And so the party set out to make sure Humphrey had a night he would never forget. The sun was still bright and shining, not a cloud in the sky. The party was walking together through the woods. The Omegas all seemed to know where they were going, but Garth seemed a bit lost.
"So, where are we going first again?" he asked Humphrey.
"Well, Paddy, what was the first thing on the list again?" Humphrey turned back to Paddy, waddling beside Marcel in the back.
"Ahh, yes." He took out the bark list from behind his back again. "First it says 'dope flowers', whatever that means."
"Okay, good. We're going the right way then." Humphrey said assumingly.
The other Omegas chuckled, knowing what they were in for now. "You still didn't answer my question." Complained Garth.
"You'll see." Scoffed Humphrey. "We're almost there."
"Yep. Almost there." Said Shakey happily. "Its just on the other side of this bush." He pointed out that they have come to a wall-like thicket of tall grass.
"Garth, prepare your eyes for what you are about to see!" whispered Humphrey to Garth. He then motioned for Shakey and Mooch to draw back the grass, opening up to a huge field of flowers, each about as tall as the wolves were. For about a mile down, where the clearing ended with another wall of trees, there were beautiful dots in nearly every shade of red, yellow, and white. A light breeze suddenly swept in and blew through the flowers, making them dance and quaver.
"This is beautiful." Was all Garth could say after a few minutes. "I could stare at this place for hours.
"Such beauty and tranquility!" Marcel threw in.
"Yep. This is a pretty place." Humphrey replied. He apparently had come here many times with the other guys, as he did not feel the same spark Garth and Marcel felt. "Now let's get down to business."
"Yeah!" shouted the other Omegas.
"Wait, business? I don't understand." Said Garth, confused.
"Well, you see, this place is pretty and all," explained Humphrey, "but what's really cool about this place is that these flowers, well… If you sniff them hard enough, the pollen goes up your snout and to your brain, and it gives you this… sensation."
"What do you mean 'sensation'?" asked Garth suspiciously.
"It's hard to explain." Chimed in Salty. You have to go through it to understand it.
"In Alpha school, I learned about this one plant with seven leaves, and sniffing it can make you see the world in pretty colors, but it also damages your brain and…"
Humphrey suddenly interrupted Garth. "No! It's not like that. That stuff, if you have one sniff of it, you always want more and more! This stuff is different." He said assuringly as they started to walk towards the field. "We like playing around with it, but we can stop playing in it any time we want."
"Okay, I guess." Said Garth, not sounding too sure that this was a good idea.
"Just look at Mooch. He's going with it already!" Everyone looked over at Mooch. He had a lot of flowers together with him, and sniffing them so hard that it seemed he would tear the petals from the stems. It must have worked; he must have inhaled a lot of pollen, as his eyes became red and droopy, and he started giggling softly.
"He's in the zone!" announced Salty.
"Yep." Replied Shakey. "I vote Garth be the next one to go."
"What, oh no!" Garth was starting to back down nervously.
"Ahh, come on buddy. It will be fun!" said Humphrey egging. "Just one small sniff, and we'll never make you do this again! Promise." Shakey was already getting together a bouquet to bring to Garth.
"I don't know…"
"Come on! Do it for me." Salty and Shakey were chanting, "Come on Garth! Come on Garth!"
"Think of it like this:" Humphrey continued, suddenly starting to sound a little serious. "You told me you didn't have a bachelor party before you got married to Lilly. Well now's your chance to make up for it. Aren't you upset that you didn't get to have that one last hoorah? Well, here you go! Tonight, every second should count, every minute should be fun; for all of us! So come on! Have a sniff!"
Garth stared at the bouquet Shakey was holding up to him. His eyes first glance in every other available direction, until finally, he gave in, and took a deep breath. "You promise I won't get addicted to this?"
"I swear on Winston's grave." Said Humphrey.
"Well, okay then. Here it goes." Garth dropped his snout into the bouquet, and took in a big, long sniff. His nose filled with a sweet, abnormally strong scent from all the flowers, and he pulled away to stop his eyes from watering.
"Well Garth, how do ya feel?" he thought he heard Shakey ask.
"I feel… I feel…" Garth could not find the right words. It seemed as though his mind were drawing a blank. His head suddenly felt light as a balloon. Then as he looked out at the field, the colors of the flowers, all the red, yellow, and white, seemed to be mixed together as though in a whirlpool. Then the whirlpool started to suck in the green of the trees, the blue of the sky, and the grey and brown of all his friend's faces.
And then his stomach felt bubbly and tingly inside. He started giggling uncontrollably. He suddenly had a sense to go wild, so he ran into the field, dancing and singing like a lunatic, completely unaware of his actions.
"Yep, he's in the zone now." Said Salty. "My turn!" He turned around to an unused flowerbed, and sniffed it all down, and then Shakey came up and did the same. Humphrey was the last wolf to inhale the pollen, and see the world go blurry in his eyes.
"Well Marcel, shall we join in?" Paddy asked his friend.
"Ahh, sure. Why not. What the heck. Maybe just one flower."
So the birds each buried their bills into one flower, Marcel's red and Paddy's yellow, and soon, the entire party was, as Salty would say, "in the zone."
They frolicked and rolled around in the meadow for a good long time that day. They each were as blind as a bat, only seeing things in blurs. They shouted silly things like "my eyes are coconuts!" or "hey look out for that wildebeest!" when one of them saw Mooch. Shakey at one point mistook Marcel for a turkey, and hugged and danced with him. Humphrey and Salty ran into each other at one point. None of them had hardly any idea what they were doing or saying or going, but they were having fun.
Finally, after a few hours had past, their vision cleared up, and they came to their senses. They were all far away from each other, so Humphrey howled up, signaling the others where he was, and so they would all come to him.
When they all met up again, they all started giggling and talking about how hilarious they acted (all they could remember, at least).
"Well Garth? Admit it! That was awesome!" Humphrey said to Garth.
"Humphrey, I must admit; that was sick!"
"See, didn't we tell ya?" exclaimed Salty.
"Now, the only thing is, because this was your first time, tomorrow you're going to have a pretty bad headache." Shakey brought up, starting to sound a bit worried. Garth's smile started to fade as he said that.
"Yeah, and on the way to our next activity, we should stop by the river and wash that pollen out of your snout." Said Mooch. "Otherwise the side effects could be… ummm… fatal."
"What? Cried Garth, suddenly scared. "Why didn't you tell me that before I sniffed it?"
"Well, because you would have completely backed out then." replied Shakey, cool as a cucumber.
"I told you this was a bad idea Paddy!" scolded Marcel. "I can't believe I let you talk me into this!" Paddy shot him a slightly dirty look.
"Relax, you'll be fine!" said Humphrey in an even more relaxed tone. "the side effects don't kick in until after a few days. We'll have that pollen out in no time. Just a quick run to the river, and snort of the water, and it will all be cleansed out of your system. Trust us, we've done this many times."
This calmed down Garth a little. "So, Paddy, what's next on the list."
"Oh, right." He said, still drearily waking up from his trance. "It seems we are to go to the hunter's camp to 'torture hunters'!"