Humphrey's Helping Paw

"You guys are worse than ticks!"

Being placed under direct supervision had Luna angry with the two wolves, Candu and Hutch. Whenever she took a step, the wolves were always one behind. Trying to explain that she wasn't going to run off again didn't do any good. They ignored her every word kept walking behind her. Probably because they knew Luna was lying and was planning to run off if the opportunity came. So to kill time she found herself walking as far as she could before the wolves informed her she was getting out of bounds and was forced to turn around. It felt like being back in Elementary school. Only the supervisors here are complete jerks.

Deep down Luna wanted to go and try to have fun with them. The wolves following her around though was making her prideful. If she tried to play it may just feel more embarrassing because of Candu and Hutch. They would have to keep an eye on her while she did and that had her believe she may as well be a pup if that's how it was going to be. So she ignored the temptation.

"This isn't exactly fun for us either, toots," responded Candu sourly to Luna's angry statement. ""You've been complaining ever since you came back here!"

"And whose fault is that?" said Luna, rolling her eyes. Thinking of that wolf named Kate.

"Yours," Hutch said right away.

"No it's not!" snapped Luna. "It's that wolf's fault! Kate's!"

"Whatever you say. You're still staying."

Luna growled at the words, "whatever you say." It really made her feel like she lost the argument when someone said that.

After growing extremely irritated at the presence of the wolves, Luna decided to try and pull an old trick out of the book. Hoping it would work, she stopped walking, turned to the wolves and said, "I need to go."

"You are ordered to stay here until -"

"Not that go. I meant I have to go."

The two brought Luna over to a nearby area where she could go. Going into the area and behind a bush, there was one problem; they still had their eyes on her.

"I can't go when someone is watching!" Candu and Hutch both turned around but Luna wasn't accepting that. "I don't trust you. You'll look. Perverts!"

Both looking greatly offended, they walked a fair distance away giving Luna the perfect oppurtunity to sneak away again. Knowing there was not much time as before, she began racing through the trees. Not looking back this time, Luna kept running and running. She was captivated enough as a human. There was no way she was going to lead the same way as a wolf. That Kate was nothing but an uptight jerk. No one bosses me around. Not anymore.

A loud howl suddenly rang out from behind followed by barks. They now knew that they had been tricked. Determined to not be caught this time, Luna chose to hide rather than to try and outrun the wolves. That plan however was messed up. While making her escape, her paws suddenly became trapped.

Squish!

Looking down at her paws, she saw the reason why she wasn't being able to run anymore. She had become trapped in a patch of thick mud. Struggling to pry a paw out, her paw eventually became free only to have it stuck again. The wolves after were going to be here any moment and the process of getting her paws free and stuck again was becoming more elaborate and frustrating! Knowing that big trouble was going to happen, Luna barked out curse words as kept trying to get free.

"Need some help?"

Luna shot her head up: the wolf, Humphrey was standing before her with a paw extended out to her. Accepting the offer in a heartbeat, she nodded.

"Brace yourself," Humphrey warned.

Luna gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as he opened his jaws wide and bit down on her mane. After a few painful tugs, Humphrey managed to pull her free from the mud.

"Talk about a love bite," joked Humphrey, as Luna rubbed the back of her neck.

"Yeah, thanks," said Luna, getting ready to sprint off. "Catch ya later."

"Hold on!" said Humphrey, getting in front of her. "You won't be able to outrun them!"

"Unless you have a solution, get out of my way!"

"Follow me," said Humphrey, running off.

Noticing that he was going a different direction that she was planning to go. The choice to follow the seemingly nice wolf or get caught for the third time was easily made. Following right behind Humphrey, he led her far up the hill where they supposedly met.

Swearing to herself that if she was going to be double crossed and lived through it, she would pay him back. Humphrey motioned over to a hollow tree log.

"You can hide in there until everyone thinks you're long gone."

"Thank you," responded Luna, hastily moving inside the log and curling up tight.

Once safely inside the log, she heard Humphrey jump on top of it and lay down. Why is he staying with me, wondered Luna. He then revealed why.

"So... Is Luna your real name or was that another lie?"

"Why does it matter to you? I'll be out of here real soon," replied Luna hollowly.

"And slip into more trouble on the way," returned Humphrey. "Where's your real home?"

"I told you I'm a lone wolf. The entire forest is my home."

"No. What you told me was that you have a family up in the North," Humphrey chuckled. "You're a terrible liar."

Luna decided not to reply to that. Laying her head down, she closed her eyes to try and wait out the wolf's search. Surrendering to her tired state, she fell asleep on her dirty paws. Hoping that when she woke up, her life as a wolf would resume... After finding something to eat! That was surely going to be a problem.

Ω

The sky was near dark, the forest was quiet and the search had been called off. Humphrey was a better liar for whenever someone asked if he had seen Luna, he would quickly point them a different direction than reveal her hiding place. When the heat died down, it was time to let her know it was safe.

"You can come out now, Luna."

Humphrey got up and walked to the edge of the log to peek inside. And there she was sleeping in a curled up ball. Just like Kate, she looked very pretty when she sleeps. Not so much on fire now. What was she hiding from everyone though? Did lone wolves even have secrets? A little voice in his head told him they sure can because when he was one for a very short time, his secret was he loved Kate. What was Luna hiding then? Running from someone or herself?

A guilty expression came over his face. Kate was right: Luna is too young to be a lone wolf or even a hunter. If he let her go she may indeed run into more trouble. Trouble that won't be so easy on her. She would eventually be killed.

"I'm sorry Luna," breathed Humphrey, hopping off the log and to go find Kate. "I don't know who's going to be more mad at me: Kate for hiding a runaway or Luna for betraying her trust... Probably Kate."

Ω

Blinking open her eyes, Luna yawned and walked out of the log and underneath the dark sky to stretch.

"Good evening, Luna," greeted Humphrey from behind her.

Luna turned around as she spoke, "Thanks a lot for - selling me out!"

Sitting on top of the log was none other than Kate with Humphrey on the ground beside her. What? Not even wolves can be trusted? Backing up slowly, Kate put a paw over her face and shook her head.

"Please don't try to run again," she said boringly. "We're all getting tired of chasing you."

"I'm tired of it too!" exclaimed Luna.

"We just want to talk to you," assured Humphrey.

"I'm not talking to her!" said Luna, motioning towards Kate and then faced Humphrey. "Or you for that matter! You betrayed me!"

"She's the Alpha of the pack," explained Humphrey calmly. "You have to talk to her."

"No! If I have to talk to someone I want to talk to the male Alpha and guess what? I'm not going back there so you can have him bring his butt up here!" Luna sat herself down to show she was not budging. Kate smirked as Humphrey laughed softly. This was doing nothing to help Luna's patience.

"I'm the male Alpha," said Humphrey. Luna's jaw dropped. "You? You're mates?"

"That's right," nodded Humphrey. "You have to talk to one of us."

Having trouble believing this fact since Humphrey already lied to her once and Kate was just a stuck wolf; Luna started to inch away from them.

"Luna. We're trying to help you," said Kate quickly.

Luna vigorously shook her head. They wanted her to crack! Tell them where she came from and if she did that, she just knew she would spill out the rest. Definitely nothing in detail but would break down and cry in front of them. Appearing weak.

"If you want to help me, leave me alone!" cried Luna, running off.

In a flash, Kate chased and pounced on top of her. It then became a struggle for a moment until Kate got her pinned down on her back. There was no escaping now but that didn't stop Luna from trying.

"Luna, we have a large pack to run and we can't have someone we don't know running around," Humphrey explained, over her constant thrashing. "We need to know who you are and where you came from."

"And the truth!" stated Kate.

Ceasing in her desperate attempts to get Kate off, Luna let her head drop to the ground. Her eyes going watery... Why did she have to have tears going now? Why?

"Kate ... get off of her. I don't think she's going anywhere now."