"Come on, pup!" The old wolf stood on his hind legs behind the strange construction with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. "Let's have some fun here! No humans around, see?" He gestured to the surroundings with his paws.

"No humans, no, they are inside. But there is a guard dog," a deep voice said, as One-eye landed on four legs again.

The old wolf stepped away. A few meters away from him was a dog, smaller than him, but still tough.  A dog? A freaking dog? You've got to be kidding me. Can't you just get a human to Pang me? I don't want a slow death, ugh. 

The dog was a male, and had a black coat, with brown fur patches on his ridiculously short muzzle and above his eyes. "What the heck are you doing here? Get away from our property. Now!" the animal barked. 

One-eye rolled his eyes. Idiot. 

"Well, what are you waiting for, punk? Get out of here!" The dog bared his huge teeth.
One-eye waited until he was done snarling at him, took a deep breath, and showed off his own teeth, while snarling thrice as loud as the dog had done. "That's how you do a snarl, bro!" One-eye wiped some drool off of his lips and laughed. "Now go get your masters. Let 'em shoot me! I won't stop you!" He got up to his hind legs again, gesturing to his chest. "Well, what are you waiting for? Do something! Bark! Alert them. Do something!"

The dog just looked very confused. This wasn't how wolves were supposed to act. Either they got on your human's property and tried to steal some food or bully some dogs. But this was just ridiculous.

"Don't just stand there and stare! I command you to alert your owners, now!"

The dog blinked, still looking confused. Stupid animal, One-eye thought. Then, the pet snapped out of it and growled, "Well, why don't you do it yourself? Come on, be a real wolf and bark. Or howl. Why not do that instead?"

One-eye got to his four feet again and growled. Stupid dog. What was he thinking? If he'd howl, Silkey would hear him and she'd be able to locate him. If he barked, maybe not, but the chances still were too big. Besides wolves couldn't bark the same way dogs do.

"Nah, I'll pass. Now go get your owner and let him Pang me. Right here!" He pointed his battleclaws at his chest. "I want it to be over quickly."

The dog raised an eyebrow and wanted to ask more questions, but he was sick and tired of hearing this old fool ramble on. If he really wanted death this bad, why not give it? He raised his muzzle and barked. First slow and low, but then louder and faster, alerting his humans.

"Now that's more like it," One-eye laughed madly. Inside the human den, he heard rumbling noises coming from inside the house. Soon, Oney, soon.

***

Lynn was still stuck in the grass, shivering with fear, tears in her eyes. She was about to witness another death. She wanted to look away, but her fear had made her freeze. The dog, and soon, the humans, frightened her more than anything. Even more than death itself.

There were some more noises from inside the Alpenhaus, and, then, two ugly creatures got out. Both of them were tall, with pink skins, hideous, flat faces and strange things covering their bodies. What were those creatures? She whimpered.

Then, she looked back at One-eye, who was standing besides the black-and-brown dog. He seemed strangely calm around those human-creatures.

She stared back at the humans. One of them gasped as soon as it saw the wolf, while the other one made some grunting noises and went back inside, only to return mere seconds later with a long, straight thing in his hand. Lynn saw that it was mostly made out of strange shiny stuff, that reminded her of the plate around the gray wolf's fake eye. Then, she realized what it was. Her mother had warned her countless times for it when she'd been small, well, smaller. A Pang! A Pang! He's going to kill the wolf! 

***

One-eye was still laughing, although it looked more like he was having some kind of rabid seizure to the humans. 

The gray wolf sniffed up the air, the stench of the humans and the lame scent of the mutt. One-eye still had trouble controlling his thoughts, or himself, for that matter. He opened his eyes and stared at the humans. 

The female looked terrified and kept pointing at him. "Sein Auge, Sein Auge!" she screamed as he looked at her. 

The male looked more determined, as he was preparing the long Pang to shoot One-eye. That's it... For a moment, One-eye felt nothing. He didn't hear the wind faintly blowing, the dog barking nervously, or the woman shouting in her strange humanspeak. Why can't I always feel this serene? I haven't felt this...empty since...never...I guess.

But that small moment of serenity was ruined as soon as something else got the better of him: Instinct. Within a millisecond of time, One-eye opened his eyes and perked his ears up, tail straight, and the hackles on his hump risen. 

The man had pointed the Pang at him, and was about to be ready to shoot.
One-eye's collected feeling had vanished now, as he looked at the human, his instincts screaming inside of him. What the heck am I doing? Get out of here! Get out! 

He shook his head rapidly and jumped over the fence. He grabbed the pup in her scruff before he had even reached the ground and bolted away.

"Was? NEIN! Komm Zurück, du Schmutzigen Wolf!" The man was startled by One-eye's sudden change of behaviour and started shooting at random.

One-eye heard the shots and ran even faster. Don't hit me, please don't hit me. Please, Shinwa, please! 

He yelped when one bullet raked past his tail tip. It went through the fur, but didn't penetrate his skin. Close! What am I doing? What am I doing?

One-eye had lost all self-control and was now just running around aimlessly. The only thing he knew was that he had to get away from the house.

The mist wasn't exactly making things easier: He couldn't see much and picking up scents, especially when running in panic, was harder. What am I doi--

***

Lynn yelped as the one-eyed wolf stumbled over an unexpected rock that he hadn't seen coming. He fell in the tall grass and dropped her. Eek!

The pup immediately got up, trying to locate where they were. In the distance, they could still hear the humans' voices, talking loudly and probably lividly. But they were far away, and the Pang shots were gone. Are we safe?

She looked at the strange old wolf, who was getting up much more slowly. "A-Are you okay?" she asked, afraid. He hasn't been hit, has he? 

The wolf shook his head and sat up. "I'm...fine...I guess." He gave a quick lick over a patch of ruffled fur on his chest. 

It isn't like one lick will fix that tangled mess that is your coat, Lynn thought.

"So...what was all that about? Sir, I mean," she dared to ask. 

The wolf didn't answer. He just stared at the ground, panting, with the thick mane on the back of his neck and his hump pointing up. 

"S-Sir?"

One-eye's thoughts had become a mess once more. He just sat there, hunched, in the fields. About a thousand thoughts crossed his mind, mostly about the past, but mostly about his oath, this pup and what he had become. Go...go...gotta...ge...ge...get out. Out. OUT. OUT!

Lynn yelped when the old wolf suddenly jumped up and screamed "OOOOOUTTT!" to the sky, after which he dropped himself in the grass and started crying out loud, paws over his muzzle.

She was just confused by all of this. Her father got killed this morning, then she had met...this thing, he had taken her with him, and apparently he was about as wild and weird as could be.

How stupid of me. I should've looked for other Lone Ones to take care of me, or maybe a pack...not this guy. What good can he be? I'm definitely going to die at this rate. Not only did he bring me to humans, I'm starving and he hasn't even showed an attempt to hunt something for me. Does he even have his own territory?

"Sir, maybe we should go... The humans..."

"Shut up."

Lynn hadn't quite understood what he had muttered. "What did you say? Sir?"

"Shut the heck up. SHUT UP! JUST ALL SHUT UP! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Sir?" Lynn backed away. 

Suddenly, he stared at her, eye glowing bright and drool hanging from his lips. "STAY, YOU LITTLE ONE! STAY, WHILE YOU CAN!" He grinned badly once more, while tears were running down his right cheek.

Lynn put her tail between her hind legs. He's absolutely bonkers!

Without saying anything else, the old wolf got up and walked away, his head held low. "Come with me, please," he said, softly.

The pup was curious, but she knew that she didn't have much choice. She had no idea what he might do if she dared to disobey. The humans might still be around, and she was lost. She needed someone to take her somewhere--anywhere. She sighed and followed him.

***

We won't be needing this anymore. One-eye had calmed down. For a bit. As far as he could be calmed down. He was still on a mental rollercoaster, but at least some of his thoughts had vanished.

He threw his battleclaws into the grass. Goodbye forever, he thought grimly. He'd worn these for so long now. Even though he'd only acquired them at an older age, he still felt as if they were a part of him. They eventually had become one of his most useful tools for his assassin jobs.  

And it had covered that deformed mess that is my paw. He looked at his misshapen front paw for a second. The battleclaws he'd worn for so many years had left wearing marks on his deformed paw, that ached. What even do I call this paw? It isn't a stump...more like a grown-together clump or something. 

He stretched his paw a few times and moved the bones inside of his paw for a moment--as far as he could move them. Because he'd worn the battleclaws, which had allowed only major movements, for so long, it felt really strange and even painful to move it more subtly like this. 

"Sir?"

One-eye hadn't realized that he'd stopped walking, and that the pup was sitting beside him, studying his malformed paw. Here come the insults.

But she just stared at it curiously. "That's...eh..." She clearly didn't have the words.

"Hideous. Unnatural. It makes me a monster. I've heard them all." One-eye stared at that stupid front paw, growling at it softly. 

"I wasn't going to say that!" the pup objected. "Sir!" she added to it.

One-eye put his deformed paw on the ground, trying not to stare at how abnormal it actually looked. He hadn't seen that stupid thing for a long time..

"It's One-eye," he then said. 

"What?" 

"My name. I suppose you must know it if you wish to stay with me. Can't see why, though," the old wolf said as he stared at the sky, which had started to darken further. 

The female looked confused for a moment then nodded. "I'm Lynn."

For a moment, One-eye smiled. Faintly. So faint that Lynn didn't recognize it as one. He closed his eyes. "Come...let's just...go, alright?"

"Sir! Okay! Sir!"

***
It was already far past midnight by the time they reached the edge of the forest. Lynn was really tired and her feet hurt like crazy, but she suspected that One-eye was also in pain, since he stumbled mildly on his strange paw.

Lynn didn't dare to mention it at all, or any of his other...unusual features. Besides, now he seemed nice. Sort of. He hadn't done anything crazy or angry in the past hours; he'd just been quiet for the most part. And even when he'd spoke, he seemed very meek and calm. She liked him this way much more. 

But he still frightened her.

The old wolf stopped for a moment in front of the woods, ear twitching. "This looks like a nice forest," he said. 

Lynn looked into the forest. There were a few more conifers than she'd been used to back in Fichtenwald, where she'd lived until now, but it looked pretty identical to her old home besides that.

One-eye looked over his shoulder at her. "Let's go find ourselves a den in here. It seems like there's no wolves that have occupied this forest yet."

Lynn yawned. Probably because it's really close to the meadows, which are often covered with humans, like Dad used to tell me.   

But she didn't dare say a thing. She was already glad that One-eye had stopped being all insane and irate.

The two of them entered the forest. It was mostly overgrown with deciduous trees, but there were also quite a few firs in it. What stood out the most about this forest as opposed to Lynn's birth one, though, was the fact that the ground was flatter, not randomly going up and down like Fichtenwald used to.

They walked for quite a while, but there was no sign of anything that could make for a good den.

 They had come across a fox den, only to realize that it was occupied by a vixen and her kits, who had chased them off. They'd also encountered a small patch of grass, which, while not officially a den, still could make for a good home spot. But it lay too close to another Lone One's territory.

"I'm tired!" Lynn complained by the time the first stars began to vanish. 

One-eye looked at her. She tried to read his expression, but his old face gave away nothing. He waved his tail once. "I...I guess you're right. We can't keep walking forever. Let's just settle here for the night," he said.

Lynn sighed with relief. No more walking! She dropped herself besides the root of an old fir and prepared herself for sleep. She glanced One-eye for a moment, who lay down with his front legs pointing to the front and back legs stretched out behind him. Odd, she thought, but then closed her eyes, ready so sleep. 

But she only ended up thinking about her dad, the humans, and One-eye's madness for a long time.