HUMPHREY'S POV:

The ride to the woods didn't take us to long. It was only about a two hour drive to where we needed to be. The drive was anything but silent. Except for me, I usually liked to just sit back and relax on car rides. But I would crack out a joke every now and then. Every time I did say something as a joke everyone in the RV would laugh, even the adults which surprised me because my joke were rather dirty. It made me happy to be able to make other people laugh, it always made me feel like a peacemaker.

When we had finally arrived at the camping spot we got out and we were all struck with awe. The place was so beautiful. The grass and trees and flowers were all beautiful and in full growth. The area around us was just plain beautiful. In the distance I could hear the sound of crashing water. It sounded like a waterfall, I would have to check that out later. I turned to Earl who had a half smile on his face, but I could also see pain. I didn't know why he was sad, but maybe that would come later.

"Wow, Earl how did you find this place." Winston asked in shock. "I found it one day while I was out exploring, and I was in the same state of shock as all of you when I first found this place." He explained to us. "It is very special to me, it holds a lot of my memory's." He told us. He seemed to be drifting off, but soon snapped back into reality. "Anyways, lets get camp set up and have some fun, shall we?" He asked. "Lets get to it." I said.

We all started to get out stuff and setting it up like canopies, portable tables, chairs, the usual camping stuff. It took is all about a half hour to get everything set up and in position. Our little camp looked good, nothing fancy but who said I liked fancy stuff.

"So what now?" Andy asked. I looked at him,"Dude we're in the woods, do whatever you want." I said. They shrugged and started to walk around. Andy, David, and Smitty all left one way, Garth and Lilly were walking off another way while chatting to each other. I saw the adults all sitting down and talking. That left Kate and I.

"Well whatcha want to do?" I asked. "I don't know, maybe walk around a little bit, explore the place." "sure." I agreed. "We can go off that way, I think I heard a waterfall over there." I said pointing off in the direction off where I heard the rushing water. We walked and talked while we made our way over to the rushing water.

"So, why did your parents come?" I asked curious of why they came. "Why?" She asked. "I just want to know." I said to her. "Honestly, I don't know. I think it's because they know we're going out and they didn't want us going anywhere alone." She said. "Oh, well I guess that explains it."

The sound of the rushing water came closer and closer. We came out of the tree line and our eye opened wide. I was stricken with awe. The place was beautiful. It had a waterfall coming down from about 100 feet. Around where the water fall fell into their was a little body of water collecting the water. The sun was gleaming off of the water makeing the place shine with beauty.

"Whoa." Was all that we said. We walked around the falls admiring the beauty of all of it. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever layed my eyes on, except for Kate of coarse. The place was just all around amazing. We walked all around it without saying a single word, we just wanted to admire the scenery.

Soon we came to the other side of the obody of water. But what I saw there kind of shocked me. Their was a tomb by the shore. It was maybe five feet from the shore of the little lake. I went over to it but Kate stayed behind probably scared. I walked up to it and kneeled down so I could read the writting. It read:

Here lies Kelly Williams Smith

1977-2006

Kelly was a good person to all, good daughter to her parents, and a good Wife to her husband Earl Smith. Let her rest in peace.

What I read shocked me. Earl was married, he had a wife but she died. I was shocked at this. He never told me he had a wife, must be for good reasons. I was also sad for him, loosing someone you love I would never imagine me loosing Kate. I just fealt really sad right now. Not even the beauty of this place could cheer me up.

I turned to Kate. "Wh…who's grave is that?" She asked. I looked at her. "It's Earls, my father Earls." I said. She seemed to be taken back. "My family had known him for years, he's never mentioned a wife." She said. It was weird but it really wasn't any of our business. We then left the waterfall, not wanting to disturb the grave sight anymore.

We walked back to the camp sight in complete silence. It was weird to find a grave in the middle of the forest, especially if its the wife if a wolf you know very well.

We soon got back to the camp sight to see that everyone was there. It was getting dark by the time we got back so they had made a fire. They were all sitting around the campfire laughing and have a good time. Earl seemed to only be half-enjoying the conversations. I now knew why he was so depressed here. It brought back memories of his past wife. That is a really hard thing to do.

We walked over to the group and sat down. They turned to us. "So where were you two?" Earl asked. "Yes do tell." Eve said kind of creepily. I shook it off. "We where down by the waterfall." I told them. Earl immediately looked at us looking worried. "What did you guys see down there?" He asked nervously. I looked at him, and gave him the look that told him I found it. He sighed. "I guess you would have found out sooner or later." "Find out what?" Winston asked. "That I was married, and her grave is by the waterfall here." He replied his voice sounding shaky. Everyones eyes grew wide, except for Kate's and I's. "I never knew you were married." Winston said. "That's because I never wanted to tell anyone. The memories are just to painful. This place is where the two of us would go often. It was our favorite spot. We did everything here together, and our favorite spot was the waterfall. We spent so much time down there. Did things." He said with a smile, more talking to himself then us. "Whoa, little to much info." I said. He chuckled.

"So how'd she, you know, pass away?" I asked. He looked down at the ground. "She had cancer, she fought it for many painful years. But in the end the cancer got the best of her. I buried her by our favorite spot which is that waterfall." he said. I nodded feeling bad for the old wolf.

"But that is in the past. I still love her deeply, but I'm not as sad as i was years ago." He said. After he said that their was an occurred silence for a couple minutes. "Well," Earl said standing up and clapping his hands together,"I'm off to bed." He said as he left to the RV. The adults got the RV, while us young adults would sleep out in tents.

Soon we all left to our tents and got into our sleeping bags and went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up in my tent to the sound of voices outside of my tent. I closed my eyes and tryed to go back to sleep but after ten minutes of trying I found that I would not get back to sleep. I got up and got out of my tent. I looked around to see Winston, and Earl sitting around the fire talking. I guess I was the only other person that was awake. I stretched my muscles as I yawned and walked over to Earl and Winston. "Morning Humphrey." Earl said,"mornin." I said back. I sat in one of the chairs by the fire immidietly feeling the heat of the flames.

I just sat there relaxing by the fire as the two talked to each other. Soon after about another 30 minutes everyone else started to wake up and were getting out of their tents. Kate came over by me and sat in the chair next to me and leaned her head against my shoulder. Everyone else came and sat by the fire also getting warm from the cold morning.

"So what are we doing today?" I asked to everyone. Everyone shrugged their shoulders. "Well I have an idea, I didn't want to do it at first but I can see now that you won't do anything drastic." Earl said while getting up and walking over to the RV. He then opened up a secret hatch that you wouldn't know was there unless you were told about it. What he pulled out brought a smile to my face. The others looked concerned though. He pulled out some guns. He brought out a twelve gadge shotgun, a Colt M1911 pistol a M4A1, an ACR, and a .22 caliber rifle.

I hadn't shot a gun since that fateful day. I hadn't really dared to go near a gun for awhile. But now that I saw them it brought back my memory's of shooting the guns at the range and how happy it made me.

"Are you sure Earl?" Winston asked. He smiled,"I'm positive, I'm sure he won't do anything." He said looking at me and gestured to me to come over to me. I got up to him and looked at the guns. I haven't even been close to one for half a year. I picked up the shotgun and checked it out. It was a very good gun. "Come on let's go shoot it." Earl said. I followed him with the gun in my hands.

We went a little ways away from the camp and Earl set up some targets and came over by me. "Now show us how good with guns you are." Earl said. I took the gun and aimed down to where the targets are at. I aimed at the closest one and shot at it, then I quickly aimed at the other one and shot at it. I did this for five more targets with each target farther away. As I finished I looked at the targets and saw that I had hit every last one of them in less than ten seconds.

I looked back at everyone with a smile. I forgot how fun it was to shoot guns, how it made me feel free. I loved shooting. Everyone was looking at me wide eyed. "What?" I asked nervously. "Holy crap, remind me not to get you mad when you have a gun handy." Andy laughed, and everyone joined in. "Dude, you are just full of surprises." Garth said.

I then picked up my next gun which was the Colt while the targets were set back up. I then took aim and again fired and took down all of the targets yet again with ease. I did that with all the weapons, and man did I enjoy it.

After I finished shooting I asked if anyone else wanted to try. At first no one wanted to but after a minute Jordan said he would do it. He chose the .22 and I set up the targets. When I was clear of the shooting range I told him to go. He then tried his best to copy what I did, but you could tell that he had never shot a gun before. He popped of rounds into the targets not very accurately. He finished and put the gun down.

"Not bad, for your first time." I told him. "All you need is some practice." "Were you this bad when you first started." He asked me. "Nope, I was just naturally good at shooting, but I did improve more over time." I said. "I'll keep that in mind." He said as he walked back to the group. One by one they all decided to shoot the guns. They were all pretty bad except three other people besides me. Those wolfs were Earl, Winston, and Smitty who was just as good as me. "Sense when did you become so good at shooting?" David asked Smitty. Smitty gave David a look saying there was more to him than meets the eye which kind of scared me.

Kate was somewhat decant at it but not too good. Either way I still helped her at least become somewhat more accurate.

After everyone shot I decided to have some fun. I grabbed one of the targets handed it to Earl and grabbed the shotgun. I got into a good stance and cleared my head. "Pull." I said as he threw the target in the air. I followed it with the barrel of the gun and shot making the target blow to pieces. I then handed two targets to Earl. I said pull and when he threw them I blew both of them out of the sky.

I then had an idea,"Does anyone have a mirror?" I asked. "Yah, I do." Lilly said handing me one. I then grabbed the shotgun and put it over my shoulder and lined up my shot with the mirror looking behind me. "Pull." I yelled. Earl threw the target into the air which soon after I blew into a million pieces.

"Ok, now your just showing off." David said as he along with all the other looking impressed with my shot. "Maybe." I said with a smile.

After we got done shooting it was getting dark. We picked up all of our gear and guns and took it back to camp. When we got back we put the guns away and then went into our tents and fell asleep.

I was awoken by the sound of footsteps coming from outside my tent. It was really early in the morning and I wouldn't expect anyone to be up this early, so I got up and went out of my tent to investigate. I followed the wolf that I soon found out to be Earl. 'What is he doing out here alone.' I thought to myself. I kept on following him, and the trail we were on seemed familiar. Then it hit me, it was the trail to the waterfall. He was going to see the grave of his late wife.

We soon came upon the waterfall and he walked over to the grave. He had a smile on his face. He kneeled in front of the grave and started to whisper stuff that I couldn't hear. I don't know what came over me but I put a smile on my face and walked up behind him. Just as I got behind him he stopped talking. He took a shakey deep breath and stood up. He turned around and kind of jumped back when he saw me behind him. I could now see that he had been crying. I still had a smile on my face and I brought him into a hug.

We hugged for awhile not wanting to let go. I know I have said this before but I knew when I met Earl I had found a real dad, someone that would always care for me, and who I would always love.

We finally broke the him and Earl looked down at me,"Lets head back." He said to me. I nodded. We then left back to the camp. When we got back we saw that everyone was up and walking around. But I didn't see Kate. We got back to camp and I asked David if he had seen where Kate went. "Yag she went for a walk." He told me. I thanked him, but right as I did I heard a viciouse snarl that sounded like it came from a bear and then I heard Kate scream. My eyes opened up and I ran back to the RV in a panic. I opened up the secret capartemeant and grabbed the shotgun then ran to were I heard the scream.

When I got to Kate I saw she was holding her side and I saw blood on her paws. I also saw a bear advancing toward her. I ran out and in front of her with my gun pointed at the bear. I wouldn't use it if I didn't had to. I then started to speak to Kate while still looking at the bear,"Kate, you need to run back to camp and get help." "But what about you?" "Don't worry I'll be fine." I told her. "Now go" I told her and she went toward the camp as fast as she could with her injurie. I knew how to handle bears, but I brought the gun just incase this bear was crazy or something.

I then put my arms in the air trying to make myself as big as I could and started to scream at it. And just like what I thought would happen it started to back down and return into the depths of the forest. I let out a sigh of relive. Then I remembered Kate. I sprinted as fast asi could to the camp in hopes that Kate's injurie wasn't to bad.

When I made it back I saw everyone packing everything up. "What's going on, is Kate alright?" I asked David. He shook his head,"No shes not fine, she's lost a lot of blood and has gone into shock. Luckily her mom is a doctor and is doing her best to keep her from breathing to death." He said. My heart sank. "Where is she?" "She's in the RV." I ran into the RV to see Kate lying unconscious on one of the beds. This brought tears to my eyes.

I went over to her and kneeled at the side of the bed. I put her paw in mine and started to cry. Why did that have to happen to her, I would rather it be me not her. Why did life have to be so cruel. All I could hope for woulb be that she will survive.

Everything got packed up quickly and everyone got into the vehicle. We then drove as fast as we could to the hostpitaile. We ran red lights and stops sighns. We got to the ER in about thirty minutes. We had already given them a heads up that we would be there. So when we got there wolfs rushed to the RV and put Kate on a stretcher and rushed her into an operating room. The only thing they would really have to do is just stop the bleeding, give a blood transplant and just keep her alive.

I sat down in the waiting room with Winston and Eve while Earl, who would be back later, went to drop everyone back off. Now all we would have to do was wait to see what would happen.