When Humphrey woke up the inayofuata day, he was in a completely different place. For a moment, he thought he was back in the pack, but as he looked around, he realized that nothing was familiar. The rocks, the grass, the one single mti that was there. He then noticed a fence surrounding the small area he had woken up in with a grey stone building and a door on one side. He was confused. Where was he? Where was Leyla?
“Hey!” a voice called.
Humphrey turned around and looked at who the voice belonged to. He noticed another mbwa mwitu standing behind him, looking at him. The mbwa mwitu had dark grey fur, manyoya and looked a bit older than Humphrey.
“You okay?” the mbwa mwitu asked.
“No, I’m not okay!” Humphrey suddenly shouted. “Where am I?”
“Whoa, calm down,” the mbwa mwitu said, a bit defensively.
“Sorry, I’m just really confused,” Humphrey apologized.
“It’s fine,” the mbwa mwitu said. “It happens to everyone that comes here.”
“Where is ‘here’, exactly?” Humphrey asked.
“This is a zoo,” the mbwa mwitu explained. “You live in this small enclosure and people pay to come look at you.”
“Why?”
“Beats me. I’m Joe kwa the way.”
“Humphrey,” Humphrey said, looking around at the enclosure.
It was still relatively dark out and Humphrey couldn’t see much.
“How do I get out?” he asked.
“You don’t,” Joe replied sadly. “You can’t.”
“There has to be a way.”
“Trust me, I’ve tried,” Joe explained. “The only way out is when wewe die.”
Humphrey looked at him for a moment before walking around the enclosure, trying to find a way out.
“I suggest wewe go back to sleep,” Joe said, laying down. “Like it au not, this is your nyumbani now. Permanently.”
Humphrey rolled his eyes before continuing to walk around the enclosure. He spent hours walking around the enclosure before he eventually gave up and laid down on the most comfortable patch of nyasi he could find.
He was suddenly awoken kwa the loud clamoring of voices. He opened his eyes and lifted his head. Humphrey was shocked to see so many people staring at him.
“Welcome to reality,” Joe said.
Humphrey rolled his eyes again before standing up and looking back at the people outside of the enclosure. He then spotted a familiar face in the crowd. He walked right up to the fence and looked at Leyla who was standing up front.
“Leyla,” he said, “what am I doing here?”
She looked sadly at him, knowing that she couldn’t answer him in front of so many people. Joe looked at him with a look of confusion on his face.
“Dude, what are wewe doing?” he asked.
Humphrey ignored him, keeping his attention on Leyla.
“Leyla,” he alisema again, “did wewe bring me here?”
Still, she remained silent.
“Damn it, answer me, Leyla!” he shouted in a burst of anger.
The people around the enclosure stepped back, as all they heard was an angry growl. Everyone but Leyla, who continued to look at Humphrey sadly.
“Leyla,” he said, his voice now sounding hurt and betrayed as he realized she had brought him here.
At that moment, a man came into the enclosure through a door in the side to subdue the seemingly hostile wolf. Humphrey turned and looked at him for a moment and saw that he had a tranquilizer gun in his hand. He then looked back at Leyla with a look in his eyes that seemed to cry out for help.
“I trusted you,” he alisema before getting hit with a dart and passing out.
Leyla looked down in shame before walking away.
Humphrey woke up again a few hours later inayofuata to the tree. As he opened his eyes, he saw Joe looking at him again. Humphrey stretched as he stood up.
“What the hell were wewe doing, man?” Joe asked.
“Why do wewe care?” Humphrey asked back.
“Because I want to know what possessed wewe to do such a stupid thing,” Joe replied. “Why did wewe try talking to that human?”
“I knew her,” Humphrey replied. “She was my friend.”
“Was?”
“Yeah. Was,” Humphrey alisema before laying back down.
Humphrey stared back at the people around him before trying to go back to sleep. The rest of his siku was pretty uneventful, and he went to sleep that night thinking of Kate and the others and how they had no idea that he was even alive.
The inayofuata siku started out the same way, with the sounds of people waking him up. Humphrey wanted to get out and go home, but he didn’t know how. At around midday he got an idea and turned his attention to the door the man had come through the siku before. He got up and went to the opposite side of the enclosure.
“What are wewe doing now?” Joe asked, but Humphrey ignored him, eyeing down the door instead.
Joe put two and two together and began to object.
“Humphrey, that’s a bad idea,” he said.
Humphrey ignored him and continued looking at the door while also beginning to crouch down.
“Don’t do it,” Joe said. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”
Humphrey suddenly burst toward the door, rushing across the enclosure. As he approached the door, he turned to his side and slammed into it with his shoulder. The door didn’t songesha an inch and Humphrey was sent back onto the ground. The watching people gasped in shock. Joe walked over to him and Humphrey opened his mouth to talk but couldn’t get any air in as he had effectively knocked the wind out of himself.
“That looked like it hurt,” Joe said. “Are wewe okay?”
Humphrey tried and failed to say anything, and Joe noticed.
“You sure?” he asked sarcastically. “Can wewe talk?”
Humphrey eventually took a large inhale of air and finally groaned in pain.
“I only have one thing to say to you, Humphrey,” Joe continued.
“Let me guess,” Humphrey said, still groaning. “Some variant of ‘I told wewe so’?”
Humphrey then rolled over and tried to stand up but cried out in pain and toppled back over as soon as put weight on his paw.
“Whoa, seriously, are wewe okay?” Joe asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
“What does it look like?” Humphrey replied before a slab of meat was thrown to the other side of the enclosure through a slot in the door.
“What are they doing?” Humphrey asked.
“They want me to leave wewe alone so they can fix you,” Joe replied. “Good luck in there.”
Joe walked over to the meat as someone came through the door and tranquilized Humphrey again before pulling him inside. He woke up under the mti again.
“You really need to stop waking up like this,” Joe said, jokingly.
“What happened?” Humphrey asked.
“From what I heard, wewe dislocated your shoulder,” Joe replied.
“What?” Humphrey said, confused.
“You hit your shoulder so hard, it fell out and they had to put it back in,” Joe explained. “That’s as simple as I can put it.”
Humphrey tried to get up, but Joe stopped him.
“You still need to rest, though.”
Humphrey sighed as he laid back down, feeling helpless once again. As night approached and the zoo grew silent, Humphrey went to sleep, still refusing to accept that this place would be where he would spend the rest of his days.
Humphrey woke differently the inayofuata morning. He woke not to the sound of the busy zoo, but to a single person whispering his name. As he opened his eyes and looked up, he saw Leyla standing alone at the fence. He stretched and limped over to her. The sky was still pretty dark, but it was clear the sun had risen behind the buildings.
“What are wewe doing here?” he asked, quietly.
“No one’s usually here for the first half saa that this place is open,” she said, “so I figured I’d get here early and explain myself.”
“Don’t bother,” Humphrey said.
“What happened to your leg?” she asked, noticing his limp.
“I tried to get out,” Humphrey replied, blatantly.
“And?” Leyla pushed.
“Fine. And I, apparently, dislocated my shoulder,” Humphrey alisema quickly.
“How?”
“I ran into the door.”
“Humphrey wewe gotta stop that,” she said. “I didn’t bring wewe here just so wewe could hurt yourself.”
“And why did wewe bring me here?” Humphrey asked a bit angrily.
“Okay, just be quiet,” Leyla said. “I did it to keep wewe safe.”
“Safe?” he exclaimed. “I wasn’t in any danger with you! I thought we were friends, Leyla.”
“We are,” she replied.
“Are we?” Humphrey questioned. “Friends don’t abandon each other.”
“Look, I better go. People will be inaonyesha up soon,” she said.
“Wait,” Humphrey called to her, “why didn’t wewe answer me the other day?”
“I’m so sorry for that, Humphrey,” Leyla said, ashamedly. “You know it’s not common for people to understand what you’re saying and if I had answered you...let’s just say it wouldn’t have looked good for me.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Humphrey said, a bit understandingly.
“You really gotta stop trying to escape, though,” Leyla said.
“Apart from the obvious, why?” Humphrey asked.
“Because they’re going to see that as aggression and they’ll put wewe down,” Leyla answered.
Humphrey looked confused at what she had said.
“They’ll kill you,” she quietly burst out.
Humphrey’s eyes suddenly widened in shock.
“I’ll keep coming to see you, but don’t try and talk to me anymore,” she said. “I’ll try and get here early sometimes so we can actually talk.”
“Alright,” he said. “Goodbye, Leyla.”
“I’m sorry, Humphrey,” she alisema as he turned around and headed for the tree.
Humphrey stopped and turned his head slightly.
“I hope wewe can forgive me,” Leyla finished before leaving.
Humphrey limped back under the mti and went back to sleep. Humphrey did give up trying to escape, but he never stopped thinking about it. His shoulder healed up quickly and as he slowly began to embrace his new life, he and Joe finally began to get along.
A few months passed and winter soon came. About halfway through Humphrey noticed something odd. One day, he looked at a group of people that were at the fence looking at him when he noticed something off about one of them.
Something inside of Humphrey screamed danger when he saw a man near the front. He didn’t know why but his instincts told him this man was bad news. The man looked to be around Leyla’s age and had a short, semi-grey beard on his chin and wore a dark red hat on his head. Humphrey’s feeling was confirmed when he noticed the man was wearing a mbwa mwitu fur, manyoya vest under his jacket. He then noticed the claw mark scar going across the man’s neck and knew that he must’ve had his fair share of experiences with wolves. Joe noticed Humphrey staring at the man and walked up to him.
“What are wewe looking at?” he asked.
“That man there,” Humphrey said, motioning to the strange man. “Do wewe see what he’s wearing underneath that jacket?”
Joe looked at the man and when he noticed the vest, he looked back at Humphrey.
“And do wewe see that scar on the side of his neck?” Humphrey asked. “That’s a hunter if ever I saw one, and I have.”
“Yeah, well, I bet a lot of hunters come here,” Joe said, trying not to sound unnerved.
“True, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this one,” Humphrey replied before going back under the tree.
Even though Humphrey tried to put it out of his mind, he just couldn’t. The man visited his enclosure every single siku after that and the worst part was that he never looked at Joe. He only ever looked at Humphrey. It began to get zaidi and zaidi unsettling, especially when Humphrey noticed the look in the man’s eye. Hate. Pure hate. It was concealed well, but deep in his eye, Humphrey could tell this man absolutely resented and loathed him with every fiber of his being.
Then one siku in early spring, the man didn’t onyesha up. And neither did anyone else. Humphrey woke up and the area around the enclosure was completely vacant. The entire zoo was quiet. He had no idea what was going on. Then the caretaker came through the door and startled Humphrey. He looked different. He was wearing something on his face, covering his mouth and nose. The man nonetheless tossed their morning meal into the enclosure and then closed the door again.
Humphrey figured things would be normal again the inayofuata day, but they weren’t. Again, no one showed up. Not that day, nor the siku after that, au the one after that. Weeks passed and no one came to the zoo. Suddenly, they began to get fed less chakula and less often. Joe had no idea what was going on either. Not even Leyla au the Mysterious Man stopped kwa to see Humphrey.
Four months of this passed and slowly things started to return to normal. People eventually did return to the zoo, but they didn’t gather in large crowds anymore. Instead, they seemed to stay away from each other. And they all wore the same face covering that the caretaker did. The Mysterious Man was no exception and not being able to see his face made him even zaidi frightening.
Things continued like this for around another mwaka until things finally went back to the way they were. For three zaidi years, Humphrey remained at the zoo. Eventually, his longing to return to Kate and his family became unbearable and he and Joe began to discuss calmer methods of escape, though none of them seemed likely to work. All but one.
“You’re sure it will work?” Joe asked one day.
It was early in the morning and no one had yet arrived.
“You alisema the only way anyone leaves this place is if they die, right?” Humphrey asked confidently.
“Yeah,” Joe answered slowly.
“So, we pretend to be dead and they’ll take us back to that room,” Humphrey explained.
“I get that, but what about the other door?” Joe asked, “There’s two doors in that room. One that leads in here, and another that leads to the other side of the fence.”
“I know,” Humphrey replied. “Just trust me. There’s only one, maybe two people in there at all times. Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan for that. Just make sure to hold your breath when he comes over.”
The two laid back down on the ground and remained absolutely motionless. As expected, the caretaker simply assumed they were just sleeping. But when he went to feed them and they didn’t move, he began to get worried. Just as planned, he entered the enclosure and began to approach, and Humphrey and Joe took a very subtle deep breath and held it.
The caretaker cautiously approached but when he noticed that their chests weren’t rising, he rushed over and put his hand in front of their noses. Not feeling any breathing, he called for help and a sekunde person came through the door to help. They carefully moved the two Mbwa mwitu loups into the room, all the while, Humphrey and Joe were very slowly taking shallow breaths.
When the door closed behind them, the two Mbwa mwitu loups suddenly jumped up, startling the two people who quickly backed away from them.
“Now what, genius?” Joe asked.
“Bite my paw,” Humphrey alisema casually.
“What?”
“Bite it,” Humphrey insisted. “If we start fighting, they’ll call for help.”
Joe still hesitated.
“What are wewe waiting for, wewe pig headed dog?” Humphrey said, hoping to provoke him.
At being called a dog, Joe leapt onto Humphrey and tackled him. The two began to pretend to fight, growling and biting at each other. But Humphrey could tell Joe was holding back too much and he let him know.
“You’re holding back too much. Come on, actually hit me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Joe said.
“I've survived worse, I can take it,” Humphrey said. “Just do it.”
Joe nodded and Humphrey prepared for the hit to his shoulder.
“Give me your best,” he said. “As hard as wewe can.”
Joe quickly swiped his claws at Humphrey and hit him directly on the shoulder, leaving four long gashes that began to bleed immediately. It was at that moment that a few zaidi people came through the other door and Humphrey and Joe bolted toward it. They managed to make it through and rushed out into the rest of the zoo.
“Why didn’t wewe just tell me we were gonna fight when we were still in the enclosure?” Joe asked, somewhat furiously as they ran.
“Because I wanted to see the look on your face,” Humphrey replied, smiling.
“You sly fox,” Joe said, trying to hide his smile.
“I met a fox, mbweha once,” Humphrey added, “when I was a pup.”
“That explains a lot,” Joe replied.
They then noticed a bunch of workers at the zoo rushing after them and the two turned and ran into an open door that led into the reptile exhibit. They were rushing through the building with people scattering as they saw them, when Humphrey was suddenly tackled kwa a worker who had come from a side hallway. They crashed through the glass of a nearby snake enclosure and the man began trying to subdue Humphrey when Joe ran up and bit him in the leg. The man reeled back in pain, letting go of Humphrey and the two continued their escape as the snakes from the enclosure began to escape as well.
As they reached the other side of the building, people rushed for the exits, keeping the doors wide open and Humphrey and Joe rushed out. They ran toward the entrance of the zoo and soon they had escaped. The zoo was located on the edge of a town near Jasper’s western border and they soon made their way back into the forest.
“I can’t believe that actually worked,” Humphrey exclaimed, turning and looking back at the town.
“You doubted your own plan?” Joe asked.
“Me? Never,” Humphrey replied.
“Good, cause I sure did.”
“Hey.”
As Joe turned back toward the forest, Humphrey lingered for a moment, thinking about Leyla and how she would react when she found out that he was gone.
“Humphrey, come on,” Joe beckoned, “let’s go home.”
Humphrey turned back and ran to catch up with him.
“Wait, you’re from Jasper?” he said.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Joe replied. “Honestly, I don’t remember where I’m from. I’d lived in that zoo for most of my life. I was thinking I could come back with you.”
“I’d like that,” Humphrey said.
“That looks bad,” Joe said, looking at the claw mark on Humphrey’s shoulder. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I promise, it’s fine,” Humphrey said. “Like I said, I’ve been through worse.”
The two continued walking through the forest, trying to find their way back to the Western Pack. However, that proved difficult since they were far north of where they were trying to go, and Humphrey had never been out that far before. He had no idea where to go, which direction was which, and didn’t recognize any familiar landmarks.
Over the course of four months, Humphrey and Joe wandered around Jasper’s northwestern region, slowly making their way southeast toward the Western Pack, until one siku when everything changed.
“Hey!” a voice called.
Humphrey turned around and looked at who the voice belonged to. He noticed another mbwa mwitu standing behind him, looking at him. The mbwa mwitu had dark grey fur, manyoya and looked a bit older than Humphrey.
“You okay?” the mbwa mwitu asked.
“No, I’m not okay!” Humphrey suddenly shouted. “Where am I?”
“Whoa, calm down,” the mbwa mwitu said, a bit defensively.
“Sorry, I’m just really confused,” Humphrey apologized.
“It’s fine,” the mbwa mwitu said. “It happens to everyone that comes here.”
“Where is ‘here’, exactly?” Humphrey asked.
“This is a zoo,” the mbwa mwitu explained. “You live in this small enclosure and people pay to come look at you.”
“Why?”
“Beats me. I’m Joe kwa the way.”
“Humphrey,” Humphrey said, looking around at the enclosure.
It was still relatively dark out and Humphrey couldn’t see much.
“How do I get out?” he asked.
“You don’t,” Joe replied sadly. “You can’t.”
“There has to be a way.”
“Trust me, I’ve tried,” Joe explained. “The only way out is when wewe die.”
Humphrey looked at him for a moment before walking around the enclosure, trying to find a way out.
“I suggest wewe go back to sleep,” Joe said, laying down. “Like it au not, this is your nyumbani now. Permanently.”
Humphrey rolled his eyes before continuing to walk around the enclosure. He spent hours walking around the enclosure before he eventually gave up and laid down on the most comfortable patch of nyasi he could find.
He was suddenly awoken kwa the loud clamoring of voices. He opened his eyes and lifted his head. Humphrey was shocked to see so many people staring at him.
“Welcome to reality,” Joe said.
Humphrey rolled his eyes again before standing up and looking back at the people outside of the enclosure. He then spotted a familiar face in the crowd. He walked right up to the fence and looked at Leyla who was standing up front.
“Leyla,” he said, “what am I doing here?”
She looked sadly at him, knowing that she couldn’t answer him in front of so many people. Joe looked at him with a look of confusion on his face.
“Dude, what are wewe doing?” he asked.
Humphrey ignored him, keeping his attention on Leyla.
“Leyla,” he alisema again, “did wewe bring me here?”
Still, she remained silent.
“Damn it, answer me, Leyla!” he shouted in a burst of anger.
The people around the enclosure stepped back, as all they heard was an angry growl. Everyone but Leyla, who continued to look at Humphrey sadly.
“Leyla,” he said, his voice now sounding hurt and betrayed as he realized she had brought him here.
At that moment, a man came into the enclosure through a door in the side to subdue the seemingly hostile wolf. Humphrey turned and looked at him for a moment and saw that he had a tranquilizer gun in his hand. He then looked back at Leyla with a look in his eyes that seemed to cry out for help.
“I trusted you,” he alisema before getting hit with a dart and passing out.
Leyla looked down in shame before walking away.
Humphrey woke up again a few hours later inayofuata to the tree. As he opened his eyes, he saw Joe looking at him again. Humphrey stretched as he stood up.
“What the hell were wewe doing, man?” Joe asked.
“Why do wewe care?” Humphrey asked back.
“Because I want to know what possessed wewe to do such a stupid thing,” Joe replied. “Why did wewe try talking to that human?”
“I knew her,” Humphrey replied. “She was my friend.”
“Was?”
“Yeah. Was,” Humphrey alisema before laying back down.
Humphrey stared back at the people around him before trying to go back to sleep. The rest of his siku was pretty uneventful, and he went to sleep that night thinking of Kate and the others and how they had no idea that he was even alive.
The inayofuata siku started out the same way, with the sounds of people waking him up. Humphrey wanted to get out and go home, but he didn’t know how. At around midday he got an idea and turned his attention to the door the man had come through the siku before. He got up and went to the opposite side of the enclosure.
“What are wewe doing now?” Joe asked, but Humphrey ignored him, eyeing down the door instead.
Joe put two and two together and began to object.
“Humphrey, that’s a bad idea,” he said.
Humphrey ignored him and continued looking at the door while also beginning to crouch down.
“Don’t do it,” Joe said. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”
Humphrey suddenly burst toward the door, rushing across the enclosure. As he approached the door, he turned to his side and slammed into it with his shoulder. The door didn’t songesha an inch and Humphrey was sent back onto the ground. The watching people gasped in shock. Joe walked over to him and Humphrey opened his mouth to talk but couldn’t get any air in as he had effectively knocked the wind out of himself.
“That looked like it hurt,” Joe said. “Are wewe okay?”
Humphrey tried and failed to say anything, and Joe noticed.
“You sure?” he asked sarcastically. “Can wewe talk?”
Humphrey eventually took a large inhale of air and finally groaned in pain.
“I only have one thing to say to you, Humphrey,” Joe continued.
“Let me guess,” Humphrey said, still groaning. “Some variant of ‘I told wewe so’?”
Humphrey then rolled over and tried to stand up but cried out in pain and toppled back over as soon as put weight on his paw.
“Whoa, seriously, are wewe okay?” Joe asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
“What does it look like?” Humphrey replied before a slab of meat was thrown to the other side of the enclosure through a slot in the door.
“What are they doing?” Humphrey asked.
“They want me to leave wewe alone so they can fix you,” Joe replied. “Good luck in there.”
Joe walked over to the meat as someone came through the door and tranquilized Humphrey again before pulling him inside. He woke up under the mti again.
“You really need to stop waking up like this,” Joe said, jokingly.
“What happened?” Humphrey asked.
“From what I heard, wewe dislocated your shoulder,” Joe replied.
“What?” Humphrey said, confused.
“You hit your shoulder so hard, it fell out and they had to put it back in,” Joe explained. “That’s as simple as I can put it.”
Humphrey tried to get up, but Joe stopped him.
“You still need to rest, though.”
Humphrey sighed as he laid back down, feeling helpless once again. As night approached and the zoo grew silent, Humphrey went to sleep, still refusing to accept that this place would be where he would spend the rest of his days.
Humphrey woke differently the inayofuata morning. He woke not to the sound of the busy zoo, but to a single person whispering his name. As he opened his eyes and looked up, he saw Leyla standing alone at the fence. He stretched and limped over to her. The sky was still pretty dark, but it was clear the sun had risen behind the buildings.
“What are wewe doing here?” he asked, quietly.
“No one’s usually here for the first half saa that this place is open,” she said, “so I figured I’d get here early and explain myself.”
“Don’t bother,” Humphrey said.
“What happened to your leg?” she asked, noticing his limp.
“I tried to get out,” Humphrey replied, blatantly.
“And?” Leyla pushed.
“Fine. And I, apparently, dislocated my shoulder,” Humphrey alisema quickly.
“How?”
“I ran into the door.”
“Humphrey wewe gotta stop that,” she said. “I didn’t bring wewe here just so wewe could hurt yourself.”
“And why did wewe bring me here?” Humphrey asked a bit angrily.
“Okay, just be quiet,” Leyla said. “I did it to keep wewe safe.”
“Safe?” he exclaimed. “I wasn’t in any danger with you! I thought we were friends, Leyla.”
“We are,” she replied.
“Are we?” Humphrey questioned. “Friends don’t abandon each other.”
“Look, I better go. People will be inaonyesha up soon,” she said.
“Wait,” Humphrey called to her, “why didn’t wewe answer me the other day?”
“I’m so sorry for that, Humphrey,” Leyla said, ashamedly. “You know it’s not common for people to understand what you’re saying and if I had answered you...let’s just say it wouldn’t have looked good for me.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Humphrey said, a bit understandingly.
“You really gotta stop trying to escape, though,” Leyla said.
“Apart from the obvious, why?” Humphrey asked.
“Because they’re going to see that as aggression and they’ll put wewe down,” Leyla answered.
Humphrey looked confused at what she had said.
“They’ll kill you,” she quietly burst out.
Humphrey’s eyes suddenly widened in shock.
“I’ll keep coming to see you, but don’t try and talk to me anymore,” she said. “I’ll try and get here early sometimes so we can actually talk.”
“Alright,” he said. “Goodbye, Leyla.”
“I’m sorry, Humphrey,” she alisema as he turned around and headed for the tree.
Humphrey stopped and turned his head slightly.
“I hope wewe can forgive me,” Leyla finished before leaving.
Humphrey limped back under the mti and went back to sleep. Humphrey did give up trying to escape, but he never stopped thinking about it. His shoulder healed up quickly and as he slowly began to embrace his new life, he and Joe finally began to get along.
A few months passed and winter soon came. About halfway through Humphrey noticed something odd. One day, he looked at a group of people that were at the fence looking at him when he noticed something off about one of them.
Something inside of Humphrey screamed danger when he saw a man near the front. He didn’t know why but his instincts told him this man was bad news. The man looked to be around Leyla’s age and had a short, semi-grey beard on his chin and wore a dark red hat on his head. Humphrey’s feeling was confirmed when he noticed the man was wearing a mbwa mwitu fur, manyoya vest under his jacket. He then noticed the claw mark scar going across the man’s neck and knew that he must’ve had his fair share of experiences with wolves. Joe noticed Humphrey staring at the man and walked up to him.
“What are wewe looking at?” he asked.
“That man there,” Humphrey said, motioning to the strange man. “Do wewe see what he’s wearing underneath that jacket?”
Joe looked at the man and when he noticed the vest, he looked back at Humphrey.
“And do wewe see that scar on the side of his neck?” Humphrey asked. “That’s a hunter if ever I saw one, and I have.”
“Yeah, well, I bet a lot of hunters come here,” Joe said, trying not to sound unnerved.
“True, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this one,” Humphrey replied before going back under the tree.
Even though Humphrey tried to put it out of his mind, he just couldn’t. The man visited his enclosure every single siku after that and the worst part was that he never looked at Joe. He only ever looked at Humphrey. It began to get zaidi and zaidi unsettling, especially when Humphrey noticed the look in the man’s eye. Hate. Pure hate. It was concealed well, but deep in his eye, Humphrey could tell this man absolutely resented and loathed him with every fiber of his being.
Then one siku in early spring, the man didn’t onyesha up. And neither did anyone else. Humphrey woke up and the area around the enclosure was completely vacant. The entire zoo was quiet. He had no idea what was going on. Then the caretaker came through the door and startled Humphrey. He looked different. He was wearing something on his face, covering his mouth and nose. The man nonetheless tossed their morning meal into the enclosure and then closed the door again.
Humphrey figured things would be normal again the inayofuata day, but they weren’t. Again, no one showed up. Not that day, nor the siku after that, au the one after that. Weeks passed and no one came to the zoo. Suddenly, they began to get fed less chakula and less often. Joe had no idea what was going on either. Not even Leyla au the Mysterious Man stopped kwa to see Humphrey.
Four months of this passed and slowly things started to return to normal. People eventually did return to the zoo, but they didn’t gather in large crowds anymore. Instead, they seemed to stay away from each other. And they all wore the same face covering that the caretaker did. The Mysterious Man was no exception and not being able to see his face made him even zaidi frightening.
Things continued like this for around another mwaka until things finally went back to the way they were. For three zaidi years, Humphrey remained at the zoo. Eventually, his longing to return to Kate and his family became unbearable and he and Joe began to discuss calmer methods of escape, though none of them seemed likely to work. All but one.
“You’re sure it will work?” Joe asked one day.
It was early in the morning and no one had yet arrived.
“You alisema the only way anyone leaves this place is if they die, right?” Humphrey asked confidently.
“Yeah,” Joe answered slowly.
“So, we pretend to be dead and they’ll take us back to that room,” Humphrey explained.
“I get that, but what about the other door?” Joe asked, “There’s two doors in that room. One that leads in here, and another that leads to the other side of the fence.”
“I know,” Humphrey replied. “Just trust me. There’s only one, maybe two people in there at all times. Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan for that. Just make sure to hold your breath when he comes over.”
The two laid back down on the ground and remained absolutely motionless. As expected, the caretaker simply assumed they were just sleeping. But when he went to feed them and they didn’t move, he began to get worried. Just as planned, he entered the enclosure and began to approach, and Humphrey and Joe took a very subtle deep breath and held it.
The caretaker cautiously approached but when he noticed that their chests weren’t rising, he rushed over and put his hand in front of their noses. Not feeling any breathing, he called for help and a sekunde person came through the door to help. They carefully moved the two Mbwa mwitu loups into the room, all the while, Humphrey and Joe were very slowly taking shallow breaths.
When the door closed behind them, the two Mbwa mwitu loups suddenly jumped up, startling the two people who quickly backed away from them.
“Now what, genius?” Joe asked.
“Bite my paw,” Humphrey alisema casually.
“What?”
“Bite it,” Humphrey insisted. “If we start fighting, they’ll call for help.”
Joe still hesitated.
“What are wewe waiting for, wewe pig headed dog?” Humphrey said, hoping to provoke him.
At being called a dog, Joe leapt onto Humphrey and tackled him. The two began to pretend to fight, growling and biting at each other. But Humphrey could tell Joe was holding back too much and he let him know.
“You’re holding back too much. Come on, actually hit me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Joe said.
“I've survived worse, I can take it,” Humphrey said. “Just do it.”
Joe nodded and Humphrey prepared for the hit to his shoulder.
“Give me your best,” he said. “As hard as wewe can.”
Joe quickly swiped his claws at Humphrey and hit him directly on the shoulder, leaving four long gashes that began to bleed immediately. It was at that moment that a few zaidi people came through the other door and Humphrey and Joe bolted toward it. They managed to make it through and rushed out into the rest of the zoo.
“Why didn’t wewe just tell me we were gonna fight when we were still in the enclosure?” Joe asked, somewhat furiously as they ran.
“Because I wanted to see the look on your face,” Humphrey replied, smiling.
“You sly fox,” Joe said, trying to hide his smile.
“I met a fox, mbweha once,” Humphrey added, “when I was a pup.”
“That explains a lot,” Joe replied.
They then noticed a bunch of workers at the zoo rushing after them and the two turned and ran into an open door that led into the reptile exhibit. They were rushing through the building with people scattering as they saw them, when Humphrey was suddenly tackled kwa a worker who had come from a side hallway. They crashed through the glass of a nearby snake enclosure and the man began trying to subdue Humphrey when Joe ran up and bit him in the leg. The man reeled back in pain, letting go of Humphrey and the two continued their escape as the snakes from the enclosure began to escape as well.
As they reached the other side of the building, people rushed for the exits, keeping the doors wide open and Humphrey and Joe rushed out. They ran toward the entrance of the zoo and soon they had escaped. The zoo was located on the edge of a town near Jasper’s western border and they soon made their way back into the forest.
“I can’t believe that actually worked,” Humphrey exclaimed, turning and looking back at the town.
“You doubted your own plan?” Joe asked.
“Me? Never,” Humphrey replied.
“Good, cause I sure did.”
“Hey.”
As Joe turned back toward the forest, Humphrey lingered for a moment, thinking about Leyla and how she would react when she found out that he was gone.
“Humphrey, come on,” Joe beckoned, “let’s go home.”
Humphrey turned back and ran to catch up with him.
“Wait, you’re from Jasper?” he said.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Joe replied. “Honestly, I don’t remember where I’m from. I’d lived in that zoo for most of my life. I was thinking I could come back with you.”
“I’d like that,” Humphrey said.
“That looks bad,” Joe said, looking at the claw mark on Humphrey’s shoulder. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I promise, it’s fine,” Humphrey said. “Like I said, I’ve been through worse.”
The two continued walking through the forest, trying to find their way back to the Western Pack. However, that proved difficult since they were far north of where they were trying to go, and Humphrey had never been out that far before. He had no idea where to go, which direction was which, and didn’t recognize any familiar landmarks.
Over the course of four months, Humphrey and Joe wandered around Jasper’s northwestern region, slowly making their way southeast toward the Western Pack, until one siku when everything changed.
