of course not. What made you think that?” Tera didn’t say anything, but she wanted nothing more than Teal to walk with her. “I don’t know. I just don’t want to cause any problems or annoy you.” She laughed quietly. “You never annoy me, Teal.” They kept walking silently until about 15 seconds later when Teal spoke up again, slowly and kind of bashfully, “Look, Tera, I. . . I’ve been thinking. . . about. . . “

“Us?”

“Yeah.” More silence, then Tera said, “You go first.” In a humerous way. “Sure.” He said. “I. . . when I first came here, and I saw you for the first time, I thought you were the most beautiful dog I’d ever seen. And now. . . after getting to know you well, I’ve discovered that not only were you beautiful on the outside, but on the inside too. I’ve never met someone like you. When I’m with you or around you, I feel something different. I can’t describe it, but I know that I like it.” Tera had a kind of thoughtful look on her cream-colored face. “That’s the same way I feel about you.” She said softly. “Really?” He asked, hoping she would say that it was true. “Yes.” Teal was jumping inside, but he managed to restrain himself for the rest of the walk to Sylvie’s house. Tera was deep in thought. Sure, Teal was nice, and he was very attractive, but did he have everything she was looking for? She had noticed her thoughts wandering to Teal when she had idle time (and even when she didn’t). The thought of him made her happy. Every time. She realized that Whenever she was at the mill ans he wasn’t, she never much got into the conversation or in a really good mood. She decided she would definitely keep Teal close as a friend. For now, anyway. Maybe there was a chance for them, but she would wait and see. Teal was thinking too. Whenever he was around Tera, he was happy. Very happy. She truly filled him with joy. He had never met any girl before that did that. After talking with Sylvie, Tera went back to her house, and Teal went to the mill. He looked inside and saw Kaltag. “Hey Kaltag, come here for a second.” Kaltag got up and walked over to Teal.

“Whatcha need?”

“Just walk with me, I need to talk to ya.”

“Alright.” They started off. “So what’s on your mind?” Kaltag asked. “Tera.”

“Ahh, I should’ve guessed. She’s pretty amazing huh?”

“Tell me about it. I can’t stop thinking about her no matter how hard I try.” Kaltag raised his eyebrows. “You think maybe she’s the one?”

“I don’t know. That’s what’s so hard to figure out, it seems that way, and I definitely wouldn’t mind if she was, but I don’t want to jump to conclusions. I don’t want to talk myself into thinking that I love her. I don’t want to get my hopes up about it ya know?”

“I understand. Why don’t you just wait a while and see? Personally, I think she digs ya. But again, that’s just my opinion.”

“Alright. Thanks a lot man.”

“No problem. Anytime.” They both made their way back to the mill.

Teal followed Kaltag’s advice. 2 months passed. Teal’s walks and talks with Tera gradually became more and more frequent. By now he was certain that the feelings he had for her were real. He loved her. He loved her a lot. He tortured himself day and night, wondering wether she returned his feelings. He thought she did, but he wanted to make sure. As he got up from the mill one evening he decided to make sure. He walked up to Tera and smiled. “Hey you wanna go for a walk?” She smiled at him and said, “Sure, let’s go.” They made their way out of the mill and towards the end of town just like they always had. Then where they were supposed to be turning back, he started towards the big hill about an 8th of a mile outside of town. She turned around and caught up with him after she’d realized he’d changed course. “Hey, where we goin’ now?” He smiled and said, “I wanna show you something. . .will you come with me?” She looked at him with a puzzled expression and said, “O. . .kay. Sure.” She couldn’t make out why he had chosen this direction. A few minutes later, they were sitting up there on that hill, looking at the sunset. Tera felt uncomfortable, not that she didn’t want to be there, there was nothing she would rather be doing than watching the sunset with Teal, it was just that she had thought about wether or not she loved him, but the past two months had proven to her, as it did with Teal, that she did. They sat there, watching the beautiful sky as the sun went down. “It’s now or never. I’m leaving in two days. I’ve got to tell her now.” He thought. “Uh, Tera?”

“Yes?” She answered, feeling a bit nervous about what she thought was coming next. “I’ve been thinking, um. . .about. . .you and. . .me. . .and, I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I can’t talk at all right now.”

“That’s okay. I think I know what you’re getting at.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” There were about five seconds of silence, then Teal said, “Tera I have to tell you something. And if I don’t tell you now, I’ll never get another chance to because I’m leaving in two days.”

“You are?” She asked, sounding disappointed and upset at the same time. She wasn’t ready for him to go. She loved him, and now he was leaving.

“Yeah, and I want to tell you here where there’s no big mouth ready to blare it all over town. I’ve never been good at telling people how I really feel. I brought you up here to tell you. . .I love you, Tera. More than anything in the world.” She looked at him, stared into his beautiful blue eyes for about 5 seconds, then her face broke out into the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. He smiled back, but then his face turned sober again. She saw the smile fade from his mouth. “What’s wrong?” He hesitated, then said, “You know I love you, but I’m just wondering I mean, the feeling is there with me, but, I’m not sure if, - “

“It is.”

“What?” She smiled. “I said it is.” He looked shocked. “So, so you mean. . .y-your saying”

“I love you too Teal.” She said, shining that same gorgeous smile on him. He still looked shocked. Then he shook it off, turned towards town, and yelled at the top of his lungs. He didn’t care what it sounded like, but he needed an outlet or he was going to explode. Then he turned back around to Tera, closed his eyes, and kissed her with all the passion and love he had. It was really sudden, but after a second or so, she closed her eyes too. They held on to their first and warmest kiss as long as they could. When they stopped, she closed her eyes again and nuzzled him lovingly for the first time in two months. She (and Teal) had forgotten how good it felt. He rubbed the top of her head with his chin, enjoying the feeling of her head on his neck. Then they both just stood there, watching the sun fall behind the mountains. She rested her head on his shoulder. “I love sunsets.” She said. “The colors. Orange and purple, the end of a day.” They both felt a warmth that they’d never felt before. Not from a boiler, a furnace, or a fireplace, but from inside. After the sun went down, they started off the hill, and towards town. She stayed close to his side the whole way. This was the happiest time of their lives. Teal had never dreamed he could be so happy. Now it was a reality. He was walking home with the sweetest, most gentle, most beautiful girl in Alaska, and she loved him.

They were almost there when Tera remembered something. “Teal, you’re leaving in two days, what are we gonna do?” He thought for a minute, then he said, “Tera, do you have an owner?”

“Well he never pays any attention to me but, yeah. He carries a bottle or sometimes a can of something around with him almost all the time when he’s at home. I don’t know what it is, but whenever he drinks from that thing, he acts differently. Sometimes he’s just walked up to me and hit me for no reason. Tells me to get lost.” His mouth dropped open. “What?! I’ll kill ‘im! I’ll rip out his. . .wait a sec” He thought for a sec, then said, “I think we can use that drunk to get you out of here.” He told Tera what they could do, thinking it up as he went. The next day, Tera would stay at her house. She could reasonably assume that he would be drinking again, therefore not able to reason well. Teal would get Toby’s attention, lead him to Tera’s house, and she would come limping out, whimpering. . . . .When Toby saw her, he knelt down in front of her. “What happened girl?” Teal nudged him and barked towards the house. Toby looked up just in time to see a brown bottle flying at his face. He dodged, the bottle missing his face by a fraction of an inch and burying itself in the snow. The intoxicated man yelled, “Stay away from my dawg!” In a dumb, sloppy tone of voice. Toby took Teal away back to his house. After locking Teal in, Toby went to one of the musher’s houses, and knocked on the door. After a few