A Second Chance: Copper

This is “book” two of the ‘A Second Chance’ series.

Copper stared into the livid red mouths of his three enemies. They stood before him in a semi-circle, ready to attack, and along with their chalky white, bared teeth he knew his teeth were bared, too. He growled at them before he could stop himself, wanting nothing more than to lash out and give them each a good clawing for what they had just done to his sister Kaila. They had hurt her, not just physically, but they had hurt her pride along with it. Copper couldn’t let that kind of crime pass. He sized up the three dogs in front of him as they slowly advanced, watching him steadily with five eyes, four brown and one ice blue.

Hawk. The white husky with large brown splotches all over him stared menacingly with one round icy blue eye that seemed to shoot straight through Copper’s gut. Hawk’s other eye was dripping scarlet blood, as bright and fierce-looking as his unpunctured eye. It was obvious Kaila had gotten him good there, and Copper put it in the back of his mind to congratulate her if he saw her later. But even with one eye gone, Hawk was not about to pass up a fight.

Snow. The pure white husky with her cold brown eyes stood just behind and to the right of Hawk, showing her teeth, backing Hawk up. Copper weighed her up in his mind. She would fight with Hawk through everything, but if he gave up and ran, she would run too.

Cookie. Copper snorted unconsciously as he studied the pathetic-looking golden husky with the one large brown spot on his right side. Cookie blinked at him, then narrowed his eyes and glared. Copper couldn’t help laughing inwardly. This pup was a coward. If the fighting got tough, he would be the first to go running with his tail between his legs. He was just pretending to be tough.

The canines silently glared at each other, and Copper felt the tension stretch so tight he felt like something would snap if he even opened his mouth. It had happened so fast: he had been walking down the side street with his owner, Johnson, contentedly pawing his way through the small clumps of snow in the stone street, when he heard the chilling voice: “Out a little early, wolf-dog?” He had stopped in his tracks in surprise and instinctively listened harder, while Johnson had just kept on walking, and had even started to whistle as he turned the corner. But Copper couldn’t go after him. He had stayed frozen and listened to the whole fight he could hear going on in the town square between Hawk and Kaila, and as the battle had raged his anger had too, until he was so boiling angry he was on the verge of running right back and ripping Hawk’s head off his body. He had been turning around when Balto’s voice had boomed through every single murderous thought he had in his head.

“Kaila!!”

The fighting noises had stopped, and then Hawk’s voice had hissed, “Let’s get out of here!” There had been scuffling and scampering sounds that had gotten louder and louder every second. Copper spun around when Hawk, Snow, and Cookie had come barreling around the corner, and upon seeing Kaila’s brother had skidded to a halt and BOOM BOOM BOOM whacked into each other until Hawk’s nose was pushed right up into Copper’s face. Copper had snarled a threat, but he didn’t even know what he said, he was so angry, but immediately he could tell it had been bad because Hawk’s one good eye had opened wide, and then suddenly become an angry, pale pit of frigid ice. He had backed up slowly as if carefully considering whether to kill Copper right then and there or slowly torture him instead, and Snow and Cookie had spread out to the sides to flank their leader. The threesome had growled a deep warning that Copper had made a BIG mistake.

But Copper didn’t care. All he could see was Kaila’s wounded posture and sad expression every time her wolf-like features were commented on or sneered at. The ‘fun’ had gone on for way too long. Copper could almost feel his red-brown eyes smoldering with anger. Hawk would pay for what he’d done to Kaila ever since they were pups…he would pay big time, right here, right now.

Copper quickly stepped forward and slashed Hawk’s good eye, making the husky half-howl in pain, but still, Copper only just made it to the side before Hawk almost bit him. The two circled slowly, but Copper was taken by surprise as Hawk, Snow, and Cookie all attacked at the same time, all wounding him in some painful area. Copper felt the blood trickle down his face in sticky drops as Cookie clawed his muzzle. He shook his head to send blood flying and latched his teeth onto Cookie’s paw. The husky yelped and kept whining over and over in a high-pitched tea-kettle shriek that Copper ignored as he twisted his head to flip Cookie onto the ground. With Snow and Hawk scrabbling at his bruised back he inched his claws up Cookie’s side, dragging his nails along until they drew new cuts along Cookie’s quivering torso. The golden husky decided enough was enough and with one final whine he wrenched himself away from Copper’s grasp and fled the side street out into the town square. Copper grinned a bit in triumph and turned to deal with the two attackers digging into his back, but a strong fleshy hand swooped down and grabbed him by the collar. He choked.

“Copper! What in the name…!” a familiar deep voice yelled. Copper recovered himself and watched silently as Johnson gave Hawk a good hard kick in the side, and Hawk yipped, then turned tail and ran before he was further disciplined. Snow went after him with Johnson’s yelling following her all the way. “Git, you dirty mutts, go on, go! Look what you did to my best sled dog! You’re worse than criminals, you…” Johnson glanced around to make sure no one was listening before he shouted a few words of abuse after the dogs.

Copper breathed heavily and closed his dark eyes. He hadn’t gotten the best of Hawk. Next time he would have to go straight for him and deal with Snow and Cookie later. That had been his stupid mistake.

Copper felt Johnson’s rough but gentle hands wrap around his torso, and the wolf-dog was slowly picked up and cradled in his owner’s arms. Copper breathed in the familiar scent of sweat and burning wood on Johnson’s clothes, and he could feel his own sweat on his back, dampening his glossy red fur, and dried blood fusing his fur into warm, sticky clumps. Some open cuts on his sides and especially on his head began to fester and throb, but even through the pain behind closed eyes he knew the cuts weren’t deep; he had given the threesome more wounds than they had given him, and deeper ones at that. At least that was one small triumph.

He cracked his eyes open a bit to lick a long jagged cut on his left leg. It stung when his saliva connected with the fresh wound, but he licked it just a couple more times before closing his eyes again as he felt himself being carried down the narrow street to the open air. With the cold poking and tugging at him in little corners like his ears and tail, he knew one thing was for sure, and he sighed in relief. Dog-sled practice was cancelled for the day.

Copper lay down on the freezing wood floor and waited impatiently as Johnson firmly pressed small bandages all over the wolf-dog’s back and washed all the blood away. Finally, the last wound was fixed up and cleaned, and Copper jumped up and headed over to the window. The outside of the glass was covered with a thin sheet of ice, and Copper banged his paw against the glass. The ice broke off and pummeled the huge snowdrift beneath the window like needles jabbing into a pincushion.

The red and white wolf-dog looked out at the now-viewable busy street outside his house. People bundled up tightly in thick coats and dogs “dressed” likewise crisscrossed the road in a colorful pattern of coming and going and pushing and running and rushing about. The house across the street and three houses down to the right had some excitement going on inside. Copper could tell by the darting black silhouettes behind the drawn curtains, and sometimes glimpses of faces behind uncovered windows. That was Jenna’s house down there; Balto would probably have taken Kaila there if she was hurt.

Though he knew it was being over-protective, Copper had to know if his sister was alright. He leaped down from the windowsill and was just about to head out, when a black and white husky’s head popped in through the doggy door.

“Hey, Copper!” Copper stepped back in surprise, then recovered himself and laughed.

“Torpedo! Don’t do that! One day you’re going to pop out at me from nowhere, go ‘Hiya!’ like you usually do, and I’m going to fake a heart attack just to get you to stop doing that! You don’t want me to do that to you, right?”

“Yeah, well, don’t try it,” Torpedo said, grinning, as he slid in from the cold and shook himself out. “You’re just too easy to surprise, Copper!…Oh, hey, I heard about the fights.”

“Please don’t tell me,” Copper said, groaning, “It’s all over town. And Hawk’s out to kill me.”

“Uh, basically, yeah,” Torpedo said helpfully, his grin fading a little. Copper groaned again and blew upwards so the red fur that always stuck up on top of his head fluttered in the sudden breeze. He turned to his friend and tried to explain why he had finally snapped after all this time. He decided to take the straight-forward manner.

“I suppose you’re wondering why I beat him