laughing.

   "Excuse us, Monsieur, but did you just say Opera Ghost?" Monsieur Nikki said, in between his chuckling.

   "Yes, I did…" Monsieur Levefre said, as he too chuckled rather nervously, "I was merely joking with you, messieurs. A ghost in the Opera Canine, ha! How ridiculous is that."

   "Indeed, Monsieur." Kaltag responded, "We definitely needed a good laugh."

   "Well, I will be on my way, gentledogs," The grey husky said, as he walked to the door, "If you need anything, I will be in Venice." With that, the manager left the Canine for good, leaving it all to the three new ones.

   Monsieur Kaltag sat down at his new desk, and found a bottle of champagne in one of the drawers, "So, my friends, how about a toast?" He asked, as he poured a few glasses of champagne for the three of them.

   "To our new jobs!" He declared, raising his glass.

   "To our new jobs!" Nikki and Star repeated, as the trio drank their glasses. Just then, out of the corner of his eye, the grey-purple husky saw a rather peculiar letter sitting on the table.

   "Hey guys, check this out." He said, as he put his glass down, and lifted the letter in his paws. "This letter looks it's for us," The clean, white envelope was sealed by what looked like a red, wax stamp, which formed the shape of a dog's skull.

   "Well, open it and see what's inside." The large, brown husky ordered.

   "I don't know," Star said nervously, "It looks kind of...scary."

   "Oh, give it here!" Kaltag said, as he snatched the letter out of the dog's paws. He opened the skull seal, and noticed straight away something was "off" about this letter. Whoever wrote the letter mustn't have gone to school, since the pawwriting was rather clumsy. A few of the lines went off in different directions, some were bigger than others, and the words themselves were jumbled together.

   Monsieur Kaltag scowled at the letter, whoever wrote this, he thought, really needs to work on his penmanship. Despite the terrible etiquette of the letter, it was still decipherable, so Kaltag read it aloud:

   To the newly appointed managers of Le Palais Canine,

   First and foremost, I would like to introduce myself. I am a mere "admirer" of the Canine and the works that are performed there, and I apologize if I am unable to greet you three directly. Certain circumstances have prevented me from doing so. Therefore, I will send you notes (of the most amiable nature) detailing how my Opera House is to be run.

   It is my greatest pleasure to work with you three, despite what Monsieur Levefre has said. After seeing your resumes, it appears to me that you three do not have any sort of knowledge of the Opera House (or about music in general). However, I will gladly help you three on this wonderful journey to making your name well known throughout all of Paris, if you heed my instructions that is.

   1. You must take into account any sort of complaints that I shall describe (in excruciating detail) to you. As a connoisseur of the Canine, I'm a well trained watcher and listener, and I can hear and see any kind of problem that goes on in the Canine. Whether it has anything to do with a bad performance, bad practices, improvements, renovations, or (this is most important) if you three are not doing your jobs properly, you must see to it that these problems are resolved as soon as possible. (This is a busy place after all. I cannot allow anything bad to happen here. If one bad apple is spoiled, it might ruin the entire tree.)

   2. I come to the Canine during every single performance. In fact, Messieurs Debeinne and Poligny have ordered the box office and the box-keeper, Mademoiselle Aurelia, to leave Box Five, (the balcony on the 2nd level of the theater, the one near the stage), to me, and me alone. You are to not sell that Box, for it is my private box. If you have any questions about this, please refer to box-keeper. She will definitely reassure that it is my box.

   3. I'm sure you do not know, but I once met the creator of the Canine himself, Monsieur Charles Canine. He had asked me to support his work on the Opera House during its construction. In fact, I was asked to help build it and design it, and since I helped create this wonderful place, I believe it is appropriate for me to receive compensation for my efforts. So, by request of the creator, Monsieur Debienne and Poligny has ordered that every manager after them to send me 20,000 francs a month. Monsieur Levefre has yet to pay me, however, he has promised to send me my payment as soon as possible, so you are free from paying me this month. However, you must pay me every month after that, so do not forget. I have "other" projects that I have been working on, and I must have funds for them to progress.

   4. Any other type of demand that you shall receive from these notes will and must be followed without any kind of protest or question. You are merely to do as you are told, and are not to object to anything that I request of you.

   This first note may seem undesirable and unimportant at first, but I can assure you, however, that they in fact are not. If you are able to follow them without any trouble, then I will not give you any trouble. As long as you do that, then I'm sure this will be a great experience for all of us.

   Your dear friend,

   O.G.

   P.S. Failure to follow any of these rules, or attempting to try and squeeze your way out of completing them, you will be met with rather unfortunate "accidents" that will cost you dearly. I can assure you, messieurs, I personally do not wish to harm anyone, so hopefully you will do the job that you have been assigned.

   As the Chinook finished reading the letter, the three were silent, and didn't exactly know how to respond. The letter sounded like a threat, yet the managers weren't exactly fazed by this, as they proceeded to laugh out loud a second time.

   Monsieur Kaltag said, as he caught his breath, "I have to write to Levefre for coming up with that one, that was funny."

   "It certainly caught me off guard." Nikki interjected, "I mean, what is this? A private box, free income, and orders that must be followed? Is this some kind of a joke?"

   "Um, guys," Star spoke up, "Don't you think whoever wrote this is serious?"

   "Oh Star," Nikki said, putting his arm around his friend, "You worry too much. This is obviously a prank…right Moncharmin?"

   "Of course it is," The Chinook responded, "Now, enough of this foolishness, let's go celebrate. Drinks are on me!"

   Well, not really, he thought.

   The newly appointed managers nodded in agreement, and the three walked out of their new office.

   The Chagny brother's carriage pulled up in front of their home estate, which was a large, white mansion with quite an impressive garden in front, with a fountain in the middle with a few statues here and there.

   "So, did you enjoy the Gala, brother?" Philippe asked the younger husky, as they got out of the carriage.

   "It was ok," Steele replied without looking at his brother. Philippe could tell that something was upsetting him, but he decided to just keep quiet. Steele was definitely the stubborn type, and at one time the two didn't speak to each other for about a week. So, he merely let his brother have some time to himself.

   As Steele bid his brother goodnight, he entered his bedroom, which was filled with lavish furniture, red and black drapes on the curtains, a small fireplace, a large, glass mirror that was placed in front of his Queen-sized bed, which had curtains on either side of the bed.

   The husky sighed as he took of his suit and vest and threw then on the bed. I can't believe that Jenna didn't want to go out with me, he thought,no one ever turns down Steele de Chagny! He groaned entered his bath-room, switched on the electrical switch, and washed his face vigorously in the sink. After that he took of his white shirt, turned on the bath, and after it was filled up, slowly entered the warm water.

   As he thought more of Jenna, the more his head hurt. That memory that he had witnessed during the Gala was still lingering around in his mind, and it was bugging him. He laid his head back at the edge of the tub, slowly closed his eyes, and drifted off.

   Perros-Guriec was quite a wonderful place to be during the summer time, where the sun wasn't too hot, and the brief air currents made the fallen leaves and grass blow about in the wind. The beach that was near the Plage Saint-Guirec was also a popular attraction for the dogs that went there. Stephen de Chagny, who was about 7 years of age during that time, found himself in the midst of this field, as he had snuck away from his mother, who was trying to get him to pay attention to his studies.

   After walking a few ways away from the Plage Saint-Guirec where they were staying at, he managed to make his way to the beach undetected. As he made his way down from a few rocks, he could feel the soft, warm sand beneath his paws, the