Hell Bender

"Where are we going?" Humphrey questioned as he and the rest of his squad trekked single file through the forest.

"It's a surprise!" Sage called out from the front of the line.

"Better be worth it," Humphrey grumbled. He wasn't particularly happy with being woken up this early in the morning. The sun was just beginning to crest over the mountains that cast their towering shadows across the valley. Snow from the previous night still covered the ground and crunched under their paws. It wasn't long before they emerged from the trees at the foot of a huge menacing hill that towered above them.

"What is that?" Humphrey asked awestruck.

"That's Hell Bender, the highest point in the whole valley," Adrian who was right in front of him explained.

"Hell," Humphrey gulped. "Bender?"

"Yup, you're going to love it!" He could hear Klayre's voice snicker.

"For some reason I kind of doubt that." Humphrey whimpered. The climb to the top wasn't overly difficult for Humphrey but as soon as he reach the top he regretted it."You've gotta be kidding me!" Humphrey exclaimed as peeked down over the side of the hill.

"It's not as hard as it looks, trust me." Sage assured as he clapped Humphrey on the back. "It'll help speed up your reaction time."

Humphrey surveyed the obstacle course that he was faced with, the name Hell Bender was fairly accurate. The slope had to be at least 100 meters to the bottom and it was one step short of a sheer drop. The hill side was riddled with boulders and patches of thorns that stretched between pillar like pine trees. On top of that there were large patches of ice that glimmered in the morning sunlight.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Humphrey asked nervously.

"Well there's always some risk involved." Sage declared.

"Don't worry, only two wolves have died on it." Klayre butted in. "This week!" she burst out laughing.

"Klayre," Sage growled before turning to Humphrey. "Don't listen to her, you'll be fine,"

Humphrey took a deep breath, "Okay, here goes nothing." He tried took take one last look down the hill and plan his route but felt a sudden push from behind him causing him to lose his balance and send him careening down the hill. He just had enough to hear Sage shout out Klayre's name before his squad disappeared from sight. Now sliding down on his stomach Humphrey quickly turned his attention to the task at hand, not dying. He barely missed a patch of thorns and some how managed to dodge a boulder but his luck began to run out as he clipped a smaller rock causing him to veer off towards a cluster of trees. At the bottom of each trunk was a ring of dead thorns blocking his path on the ground and to the sides there were deep ravines carved by the spring melt water. So this is it? This is where I die. Humphrey thought to himself as he sped towards the natural death trap. Suddenly he spied a fallen log a few feet before the trees and an idea popped into his head. Without thinking he hunched over in hopes of making his body more streamlined and accelerated towards it. He closed his eyes and leaped at the log. Using it as springboard he launched himself up into the air and cracked open his eyes. The nearest tree was rushing to meet him and he stretched out his paws to meet the bark. As soon as he came in contact with it he used the tree to push of into the direction of the next closest pine. Now using his momentum he hopped from tree to tree avoiding the deadly thorns only a few feet below him. Everything was going great and the end was in sight. Damn I'm smart he smiled to himself. But that feeling of brilliance didn't last for too long for the very next tree he touched made a horrible cracking sound. It's dead bark gave way and sent the whole trunk and Humphrey tumbling to the ground. Humphrey saw stars as his head slammed into the thin layer of snow. As his vision returned he could see the gigantic log rolling down with him, barely a foot and half behind. It threatened to crush his seemingly small body under it's immense weight. The bottom was way to close now for him to do anything, he just aimed for a big looking drift and hoped for the best. Humphrey rammed into the snow with the log following closely behind him. As the snow settled Humphrey's squad rushed to the drift that they had seen him slide into.

"Humphrey!" Klayre screamed rushing to where the log lay at rest and started to dig.

"Adrian, Hurly get that tree outta here!" Sage barked and began digging along with Klayre

"Please don't be dead," Klayre whimpered starting to panic. The tree began to move slowly inch by inch from the snow drift.

"Good work guys keep it up!" Sage shouted.

"Uh boss? That's not us," Hurly said watching dumbfounded as the tree was lifted up and rolled off to the side to reveal a battered and bruised Humphrey.

"You're alive!" The whole squad yelled in unison.

"I thought you were a goner!" Adrian proclaimed.

"Me too." Humphrey groaned. "I don't know how I survived that to be honest."

"That's the fastest I've ever seen someone do Hell Bender," A deep voice announced. Humphrey turned to see Winston walking towards them with Kate following in his wake with her head poking out shyly from behind him. "That was incredible Humphrey, I'm impressed," Winston congratulated.

"Thank you sir," Humphrey said humbly. "It was very interesting,"

"Quite, although that was entertaining it's not the reason I'm here." Winston replied.

"Then to what do we owe your gracious company to sir?" Sage questioned politely.

"I wanted to personally give you your next mission, and see that you understood the gravity of the situation." Winston informed.

"What's this mission you speak of?" Sage asked.

"Our scouts have sighted and confirmed that the Reapers are attempting to set up a forward operating base a few clicks north of the territory line, I want you and your squad to make sure that doesn't happen. If they are able to take and hold that spot we might as well start looking for a new place to live," Winston explained. "Am I understood!"

"Sir yes sir!" Everyone bellowed together. "Alright then, you leave at sunset. Good luck," Winston said before turning around and leaving.

"Okay everybody, you heard the wolf, we're taking the fight to them. And there's hell to pay!"