I used to think my dad was an innocent, fun-loving omega.

But, after the incident, I started thinking of him as if he were a psychopath.

Turns out, I was wrong.

But not entirely wrong.

You see, there was still a psychopath, he just wasn't my dad.

Then, who was he?

Why did he hate our family?

Why did he take away our happiness?

What drove him to do this unimaginable sin?

Was it just pure madness?

Evil?

Or was there an ulterior motive behind it all?

So many questions.

Let's shorten it down to one question: Why?

Once the train reached us, we jumped aboard the train and started our exciting vacation adventure.

Time skip: Nighttime.

Cold!

I jumped up immediately. I was greeted with the sight of Kate dozing right in front of me.

Wha- What the- Why am I on a train-

Oh right. Travelling.

Woken up against my will for two times in a single day.

It was raining outside.

Every drop of water that happened to hit the metal roof of the train sounded a pleasant chime.

I glanced up.

Leaky roof. And right above where I was sleeping.

"Oh, well. Guess I'll look out for Montana." I said to myself. There was no way I could fall asleep now.

I looked at Kate's sleeping form. Marcel and Paddy were right. She does look pretty when she sleeps.

But, that's like saying that the sun goes around the earth while it's raining. Of course it does, it goes around the earth regardless of whether it's raining or not!

Speaking of the sun, I can see that the sky is getting brighter and brighter by the second. Well, not really by the second, it's just that whenever you observe a sunrise or sunset with full concentration, you seem to lose all track of time.

Soon, a bright orb of light was clearly distinguishable against the sky blue background.

It would soon be time for Kate to wake up. As time went on, the scenery outside started resembling Montana's natural flora more and more.

We were nearing our stop. It seemed like it had been only a few minutes since I woke up, but I knew that it was only an illusion and that quite a few hours had passed by.

Kate was sleeping peacefully on a pile of hay. Marcel and Paddy were involuntarily sleeping on each other.

I would usually wake Kate up gently, but remembering how I was woken up yesterday, I thought I'd give her a taste of her own medicine.

I knocked Kate on the head. She jerked up immediately.

"Ow! What the-" I chuckled, watching her reaction.

"Hey there, Kate! Since you decided to wake me up just like this yesterday, I thought I'd return the favour. Hehe!"

"Oh, go away, Humphrey. Few more minutes." Kate closed her eyes and tried to sleep again.

I knocked her on the head once again. "Maybe this will help you get up."

"Ow! Okay, okay, I'm up."

I walked over to the spot where Marcel and Paddy were sleeping. To annoy Kate even further, I decided to wake them up in a much less disturbing manner. I shook them a bit and being light sleepers, both of them woke up in a few seconds, well-rested and ready to go.

"And you decided to wake them up normally! Ugh, Humphrey, you annoy me-"

I grabbed her and kissed her. She blushed.

"Apology accepted."

We were approaching the river, which meant that the train would be slowing down.

Once it reached a safe speed, we got off the train.

"So, Kate, you want to know what happened here that led me to leave, don't you?" I asked her.

"Well, it is part of the reason we came here, so, of course." The beautiful wolf in front of me smiled.

"I'll tell you later. First things first; accommodations. I'll show you around the place, and then we can visit my old pack tomorrow. Then, more sightseeing, and home. Good plan?"

"The best." She rubbed noses with me.

"I can't wait to meet my old friends again." We continued our conversation as we walked on.

"You must miss them pretty badly."

"Yeah. Can't wait to meet them again. Especially Chris, Edward, Andrea, and the rest of the gang again."

"So, how many relations do you have here?"

"Well, I have fourteen friends here, I think? I used to hang out with a certain six people. We were always together. The only day I remember not being with them was the day of the... incident."

"Oh."

"And obviously, I had mom and dad, and..." I blushed. How was I supposed to explain to Kate that I have ex-girlfriends here? Here goes nothing.

"And?"

"..and my ex-girlfriends," I said nervously. I felt my ears retract.

Kate burst out laughing. "Why were you scared of telling me that?"

"Because I thought you might get angry?"

"Humphrey, my heart belongs to you now. I know for a fact that you wouldn't cheat on me if your life depended on it, ya silly omega."

I couldn't believe it.

Kate was truly amazing.

I pulled her into a hug. "Thank you, Kate."

Marcel and Paddy, who kept their quiet until now, made remarks about us being cute.

Time passed by. Humphrey, Kate, Marcel and Paddy toured almost the entirety of Glacier park, except the best sites, saving them for the day after the next, when they would go sightseeing again.

The sun neared the horizon. The strong, yet subtle breeze accented the experience of the two wolves wandering around the park. The realization that they needed to find shelter dawned on the group of those four tourists.

A short search near the pack's territories later, they found two caves right next to each other. One seemed to be in use while the other appeared abandoned. Luckily, they were far away enough to not be spotted by the pack's alphas.

We went inside the abandoned cave. No one of anyone here. No supplies, no scent markers, nothing. We left no stone unturned.

Waiting patiently seemed like the best option. If no one came to claim the cave by nightfall, we claim it for the next two days.

"I'm going to look around the cave again, just to be sure," I said to the others.

"Okay, then, mon ami. We'll stay here." Marcel replied. Kate smiled, for no reason in particular. Not that I'm complaining.

I looked around the cave carefully. The cave wasn't just a small hole in the wall. It was sort of in a 'U' shape with one of the ends shortened, with the corners designed to reflect sound at odd angles for privacy. Some caves also sported a sound-proof basement, but this wasn't one of those. This cave was very weird by Jasper standards. But it was a very common architectural style here. It reminded me of our cave when we were younger. By 'we', of course, I meant my family.

Speaking of... I never did tell Kate that story, did I?

I was looking at one of the walls when I spotted something.

Three distinct sets of paw-prints.

Looks like this cave once belonged to a family. Which made sense, this cave was only a small distance away from my old pack.

Wait... could it be.. our old den?

I hesitated. Why? I forced myself to bring my paw near the paw-print closest to the middle. If this really was our old den, my paw-print should be the one in the middle.

My paw slowly reduced the distance between the print and the real thing.

I touched the paw-print.

What I observed completely affected me, at least for the next few moments.

The paw-print was...

..too small.

I burst out laughing at the pure futility and randomness of the moment.

Of course, I hadn't taken into account that fact that I had grown a lot ever since those days. There would be no realistic way to determine if this really was my paw-print without consulting a more knowledgeable third person.

My sounds of happiness reflected off the walls of the cave. Luckily, the sound was highly diminished when it reached the entrance where Kate and the others were sitting.

I noticed a small plastic red flower on the ground. Plastic? This cave seemed to be vacated quite recently, after the dawn of the age of plastic.

The phoney flower emitted an unpleasant smell. Weird. And disgusting.

I decided to keep it with me. I could probably wash the flower to rid it of the smell and give it to Kate later.

I returned to the area where all the others sat.

"Hallo, du blöder Humphrey!" Paddy greeted me, with a smirk on his face. Well, it wasn't really a greeting. He thinks I'm stupid. Of course, he thinks I can't understand German.

"Hallo auch an Sie, idiotischer Paddy! Hältst du mich wirklich für blöd?" I have an uncanny ability for picking up languages extremely quickly. I once met a German couple while I was on the run... you can guess what happened. I also picked up very basic french from Marcel.

Paddy's jaw flung open. Marcel and Kate looked at me and Paddy with confused looks.

"Translation: He called me stupid in German, and I outwitted him." Both of them burst out laughing. I joined in, too.

Once the trio finished laughing at the embarrassed duck, all of them sat there for a few more hours, telling scary stories and goofing off until bedtime. Humphrey completely forgot everything about narrating his backstory to the rest of the group.

Time skip: Nighttime.

Humphrey's dream.

THE ULTRA AWESOME HUMPHREY AND KATE WARRIORS!

Episode 23

Season 1

"Humphrey, can't get my AI to hack his mainframe IP address!"

"Argh! Not the AI!"

Kate and Humphrey were both piloting their respective spaceships, trying to stop the evil Dr Diabolical from destroying the planet Rexsnozz.

"MUHAHAHAHA! Once I blast zis insignificant planet and itz tiny, puny people to smithereens, I can finally get me hands-on ze Unobtainium-346 I need for ze doomsday device!"

"Dave, why are you doing this?" Humphrey asked him, referring to his real name. Before turning evil, he was known as the famous Dr David Hart, a dedicated philanthropist working for the good of humanity.

"Vas? How dare you refer to me by me real name!" He was seething with anger. "I tried to help ze world, at first. I invented ze legendary hyperdrive system, so people could safely get from one place to ze other. And ze Pyruvian government took all ze credit! I said, nevermind them, they always have a screw loose." So, I tried to make world even better. Innovation after innovation, I kept pumping zem out, like a factory. For everything, someone always copied my idea, and then added a cupholder, so people would buy copy instead of ze real one. Now, they will pay! They will all pay!" The red-headed doctor then started laughing maniacally.

"But, Dave.. everyone knows you as the scientist who spends countless hours working for the good of all creatures. So what if people copy your idea? You are still achieving your goal, making the world better."

"Aww, how emotional. NOW DIE!" By giving a speech, the clever doctor distracted Kate and Humphrey from the task at hand. He then pressed a big red button, activating all the machinery that made the doomsday device function.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT ON THIS AMAZING ADVENTURE? STAY TUNED FOR MORE!

Hello there! Did you enjoy my story? If you did, I expect you to write a 1200-word essay on why you enjoyed my story. :P

When will the drama start? Next chapter. Oh, and by the way, this may seem like just a filler chapter, but hidden within the sentences that make up this chapter, there are a couple of important ones to watch out for.

When will you update WFIF? I don't really know.

I apologize if the German and French stuff were incorrect. I used DeepL translator for the best results, though.

Bye! And thanks a lot for reading, as usual.

Writer with a heart.