"I am," he growled. He never trusted her whenever she saw him. She couldn't possibly be happy with him returning? And, even if it was genuine, One-eye wouldn't have known--he didn't trust her, or anyone, for that matter.

"Just take it," he growled. He'd eaten part of the rabbit on his way to her already, so she could eat the remains, which was enough for her.

Lynn nodded with her ears set back and ate the rest of the rabbit.

After she was done, she sat down and licked the blood off of her muzzle, something One-eye never seemed to consider doing. "So...seen anything unusual on your patrol today?" she asked, trying to spark a conversation.

"Mmpf," One-eye said as he got up and walked away.

"Oh...okay," he heard Lynn say softly, trying to hide her disappointment.

Stupid kid, he thought as he sat down beside his trusty tree and leaned against it with his shoulder and hump.

***

Lynn sighed. "Yeah...I didn't want to talk anyways..." she whispered. She sat down with her back towards him, ears drooped. She hated this loneliness, yet she didn't hate him. Even though Lynn wasn't smart enough to think through what it was, she knew that there was something off about him that wasn't physical, but mental. There had to be a reason for those mental breakdowns on their way to this territory, there had to be a reason for his distant and often hysterical behavior.

But Lynn didn't know what it was. She just assumed that there was also something mentally wrong with One-eye, which there was, but she didn't think more of it.

That evening, both One-eye and Lynn went to sleep.

Lynn often slept at the left side of the den, while One-eye slept on the right side of the trunk, as far away from her as possible.

"Goodnight!" Lynn said, always keeping her spirits up.

"Night," was the curt response from One-eye.

***

NO! Nonononononono! DAMNIT!  Fuck! One-eye, wake up, you moron!

The old wolf instantly woke up, panting. His eyes turned around in their orbits like crazy. Nonononono! He shook his head, trying to get it to clear.

A nightmare. Another one about killing that pup's dad...great. You know, past, I'd love to move on and all...SO PLEASE STOP SHOWING UP IN MY DREAMS, DAMNIT! He shook his head once more and looked at Lynn. Have I awoken her? But she still slept. Good.

He panted for a moment and looked around. In the distance, he heard the Pisten Bullies flatten the slopes, which made a buzzing noise. Can't these damn humans cut us some slack for a while?

He sighed and put his head down on his front paws, listening to the sound. He didn't feel like he was going to fall asleep again anytime soon.

Suddenly, he smelled something odd. It was really vague, and the faint, very faint wind carried it with it, but he'd smelled it.

The old wolf lifted his head. He sniffed again. The scent was gone. He looked around for a moment and then started up his cyborg eye, which he always shut off during sleep.

It made a few buzzing noises as it finally started to work. At first it glitched for a bit, but then it worked again. One-eye put on the heat-vision mode on the eye.

Come on, stop glitching for a moment and WORK! He waited as the eye finally shifted to heat-vision.

One-eye closed his real eye to see properly. Alright...dark forest...dark forest... He looked at Lynn, who glowed purple, dark blue, and even orange or yellow at some parts. At least the stupid heat-vision still works.

He got up and walked out of the den, looking around him. He saw small things like birds or squirrels pass by as multicolored dots. But he was looking for something bigger.

He sniffed once more. Still no scent. Fuckfuckfuck! Show yourself!

But he didn't have to ask that another time, for in that exact moment, a pack of eight hunting dogs stepped out of the bushes, in a half-moon shaped formation.

One-eye disabled the infrared mode on his eye and growled. "This is my territory!"

One of the hounds let out a bark of laughter. "The bosses won't be happy with him, lads. A misshapen wolf isn't worth anything, eh?"

"Yes!" Two others agreed.

The crescent moon-shaped formation slowly turned smaller as the dogs neared One-eye, who stood there with his yellow teeth bared, tail up high, fur on his hump and neck pointing up.

"What are you doing here? Get out, now!" he growled.

The dogs continued to get closer without breaking step.

Meanwhile, Lynn had woken up as a result of One-eye's snarls. She yawned for a moment and then saw the dogs nearing One-eye.

Her tail went instantly between her hind legs, and she hid behind the tree trunk of the den, hoping that they wouldn't see her.

"Where are your humans?" One-eye snarled to the dogs. The formation had stopped in front of him, and the middle dog, the first one that had spoken, stood in front of them.

"Our humans? They are where they need to be," the dog said, smirking.

In return, One-eye let out another snarl and he was about to leap on the dog, but then one of the other hounds said, "Boss, look, there! Under that tree! There's a pup!"

The boss dog looked up and saw Lynn's short tail, which was sticking out from behind the trunk.

One-eye growled. "If you think of laying a tooth on her, I'll rip your throat open, tear out your arteries and force your minions to eat them!" He felt the desperate urge to protect Lynn, no matter how much he saw her as a constant reminder of his past-- the only thing he had to live for now was her, since he'd made a vow to protect her.

"Oh, I'd love to see you try!" the leader said, and without any warning he attacked One-eye.

The old wolf didn't see this one coming, and fell over, as he heard Lynn cry his name from behind.

He tried to fight back, but the leader plus four other dogs were on top of him. However, they didn't go for his throat like One-eye expected. They went for his legs and ears.

He struggled and finally managed to free one leg, which he slammed the nearest dog with on the head. The hound growled in return and bit his paw again. FUCK!

One-eye kept struggling, but then he suddenly heard a scream and more barking. Lynn!

With the greatest of efforts, he managed to see the final four hunting dogs go after her as she fled.

"NO!" he cried and in a small moment of rage he managed to free himself from the dogs that were holding onto his hind legs. He shook his head until one of the dogs released his left ear, which was now torn to shreds, and he bit the dog that was holding his other one. The dog didn't let go, but One-eye released him for a moment, and then quickly went for the throat. The dog finally released him, just before he died.

One-eye had now freed himself, one ear and two hind legs bleeding. Why don't they just kill me? And their friend just died! Why don't they flee? The dogs stood in front of him, until finally the leader attacked again.

But this time, One-eye, now berserk, was prepared. He dodged the leader and the second dog and instantly went for the third one's throat. The dog struggled, but One-eye had an entire life as an assassin behind him, and the hound was soon dead.

One-eye instantly went after Lynn, who was being pushed to the ground by the four dogs. Strangely enough, they weren't hurting her much, either. What are these dogs doing?

He leapt and knocked over two dogs, killing a third one in the process. The last one bit his right ear, but the old wolf pulled himself free and tore his ear at that. He stood over Lynn, defending her. She sat with her paws covering her face, shivering and whimpering in fear.

"NO ONE! NO ONE OF YOU SHALL HURT HER!"

The dogs that were left approached him. The boss barked: "Get him away from that pup," and the others followed his orders.

They lunged for One-eye, but the old wolf was too quick. He dodged their attacks by dashing away at the right moment, and went for the leader.

"Wilson!" one of the dogs cried out, but the leader dog was fast. He simply stepped backward a bit, which caused One-eye to crash into the rocky ground in front of him with a loud groan.

Wilson smiled. "Not so fast, are you?"

One-eye slowly lifted his head, whimpering. His upper jaw had hit a rock real hard, and his mouth hurt terribly in that spot. He tried to lick up some of the blood that was coming from his gums, but yelped in pain. Damndamndamn! How come my mouth can be so sensitive? I'm supposed to kill things with this!

He closed his mouth, which hurt, but tried to ignore the pain. He noticed that his big, deformed, extra tooth, that has always been crooked, was in a slightly different position now. It wasn't covered by his lips anymore, like it'd always been. It was now crooked in a way it was visible even with his mouth closed.

"I'm maybe not the fastest, but I am the strongest!" One-eye snarled. He didn't go for Wilson, however. He bolted back towards the dogs that were going for Lynn.

They had driven her into a corner of a big tree, where she was stuck.

One-eye was about to tackle them one-by-one, but a warning bark from Wilson alerted them. They were prepared for his attack and simply dodged him, knocking him over.

FUCK! One-eye rolled over the mossy ground and instantly got up. He did notice that his body was slowly going numb, however. I'm growing old, he realized with some shock. Why am I growing old? UGH!

He got up and pinned one of the dogs to the ground, but the others instantly went for his hind legs and shoulders, except for Wilson, who slowly walked up to Lynn.

NO! One-eye thought. He saw the hound near her, but he couldn't free himself, especially since the dog he was pinning managed to escape and sat now on top of his shoulders.

"NO! Get away from her, you moron!" he shouted at the leader. "Run, Lynn, RUN!"

The pup looked at him with teary eyes, but she was frozen, unable to move.

"Come on, little one, stay here, otherwise we won't be very nice to you," Wilson growled menacingly. Lynn looked at him, then at One-eye again, shivering.

"Go!" the old wolf shouted. Lynn finally decided to run for it. "Yes! That's it!" One-eye said, victorious, until one of the hounds put their paw on his muzzle.