separate steaks. Julian was happy that things may be getting better between Nicolai and his mother, maybe they were falling in love after all. The first few months here were rough, Nicolai had tried and tried but Estelle would continually push him away. Maybe things were finally looking up.

There was only one dog left in the room, the one Julian had been hesitant to look at. Fletcher was curled up in a corner around his steak, alone, staring blankly at the doggy door as he chewed. Julian’s heart wrenched, feeling a pang of anger and pity at the same time for his poor brother. He knew his brother was hurting. He was rejected at such a young age and continually rejected throughout his life. But why was be being lashed out at? Just as this thought ran through his mind, Fletcher caught his eyes, snarled quietly to himself, and turned his back to the world.

Suddenly, Julian just wasn’t hungry anymore.

He stood up from his meal and hopped swiftly out of the dog door, landing soundly on the wood of the front porch and plopping down, eyebrows knitted together in confusion. He stared out into the afternoon, the September sun casting a homely orange glow over the town. He sighed and tucked his face under his paws, feeling depressed again. He hated the feeling that he was cast away by a member of his own family, his own flesh and blood.

His broodings were disturbed by the sound of commotion inside the house, and before he knew it he was being trampled and whizzed by; his family was emerging from inside the cabin. Fletcher purposely landed an inch from his face to startle him, and Julian shivered nervously. The last to exit were Nicolai and Constance, his two favorites out of his whole family. Constance stopped and looked at him in concern, stepping back up onto the first step of the porch.

“It is…Fletcher again?” She said, but Julian could tell by the all-knowing sparkle in her eyes that she already knew the answer. She sighed and shot a dagger-like glance in the direction her other brother had slunk off too, and turned carefully back to Julian. “You know I am always ‘ere, Julian. An’ I promise to stay zat way, alright?” Julian smiled halfheartedly; he got this speech all the time. Constance belted out a tinkling, pixie like laugh. “But I am quite sure you are tired of hearing zat, eh?” She shot a glance down the street, and the inferred light bulb popped up above her head. “Come on, Julian.” She said, her feather light paws landing next to his head. Julian opened an eye and grunted. “V’hat? V’here and v’hy?” He said, gathering a bit of suspicion. Constance’s bell laugh danced through the air again, and she nudged his face with her nose. “Just get up, Julian. Follow me.”

Julian did as he was told and stood. Constance began her floating strut toward wherever she had planned, and he slowly followed. He stared at the ground and studied each of the different footsteps; pawprints, shoe indents, and even the marks of bare feet decorating the area.

Pawprints. That was one of the things Julian truly liked about this place. It wasn’t just the people’s town, it was the dogs’ too. This place was so friendly to its canine counterparts, and it made Julian truly feel at home.

It wasn’t two minutes later that they had reached their unknown destination, and Constance turned to him and smiled.

“Well, Julian, we ‘ave arrived.” Her eyes sparkled in anticipation. Julian grunted and sat down on his haunches to scratch his ear. “Ah, yes, but, v’here ha’ ve arrived to?” His voice was sullen, and Constance rolled her jade eyes, the smile still wide on her face. “It is your birzday. And we are going to celebrate.” Julian’s eyes widened. He pricked his ears toward the door in front of him, finally realizing where he was. It was the boiler room, and if he remembered correctly, the dogs in town had put together a party. What a coincidence. Julian squinted his eyes and shook his head slightly. “Maybe some ozzer v’ay…” He said hesitantly. Constance shook her head, her silky long fur flowing perfectly. “No. It is time to begin living. You are sree years old and with nozzing to show for it! Follow me, we are going in.” Julian stood up slowly, watching as Constance used her nose to open the slightly cracked door up even more. He followed her in and gasped.

There were a lot of dogs there, more than he had previously imagined. To name a few there was Doc, the big St. Bernard, Jenna, the vibrant red husky who had moved here a year back, Steele, the black husky, Nikki, Kaltag, and Star, three of Steele’s “wingmen,” and a variety of other dogs from sled teams formed all over Nome. Julian looked warily around the room before Constance caught his eye and bumped him with her shoulder.

“Come on. Go mingle.” She said, bounding off into the crowded room immediately afterward. Julian lifted his head and took some slow steps forward, making his way toward Steele and a few other dogs.

“…kinda felt bad because I took his place, but I guess Master thought it was for the best.” Steele finished, shuffling his paws around and smiling nervously. The dogs around him were two females and a male, and all of them smiled and laughed as Steele finished his story. “Well, Steele, don’t take a thing like this lightly. You lead you team to victory now, alright?” The male said, shaking his head toward a few of Steele’s team members and nodding. He was a large and burly male, and it looked like he had had his fair share of fights within the town. From the way his stood, it showed off his strong back legs and thin front ones; he was obviously an experienced runner. His intelligent amber eyes were embedded in a time-worn face, and his coat was all types of grays and browns. Steele chuckled a small little laugh and smiled. “Yeah, I gotcha, Chief.” Julian decided to speak up then.

“’ey all, v’hat’s new?” He said, catching bewildered looks from everyone around the group. He shuffled his paws and cleared his throat, looking from face to face. The looks he was getting were making him feel uncomfortable. “V’hat?!” He spat, his voice accidentally harsh. One of the tan females next to Steele spoke first.

“Uhh…well…the thing is, everybody think your…mute.” She slid her yellow eyes down to look at her paws, and giggled uncomfortably. “Mute?” Julian said slowly, cocking an eyebrow. The blue-gray female spoke next. “Yes…we all see you take your daily walk around town, but you never stop to…eh, socialize. You kinda always kept to yourself. So we all figured that…you just couldn’t speak.” She laughed quiety, eyeing him like he had five heads. Julian’s chuckle was choked off.

“Eh…well, I am not.” He said, clearing his throat again and frowning. Steele smiled at everyone and spoke, trying to break the awkwardness. “Well, we were just talking about me! I just got lead dog position in my team.” He smiled again widely, his eyes flashing with pride at his new job. Julian’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? Zat is very high up position, correct? V’hat an honor. Good for you.” He said in sincere congratulations.  Steele beamed at him and thanked him warmly. The male in the middle spoke up again. “So…you gonna tell us your name, France?” Julian flashed his eyes at him, slightly miffed at this male calling him that. Nonetheless, he introduced himself properly. “Julian. An’ zat is my sister, Constance.” He gestured over to Constance, who was gleefully getting to know Jenna. No one spoke, so Steele took over the silence. “That’s a nice name!” He said. He was obviously very friendly. “I’m Steele, and that’s my uncle Frezno.” He said, gesturing to the older male. Julian nodded, and he looked at the two females. The tan one spoke first. “I’m Chandler.” She smiled wide, making her entire face light up. Julian gave her a smile, and turned his attention to the bluish female, who spoke up last. “Nilla. I just moved here from Anchorage.” Julian smiled and shook his feathery fur out, not noticing the drool practically pouring from Chandler’s jaws.

“Beau, lovely names.” He said, grinning crookedly. Chandler giggled, and Nilla shot her a look. “I am going to go catch up vith ma soeur, my sister. I am ‘appy to ‘ave met you all.” He bowed slightly, like the gentleman he was, and turned to walk away.

As he did, he caught eyes with Silver, one of the dogs from the fairly new mail team. She looked at him icily and rolled her eyes, returning to her conversation with Nikki. Julian gave her a “who do you think you are?” kind of look and walked toward Constance, who was now deep in conversation with Jenna and Sylvie, her Afghan Hound friend.

“’ello z’here, ladies. ‘ow is conversation?” He said, sitting lightly on his haunches. Sylvie’s eyes widened at his sudden appearance, and she involuntarily batted her eyes. “Hello, handsome.” She said under her breath, and Jenna laughed heartily as she nudged Sylvie with her paw. Constance looked at him and smiled. “Jenna, Sylvie, dis is my brother, Julian.” Jenna smiled and greeted him warmly. “Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Julian.” She lowered her head slightly. “Jenna was just going to tell us about her bandana, where it came from.” Constance said matter-of-factly.