Continued from my previous fanfic "A Wolf's Struggle (Part 2)" If you haven't read Parts 1 or 2 yet please do so before you start reading this one.

<><>

Patrick had been living with his new pack for about a month. Just as it would seem that he was going to settle into his new life his brother Yak was found in almost the same situation Patrick was found in! After telling Patrick what happened to the pack and how he escaped Yak also revealed that he knew where the pack was being held!

"You know where they are!?!?" said Patrick in astonishment.

"Yes!" replied Yak. "They're about 20 miles north in some forested canyon. You'll have to climb some steep and dangerous mountains to get there, but once you do cross you can't miss it!"

"I know that place!" said Sara. "It's called Heisler canyon. That place is always swarming with coyotes! And steep mountains aren't the only things you'd have to worry about. There's also a huge river with a strong current that you'd have to swim across to get there. And if were lucky enough to get past those we'll also have to somehow sneak past all the guards and traps that surround the area! I'm surprised you even made it out!"

"Well we were able to distract most of the guards with the rock slide and the "stolen food" chase so they weren't a big problem. Plus while we were there the other prisoners taught us how to detect the traps the coyotes set so that made evading them easier, but the coyotes I had to fight got me pretty good, plus the mountain and river crossings beat me up, but as you can see I still made it!" said Yak with a proud smile on his face.

Patrick just rolled his eyes.

"Anyways," continued Yak. "If you follow my scent you'll probably be able to make your way to the canyon, providing the river crossing didn't cover up any of my scent. 

Patrick stood up and said "Well I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow!' and he started to walk out.

"Whoa hold on!" exclaimed Yak as he grabbed one of Patrick's legs. "Are you seriously going to try and rescue them by yourself!? Are you crazy!"

"Maybe I am." said Patrick "But I don't care! That pack is our family! I'm not just going to leave them in that hell!" 

Sara stood up "Look Patrick. I know those wolves are important to you, but you can't just go running around trying to save them with no prior planning. If you do try to save them right now I guarantee you, you won't make it out!"

"She's right Pat." said Yak. "I had to wait for several days to make the plans for my escape and I barely made it! Plus if you go in alone you won't have anyone to help you out and that will just increase your chance of getting killed!" 

Patrick thought for a brief moment. "Well then I'll make sure they don't detect me! I'll be stealthy. It'll be better than just trying to run as fast as you can like you did." he said to Yak.

Yak wasn't impressed. "I'm sure that will help a little. But you have no idea how stealthy those coyotes can be. They'll end up seeing you before you see them."

"Well what do you want me to do?" exclaimed Patrick.

"I want you to wait and plan this thoroughly. Also if you think you'll be alone on this you've got another thing coming because I'm going with you!"

Patrick was shocked. "Are you sure? Look at you, you can barely stand." 

"Not now." said Yak "But in a couple days I'll be good to go!"

"I'm not sure I can wait that long. I really want to get them out of there now!"

"Look I know you want to help them, but you gotta remember that that pack is my family too and I want to get them out of there just as much as you do! Plus if we wait until I'm good to go that will just give us more time to make plans and we'll be able to get more wolves to help us! The more help we get and the more we know what to do the better our chances are! The key is not to wait too long, just long enough to make the plan work!"

Patrick knew Yak was right. "Alright." he said smiling. Then he turned to everyone in the cave. "Well you heard him. Anyone interested?"

There was a long silence. Finally Nava and Pirta stood up. "Look you two." said Nava. "You both have been through a lot and you both are extremely brave and determined and I admire that about you two, but what you're planning is very dangerous and too risky. If we get involved it will just create too many problems for our pack and that's the last thing we need. All I can say is I wish you luck." and with that Nava walked out of the cave. Then Pirta spoke up. "I wish I could help you boys, but this is something that is too dangerous for any pack leader to attempt. I'm not trying to stop you, but if you do follow through with this plan then I hope you can succeed." And then Pirta left.

Patrick then turned to Nuk, Sumac, and Niju. "Guys?" asked Patrick. 

"Oh me no know." said Sumac. "Coyotes strong and dangerous and vicious! Me too scared to go!"

"I'm not so sure." said Nuk "I can handle a few coyotes, but an entire pack? I'll have to pass, sorry."

"So will I." said Niju. "And it's not that I'm scared," (which was a lie) "I'm just not so sure a small group like us can take on a huge coyote pack! They probably outnumber us 10 to 1, but if you guys want to do it go ahead. We have faith in you." (Niju wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or not.)

With that the three wolves walked out. Patrick and Yak were very upset. They were hoping that by now they would at least have some volunteers that were willing to help them, but that hope was quickly dying. With one last feeling of hope Patrick turned around "Sara?" he asked. Sara was silent for a moment. "Patrick," she said "you're my best friend," (she was fibbing because she felt closer than just friends to Patrick and had for some time now) "but I ..." she tried to continue, but didn't know what else to say.

"Forget it." was all Patrick could say. When Sara walked out there was a long silence between Patrick and Yak when at last Patrick spoke up. "Guess we're on our own." "Two wolves are better than one!" said Yak hoping to raise their spirits. They both smiled. "Well lets start planning." they said.

<><>

It had been a week since Yak arrived at the pack and already he was making good progress with healing. As long as he could remember Yak had always been a relatively fast healer. This was one reason why he wanted Patrick to wait. The sooner he could heal the sooner he could help free his pack, Patrick though the same thing. Ever since they were reunited the two wolves spent almost all day of everyday planning their "liberation" going over as many details as they could and always being aware of anything that could completely ruin their plan. They tried recruiting other wolves to help them, but the word of the plan seemed to spread at the speed of light. There were several wolves that thought this plan was going to be fun and easy and volunteered to join, but when they would discuss what would actually happen they soon realized that it wasn't going to be the walk in the forest they thought it would be and immediately wanted out. 

After over a week of rejections and cold paws Patrick and Yak just about gave up.

'It's no use!" said Patrick "No one's going to help us! We're just going to have to face the fact that we're on our own !" 

Yak had always been the one to look on the bright side, but at this point he knew Patrick was right.

"I guess that'll give us more time to plan this out." he said hoping this would at least boost their morale.

"We've probably gone over this plan a million times! I've already memorized the whole thing! I say we leave now!" said Patrick ready for action.

"Not yet." said Yak. "I've still got a few injuries I want to make sure get better. Just a few more days."

Patrick was furious. "GOD DAMNIT!" he yelled. "Now your just trying to prolong it! I'm ready, you're ready, the plan's worked out, LETS FUCKING GO ALREADY!"

"I swear." said Yak. "Just give me a few days and I'll be ready! And if I'm not healed I'll still go!"

Patrick sighed. "Fine! But you better be ready!"

<><>

It had been two days since Yak said that he needed a few days to be ready and now he was feeling ready. It was evening and the two wolves were making last minutes plans. 

"Okay we've got everything worked out now. Are you good to go now?" asked Patrick.

"100%!" said Yak. "So it's agreed we'll leave tomorrow at dusk?"

"Definitely! Oh and by the way we probably should tell the others we're leaving tomorrow."

"Yea I guess." 

"Since we're on the subject I've noticed you've been hanging out with Nuk, Sumac, and Niju." 

"Yep! Those guys are awesome! We have a lot in common too!"

"Besides being complete idiots?" Patrick snickered.

"What?"

"Nothing." said Patrick nonchalantly. "So what do you guys have in common?"

"We have the same interests, we get annoyed by the same things, and our childhoods seemed to be the same too! Speaking of which I've noticed you've been hanging out with Sara a lot."

"Well she's the one that found me and helped me recover, were just friends."

"You sure of that?"

"Well if we weren't friends would we be hanging out this much?"

"No I mean are sure you're just friends?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on! I've seen the way you two look at each other! Plus when a chance to hang out with each other comes up neither one of you gives a second thought about it. You like her don't you?"

Patrick was at a loss for words. "As a friend!" he said.

"Uh-huh, sure." said Yak sarcastically.

"Shut up." said Patrick.

Just then they both saw Nuk, Sumac, and Niju up ahead who also saw them.

"Hey Yak!" said Nuk. 'We're going to the river to try and scare some of the wolves trying to fish! C'mon!"

"Be right there!" yelled Yak. "I figure this would be a good chance to tell them. Plus I always love scaring other wolves!" he said with a laugh. and then he headed for his new friends. "See ya tomorrow morning!" he yelled back.

"Great, tweedle-dee, tweedle-dumb, tweedle-idiot, and tweedle-retard are friends." he thought to himself. "It's a match made in heaven!" he thought as he snickered. Patrick then decided that he would find Sara to tell her that he was leaving in the morning, but while he was looking for her he kept thinking about what Yak said about him and Sara. Did he really like her more than just a friend? Did he have strong feelings for her? Patrick was unsure.

Patrick found Sara taking a drink at the water hole. An idea quickly came into his head and he tried to sneak up behind Sara so that when he was right behind her he would let out a loud growl and hope to send her tumbling into the water. He quietly crept up with a smile on his face the whole way. What Patrick didn't know was that the wind was blowing at a slight enough angle so that Sara was able to get a quick whiff of his scent. She continued to drink to make Patrick think she didn't know he was behind her. Just as he was about to let out his growl Sara lept up so fast and landed behind Patrick and pushed him into the water! It happened so fast the next thing Patrick could remember seeing was the bottom of the pond. When his head popped up over the surface the first thing he saw was Sara laughing hysterically. 

"Nice try!" she said after she was done laughing. 

"I almost had you!" he said.

"Sure you did!" she said still laughing.

Patrick got out of the pond and shook himself dry.

"So what's up?" asked Sara.

"Well I just wanted to let you know that Yak and I will be heading out tomorrow."

Sara's smile quickly disappeared. "You're really going to do it?" she asked.

"Of course! We're not just going to let our family rot and die in there!"

"Well have you even gotten anyone to help you out?"

"No, that's why we're going in by ourselves."

"WHAT!? You guys are crazy! You'll need more than two wolves to pull it off!"

"Well you're still welcome to join us if you want!"

Sara opened her mouth, but no words came out. She wanted to help, but was still unsure if she was willing to go with them.

"Anyways, just wanted to let you know. And if you can tell your parents too."

"Sure. Hey look, since you're leaving maybe we could... I don't know... hang out later? Before you leave?"

Patrick smiled. "Sure. Might as well have a little fun before I get killed." he said laughing, but Sara clearly didn't think it was funny. "So what do you want to do?" he asked.

"I don't know. I want to do something we haven't done before. Can you think of anything?"

"Well one thing I always liked to do in my old pack was stargaze and I did find this one cliff side clearing that overlooks the valley. It looks awesome at night and it has a nice clear view of everything."

"Sounds good to me. I haven't stargazed much, but I have had fun doing it before. I know which cliff side your talking about so how about I meet you there later?"

"Sure. So I guess it's a date?"

"I guess it is." said Sara laughing.

<><>

Later that evening when the sun had completely gone down Patrick and Sara met up at the base of the hill.

"Hey!" said Patrick "So you ready?"

"Yep! Let's go!"

As they were walking up the hill the started talking.

"You know," said Sara "I've probably seen this cliff a million times, but I never went up on it before. I don't think many others have either"

"Really? I would have figured something that's so obvious to spot would at least have some attention. Well regardless the view from it is awesome!"

It was a cool spring night and the sky was clear. The moon was shining bright and stars dotted the night sky. A perfect night for stargazing. When they came up on the clearing they had a wide and clear view of the entire valley. Sara was impressed. 

"I've never seen the valley like this before!" she said. "And the clear sky just makes the view all the more amazing!"

"I told ya the view was awesome!" said Patrick laughing. "So lets stargaze!"

It wasn't long before both of them started to identify constellations and make their own images. 

"Hey look there's the big dipper!" said Patrick.

"Oh yea! You can see the little dipper too! Hey look, if you connect those two stars with those other 4 it looks like a wolf!"

"Cool! Nice eye!"

"Thanks! Man I haven't done this in so long I forgot how fun it was!"

"I used to do this with my parents and my brother all the time. They taught me how to find different constellations."

She looked at him and asked "So you still going through with that crazy plan of yours?"

"What do you think?" he asked.

"Yea I guess that's too obvious. Aren't you scarred though?" 

"Of course I am. But when someone you care about is in danger sometimes the thought of saving them overrides the thought of being scared. That pack has helped me countless times when I needed help the most in the past and now I think it's time I help them when they need it the most."

"It's just that I've never had encounters with coyotes before so I'm nervous as to what would happen to me if I did go with you. Plus I'm never really that enthusiastic about risking my life for someone I've never met."

"I understand and it's okay. Frankly I can't blame you. Besides I'm actually a little relieved that you're not coming. If something happened to you I probably wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Sara then scooted right up to Patrick and layed her tail across his. "Thanks Pat." she said as she nuzzled him. All Patrick could do was smile and nuzzle her back. 

After stargazing for a while Sara spoke up. "Well I probably should go, I told my parents I'd be back before it got too late. Maybe you should the same, got a long day tomorrow."

"Eh, I wanna stay here a little longer." 

"Okay." said Sara, but just as she was leaving she stopped. "Oh and one more thing." she said as she walked back up to Patrick. She then gave him a lick on the cheek! Patrick was surprised. He looked at Sara, but couldn't say anything.

"Thanks for everything." she said smiling and then left. Once again all Patrick could do was smile back.

<><>

It was early the next morning and the first rays of sunlight were barely peeking over the horizon. The entire pack was still asleep, but Patrick and Yak were wide awake. After over a week of planning the two wolves were finally about to start their journey to free their pack from the coyotes. The two wolves had just finished eating and were aking last minute discussions.

"Well, this is it! You ready?" asked Yak.

"I've been ready! Those stupid coyotes won't know what hit them!" 

"Alright, enough chit chat, lets go!"

And the two wolves set off. But what they didn't know was that Sara had seen them leave.

"Good luck guys." she said said to herself as a tear ran down her face.

<><>

As the two wolves began their journey Patrick started talking to Yak about their new pack.

"So what do you think of this pack? Have you enjoyed life with them so far?"

"You kidding? I love it! Everyone's friendly and awesome and there's never a dull moment! I could get used to it."

"Well what are you going to do if we free our pack? You know once they're out the migration is still going to be a go."

"I know, and I've been thinking about that. I'm just worried who will take over the pack if I stay. What about you?"

"Well I've been thinking about it too and I don't like the feeling of leaving them, but I've had a happier life there than I have with our pack. Plus they don't move around like us so I've made more friends than I have in my entire life. So I've decided that I'll stay." Patrick also knew that Sara was one major reason why he wanted to stay. Ever since  they took him in he and Sara were becoming closer than friends. And after last night he was 100% sure that there was something strong between them. He wanted to tell Yak, but he knew if he did then Yak would just keep yakking that he was right, which was something that always annoyed Patrick.

Yak wasn't surprised. He had always known that Patrick didn't like migratory life and he knew that whenever a chance to stay and make friends came he would take that chance. Even though Patrick didn't mention anything about Sara he still knew they liked each other and that Patrick didn't want to leave her, but he decided to keep quiet about it since they were dealing with more important issues. "I still need more time to think." was all he could say.

The two wolves were making good progress. They were following Yak's scent from when he escaped and the trail made the part of the journey relatively easy going with little obstacles or distractions, but they knew that the easy parts always came first. At around noon they came up on their first obstacle, the river. In order to continue they had to cross a river that was about 50 feet wide. Even though the river wasn't that large the current was still moving fast, there were lots of rocks, and the water was ice cold. Crossing it seemed to be impossible, but the two wolves were determined to cross. 

"Okay, I think we should try and find the shallowest area of the river that we can and cross from there." suggested Yak.

"Well how did you cross? Why don't we just take the path you took?" asked Patrick.

"There was originally a tree over there," said Yak pointing slightly up the river. "but it probably got washed away. We'll just have to cross the hard way."

Patrick agreed and the two started looking for a good crossing. After about half an hour of looking they finally found a good area.

"This is the best looking place to cross I've seen so far. And it'll probably be the best one for a long time." said Patrick.

"Okay, I guess we'll cross here, but let me go first." said Yak.

Yak then slowly and cautiously started crossing. The current was running fast, but he was able to find some footing on some rocks that were on the shallow bottom. Finally he made it across.

"There's a few loose rocks so be careful!" he shouted. 

Then Patrick started to cross. He was a little hesitant because he wasn't the greatest swimmer, but after taking a couple easy steps he started to feel more confident. Whenever he stepped on a loose rock he would pause and his heart would start racing because he thought it would give way and he would fall and be washed down with the current, but after several scares he started to loosen up. He started to think he would make it across just fine but then he stepped on an extremely loose rock which caused it to give way! Then Patrick fell over and started to flow downstream. 

"Yak! Help!"

"Don't worry Pat! I'm coming!"

Yak tried to get a hold of Patrick to pull him to shore, but he was just out of reach. Yak quickly looked around and saw a branch on the shore. He picked it up and told Patrick to grab it. After several missed attempts Patrick was finally able to get a hold of the branch, then Yak started to pull him to shore, but suddenly the ground beneath Yak gave way and he fell into the river too! Since he was a better swimmer than Patrick he was able to orientate himself quickly and he frantically started flailing his arms and legs to keep his head above the water. He caught a glimpse of Patrick whose head then went under. Yak swan up to where he saw his brother and then dived under. He saw Patrick slowly sinking deeper so he swam to him, grabbed him, and swam back up to the surface. Both wolves took in deep breaths when their heads popped up, but it getting hard for Yak to keep Patrick and himself afloat, his entire body was feeling weak from exhaustion and numbness from the cold water. Just then he spotted a branch from a tree that had fallen over into the river that was in reach. Yak quickly swam to position himself to grab the branch and, without a moment to spare, got a good hold on it, then with as much energy as he could muster he pulled himself and Patrick ashore. Both wolves collapsed on the ground and started coughing up water and taking in deep breaths. After recovering Patrick spoke up.

"I'm never going swimming again!" he said as he laughed and coughed at the same time.

Yak started laughing as well. "Fine with me! At least we're across the river, that's one obstacle down!"

After shaking off the water and drying the wolves continued on their journey. The current carried them down stream so they had to walk back up stream to continue following Yak's scent. 

5 hours of walking, sore paws, and empty stomach's later the wolves finally arrived at the base of the mountains that were separating them from their pack. The two wolves were feeling great about themselves and wanted to continue on, but their stomach's were rumbling. They hadn't eaten anything since just before the river crossing and if they wanted to cross the mountains they would need energy to do it.

"Man I'm starving!" said  Patrick. "I'm going to go find something to eat!"

"Good call! I'm getting hungry too!" 

Patrick soon stumble upon a hidden pond with plenty of fish in it. He was able to get one fish and he quickly devoured it, but it did little to relieve his hunger. 

"Screw this!" he said to himself. "I'm a wolf! I need four legged animals! Or at least something that tastes good!"

He started looking around for something decent to eat when suddenly he spotted a buck in a clearing! Patrick knew that this would probably be the only chance he would have for something decent to eat. He had hunting experience and had killed his fair share of prey before, only problem was that he never killed something as big a buck before. The largest thing he ever killed was a sheep on a farm his pack stumbled upon a few years ago. Patrick was nervous, but he knew he had to take this opportunity. He started stalking it the way his natural instincts told him to. He was within arms reach of the buck when he unknowingly stepped on a twig. The buck's head shot up and looked around. Patrick knew he had to act now or else the buck would run off. He sprang up and sank his teeth into the buck's neck the buck immediately started to flail about and desperately tried to shake the wolf loose, but Patrick had a good grip on the buck and was determined no to let it go. Blood started rushing from the bite wound on the buck which started to slow it down, and as quickly as he could Patrick finally let go of the buck and started attacking it's legs to try and get it to fall over. The stopping buck managed to land a few good hits on Patrick, but after more fierce bites the buck finally fell over and Patrick started biting it's neck to choke it. The buck was still fighting, but as Patrick continued to bite the neck the buck slowly stopped fighting and finally lay dead. When he was sure it was dead Patrick got up and studied his kill. At first he was feeling proud of himself, but soon the reality of the attack hit him. This magnificent animal that doing no harm to anyone was dead and it was because of him. Since Patrick didn't have any experience with big game he wasn't used to the feeling of killing it. He was on the verge of crying when he was able to get some sense into his brain.

"Remember, you're a wolf," he thought to himself "and when you have to eat you have to be willing to kill. That's why you killed this buck, so you and your brother wouldn't be hungry, so can have the energy to continue on. It's our natural instinct." 

After a couple deep breaths Patrick finally was able to calm down. Now all he had to do was let Yak know that he had food for both of them! But the buck was too large for him to carry by himself so he let out a howl to let Yak know that he had a kill. A few minutes later Yak appeared out of the brush, but suddenly stopped at the sight of the kill. 

"Hungry?" asked Patrick.

Yak was speechless. He had never seen Patrick with a kill as big as this.

"You killed this?" he asked.

Patrick nodded his head.

"Holy shit Pat! This is incredible! This has got to be your largest kill ever! Nice work!"

The two wolves then proceeded to enjoy their food. While they were eating Yak started asking Patrick about the kill.

"So how'd you do it?"

Patrick then explained how he killed the buck.

"I'm impressed! You were able to get that close without it knowing and you even were able to kill it one your first try! Normally most wolves aren't able to do all that on their first big kill! You've got skills! If only Mom and Dad could see you now!"

"Thanks Yak." Patrick wanted to argue that he was just lucky, but Yak always won arguments so he kept quiet.

Once the two were finally done eating they got ready for the next part of their journey, which was also the hardest, crossing the mountains to get to the coyote camp! The sun was starting to set so they wanted to get through before it got to dark and they wanted to sneak into the camp early before any coyotes woke up. 

"Alright it's getting dark, but if we hurry we'll be on the other side of the mountains before it gets do dark. That way we'll be able to sneak in early." explained Yak. "Just remember there's going to be lots of narrow and uneasy ledges we'll have to walk over, and there's still snow in most parts of the mountains so it'll be pretty cold. Plus this is where the coyotes start putting their guards and traps at so keep your eyes open! Think you can make it?"

"Let's do this!" said Patrick confidently. 

And the two brothers set off!