After Kate's death, Humphrey and Lilly plan to return to her resting place. Nearing the end of their journey, they run into an unwelcome friend. Candu tries to return them to the pack when a bear appears. Kail thinks that there is more to his mother's death than what he's been told. Kail and Jewel decide to leave the pack and seek out their father. Will they find Humphrey or will there be another roadblock in the way?

Chapter 7: Kevin


Kail's POV:

Jewel and I walked inside to see Kevin waiting for us. Kevin is a middle-aged wolf with madded red fur, he had large ears and green eyes. Kevin is a unique wolf and, there's really no other way to put it, the guy's a nut.

"Hey, friends! I thought I heard you coming over here and smelled you outside my den, but that's not important. The important thing is, what are you doing here?" Kevin asked.

"Well, Kevin, I was hoping you could help us." I start.

"Ah, yes! I heard about this when I followed you into the woods to talk to Eve. You need me to help you, your father could be anywhere and you put your trust in me! That's what friends do, they help each other!" He went on.

"Yeah, yeah. So will you help us?" Jewel chimes in.

"I would be delighted too! Ah, you see, this reminds me of the time Lilly came to me and asked me to help her find her sister as they were playing a game, you see? She hid out in the woods and she didn't know where she was, so I entered the woods and soiled her hiding spot and we all shared a laugh," he continues as he lets out a laugh, "I returned her to the pack, but Lilly said Kate was tired so I had to carry her, Lilly said we should hide Kate underground so Humphrey could look for her too. So I helped dig her a hole and placed her in. But she's been really tired as she's been sleeping for a while because Lilly told me that she's defiantly not dead." He finishes as he lets out an awkward laugh.

"Right..." Jewels say.

"Alright Kevin, can you help us now?" I ask.

"Ah, yes! Down to business, right down to business. I like getting down to business..." He started but I interrupted him.

"Kevin!" I raised my voice, "Just, go to the border, we will be there soon."

"Yes, Friends. Take your time, I'm used to being alone so time will fly. No need to worry about me, I'll be fine" Kevin goes on.

"Kevin!" Jewel yells.

"Yes?"

"Go!"

"Alrighty," he replies as he walks outside the den and down the hill he lives on.

"Kail, I don't want him to go with us. I do not like him, he is annoying, and he never shuts up." Jewel explains.

"Jewel, I think you'll like him if you hung around him enough. He's a good guy, in small doses. Plus, I would rather suffer through his company for a day or two than get lost in these woods." I reply.

"Find someone else."

"He is the only wolf that will help us, not including him being the most talented in the pack. His sense of smell and hearing is extraordinary." I say as we exit the den and follow the path to the edge of the pack.

When we arrived, Kevin wasn't anywhere nearby, "See, he's not here. Let's just go," Jewel says, I ignore her as I stare deeper into the woods. I couldn't get my mind off that dream I had, what if Eve was right? What if I was just being paranoid? I know what I saw though, I need to get to the bottom of this. The only wolf who can help me is no longer in the pack. She is with Humphrey and I need to find them. I look up towards the sky to see the spring sun baking on us.

"It's noon, if we want to get there before dark we need to leave now," I tell Jewel.

"I was thinking the same thing," she replies as she walks to the border. We stand at the edge of the pack, beyond this line is all new terrain. I take a deep breath and hop over the border.

"Come on Jewel, I haven't died yet!" I tell her.

"Famous last words," She walks over and continues for a couple of feet before we hear a rustling in the trees, "What is that?" Jewel lowers herself to the ground.

"I don't know," I walk in front of her and smell the air. A familiar scent fueled the air, one that calmed me down when I recognized it, but made Jewel's fur stand even more on end.

"Hey, friends!" Kevin said as he jump down from the tree.

"Kevin, what were you doing in the tree?" Jewel asks.

"Looking for your father, I had to get high ground to scout ahead. Their scent leads to an unpassable cliff, we may need to find another way around. I may or may not have scouted up ahead but it seems like I have found a path that leads around it," Kevin explains, "But man, am I so glad you are here. Believe it or not, I do get lonely with no interaction with other wolves unless I'm needed. But we are friends, are we not? I mean we can do other things..."

"Yeah, Kevin, once we find my dad, we can all hang out," I say, interrupting him.

"So, where is the path?" Jewel asks.

"What path?" he replies.

"The path that leads around the cliff."

"What cliff?"

"THE CLIFF..." Jewel lets out a long exhale, "the cliff that our dad crossed."

"Oh, yes! Right this way." Kevin replies as he walks around the tree he jumped down.

Humphrey's POV:

"Humphrey! What do we do?" Lilly asked me as we backed away from the bear. It eased closer to us, growling. Lilly is terribly frightened, she was unable to make any words. She looked at me like I was supposed to know what to do, she expected me to do something and save us all, but in reality, I didn't know what to do. Fighting a bear is something I wasn't trained on, I only know how to hunt and patrol the pack. This is right out of my field.

"Humphrey, we are going to have to do something," Candu says calmly as he backs away, "Think of this as training, it is going to kill you unless you do something!"

"It's a bear, I have no experience killing something that wants to kill me too," I tell him as I took my eyes off the beast.

"You don't have to kill it, you just have to keep it from killing you," he explains.

"Well, what should..." I was cut off why a sequel from Lilly.

"HUMPHREY!" she says with a yell. The bear charges at her and Candu jumps and kicks it in the side, knocking it down.

"What the heck are you thinking, stop standing there and run!" Candu demands as the bear hits him in the side, flinging him into a rock and knocking him unconscious.

"Candu!" I shout as I turn to Lilly, "We need to stop him!"

"How we don't have the strength," She replies as she sits down"

"Maybe, but maybe don't need the strength. We can try to frighten it away," I explain, "Do you remember how to act like a turtle?"

"Yeah?" She answers.

"Do you think you can do a bear?" I say as she smiles.

"I see where you going with this."

"Good, hop on my back and make yourself look big," I tell her as I feel her claws dig into my back, "Now hurry, gets its attention." the bear was hovering over Candu at this point.

"Hey, you! You big, stupid, hairy, idiot thing!" She yells, it looked at us and lets out a roar before it started to walk in towards us.

"Good, now puff your chest, widen your legs, and let out a roar!" I tell her, she takes a deep breath and lets out the squeakiest, the quietest, the most non-threatening roar I've ever heard.

"What the hell was that, are you a cat? Roar like you mean it."

"Humphrey, I... I can't."

"Lilly, you have to try, hurry, it's getting closer," I tell her as I back up, the bear started to charge, "Lilly, just open your mouth and I'll do it!" I demanded and I jumped towards the bear and let out a deep roar, one that shook the trees, one that sent the birds flying off into the distance, one that was the exact opposite of Lilly's. The bear skidded to a stop and let out a roar of its own before turning around and heading back to its den where it originated. I didn't know I had a voice like that, I've never done something like that before. I started to lose my balance and she fell off my back and onto me. We both laughed as she got up.

"Humphrey, where did that come from?" she asked.

"I don't know," I answered, sincerely.

"Well, where ever it came from, I liked it," She walked up to me a rested her head on my head, "Thank you."

"No problem, now let's go check on Candu," I tell her as I ran to where he's rested. He was as stiff as a board, one of his paws is bloody, and he wasn't moving.

"(Laughing) You guys scared it away," Candu says as he pops up, startling me in the process. He yelps when he puts pressure on his paw.

"Are you alright?" Lilly asks.

"Yeah, it's just bruised. When it hit me I made it think I died. I thought you guys would run away, but, it seems like you had other plans," he replies.

"We couldn't just leave you here," Lilly states.

"Well, I thank you guys. Now, come on. If we leave now, we may get there before dark tomorrow." Candu says as he limps away, the sun was almost down.

"What? No! I'm going to Kate's resting place." I demand.

"Humphrey, I follow orders, and Winston told me to bring you back. It is unsafe for you and Lilly out here." Candu explains.

"Candu, tell me something. Do you have a mate, a wife, anyone?"

"No."

"Ok, so you don't know what it's like to lose one! Kate wasn't just my mate, she was my friend, my buddy, my wife, my all of the above... my everything. I loved her, but since her death, I have had a reoccurring dream, a nightmare, where she dies. There's nothing I can do, and my dream makes it very clear, but I wish I was there. Lilly was the only one with her and I just wish I was there too," I pause and pull a flower out of my mane. It is a violet flower I picked up before we came here, the same one Kate wore when we got married, the one she wore to our first howl. I figured I would leave this with her, where it belonged, "This was Kate's flower, and when I arrive at her grave, I will give this to her. Maybe then my nightmares will leave me. Its never a dream of her smile, or her cute laugh, but it's always that nightmare. The moment where I lost my everything." I put the flower back in my mane and walked off, Lilly followed me as we left Candu back in the dust. There was a long moment of silence before Lilly decided to speak.

"Humphrey, I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for, you didn't take her from me."

"True, I didn't, but I just wanted to say sorry for when I snapped a couple of days ago. You are clearly still going through some pain, me yelling at you couldn't have helped."

"And I would like to apologize too. I would like to accompany you guys on your journey," Candu says as he was following us.

"It's fine you guys," I reply as I stop and turn to Lilly, "But that does remind me. Lilly, what really happened to Garth?"

"He died, that's what she told us, right?" Candu asks.

"He's not dead, Candu, but I don't feel like getting into it right now."

"Lilly, it's dark out. Let's find a den and you can tell us what happened. I have opened up and now I ask you to too," I tell her.

"Yeah, i thought the guy was dead 5 seconds ago, you need to explain if you want us to trust you the rest of the way." Candu states.

"Alright, but first, let's find a place for tonight."

Well, I'm finally back guys and the wait is over for the 8 guys who actually read my stories. I'm sorry I have been away for so long and I plan on finishing this story. So if you are even a little bit interested in my next chapters follow and stay tuned for next time. Have a great rest of your day and...

Piece!