A Path of Loneliness, Part 4

Morning came quickly, and Hope found herself waking up with the sunrise. The pups were back on their leashes and still sleeping, so Hope decided to get up quietly without disturbing them. She was worried that the pups might be hungry, so she decided to go hunt for some meat. As she took a step out from the camp, she heard a small yip. She turned around to see one of the pups awake and staring at her with a pleading look. The light spot on its hind was all Hope needed to recognize who it was.

“Zwei,” Hope remarked with surprise. “You're awake?”

Zwei yipped again. She knelt down and stroked the sides of his face. “What's wrong? Do you want to go hunting with me?”

Zwei's tail wagged and he began panting excitedly. She untied his leash from the tree and began walking the area with Zwei almost leading the way. She had spied a few small animals like rabbits and squirrels when she was searching for Zwei earlier, but for whatever reason, she couldn't seem to find any of them today. She didn't want to wander too far from where the other pups were sleeping, so if there wasn't anything to hunt in the immediate area, she'd probably have to give up and head back.

Suddenly, Zwei began growling, a sure sign that something was nearby. Hope held him back at first, but soon realized that it would probably be better to let him go instead. The moment she let go of the leash, Zwei dashed into a nearby patch of tall grass. Hope followed him as best as she could, and eventually Zwei emerged from the tall grass with a dead rabbit in his mouth.

“Good job!” Hope said as she petted Zwei's head. The rabbit turned out to be fairly big as well, and Hope was certain she could feed all four pups with this.

Hope and Zwei walked back to the camp, where the other pups had awoken. They began barking the moment they saw Hope, who quickly gestured to quiet down.

“Yes, yes, I understand. You thought I'd disappeared, right? Calm down. We'll have some breakfast and then head out, okay?”

Hope quickly butchered the rabbit and cooked it in a fire, then fed it to the pups. They ate it ravenously while she put out the fire and packed away her things. Once the pups were done eating, she re-tied the leashes onto her wrist and, after ensuring that the leash was secure, she set out to catch up with Caleb and Nick.

After navigating through the forest using the few landmarks she had banked into her memory, she eventually returned to the forest path where she first separated from Caleb and Nick. She wondered if the pups could possibly follow the scent back the others, but their aimless wandering seemed to indicate that there wasn't much scent left to follow. That wasn't a problem, thankfully; she and Caleb had long put contingencies in place if they ever got separated.

Hope pulled out a small wooden flute from inside of her pack. It was carved by Caleb himself and could only play seven notes, but that was all she needed. She put the flute to her mouth and played the short melody Caleb had taught her to play. The sound of the flute was sharp, but it cut through the ambience of the forest and echoed through the hill.

The sound faded after a while, and Hope waited without making a noise, hoping to hear a response. Unfortunately, silence was the only answer. It was clear that she'd need to traverse deeper into the woods. She sighed, shook her right wrist lightly to catch the pups' attention, and began walking up the sloping hill, into unknown territory.

To Hope's surprise, she did not find the trek to be as difficult as she thought it was going to be. She immediately pegged the reason why; her pups were behaving much more agreeably this time around, and rather than dragging her in different directions, they seemed to be much more cooperative, following whichever direction she was heading in. Because of that, she was easily climbing the same sloping ground and rocky terrain she had struggled up only the day before.

Once she had made some distance from her initial position, Hope tried the flute again. Once again, there was no response. She sighed. The trees were most definitely keeping the flute's sound from penetrating through the forest. Still, so long as she kept trying, she was sure to find Caleb eventually.

The next hour, Hope wandered through the forest, blowing on the flute whenever she felt like she had traveled some distance. She climbed over the hill and down towards a large flat area where most of the forest lay. Eventually, she head the light sound of Caleb's response melody. It was so light that she almost thought she was imagining it, but it was certainly him. She used her internal radar to approximate the direction the sound was coming from and dashed off in its direction.

Once she had made some headway, she blew the melody on the flute once again. This time, Caleb's response melody came in loud and clear, enough that she could figure out the direction without having to rely on her radar. There was still no sight of Caleb or Nick, so she doubted they were near, but at the very least she'd be able to find them soon so long as she kept following the sound of the whistle.

After another half hour of travel, Hope finally caught sight of Caleb and Nick. The two of them were sitting in a large clearing under another hill, surrounded by all kinds of camping gear. Caleb waved to Hope as she approached with her pups, not an inch of worry or concern on his face.

“I see you've been fairly cozy while I was out in the wilderness hunting for Zwei.”

“Well, we've had a lot of free time, after all,” Caleb joked.

Hope looked around, but she didn't see any sign of the pups Caleb and Nick were supposed to be watching over. “I assume you already got the other pups back to their homes?”

“Of course,” Nick replied. “All that's left is to take care of these li'l stragglers.”

Caleb and Nick got up from the seats and guided Hope to a clearing a short distance south of their camp, towards a grassy area where plenty of wildlife flourished. Even from a distance, Hope could hear the sound of coyotes yipping and barking.

“Is that them?” Hope asked, hoping to confirm with the others.

“Yes,” Nick replied. “We shouldn't get any closer than this. Go ahead and get the collars off of the other dogs.”

Hope knelt down and undid the collars on the pups, then motioned for them to rush off to join their pack. “Your family's over there! Go on and join then.”

The pups, freed of their leashes, rushed out into the open field. They wandered the area for a bit, but it wasn't long before they began running back to Hope, tails wagging.

“What are they doing?” Hope asked quizzically.

“They must have gotten attached,” Caleb remarked. “They spent a good amount of time with you, after all.”

Hope stood up and walked away from the pups, but they continued to follow her around. “What do we do? They don't seem willing to leave.”

“Well, I didn't want to do this, but...” Nick pulled out a spray can and sprayed the liquid inside onto the pups' faces. The pups were shocked at first, but they quickly collapsed onto the ground, asleep.

“It's a little forceful, but either they'll be found by the others or find their way back themselves,” Nick said as he picked up the unconscious dogs. “Come on, let's leave them a little bit closer to the others.”

With that finished, it was time for the remainers to leave. As they left, Hope turned back to see if the pups were still asleep and saw some of the other pups bark upon having discovered their kin. Satisfied that they wouldn't be left behind, Hope turned away and never looked back again.