

"This is the western part of Jasper Park." The wolf answered. "One of our wolves found you in the valley and brought you to my den. My mate, our main pack healer, was able to treat you."

Gin nodded. "Who are you?"

"My name is Winston. Leader of the Western Pack. What is your name?"

"My name is Gin."

"Well, Gin, what were you doing here anyway?" Winston asked.

"I was trying to find a place to stay, but I got into a fight with a sleuth." Gin explained.

Winston's eyes widened slightly. "Huh. I never heard of a dog fighting against a bear. Much less a sleuth of bears."

"Well, I'm know as a bearhound. I'm trained to hunt bears. Trained at a very young age."

"I see. But, why were you here, though? Don't you have an owner?"

"I haven't had an owner since I was a pup, Winston. I became a wild dog, had a pack."

Winston raised a brow. "Had a pack? What happened to it?"

"Things..." Gin sighed. "...just didn't work out. In the end, I decided I needed a new start, so I came here, hoping I could find a better life."

Winston nodded sympathetically. "I'm sorry to hear that. You're welcome to stay here, Gin. Especially since my mate said that you'll need time to fully recover."

Gin nodded. "Alright. Thank you, Winston."

Before the wolf could reply, a few more wolves walked in, Humphrey, Kate, Hutch, Candu, and Garth.

"Oh, Gin, I'd like you to meet my daughter, Kate. Hutch, my second in command. There's also Garth, the son of an ally of mine. And there's Humphrey. He's the one that found you and got their help. He carried you here."

"Thank you all for bringing me here." Gin glanced at Humphrey. "Especially you. I likely would've died out there."

The young wolf smiled, but he seemed slightly flushed. "It was nothing."

Gin returned his gaze to Winston. "Thanks again for letting me stay."

The wolf nodded. "It's not a problem having you here, Gin. Humphrey, can you take Gin to your den? We don't have any other dens available."

Humphrey nodded. "Of course. I'll be happy to have some company."

"Then it's settled. Gin will be staying with Humphrey." Winston said.

"Follow me, Gin." Humphrey said, walking out of the den with Gin following behind.


"You should you can be out and about? Eve said your heart was ruptured." Humphrey stated. The two of them were only at his den for a few minutes, but Gin wanted be moving. Besides, he thought it'd help if he knew the area better.

"I'll be fine, Humphrey." Gin assured. "It won't kill me to move around. Besides, I gotta become familiar with the area."

Humphrey nodded. "Well, do you wanna do anything?"

Gin raised a brow. "Like what?"

Humphrey grinned. "Log sledding?"

Now, Gin was just confused. "What's that?"

"You don't do that where you're from?"

"No."

Humphrey smiled. "Well, how about you try it out?"

Gin shrugged. It sounded interesting, and he might as well try something new. "Alright, how do you log sled?"

"Well, first you need a log." Humphrey pointed at one he just found. "Like that one."

"Okay, then what?" Gin asked.

Humphrey climbed into the log. "Hop on."

Gin looked at Humphrey as if the wolf like he had lost his mind. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, hop on." Humphrey repeated.

Gin glanced down at the slope in front of the log and sighed. "Oh well. It's not the most dangerous thing I've done." He climbed into the log, sitting by Humphrey as he head a voice in his head telling him that this was a bad idea. But then again, this was the same voice that told him that fighting Akakabuto was just suicidal, so why he's gonna listen to it if it says this is only a bad idea?

"Okay, now just push us off." Humphrey instructed.

Gin placed his paw on the ground, preparing to push the log down as he sighed. "I just know I'm gonna regret this." And with that, the Akita pushed the log forward with all his strength and they immediately began sliding down at high-speed. He felt the strong wind push against him as Humphrey laughed excitedly. Gin smiled a bit as he quickly began to enjoy the thrill.

In fact, he let out a laugh. "This is amazing!"

Right after he said that, they both saw large boulders and debris in their path.

"No longer amazing!" Humphrey shouted fearfully.

Gin's eyes widened and he looked around frantically. Judging by the speed they were going out and how long they had until they crashed, they wouldn't have enough time to turn. However, Gin's instincts kicked in and he grabbed Humphrey by the scruff of his neck.

"Hold on, Humphrey!" With all his strength and the adrenaline that was empowering him, Gin managed to leap high into the air, even with the extra weight.

In the air, they glanced down at the log just as it crashed into the boulders. They exchanged a look and laughed.

"Wow. This is amazing!" Humphrey shouted in awe at the view from the sky, and in awe of how strong Gin was. He was a dog, yet stronger than any of the wolves Humphrey knew. Unfortunately, the excitement was short lived when they began falling.

"No longer amazing!" Gin instinctively rolled them in the air, shielding Humphrey as he took the impact.

When they landed in the middle of the valley, right when the Western and Eastern wolves were hunting, a loud crack was heard, but Humphrey was probably the only one to hear it over the sound of the crash. Gin grunted and gritted his teeth in pain, taking deep breaths as he tried to relax.

"Oh, God, Gin, I'm so sorry!" Humphrey immediately apologized as he got off of him, looking down shamefully.

"It's okay, Humphrey." Gin reassured sincerely and calmly, or as much as he could, considering all the pain he was feeling. It was just his back. All the adrenaline had caused his heart to beat rapidly, and it was because of that adrenaline that he had not felt the pain. But now that the adrenaline was wearing off, not only did he feel the intense pain in his back, but he felt an agonizing ache in his chest.

"What the hell's going on here?"

Humphrey looked to see that it was Tony, rushing over with Winston, Kate, Garth, Hutch, Candu, Scar, and Claw.

"We... we were log sledding, and there were boulders in the way. We didn't have enough time to turn, then Gin grabbed me and leapt over the boulders. Then he broke my fall." Humphrey explained, now feeling guilty.

"I said..." Gin took a deep breath as he stood up, ignoring the unbearable pain that made him feel like he broke his back and should be paralyzed as he looked at Humphrey sternly. "It's not your fault. Besides, if I didn't go with you, you could've gotten hurt or worse."

"Wait, you jumped over a boulder and landed in the valley?" Garth asked.

Gin nodded. "Yes."

Winston looked up the mountain where the two had sledded down and looked at where they had landed, then looked at Gin in shock and amazement. "I don't understand how you managed to jump that high."

Gin shrugged. "Leg strength."

"Who's this?" Tony asked.

"Tony, this is Gin." Winston answered. "Humphrey found him earlier and brought him here." He glanced at the dog. "Gin, this is Tony, Garth's father and Leader of the Eastern Pack."

Gin nodded. "Nice to meet you."

"Now, Gin, just what were you doing log sledding?" Winston asked sternly.

"I'm fine. My heart is still beating, and even though I thought log sledding was a bad idea..." Gin paused, wondering how he should say it. "Well, let's just say I've done a lot of dangerous things in my life."

"What are you, an omega?" Tony asked.

Gin raised a brow. "An omega?"

"It's something wolf packs have." Winston stated. "Dogs like you probably don't have it. You see, you have us alphas. We're the ones that hunt, fight, patrol, while the omegas are playful and tell jokes."

Gin was confused. "Why?"

"It's just our custom." Winston said simply.

"But you're basically an omega is incapable of fighting, hunting, patrolling." Gin argued. "Sure, a playful personality might not seem strong, but that doesn't mean they can't be strong. I mean, Humphrey had to courage to log sled, while I thought he was out of his mind."

"Well, that's because he is." Garth said.

"Shut up, Barf."

"Quiet, Coyote."

"Enough." Winston ordered, silencing them both before returning his gaze to Gin. "I admit, that is a fair point, but these are just our customs, Gin."

"I knew the leader of a large wolf pack named Gaia, and I don't think this whole thing was part of his customs." Gin sighed. "Then again, Gaia's not a good example, since he was a cruel warlord."

"Well, maybe that is what it's like where you're from." Tony suggested. "These are OUR customs."

Gin shook his head. "Unbelievable."

"Where do you think you're going?" Winston asked before the Akita could leave. "You need to have your back checked out."

Gin sighed. "Aright."