all the dogs are here before he closes the doors. Locks them tight, too. All the dogs have to be there, see."

"Yeah." "So why did they call you Teal? If you don't mind me asking."

"I guess it's because of my eyes."

"Your eyes are pretty." He looked at her. They looked at each other long enough to be uncomfortable. "I'm sorry." Teal said. "Like I was saying, they said my eyes were almost teal blue so that's what they called me. I liked it."

"So do I." She said. Then she looked sheepishly at him and said, "I already said that, didn't I?" They both laughed and Teal said, "I wasn't going to say anything but, yeah." They laughed some more and then they settled down and went to sleep. "Night Teal" She whispered. "Night Tera" Teal replied as he closed his eyes.

"Teal, Teal wake up." He felt a nose on the side of his face. He opened his sleepy eyes and saw Tera. He squinted at her, trying to get used to the light. "Whatcha need?" He asked in a sort of croaky voice. "For you to get up." She said, chuckling. "Okay" He lifted himself slowly up to his big feet. "So what's happening today?"

"Well, not much, seeing as how you slept halfway through it." He paused, looked at her, thought for a second, then said, "You're kidding, right?" She laughed and said, "Yes. But you did sleep in late."

"Sorry. I always got to sleep this late in Ontario. As long as there wasn't a race the next day. I guess I'll have to get used to living here. Whadya say we have some fun today? A race would be fun, I think. Not a real one, but sort of a pickup game so to speak."

"Pickup game?"

"Yeah. That's what my owner calls it when he goes and plays an unofficial hockey game on a frozen pond when we lived in Ontario."

"I see." She smiled at him. "So what exactly did you want to do today?"

"What are the options?"

"We could go on a walk through town and I could show you around. We could talk with the others, or just hang out at the mill."

"Let's walk around a little bit."

"Alright." They started out of the kennel. After about 10 steps she asked, "So how did you feel about being more popular than Steele?"

"I didn't know I was."

"Well it was pretty obvious. Everybody, including the ladies I might add, were crowding around you like you were some hero."

"Well not all the ladies. I didn't see your face around me anywhere. And a face like yours is pretty hard to miss." She looked at him with a smile. "Thanks." She said shyly. He smiled warmly at her and they kept on walking. "So why did they crowd around me like that? Do they do that to Steele when he wins?"

"Generally speaking, they do when he wins, but not as much. To narrow it down to the girls, excluding me of course, they do it even when there's no race at all." She rolled her eyes. "It's embarrassing. It turns my stomach to see all those girls hanging around that arrogant jerk." Before she could continue, a man ran up to them, holding a big, thick, wide leather collar with big brass beads and an equally large brass buckle on it. It was given to the winning lead dog. The man put it on Teal. It fit nicely around his neck, nestling itself into Teal's thick fur. Tera almost choked when she saw the collar on him. But she regained her composure. "Wow." Teal said. "I've never gotten anything this nice before. Back in Ontario I got double food or something. This is really awesome. What were you saying?"

"The worst part about it is that he's, well, I already told you about it. I just don't like him. That's all. Anyway, the reason they crowded around you like that is because nobody had ever beaten Steele, at least not that bad. Between you and me, I think he cheats out on the course. I heard some whispers from Sylvie, she's our neighborhood gossip source, that Kaltag told her that Steele snapped at the first place third dog's feet, making the whole team screw up. But she told me to keep it quiet because if Steele ever found out who knew and who told, he would make them wish he hadn't. That's what Kaltag said Steele told the team, and everybody else too about his cheating. They're scared of him. Just because a dog's big and a little attractive doesn't mean he gets everything he wants."

"I agree. I mean, I'm big, I'm a little attra-" He stopped. "Never mind."

"You are."

"What?"

"I said you are." He looked at her. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks. I don't get compliments like that alot." She wanted to say "You should" but she figured she'd said enough. She was walking with a great guy, outside and inside, and she didn't know how to act exactly. She showed him around some more, pointing out the major areas like the hospital, boiler room, telegraph office, stuff like that. When she had shown him the major places, she asked, "So what's it like in Ontario?"

"Snowy, pretty much. Not as deep or cold as here, though. I got to run every day. Almost. Some days Toby was sick and I had to stay home with him. That was okay, though. I like being with him."

"So is Toby your owner?"

"Yeah. He's lots of fun. My favorite mushing days were the ones when he mushed my team. He was the easiest to understand, for obvious reasons. I kinda miss Ontario."

"Where is it?"

"In Canada. About 5 months travel from here. I nearly went stir-crazy either on a plane or a train. Just sit. That's all I did." Later that day Teal was walking along the street, when his nose caught something that smelled like a snow hare. He followed it down an ally and started searching. When he almost had it, he saw a big shadow in front of him. He turned around and saw Steele. "Hey, Steele, what's up? You know I've found something that smells pretty good, you wanna help me-"

"Shut up."

"Okay, okay. If you want to miss out, fine."

"You've ruined me." Steele said in an almost demonic tone of voice. "You've made me look bad. You've made me lose. You're trying to take my girl."

"Hey now hold it, Steele. I can't help if if my team was faster than yours. I can't help it if the others crowded around me when we won. And I'm not tryin' to take anyone's girl."

"It's not your team. You're a visitor here, mutt." Teal's face grew serious. "I don't like people who tell lies. You're pushin' it Steele. I'll be nice to you sure, but when you start telling lies about me, you've lost any hope of my courtesy being extended to you." "Stay away from Tera. She's mine. No one is taking her away from me."

"Excuse me but it looks like she chose me over you. I am not makin' the moves here if that's what you want to call it. She offered that walk. She also had a few choice words to say about you. And I don't want to be the one to break your heart but they definately were on the negative side." Steele growled and said, "You're askin' for it.""Oh please. I'm not afraid of you. You can't make everybody in this town cower in front of you like you used to. Not with me, at least. I can take you on. You're not the only one who's big and strong now." This was the first time Steele had anyone actually stand up to him. He'd always had the painfully obvious advantage in size and looks over the others, but now there was a dog that rivaled him in both. He didn't know quite how to take it. All he knew was that he was furious. He gave Teal an evil glare and walked to the opening of the ally when Teal stopped him. "By the way, Steele." He said defensively. "I'm not a mutt. I am a one hundred percent pureblooded Alaskan Malamute with a pedigree as good as yours, probably better. And that's not speculation, it's fact. I don't like being called 'mutt'." Steele just gave him a mean look and walked off. He knew that Teal was right. He'd heard all about Teal before he arrived. Teal's pedigree was better than his. Not by much, but it was. Teal could take him on. He was as big as he was. Steele wasn't about to let some outsider from thousands of miles away breeze into town and take away all of his attention. All of "his" girls. All of his popularity. Teal cooly turned back to the snow hare. Steele stormed into the mill room. "ALRIGHT, EVERYBODY OUT! NOW! ALL OF YOU!" There was some confused mumbling as the dogs filed out the door with a raged Steele hurrying them along. When Nikki started walking out, Steele quickly said, "Nikki stay here." Nikki turned and stayed. Once everyone was out, Steele turned to Nikki. His eyes were a raging fire. He was really tense. His ears were laid back. He was mad. "You're on my side, right?"

"Well, yeah Steele you know that."

"How do you feel about Teal?"

"Well I don't know him very well, but what problem do you have with him?"

"He's trying to take everything away from me."

"Really?"

"Yes. We need to take care of him if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do. But we need to be careful about it. The others like him and they might be ticked if he suddenly turned up dead."

"I can't."

"You can't what?" It pained Steele to say the words. "I can't get him alone. He's as big as I am."

"I'll help you. We'll have to ambush him somehow."

"I've got an idea. We'll need one more dog to make it