Humphrey and Leyla got off to a good restart and became the good friends they had once been. While Humphrey spent a lot of time in the house, Leyla always left the back door open for him and sometimes he would venture out into the woods. Sometimes, he’d only be gone for a little while, others he’d be gone all day. But Leyla always trusted that he would come back, and he did, every time. Which is why when he didn’t one day, Leyla became worried.

It had been about two years since their encounter with Viggo. Life had carried on pretty easily. He never once showed up again after that. One day, Humphrey had gone out pretty early in the morning and Leyla thought nothing of it. He had done this hundreds of times before. He was still wild, after all. But as night began to fall, there was no sign of Humphrey and Leyla began to worry. He usually returned around sunset at the very latest. All of a sudden, Viper came slithering through the door, looking scared and panicked.

“Viper,” Leyla said, “what are you doing here?”

“Humphrey!” Viper shouted frantically. “They took him!”

“Who?” Leyla asked.

“Three humans,” Viper replied. “I was going about my day when I saw Humphrey nearby. I was going to go say hi when he got hit with some kind of weird dart and then he fell over and three humans came out from behind the bushes and took him.”

“Where did they take him?” Leyla asked.

“I don’t know,” Viper replied, “but they were heading north.”

Leyla rushed outside but to her dismay, it was already too dark to see much.

“Damn it!” she said. “We’ll never find him now.”

“I can,” Viper said. “If their tracks are still warm, I can follow them.”

Meanwhile, Humphrey awoke to the sound of clamoring, but he knew he wasn’t at the zoo. As he looked around, all he saw were tents and people. That’s all there was for as far as he could see. He realized he was being carried by three people and immediately decided against trying to escape. There were way too many people around and he had no idea where he was or how big this campsite was. He wondered how he was going to get out of this when he noticed where he was being taken and it scared him.

The three people carrying him were headed directly for a large tent that was made entirely out of wolf pelts. The entire thing, from top to bottom was made of various different pelts that had been sewn together. Humphrey saw many colors on the tent. Grey, white, black, yellow, tan, brown, even red. This was the tent of a hunter, and a ruthless one at that. The men pushed their way through the flap and tossed Humphrey onto the ground.

“Thank you,” a familiar voice said. “Now, leave us. We have much to discuss.”

The three men turned and walked out of the tent as Humphrey looked around. There was one table on each side of the tent. Behind the one on the left was a rack with various guns and knives on it. One small knife looked like it was made out of a wolf tooth. Behind the other table was a large chest. In the back-left corner was a rolled up sleeping bag and in the back-right corner was a smaller chest. But the most important thing was sitting right at the back of the tent among all the other stuff. There was a desk, and on top of that desk was a board with many weird pieces set up on it. A bunch of them were white and a bunch of them were black and they were all neatly arranged, the white ones on one side of the board and the black ones on the other side. But what Humphrey was focused on was who was sitting at the desk. It was Viggo. There was something else behind him, but Humphrey couldn’t see it because Viggo was obscuring it.

“I’m so glad you could join us, Humphrey,” he said.

“What do you want with me?” Humphrey asked.

“Did I not promise you we’d see each other again?” Viggo asked. “I’m nothing if not a man of my word.”

“You know what I mean,” Humphrey said, getting annoyed. “And how can you even understand me?”

“Wow, I’d have thought you were smarter than this, Humphrey,” Viggo said. “I’ve been following you for your whole life, you seriously didn’t think I’d have learned a few things?”

“Why are you so obsessed with me?” Humphrey asked, impatiently.

“I lost my parents because of you,” Viggo replied, calmly. “Well, not you directly. It was actually your grandparents who killed them. Did you ever wonder why your grandfather had that burn mark on his side? It’s because of me. I gave it to him. I was ten years old. We were out camping one night when we were attacked by your grandparents.

“In my attempt to protect my mother and father, I stuck my hand into the campfire and grabbed a burning log which I threw at Jack. His fur burst into flames and he and Mary ran away. But it was too late. My parents were dead. And from that moment on, I resented all wolves and I vowed to kill your grandparents and every one of you that they cared about. As time passed, I grew strong and so did my hate toward your kind.

“Unfortunately, your grandparents died in the attack that claimed your pack and I was left furious. Fortunately, you, your sister, and your brother along with half of your pack were still out there. Your brother was too well guarded, and your sister had already been adopted and was under the protection of her new owner. So, you were my last option, lost somewhere in the woods. As our chase dragged on, you continued to evade me, time and time again, and so my hate for you grew to what it is now.”

“So, what are you going to do?” Humphrey asked. “Kill me?”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Viggo replied. “The game hasn’t even begun yet. We’ve only just met. I want to see what you’re made of now that you know I’m here. But know this, when the time does come, and it will come, I have the perfect spot for you-”

Viggo turned and leaned back in his chair, facing toward the wall of his tent, and revealing what was behind him.

“-right here, in between your parents.”

Standing behind Viggo, was a wooden rack with two full body wolf pelts hanging from it with a space in between them for one more. A look of horror came over Humphrey’s face as he realized that Viggo wasn’t bluffing. He recognized his mother’s blackish-purple coat of fur anywhere.

Humphrey’s emotion suddenly turned from one of sadness to flaming anger. Just as he was about to leap on Viggo, a loud commotion was heard in the campsite. Viggo sat back up in his chair, putting his hands together on his desk.

“I see your friends have come for you,” he said, smiling. “That is all, my friend. You may leave now. Let us save all this fighting nonsense for next time. I do truly look forward to it.”

A clever grin stretched across Viggo’s face as Humphrey reluctantly turned and rushed out of the tent. As Humphrey exited the tent, he immediately saw what was causing the commotion. Leyla had apparently come for him. Humphrey rushed after her as Viggo came out of his tent and called his men off.

“Humphrey!” Leyla shouted when she saw him.

“Leyla! It’s Viggo!” Humphrey yelled.

“We don’t have time for that,” Viper said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Viper!” Humphrey exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“What does it look like?” she replied. “I’m saving you, dummy, now come on!”

The trio quickly retreated back through the woods to Leyla’s house.

“Now, what happened there?” Leyla asked.

“Viggo told me everything,” Humphrey replied. “Apparently, my grandparents killed his parents and he’s-”

“I know,” Leyla cut in. “I already knew all that. Years and years ago, he came to me for help in his madman's quest, but I just called him crazy. When I met you and you told me your story, I put the pieces together and realized it was you he was chasing. That’s part of why I sent you to the zoo. I wanted to keep you safe from him. He wouldn’t be able to try anything if you were there.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about him when we met?” Humphrey asked.

“One, you were injured, and you didn’t need to be stressed out any more than you were,” Leyla explained, “and two, by the time you were healed, you had become my friend and I didn’t want to do that to you.”

“What else did he say?” Viper asked.

“He said something about how the game has only begun and how he wants to see what I’m made of,” Humphrey replied.

“That’s not good,” Leyla said. “That means he’s going to be coming for you. Everything’s a game to him. He’s going to try and deceive you, trick you into doing what he wants without you even knowing it. You’re going to think you’re one step ahead, but you’ll actually be two steps behind.”

Humphrey had a distraught look on his face as he soaked all of this in.

“Come on,” Leyla said, “get some rest.”

Humphrey followed Leyla into the house and surprisingly, so did Viper.

“Viper?” Humphrey said. “You’re staying?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “I feel better about her. She seems like she really cares about you. And if you trust her, then I do too.”

“You sure you’ll be okay?” Humphrey asked. “I mean it’s not like there are any trees in here.”

“I’m sure I’ll find a small nook or something to curl up in,” Viper reassured him.

“Well then, goodnight, Viper,” Humphrey said, smiling.

“Goodnight, Humphrey,” she replied.

The next few weeks were pretty stressful for the three of them. Viggo was on everyone’s minds. Humphrey went out of the house less often and everyone was on high alert. They had no idea when he was going to come for Humphrey. Viper continued spending the nights in various nooks and crannies around Leyla’s house. She would act as a sort of messenger, going out some days to see what information she could gather.

She eventually caught wind of someone referred to only as “The Wolfslayer” going around Jasper. When she brought this news back to Humphrey and Leyla they began to think it was Viggo at first until they ran into him once. They managed to escape but Viper later brought word back about a pack that had been attacked by The Wolfslayer at the same time that they were with Viggo. However, this was even more worrying because now there were two murderous wolf hunters roaming Jasper. Over the course of eight long years, the three of them lived together pretty peacefully, and grew to all be very close friends until one day, one encounter changed Humphrey’s life forever.