A/N: Looks like the two decided to head away from Jasper now in order to become mates. Let's see what life has in store for them today shall we?
Humphrey's POV
"Catch me if you can!" Said a playful Kate as I watched her run across the ice ahead of me. It was the start of a new day and we began it by heading out across the frozen lake. Since we confessed our love and came up with a plan to 'run away' from Jasper today we would be exploring for a place to call home. We had no idea what we would find on the other side of the mountains ahead but I hoped it was a decent place that provided food shelter and water. It was decided that as much as this current place was beautiful the bitter cold was something we didn't want to deal with. So we're headed out of the mountains to somewhere that was much warmer.
"Hey wait up!" I yelled out running to catch up with her, but as I learned before she could out run me. We were about halfway across the lake and passed the time by running and skidding on the ice trying to pin each other. It was fun because keeping enough grip to gain speed would end up in you eventually slipping and falling down. We had been playing this game ever since we discovered ices effect on our walking. "You're going to have to be a lot faster than that" She challenged. "Oh yeah?" I said back starting to run faster which to my surprise actually made me catch up. Soon I was right beside her and hadn't managed to slip on the ice yet, she looked back and got a shocked expression to see me right by her side.
I gave my run a little more power before I jumped sideways to pin down Kate, she started to shuffle her paws on the ice to dodge me but it was too late. I landed onto her and we landed with a thud on the ice.
I knew we could easily break something doing this but it didn't feel as hard as you might expect to land on something as hard as stone. "Pinned ya!" I yelled before getting off of her, she began to laugh before getting back up. "You learn fast" She said, I smiled back at her "But now it's my turn" I immediately turned and ran knowing she would be hot on my tail in no time at all.
We continued this game until we reached the opposite shore of the lake and Kate ended up pinning me the most which I didn't mind. It was glad that we were having fun together along our journey instead of just walking. I let out a sigh of exhaustion as I walked up the lake shore with Kate beside me "Well I'm exhausted" I said sitting down just before the forest began "Come on, can't keep up with an alpha?" Kate teased sitting next to me. I smiled "Nope but after a short rest I'll be good to go." I replied, I looked up to the sky and saw that it was mid-morning. We had spent only an hour crossing the lake but the mountains ahead of us would take a good about of time to climb up. The goal by the end of the day was to just be on the other side of them to see what lay beyond. A few minutes passed before I felt rested enough to climb up the mountains.
"Alright good to go" I said getting up "Great now to climb up these" Kate said referring to the mountains. "At least it looks like we have to go over just one." I said thinking positive "Just think soon we'll find a place to call home for some time" I continued. "Yeah it's exciting, and not too far from Jasper either" She agreed, she was right if we found somewhere to live around here it would be no problem to head back to Jasper. It would still be only a day's walk to get there and I wouldn't mind visiting every month. Just as long as they didn't try to separate us when we do go back. I was slightly afraid by that but knowing that my mate just so happened to be the leader's daughter they wouldn't make us make us do that. I began to think about home more and more the further we walked up the mountain. Like Kate said they might be in a war as we speak unless they found some other way to unite as one. I couldn't help by feel bad for everyone there if they did go to war, the pack had been at peace for as long as I can remember and now it could of all turned around. But I asked Kate if she still wanted to go back and she said no in order to be with me. I did have a question on my mind now after thinking about this.
"Hey Kate do you think you're dad sent out wolves to find us?" I asked, it seemed like a good possibility due to the important role she had to play. "Well know my dad it wouldn't surprise me" She said "but if they tried to follow our scents they would find a humans as well. Even if they tried to follow the humans scent they wouldn't get very far." "He could of sent search parties to search the area around the territory" I suggested "Yeah but we're far enough away from them that they couldn't find us and if for some they did what's the worst they could do? Drag me home, well they would have to fight me first." She finished.
I smiled, she was willing to sacrifice so much just to be with me "That's the power of love" I said looking into her amber eyes "It makes us do amazing things" She added before we kissed. After a few seconds she playfully pushed me away "Now let's keep moving the faster over the mountain the better." She said, I smiled and gestured for her to take the lead continuing our trek upwards. I kept my mind busy thinking about many things, like my friends reaction to hear Kate and I were mates. How they so very doubted the chances of anything happening between us, I'm sure the look on their faces would be priceless. I'm sure the rest of the pack would be very surprised as well.
By the time we reached the top of the mountain it was midafternoon, it was a longer than expected hike up that I expected but the cold air made it not as strenuous. As we came over the crest of the mountain the view on the other ride revealed itself. Down below was a steep drop into another valley that was much deeper. Unlike the pervious one we just climbed out of this one didn't have snow at the bottom which was exactly what we were looking for. The mountains did a 'U' shape making up the valleys walls and a river could be seen winding its way out of the valley and over the distant horizon.
"Man just when you thought you've seen it all" I said sitting down surveying the lay of the land "Yeah, this looks like an amazing place to be." Kate agreed sitting next to me. "And there no s is either so that's a plus" I said. Upon closer look the forest ran uninterrupted across the valley floor except for the places the river ran, from the looks of it the river was a decent size too. The path down below us wasn't anything too bad considering going down is a whole lot easier and quicker than going up. The snow seemed to melt off about half way down meaning the valley should be plenty warm for us.
After sitting for and admiring the view I broke the silence between us wanting to get off the mountain. I wanted to see what it looked like up close and maybe even find our new place to call home. "We're not going to get anywhere sitting up here, come on let's head down." I said getting up and progressing down the mountain. "You're not going to sled down it?" Kate asked following behind me, as much as her idea sounded fun I was more worried about something going wrong. "It's pretty steep don't you think?" I commented looking back at her continuing downward.
"Says the wolf that fell off a cliff and saved me on a sled while escaping a bear." She added. "Yeah but that was forced upon, I'd rather not die over getting down this mountain." I said. "Good point" She agreed, the walk down the mountain went much quicker as expected. After an hour we passed the snow line entering a forest full of more life. Birds could be heard chirping above as I could feel my fur warming up in the sun above. "This is more like it" Kate commented from next to me.
"Yes much warmer and lively" I said, after some more walking the grade from the mountain flattened out. The forest became pretty dense, only a few spots of sunlight shone through. The trees and shrubs looked very much the same as the ones back in Jasper, but it wasn't as hilly. No large rocks either, just a regular forest having occasional clearings of tall grass. "How much farther do you want to go?" I asked "Hmm, how about we keep going until we hit the river?" She suggested. The river was a good place to start looking for somewhere to rest for the night. I didn't expect to find our actual new home just yet, it would be nice to search the forest before settling in. As long as we didn't run into any hostile packs we should be fine. "Yeah then we can find somewhere to sleep for the night before searching the forest to see what there is here." I agreed.
We continued walking further into the forest, the river shouldn't be too much farther ahead. Along the way we saw nothing special, no tall hills or jagged rocks. Jasper seemed like a diamond in the rough considering all that things we have just in our territory. There was of course the valley, an amazing sight where most of our food was hunted and a place to just hang out. Then there was the rocky mountain where we had all our moonlight howls, below that was a river where we got our drinking water. During the hot days of summer it became a great place to cool off. That pretty much summed up all we had in Jasper. I was excited to see if this place had anything special hidden in its dense flora.
I came out of my thoughts to see water glimmering from the sunlight above. Upon first glance it looked pretty small but once we came out of the tree and onto the bank it became a whole lot bigger. Judging by how wide it was it could maybe take a good minute of paddling just to get across. The water was passing by at a gentle speed making very little sound as it did. "Wow" I said walking up to the water and drank some in, it was nice and cold. Kate did the same as I sat down on the rivers bank "Biggest river I've ever seen" I added.
She sat down next to me before speaking "Yeah nice and cold too" She said. We sat for only a minute before suddenly hearing some voices, oddly enough it sounded like it was coming from above us. We both looked up and to my surprise I saw Marcel and Paddy flying above the river. "Marcel, Paddy!" Kate yelled out getting their attention, the two of the both stopped talking to each other and turned around to land next to us. "We've been looking for you two" Marcel said looking at us questionably "Jasper isn't this direction you know" Paddy added. "Well that's because we're not going to Jasper anymore" I said "What do you mean?" Marcel asked.
"We admitted our love for each other and since going to Jasper means not being together we've decided to live on our own now." I said "Why congratulations you two, might I say it's about damn time" Paddy said. Kate and I looked at each other and smiled before looking back at them "So I take it you're looking for a place to live here then?" Marcel asked "That's correct, but we do plan on going back to Jasper in five days or so." Kate said "That's great, this place sure seems nice and safe for you two" He said.
"Yeah we haven't fully explored the forest yet, in fact we just got here not too long ago when we saw you two flying above" I said "Well good luck too you two, I guess we'll see you in Jasper at the end of the week." Paddy said "Ah yes the course calls" Marcel added referring to that game called golf they like to play. "Goodbye, thanks for all the help you've given us" Kate said as we watched them take off back into the skies. I watched until they disappeared behind the trees on the opposite bank. "Come on, let's got catch us some food and look for a place to sleep for tonight." Kate suggested. "Right behind you" I said following her back into the forest, happy I was going to get to watch Kate hunt us some food.