up.”

“Well, yeah, you could say that…” Torpedo said nonchalantly, scuffing one paw around on the floor. Copper watched carefully as his friend became motionless and silent for a few seconds, and then he sprang up and pushed himself right into Copper’s face. “And, you could also say I am DYING TO KNOW! I mean, why’d you do that, man? Hawk’s rough; he don’t take this stuff lightly. You’ve just made him almost blind in one eye, and Kaila’s made him completely blind in the other! He’s out to murder you and your sister, Cops.”

Copper felt himself tense up and tighten. “I had to defend Kaila. I just…Hawk’s been making fun of her for too long. She shouldn’t be made fun of just because she looks like a wolf. That’s…that’s like saying humans with white skin are better than humans with brown skin! Do you follow me, Torpedo?...Torpedo?” The black and white husky was miming playing a violin in an ‘oh-woe-is-me’ kind of way. Copper felt his eyes start to spark again as he loped over and swatted Torpedo’s shoulder. “I’m serious!”

“Man, you know what your problem is?” Torpedo said, walking back over to the door. “You care too much. Lighten up.” He sniffed the stale air. “And by the smell of things, I’m going to have to find some food some place else. Adios!” The husky slipped through the doggy door, and all he left behind was a stung silence and small clumps of snow slowly melting on the wood floor.

Copper narrowed his eyes and shook his head. Torpedo’s priorities weren’t that great: food, then gossip, then family and friends. He wasn’t such a great friend, but Copper needed someone who knew everything that was going on in town, just to be informed. That someone was Torpedo, alright. Also, Torpedo could be pretty fun when he wasn’t making fun of Copper or telling Copper to ‘lighten up’.

‘Though,’ Copper thought, ‘Right now isn’t the time to gripe to myself about Torpedo’s attitude. I’ve gotta know if Kaila’s OK.’ He brushed through the doggy door, ran down the street, and burst through his mother’s door to find Kaila sleeping on a thick rug placed in front of the living room couch. He quickly padded over and nudged her face. She stirred, but didn’t wake up. He rubbed his chin on top of her head and slowly stepped back to survey her wounds. She had quite a few cuts running along her back and roping down her legs, but besides that, she seemed fine. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief and turned around to find his mother staring at him, smiling sadly. He stopped stock still in surprise. Jenna seemed to read his thoughts.

“Kaila’s alright, Copper. She has a lot of cuts, but they’re not deep. They’ll heal soon.” Copper grinned reluctantly at Jenna.

“Thanks, Mom.” But now she was looking him over too.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been in a fight, too? Oh, Copper,” Jenna said, as Copper’s brain began whirling to try and make up a lie, “Don’t lie to me, I’m your mother. You HAVE been in a fight…” She looked at him questioningly. “With Hawk?”

Copper began to think about lying again, but reluctantly decided against it when he saw his mother’s fierce look. “With Hawk.” He gulped, and before Jenna could ask another question he told her, “I did it for Kaila.” Copper paused and looked down to stare furiously at a stained spot on the red carpet as he felt his mother’s questioning gaze boiling into him. He didn’t know what had come over him. You would think he’d be able to ignore Hawk’s snide comments by now, but recently they had just seemed to annoy him more and more. It wasn’t fair to Kaila, it wasn’t fair to Jenna, it wasn’t fair to Balto, it wasn’t fair to him and the rest of Kaila’s siblings, even though Dusty and Chase didn’t seem to care. They shouldn’t all have to suffer along with Kaila because of Hawk’s prejudice. Copper just couldn’t help sharing the burden. He had never been close to Chase, who was never close to anyone or even tried to be, or Dusty, who mostly kept to himself. So it was Kaila who had been left to be his best friend those first few days they were young pups, too small to do anything but stay home. They had grown close, and were still so now, and it made Copper twist inside to see his most-loved sibling going through such torture. Sometimes it was irritating, but most of the time it was just plain agonizing. He had to act annoyed just to stop himself from getting too upset when Kaila was depressed.

Copper looked up to stare directly into his mother’s worried red-brown eyes. He almost immediately felt ashamed at making Jenna so concerned, and looked back down at the carpet again.

“Copper,” Jenna said gently, coming over and trying to smooth down the fur sticking up on his head, “What you did was noble, something I’m sure your father would have done, but you need to stop concerning yourself so much about Kaila. She has her own life, she wants to fix her own problems. You need to leave her life alone, and get on with your own. Clinging to your sister isn’t going to help anything.” Copper lifted his head and looked over at Kaila’s sleeping form, relaxed and at peace for once. He knew his mother was right, but he couldn’t forget the uncontrollable anger he had felt when Hawk’s remark before the fight echoed in his ears: “Out a little early, wolf-dog?”

“But, Mom,” Copper said slowly, “Sometimes it just seems like the whole world’s against her. I don’t want it to be that way.”

“I know,” Jenna said quietly. She tried once more to flatten down the sticking-up red fur on top of Copper’s head, but it sprang right back up every time she lifted her paw. Copper backed away, more than a little annoyed, and Jenna laughed. “That fur! Another likeness to your father; his never stays down either.” She laughed again, and Copper couldn’t help grinning back, though he shook his head to get rid of any sign of his mother’s flattening.

“At least you leave his fur alone; why can’t you do that for me?” He glanced around, noticing something for the first time. “Where IS Dad, anyway?”

Jenna sighed and shrugged her slim shoulders. “I honestly don’t know. He brought Kaila here, made sure Rosy’s father checked her over, found out she was alright, and then he ran off. I’m sure he’ll be back, though. My safest bet is he went to discipline Haw-” A sharp whistle resounded from the street outside. Copper jumped a little, and knew right away who the caller was.

“Johnson.” He turned and padded quickly toward the doggy door. “I’ve gotta go.” He stopped in surprise when Jenna grabbed him from behind on his right back leg. “Mom!”

“Wait! Copper, promise me something.” Copper was about to roll his eyes and groan, but he stopped himself when he heard Jenna’s serious tone.

“I’m listening.”

“Promise me you won’t get into any more fights.”

“Okay, okay, I promise.” Another shrill whistle pierced the air. “Now lemme go, Mom, Johnson’s calling!”

But Jenna wasn’t finished. “Hold on. Promise me you’ll let Kaila solve her own problems.”

“Mom!” Copper jerked his leg out of his mother’s grasp and ran out the door. He galloped his way down the street and only looked back once to see his mother’s sensitive face sticking out of her doggy door, watching him go. “Alright, I promise!” he yelled back, then forced himself to run faster until he skidded to a stop in front of his house. In front of a team of hyper sled dogs. In front of Johnson.

“Copper! I’m not going to be able to whistle anymore if I have to do it twenty times just to get you to come!” Johnson’s gray eyes laughed down into Copper’s eyes as he took Copper by the collar and tugged him gently into the lead dog harness. “I changed my mind about you not practicing today. You look well enough, and you’re certainly acting well enough, so into the lead dog harness you go! We need to make ourselves a winning team, and the next race is only in two weeks!...We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Copper’s heart sank beneath the brown leather harness, and his semi-good mood seemed to blow away on the wind. This dog-sled team Johnson had been working on for over six months now was hardly race-worthy. There were seven dogs, consisting of himself as the lead dog, his younger brother Dusty as the wheel dog, and five other dogs in between that he barely knew. Okay, he knew their names-Scoop, Shep, Pepper, Becca, and Rebel-but that was it. The team hardly ever talked to each other or made jokes or anything. It seemed as if they were just mindless robots that worked together like a machine to satisfy Johnson’s expectations. They were all dogs Johnson had borrowed from their owners in Nome to be on his dog-sled team part time. None of the dogs cared about racing. Not even Copper…especially not Copper.

The harness seemed to tighten around Copper’s chest as Johnson stomped away and leaped up onto the sled with a thud. “Right! One lap around town to get you guys warmed up, and then we’ll see how we’re doing. Mush!” The team jerked forward and started to trot mechanically, then gradually increased their speed to a flat-out