bit gentler than the rest of the dogs, Copper noticed. Storm looked down at her from his sitting position, then slowly got up and stared her full in the face. Copper wondered at how he could do that; Taya (that was the chow/malamute’s name) had blue eyes that looked like they would erupt in flames any second. Taya squared her shoulders and looked straight back up at him, and Copper saw the red and brown and white scars running over her shoulders and down her legs. One especially jagged scar slashed white across her back. Copper could see all this through Taya’s shaved red-gold fur, and he shuddered at how many fights she must have been in to get those. He could see why she carried herself so proudly. No wonder her hatred of the world seemed to radiate out from her.

Someone shouted out, “Fifty dollars says Storm wins!” That started the betting off, and as prices were yelled the fight started in the ring.

Taya slashed her nails across Storm’s face, catching his eye and cutting the merest corner of it. Storm howled in pain, but Taya seemed to be as hard as stone. Without any sort of emotion she circled around her opponent again and again, running from Storm’s gnashing teeth. Storm started to chase her around the ring, and they went around two times before Taya stopped suddenly, turned, and tripped Storm so he tumbled into the dust. He gasped when he hit the dirt, but he barely had a second to lift his head before Taya crashed down onto him, biting and scratching and whirling around like a fireball. Storm fought gallantly back, but it was obvious he was already exhausted from all the other fights, and he couldn’t take much more. Taya was fresh, but Copper didn’t doubt for a second that even if she had been worn out she would still fight like the blazing ball of fury she was now.

Storm’s eyes closed in weariness for a fraction more than a second, and for that fraction he left his throat exposed. Taya dug her teeth in and swung the bigger dog over her shoulder and back down to the ground in front of her. Copper pushed forward to see what Taya would do.

Taya stared coolly down at Storm, who lay belly-up at her paws, covered in sweat and blood and breathing heavily. Slowly she placed one small paw on his gray throat, and pressed, increasing the pressure every second. Storm’s brown eyes expanded as she choked him, but he made no sound.

Copper felt something build up inside him as he watched the light flicker in his friend’s eyes. Taya was killing him.

Copper leapt forward and nearly raced into the ring, yelling, “Stor-!” and then he pushed his paws down and out and skidded to a halt. Taya had just taken her paw away, and as Storm gasped for air she looked down at him with no expression at all, and gave him the smallest of respectful nods. Storm nodded back, then his eyes closed and his head slumped to the side, and he passed out.

“Taya wins!” Mr. Carson’s voice boomed to shatter the silence. “Pay up, boys! Yes, Taya wins! She’s MY dog! That means I win! C’mon, show me the money! Ha ha ha ha! Better luck next time, Matthews!”

The crowd booed at Storm and cheered wildly for Taya as the gray husky was dragged out of the ring and the red-gold chow/malamute was led behind the stage again. Copper watched Taya go in awe, and just before she disappeared behind the stage she glanced over her shoulder, and her and Copper’s eyes met. Her bright blue gaze sparked something inside Copper, and an electrical feeling ran up and down his insides. He didn’t know what it was, but that look of hers gave him a jolt he had never felt before…but it wasn’t necessarily a good feeling. The feeling stayed with him for a few moments after Taya vanished, but then it faded. In a random thought, Copper realized her eyes were the same blue as Hawk’s…and the same as Steele’s, come to think of it, from the stories Balto had told his pups about Steele’s appearance and personality, and prejudice. So interesting were these thoughts that Copper hardly noticed Johnson grabbing hold of his collar again, grumbling about not being picked to fight that night, and the wolf-dog was led out and hitched up in the harness again.

Before long, Storm came out and was buckled in by the driver, who swore and screamed at his dog the whole time.

“I could’ve won some big bucks in that last fight! And then you lost! You choked! As soon as we get back to White Mountain, I’ll whip you until you can’t even squeak out a whimper, and then you better win me even more fights tomorrow night!” The driver swore some more and kicked Storm in the side, and the husky doubled over in the snow and didn’t move until his owner walked away.

Copper watched Storm’s motionless body, and when he couldn’t stop images of a dead Storm flashing through his head he poked the husky gently in the side with his nose. “Hey, Storm.”

“Ouch!” Storm cried, and got up, wincing all the while. “Don’t touch me, kid, it still hurts a little in some spots. Ow!”

“Are you gonna be alright?” Copper asked in concern, “Your owner sure is tough on you. And that fight with Taya was the roughest fight I’ve ever seen!...And you call yourself old!”

“Taya can make any dog look old,” Storm groaned, cracking one shoulder, “Fighting her is one of the highest honors in the business. She’s the best fighter in the whole place, and everyone thinks that’s why Carson started the Northern Fights. To show her off. She’s nothing but a machine that gets him money…so are most of us, too, if you think about it.”

“Still, you were really great,” Copper insisted, and meant it. He didn’t like the idea of himself being a money machine for Johnson or Carson, but before he could remark to Storm he had a sudden thought. “How did Carson get Taya in the first place?”

Storm shrugged. “Off the street, I guess. They say she’s such a good fighter because when she was a pup Carson made her fight a grizzly bear cub everyday, and as she got older it changed to a full grown grizzly.”

“She seems so angry,” Copper observed, thinking hard about all the new info he had learned. Storm raised his eyebrows.

“I don’t blame her. All she’s ever known of the world is fights and winning money and Carson’s threats, nothing good. I would be hating the world, too, if I was her.”

The different sleighs parked around the building began to leave, and as one of them pulled out ahead of Storm and Copper’s sleigh, Copper took a glance at the team of dogs pulling it. In the 5th dog place in the harness there was a husky with brown spots over his white fur. The dog was looking the other way, but Copper suddenly felt himself freeze up as he realized who it was.

As if feeling Copper’s stare, the dog turned and looked at the red and white wolf-dog. Copper held back a gasp, but couldn’t help letting his mouth slide open just a little. It was Hawk, with his right eye slashed up and dim with blindness and a huge red scar slashing across it, but his left eye was as good as ever, with only a few cuts around the edges, and when Hawk realized who was staring at him, his eyes narrowed until he was glaring a blizzard at Copper. Copper wondered how Hawk could recognize him, but then, Hawk’s laser eyes, even with one gone, seemed to be able to see anything.

He glared right back at Hawk, and the glaring contest continued until Hawk’s team pulled out into the night. Copper hissed out a breath, and Storm looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “You okay, kid? You and Hawk looked just about ready to kill each other. Anything between you guys?”

‘Only my sister,’ Copper thought, ‘who Hawk wants to kill for making him half-blind and who I’ll protect with my life.’ “Just some…disagreements in the past.” The vagueness of the remark was almost funny.

Storm snorted. “Whatever those ‘disagreements’ were, they must’ve been big.”

The driver yelled, “Mush!” and there was the familiar snap of the whip, and Copper and the rest of the team leapt and ran from the lighted building. Meanwhile, the similarity between Hawk’s and Taya’s chilling blue eyes was becoming almost too much for Copper.

“Storm!”

“What, kid?” Storm sighed, not even looking back.

“Did Taya have any brothers or sisters or anything?” ‘Especially brothers,’ he thought. Storm harrumphed in annoyance.

“I don’t know, kid. If you want to find out, you’ll have to ask her yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend it. What’s with all the questions? Do you have a thing for her or something?”

That caught Copper off-guard. “No!” he exclaimed, “I’m just trying to figure something out!” The mystery still bugged him as they plunged on through the snow. Could Hawk and Taya be littermates? And if so, could Steele be related to them somehow, like…as a father?

The next night Copper found himself once again tied up to that sled and racing through the night to the worn down old building. He was still a little groggy from last night, and had spent the day sleeping (Johnson had done likewise). He was also beginning to worry a little. Kaila and Balto still weren’t back, and it had been two days since Kaila had run off. Copper hoped they were alright, and he knew that a part of him would be killed if anything happened to Kaila and she didn’t return. He didn’t even want to think about Balto, because then he knew Balto would find out about the failure