I apologise for the delay, more will be explained at the end, but for now…

Chapter 34: The Den

Humphrey's P.O.V.

"What the hell?!" I blurted out at him.

He turned giving a confused look. "What?"

"I thought you said that the den was close!"

"It was, but I had to take a detour after that so they won't get to the den as fast."

What! I screamed in my mind. "You could have told me that before we walked for hours!"

From what I could tell, he was trying to hide a sly smirk. I guess that he still disliked me. At least I knew the relationship was neutral.

Unphased by my growl, he continued. "Hey, at least I didn't go into the Jasper territory."

I so wanted to kill him there. I was tired, depressed, and alone.

There was about another half-hour of silence between us as we continued walking. I swear that I was about to rip out his throat when he hollered out.

"Settle down, we're about there."

"Oh, so does that mean another five hours?!" I yelled at him in pure annoyance.

He chuckled at my anger. "Not this time, there it is."

He pointed off in a general direction with his paw. I looked in the direction he pointed, but there was nothing to be found. Nothing to be found except more trees and foliage.

I turned to him baring my teeth. "Are you trying to pull some more BS on me?!" I stated in what I hoped was a menacing growl.

He jumped back in surprise. "It's right there, and it's still in perfect condition."

I couldn't take this anymore. I don't care if he is supposedly my only hope in this situation. I will not take anymore of his shit! I instantly pounced on him. He didn't seem to expect it as he quickly went down with my paws on his throat. It was surprisingly much like Eve did to me when Kate and I first returned from Idaho.

Even though I caught him off guard, he easily overpowered me in a matter of seconds. Thankfully for me, he just had his paw on my back instead of my throat.

He was the first to speak for the awkwardness of this situation. "Well then, I guess all of that walking really got to your head. Did you forget the situation at hand?"

I grunted knowing that I was defeated, "What?"

"That Kate is being mind-controlled by your goddamn brother and you are the only one that can save her. And to be able to do that, you need me?"

"Okay, I get your point, I just couldn't take you lying to me anymore."

"I wasn't lying to you Humphrey, the den is right there."

I rolled my eyes, "Screw you."

He finally got off of me after a minute a silence. "Here, walk up to that mound and start digging through the bushes around it."

I finally got what he was saying and felt like a jerk and an idiot. "Are you saying…?"

"Yes, the den is hidden. Did you think it was some huge mountain or something?" he chuckled.

We started to walk towards the mound he was talking about. I was still a little pissed at him, so I continued on the conversation. "Why didn't you just tell me it was hidden or something instead of just pointing to a pile of dirt?"

"Okay, get this straight Humphrey, I don't really like you, and I know that your don't like me. If it were up to me, my sister and I would be living a long life together. She would find a mate and I would protect her. She would have pups and I could be their loving uncle…" he started to trail off in some sort of dream world.

"Well that seems nice, but let's just get inside the den."

He rolled his eyes, but proceed in getting a semi-usable opening. We walked in. I knew I already felt exhausted from the travel, but not this tired. Almost as soon as we entered the dim den, I collapsed onto the floor. Then for once, despite the situation at hand, I had an enjoyable dream.

My dream hadn't been anything worth talking about. A simple thing like playing a game with friends as a pup was all. For once, for the first time in years, I had not had a nightmare. The closest thing I had gotten to a "good night's sleep" in that time was a blank night, where I had nothing of seemingly immediate importance. I actually woke up smiling, which Oscar noticed instantly.

"Well hello there sleepy, you're happy." he stated with a smirk.

I quickly changed my expression, also changing the topic so he would pursue the smile. "What time is it, how long have I been out?"

"Hmm? Oh, you've been out for only about an hour, the sun's starting to come up."

"What!?" I blurted. "It was about noon when we got here!"

He gave me an evil smile as he replied, "Was it? I didn't notice."

I gave him a small growl before looking at the dirt laying in front of him. "What's that?"

He suddenly brushed away the picture in the dirt before explaining. "It's nothing of your worry. Just a pastime."

I took his word for it, but the picture had a strangely similar appearance of a wolf. An artist of some sort, I never would have guessed.

"So is that how you lost track of time?" I asked semi-suspiciously.

"No, I never lost track of time. I just… it wasn't on my priority list." he quickly finished.

Like I do with my of my conversations, I end up changing the subject. "We're here now, so now what?"

He gave a slight delay prior to his answer, "We wait."

This sadly seems to be the beginning of many of my author's notes, but here I go again: I am very sorry for the delay. As you can tell, this has been a huge delay in chapter posts. Honestly, school came back around after the holidays, and I never got back to writing. I blew it off so much to do more, less meaningful things. I don't want to make this too long of an A/N, so I'll wrap it up. Everybody reading needs to thank The return of the enclave for this chapter. He gave a review very recently that got me off my butt, and sat my butt back down in front of the computer with my unfinished chapter pulled up. He is the true hero of this story. And from me to you The Enclave, thank you.

Sincerely,

-Hikers123