Forest's Journey

One day, when Forest was taking a patrol out to hunt when they saw a large van following them. Forest’s blood chilled as he realised who and what the van carried.

“That’s animal control! If they catch us they’re going to send us to who knows where. We need to run” yelled Bush.

The truck parked close to the footpath they were running on, and several humans came out of it.

“Everyone, run in separate directions but don’t go back to our camp.” commanded Forest.

To his dismay, the humans began to chase him. At least the others will be safe, he thought. He saw Bush running after the humans that were chasing him. He felt warm at his display of loyalty but didn’t want Bush endangering himself.

“Bush, don’t try to save me. You’ll only endanger yourself. If I do end up getting caught, don’t save me. I can get out by myself.” Forest howled.

“But without you we can’t form the packs.” argued Bush.

“You can, and you must. You need to lead them to a forest, though it may not be the one the Pack of the Sun intended, and create packs there. Understood?” instructed Forest.

“Yes, though I don’t like this.” Bush replied.

To his relief, Bush ran off. Forest ran as fast as he could and took the most complicated route possible, hoping it would confuse the humans. He went into the alleys and turned and swerved at every corner.

Unfortunately, that was his fatal mistake. The humans knew the alleys a lot better than Forest did, and soon the humans had him trapped from all sides. He snarled and snapped at anyone who tried to come near him while trying to plot an escape route. Suddenly, he began to feel drowsy, and within moments he was already unconscious. When he woke up, he was in a cramped, cold metal cage with metal bars on the door. He felt tired, groggy and sore all over. Forest pushed at the door with all his strength, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Don’t even try buddy, the door’s not gonna open. You’re gonna be here until someone adopts you or you die.” said someone who was in the cage next to him.

Forest guessed from his voice that it was a dog.

“Like, no one has gotten out before?” questioned Forest.

“Yep.”

Forest flopped down to the bottom of the cage in despair. How was he supposed to go and form the five packs if he was stuck in a cage?

“What’s a wolf doing in an animal shelter?” asked the dog.

“Is this what it’s called, an animal shelter?” inquired Forest.

“Yes. Now tell me why you’re here.”

“I was born in a pack in the forest, but my ancestors had a prophecy which demanded me to go to a new forest to form new packs. I was just passing through the human towns to get to the new forest, but I got caught by animal control.”

“That’s so sad, bro. My owner abandoned me one day and I was forced to become a stray dog. One day when I was out finding food animal control saw me and caught me. I’ve been here for five years now.”

“Wow, five years. That’s a very long time.”

“Yeah. Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve being locked up for five years.”

“You don’t deserve to be locked up. These humans are just barbaric and cruel.”

“What’s your name, by the way? My name is Forest.”

“I’m Shawn.”

After some silence, Shawn said:

“I need to warn you about something. If the humans find out that you’re a wolf, they’ll send you somewhere far away and it would be really hard to come back here. You need to pretend you’re a large dog, like a husky or something, so the humans won’t deport you.”

Forest groaned at the thought of having to play charades, especially in a foreign environment.

“Do we ever get let out of these cages to stretch our legs or something?” Forest asked

“Yes, we get let out once a week and we’re forced to play with humans. Why?”

“I was thinking, next time we get let out, we can make a run for it.”

Shawn snorted.

“Everyone here has tried that before, but none of us has ever succeeded.”

“That’s because you haven’t done it all together at the same time before. And you didn’t have a wolf on your side.”

“Do you mean we can-”

“Overwhelm the humans together? Yes, I meant that.”

Suddenly, Forest heard a human approach his cage. He looked up at the human with bright, trusting eyes and even hung his tongue out. His stomach coiled in disgust at what he was doing, but he knew it was necessary. The human smiled, and made a loving sort of sound. She then opened the cage door slightly and gave him a bowl of water and food. He wanted to escape right then, but he didn’t want to leave Shawn and the other dogs behind. He realised that he was starving, so he hurriedly gulped some water and wolfed down some food. The food looked like clumps of dirt and tasted stale and plain, but Forest ate it anyway. The human reached out a hesitant hand to stroke his fur. He immediately drew back, but reminded himself that he needed to pretend to be a dog. He relaxed, and after he had finished she took the bowls and left.

“You’re a really good dog.” Shawn commented.

“Shut up.” Forest growled.

Over the next two days, Forest and Shawn told everyone that could understand them about their plan. It was very loud since many dogs had questions, and they got into trouble with the humans a few times. On the third day of Forest being in the animal shelter, most of the dogs were let out, but Forest wasn’t because they didn’t trust him yet. To his immense relief, Shawn told everyone not to escape without him, and everyone listened. One week after that, the dogs were all let out again, and this time Forest was allowed to join them.

“Remember the plan.” Forest and Shawn whispered to everyone as the humans led them to the yard where they were supposed to play.

For the first few moments the dogs let the humans believe that everything was going normally. Forest pushed down his pride and acted as friendly as he could with the humans. When he thought the humans looked relaxed and off-guard enough, Forest waved his tail, and the dogs froze for one moment before bolting for the fence that was nearest to them.