Humphrey's POV
"Humphrey" I faintly heard a voice call, at first I thought I was just dreaming but then it called again "Humphrey get up" It said again. I felt something pushing my side and opened my eyes to see Kate pushing my side with her paw. "Ah! It's about time" She said getting up on her paws and backing away. I got up and stretched before looking to see that there was sunlight outside. At first I was wondering why Kate was waking me up early again but then I remembered. Today is the day we head back to Jasper and see what we've missed during our absence. "Mornin Hon" I said giving her a kiss which she returned "Glad to see you so lively this morning" She replied smiling. "So are you ready to head to Jasper?" "Of course" I said. "Alright then let's start moving, we can get there by nightfall if we move fast" She said.
"What's the rush? We'll get there when we get there" I said "I know but I really just want to get back and see what has happened, hopefully nothing." She said. "Okay I understand I'm anxious about getting back too." I said. "As long as we keep walking we can get there at a decent time" She said before turning and walking out of the den. I followed her out to see that the sun was just shining over the distant mountains, there was also a good amount of clouds in the sky above. I looked around the den grounds and didn't see any wolves outside yet, however when I looked in front of Kate I could see Jake standing outside his den. We came up to him and stopped "Heading out?" He asked "Yes, thank you for everything" Kate said. "Anytime, good luck on your travels and maybe we'll see each other again." He said. "That would be nice" I said before I followed Kate as we headed towards the river.
"Oh and tell Winston I said hello" He said behind us "Will do" She replied. Soon we were away from the dens and alongside the river. We turned to the south and followed the river upstream, having the river helped with traveling because you didn't have to go around obstacles like trees. The river seemed very calm today, the water only gave a light ripple as it passed by. It gave the morning a peaceful feeling since it was so quiet around. "It's a nice day today" I commented after a few minutes of walking along the water. "Yeah good day to travel, the cold air feels good too" She said next to me. She was right there was a light breeze passing through the tree tops and our fur. It felt good and I hoped it lasted all day, traveling in the heat is not something anyone enjoys. "Though those clouds above look like rain clouds" She said looking up where you could see a few thick clouds hanging above the mountains.
They were right in our path to get to Jasper "Yeah hopefully there not, traveling in the rain isn't fun as we've found out before." I said referring to when I had to save her from the raging flash flood in a thunderstorm. "Yeah and who's fault was that?" She asked looking at me "Hey I had to go, can't stop it" I replied quickly. She laughed "I know, I'm only kidding" She said. I laughed as well "And who had to end up saving you?" I asked looking back at her. "Alright I'll admit that if it wasn't for you're crazy way of saving me I wouldn't be here right now." She said. I smiled "And I'm glad you are here" I said, she smiled back after I said that. We resumed on our walking to see that the view was no different than when we got to the river. The mountains were slowly getting closer but the forest around remained the same. This began to bore me eventually and I drifted into my thoughts.
I was thinking about what to do to pass the time until we hit the mountains where things became more interesting. A game would be the best but it had to be one that could be played on the move, luckily I had one come to mind. It had been over an hour since we left the pack territory and hopefully this game will make the next hours go by faster. "Hey Kate want to play a game?" I asked as we walked "Can we still keep moving while we play this game?" She asked. "Yes you need to be moving to play it well anyway." I said. "Alright what did you want to play?" She asked. "It's called I spy" I replied, she looked at me after I told her. "Never heard of it, how do you play?" She said, I was surprised that she never heard of it but then again she was an alpha that usually had no town for game back home. "It's really simple, you look for a visible object around you and give a hint as to what it is. I'll try to guess it and I can either give up or if I get it then it's my turn." I told her "Okay sounds fun" She said.
"Great I'll go first making you the guesser" I said, I looked around at what lay ahead of us. I decided to start with something easy to get her warmed up. I then saw a red flower that was near us and went with that as my pick. "I spy something that's red" I said looking around me so she wouldn't figure it out right away. "Hmm..." She said beginning to look around as we walked. "Is it the berries on that bush?" She asked. "Nope" Was all I said watching her look for something else "How about that flower?" She then asked. She got it much faster than I anticipated "That's correct, your turn now" I said. I watched her look around before she looked back at me "I spy something that's round" She said. I began to scan in front of us for round things, I decided to start with the most obvious "The sun?" I asked. She shook her head no before I searched for another round thing, I then saw a tree stump. "The tree stump?" I asked looking back at her "Rounder than that" She said giving me somewhat of a new hint. That's when I saw rocks sitting out in the river, they were very round looking "It's the rocks in the water over there" I asked pointing with my forepaw. "You got it!" She said, our game of I spy lasted much longer then I thought. We were still playing it was we began up the mountain slopes, each of us getting more clever with our choices. For some we had to give up on and we ended making up a new rule that you couldn't guess anything that was behind us. Kate was really enjoying herself as we played, it felt great to get our minds off of wondering about Jasper and just to talk and play games together.
After a very long almost three hours of playing I spy we decided that we had enough playing and just walked silently through the mountains together. The ground was covered in snow and it looked just like when Kate and I got off of the train. The trees were few and far between as we passed them, the air had also gotten much colder due to the high altitude. We were now under the clouds that we saw from down at the river. Luckily they were just only that, clouds that looked like rain but really weren't. You couldn't see the sun that shone above the clouds but you could tell that it's was almost at its highest for the day. This meant that we should be almost half way to Jasper and I could believe that considering how far we have gone so far. It had to be a few miles or more for sure, and Kate had on her mind what I was just thinking about. "Are you getting hungry?" She asked as we walked through the soft cold snow. "Yeah are you?" I replied asking her as well "Yes" She said.
"Let's keep an eye out for food was we walk and maybe we could even stop and I can look in the area" She said. "Whatever works for you with be find with me, I'll look for any signs of prey" I said "Alright, we'll continue for ten minutes then we'll stop and I'll go hunting for some simple food to carry us over." She said making a plan. "Okay" I said as we continued to walk while we both looked around for food. I stayed behind her in case she took off running after potential food. We rounded a corner along a mountain side and my eyes met something that I've never seen before. It was tall with dark brown fur and dwarfed us both, it looked like a caribou but it was much bigger. We stopped and I followed Kate as she quickly got behind a bush for cover. "What is that thing?" I asked seeing if she knew "It's called a moose, there rare and hard to hunt down" She replied. I looked back at the so called 'moose' and examined it further, it was grazing on some pine needles appearing too had never spotted us.
"Suppose we could eat it?" I asked hoping that we could and be back on the move quickly afterword. She seemed to be thinking about what I said for a minute before she responded "Well considering it's a female moose it would be easier to take down, but against only one wolf it will be a real challenge." She said looking at me. "I would say let's not risk me getting hurt and move on and find something else to eat." "I agree" I said. We came out from our spot behind the bush and walked past the creature, surprisingly it still paid no attention to us. "That's odd how it didn't run away from us like most animals do" I said as we continued searching. "Yeah I guess it knows we couldn't kill it without having a good fight." She said. It had been over twenty minutes since we started looking for food. Right when we were going to stop search the area for food I spotted three squirrels to my left. I pushed my elbow against Kate and pointed to the squirrels "Finally some easy prey" She said as we stopped to hide behind a large tree. "Okay we only need two at best, you go for one and I'll go for one" She said
I looked at her confused "But I'm not fully trained to hunt" I said "That doesn't mean you can't kill something, just remember what I taught you yesterday. Also the snow gives you an advantage because they can't hear your steps." She said looking at me. I nodded and she motioned for me to go first, I walked out from behind the tree and stalked behind another one. This continued from tree to tree as I got closer to the animals, I looked out to see that they were busy eating some pinecones. I looked back at Kate who was behind the next tree over gesturing for me to attack. Thinking about how to approach with my pounce all I came up with was to just run out and hope for the best. I got down low to the ground before running at the prey, I was already right on top of then before they noticed the disturbance I caused. Remember what she said I jumped and landed on top of one of the squirrels. I looked down to see that the animal was lying motionless under me 'Wow I just got my first kill' I thought to myself. By the time I collected myself and looked for where Kate was she was next to me with her own squirrel. "Excellent work!" She exclaimed "But you haven't killed it, your impact from landing on it only knocked it out." She dropped her catch and walked up to mine where she preceded break its neck with her paws. This made a popping sound before she placed it back down in front of me.
"Huh, never thought I would actually kill something so soon" I said as we began to eat our meal. "It doesn't take much to learn how to kill something, especially when it comes to these things." She said referring to the squirrels. "I have a satisfied feeling for some reason right now" I said, she laughed "Yeah I had that same feeling after my first kill" She said. We soon finished our food and got back to walking towards Jasper. It was now early afternoon and the clouds above were breaking apart letting out the sun. We were mostly silent as we looked around at the mountains we were passing in between. It wasn't as strenuous as I thought it would be there seemed to be a perfect path through the range allowing easy traveling. The air was cold and there was a breeze pushing from behind, luckily the sun above was keeping me warm.
A few hours had passed with Kate and I playing a few games to pass the time, we were really enjoying it. The sun was getting close to setting giving the mountains an orange glow to them. Then after we rounded a hillside our eyes saw something that was all too familiar. The mountain range we had been crossing for most of the day abruptly ended and dropped down into a valley. A valley we had called home for all of our lives, it was Jasper Park, we stopped and looked out over the view. The actual valley where the western and eastern packs were located was still a good distance away. But you had a clear view of it from where Kate and I sat, by the looks of things we still had maybe two hour until we got there. "There it is" She said looking out at it "Yeah, almost there" I said it would already be dark by the time we got there since the sun was setting. "Just a couple more hours and we'll see what we've missed after a week." She said. "And get bombarded with questions of where we've been" I added, she laughed "Yup, lots of explaining is going to have to be done tomorrow" She said. We remained sitting there on the snow looking out over the valley. My eyes wandered around the land below and I suddenly saw something I didn't expect to see near Jasper. It looked like a town for humans that was down in the valley as well, but it was many miles from where we lived in the packs.
"Do you see that?" I asked Kate pointed out to the town, she looked. "Huh didn't know humans lived that close" She said sounded just as surprised as I was. "Yeah, good to know" I agreed. "Come on, were not going to get anywhere if we sit here and look." She said getting up and proceeding down the mountain. I ran to catch up by her side as our ever long travels would come to a close soon. Going down the mountain was fast, we were practically running down the slope. The snow began to disappear as we got further down and soon we met with the valleys floor. What remained ahead was a walk over small hills until we hit the next valley, the valley we called home. It was already dark as we walked through the woods, the moonlight from above allowed us to see well. There were no clouds from what I could see and all I did see above we're the stars.
If I had to choose between day and night I would go with night because everything just looks so much more amazing in the dark. The moonlight also helped, as a pup I spent some of my nights outside and looking up at the stars wondering why they were there. No one I asked seemed to know why but what I did know was that they were great to look at. I was brought out of my thoughts to see that over an hour had already passed by. I noticed that we were walking up yet another hill, as we came up to the tops of each one I expected to see the valley but it only lead to seeing another hill to go over. However as we reached the top of this one I saw the place we had been walking to get to all day. The valley where I played in as a pup stretched out in front of us. From the look of things nothing had changed at all since the last time I saw it. We were at the opposite end of it from the western pack den grounds meaning we had about a half hour until we got there.
"Looks just the same as when we left it" I said as we continued to walk alongside the rim. "Yeah no signs of any changes from what I can see" She agreed. This made me feel good because just maybe nothing had happened between the two packs. I was right in my estimate because about a half hour later we already entered the western territory. I began to see all the things that I enjoyed about this place. Not much later after that Kate and I arrived at the den grounds to see not a single wolf outside. This didn't surprise me because it was already night and the only ones who would be up right now would be the night patrol parties. "Where are we going to sleep, I really don't feel like staying up to tell my parents were back." She asked me. "We can sleep in my den, and we don't have to go walking though the den grounds to get to it." I suggested "In fact it's right there" I pointed at the dark opening under a tree that I had called home since I was brought into this pack. As we walked up to it I stopped and looked out over the den grounds and could see no signs of a war happening. "What is it?" She asked stopping next to me "Nothing, just it looks like nothing has happened conflict wise" I replied.
"Yeah looks just as peaceful here as it always is" She agreed. I turned and walked into my den with her following soon behind. "Now to get some sleep before the long day we'll have tomorrow" I said lying down. "Yes we're going to need it" She said lying right next to me "I love you Humphrey" She said giving me a kiss. "I love you too Kate" I said smiling "Hopefully we can work out the 'pack law' situation as well" She said smiling back. "Yeah" I said agreeing before I drifted off into sleep thinking about what is to come tomorrow.
A/N: Well that chapter ran on longer than I expected, but now Kate and Humphrey are finally back in Jasper after a long week of running all over the place. Cya in the next chapter!