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Chapter 6: Closer and Closer to Collapse.

The only thing that Humphrey could do was close his eyes and brace himself for the inevitable.

He felt the hay bale turn onto its side beneath him then felt his body's unity with it leave. He was airborne for about two seconds, but to him it felt like two minutes, which seemed to give him time to process what had happened. He was falling from a height of about ten feet, which did not give him long to act, so he had to act fast in order to save as much of himself as possible. He knew that a fall from this height would normally not be too serious, but with the way in which he fell, and the hay toppling down with him, he knew that it was quite likely that he could be seriously injured or perhaps even killed if he didn't land right. Acting solely off of his instinct of bodily preservation, Humphrey turned his body so that when he did inevitably crash to the floor, he would do so on his shoulder, and then finally that moment came. He landed hard on his right shoulder and immediately cried out in pain, as the way he landed would never spare his body from the unforgiving solidity of the wooden floor, then bounced, turning on his pivotal point until he landed again on his opposite shoulder. After this bounce, he again became airborne, but this time it was different. He seemed to be traveling backward at the force of a brutal headwind, and this, after a brief moment of confusion, indicated to him that his worst fear had become a reality.

He had fallen out of the train.

He turned once again in the air, hoping that wherever he landed next would be out of the path of the train which roared only about a foot away from his helpless body, and finally crashed to the ground once more. Lucky for him, though, he landed on a downward slope, which carried him away from the certain doom that he would have met by the train, but at the same time, subjected him to yet another painful spell of bounces.

He landed on his back, slamming his head onto the ground, turned over his right shoulder, became airborne again, then struck again on his left.

Such a brutal fall should have killed him by all accounts, and would have had he not been fortunate enough to be knocked unconscious by the next blow, thus allowing his limp body to complete the remaining run of the hill without a tensing muscle to pull on and snap his bones or to rupture under the strain of the many impacts his body was forced to endure.

Humphrey rolled down the hill for another five feet or so then leveled off and finally came to rest in the cover of the area's tall native grasses where he lay unmoving, his body sprawled about on its left side. Meanwhile, the train carried itself further and further down the line, completely unaware that it was now one passenger short.

A&?

Lilly, who had hidden out near Howling Rock the previous night in order to avoid the party, now sat alone on the rim of the valley, staring down at its many occupants and watching as they went about so carelessly with their lives.

She could not deny that she was envious of their happiness, of how simple their lives were, of how perfect everything seemed to be going for them. She gazed upon the lovers with a sort of loathing that is born only by failure at forbidden love, and cursed softly anything and everything that there was to curse. She cursed the law. She cursed her parents for abiding by such a law; she cursed Tony for all the recent and unnecessary trouble he caused, Kate for stealing the love of her life, Garth for stealing her heart, and she cursed herself for allowing him to despite her better judgement.

She wondered if, in the wake of the party and amongst the probable disorientation of the new alliance, her absence was even recognized.

She sincerely doubted it. After all, Kate was the only one her parents really paid attention to, because Kate was the alpha, while she, the second born, the omega, always hid unrecognized in her shadow.

She sighed and began to wonder if there was even anything left for her here. Many times before she had considered running away, or simply taking her own life. She was actually on the brink of doing so only a few days prior, but then she was swept off of her paws by the wolf of her dreams. He gave her that thing which she longed for, for what seemed like the entirety of her existence. He gave her a reason to stay; he gave her a reason to live, but now that he was gone, she had nothing but an empty heart, a hollow soul, and a cold, callous reminder of what could have been to dig at her woe.

Just the thought of Kate and Garth made her sick, even though she knew and understood the reason why they had to wed, but that was still not enough to appease her aching heart.

She still loved him and it still hurt.

She did not realize that she had tears in her eyes until she blinked and her vision was suddenly compromised by a blurry veil. Upon such a realization, she sniffed, wiped her eyes with the side of her paw, then rose from her haunches. It was at this moment that she allowed her eyes to regard the brim of the valley upon which she stood. It was a straight shot at least forty feet from where she was perched to the valley floor, just what she would need. She closed her eyes again and stepped closer to the edge, feeling her heart rate increase as her body and mind screamed in protest against what she was considering, but she pressed forward, shuffling her paws, inching closer and closer.

Tears began to pour down her face and she sniffled, trying to convince herself that it was better this way, then stopped and opened her eyes. She now stood on the valley's most extreme rim, with only an inch between her and her fate. She swallowed and looked down one more time, then closed her eyes.

She lifted one of her paws and held it over the side, preparing for her end, but then the ground began to crumble beneath her. She gasped, feeling her stomach jump into her throat and began to fall, but miraculously, she saved herself and immediately pulled herself away from the edge. She scrambled backward, further away from the place where she previously stood, and sat down about six feet away from it then wrapped her tail tightly around her body, but her eyes never left the edge of the valley. She realized now what she had attempted to do and realized when she began to fall that she did not want to die, but was traumatized severely by what she had just done, so she broke down and began to sob loudly, wrapping her tail tighter around her body as a means of providing a meager amount of comfort for herself.

Her breath quivered and her stomach churned, her body shook and she felt faint, distant, like she was standing somewhere outside of herself. It seemed to her as though all actions her body took were now mechanical and entirely beyond her control. She blinked the tears from her eyes, but could not comprehend that she had done so, rose to her paws, and began to walk, almost in a daze. She did not know where she was going or why and could barely process that she had left. She staggered as she walked, like a caribou fawn testing out its legs for the first time, and before she knew it, she was addressed by a stern voice.

"Lilly, where have you been?" Eve asked her firmly, shaking her from her trance.

Lilly, upon being granted freedom from her hypnosis, blinked and suddenly regained all attributes, both mental and physical, that she had lost in lee of her attempted suicide. She realized immediately that she had returned to her den, but could not remember how she had gotten there, and picked up soon after on her mother's piercing scowl.

"I asked you a question," Eve seethed, "where have you been?"

Lilly blinked and lowered her eyes.

"Around, I guess," she answered softly.

"Since last night?" Eve asked incredulously.

Lilly nodded, keeping her eyes on the floor.

"Then why didn't you come home?" she pressed.

"Fell asleep." Lilly replied.

Eve nodded, though she knew that she was hiding something from her, but she figured that whatever it was, it was not so severe that it could not wait to be attended to, at least until things settled down with her, Winston, and Kate.

"Well... just so long as you're okay," she assured, pulling her in for a hug, "why don't you go get cleaned up and we'll find you some breakfast."

Lilly nodded, returning the hug then pulled away.

"Okay," she said, forcing a smile then turned.

Eve watched her go for a moment then called to her.

"By the way, I like what you're doing with your fur," she complimented, "it's a good look for you."

Lilly turned to her, thanked her halfheartedly, then continued out of the den, on the verge of tears once more.

Eve did not know what to make of any of this. Kate was depressed because Humphrey was gone, so much so that she got the delusion that she loved him, and now Lilly was acting the same way, but why? Two and two just didn't fit like it usually did.

She mulled this thought over in her mind for a matter of several minutes, but she just could not make the connection, either that or her mind refused to allow her to.

A&?

"So how is the situation with the wife?" Tony asked Winston.

"I'm pretty well in the doghouse," he replied, "but it looks to me like she's going to give me another chance."

Tony nodded.

"You're lucky that she didn't rip you apart after what you did," he commented, moving his eyes away.

"I know," Winston replied, lowering his eyes to his paws, "she probably didn't want to make the matter worse."

Tony nodded again.

"Makes sense," he reasoned.

"Yup," Winston answered.

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two which was finally broken by Tony.

"You know that was not a good thing you did," he began, seriously, "and you're quite lucky that she is even allowing you another chance."

"I know," Winston agreed, lowering his head in shame, "I just don't know what came over me."

"Hey, we all lose our heads sometimes," Tony condoled, "and it's partially my fault. I should have cut you off long before things got out of hand."

Winston shook his head.

"Now don't go blaming yourself for this," he said to him, "I know my limits and should have abided by them. No one else is to blame except for me."

Tony nodded, respecting his view on the matter, then turned his attention forward.

"So how are we going to handle this?" Winston asked, breaking the silence again.

"Handle what?"

"The unification proceedings."

"Oh," Tony said, flattening his ears as he thought, "We need to call a meeting," he suggested, "gather all members from both former packs and we'll do it democratically."

Winston nodded.

"Sounds good to me," he agreed, "when and where do you wanna do this?"

Tony cocked his head, thinking.

"How bout your territory at sundown, under that giant rock you do your speeches on?" he suggested.

"Perfect," Winston concurred.

A&?

Kate was steaming.

Any and all anger that she was capable of conjuring was now flooding into her head, breaking the banks in her veins and blackening the thoughts in her mind.

Nobody cared about Humphrey, not a single **** person. Nobody cared about her; nobody supported her, and they called her crazy when she told them the truth. All her parents saw her as was a tool that they could use for any sort of arbitrary deed they willed and she was not to wonder why. Do as you are told, without question, without protest; sell yourself to the will of the pack and its leaders. Live as they tell you, love as they tell you, and if need be, die as they tell you.

She growled under her breath and slashed a tree with her claws then sat down, lowering her head. Nobody listened; nobody saw the pain that the unification caused, not only for her and for Humphrey, but for her parents, and even for Garth.

She lifted her head and allowed her eyebrows to stitch together in a sinister scowl of rage.

No more.

This was going to end right now.

With determination and the deepest passion, she rose to her feet and began to storm her way back toward the center of her territory. She didn't know how she was going to do it, but the truth needed to be told.