The rabbit was gone before he knew it. Everything but the bare bones were now left behind. While it stopped his stomachs complaints for now, Humphrey was still hungry. He would have to go and find food again soon, but he knew he couldn't keep spending hours awaiting for it to fall in his lap. He needed to track it, hunt it, and keep moving. He was also going to need to find water soon and possibly shelter. While the skies were crystal clear, Humphrey could smell the coming of a storm.
While licking his fur clean from his legs, Humphrey decided to plan in his head of what needed to be done. While the blood from the rabbit did excellent at quenching his thirst, water was going to be a necessity soon that he cannot procrastinate. So, he opted the first thing on the top of his to-do list would be: find a water source, because, he reasoned, wherever there was water, there would be animals aka food. After that, a shelter might be in order. While wolves were never big on dens unless there was a pregnant female, Humphrey thought it would serve him well on his own.
Lastly, he could search for food. Then, once he regained his strength, he could see about travelling somewhere farther.
With a plan put together, Humphrey felt his mood improving significantly. At least, until he tried to get up to get started on it and felt an ache in his ribs that took his breath away. While sitting, he had forgotten completely about the injury. Now, it felt determined to make sure he forever remembers its existence.
Humphrey twisted his neck to try to get a look at himself but couldn't see any abnormal damages besides some tangled up, matted fur. No blood. No protrusions. No scrapes. He hoped that just meant it felt worse than it actually was.
It was back to sniffing for him. As the sun completely disappeared behind the horizon to the other side of the Earth, Humphrey was plunged in complete darkness save for the waning moon and twinkling stars. This did little to affect him and his mission, however. While he was not exactly what one would call a 'night owl', Humphrey much preferring the sun, there was something comforting about the surrounding darkness. Like a cloak had been thrown over him to shield him away from the night predators and threats that might be lurking out there. Yes, there were not many things out there willing to take on wolves; even a packless one such as he, but Humphrey did not like pushing his luck more than needed.
Still, the ex-Omega could not help the occasional jump he did at every unexpected sound the forest made. One could never be too careful after all. At least, that's what he kept telling himself as a way to justify his cowardly behavior.
"Bet 'Barf' wouldn't act like this." Humphrey muttered, indignantly.
At one point, Humphrey managed to snag another rabbit although he hadn't really considered it a hunt since the rabbit practically bumped into him accidently. Even so, he was a wolf who knew how to count his blessings and ate the mammal gratefully.
By the time he was finished, Humphrey was feeling pretty good about his chances now.
"You know, maybe this wasn't so bad after all." Humphrey admitted to himself.
"A little solitude, a little starvation between wolf and wilderness is good for the soul."
The young wolf continued to wander throughout the night. Nothing exciting fortunately happening aside from him nearly impaling his nose on a sleeping porcupine.
"Yeah," Humphrey sighed. "Life is good. Who needs women anyway? They're just so dramatic all the time and like to talk your ear off. It can really give a poor guy a headache. Bachelorhoods the way to go. Who wants to be chained down like a dog? Must be home by a certain time from the bar with the buds because you got to take your kids off to school tomorrow. Bleh, not me. Family man? More like pussy whipped. I'm allergic to cats anyway."
"Will you shut up!" A voice from the trees shouted at him. Humphrey looked up to find a chipmunk glaring evilly at him. "You may be a free man but the rest of us actually have responsibilities and need sleep."
Humphrey glowered as the chipmunk scrambled back into its hidey hole in the bark of a tree.
"Jealous much?" Humphrey whispered. "Grumpy old codger."
Dawn eventually broke the night, painting the sky in pinks, purples, and dark blues. It was then that Humphrey stumbled upon a clearing where a large, crystalline lake was etched into the seemingly endless forest. It's stationary surface reflecting the sunrises colors. Other than a family of ducks taking an early morning swim on the way other side, everything was still, peaceful, and quiet. Humphrey took a moment to close his eyes and take a deep breath, soaking it all in before walking up to the river polished pebble beach to get a drink. Beneath the water, Humphrey noticed the fish swimming around, curiously closing near to inspect his tongue that dipped in and out if their supposed ceiling.
Humphrey clacked his teeth, trying to snag one of them but only water filled his mouth. The fish somehow much faster than him, darted away.
"You won this round. Next round your seafood." Humphrey smirked.
The grey wolf dived headlong into the lake, the resounding splash sending a flock of birds fluttering out of their homes in the trees. When his head popped back up, he noticed a couple of squirrels perched on a rock on the waterline, dripping wet and giving him dirty looks.
"Heh, whoops, sorry about that guys."
With an angry spout of chattering, the pair took off into the woods.
Humphrey sighed, relaxing deeper into the water until just his nose and ears breached the top. He began to swim laps, the cool temperature soothing to his aches. It was on the third lap that he decided it was time to get back to work. Shaking out the droplets from his fur, Humphrey continued into the woods, circling the span of the lake for the spot good enough to call his temporary home. After finding a few hollowed-out logs infested with termites and too small to squeeze through rock crevices, Humphrey decided to test his luck farther inland.
There really wasn't much of a selection. It was by midday that Humphrey thought he might've found it at the base of an old and gnarly birch tree. Its roots jutting out of the Earth like snakes.
The grey wolf trotted over to the tree to give it a better examination when he was roughly pulled back by something that had clamped hard to his left ankle.
Humphrey yelped more in surprise then in pain, lifting his foot so he could sniff the contraption. It had human scent all over it.
Humphrey gave the mechanism a good, hard yank and yelped again, this time from sharp pain shooting up his leg.
"Ow! Son of a motherless goat! Who makes this stuff?"
Humphrey pried at the steel spring levers with his teeth but could only get it a few centimeters open before his grip would slip and the jaws would slam back shut.
". . . Oh no. Oh God, no. No. No. This is not good." Humphrey shook his head as his situation gradually began to dawn on him. "Oh Humphrey, you really screwed the pooch this time, didn't you? A hunter's trap. Of all the brainless things to get caught in, you get caught in a hunter's trap?" As if that wasn't bad enough, the trap itself wasn't even that well placed. All around him, Humphrey noticed a circle of loose dirt with a little mound in the center that once hid the trap and a stake about three paces away to mark the spot. All the signs were so obvious even a pup would've seen it.
"Four days." Humphrey spat angrily. "How can I fail at surviving in four days, stupid mutt! I couldn't even last a week."
Being caught in a hunter's trap meant one of three very horrible fates that awaited him. One, the hunter that set the trap would return and kill him. Two, the hunter will never return, and Humphrey would be left there to starve to death. Or three, Humphrey chews off his own leg.
No matter which option is chosen for him, all three result the same. Humphrey was as good as dead.
"You dumb, stupid, idiot. You buffoon, half-witted moron. You dense, scatterbrain, imbecile. You. . ."
Humphrey's self-deprecation went on for several more minutes as he tried to recall every insult he could possibly think or heard of.
When he ran out of names to call himself, Humphrey filled his mouth with the chains instead of slights. Gnawing and chewing on the metal in hopes he could save the biting off his own leg as a last resort. An extreme last resort. So far, the sun had made it to the center of the sky and he had yet to make a dent.
"If only Kate were here. She would probably know how to get out of this." Humphrey sighed sadly, wishing he could see the golden wolf one last time so he could tell her that he loved her. That he probably would've continued to love her for the rest of his life had a continuation been an option.
The distant sound of crunching leaves and thumping of footsteps only associated with the two-legged animals caused Humphrey to pause and stiffen with dread.
Oh no. . .Humphrey thought, slowly pushing himself up to sit. Not yet. Please, not yet.
Humphrey had no doubt it was the traps owner returning to see if it had caught anything. Correction, 'owners.' Humphrey picked out multiple footsteps and three separate scents, all distinctly humans, coming closer and closer.
If there even had been a chance for him before, it most certainly plummeted down to zero now.
At the first sight of a bald, flat faced human man, Humphrey lost himself to hysteria. Howling and barking in absolute fear whilst desperately yanking and jerking against the traps fierce hold on his paw.
"Woah, hey! We caught one!" The human shouted for the rest of his buddies. The fur on the top of his head was snow white and halfway gone, his sun-soaked skin shriveled, and he walked with a gait that suggested he was the elder of the group.
A few seconds later, two more humans arrived; one with a little more fur around the face and dark brown. Carrying a long, metal stick with a loop around the end. The other, clearly young, with a face round with baby fat and curly hair the color of autumn leaves, carrying a black device in his hands with a circular black eye in the center.
The elder puckered his lips and made a low whistling sound. "Well, ain't he a handsome boy. Little on the small side though."
"He's still young. Maybe he'll grow a bit more." Scruffy answered his companion. "Hey, buddy. Calm down. We're not here to hurt you."
Humphrey had no idea what the human was trying to say but the soothing tone he took to his voice did little to pacify the frenzied wolf.
"He ain't going to listen to ya. We just got to wait for him to run out of steam."
Humphrey was panting with exhaustion. His wild-eyed gaze flicking between the two older humans still exchanging non sensical babble and the guns he could clearly see strapped to their hips. Why haven't they used them yet?
Humphrey wasn't even sure why he was fighting to live so much. Afterall, what exactly did he have to live for? The love of his life had rejected him, and he left his pack. In all sense, he should have given up by now, but still the desire to keep living burned strong.
"You calmed down now, fella?" Scruffy directed his words to Humphrey this time and Humphrey met his gaze head on. He hadn't even meant to challenge the human, but now that he was in the thick of it, he had a critical choice to make. He could follow his Omega instincts and submit to the two-legged, bald-faced animal. Or he could grow a pair and go down with a little dignity intact.
Humphrey knew which choice he wanted to make, but it wasn't necessarily easy to fight the urge to look anywhere else but at the dirt brown eyes that regarded him, or his tail twitching with the need to tuck under him, or the shivering fear of his body.
Right as Humphrey was about to give up though, Scruffy's eyes looked down to the ground.
Humphrey sat there in absolute shock at his unexpected victory. Never had anything submitted to him before. Not even squirrels! At least, not on purpose.
The human glanced back up but didn't make eye contact again. His face stretching in what Humphrey could only assume was a smile, his eyes crinkling in the corners with humor.
"Not used to that, are you, buddy?"
"You thinkin he's an Omega?" Gramps asked.
"I think he was."
"Was?"
"This one's gettin gutsy if he wants to challenge me even though he's at an obvious disadvantage."
"So?"
"So, I'd say we have our wolf."
"Are you serious? I thought we were hunting for an Alpha-male or a Beta at least. Not some dumb Omega who's probably abandoned by his pack now."
"You humans yak a lot." Humphrey sighed, starting to get bored. If the humans were still planning on killing him, they sure were taking their good ol sweet with it. Not that he was in a hurry to die, of course, but did they have to tease him about it?
Scruffy crouched in front of him. Humphrey watching his movements with wariness.
"Trust me, Phil. This one's gonna take us on an adventure."
Kate walked all night. Without a trail to track, it was easy for her to get lost quite a few times. Never had she gone outside of Jasper Park. At least, not of her own free will. Once she had stepped out of familiar ground, it was like stepping into another world. There were new smells, new sounds, new things to see and yet, nothing but pine forests surrounded her. If it weren't for Marcel and Patty being her navigators, Kate was certain she would've ended up in Alaska before she realized she was going the wrong way.
By the time the sky was beginning to brighten with dawn, Kate heard the first sounds of an airport nearby.
Kate paused in her ascent up a hill at the distant humming-roar that gradually grew louder and louder.
"What is that?" She asked the two birds who were swooping in circles above her, making her feel like she was a kill that vultures were about to feast upon.
"That, my dear, is what you call an aeroplane." Patty answered.
Kate frowned. She had seen and heard planes before soaring overtop Jasper park, but she never heard them like this. The sound felt like it was everywhere at once, having no idea where exactly it was coming from. It also sounded large. Much larger than she recalled airplanes to be. Kate's shoulders hunched, hackles rising uneasily as she searched the sky frantically.
"Relax, mademoiselle and look zere." Marcel landed beside her, placing a wing around her shoulders as he pointed a feather with his other to a small grey shape that looked vaguely like a bird gliding passed at an incredibly speed that no bird she ever knew could.
"It looks so small, but it sounds so big." Kate commented in disbelief.
"It looks small because it is so high up. It's higher than most birds can even fly, but trust us when we say it is huge." Patty explained.
"Oui, mon ami. Zat zing ate my uncle once. Sucked him right zrough the engine and spat him out the other side wizout even slowing."
Kate's eyes widened in horror. "That thing can eat things?"
Patty gave his friend a dirty look and Marcel dipped his head in apology. "Unfortunately, accidents do happen, but rest assure there has never been an accident reported of a wolf getting sucked through a plane engine."
Kate wasn't sure if that was supposed to be comforting, but she shook her head and continued anyway. She had no choice, it was either take this risk or wait the few days for the train to pass through Jasper again.
Once they cleared the hill though, nothing of what Marcel and Patty described about an airport could have prepared her for the panorama before her. A field of grey concrete stretched on for what felt like miles and parked on top were more of those, indeed enormous, grey metal birds. Kate never recalled seeing anything quite so large before aside from a mountain itself.
"Sooo. . . I'm supposed to get on that?" Kate walked down the hill and came up to a fence. She peered between the chain links at the cluster of humans milling about underneath the belly of the planes.
"Unless you can zink of another vay to get to your boyfriend?"
Kate unfortunately could not. "Okay, so which plane is the one I have to board?"
"That one over there, with the blue and yellow stripes." Patty pointed a yellow feather to what, of course, had to be the largest plane of them all. On the side of the plane was an opening cut out of the wall where the humans loaded large amounts of cargo using machines designed to lift them without any strain.
"Okay, now we just have to figure out how to get to it." Kate muttered, eyes scanning the tarmac in search of a plan.
"How about that over there?" Patty pointed to their right where a human sat on a roofless vehicle, a small white cylinder caught between his teeth and releasing a string of smoke in the air, his eyes attentive on a little black glowing device in his hands. Attached to the vehicle though, were three box trollies.
Kate cocked her head consideringly. "Hm, that could work."
Kate crawled to the edge of the fence a few paces away from where the human could see her and began to dig away at the dirt underneath. Marcel and Patty helped lift the chain link as Kate squeezed through underneath.
Kate snuck to the rear trolley and pushed open the curtain with her nose only to be met with a wall of luggage packed in all the way to the top.
Cursing beneath her breath, Kate grabbed the handle of a suitcases with her teeth and tried to tug it out.
Marcel and Patty watched the human from their perch on the fence, but gasped as they noticed the stack of bags begin to teeter forward. Quickly, they flew over to support it before it could land on the she-wolf.
Kate easily yanked out the lower suitcase, the others giving a soft thump as it took its place. She glanced around the trolly to make sure the man hadn't heard before she stashed her load into a bush where she hoped no one would find it for a good, long while. She did the same with the others until she had made a little cubby of space just big enough for her to fit into.
Marcel and Patty gave her a supportive thumbs up and promised to keep an eye on her before they lowered the curtain where she listened to the sound of their feathers flapping away. She thought of Humphrey and how much he was going to love listening to this story once she found him. She hoped she would find him, but first she needed to get past an army of humans without being seen. That feat alone was going to take a miracle and she was hoping miracles weren't on short demand these days.
Eventually the tractor started up with a rumble and began to pull the trollies with it. Kate peeked out between the curtains to watch as they moved closer and closer to the cargo plane. Taking a deep breath, Kate said a little prayer before she leapt out of the trolly as it passed and ran over to hide behind one of the huge containers wrapped heavily in plastic like a spider's web.
Kate panted as she peered around the corner of the cargo and saw a group of humans walking her way. She scrambled backwards around the other corner, keeping the container between her and them.
Then, hearing voices coming up behind her, Kate's heart leapt as she searched around her for another place to hide. Thinking fast, she jumped up to the top of the haul and laid down as flat as she could get herself and hoped they wouldn't see her.
Kate listened to the incoherent chattering's going on between the humans, listening for a change of tone to indicate someone had located her, but everyone remained calm and soon she felt the cargo she was laying on being lifted into the air and moved into the plane.
Humphrey laid, splayed on the ground, dog-tired. The afternoon sun beating down on him not helping his dry mouth situation nor had he made any headway on his trapped leg situation either. None of this meant he had given up the fight, however. His muzzle wrinkled as his upper lip curled to reveal fangs that were inexperienced in fights but were sharp from lack of use. The lowest growl he had possibly ever made in his life seeping from between his teeth.
It apparently wasn't as impressive as Humphrey thought it was because it did nothing to deter the humans from coming towards him. His attention focused solely on the geezer who was now holding the metal pole, the loop at the end inching closer and closer.
"Come on, fella. You know you want it." Gramps murmured, one corner of his lips curling slyly.
Humphrey knew they were up to something, but what he wasn't sure exactly. When the loop came close enough, Humphrey snatched it in his jaws and tried to yank the pole away from the old man but he was surprisingly spry, clinging strongly with both hands.
They wrestled in a tug-of-war for a while before Humphrey eventually got bored and spat out the loop, giving up on that tactic.
That apparently wasn't what the old coot wanted for he still kept trying to poke Humphrey in the face with the pole.
"Will you quit that!" Humphrey snapped, but Gramps wasn't the type to back down to anyone. Eventually, he gave the old man what he wanted and started chewing on the cable again. Hard. Trying to snap it in two but unfortunately whatever material they used on the trap they were using with the loop too because it did not bend to his will.
He spat back out the cable again and glared at Gramps. "Okay, I did what you wanted. Now either shoot me or quit pestering me you old fart!"
Gramps apparently saw a different option as he slipped the loop around Humphrey's nose. Realizing what the human was trying to do, Humphrey scrambled back to his feet and tried to pull his head away but it was too late. The cable having made it to his neck and was tightening the more Humphrey jerked and twisted his body around. His breathing was never hindered but it sure made it tough to struggle.
Humphrey's second wind didn't last nearly as long as the first, for Humphrey collapsed a few minutes later in total in exhaustion. His chest rising and falling rapidly, blowing the dust around his mouth.
Never before had Humphrey felt so helpless in his life. Even trapped in a cage when he and Kate had been relocated to Sawtooth Range, couldn't compare to the restraints of this snare.
"There ya go, Easy does it now." The old bloke said softly before he nodded his head to the furry-faced man standing off to the side. "Your turn boyo."
Scruffy glared at his older companion. "You just had to leave the tranq darts in the car, didn't you?"
The old man rolled his eyes. "Well, Joey and I can stay here and hold the little rascal down for the next hour and half while you go and get them, or you can suck it up and get this done and over with now and we can let em go."
Whatever it was the two were gabbing on about, Scruffy was clearly displeased with it. Shaking his head, Scruffy looked to Humphrey who was watching him distrustfully and did that weird smile thing as his eyes lowered to the ground submissively.
Humphrey hadn't tried challenging the other two humans. For one, the young pup standing over yonder kept his eyes hidden behind that machine with the large black eye he held, and for another, Gramps seemed like a much tougher opponent to dominate then Scruffy was. Elders usually were; having lived their entire lives fighting for the top of the food chain that they were very reluctant to pass that position on to anyone else.
Scruffy slowly moved closer to Humphrey, his furless paws reaching out to touch him. Humphrey snarled and tried to scoot away but he couldn't get very far before the trunk of a tree stopped him. Most hunters Humphrey even had the pleasure of encountering always preferred to shoot to kill. Never had Humphrey thought a human would want to kill with its own bare paws. They didn't have claws to grip or sharp teeth to disembowel. What was he planning on doing? Strangling him to death?
"The pole would probably do a better job than you can, sausage fingers." Humphrey commented despite knowing the human couldn't understand him.
"Easy, buddy. You're okay. Just need to slip this thing on you and we can let you go." Scruffy looked to Gramps. "You got a good grip?"
"Oh yeah, he ain't goin anywhere."
Humphrey craned his neck, trying to see where Scruffy was going but the snare around his neck limited that movement and eventually Scruffy was out of his sights.
"I'm warning you, you touch me and I'll bite off everyone of those sausage fingers!"
The threat fell on deaf ears for Humphrey felt those blasted furless paws comb through the coat on his neck. Humphrey fought to snap at his hands.
"Oh, no you don't." Gramps said as he tightened his hold on both the pole and the noose around his neck.
"Hey, hey, sssh," Scruffy called, attracting Humphrey's attention again. "Calm down. You're alright. No one is going to hurt you."
Again, Scruffy used that soothing tone to his voice only this time it actually worked in calming the wolf. Not because he wanted to, but because he was too tired to do much of anything else. Humphrey felt the furless paws gently stroke his tender side where it had grown sorer from his struggling, alleviating the pain slightly.
For the first time since the humans showed, Humphrey began to wonder if maybe they weren't here to kill him. What else they would want him for, he had no idea, but surely they wouldn't be going through all this effort just to take his life now, would they?
"He's not your friggin dog, will you stop pettin him and get to work, boy?" Snapped the old man, making Humphrey stiffen again.
Scruffy scowled. "The poor thing is stressed enough as it is because somebody forgot the tranqs. So, will you please shut up and let me deal with this?"
Silence ensued for the next few minutes as Scruffy murmured soft words into the wolfs ear and Humphrey slowly allowed himself to relax until, eventually, he gave a large, long huff to announce he was done fighting. Whether death or freedom awaited him at the end of this situation, he was far too trapped and weak to prevent it.
Finally, Scruffy began to move. Taking off his backpack and digging out the tracking collar. He slipped it around the grey wolfs neck, the wolf not giving him any grief amazingly enough and secured it snuggly but not tight. Once that was done, he worked on releasing the trap from around the animal's front leg.
They had used a custom-made foothold trap that was designed to secure a large animal but not hurt it. However, there was little they could do to prevent the animal from hurting itself in its fight for freedom. The steel jaws of the trap had embedded themselves deep into the flesh of the leg, the skin around it having swollen and further stuck the trap. Fresh blood seeped out from between and dripped to the dirt ground below.
"Sorry, bud. I know it stings." Scruffy whispered as he pried the mechanism from the leg, making the wolf whine with pain. Once it was out, he wrinkled his nose in disgust at the wound. It wasn't horrible but it could prove to become worse if left untended.
Scruffy looked to Gramps. "You good to hold him while I treat his leg?"
Gramps shrugged. "Go ahead. No use going through all this for him to die of infection."
Scruffy nodded and dug through his bag for the first aid kit. From his prone position, Humphrey had no idea what was happening until he felt the sharp sting of something cold and wet dabbing at his wound. He tried to jerk away his leg but Scruffy held onto it tightly.
"I know. I know. This part always sucks for everyone but it'll be over soon."
Humphrey waited impatiently for the poking and prodding to be done. After several long and torturous minutes, he felt something soft wrap around his appendage.
"Alright, let him go, Phil." Scruffy said, his furless paws gone.
Humphrey saw Scruffy move to the young pup's side before the noose around his neck was released.
Humphrey just laid there, though. In shock and uncertainty of what to do next.
"Okay, fella. You're good to go." The old geezer announced but Humphrey did not move, still staring in disbelief at the three humans watching him expectantly. Well, two were, the pup was still mesmerized by that contraption.
"Well, whatcha waiting for, a chauffeur? Get outta here! Git, git!" Gramps shouted surprisingly loud for an old bugger. Stamping the pole on the ground and startling Humphrey back into action.
The three men watched as the grey wolf sprinted into the woods as if his tail were on fire.
Scruffy pulled out a radio from his backpack, but instead of a speaker and buttons, it had a large screen that displayed a miniature map of the park and down in the south-western side of the park was a little red dot that blipped in and out.
"There he goes, boys. We'll leave him to it and come back to check on him tomorrow."
I've rewritten this scene so many times its not even funny! Multiple times I have watched videos of wolf trappers and wolf taggers do their thing and most do try to make it as untraumatizing as possible, but, of course, Humphrey got the short end of the stick this time. Or rather the noose side of the snare.
Also, thank you to all who have commented and/or favorited and followed my story. I appreciate the reviews and the support to keep going. It hadn't even been my intention to post, or heck, even get this story this long. Honestly, I just wanted to write an alternate ending, but alas, here we are! Hope to see yall in the next chapter!