Chapter 4 – A new day

Humphrey, for once, had awoken early in the day as the sun was just rising giving the atmosphere an orange setting, warming up the temperature from the cold bitter night. Humphrey still lay in his small dug out hole protected by the forestry. His limbs and muscles were all stiff from the cold winters chill and the tips of Humphrey's fur had developed small snow crystals giving him a grey and white look.

"Ughhhhh" Humphrey moaned, "when are mornings gonna get any easier". He raised his ears and slowly opened his eyes trying to avoid contact with the rising sun, as he stood up and stretched he felt all his limbs crack and his muscles were sore from the cold nights sleep.

"Heeyaa" Humphrey shouted as he jumped out of his little hole, landing back at the edge of the forest where he had fallen asleep. He shook all the snow crystals off his fur coat as he began walking back towards the mountain in which he was defeated by the day before.

As Humphrey arrived at the bottom of the mountain, he looked up to the top in utter confusion

"Did it get bigger since yesterday, I'm sure that's bigger, or wider, or taller, or both, ye probably both" Humphry said whilst waking his head with his paw, "ahh don't be stupid Humphrey, mountains don't grow, I don't think anyway".

Humphrey started his ascent of the mountain, using his claws to dig into the ground giving him more traction, whilst scaling the steep slope. After a while and a few failed attempts which resulted in Humphrey sliding down the mountain he finally got the hang of things.

"Hey this is easy, I wonder how far up I've gone, I must be near half way", Humphrey looked back down to see his location, however his face dropped as he realised he had only made it about 100ft up the mountain.

"Oh my god, is that how far I've gotten, I've been on here for ages", Humphrey started climbing again hoping to get further than 100ft. "why is this so difficult, I'm sure lots of other wolves would be half way to the top by now. I guess this is why Kate dumped me for Garth, because I'm not an alpha. Is that all she cares about, a good body, I mean common, that's all he has, sure he can do log squats and pull ups and run very fast and very far, but any old wolf can learn to do that. I'm funny, and I've heard that some of the other females in the pack have said I'm cute, heck even Kates said I'm cute, you can't teach someone that"

A small tear drizzled down Humphrey's cheek as he thought of his separation from Kate, and her marriage to garth, "ahhhh I hate that Garth, I hate that he's stronger than me, I hate that he's better looking than me, I hate him because he took Kate away from me, I just want to kill..."

Without realising it Humphrey had clenched his fist so tight that his claws had begun to bleed, he looked at his claw and looked at the ground to where the blood had dripped. "What am I doing, this isn't me, I'm not a killer, I'm so sorry Kate"

Without realising it Humphrey had made good progress up the mountain as he was half way up and had reached a steeper incline in which consisted of mostly rocks and boulders, in which he would have to jump from.

"Huh, I guess thinking about Kate and garth took my mind off climbing this abomination. Ha, maybe I should be angry more often, maybe it'll help me survive out here. So when things start to get challenging all I have to do is think about how much I hate Garth, didn't know it could be that easy".

Humphrey started jumping on the big boulders embedded into the mountain, carefully traversing from one to another with ease. "Easy does it Humphrey, you don't want to fall now, you've gotten so far"

Humphrey cautiously looked over the edge and immediately regretted it, having seen the distance he could fall. "Oh my god why did I just look, I told myself not to look", Humphrey took some deep breaths as the height he was at made him nervous.

"Just keep going Humphrey, I'm doing well, I can do this" Humphrey continued jumping from rock to rock gently landing with ease onto each rock, making sure not to fall. As he climbed higher Humphrey started to enter into the clouds in which greatly restricted his vision and the temperature dropped massively as it was snowing within the clouds. Humphrey carefully ascended the mountain being careful not to fall or miss the rock he would aim for. The wind constantly battered Humphrey as well as the snow making him much colder.

"Ohhh its cold now, very cold", Humphrey looked up and saw that he was nearing the top of the mountain which gave him the drive he needed to get to the top. "Not far now Humphrey, you can't turn back now"

With this new found strength Humphrey made his way to the top, as he climbed onto the ledge he kept his head down, trying to avoid being battered by the wind. He looked around and found a cave in the side of the mountain, in which he headed for. "That'll do for now I guess, it's better than staying out here".

Humphrey entered the cave in which he found much warmer than the snow storm outside, he shook all the snow off his fur and lied down on the floor. "Thank you so much mystery cave, you are my hero" said Humphrey whilst kissing the floor.

As Humphrey was drifting off to sleep he was startled and awoken by footsteps, he looked around only to see a figure standing at the entrance to the cave. Humphrey was stood there looking at the figure in total shock as he was both scared and interested in this character.

"Who's that, what does he want" Humphrey thought to himself, "I wonder if he's friendly… never mind"

Humphrey quickly changed his thought of this mysterious character as he stepped closer to him as he could see this wolf more clearly. He was a snow white wolf, clearly an alpha as he was bigger than Humphrey; he had dark blue eyes which stared directly at Humphry. This wolf was much older than Humphrey and was covered in scars across his body and face showing he's been in battle.

As he stepped towards Humphrey, Humphrey's legs began to shake and he was locked in place as he couldn't move, due to fear from this wolf was going to do to him.

The white wolf stopped mere feet away from Humphrey and stared him dead in the eye, trying to intimidate Humphrey, which was working quite well. His voice was deep and had age to it as he shouted, "Who are you"

"Errrrrrrr" was the only sound Humphrey could make.

-Kate-

Kate was lay inside the carriage she last drifted off in, she lay there peacefully sleeping against the carriage door. As the train ploughed along the track, the carriage lightly shook, gently shaking the sleeping alpha. Eventually the carriage jerked up, as it went over a bump on the track, throwing the sleeping wolf off the floor. Kate was thrown about an inch off the floor and landed back with a thud waking her up.

"Ahhhh" shouted Kate as she was tossed into the air. As Kate was awake she slowly got up off the floor stretching out and yawning, however her expression changed from relaxed to worried as she realised she fell asleep.

"Humphrey, oh my I fell asleep", Kate rushed to the door of the carriage and looked out to see the passing forestry, and she started sniffing the air, hoping to get a scent of Humphrey however couldn't get anything as the train was moving too fast.

"oh no, I've missed Humphrey, he must have gotten off and I've carried on, all because I fell asleep, I'm so sorry Humphrey, I failed you" Kate began to cry, tears welling in her eyes at the thought that she lost the wolf she loved. However the train started to slow down as it came up to a refuelling station at the edge of a human village. Kate looked out the door and saw that the train came to a stop; she looked down towards the village and saw two humans walking up the train checking the carriages.

"Oh no I need to get off, if they see me they'll kill me" Kate immediately jumped off and headed to the nearest bush, she darted in hid from the humans. Kate turned around and patiently waited for the humans to pass, she was crouched in the bush as low as she could holding her breath, trying not to make any movement or sound so she didn't attract attention from the humans.

As the humans walked past she let out a sigh and turned around walking into the forest with her head down, disappointed that she lost Humphry.

"What do I do now, how am I going to find you now Humphrey" as Kate walked through the forest she came across a small pond. "Thank god, I'm so thirsty maybe I drink will make me think straight".

Kate started to drink out of the pond replenishing her thirst, hydrating herself. However mid-way through drinking Kate looked up, and began to sniff the air, smelling a familiar scent. "Wait a minute, I know that smell", she looked over to a small cave where the smell originated from and walked towards it, as it was much stronger inside. She reached the entrance of the cave and began smelling the air, figuring out the days old smell.

"No it can't be, Humphrey is that you?" Kate sniffed some more and inspected the floor of the cave seeing some grey fur on the floor. "It is you Humphrey; you must have gotten off here too. I didn't lose your scent, this is great, and I can still find you".

Kate walked out of the cave and stood back next to the pond. "Now which way did you go, it smells like he's gone north. Towards that mountain? Humphrey we both know you couldn't get up there. Hopefully he'll be at the bottom"

Kate started walking off in the direction towards the mountain, following Humphrey scent and making no detours. "Of course Humphrey didn't bother covering up his tracks; I doubt he's even bothered if someone was following him. He's such a friendly wolf anyway I doubt he'd even consider hurting anyone who was following him, he'd probably befriend them" Kate chuckled at the thought.

"wait, what if he befriends a female wolf, and they get together, and become mates", Kate shivered at the thought, "no I won't let that happen, nobody's going to take my Humphrey away from me".

This gave Kate some motivation to find Humphrey before anyone else did, thus she developed into a small trot, covering more ground faster than her walking speed.

"What am I going to say to Humphrey if I find him, I've not thought about that, he'll probably still be devastated, and mad about the whole Garth and wedding situation. No I'm sure he'll understand when I tell him the truth, he's such a good listener, and hopefully he does".

Kate carried on walking through the forest until she heard a rumble in her stomach, "ughhhhh I'm starving I need to get something to eat" Kate looked around, not seeing any signs of wildlife, as it was probably all hiding from Kate as she was a predator to them. As she looked around she spotted a berry tree and ran up to it and immediately got a strong smell of Humphrey.

"Of course he did, he had to eat berries off the bush, well I don't blame him, he is an omega after all, I'd be surprised, and impressed really if he did catch anything on his own. Woah imagine alpha Humphrey, some toned set of shoulders and some muscular legs, woah" Kate drooled at the thought of her Humphrey being an alpha, however she still knew she liked him just the way he was.

"Snap out of it Kate, you can think about that later. Now food, should I just eat the berries, I mean it'll be quicker so I have more time to look for Humphrey, and it is still food, ye I guess it's not meat, but it'll have to do for now". With her mind made up Kate ate what was left of the berries on the bush.

After she finished she wiped away the berry juice which was stained around her maw, and continued following Humphrey's scent, hoping to catch up to him soon.

Hey guys, basically I had a mad day on Sunday, and even today, so I'd expect a couple more very recent uploads as I have managed to write about 2 more chapters. So I'll try and get them up for today and tomorrow, have a good day guys and thanks for reading.