scents and Luna stopping to mark trees they passed. At one point she paused and murmured, “Wherever you are, Toby, you'd better hold on. I almost lost you twice, and I'll die if I have to go through it for real.”

“We're getting close, I think,” Melchior said by way of encouragement. “Either I'm warming to this job, or the scent is stronger here.”

“Good!” exclaimed Luna.

Melchior sniffed the ground one more time, then the air several times. After one final deep sniff, he announced, “We're close. Let's go!”

They took off at a run, and in mere minutes they reached the edge of a ravine.

“Toby!” barked Luna.

“Dad!” added Mel.

Toby and Rex were up to their necks in snow, struggling to make headway as the chief followed behind. Huddled in the man's arms was the motionless figure of a child. At the sight of her face, blue despite the fur wrapped around her, Luna's heart sank.

When Toby heard them, he barked a greeting. “Which way are we heading?” he asked. “We haven't been able to climb out of this ditch.”

Luna looked around. “I think you're heading past Nome,” she replied.

Toby growled under his breath. “We've got to do something, or we'll never get her or ourselves back in time. Does it get shallower up ahead?”

Luna looked around. “I have an idea,” she said. “Mel, come with me, quickly. Toby, Rex, stay put and keep the chief there too. This won't take long, I hope.”

“And if it does?” asked Rex.

Luna didn't answer him, at least out loud. But as she turned away into the woods with Mel, she thought, 'Then at least you won't be around to complain about the bad advice I gave you.'

The two of them found a tall sapling and got to work digging away the snow around it. “What are we doing?” asked Mel.

“Well,” explained Luna, “It's a gamble, but this tree looks to be in pretty bad shape. And sometimes when a tree starts to rot, its roots get weak...”

“...which would let us dig it out and use it to pull them up!” finished Mel, digging beside her with renewed vigor.

Their efforts were not in vain. After digging about two feet down and tugging a great deal with their teeth, they managed to tear the root end of the tree out in a sorry-looking lump of dirt and ice. The whole tree was fairly light, not much thicker than what you would expect in a walking stick, but the branches forking off of it made for slow going through the deep snow. At last they managed to return to where Toby, Rex, and the chief stood waiting and shivering.

“Grab this!” barked Mel as he and Luna pushed one end of the tree down. The chief at once saw their plan. “If I ever doubt a dog again,” he muttered, “I hope lightning strikes me.”

He told Rex to go first, and the bloodhound sank his teeth into the wood. With a great deal of grunting, straining, and scrabbling, he was drawn up to the high ground. Next came Toby, and last of all the chief tied a rope around the girl's chest and back under her armpits. Lashing the other end to his own waist, he managed to make it up the embankment while the four dogs towed. By the time they were up, they were all tired and, in spite of the cold, quite warm from exertion. All, that is, but the child.

“Is she alright?” asked Luna.

Toby shook his head. “She's been out here a long time. If nothing else she'll have some bad frostbite.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Mel. “Let's get going.”

“Hellooo...” came a call from some distance off.

The chief responded by pulling out his whistle and blowing three sharp blasts. “Over here!” he shouted back.

An exchange of whistles and shouts led them to one of the search parties, accompanied by a small sled towed by three huskies. “We found the girl,” growled Chief Scotty as soon as they were in sight. “She's in mighty bad shape.”

The man leading the party rushed over to load her on board. “Up, Rex,” commanded the chief after they had finished loading. Rex obediently climbed on next to her to lend what heat he could, and the men piled several fur blankets over them both.

Luna glanced at her mate and son, and couldn't miss the look of pride on Toby's face. 'Exit, stage right.' “I think I'll go with the rescue team,” she remarked. “That girl needs all the warmth she can get.”

Mel tried to climb on too, but she pushed him off. “You can walk, son. If we add any more weight we'll slow the team too much. Now that the blizzard's slacking off, you and Toby should have no time getting back to town on foot.”

The musher also seemed to be thinking about weight. “Are you alright to walk back, chief?”

He nodded. “I'm feeling the chill a bit, but I should be good for an hour or three. Now off with you!”

The musher climbed aboard, snapped the reigns, and was moving before he had time to shout “Mush!”

As the sled team disappeared into the gathering dusk, Toby shivered off a coating of snow. “Well, we'd best follow them. I don't know about you, but I am freezing,”

Melchior agreed, even though his fur was thicker and he hadn't been out as long. He just hoped his dad wouldn't...

“You did a good job, son.”

Rats. “Don't expect me to do it again,” he mumbled.

Toby looked hurt, but he wasn't about to let one rebuff stop him. “I'm very proud of you. You probably saved that girl's life, and mine. Not to mention your grandpa and the-”

“Look, I get it.” This was really the limit. “You're really proud of me because I turned out just like you, and now I'm supposed to be all excited about being like you and follow you into the family business.”

Toby released a breath, sending clouds of vapor into the chilly air. “I wasn't going to say that,” he confessed.

Mel tilted his head at him. “You weren't?”

“No. Well, kind of. Yes, I'm glad you helped when it was important, but I'm okay with it if you don't want to be a tracker.”

You could have knocked Mel flat with a snowflake. “You are?”

Toby nodded. “Yes, I am. I won't lie; I'd like it better if you did decide to become a tracker like me. But if you want to just live a normal life, I can live with that.”

Mel was baffled. “But what about all the stuff you said before? Wasting my potential and everything?”

Toby shrugged. “Well, yes, it would be a waste not to put your nose and your stamina to good use. But waste or not, you're still my son, and I still love you. I'm sorry for everything I ever did or said that made you think you'd have to earn that somehow.”

Mel was moved, but not convinced. “What about Caspar?”

Now Toby was confused. “What about him?”

“Dad, I used to try to please you, but you always liked him more. The only time you ever paid any attention to me was when you wanted me to be a tracker or a sled dog.”

Toby realized with a jolt that it was true. Looking back now, he realized how readily he had gotten caught up in Caspar's enthusiasm and daring, to the disadvantage of the other two boys. “Oh, Melchior, I'm sorry. I never meant to neglect you, any of you. I should have realized this would happen.”

If he was hoping for an, “It's okay, I understand,” he was bound to be disappointed. “Yeah, you should have.”

Toby bit back a remark about the tone his son was using. Under the circumstances, he reasoned, it was only fair. If only he and Luna could have raised these pups one, maybe two at a time. But wishes were wishes, and this was reality. “I shouldn't have made it seem like my attention was something to be won by contest. But what about when I did try to spend time with you?”

Mel shrugged. “I guess the appeal sort of wore off. I used to think you were the greatest and your job was the greatest, but by the time you got around to me I just didn't feel like it anymore.”

Toby thought for a moment. “I guess I've been out of touch. So what do you want to do?”

Mel's ears lifted. He hadn't expected that question. He tilted his head to one side and scratched an ear thoughtfully. “Well, since you brought it up, there's one thing I'd like to know once we get back to town.”

“What's that?”

Melchior stood and continued walking. “How do you keep such a firm grip on the rope when you play tug-of-war? I can never get it to stay in my mouth.”

Inwardly Toby was disappointed. He had been hoping for a question about running or tracking. But that would come or it wouldn't. Besides, every dog needed to know a few indoor sports. “Alright. As soon as we get home and have a good night's sleep, we'll find a rope and practice some first thing in the morning.”

Mel thought about it. “I guess I can wait that long.”

“Great. Now come on, I'll race you home!” With that, he took off with Melchior in hot pursuit.

Copper and Taya belong to redwolf03.

Aniu belongs to Universal Studios.

All other characters are mine.