Chapter 4: An Injured Black Wolf

The group of wolves: Kate, Humphrey, Lilly, and Garth were still walking. They hadn't seen or thought of anything fun as long as they had been in Helena National Forest. Garth was smiling to himself. Kate noticed the smile and wondered what he was thinking about, her question was asked for her when Lilly asked, "There's nothing to do, what's with the smile?"

"Humphrey's head stuck in the tree. It was just a funny sight for me."

"Shut it, Gar-" Humphrey began, but was interrupted by a loud noise. He stopped in his tracks and looked back, wondering what the loud noise was.

Bang!

"Did you guys hear that?" He asked. Kate, Lilly, and Garth stopped walking and lifted their ears to listen. Kate didn't hear anything so she said, "Hear wha-" BANG! She heard it that time, and immediately recognized it. The sound was unmistakable, "Hunters..."

Garth, Lilly, and Humphrey looked at her, hoping she didn't just say what they thought she said. "Please, don't tell me you didn't just say-"

"HUNTERS!" interrupted a deer, running towards the group. They yelled again, "Hunters! Run!" The group all glanced at each other and started running, in the direction they were already going. As they were running, Kate said, "Hunters, they always ruin everything!"

Garth jumped over a log and dodged a tree. He suddenly stopped, hearing a whimper of an animal shortly after another gunshot. Kate, Lilly, and Humphrey all stopped where they were and looked at him. "What are you doing, we have to move!" Kate said.

He stood his ground, looked back and said, "I'm sick of running from hunters... Somebody has to stand up to them!"

"I'm sick of it too, but what can we do about it?"

He ignored the question by turning around. Before he could begin running toward the hunter, Kate jumped infront of him, looked him in they eye and said, "You're not going back there."

Kate knew what Garth was thinking, "I want to help that poor animal too, but there's nothing we can do."

Garth looked at her and responded, "Maybe there is."

Confused, Humphrey asked, "You've got a plan, don't you?"

Garth smiled and nodded.

Garth hid in the bushes, waiting. Kate pretended she was sleeping, in the path of the hunter. Humphrey was walking as silent as he could, slowly approaching the man. Lilly was looking for the animal that was hit, careful not to make any noise. Humphrey finally got close up behind him. He followed close behind the hunter, as they approached Kate. The hunter bent his knees to take a look at her. Humphrey looked to Garth, who was giving him the signal, raising his ears twice. Humphrey knew that was his signal to let Kate know it was time to start. He pushed his paw down, snapping a small twig. The hunter started to turn around to see what made the noise. Kate opened one eye, to see if the hunter had taken the bait. Once she knew, she jumped up and knocked the gun out of the man's hands. Then Humphrey did his job, pushing the man down to the ground. Once the hunter was down, Garth jumped out of the bushes and got on top of the hunter. He growled at the human and told Humphrey to pick up the weapon and run to the rendezvous point. Garth held the human down so he couldn't get the weapon. Humphrey ran towards the weapon and picked it up with his mouth before chasing after Kate. Garth growled at the hunter once more. Even though the human couldn't understand, Garth said, "Hurting animals for your own satisfaction, it's just disgusting." He then got off him and ran over to where Lilly was.

"Any luck finding the animal?" He asked her.

"No." She responded.

Then they heard whimpering and a couple of twigs snapping. The two made their way to where the sound was coming from. There, they found a lone, black wolf, lying on the ground on its left side and whimpering. A twig snapped behind them, Garth turned around and saw the human looking at them with curiosity. He growled at the man, scaring him enough to run away. Garth turned back around and asked the black wolf, "Are you okay?"

"I don't know." The voice alone was enough for Garth and Lilly to figure out this wolf was female.

"Can you walk?" Lilly asked.

"I can try." The black wolf answered. She started to move, but whimpered a bit with pain. She slowly got herself up, but was too weak to stay up. Before the wolf could fall back down, Garth and Lilly put themselves under her, putting her on their backs. "We got ya," Garth said. Lilly added, "You're gonna be okay."

The black wolf wondered where they were going and why these strange wolves would help her, but figured it was better than being left to die. She drifted off to sleep.

Kate and Humphrey had gotten back to the area where they planned to meet up. Humphrey dropped the weapon out of his mouth. He dug into the dirt, making a hole. Once the hole was big enough, he dropped the weapon into it and filled up the hole with the dirt he just dug out. Then, he patted it down so it didn't look too noticable for any hunters to find. Kate was starting to get worried, "It shouldn't take this long for those two to get back."

"They're alright, Kate. Maybe they're still looking for the poor animal and just haven't found it yet." Humphrey assured her.

"I hope you're right." Kate was praying those two wolves hadn't been hurt.

Noticing she wasn't getting any calmer, Humphrey said, "I'll tell you what. If they don't get back in a few minutes, we'll go and look for them."

Kate smiled at him and responded, "Sounds good."

The two laid down on the ground to wait. A couple minutes passed and Kate was getting even more nervous. She stood up and said, "We have to go look for them."

Humphrey stood up, "Kate, they're okay."

"How do you know?"

"I don't, but he's an alpha, he can handle it. Besides, the human doesn't have his weapon, and we left with Garth growling in his face. I'm positive they're alright." Humphrey had a point there. With no weapon, there was no possible way for them to get hurt.

"We're here, guys." Garth stated, walking with Lilly, the black wolf on their backs. They approached Kate and Humphrey and slowly let the black wolf slide off their backs, onto the ground. The group gathered around to take a look.

"Is she alright?" Humphrey asked.

Kate answered, "She's still breathing. That's a good sign."

Garth smiled and looked at the sleeping wolf. He wondered what her name was, and why she was all alone. "We better let her rest." Garth suggested.

"Good idea," Kate agreed.

Humphrey, Kate, Lilly, and Garth laid down all next to each other and waited for the girl to wake.