Max and Myles: Chapter 3 - Part 1 - Sophy and Karu
#3 of Max & Myles
Originally this was going to be one whole part, but it was kind of long, so I decided to break it into two parts. Part 2 will be here soon so until then, Enjoy!
It is the middle of spring and all of the winter's snow had melted due to the escalating temperature. The earth came alive as its inhabitants were able to move around without turning into popsicles. Trees have begun to sprout buds that will bare new leaves soon and join the cycle of fallen leaves when fall comes back around. Birds and fowl were returning from their trips down south with tales of more colorful and exotic birds. Bugs were abuzz as they searched for food that their colonies could use. All of the forest critters were out frolicking and playing in the warm evening sun without a care in the world.
A lone black bear with a white crest on his neck and white on its scarred muzzle near his nose, prowled a river's bank in search of any wild edibles. So far he had only found a muzzle full of unripe berries and a patch of wild onions, but it was already late evening. There wasn't anything else around the deep river for him anymore. He would like to get to the other side of the wide river and look for some berry bushes around there, but all of the spring rain and melted snow that seeped into it, made it far too deep and its current much too fast to cross.
Something caught the bear's eye a little bit further up river. There was something trying to cross the river by going over an old and mossy tree that had fallen over the eight or ten bear length wide flowing water. It was a large wolf that was already half way across the sagging lumber. The bear decided to point out the danger the wolf was in by crossing that deathtrap.
"That's not safe!" He roared at the distant canine. It started looking around for Caption Obvious which made it misplace a step and slide off of the side of the wet tree. The wolf disappeared under the murky water for several seconds before popping back up further downstream. It flailed franticly and barked for help as it got washed towards the bear. He leaped into action by running down river a bit and jumped onto a large rock that stretched out about one bear length into the water. The bear flattened himself to the boulder and reached out with both of his large paws just as the wolf was beginning to pass.
"I got you!" He roared when the wolf came into contact with his paws. With a good grip on it, he started pulling the wolf towards the boulder, but when it looked up at him with its amber eyes, the look on its muzzle went from terror to complete horror.
"No! No! No!" The she wolf began yelping as she attempted to kick away from the large rock. The bear had to tighten up his grip on the she wolf to keep her from casting herself back into the fast current. "Get your paws off of me!"
"I'm trying to help you!" He roared at the panicking wolf. Her response was to sink her sharp teeth into his right paw. Not wanting the aggressive wolf killing herself, the bear gritted his teeth and started rolling onto his back. He swung her out of the cold water and over him to dry land as he rolled. She released her bite, scrambled to her paws, and bolted into the woods before the bear could even get up.
"You're welcome!" He roared in the direction the wolf ran when he got back up. The bear carefully climbed back onto land with his punctured paw held up to avoid hurting it any further. Something new in the air caught his attention now. On several branches of a leafless bush were smeared with blood. It wasn't his blood. The bear looked past the bush and muttered to himself, "that wolf is hurt..."
After running for what felt like miles, the she wolf slowed down to a painful limp. She found a pool of melted snow that was still enough for her to see her own reflection in it. The she wolf had dark grey fur on her head, most of her back, and on the top half of her tail. The rest of her body was a slightly lighter grey and all of her four paws were white.
"No...," she quietly growled to herself when she saw the matted fur on her left leg just below her shoulder blade. That sharp rock bedding at the bottom of the river's cool water put that gash there when she went under. All of her blood that was dripping onto the earth made an easy trail for the bear to follow and finish her off. She took a few laps from the cool pool before continuing further into the forest.
After a good fifteen minutes of painful walking, the she wolf found a large fallen tree in a dense part of the forest. The ancient tree was mostly decomposed, but the main part of its trunk hasn't been reclaimed by the earth yet. She placed her front paws up onto the trunk and saw that there was a fork in the trunk back when it used to hold up its canopy of leaves. Now the split was filled with dead leaves that gotten blown into there over the years. Hurt, wet, cold, and tired, the she wolf hopped over the tree's thick branch and hunkered down in the pile of dead leaves. Its trunk made a great wind break and the leaves provided perfect insolation for her. She laid there until the sky darkened and the stars came out. Everything was peaceful until-
"Are you ok?" A black and white scarred muzzle asked from over the tree trunk. The wolf pinned her ears back and bristled up the fur along her spine before lashing out at him with snaps and snarls, but the bear was just out of reach. All of those attempted bites left her even more tired and glaring at him with her teeth bared was all she could do now. Blinking was the only movement he was doing as he just stared back in complete silence.
"Leave me alone," she finally growled to break the silence and hopefully run him off.
"You're hurt," he pointed out to her. This was probably his way of sizing her before he goes in for the kill.
"No thanks to you," she snapped back. There wouldn't be a gash on her leg if he hadn't broken her concentration.
"I'm sorry..." He whispered with a hint of actual sincerity in his voice, but she didn't buy it. The bear might be trying to make her lower her guard. He was a crafty one alright. "I just wanted to help you."
"You've done enough already." She coldly said to him. He didn't argue or point out something that was blatantly obvious this time. Instead he stayed quiet, turned around, and went away. The she wolf peaked over the tree trunk just to make sure he was really leaving and she breathed a sigh of relief when the bear disappeared into the darkness. She hunkered back down into the dead leaves to protect her from the dropping temperature and shivered herself to sleep.
Everything was dark, warm, quiet, and peaceful for what seemed like an eternity. Than reality quickly set back in for the she wolf and she found herself dried up and laying atop a bed of golden grass. The scent of bear all around her made the wolf jump up and spin in a few circles. She was at the far back of a large den that was at least three wolf lengths wide and four wolf lengths long.
"I've got to get out of here..." She quietly growled to herself as she located the exit. The den's mouth was lite up by the sun and was wide enough for two wolves to lay head to tail and nearly one wolf length tall. She took several strides for the exit, but had to come to a sliding stop a few feet away from freedom when a large figure stepped into the den's entrance. The wolf scrambled back from the large bear as he took a few more steps into his den.
"Where are you going?" He asked her after dropping something out of his mouth.
"I was leaving," she snapped at him. The fur on along her back bristled up again and she presented her teeth to him. But the bear remained remarkably calm as he sat down in his den's entrance to block her escape. The she wolf looked him top to bottom for any signs of weakness she could exploit, but nothing stood out. Except for a black band around his neck with a small black box attached to it.
"You're in no condition to leave," he pointed out to her after a brief silence. "You're hurt, weak, and you look like you haven't had a meal in months."
She ignored the truth and tried to get past him, but every time she tried to go around him, he would just hold up one of his large paws to stop the she wolf dead in her tracks. After several attempts of that, she decided to try a different approach on the bear.
"Please... let me go." She pleaded to him. Instead of letting her go, he reached down and retrieved that thing he dropped out of his muzzle earlier. He tossed it at her from across the den with a flick of his head. A decent sized catfish landed stone faced dead just inches away from her paws. It had teeth marks behind its painful looking barbs where he had been carrying it. The wolf looked up at the bear and then back down at the fish and then back up at him.
"What is this?" She asked him after a lengthy glare. Sensing the obviousness of her question, she shook her head and changed it. "What's the fish for?"
"You," he simple answered and then continued, "and you aren't leaving until you eat something."
She lost her snarl, but kept her ears down as she kept glaring at him. The wolf contemplated going for his throat, eating him, and using his thick furred hide as bedding. But instead of taking that big of a chance, she just gentle pushed the dead fish away with her paw and says, "I'll pass."
"You're not going to get any better on an empty stomach." The bear pointed out to her.
"Why don't you eat the fish?" She snapped. This had to be some kind of trap. Species that were rivals to one another over food and territory didn't help each other. "What's your plan?"
"To help you," he simple answered. She just let out a sarcastic chuckle and he seemed to take offence to her outburst. "It's true! I didn't haul you all the way here this morning and spend all day to catch one fish for you!"
"All day!" She barked back. The bear lowered his short ears and his muzzle began to quiver with aggravation. He clearly took what she barked as making fun of him for how long it took him to catch a single fish. It is pretty embarrassing for a bear to take all day to catch one fish, but her bark was more about how long she was asleep. "How long was I out?"
"It's evening now," he pointed out to her as he lifted his ears back up. Now it was the wolf's turn to sit down. "I got worried about your condition last night after I left you, so I went back and tried to wake you up, but you didn't even stir. I didn't want to leave you all alone, so I grabbed you and brought you back here. After the sun came up, I decided to try grabbing you something to eat since you're so scrawny."
"Do you plan on fattening me up before you eat me?" She asked him as she stood back up. That must have been his plane all along. Hold her captive, put weight on her, and then have her as a meal.
"I don't eat meat." He blurted out. That statement made the wolf's ears shot up and her raised fur flatten back down. A bear... that doesn't eat meat..., she thought to herself. It almost sounded like a joke.
"What?" Was all she could get out.
"I only eat fruit that grows on thorn bushes and trees, ground vegetables, and sometimes I'll eat that sweet sap that those striped bugs make." He answered. She just flicked her ears at him. There was no way a bear could get that big on fruits and leaves alone. He had to be getting more food from somewhere else.
"So... you never planned on eating me?" The wolf asked as she sat back down.
"Not once," he answered, "all I wanted to do was help."
"And this fish is for me?" She asked the bear. He just nodded his head. Fish was never something she saw herself eating at any point in her life, but that fishy smell did make her mouth water and her gaze lower down to it. There wasn't a whole lot there, but a complete stranger - who was a bear - took time out of his life just to catch her some food. It was a lot more than her family would ever do for her.
"You don't have to trust me," she heard him say. The wolf looked back up at him and was about to make a rude remark, but something in his brown eyes kept her muzzle shut. "But you shouldn't fear me."
"What's your name?" The bear asked the emaciated wolf when she finished eating the catfish. All that she left behind of the fish was its head. He patiently waited for a response from her as she limped past him, but all he got was a very unfriendly glare. So he tried again before she got too far away from his den. "My name is Karu. What about yours?"
"Does it matter, because I don't plan on sticking around?" She pointed out to Karu when she stopped to face him. At least she stopped, the bear thought to himself.
"If you aren't going to tell me your name, than can you at least tell me what you're doing out here?" Karu asked the impatient wolf.
"Why does anything I do matter to you?" She fired back with another question.
"I just don't want to see you pointlessly kill yourself." He calmly told her as he approached the grumpy canine. But she just scoffed at him. "You're starved, hurt, tired, and you would have drown if I wasn't there to scoop you out of the river."
"So you are a hero and I'm just a damsel in distress to you?" She asked him with a heavy dose of sarcasm. If this was some fairy tale an elder would tell to a cub, then he would be a hero, but that wasn't the case. He just wanted to help somebody in need, even if they weren't very nice or grateful about his assistance. "I would really like to leave if you are done asking me questions."
"I've got one more for you," Karu answered. The wolf groaned, but stayed put for him to ask, "do you plan on continuing your journey down south?"
"...How did you know...?" She asked with her head slightly tilted. He smiled at her. She doesn't see the flaw in her plan.
"Just a lucky guess," he simple says to her. The she wolf gave him a questioning glare as she slowly spun around to leave, but Karu pointed out a mistake she was about to make. "South is the other direction."
The wolf done a quick U turn and gave the bear a wide birth as she padded around the big hill that his den was built into. This area was as familiar to him as the fur on the back of his paws and he knew exactly where she would end up.
Free from that pesky bear, the she wolf made her way down south. Progress was steady and quick, even with the leg wound. But her travels came to a halt about half an hour in. About fifteen wolf lengths away was a large human village made up of many colorful dens with different shaped tops. She could also hear those shiny monsters running around their black trails and dogs barking all over. There was a group of humans gathered around a black thing that spewed a lot of smoke every time they lifted its top. The scent of hot meat rolled into the woods and made the she wolf's mouth water. If there was any reason for her to be near the humans, it would be for some of their cooked meat.
This wasn't her first time encountering a human village and their dens in her travels. The best technique for her to use was to simple keep her distance from them and circle around their dens in terrain that she could blend into. So she shook off the pleasant smell of the warm meat and started heading west towards the setting sun. The she wolf kept a brisk pace to make up for the time she was going to burn by taking the long way around. All of the human's dens seemed to go on forever in one long curve until she finally came to a dead end.
"Crap..." The she wolf growled when she looked down into the same river she fell into yesterday, just a lot further downstream. All of those human dens have led her to a stone structure that towered over the fast current. Metal monster after metal monster charged over the stone platform to the other side of the river. She thought about using that crossover to get to the other side as well, but she didn't want to be chewed up and spat out on the side of the black trail by one of those man controlled beasts. This way was a complete dead end.
"Lost?" She heard someone ask from behind her. The wolf spun around to see Karu leaning against a large tree watching her and scratching his belly with one of his front paws.
"Are you following me?" She asked the stalker back with her ears flattened down and fur bristling back up. But he shook his head.
"I just knew where you would end up." The bear told her. After a snarl, she started running as fast as her wounded leg could carry her back the way she came. Human dens flew past her as she banked along the long curve. It didn't take her very long to pass the spot where she smelled that hot meat the humans were making. The other half of the human village was an identical long curve like the last half. And it was just as heartbreaking as the last. Human dens and another stone cross over blocked her path. This entire area was sealed off.
"Lost?" The wolf heard behind her again. Instead of acknowledging the pesky bear's presence, she stormed down the river bank past him. "Where are you going?"
"Back the way I came!" She barked back at him.
"That isn't a very good idea." Karu pointed out to the stubborn wolf. She just ignored him and climbed up onto the same tree that she fell off of yesterday. Parts of the old decaying tree broke off from under her large paws. "This is stupid. Get down and-"
"Shut up bear!" She snapped back at him. Karu watched nervously from the river's bank as she made it out nearly three bear lengths before the old tree started to protest. It bent and popped under her weight since she was at the narrowest end of it. When it buckled and cracked directly under her, she spun around and leapt back towards land. The traction she needed on the moss covered surface wasn't there and her jump came up short. The she wolf slammed into the muddy bank and slid down it as she desperately clawed at the soft dirt. She finally came to a stop, but it was only after the rear half of her body was submerged in the cool water. That look of fear shot across the wolf's face as she helplessly clung to the river's bank.
Karu leapt to action by running to where she was at and lowered a paw down to her.
"Grab my paw!" He roared down at her. She didn't even hesitate in the slightest when that paw got near her muzzle. She chomped down on it and he gently hoisted her up to dry land while roaring, "I got you!"
Safely on land, the she wolf just laid on her right side and watched as the bridge to her freedom broke up into several parts and floated down stream. Karu was astonished to see that he still had all five toes and no new puncture holes in his paw.
"...You...win..." He heard the wolf pant from beside him. That made him stop examining his paw and look back over at her. Blood oozed out from the reopened wound on her left leg.
"This isn't a game," he growled at the hard headed wolf that had a death wish. "I legitimately want to help you."
"But none of this is right..." She quietly growled more to herself than to the bear. She must still be caught up on not wanting help from a species that wasn't the same as her own, Karu predicted. But all he ever wanted to do was help her when he first pulled her from the drink. What species he was when he did it shouldn't have mattered.
"We're both stuck here, so we're going to have to make the best of it." He told her. She sat up, but she kept her gaze locked on where the tree once was. "Let's get you back to my den before nightfall hits and if you're still uncomfortable about me being around, then I can find another place to stay until you find a way out of here. What do you say?"
She didn't say anything. With no more fight left in her, she just nodded her head and followed Karu back to his den. He sat down in the den's mouth when they got there so the wolf could get past him. Immediately, she went to the back of his den and sat down on the pile of straw.
"Where did you get all of this dry grass from?" She asked Karu as she shuffled some of the golden grass around with her paw. Hearing her ask a question that wasn't sarcastic or aggressive was a nice change of pace to him.
"I... borrowed it from a place to the north that had tiny horses and hauled it all of the way down here." He happily answered. Her fluffy ears flicked at his response. "It was block shaped when I brought it here, but since then, I had scattered it out."
"How did you get it past the river?" The wolf asked him.
"I got it over several weeks ago when the river was shallow and frozen." He tells her. That makes the she wolf drop her head towards the den's floor and go off into her own thoughts. Karu hangs out for a few more moments before deciding that it would be wise to head out before it gets any darker. "I'm going to go ahead and take off."
"Wait!" The she wolf barked as he starts to walk away. Karu stopped, spun around, and returned to the mouth of his den. "You saved me twice and fed me when you didn't have to. You shouldn't have to leave your home because of me."
"You want me to stay?" He cautiously asked her.
"Yes," she simple said back to him.
"Are you sure you're going to be okay with me staying here?" Karu asked her in another way as he sat down. She just nodded back. Now he was the one thinking this was a trap. "Alright... but I'm going to stay here at the entrance so you could have your space. Now get some rest wolf."
"My name is Sophy." The she wolf points out to him as they both lay down. "But don't get to use to it."
"I'll try not to," he says back to her. "But it is nice to have a name to go with such a pretty muzzle."
A light and warm chuckle came from the back of his den. It was like the sound of spring birds singing in his ears. Karu settled his head down onto the den's floor as the sound of that warm laugh echoed around his head until he dozed off.
Sophy hasn't opened up to Karu anymore since she told him her name about a week ago. They didn't see a whole lot of each other during the day when they were out foraging for food, only when they retired to the den late in the evening. But the past several days have been rather unfruitful. Karu was able to find some food for himself, but he was unable to scrounge anything up for the wolf. If Sophy wasn't so stubborn about only eating meat, the bear would have been more than happy about sharing some of his wild edibles with her. Now it is getting late in the evening and Karu has spent the entire day fishing for the hungry wolf rather than himself. All he managed to swat out of a nearby creek was a small bluegill for her.
On his way back to his den with his tiny trophy in mouth, Karu stopped when he heard some bushes rustling. He tracked the noise to a large bush with a grey wolf butt poking out of it. Sophy's rump bounced back and forth with her tail held up high. Seeing her but like that put a smile across his muzzle. Karu's peeping was short lived when something small bolted out of the bush. A hare ran straight at him to get away from the wolf, but hesitated when it got about a bear length away from Karu. That hesitation was its demise when Sophy pounced on it. With a bone crushing crunch and a shake, the she wolf dropped her twitching prey on the forest floor.
"Woo!" Sophy triumphantly barked as she looked down at her dinner. Karu stepped over to her and spat out his catch beside her dead rodent. All it took was one look at the fish and her nose wrinkled up. "Eww... bear slobbers."
"Suck it up." He said to the disgusted wolf as he gave her a playful poke with his paw. A halfhearted glare was all he got before the wolf dug into her meals. As she enjoyed her dinner, Karu located a nearby tree that had rough bark and went over to it. He stood straight up onto his hind legs and spun around until his back was against it. Then he pushed himself back against the poor tree and began to rub his back up and down it. There will most certainly be chunks of bark in his fur, but the rough backrub he was getting would be well worth it.
After his back scratching, Karu sat down beside his scratching post to wait for his denmate to finish eating. A pile of fur, bones, spiny fins, and a fish head was all that remained of her meal.
"Feel better?" The bear asked Sophy. She just gave him a quick nod as she licked scales and blood from her muzzle. The mood she has been in the past few days was nothing short of cranky since she couldn't find any food. When Karu asked her last night if she had caught anything, her response was to snarl at him. Now that she was in a better mod with some meat in her belly, he decided to try and get her to tell him more than just her name.
"So... why are you heading south all by your lonesome?" He asked. It looked as though he was going to get a response, but she just finished cleaning her chops and started padding towards his den. Karu jumped up and bounded up to her side and asked, "do you have family to the south?"
"No," Sophy simple says to him with her head still pointing straight ahead.
"Are you running because someone is after you?" He asks her, but continues before she could respond, "I can put the hurting on them if that is the case."
"That's sweet," Sophy chuckles, "but nobody is after me."
"Then why head south?" Karu asked her again. She just stayed quiet and continued trotting for his den. "There are wolves to the east, but what I heard from birds gossiping was that there are no wolves further south of here."
"That's the point." Sophy bluntly admitted.
"To live alone?" He asked the she wolf in front of him now. He only saw her fuzzy ears bobbing up and down from over her back as she nodded her head. "Living alone isn't great. I've lived alone most of my life and you're the only creature that's crossed my path that I actually kind of enjoy being around."
Sophy stopped mid step and slowly turned around to face the bear.
"That's kind of sad..." she says to him, "not the living alone part, but you actually enjoying my company."
"It's going to take more than a bull headed - pain in the ass - wolf to hurt my feelings." Karu points out to her. He has to put up with annoying tree rats and pretentious birds everyday, so a solitary wolf that he only sees when it starts to get dark, is nothing to him. "Not to say you haven't tried my patience."
"Didn't you have any parents or annoying siblings before you started living alone?" Sophy asked him.
"I never knew them." The bear answered as he shook his head. "I grew up in a flimsy barred box that I frequently broke out of."
"You were raised by humans?" she asked with a tilted head.
"Not directly, but I knew they were there." He said to her. Seeing the light around them begin to die made him want to get home soon, so he motioned for them to continue their journey back with his leg. Sophy continued leading the way, but she had her ears cocked back to listen to the bear. "They had my pen mostly covered with a large crinkly sheet and would toss me quite a bit of wild edibles every few days."
"That would explain how you got enough food to get as big as you are now." she said back to him. It felt kind of nice to Karu to have someone talking to him and asking questions about his life. Then again, she might be acting interested in his life to avoid any questions he has for her. "Exactly how many times have you busted out of human captivity?"
"Four times now," he answered,"the first time, I didn't make it very far before waking up back in my pen. I went east my second time and bumped into a pack of wolves."
"How did that turn out?"
"I approached them, simply said hi, and then the next thing I knew, there was a very large wolf hanging from my muzzle as I was trying to shake it off." Karu explained. That day was forever burned in his mind and left permanent markings on his face. "That's how I got these hardcore scars on my muzzle."
"You don't have very good luck when it comes to meeting wolves do you?" She asked him with a laugh.
"You all seem to be a very irrational breed." He tried to say as a joke, but Sophy shot him a quick glare from over her shoulder. "Anyways... I headed west the third time I broke out and made it a few weeks out there before I woke back up in my pen. Now it has been a little over a month since I broke out for my forth time."
Karu finished just as they reached his den. He took a seat at the mouth of the den like normal, but Sophy sat at the other side from him instead of going to her straw bedding in the back. He couldn't help but look the thin wolf from top to bottom as she looked out at the darkening world. Her dark grey fur almost looked black like his in this low light. Not being wet and muddy like the first few days he knew her, made even her scrawny figure look sleek and smooth. That wound on her leg is actually beginning to heal since she now sits down to cool her heels every now and then. It is mainly thanks to the bear's persistent nagging for her to get more rest rather than running circles around the forest looking for a way out. He was meet by a pair of amber orbs when his gaze returned up and his heart began to race for some reason. Suddenly he felt like he was caught doing his business in the woods.
"What?" The pair of eyes asked him in the dimming light.
"Umm... I-I just wanted to say... that you look nice." Karu awkwardly told the she wolf. Luckily, she just chuckled at him.
"There you go trying to be sweet again." Sophy said before looking back out of the den. That was smooth Karu, he said to himself in his head. Seeing that she didn't try to tear his head off for saying that she looked nice, he continued prying.
"Since I answered all of your questions," Karu started. Sophy turned her head back to face him again as he continues, "how about you answer a few things I want to know?"
"(Sigh)... what do you want to know?"
"Did you have any family before you took off on your own?" He asked her.
"It's kind of a long story..." Sophy quietly growled as she looked up at the star lite, deep blue sky.
"I think we have time." The bear pointed out to her.
"Well...," she started, but then hesitated. When she stopped star gazing and looked over to Karu, he just gave her a smile. After another sigh and a roll of her eyes, she continued, "I grew up in one of the largest packs to the north. We always seemed to have seven to ten adults in our territory at all times. I was born in a small litter with just one brother and had a fairly normal upbringing as a pup. The pack taught me to play, fight, hunt, how to follow authority, everything a wolf needed to know from being a pup to adulthood. But my pack started to decay after the disappearance of a rival pack we had a pact with."
"What was the pact?" Karu asked her. He didn't know other animals made pacts, but then again, he didn't have any insight on how wolves behaved. So any light she could shine on her grumpy species might be helpful to him, especially if it comes to dealing with her.
"Our packs decided a few decades before I was born, that they would send over a female or male wolf if we need one to prevent related breeding and we would do the same for them." Sophy explained, "My grandparents were the first pair in our pack to be paired up from the swap and my parents were also paired up in the same way."
"Wouldn't both packs blood lines match up after a few swaps?"
"Both of our territories were large enough that we would often get a lone wolf seeking to join a pack," Sophy answered. "If the lone wolf was deemed suitable for us and agreed to be part of the pack, they were also informed that they might become part of this swapping pact. The new wolf always agreed to the pact since alphas were the only wolves allowed to bare litters."
"That bumps them up from a roaming wolf to an alpha of their own pack." Karu simplified for her.
"Correct," she says with a nod. "It worked out well up until the disappearance of the rival pack several years before I was born. None of the older pack members told us younger pups what really happened to them, but I overheard them whispering about there being evidence of a large fight. My pack then became very reclusive and chased off any wolves that wandered into our territory from fear that whatever happened to the rival pack could happen to our own. The pack's structure was almost completely dissolved when I was about a year old. Most of our pack had left in search of a new place to live and my parents got too old to bare anymore pups and to run the pack, so my brother that was born a breeding season before me took over as alpha. At the time, our only packmates were my parents, aunt, uncle, my littermate, my older brother, and me. About eight months ago when me and my older brother were scouting out new hunting grounds, he... tried to breed me..."
Karu's eyes went wide as he watched Sophy stand up. Her breathing increased and she had a hard time keeping all four paws planted firmly on the ground.
"I got away from him and told everyone what he tried, but they did nothing." She growled as the anger in her voice and body language escalated. "Even Trav, my littermate that I trusted most in my life, did nothing. So I took matters into my own paws to do something. The next time he caught me alone, - which I set up on purpose - I tore off half of his ear, took off part of his tail, chewed up his legs, muzzle, neck, and just when he thought he was going to get away from me, I got him with one last snap that will keep him from spreading his bad blood."
"You killed him?" The bear asked. He was shocked by the brutality of the she wolf, but she shook her head.
"I didn't kill him, but I may as well have." She answered. Karu just tilted his head at her. Did she cripple one of his legs which left him weak and unable to hunt? The she wolf picked up on his confusion and simplified it for him, "he won't be able to have pups now or ever."
"Oh my god...," the bear shuttered when he finally picked up on what she was trying to tell him. If he lost his dangly bits to the jaws of a wolf, he wouldn't want to go on with life ether.
"My pack wasn't very happy that I chewed their alpha up," Sophy continued. Her body stance was more sunken down and sad now, but her growl got deeper and louder as she went on. "I tried to explain to them why I tore him up so badly, but they took his word over mine and tried to run me off. I looked over to Trav for help, but he just turned his gaze towards the ground. That anger I felt from my older brother trying to violate me and my pack biting and snapping at me, made my rage burn hotter than a forest fire. So I fought back. Anybody stupid enough to get close to me was left bloody and limping when I was done with them. Trav was the only one smart enough to stay away."
Karu pressed himself tightly against the wall to further himself from the angry and now pacing wolf.
"My "family" took the side of that pervert that wanted to use my womb for his sick puppies!" Sophy snapped. "They licked his wounds and looked at me like I was the monster! They stunk of fear and cowered away when I stepped towards them. They were weak and wanted to be led by someone who was weak! So I left that place after I finished telling them that they were all a disgrace to wolf kind and have been trying to put as much distance between them and me as possible. To answer your question earlier, I don't have a family."
Karu sat speechless as Sophy sat back down at the mouth of the den. So much made since to him now. Why she was heading south, why she never wanted help from anybody, and why she was always so angry. She is almost two years old now and she has been on her own for almost half of her life. He would never have made it on his own for as long as she has, especially after what she had been through.
"Being alone has been hard." Sophy admitted to him. "But it's better than being my brother's bitch."
"I would imagine..." The bear quietly says to her as he lies down. There was a brief moment of uncomfortable silence, but he didn't want the she wolf to feel alone. "Thanks for telling me your story. I doubt it will provide you much comfort, but I will never turn my back on you and will help you until you find a way out of this patch of woods."
"...Thank you..." Sophy quietly said to him before padding to the back of the den. Not one thank you was said to him both times he had saved her from the river's cold water and caught several fish for her to eat. Finally hearing it put a smile across his muzzle, but the thought of everything she went through in her life quickly erased it. Now wasn't the time to smile, so he was going to save it when he hears that thank you again when she is safely across the river.
Karu awoke to a very dark early morning on his back. He rolled over onto his belly and glanced up at the once star filled sky. Now it was filled with angry looking grey clouds that threatened to rain. The wind roared outside and distant thunder rumbled and boomed loudly.
"Looks like we aren't going to-"Karu started, but stopped when he looked to the back of his den and found the straw bedding missing a grey wolf. He jumped up and ran out of the den. With as much running around that Sophy has done here, made it impossible for him to find her most recent scent. "Sophy!"
Today wasn't the day to be outside of their shelter. The weather in this area almost always became dangerous when a front rolled in. Karu has been caught in a few storms outside of his den before and nearly been crushed by an old tree that couldn't stand up to the fierce winds. With that typhoon being pushed by gale force winds, he didn't have very long to dillydally. So he ran to the river first to check if she was looking for a way to get across. Up and down the river bank he ran and was roaring her name the whole way, but a powerful gust hit him and nearly knocked the wind out of his lungs during his search. All of those distant sky explosions now sounded like they were directly overhead.
"I've got to find her quick." Karu growled when he caught his breath. The river turned up nothing, so he ran to the tree line near the human village and zigzagged back and forth to cover as much ground as possible. Nearly half way around the long bend and quite a ways away from the tree line, he caught the faint sound of whimpering in his short fluffy ears. It was very quiet thanks to the loud wind, but he managed to track it down to a wall of evergreen trees. He pushed through all of the green needles into a small clearing that contained only a boulder in the center of it. All of those prickly trees provided a perfect wind block in this area. A slight breeze was the only thing that ruffled his fur.
Propped up on top of the large rock was Sophy. The she wolf had her dark grey back turned to him and was whimpering to herself. This brought out great concern in Karu. He never heard her whimper or whine about anything in the short time he has known her. She barely made the slightest hint that her leg wound even hurt her.
"Are you alright Sophy?" Karu asked her as he approached the boulder. The wolf looked back at him with sore eyes and the fur underneath them was soaked. When she saw that it was the bear, she quickly turned her head back around.
"I'm fine..." She tried to growl in her usual manor.
"Doesn't sound like you are," he pointed out to the wolf. He placed his front paws up onto the rock and started to pull himself up, but his right paw lost traction and scraped down the side of it. The bear pulled his leg back up on the claw marked boulder and sat down beside the wolf when he hoisted himself up. "What are you doing out here?"
"...I just needed to be alone...," she whispered to him. Being alone has been her reality ever since her older brother tried to do things to her. There were many other animals on the other side of Karu's covered pen, but he felt just as alone when he was in captivity as he does when he is out on his own. They were both accustomed to being alone and they will both go back to being alone when she finds her way out of this patch of woods. But he didn't want his denmate a depressed mess before she left him, so he turned to face the wolf and reached out at her with the paw she bit over a week ago. She didn't flinch or pull away when he touched her back and began stroking her with it. After a few passes from his large paw, she twisted her body and buried her muzzle into his neck. Karu lifted up his other front leg and wrapped them both around the sobbing wolf to pull her closer.
"You don't have to be alone..." He whispered down to her as the sound of rain drops echoed around them. He couldn't imagine what the poor wolf was going through right now. This was most likely the first time she stopped all of her running and took a second to think about everything. Karu resumed stroking her with his paw while holding her in the bear hug as the rain dropped down onto them harder. "I'm here for you... you don't have to be alone..."
He continued petting and quietly whispering things to try and soothe her. The rain and wind hit the embracing mammals harder even with the protection of the tall evergreen trees around them.
"(Mumble)... stinks..." Sophy said into his neck after a few minutes, but all he caught was stinks.
"I know your situation stinks right now, but it will get better soon." He said down to her. She pulled her head away from his scruffy neck and looked up at him with sore red eyes. Being soaked made it impossible to tell that she was even crying a minuet ago.
"I said, your fur really stinks." The she wolf points out to him as a weak grin grew across her muzzle.
"Yeah, well... you smell like a wet dog." Karu said back to her. Since she was willing to let him touch her, he gave her one last squeeze before releasing her. "Come on. Let's get home before we both get soaked to the bone."
"Okay," She sniffled as they both hopped down from the boulder. Outside of the pine trees was like standing in a monsoon. The rain was pushed by high speed winds in such a way that it looked like it flowed vertically. Karu had to flatten his ears down just to keep the cool rain from blowing into his brain. Sophy could barely keep herself upright every time a powerful gust hit her. But the bear's heavy frame kept him from being blown away.
"Use me as cover!" He roared to the scrawny wolf over the wind. She positioned herself on the side of the black and white shield that wasn't being blasted by the wind. Now that she was protected from this horrible weather, Karu started running them back to his den. Visibility was poor, but he was more than capable of navigating his way back home.
"I'm freezing." Sophy said with chattering teeth as they both ran into the den. Tiny pools began to form under them where the water drained out of their coats.
"The dry grass bedding will draw some of the water out of your coat and keep you warm." Karu pointed out to the shivering wolf. He would love to go back there and submerge himself in that dry stuff, but he had plenty of fat to keep himself warm.
"Are you going to be ok?" The she wolf asked him as she flopped down onto the straw. He could ask her the same thing, but he just nodded and looked out at the wet world. Lightning could be seen through the dense rain and thunder echoed loudly into his den. One thing that stood out more than the thunder storm was the shivering breaths coming from behind him. He spun around and approached the shivering wolf that was tightly curled up in an attempt for warmth. Without as much as a second thought, Karu stepped onto the straw bed and lay down beside Sophy. To his surprise, she stood up repositioned herself against his flank, and re-curled back up. He gently rested his head down on her side with his muzzle down in the center of her curl.
"Thank you...," she whispered to the bear. Her smelly wolf breath hit his muzzle since her snout wasn't even an inch away from his.
"For what?" Karu asked her.
"For everything you have done for me." Wolf breath answered. "You have done more for me these past eight days than what my family would ever do for me."
"Don't worry about it," Karu mumbled. "But I would like to know why you ran off this morning. Did it have to do with your family?"
"Kind of...," Sophy answered and picked up her head from the ground. That made the bear have to lift up his own head. "Talking about them last night made me miss being a pup. I miss playing with Trav, the warmth of my mother, the smell of everybody in the pack's grounds, and that feeling of safety. Then I grew up and lost all of that..."
"Well... I can provide you with warmth and keep you safe, but I can't turn back time, you'll have to stink up the place yourself, and find someone to play with." Karu playfully pointed out to her. He doesn't want her dwelling on the past too much if it is only going to put her down, so he figure acting like a cub might brighten her gloomy day.
"Aww, does the big bad bear not know how to play?" The she wolf asked with a gentle poke to his cheek with her cold nose.
"I grew up all alone in a pen, so no, I didn't have anybody to teach me how to play." He said to the spunky canine that had stopped shivering. Now she stood up and moved to the far side of the straw bedding.
"You never got to be a cub and I miss my puppyhood," Sophy pointed out from the far side of their bed. All of the sudden, she dropped the front half of her body down and kept her rump stuck up. Her bushy tail was held high in the air and it swept back and forth over the den's wall. "And since we are going to be trapped in here all day, what do you say we act like a couple of rampant pups?"
"I say," Karu started as he stood up, "you're going down wolf!"
He stepped towards her and took a playful swipe at her with his large paw, but Sophy dodged it and rammed him in his side with her head like a mountain goat. Her attempt to knock him over was futile. The wet furred mountain didn't even budge for her, but before he could even turn to take another halfhearted swipe at her, the she wolf leaped onto his back and began gnawing on the scruff of his neck. The bear threw himself left and right like a bucking bronco to try and toss off the clingy wolf, but she held on firmly to his thick hide.
"I got you!" She playfully snarled with his hide still locked firmly in his jaws.
"No you don't!" Karu roared at the combat veteran. He dropped down to the den's floor and started rolling over to scrape off the leach of a wolf. That move back fired when she quickly hopped off of him and then jumped back onto the bear's chest when he was all the way on his back. He tried to roll back over, but all of that bucking around left him too winded to do nothing more than rock around like a turtle on its back.
"You win...," he huffed to the she wolf that was still standing on him and chewing on his front legs.
"You're not very good a wrestling are you?" Sophy asked him with a leg still in her mouth.
"I'm a lover, not a fighter...," Karu pointed out to her. She released his leg and laid down on his heaving chest.
"I can believe that." She said with a smile and then leaned forward to give him a tender lick on the front of his muzzle. The more affectionate wolf resting on his chest was a whole lot better than the angry one he had to deal with several days ago. A warm feeling ran through his body like a herd of wild horses the more he looked into those amber eyes looking back into his. He never wanted to look away, but an explosion of thunder from a very close lightning got him to avert his gaze from her to the wet world outside. "All of that rain is going to make the river's water level rise and take a while to go back down."
"That's ok," she said to him. He returned his gaze to her and that warm fuzzy feeling came back when they locked eyes once more. "You promised me that you will help me until I found a way out of this patch of woods."
"I did...," Karu whispered back to her as he wrapped his legs over her back. He couldn't take his eyes off of her and she was no different. That warm feeling he got from her made everything seem peaceful, even when he was uncomfortably wet and the weather was terrible. This feeling was new to him and he didn't want it to go away.
"We are in huge trouble..." A man driving an old red pickup truck said to the windshield. He reached up and readjusted the rear view mirror to make sure no one was tailing them. The driver wore a dirty old camo ball cap, a tethered blue plaid coat, and faded blue jeans. Under his cap was a face that hadn't seen a razor in many weeks. "Did you hear me Bobbie?"
"For the last time Paul, I know." The copilot snapped at Paul. The driver took his eyes off of the road to see what Bobbie was up to. His scrawny passenger wore a grey plaid coat, had a buzz cut, and was holding a grid like antenna out of the open window with a set of head phones on and a small black box connected to it in his other hand. That antenna has clearly seen a lot of use over the past few years. It was once shiny, now it is a worn out rusty piece of scrap metal.
"Car," Paul said when he returned his eyes to the road.
"I see it," Bobbie said back as he pulled the antenna back into the truck. When the white sedan passed, he stuck the antenna back out the window. They continued driving around the backwoods roads around a dense forest for anther ten minutes before blue plaid started to get antsy. He started to turn his head back and forth between Bobbie and the road.
"Have you found him yet?" He asked. Grey plaid just shook his head. That didn't set his mind at ease. "If they hadn't mentioned where the bear sightings were on the news, we would have been looking in the wrong direction the whole time."
"We will be up the creek without a paddle if they catch him and link him back to us." Bobbie added. Suddenly, he lifted his hand up and looked very closely at the black box in it. "I got a tic, so find a place where we can park away from the road."
Paul slowed down and pulled off of the road. He carefully navigated the beater-with-a-heater through the dense woods until they were no longer visible from the road. Then he turned the truck around so it was facing the same way they came in and killed its engine.
"Let's go get our trouble maker." Paul said to Bobbie as they both got out of the truck. Blue plaid stepped around to the side of the pickup's bed and lifted a blue tarp that reviled a large cage that took up nearly half of its bed. Beside the thick barred cage was the solution to their run away bear. Paul reached down, unsnapped a black case, and pulled out a large bolt action rifle. The rifle's wooden stalk has lost all of its gloss and scratches in its long black barrel had rust forming in them. Paul scooped up a long loop of rope before following his walking bear tracker into the woods.