First a bear then a wolf started to wake, they could smell him. He couldn’t help it dogs smelled, some worse than others. Jasper worse than most. He stopped frozen knowing that one false move would bring a pack of wild wolves on him, helped as if they needed it by a group of angry bears.
The children had started to retreat through the forest back towards Claudia and the younger children. Jasper waited not moving, would these lazy creatures roll over and go back to sleep. He wasn’t sure but the only thing at that moment he could think to do was stay motionless.
The children felt terrible leaving Jasper but Claudia had always told them that he could take of himself in the forest and not to worry about him. They were certainly worried about him but knew they had to get back to Claudia as quickly as possible. The two very scared young children reached Claudia and explained what had happened.
“Climb up quickly,” she said. “We must leave now.”
“We can’t just leave Jasper,” implored Oli who by now was struggling not to cry.
“The wolves will,” but he couldn’t get the words out.
His sister finished Oli’s sentence for him, “kill him,” she said.
“Claudia we can’t just leave him,” said Harriet.
“Children you must do as I say, climb up quickly,” said Claudia in her sternest voice. “Jasper has travelled this forest for all of his life and knows the wolves and bears better than most he will be fine.”
“Do you promise,” said Oli. “Yes,” she said. That was the first time that Claudia had ever told a lie to a child because she really wasn’t sure whether Jasper would get away. Not if it was as the children had said and the bears and wolves had woken up around him.
“Now climb up immediately, we must leave. This is all very dangerous we must go, I need to find help.” Said Claudia. The children climbed up and Claudia gently moved away from danger but not back towards the city and their friends and family but towards the beautiful meadow where the children had spent so many happy days over the last few years.
As she got away from the clearing she picked up speed until she travelling very fast crashing through the under growth. It was then that the children realised how big and powerful moose really are and why they have the reputations they do. Anyone or anything in her path that afternoon would have been completely flattened by a charging moose with four children hanging on to her as hard as they could.
At that very same moment Jasper had a decision to make, run or creep away backwards into the undergrowth. His decision was soon made for him.
The two young wolves hadn’t in fact gone back to sleep but had woken fully and realised what had happened. They were now growling and howling in the most frightening way showing their teeth and dribbling blood and slaver from their meal, this had immediately woken the rest of the pack. Soon the old dog was surrounded by a group of angry vicious wolves and bears moving towards him determined that he would not leave the clearing that afternoon.
He couldn’t stand and fight, he knew that even as a younger dog this wouldn’t have been an option not against this many enemies. There was only one thing for it and it must be done just at the right time. Slowly the group closed in inch by inch paw by paw until he knew they were close enough that a wolf would soon strike, it must be now.
He shot forward, there was a gap between the two youngest and least experienced wolves. He knew they wouldn’t be expecting this, they thought he would be terrified and frozen to the spot.
The gap was only a matter of a few feet wide, he darted through knocking into one of the wolves which turned and snapped as he passed. The animals ferocious jaw clenched shut as Jasper passed catching his right side. The pain was terrible as the young wolf caught Jaspers flesh and hair in its razor like teeth. The old dog let out a terrible cry of pain but couldn’t stop to lick his wounds, not yet at least.
He was quickly at the edge of the clearing heading into the forest. After a split second the group realised what was happening, the bears a little later than everyone else but soon the whole snarling growling howling mass of animals was chasing poor old jasper through the forest.
He was running as hard as he could, his legs and feet hurting, his lungs feeling like they might burst. His side was hurting and bleeding as he ran but as long as he stayed in the thickest part of the forest he had a chance. Bears hunted more slowly and at this pace they would soon tire and drop off the back. Wolves preferred an open space so they could use their tricks and tactics to hunt as a pack so he plunged deeper into the thick undergrowth his long tangled coat protecting him from the brambles and branches. Still, this was pretty much the scariest thing that had ever happened to him.
The wolves were closing in on him, snapping at his heels just inches from catching him. Only by the turns, swerves and constant changes of direction was he stopping them from catching him. Behind them the bears were crashing through the undergrowth, thumping and banging the ground as they ran. All of the time this was happening Jasper hung onto the battered old red collar that he had retrieved from the clearing.
Soon the bears had gone and were wandering back towards the clearing to finish their afternoon nap. The wolves on the other hand were just getting madder and madder, they couldn’t hunt as they liked but were charging through the dense undergrowth as fast as they could go which for the younger ones was faster than Jasper.
His old legs were aching and he wasn’t sure how much further he could go. His hips and left front foot had been bothering him just with day-to-day stuff. By now the old dog was exhausted and the young wolf that had bitten his hip had tasted blood, any second it was going to launch itself at the old dog. He knew their ways, he knew what was coming and didn’t know what to do.
