Chapter 12: Truce?

A few weeks passed without any encounters with Viggo. नाग, सांप had been traveling back and forth between the ruins of the Central Pack and the valley to spy on Viggo. She hadn’t been able to stick around for long because like Kenya had said, her vibrant रंग caused her to stand out और than she would’ve liked and Viggo was dangerously aware of his surroundings. From what little she could find out, she knew that Viggo was planning something big, but she didn’t know exactly what since she couldn’t read maps या writing.

One night, Kenya was out on patrol. She was walking out in the forest and for the most part, nothing seemed out of place. But then she smelled a familiar scent and heard a familiar voice.

“Hello, Kenya,” Viggo said.

Kenya turned toward Viggo’s dark figure in the night and began growling at him.

“I don’t want to fight,” he कहा casually. “I came to deliver a message to Humphrey. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.”

Kenya immediately turned and rushed back into the pack to wake the sleeping group and get Humphrey.

“Humphrey!” she yelled. “Humphrey get up!”

“Zip it, Kenya, the sun’s not even up,” Steven complained, groggily.

“What?” Humphrey asked in the same manner. “What is it?”

“Viggo.”

“Viggo’s here?” he asked, immediately standing up and looking alert.

“Yeah,” Kenya replied. “He’s waiting in the woods. He wants to talk to you.”

Humphrey and the others got up and followed Kenya into the woods to the spot where Viggo was patiently waiting for them. They stopped before they got too close, cautiously watching him from a distance. Viggo noticed them and gave them a taunting half-wave. He was holding something in his other hand.

“He’d be easy to pick off,” Oscar suggested.

“No,” Humphrey said. “I want to hear what he has to say. Everyone stay here. If this is a trap, you’re gonna need to get me out of it.”

“Be careful, Humphrey,” नाग, सांप warned.”

“I will,” he replied.

With that, Humphrey slowly approached Viggo, a look of suspicion on his face as he tried to figure out what game Viggo was playing.

“You came!” Viggo said, pretending to sound surprised.

“Yeah, well, आप wanted to see me,” Humphrey replied, “so here I am.”

“I left my weapons behind,” Viggo said, opening his vest and दिखा रहा है Humphrey that he wasn’t armed. “I just wanted to talk.”

Sure enough, the pocket inside Viggo’s vest was missing the चाकू that he usually kept within it, the pistol on his बेल्ट was gone and as Humphrey looked toward his shoulder, he noted the lack of a sword hilt behind it.

“You know I know आप can kill me just as easily without them, right?” Humphrey asked, unimpressed. “What are आप trying to prove?”

“I’m just trying to put your mind at ease,” Viggo insisted.

“Well, it’s not,” Humphrey कहा a bit angrily, “so just cut to the chase. What do आप want, Viggo?”

“To compliment you, Humphrey,” Viggo replied. “You and your group have managed to stay strong despite everything that’s happened. आप haven’t managed to get a single victory and yet आप have remained strong. आप are a worthy opponent, and as such, this battle between us could continue for years to come. Or-“

“Or what?”

“Or it could end today.”

“Well, then I accept your surrender,” Humphrey replied, but Viggo only started chuckling.

“It’s good to see your sense of humor has remained intact,” he said, “but I’m offering a truce between us, with very generous terms.”

He rolled out the piece of paper in his hand and showed it to Humphrey. It was a map of Jasper with a line drawn across it.

“You and your pack stay below this line,” Viggo explained, “I will stay above it and we will never have to see each other again.”

“What about the valley?” Humphrey asked.

“I will give आप your valley and your pack back, my men will leave, Robert will call off the Crimson Pack, and I will even free Martin of his unwilling oath,” Viggo continued. “I am giving आप the chance to save not only your life, but the lives of everyone आप hold dear. I’m willing to end all this bloodshed and have peace with your kind.”

Humphrey कहा nothing for a while, considering what Viggo had just said.

“I’ll need to think about it,” he replied, carefully.

“Of course आप should,” Viggo said. “I imagine this is not an easy decision to make. All leaders should receive counsel. But in the end, it is up to us.”

He rolled the map back up and outstretched it in his hand.

“I’ll let आप all discuss it.”

Humphrey cautiously took the map in his mouth and narrowed his eyes at Viggo as he began to walk back to the others. When he turned around, Viggo gave him a few final words.

“Time is of the essence, Humphrey,” he said. “Peace can be such a fragile thing.”

He smiled as he watched Humphrey walk away. Once Humphrey got back to the others, they all walked back deep into the Central Region.

“Well,” नाग, सांप said, “what did he say?”

Humphrey set the map on the ground and rolled it out with his nose.

“That looks like-“ Kate began.

“Jasper,” Stinky finished.

“That’s it,” नाग, सांप said. “This is what I saw on one of Viggo’s tables a few days ago. This map is linked to whatever he was planning, which means he must be ready to set it in motion.”

“He just did,” Humphrey said.

“What did Viggo want?” Adam asked.

“He wants to have a truce with us,” Humphrey replied.

“What?” Runt exclaimed. “You can’t be serious.”

“What did he say?” Kenya asked.

Humphrey put his paw on the line.

“His terms are simple,” he explained, “we stay below the line, he and his men stay above it.”

“What are these?” Jonas asked, motioning toward the various red dots scattered across the map.

“From what I can tell, they’re different भेड़िया packs he’s found over the years,” Humphrey replied.

“How do आप know that?” Runt asked.

“Well just look,” Humphrey said, “there’s the valley.”

He put his paw on a dot that sat on the eastern border of the Western Region, right where the valley would be.

“And across the border, there’s the Eastern Pack,” he said, moving his paw over into the Eastern Region, “and here we are.”

He put his paw on an X in the Central Region.

“Humphrey, that’s an X,” Kate told him.

“I know,” he casually replied.

He then motioned toward a bunch of other X’s scattered across the map.

“Like this one, these X’s must all be packs Viggo’s destroyed,” he said. “They’re all deserted now.”

Humphrey then turned and walked off toward the forest for a moment before stopping.

“This is a very serious looking map,” Adam said.

“You’re not actually thinking of doing this, are you, Humphrey?” Kate asked.

She turned to look at Humphrey, but noticed him standing alone, away from the map and looking off into the forest.

“Um, Humphrey, the map is over here,” she said.

“Yeah, but that’s not where we should be looking,” he replied, still looking out into the woods. “The जवाब won’t be found on the map. Remember, Viggo is a master of deception. He tricks आप into doing what he wants आप to do. With Viggo, nothing is ever what it appears to be.”

“Humphrey, just tell us what you’re thinking,” Kate said.

“Viggo’s one goal this whole time has been to kill me,” Humphrey said, turning and walking back to the group, “there’s no way he would let all this end in a truce. What he really wants is to keep us away from something on his side of the map, something या someone he knows could help us beat him.”

“You could be right,” Adam said, “but where do we find this ‘something’?”

“Well, we can assume that Viggo would want to keep as much land as he could, so whatever it is that he’s trying to hide from us will be right on the edge of the line.”

He looked over the map for a moment before putting his paw on a dot in the Northern Region that was practically on चोटी, शीर्ष of the line.

“Here,” he said, “this is where we’ll start looking.”