Chapter 3: Outcasted (written from April 28th to May 7th, 2014)

At a far, far away place in the woods, not even in Jasper, an outcast lies in an isolated cave. His name is Chance, the oldest son of Stone. He used to be considered an Alpha of Stone's Pack; now, he was seemingly a lone wolf. He had no purpose, no motivation... until he began to dream...

One Mourning, while sitting in a lonesome corner, Chance heard a knock on the cave wall.

"Who dares to enter?" he asked. "I'm sleeping... and mourning in here."

"Oh, sorry to disturb you," replied a feminine voice. "I didn't know anyone was in here." Chance flared his ears up. The voice of this she-wolf sounded amazing! He got up from his sleeping posture and stepped outside. He couldn't help but compliment her.

"Wow... you look uhh... nice..." He regretted it.

"Why, thank you. What is your name?" she asked.

"Name's Chance."

"Why so?"

"I almost didn't make it at birth."

"Oh. Well, my name is Sarah."

"Sarah? That's a beautiful name. It matches you clearly." Chance almost regretted that too despite Sarah's blushing.

"So uhh... do you mind if I come in?"

"Oh, sure," he answered. He let the she-wolf into his den. She then found a confortable spot to sit. Chance sat directly in front of her.

"So how are you?"

"I'm fine," he said.

"I thought you said you were 'mourning'?"

"Right... That's a long story."

"I got plenty of time," she insisted.

"'Plenty'?" he repeated.

"I'm a lone wolf."

"You ran away from your pack Hmm... I'm guessing in search of a mate?" She nodded slowly. It was the truth.

"Do you mind if I stay here?" she asked, using once again the voice that Chance admired. There was a long silence. Chance wasn't sure what to say to Sarah. He knew what she had come here for but he wondered if this decision was what he wanted. He was too depressed to start a pack right now.

Suddenly, the silence was broken when a loud bang came from outside the cave.

"Oww!" Sarah yelled in pain. Chance became vigilant.

"Are you okay?!" Sarah looked around her body and noticed a fuzzy-looking red thing on the end of it. She panicked.

"No! There's something on my left shoulder! Take it off!" she oredered.

"Okay! Hold on." Using his mouth, Chance grabbed the object and began to pull it off. That's when a second bang occurred and the next thing he knew, another one of the same object hit him right in the butt. "Oww!"

"What is it?" Sarah asked. Chance looked around him. His mind began to slow. And his words became intertwined.

"Needa... helpma..." Sarah then collapsed to the ground. Chance also lost consciousness and fell on top of her. The world soon seemed to darken as a group of shadows grew larger.

Later...

Chance started yawning as he awoke from his slumber. He sniffed the air. It smelled different. He looked around saw Sarah beside him. He nudged her head to wake her up.

"Huh? Wha...? Chance?" She stood up and wiped the drool off her muzzle. "Where are we?" she asked.

"How am I suppose to know?" he reminded. They were in a large valley surrounded by pine and fir trees. Red snow-capped mountains towered through the sky in the distance. The sierra looked facinating.

"Welcome wolves," said a voice with a strange accent.

"Who said that?" said Chance, looking around frantically.

"Up here, Monsier," he replied. Both he and Sarah looked up. In a tree, a goose was sitting, staring at them.

"How long have you been there?" Chance asked.

"Oh, not long. However,, quite a lot happened."

"A lot? Do you know how we got here?"

"Sort of, oui: I saw a few humans come and dump you here. Quite an enjoyable scene, it was."

"Humans? We were taken by humans?!"

"It appears so," the bird corrected.

"Wait, where are we?" Sarah asked.

"Well, Mademoiselle, you're in the wonderful land of Banff National Park. One of the oldest and most famous in Canada."

"We're in Banff?" Chance said.

"Yes, yes. How many times need I to repeat things..."

"Wait a moment, are we near the King Pack?"

"What's the King Pack?" Sarah asked.

"It's a notorious all-Alpha pack that roams through these woods," he explained. He remembered years ago when Stone told him about them. Stone had thought about having an alliance with them because they shared a common enemy but when their pack failed to attack the Grand Pack, Stone ditched the idea.

"Huh. Hardly a pack at all," the goose added.

"What do you mean?" Chance asked curiously.

"Well, Monsieur, the pack was beginning to become overcrowded but then a nasty disease had came and wiped off about half of them."

"That explains why the humans took us here."

"Umm...us?"

"Yes me and..." Chance gasped as he noticed that Sarah wasn't beside him. "Where did she go? She was just here." He saw that the goose disappeared too. He became profoundly confused. "Huh?" Suddenly, the world became pitch black and dissolved apart...

"What?! It was a dream?! Just a stupid dream?!" Chance was gasping for breath from his realization. "But... but it was so real..." He simply couldn't believe it. Never in his life had a dream been so real enough to feel emotions. But most of all he missed his companion, the she-wolf. He would never forget her. Althought, he could still feel her presence lurking inside his mind...

Later...

As the day continued, Chance still stayed in his shelter, thinking deeply about the furure... his future. And reflecting on past affairs he considered important to his sanity. Chance didn't want to stay in this emotional prison forever, grieving for his losses. He wanted to feel free again, happy again, wanted again no matter the costs. The end of the war might have ended peace within him but it didn't end his motivation to find it again; his exploring spirit. Though he had not eaten well in an entire moon cycle, he felt full from his ongoing appetite for conquering formidable obstacles such as his depression.

I an effort to escape his grief, Chance decided to leave his shelter and go back to Jasper. He was going to find a way to conquer it all just like his father dreamed. And he wasn't going to do it alone. No, he needed help form an old ally. But there was one problem: how would he get back to Jasper?

Next: Chapter 4: The Quest