to understand much at all about other people." Kaltag winced at Steele's deep-cutting insult. He didn't know that Steele was so cruel. He walked to the kennel, very upset about what happened. And what was going to happen.

Teal woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and rested. He would need it. He went about his day like the others. That afternoon he was at the mill when Nikki burst into the room. Steele told him about the smell Teal had found, and that that was really good bait to get him into the warehouse. "Teal! I found this eally cool scent in the old warehouse, come on!" Teal got up, looked at the others, and said, "I'll be right back guys. Tell Kaltag I'm checkin' out something at the warehouse when he gets back okay?" A few nodded as he turned to Nikki and they went off to the warehouse. It didn't stick out as much as someone might think. It was a 100x100 building that was used for storing export supplies to Canada and the more southern United States. It had just been emptied, so that made it the perfect place to plan something like this. "It's right in there." Nikki said, pointing inside the door. "If you don't smell anything at first, just keep trying. It took me a while too."

"Alright." Teal said as he went inside, not having the faintest idea of what was about to happen.

"I gotta go check something, okay?"

"Yeah sure." Teal answered as he sniffed around for about 5 minutes. He didn't smell a thing. He turned around to ask Nikki if he was sure this was the place. "Hey Nikki-" He saw Kaltag at the door. "Kaltag? What are you doing here?" Kaltag just looked at him and said, "I'm sorry Teal." And then he gave a strong push on the door, and it swung shut. He was trapped. "Hey Nikki!" He yelled. "I need out! Can you help me get the door open? Kaltag shut me in here and-" That's when he realized it. It was a trap for him. They lured him there on purpose! He couldn't see a thing. He looked cautiously around at the empty floor, straining his ears to hear anything. "Okay, whoever you are, " He said after two minutes. "Where are you?" He heard some cans move. He whirrled around to the direction it came from. He lifted his nose to the air. His eyes got wide. He smelled something familiar. It was Steele. He paused to think a minute. How could he get out? Was anyone else close enough to hear a loud noise? How many others were in the building? How much time did he have until they attacked? He heard footsteps over on the opposite side of the room. They were heavy, careless sounding footsteps. Teal took note of this, thinking that if he ever got out alive he would make Steele and whoever that was pay. He had mixed feelings about Kaltag. He was mad that he had shut him in there, but at the same time he was almost sure that Steele had made him do it. He knew that Kaltag wasn't that kind of dog. He heard someone growl softly. Then another from the other side of the 100x100 warehouse. There were about ten seconds of silence, then suddenly someone rammed him from the side, sending him rolling along the floor. He knew by the size that it was Steele. He was slashing, biting, and growling. Teal put up a good defense, but then Nikki jumped into the middle of them. Teal didn't know who the second dog was, but whoever it was they both fought like they wanted him dead. The fighting went on until Teal was in a very vulnerable position, on his back with his neck exposed. Steele pounced on him, and sank his teeth into Teal's throat. If he hadn't thrown Steele off of him, he would've punctured his jugular vien, and Teal would've likely bled to death. But Steele had not yet found out just how powerful Teal's back legs were. He did. With both of Teal's back legs on Steele's underside-middle, He kicked as hard as he could, sending Steele into a pile of empty shipping crates that were stacked along the wall, knocking him out cold. Teal scrambled up to his feet, blood dripping from his neck, and took the second one on. Nikki was stout, but not as big as Teal. Nikki went for his throat, trying to finish what Steele had started. Teal slashed him, cutting two furrows in the side of his face. Then he grabbed Nikki by the back of the neck, clamped down hard, swung him in a half circle, and let go. Nikki traveled a short distance above ground, then collided with a wall, putting him out of conciousness. Teal stood there breathing hard. He had to get out, and he had to get out now. His bleeding neck was dangerous. If he didn't get out and get some human help, he would have big problems. He He didn't know what to do. An idea came to him as he paced around. He went over to what he thought was the door and yelled, "Kaltag! Kaltag can you hear me!?" No answer. He hit a stack of shipping crates in anger. He moved closer to the door, hoping to find an opening or something when he fell into a sort of hole. This wasn't where the door was. He discovered that there was more to that hole. He crawled a short ways on his stomach, squeezing through a cold dirt tunnel. Then he came to a dead end. He started digging at it, and after a few seconds he saw daylight, and after a few more seconds, he was standing outside. He shook the dirt and snow off, sprinkling the snow lightly with blood, and sprinted towards where Tera had shown him the hospital was, hoping to get some help. The docter was outside on the porch sitting in a chair. Teal knew that he was just a human docter, but he thought that if he could stop someone from bleeding, he was as good a docter as he needed. He saw Teal coming and ran inside to get his owner. "Hey Toby! Come here quick! Your dog's bleeding like crazy!" Toby came running out the door, saw Teal, and quickly put a white towel he had on his shoulder around Teal's bloody neck. With some pressure on the injury and time, they got the bleeding to stop. Toby was furious. "Who did this to you Teal? It's kind of my fault, I guess. I should've made sure I knew where you were." He made sure Teal wasn't bleeding anymore, then said, "You stay around here okay boy?" Teal licked his master, then trotted off to the mill room. When he got there and Tera saw him, she ran over to him saying, "Teal! Are you okay?" She closed her eyes and nuzzled him, trying not to push on the towel very much. Teal didn't say anything, but that nuzzle felt really good. "They told me you got hurt, who did it?"

"I don't know. It was in that old building near the edge of town. It was pitch dark in there so I couldn't make out both of them."

"BOTH of them!?"

"Yeah. One was-" He lowered his voice and put his mouth close to her ear. "One of them was Steele." Her eyes got wide. She asked him in a hushed tone, "Why do you have to whisper that?" One of the other dogs asked, "Hey Teal, what happened?"

"Uh, um-" Tera stepped in front of him. "Steele and another dog tried to kill him." She said loudly. "What!? Why?" Teal answered, "He said something to me yesterday about me taking all his attention. All his girls, and that I'm trying to take tera away from him." Tera looked shocked. "He said what!? I've never heard anything more stupid in my life!" Teal continued, "Nikki must've been the other one." There were murmurs from the others. "Yeah, because he's the one that told me to come to the warehouse with him to check out a cool scent. When I got there, he said he had to go check something. I went inside and after about 2 minutes, I look behind me and Kaltag is shutting the door." More mumbling, then Teal went on. "I know it sounds like Kaltag is terrible, but I do not doubt in the least that Steele made him do it. He said 'I'm sorry' before he pushed the door shut. It was really dark in there. The only way I knew it was Steele is the size when he hit me and by his scent."

"Who did that to you?" Another dog asked, nodding at Teal's neck. "That would be Steele. I got on my back and he tried to bite my head off, but I threw him off before he got the job done."

"How?"

"I put my back legs under him, around his stomach, and I just kicked really hard and got him off."

"How did you get out?"

"I walked over to what I thought was the door, fell into a hole, crawled a short ways through a tunnel, dug through a thin layer of snow, and I was out." He could hear more murmers. Then Kaltag walked into the room. Everybody stared at him. He looked at them, then at Tera (who was still standing beside Teal) and then at Teal. "Hey." He said nervously, but with deep concern in his voice. He saw the bloodstained towel around Teal's neck. "Hey man, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. It's just that Steele-" Teal motioned with his head that he understood. With a comforting voice he said, "It's okay Kaltag, I know."

"Nikki's the other one."

"I know that too."

"How did you get out?" Teal told Kaltag the story and spent the next hour talking about it with the others. Whil that was happening, Steele and Nikki were making their way back to the kennel when Toby saw him from his window. He ran out the door and over to Steele. "Wait boy! Wait a second." He looked at Steele's mouth and chin. They were matted with blood. "So you did this to Teal, huh?" Toby said in an angry tone. He stood up and hit Steele on the side of the face. "You better be happy I don't do more, mutt." Steele growled and snapped at Toby. He just walked away. Steele charged him. Toby