coarse German Shepherd-ish fur. Rue wouldn't have like to hear it, but she did take after their father. Ares walked over with a wild look in his eyes as well.
"Prepare for victory!" He barked in his sisters' faces.
Gracie pulled Ares closer to her and sharply whispered in his ear enough so it would hurt, "Go get 'em, Bud." Ares and Baron bounded over to get tethered into their harnesses while Rue and Gracie sat on their haunches.
"Something bad is going to happen," Rue whimpered. Somehow Rue was able to tell when something bad was going to happen, it was almost like a gut feeling inside of her that twitched.
"How so?" Gracie asked back matter-of-factly.
"I don't, I don't," Rue sputtered. "I can just feel it is all. That's all." She figured those last two words were good enough to justify her feelings.
"Okay," Gracie looked agitated. Somehow her sister always turned out to be right.
Back at camp, Leon was all alone. He squirmed closer to the fire to keep warm but he could feel chills running down his spine and the fur along his back rose into little spikes. He would set his eyes on little yellow and red glowing things in the woods, he couldn't identify. Every time he saw a new glow he shivered harder and it seemed the fire was helping less and less. Leon could feel the little flames licking at his nose as he moved closer and closer to what he thought was his only protection. His feeling of security was that everlasting fire. He shut his eyes tight as he heard a deep baying. Only it wasn't a hound bay but a regular old dog bay and it was followed by a wolf howl, echoing so high it reverberated in his insides. Leon started to whine and he heard a sharp snarl. His hackles raised but only slightly because he was quite stunned from all of the noises around him. then he heard a raspy voice of a dog no doubt. It stung like a scorpion and jabbed at his heart, this voice. Leon was uncontrollably shivering but he stopped whimpering and kept quiet.
"This is not the one she likes most." The dog voice sounded. "We should leave him be, he's a waste." Leon heard a second voice, a higher wolf sounding voice that could only come from a female.
"Then the red one," she snapped. "We need him."
"Rip him limb from limb from limb," the dog hungrily stated. He licked his chops and Leon heard the smacking sound. Leon cowered and tried to bury himself in the shadows of the flames.
"Yes, the limbs," the female wolf agreed. She nodded and Leon could hear them leaping along the old iditarod trail that housed the Championship Races. There was a gun shot one would associate with a marker of how far the sled dogs had gone but Leon heard something else. At the same time there was a snarl and then a low moan of writhing pain that could only be associated with a sled dog caught off guard.
Leon hightailed it out of the woods to find Gracie and Rue. Something bad had happened to Baron, he knew it. He bounded and with every leap, the ground he covered grew wider. "Spark!" He yelled. "Rue!" After no response, Leon ran along the sidelines of the race grounds. "Sp-ooft!" Leon ran right into Gracie's leg and he gasped as he tried to regain his breath. "Baron!" He said louder than he may have liked. "He's hurt! Something happened on the trail-" Leon's talking kept speeding up as he got further along with his story. "And then there were these two dogs or wolves or I don't know and they were talking under their breath, they're trying to kill Baron I tell you!" Gracie looked concerned and exchanged glances with Rue. Rue looked Leon in the eyes.
"What did these guys look like?" Rue asked worriedly.
"I-I-I don't know!" Leon stuttered. "They stayed hidden!"
"Did they stay hidden or did you close your eyes?" Rue questioned.
"I-I-" Leon shut his eyes tight and turned to walk up the hill away from his so called sisters. "They still think I'm a baby," he muttered under his breath. "Just wait until Baron is dead, and then they'll learn!" Just then Leon caught the scent of a dog and curiosity overcame him sending him bounding back up to camp. When he reached the fire, nothing was unusual. The flames had gone higher but they always did in the afternoon. They danced beautifully under the sun, matching the bright vivid colors, the sunset in the evening had. Leon sniffed around camp and he got a scent of the dog and the wolf. "Old," he muttered. "Old scents." But just as he finished saying that, he caught a whiff of a way more recent scent. He followed its trail up to the point where he knew the dog had to be only seconds away from being there. This scent was near a puddle. Leon was thirsty, so he padded over to it and took a couple licks. He watched as his tongue made little rings in the water. Then he noticed something else. A distorted copper red color swirled in the rings and then a face came into view. "Gracie?" he asked aimlessly to no one. "No, Rue." He corrected himself. "No wait, Ares?" The figure had come into full view of a dog and he soon realized this was no Gracie, or Rue, or Ares, as he expected even though they looked just like the dog in the reflection. Leon turned quick and realized the dog was right behind him.
In his raspy voice the dog said, "I am Shakespeare, father of five, pure German Shepherd Dog. Beware for your little red friend, I assure you he is dead." But Leon was too stunned to contemplate what the dog had just told him.
"Oh my god!" Leon said wide-eyed. "You're Gracie and Rue and Ares'," Leon stopped to take in a breath. "You're their.." By now the malicious dog had turned his back on Leon and trudged off into the woods. "Father..." Leon let out and he was still shocked by the time he looked down and saw Baron's whithered, bloody body laying at his paws.
Gracie and Rue sprinted up to camp later that day searching for Leon. They stuck their noses to the ground and picked up his trail from which they followed deep into the wilderness. Gracie's paws did feel like lightening at that moment, her breath showing in the cool day, her paws just gliding over the icy spots. Rue wasn't as fast but she kept up and was soon running along Gracie's side, her tongue hanging out of her mouth, her ears flopping every time she hit a bump. Gracie reached a snow drift and she easily glided over it but Rue stopped short. "Gracie?" Rue tentatively asked.
"Yeah?" Gracie responded, now stopped and panting hard.
"I caught another scent," Rue started. "And...I think it leads to the trail." She stuck her nose to the ground and inhaled deeply. "Dog and..." she paused. "Wolf." Gracie shifted her front paws.
"Like Leon said," Gracie sighed. "Well, we better get a move on, let's follow that trail. If we haven't found Leon yet-" She stopped and exhaled deeply. "We'll probably find him with them." Rue and Gracie kept up a good lope as they trudged through the ever growing snow. "I never realized," Gracie strained. "That snow could fall so fast and so...thick." She wiped at her face with her paws but it didn't help, the snow had frozen into her fur. Rue struggled to bounce in and out of the fallen snow and each time she landed it seemed she was at a different depth.
"I-I-I," Rue stuttered. "I lost the scent, Gracie." Gracie could see a tear drop frozen on Rue's face.
"We'll find them," Gracie promised. But it was only a few seconds before she collapsed and Rue came down after her. "The snow!" Gracie whined. Rue closed her eyes and they froze in place.
"Gracie, I can't see!" Rue yelped as she frantically scraped at her eyes with her claws. Gracie climbed backward with much effort to find her sister and when she did, she lay on top of her. She closed her eyes and let them freeze too.
"If we're to die," Gracie yelped almost inaudibly. "I want to be here with my favorite sister."
"No!" Rue the rebel barked, but she lowered her head and went quiet. Gracie lay her head on Rue's hocks and she too went quiet.
"Shakespeare will be most proud."
Gracie was shocked when she was able to open her eyes and found she was snuggled up against Rue in an old cabin. "Wh-wh-where," Gracie tried to speak.
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