He ran past his father's broken down boat, and continued on along the beach and to the forest. He kept running through the trees and came to the end of the tree line. He kept running ahead towards a rock near the edge of a ledge that dropped ten feet to a river. He jumped onto the rock and breathed heavily through his nose, and bared his teeth angrily.

He was mad at his brother, parents, deceased owner, friends, and the whole world. He lifted his head up and howled as loud as he could, releasing his anger for the day through that one howl. He must've howled for a full ten minutes before stopping, gasping for breath. He panted heavily and slowly, and heard something rustle in the bushes near him. He turned his head so he could see what was going the come out, and he soon caught a wiff of a wolf's scent. He turned his body toward the rustling bushes and waited. He stood his ground as a female wolf, about his age, jumped through the bush. The she-wolf had black fur like the night sky, and red patterned ears that had a similar pattern to a raging fire. Her left eye was a beautiful blue like a sapphire, and her other eye was a deadly yellow. They just stared at eachother for a while without speaking, and then the wolf spoke first.

"How old are you?" the she-wolf asked flatly without expression.

"Two years old," Dingo answered with the same tone as she. He was used to this sort of treatment, and he knew exactly how to handle it, "Who are you?" he asked her.

"That is of my buisness and my buisness alone," she replied, "Whether I wish to tell you or not is my own decision, and just because you ask something does not mean that I have to answer it; so basically you are asking what I am, and that is a wolf."

Dingo only cocked his head to one side at this answer and looked at her quizically, "What did you just say?" he asked, this time a bit more simpler.

"Do you really want me to repeat what I just said?" she asked, with the same expressionless tone.

"No," Dingo yelped hurriedly, not wanting to go through the confusion again, "I just want a simpler answer from what you just said."

"Ah," she said, "What I basically said was: None of your buisness."

"All I wanted to know." Dingo replied flatly.

"You're only part wolf." the wolf said to him, in the same, plain tone as ever.

"You just now noticed?" Dingo said a bit surprised.

"Slightly," she said, "Do you know of a black and white, rabid husky that has come by here by any chance?" the wolf asked, this time with a hint of interest in the question.

"Nope." he replied.

The wolf advanced toward him threateningly. Dingo stepped back and stopped when he was at the end of his rock. He sruntched up his body as the wolf was face-to-face with him.

"Are you related to the husky that I am speaking of right now?" the wolf asked with anger in her voice.

"I don't even know who you're talking about!" he snapped at her, "How could I possibly be related to someone I don't even know?"

"Your mother could've been raped and the husky could've left, without you knowing of him in any way." she rebuttled.

"My mother wasn't raped smart-mouth!" he growled at her, baring his fangs at her, "Why do you want to know so much about this certain husky anyway? Looking for some revenge?"

"Not revenge," she replied more calmly now, "Vendetta."

"Vendetta?" Dingo asked, not knowing what the word meant. He lifted his head away from her hers, sitting on his haunches, and perked his ears up questioningly, "What's a vendetta?"

"An oath to get back at someone for a just reason," she informed him.

"Revenge in other words," Dingo simplified for himself.

"No," the she-wolf said, a bit more ticked-off this time, "Revenge is someone who wishes to get back at another for personal reasons; a vendetta is someone who wants to get back at someone else for doing something illegal."

"So, why're you having a vendetta over this husky?" Dingo asked, now getting annoyed with the wolf.

"It murdered my family." the wolf answered flatly.

"Murder is such a strong word little Pyro," a new voice said from the shadows. The she-wolf, and Dingo, turned to look at the shadows in the forest and watched as a heavily built, black and grey wolf emerge from the shadows, and into their field of vision.

"Who're you punk?" Dingo asked the new wolf, advancing toward the huge animal with his teeth bared.

"My name is Niju. Now back off mutt!" the wolf called Niju then lunged at Dingo, forcing his shoulder into Dingo's chest. The wolf pushed his shoulder into his chest with a powerful force, and shoved him to the ground. Dingo fell into the snow on his side and layed there for a moment from the pain in his chest. He heard paw prints advance toward him threateningly, and he wondered whose they were, and whether the owner was going to kill him.

He turned his head slightly and saw that it was Niju who was advancing toward him. The wolf's teeth were bared and his claws were un-sheathed. In the blink of an eye, Niju's head lunged down toward Dingo's neck, his teeth looking for the soft fur and vein as they shot through the air. Dingo shut his eyes and waited for the fangs to clamp down upon his neck.....but nothing happened. Instead, he heard a yelp of surprise and something heavy tumbling in the snow. He opened one eye, and then the other as soon as he saw who tumbled, and who stood in Niju's place.

It was Niju who yelped and tumbled painfully in the snow, and it was the she-wolf, Pyro, that made it happen. Dingo sat up a bit, all his weight on his front paws, while his back end was still laying down upon the ground. Niju stood up and stared at Pyro with anger gleaming in his eyes like stars. He started to circle Pyro, trying to get a good shot at Dingo, but Pyro kept following Niju's pattern, keeping herself between him and Dingo.

"He's not your problem," Niju growled at Pyro. As the wolf circled them, a bit of a white foam started to form at Niju's mouth.

"I know," Pyro replied, still keeping her eyes fixed on Niju's eyes, "But you are." As she finished that sentence, Niju leapt at her with his jaws opened wide and the white foam started to grow bigger. Pyro hopped to her left, and Niju landed in her spot. As soon as the large wolf landed, Pyro jumped at him and pushed him to the ground again, making the wolf even more angry. She kicked some snow at the fallen body, and as Niju got up and growled at her, Pyro retreated slowly enough for Niju to advance toward her. She then turned left and ran with Niju running after her, nipping at her heels and missing. Pyro kicked Niju in the nose with one of her hind paws, causing the wolf to sneeze and stop for a moment to rub his nose. Pyro stopped at the edge of a cliff and turned toward Niju. The huge wolf advanced forward threateningly and snarled.

"Don't worry," he growled at her, "Your death will be quick and painless, unlike yopur parent's death!" Niju was about to lunge at her when he was only five feet away from her, but was yanked back by Dingo, who had Niju's tail in his jaws. Niju turned around quickly, trying to bite Dingo's nose off, but Pyro bit into Niju's back leg and pulled; and at that moment, Dingo let Niju's tail go from his jaws and trotted away from the wolf. She turned her body fast enough for Niju to be in the air, and when the wolf's body was just over the edge of the cliff, she let go of his leg and watched the wolf fall off the cliff and to his watery grave.

Pyro watched as Niju fell and mumbled, "Tharn elil."

"Come again?" Dingo asked, walking cautiously up to Pyro, not sure if she would attack him after what she did to Niju.

"Tharn elil," she said more loudly this time; she truned to face Dingo and she sniffed his nose in a more polite greeting and he sniffed back, "Are you alright?" she asked after they were done sniffing eachother's noses.

"Yeah I'm fine," he said confidently, even though the shove in the chest still pained him, "That was a nice trick. And, really quick, what does 'tharn elil' mean?"

"It means 'crazy enemy'," she told him, "When I was a pup, my parents taught my siblings and I a new language that they called 'Lapine'. It helps alot, especially if you're insulting someone," Dingo chuckled at this and looked at the she-wolf with respect.

"So what'd you kill him for; the wolf I mean?"

"He was the one who infected the husky who killed my family," she said, walking toward the forest. Without thinking, Dingo started to follow her, and she continued to inform him of her reason to kill, "If he hadn't infected the husky, he wouldn't have left his home and he wouldn't have been able to kill my parents so easily." she noticed he was following her, and she smirked, "Why're you following me?"

"Uhh....ummm...muh...m-m-m-," he stammered having an embarassed look on his face, both of his ears were laying down across his head. Then he stood up more confidently, held his head high in the air in pride and puffed his chest out a bit, "My home is in the same direction that you're going," his eyes were closed in confidence, and very quickly, opened one eye and looked at her to see if she bought it. Pyro only laughed and shook her head slowly back and forth in amusement.

"Whatever you say--" before she had