slowly on its own.  The spirit turned back to him.  "Rise and walk with me."

Steele rose from his bed, but hesitated.  "Through the window?" he asked.  In response, the spirit took a few steps towards him.  "Are you afraid?"

At this, Steele walked over to the window and looked out into the night.  A cold breeze blew gently across the open sill.  He turned back towards the spirit and shrugged.  "Well I'm not a ghost like you.  If I climb out of the window, I'll fall!"

The spirit walked over to Steele, nodding askance.  "Bear but a touch of my fur, and you will walk as I do."

Slowly, hesitantly, Steele joined the spirit at the window, and quickly nudged her fur with his nose.  A spectral breeze overtook them, tossing their fur.  Gradually, the walls of the hallway, and the window before them, faded, and Steele found himself standing beside the spirit in an entirely different environment.  It was daytime (a bright but somewhat overcast day), and they were outside a large outdoor kennel enclosure--currently unoccupied.  The ground around them was blanketed with snow, and the fence coated in a sheen of ice.  Here and there along the fence line, icicles hung and sparkled in the diffuse light.  He marveled at the surroundings.

The spirit, noticing his expression, inquired "You recall this, no doubt?"

Steele, letting out a brief, subtle laugh under his breath, replied "recall it?  I was raised here, as a puppy.  Trained to be a sled dog.  But that was so long ago!  How can we possibly be here?"

"These are the shadows of things that have been", the spirit replied. 

Steele approached the fence of the kennel yard, and walked along observing the interior.  "How lonely it looks...how empty", he observed sadly.

"Not entirely empty, Steele", the spirit retorted.  "A solitary pup, yourself, left behind by the master and his other dogs is left there still."

Steele hung his head, recalling the lonliness of the scene.  "I know."

From inside the kennel yard came the sounds of paws crunching in the snow.  An adult husky, a black and white female, strode in and looked across the yard towards a black and white puppy, huddled alone in a corner...he appeared to be less than a year old.  With a forlorn expression he stared out across the tundra in silence.  The female husky walked towards him, while Steele attempted to conceal himself behind a large bush at the fence line.  The spirit joined him at his side.

"We are shadows as well, Steele.  They do not know we are here.  They cannot see or hear us."  With that reassurance, Steele stood tall to watch the goings on.

The female husky sat down next to the saddened puppy, and stroked his head with her paw.  "I have good news, son.  The master is returning, and I have learned that he has changed his mind about your situation.  He is eager to start training you now, and you'll finally have a shot at joining the team!"

The puppy didn't even turn to look up at her, but just kept staring out across the open tundra beyond.  "I can't believe that, mother.  The master called me useless.  Don't you remember?  I 'don't have what it takes to be on the team'.  That's what the master thinks of me.  Maybe he's right.  Maybe I haven't got it."

"Nonsense!" the female husky reassured him.  "He's setting up a place for you on the line right now.  Come and see!"

The young husky looked up at his mother with surprise, and he cocked a slight smile.  "Really, mother?  You're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

The female husky rose and started to walk towards the house, to which the kennel yard was connected.  "Come see for yourself, Steele!"  At that, the young husky rose up happily to join her as they strode towards the house.  The spirit turned towards older Steele and said "Your mother was a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered.  But she had a large heart."

"She certainly did", Steele recalled fondly.

"She died shortly thereafter", said the spirit, "and tragically I think."

"Yes", he replied grimly.

Suddenly, the scene seemed to dissipate around Steele and the spirit, and they suddenly found themselves in what appeared to be a large barn.  Before them several huskies were laughing and celebrating...a string of long sausages being divided up between them.  The spirit looked at Steele, whose face was full of joy at the scene unfolding before them.  "You know this place?"

Steele turned towards the spirit, his face aglow.  "Sure!  This was during the final days of my apprenticeship on the team.  This is a celebration of my graduation to a full team member!"  He turned back and observed the scene with great happiness.  A large and handsome male husky strode confidently into the center of the group of huskies.  Steele's eyes widened.  "Look, there's ol' Franklin, the lead dog of our team!"

The big dog held his head high and, addressing the group, said "Boys, today we welcome fully, into our team, a young lad who's been training with us for some time.  A brave and strong young lad who has proven himself time and again, earning the master's trust and moving steadily up the ranks of team to the position of swing dog!"  He gestured towards a somewhat younger and smaller black and white husky, who stood proudly, with a wide, toothy grin on his face.

"Look--there I am!  How young I was in those days!" Steele remarked with astonishment.  The spirit nodded silently as the big husky continued.

"We now graduate him to full team member, and give him the appreciation that is well earned for a year's worth of hard work!"  The dogs vociferously assented in full agreement with their leader, and the group of them broke into raucous laughter and conversation, mingling together randomly.

Steele shook his head in fond reminiscence.  "Ah, there never was a kinder, fairer leader on any team!"  He laughed as he recalled those happier times. 

"A small matter, really," the spirit interjected.

Steele's ears rose at once, and he turned, wide-eyed.  "Small?" he remonstrated bluntly.

The spirit smiled at him, calmly asking "Why?  Is it not?  He did a bit of begging to convince his master to provide that juicy train of sausages for the team.  Nothing more.  Is that so much that he deserves your praise?"

"It's not that at all", Steele insisted, sounding much like his former, younger self.  "He had the power, through his good humor and his concern for us, to make all our burdens fun.  Every mission was an enjoyable experience no matter how hard the journey.  The happiness he gave us all it was as if every effort was worth ten times as much in sausage or any other reward."

But suddenly Steele's smile fell into a slight frown, and his expression became crestfallen.  He dropped his head and turned away from the scene playing out before him.

The spirit, acknowledging his sudden sullenness, asked "What's the matter?"  Steele merely shook his head.  "Nothing...".

"Something, I think", the spirit gently insisted.

Steele looked up and glanced off into space.  "It's just that I had a thought about my own team...shivering out there in the cold tonight."  The spirit nodded approvingly, acknowledging some tiny spark of goodness in Steele's thoughts.  In response, Steele closed his eyes and shook his head again. 

"You took to the sledding with some enthusiasm, Steele, did you not?" the spirit inquired, as the scene changed around them.  Now they were in a large room with a wood furnace at one end, connected by pipes to a large steam boiler.  Around them against (and built into) the walls were various wooden shelves, with several dogs lounging lazily upon them.  Before them once again was Steele's younger self, only about a year old, chatting merrily with his fellow team members.  A large brown dog, slightly older than the young Steele, approached the group of dogs, who backed away sheepishly...all except for young Steele.

"Charger", the older Steele observed under his breath. 

Charger slowly circled the young dog, observing him with mild interest and apparently sizing him up.  "You've made quite the impression upon the master, boy", Charger observed rather dryly.  "That's not so terribly easy to do, you know."  The younger Steele, his head slightly bowed in deference to the older dog, looked up, hesitantly at first, into Charger's eyes.  "I think I've done my part", he replied. 

Charger laughed coldly at the young dog's boldness.  "And a bit of a bite too.  I like that..."  The young Steele's ears perked up, and he raised his head proudly.  Charger, catching this out of the corner of his eye, sneered at him and shot back "...don't let it go to your head, boy.  Not yet anyway."  Charger came to a stop and stood face-to-face with young Steele, staring menacingly down at him.  Then he cracked a wry and somewhat sinister smile at the young dog.