dogs and take them home.

They arrived at the house right after the sun had disappeared behind the mountains. Inside there was a pretty ordinary household. The Musher left for the kitchen.

“This way Kodi.” Dusty waited for him to follow. She lead him to a warm room in the basement and to a rather large basked padded with blankets. All four except Kodi jumped in, exhausted. Ralph and Kirby lay down in one corner, Dusty in the back. Kodi moved to the remaining corner and settled himself down alone. Right before he fell asleep, he felt something touching his side. He raised his head in shock, only to see that Dusty was sleeping besides him. This puzzled him, but sleep overcame him and he laid down, head between his paws. He was scared at the contact with Dusty, but he enjoyed it, and something else stirred within him, but he didn’t have time to ponder over it since Dusty had put her head on his neck in her sleep. Kodi fell asleep with a broad smile across his face.

One year later

The mild wind carried with it the scent of summer, flowers and grass. Outside Nome, on the grassy plains, barking could be heard. A group of six dogs were running around, simply having fun, and enjoying the time outside together.

“C`Mon guys, is that all you got?” A red and cream colored husky was running ahead of the others.

“Give us a break Kodi; you know you are faster than any of us.”  A light brown malamute protested.

“So you admit it then Kirby” Kodi said playfully.

The other dogs; namely Dusty and Ralph started laughing, accompanied by Mike and Jason, two almost identical black and white huskies who had joined the group a few months earlier.

Kirby started chasing Kodi while the others stayed back and watched and laughed.

Dusty was looking at Kodi, admiring the speed of her friend. So much have changed from the day we first met. Back then he was just a shy pup afraid of anything new. Now look at him…she thought. She couldn’t help admiring the way he moved through the air. So handsome and strong...wait…did I just think that?  She shook her head and convinced herself that she was just happy that her friend had grown up the way he had, but she wasn’t completely convinced, there was something special when it came to Kodi, she cared for him in a way she couldn’t describe. She didn’t get a chance to mull this over though; suddenly she was snapped back to reality by a voice calling her name.

“Hey Dusty, are you ok?” Dusty suddenly found herself face to face with Kodi, he having a worried look; she obviously was staring into empty space.

“Hello? Kodi to Dusty, are you there?” Dusty suddenly started blushing. Not surprisingly, considering the fact that Kodis nose was nearly touching, his innocent brown eyes shining with concern.

“Y-Yeah” she stuttered. “Just drifted off for a second” She noticed that they were alone.”Hey, where is everybody?” she asked.

“That’s kinda what I was going to tell you” Kodi said annoyed, eyes rolling. “It’s getting late, the others are heading back to the boiler room, and unless you want to miss dinner, I suggest we follow suit.” Dusty nodded in agreement, still a bit blushed, she backed off a few inches and started running towards the town, leaving Kodi baffled and confused. He shook it off and followed her.

Half an hour later, the dogs smelled the musher coming with their food. They lined up in front of the door and waited for him to put the bowls down.

“There you go guys.” He said. At this, Dusty gave him a mean glare. “And girl, sorry Dusty.” He could almost swear that sometimes, it seemed the dogs understood what he was saying. He walked over to the wall and waited for the dogs to finish their meal.

“Why is he still here?” Jason asked between mouthfuls.

“I don’t know, maybe there is something he wants to tell us.” Kodi answered.

Their question would soon be answered, as they were all finished, the musher stood up and stood by the door.

“Well guys…and girl” he received another evil glare from Dusty. “Hope you enjoyed your meal, because tomorrow we are going to start training for the mail run.” His eyes filled with pride and excitement. “So get some sleep now” he exited the room.

The dogs looked at each other in amazement. Finally they day had arrived.

Expectations

“Some dreams come true,
while others
remain in the void of
the night.”
Silwer-Paw

The morning sun licked the rooftops, the air was silent. The world prepared for a new day.

Kodi woke up with a jolt. He found himself sitting upright in the boiler room, which now served as their new home, since the mushers’ house was too small for six energetic yearlings.

He didn’t have to think twice about what day it was. It had been his most precious dream to follow in his fathers paw steps as a sled dog. Over the years he had come to really cherish the deeds of his father, which seemed trivial and only mildly entertaining in his younger days. All he wanted now was to be a mail-dog, the toughest kind of sled dog there is. He decided to wake up the others.

“C’mon people, rise and shine!” No response. He went over to Kirby and nudged him in the side to get his attention.

“Kodi, unless you're on fire, get lost!” Kirby muttered sleepy. Kodi rolled his eyes and went over to Dusty instead. She was already half awake from the ruckus. When she noticed Kodi walking towards her she raised her paw to silence him.

“I know what day it is,” she said. “Just give me some time to wake up.”  She yawned, eyes sleepy and voice low. “Besides, the musher won’t come to pick us up for at least an hour or so, the sun has barely risen.”  Kodi was going to protest, but Dusty cut him off before he could. “So just lie down and relax for a bit, ok?” She was calm in voice and kind in eyes, but Kodi still knew it was pointless to argue, knowing Dusty for a year made sure of that. Besides, he didn’t really feel like it for some reason, almost everything she said made sense to Kodi once she had said it. He sighed.

“Ok Dusty” he replied in a `yes mom` kind of tone. Dusty giggled and then surprised both of them by giving him a quick lick on the cheek. Kodi was stunned, but soon shrugged it off, like the lick was merely a friendly gesture. He didn’t think of Dusty that way…or did he?

Dusty was just as surprised. She didn’t think about doing it, it just felt right… Could it be… she started thinking. No, it can’t be, me and Kodi are just friend, team-mates, a family of sorts. Neither of them knew that they thought almost the exact same thoughts. In addition, it was the first time since the day they met that they were able to have a private talk. They contemplated each other in silence, drifting off into each of their own daydreams.

From another part of the room, Kirby had woken up and was watching the two with a sleepy smile. He mumbled something along the line of; “Fools in love…” before drifting back to sleep.

The musher arrived about thirty minutes later. In the meantime, Kodi and Dusty had stopped staring at each other and had started talking about random subjects to pass the time. A little while later, all six dogs were lined up on the plains outside of town. The musher had marked up a trail for them to run, to test not only their speed but also their stamina, for when it came to sledding, the placing of the dogs were crucial. If you put a fast but easy tired dog in the lead, the rest of the team would have to slow down. Yet if you put a slow but amazingly enduring dog in the lead, the speed of the sled would stay generally low.

 “Okay everyone, on your marks, GO!” The musher yelled the last word so the dogs would get the message. He followed the dogs on a rusty old bike and took a few shortcuts so he could keep an eye on the dogs and how well they did.

Almost right after starting, Kodi took the lead. The others were following close behind. Kirby and Ralph side by side, Dusty a tail length behind and lastly, Mike and Jason just behind Dusty. At first, Kodi thought this would be easy, but they soon encountered a steep hill. He winced at the sight but shrugged it off as he kept on running. Half way up, he was shocked to see, not only Kirby, but also Ralph, both passing him. He couldn’t understand why, but then he remembered that though he was the fastest of the group, the two malamutes both had more stamina than him. He was even more surprised, no, let’s say horrified, when he noticed that Dusty also was catching up, she advanced to the place right next to him. He looked over and their eyes met. She flashed him a smile and a wink, he returned the smile and noticed his face and ears getting hot, though if it came from embarrassment or from the fact that he was exhausted, he didn’t know.

They both gave it their best, but stayed beside each other until, finally! Kodi thought, they reached the top, and the finish line. He fell exhausted to the ground. “Jeez, my legs are killing me,” he panted.

“Maybe you should spend a little less time fooling around in our spare time and more on practicing.” Dusty said with a grin. She was tired to, but not as smashed as he was. Kodi only responded with a grunt, he sat up and turned away from Dusty. She noticed that what she said upset him, and she panicked. She didn’t want him to be angry at her. “Aw c`mon, I was kidding, were not