AN: Here's chapter two! Not much to say about this one. I hope you enjoy still.
"Well, yeah," Humphrey replied, "Technically, I do. But I'm only on good terms with my mother here, and even that took a while."
"So, you're really our grandmother?" Stinky asked the new wolf.
"Yes, I am," she replied.
"What about your father?" Claudette asked Humphrey.
Humphrey cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable. "Well, he's alive too but, well… I hate him with every fiber of my being. Moving on," Humphrey quickly changed the subject, "how have you been Mom?"
The rest of the night passed exchanging pleasantries and rather shallow versions of recent events. The pups couldn't help but feel as though both their parents and their grandmother were leaving things out or skipping over them. The way they looked at each other suggested they would fill in the details later.
Soon the conversation turned to the pups. Their grandmother wanted to know everything about them: what they liked to do, who their friends were, and so on.
As the night grew darker and everyone grew tired, Humphrey offered to have his mother spend the night which she accepted. The six of them slept soundly.
The next day, the pups were sent out so their parents and grandmother could talk in private. Despite their protests, they couldn't convince their parents to let them stay.
Once outside, they began to speculate about what they were discussing.
"Maybe she's dying," Runt suggested.
"Come on Runt," Claudette said, "We just met her, don't try to kill her off!"
"Yeah," Stinky agreed, "She's pretty cool. I see where dad gets it from."
"What about his dad? Why didn't he want to talk about him?" Runt asked.
"Who knows?" Stinky replied.
"Maybe that's what they're talking about," Claudette ventured, "Maybe he died or something and his mother came to tell him."
"If he is dead, she didn't seem too broken up about it. She didn't seem sad at all," Stinky said.
"Well, when Dad was talking about all the times they'd met her before, he always made it sound like she was alone. He didn't even talk about his dad," Claudette pointed out.
"I really hate it when they leave us out of stuff," Runt growled, "Why shouldn't we know!"
"They just want to protect us," Claudette replied, "They think it's what's best for us."
"After what's happened to us recently, you'd think they'd feel more comfortable talking to us about serious stuff! We were kidnapped!"
"And then your dreams tried to kill you!" Stinky added.
"What?" Claudette asked.
Runt shook his head while Stinky did a face-paw. He had forgotten that they had never told Claudette about that one.
"What are you talking about?" Claudette persisted.
"I may have been hit by a booby trap in the cave that gave me horrible nightmares where whatever happened to me in them was happening to me in real life. It's why I went back to the cave, to find a cure."
"You said you were just having ordinary nightmares!" Claudette exclaimed, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I only told Stinky because he wouldn't leave it alone! I didn't tell anyone else! And, if it makes you feel better, I didn't tell Stinky that, on my way there, Shadow tried to kill me!"
"You mean that wolf the appeared during all of those killings?"
"She tried to kill you?" Stinky asked.
"Yeah, I got away, got to the cave, fell asleep, had a weird dream with some wolf who told me where the cure was, and came out just as you guys were arriving." Runt was out of breath from his description of events.
"And you didn't tell us any of this? We're supposed to be siblings!" Stinky exclaimed.
Runt sighed. "I just wanted to put it all behind me," he said, "Now, can we?"
"Actually, I have something I haven't told anyone," Claudette sighed. Before she could continue, all three were suddenly lifted up off the ground and suspended in a makeshift net of dead grass tied into a rope.
"Well, well, well," a familiar voice cooed, "time to get back to work."
All three of the pups gasped at once.
"Nick!"
In less than an hour, the pups found themselves back in the Cave with Nick. It was an unwanted sense of déjà vu as they trudged down the smooth, half-lit tunnel.
"Didn't you die?" Runt asked.
"No, I fell down a seemingly endless fissure, that didn't mean I was dead," he replied.
"I think it usually does," Claudette growled.
"Well, I guess I'm just lucky then."
"You won't be lucky when our parents find you," Stinky said, "You were better off falling down that thing than dealing with our mother."
Nick chuckled to himself. He had rather missed the pups' company while he was climbing back up. Then again, he missed any kind of company.
"You know, I thought I was going to go insane climbing up for what seemed like forever. I didn't, of course."
"Yeah," Runt was getting angrier by the second, "'cause you're already insane!"
"There is a fine line between genius and crazy," Nick retorted.
"Yeah, and you're so far over that line it's over the horizon." Claudette too was furious.
"What is it about this cave anyway?" Stinky asked, "Why are you so obsessed with it?"
"The cave leads to something incredible. Something that will give me everything I have ever wanted. When I first learned of it, I realized it was what I had been looking for my whole life."
"Ok, I'm changing what I said," Claudette began, "you are so far past that line, you've traveled all the way around the world and lapped it, twice."
"You think you're so clever," Nick growled, "if you're not careful, I might throw you off that cliff when we get there."
"So long as you don't trip again," Runt teased.
"I didn't trip! The ground gave way beneath me and I couldn't get a grip in time!"
"Guys, we should probably stop," Stinky said, earning him confused looks from his siblings. "If we don't stop, we might hurt his feelings and send him running home to his mommy!"
To their surprise, Nick laughed at this.
"You think that your little insults can hurt me? I grew up being chastised and mocked! It was all I knew until the fateful day I realized that I was more than those stupid, barbaric wolves that I had been forced to cohabitate with!"
"You shouldn't have done that Stinky," Runt whispered, "I think he's got mother issues."
Nick rambled on about himself until they reached that fateful crevasse.
"After you," Nick said with a wicked smile.
AN: It's like being back in my first story! Let's see how much I can change it up in the next chapter. I leave for college in a week and hope to finish this story before that. Until the next chapter!