metal lines keeping this thing in place.”
  “So he can’t come home with us?” Duncan whimpered.
  “The Hell he isn’t.” Zak growled. “Hope you don’t mind bud, but this thing is coming off one way or the other. Probably going to be ripped, seeing as it looks like you were meant to grow into it, luckily you haven’t reached your full growth or your neck would be a bit thin.”
  “Don’t bother being careful, that thing has a lot of bad memories…” Matt said, shaking his head a bit. “Bad, broken, shattered memories…”
  Nodding in understanding, the tan Doberman ruffled his head fur. “One collar removal coming up pal. Come on Nephew, help me with this.” The Dobie gently turned his head and hooked it underneath the leather on one side, biting down. Duncan did the same, and both began to use their sharp teeth to gnaw and saw through.
  They tugged every now and again, making Matt grunt and choke slightly. When they would stop, he would encourage them to keep going, wanting to get the collar off. He would tug himself, lifting upward as the strip started to rip and tear in places. They kept at it for half an hour until it finally snapped.
  In a slight cloud of sand, the collar fell off. Matt reached a paw up and rubbed his neck, eyes wide. It felt great, to be so free, for his neck fur to feel the open air after all the hot confines.
  “Phew… That took awhile!” Zak said, tongue lolled and spitting out small strips of the leather. “But at least we got it, eh Nephew?”
  “Yeah.” Duncan picked the collar up, looking it over, feeling how deep the tracer was. He was surprised to feel that it went practically halfway around the collar, small metal wires going halfway around to make it hard or nearly impossible to remove the tracer.
  Matt held out his paw towards Duncan, staring at the collar. The young mutt gave it back, and he watched Matt’s paw tighten on it, walking on his hind legs towards the ocean as he stared at it, and once his paws touched the water he threw it as far and as hard as he could.
  The trio watched the collar go far before splashing into the water, floating on the surface and away from the shore. Turning back, Matt joined the two related hounds, starting to feel a bit better about being related to Duncan.

  “… Drowned himself it seems like.” Bane sighed as he sat in his doggy bed on his pile of crates. He was watching the tracker, seeing the dot that showed Matthew’s location had moved seaward. Worse than that, Ashton had gone missing for some reason, muttering away like he had in recent days. He didn’t know that he had met with Chess, and went to keep meeting him for information about the dogs he wanted to find.
  “Where the hell could that hallucinating idiot be?”

  “Come on, hurry up.” Chess growled at his partner, jerking his head in the direction they were heading. He wanted to see how it would play out two on three, especially since one was a complete coward.
  “I’m coming, I’m coming.” Ashton grumbled, right behind Chess in moments. He didn’t like being bossed around by the Lab, but since he was helping him he couldn’t complain.
  “Remember, we’re going for the youngest one. We need to hit hard and fast, Matthew will still be getting over leaving us and his uncle isn’t made for running.” Chess explained. He had watched Zak run, and knew that although he had stamina, speed wasn’t one of the things on his side unless he was boxing like his family.
  “Still, why now?” The Elkhound asked, keeping close.
  “Because their guard is down, and we can easily do some damage. Hush, I can see them up ahead!”
  They hid around the corner, watching the trio. “Okay Ashton… In three… Two… Hang on!” Before Ashton could dash out, Chess grabbed his scruff and pulled back hard, holding his muzzle shut so he wouldn’t yelp. He continued watching as he saw Meph approaching the three canines, cursing his bad luck at not being faster. As long as he was looking their way they couldn’t move, especially knowing Meph’s reputation at being vicious.
  “Well played Slumdogs…. Well played.” He growled. He knew they couldn’t be snuck up now, knowing how Meph was always alert and would hear them coming. “Come Ashton, we must retreat for now.”
  “But we came all this way…” Ashton said in disappointment.
  “Yes, but unless you want to go out and get killed in a four on two fight, we must flee.” Chess growled. “Come.” He quickly dashed off, Ashton trailing behind. He hated to do it, wanting to play the game on his own, but Chess was going to let Bane know all that was going on. He already knew he wouldn’t be happy that Ashton was listening to his orders also, and knew he’d be furious hearing what Matthew was doing.