The sound of rain. Not just the light patter against a window but a rush of rain, as if the sky's been holding water for centuries and has finally decided to let it pour. The image comes next. Wolf's wet, muddy and bleeding face. He looks up at the sky, then back down at us and then beyond us. He frowns, claps his hands together and yells "Come on! We need to get moving."

"For God's sake Wolf, I don't mind the paragliding and abseiling and sailing but does there have to be so much bloody running!" The words have no mouth from which to have come from but regular viewers of Adventures with Wolf will recognise the voice as belonging to Wolf's long suffering cameraman Trev. Wolf turns and races off, his blue shirt, rolled up at the sleeves, and his beige trousers soaked through.

***

Wolf Hunter stands on the edge of the rocky river bank. He looks down at the rush of the Amazon river. He looks across at the other side. "This is insane Wolf, it's never gonna work."

"Of course it'll work." Wolf sits down, crosses his legs and tightens up the knots that hold together his wooden contraption. The logs are thick but are sodden with rain and Wolf's hands pick up a good deal of slime from them.

"You built it yourself," Trev protests.

Wolf looks up at the camera. He smiles. "That's never worried you before."

Trev sighs. "It scares the crap out of me every time. The woods too wet, the rope's too wet, it won't hold."

Wolf looks up, his eyes gleam. He opens up a side pocket on his rucksack and brings out handful of berries. "Here, eat these and shut up. Once we're across we'll start a fire, eat fish, have some tea and set up shelter."

A hand appears and takes a scoopful of berries. "That was a pretty damn big fish you caught. What do you reckon it is?"

"You can describe it to The Professor when we get home. Come on."

The camera is placed on the ground. Trev makes a rare appearance in shot as he and Wolf lift up the bridge, they bring it towards the edge and let it fall. Wolf yells in jubilation. Trev shakes his head. "Damn, I hoped that was gonna break."

Wolf turns to him and pats him on the shoulder. "It still might. You go first."

***

Wolf edges slowly towards the camera, he is crouched low to the leg and has his arms stretched out wide for balance. "You doing alright Trev?"

"Fine and dand..." everything goes chaotic. We see water all around. There's a series of massive gasps and swearing. A hand stretches out from beyond the camera and clutches at the log. Wolf suddenly appears, dropping low to the log and stretching out his hand.

"Grab my hand! Trev! Do it!" The hands meet. Wolf strains himself as he pulls, twice Trev's hand threatens to slip but Wolf grabs him again and keeps hold of him. After what seems an age the shot changes to the top of the log up close and personal. Trev has made it back onto the log.

***

A fire burns in the middle of the trees. Wolf sits beside looking completely different from before, he's now utterly peaceful. It is difficult to imagine that this is a man who served in the SAS. The aforementioned fish is wrapped up in a bundle of leaves and is burning in the middle of the fire. Smoke billows from the top of the fire and Wolf hacks out a cough. He turns to the camera. "We should have just eaten it raw. I hate putting wet leaves on a fire."

"You're such a boy scout."

Wolf shakes his head. "Well if I was a good one I'd refuse to do it."

"Do you wanna tell our viewers how you're feeling?"

Wolf smiles. "Pretty good."

"I meant physically."

Wolf laughs. He grabs a long twig and starts trying to poke the bundle out of the fire. "You're the one that took a tumble."

"A laugh is followed by; "You're the one who had the crap beaten out of you on national television."

Wolf nods. "Oh that. Do you reckon he's watching?"

"Don't see why not. If they've got the internet where he lives that is."

Wolf laughs again. Then he coughs. The rain seeps through the leaves and has a dampening effect on the fire. "I told you we should have carried on a bit further. The rain's picked up again. There's no way this is going to stay lit. As for Silas, he was just angry about losing to me. He's probably worried about losing his spot or something. He's made his point, he'll probably calm down now and it'll all be fine."

"Do you really believe that?"

Wolf stops poking about with the fire and sits back. He looks up at the sky. "As far as I'm concerned it's over. I don't want to get into a war with him over it. And if he is watching this then it'll just remind him of the truth and we can both move on and get on with things."

"What truth?"

"First, that I'm the real intrepid wrestler in the WWA, I earned that by beating him a couple of weeks back. I'm the one that doesn't give up, that never stops. He's the one that stopped fighting and stayed down for the three count.  Second, that he can beat me into the ground if he wants to but its where I came from, and to tell you the truth, I kinda like it down here. In fact..." Wolf pushes himself up off the ground, he shakes the mud of his trousers, takes his knife out of his belt and slices into the white bark of the nearest tree. He carries on cutting into the tree until the sap emerges, but the sap is an odd red colour. "You see this? The locals call it dragon's blood." He places the knife back into his belt and rubs some of the sap off the tree before rubbing it into his hands. "See the way it turns into a paste that looks like soap. I'm sure a man like The Professor could explain it. Silas would probably call it an act of God. Its nature, that's all.  Survival's all about knowing how to use the things in the ground, or the things that come from it. So he beat me into the ground and I survived it. Simple really."

"But are you going to be okay for your next match? If we even get out of this hell hole in time."

Wolf laughs as he sits back down. The fire has gone out. He rummages in his pocket and brings out a handful of flint like material. It is colloquially known as old man's beard. He places it down on the fire, takes off the fire lighter from around his neck and turns his attention to restarting the fire. "We'll build a raft tomorrow and take it down stream. We didn't have time today and this side looked far better for cover, that and I didn't fancy trekking back up the way we came. As for my next match, I'll be fine. Come on, it's the start of a hunt for more gold, who knows more about treasure hunting than me? What did you say it was a semi final for?"

"The TV title."

Wolf looks up and laughs. "How awesome is that? The winner gets to call themselves the champion of television. I want that." A sudden spark lights up Wolf's face and he gently blows on it. The spark bursts into flames. "Gotta love old man's beard."

"What about the guy you're facing? What's he like?"

Wolf keeps an eye on the fire. "Rex Teitus? He looks like a mean bastard, talks like one too. Doesn't seem to think much of me. Apparently I think I'm a wolf."

Trev laughs the great hulking laugh of a man who has drunk too much, smoked too many cigars and has a sex life that could scarcely be described. For good reason too. "He has a point there."

Wolf sits up and looks around at the dirt. He picks up a few long twigs. "Hey, you know I didn't give myself this nickname. The scouts gave it to me, after I killed that wolf on camp."

"That's not the story you told me."

Wolf looks beyond the camera again. He frowns. "Really? Oh, well, that's the true one. Chuck us that rucksack will you?" A green rucksack is chucked over. Wolf opens it and brings out a grey fleece. "Truth be told I'm kinda looking forward to it. Forget Rex's trash talking, they all seem to do that. You know I reckon that most of these wrestlers have anger issues. Truth be told he seems like he'll be a tough guy to beat. He was in Iraq too."

"Tough war."

"Had its moments, yeah. Still, I'm looking forward to it. Guess it'll be survival of the fittest.  I'm half tempted to make a joke to him before we get going about how he thinks he's a gun, but I don't want another fella pissed at me. He's playing my game now though, not war, not wrestling, but hunting. Four of us are after it, but I'm the only hunter in the pack."