and quiet as they became louder and louder.
Suddenly, a large pair of boots stepped into the room. They clunked dully on the old wooden floor as they made their way to the pile of the three bags of mail. It stopped in front of them, and the dogs took advantage of the moment to see who it was.

    Ambyr and Gill both gasped in surprise. The man in the boots was the very man that had stood guard at the post office earlier that day!

    Haywire eyed Gill. His mouth was agape, and his expression was horrified. Even without words, his countenance spoke for itself. Ambyr was mouthing the exact same words: “But...but....that’s...GILL’S musher!!”
    Gill’s musher stood staring at the pile of mail. Then, they heard the most unexpected noise: a chuckle.
    “That worthless son of a –”
    “Shhhh!!!” Haywire gestured for Gill to be quiet.
    The boots spun around, startled. He then started pacing the room, looking around for them. It was torture, and Haywire could feel his skin grow hot and moist beneath his fur. It was then, he wished he were someplace else in the world – because he had developed a terrible itch on his nose. It grew into an irresistible temptation to scratch,, but he knew he couldn’t afford to do that. He waited it out in hopes it might go away, but then he soon wished that he had scratched – because the itch developed into a sneeze.
    “Uhh....Uhhh...”
    From the corner of his eye, Haywire could see Ambyr slap her paw on her forehead.
    “CHOOOO!!!!”
    Dust and dirt flew in all directions, and Haywire hit the top of his head beneath the table he was hiding under.
    Gill’s musher turned to him, and his mouth fell open. “What the –”
    Realizing that their cover had literally been blown away, Ambyr leapt from her hiding place, and sunk her teeth down on Gill’s musher’s leg. He yowled and cried out in pain, spinning his leg around in attempts to swing Ambyr off. Haywire then jumped up and landed on his chest, hurling Gill’s musher back into an antique desk, which shattered to pieces on impact.
    “Gill!! A little help would be nice!!”
    Gill only stood there, his mouth still open in horror. Then, with what sounded like a half-whimper, half-growl, he turned high-tail and ran out of the mill.
    “Gill!! You cowardly chicken!! Get back here now!” But it was too late. He had already disappeared.
    Suddenly, Gill’s musher swung his hand on the side of Haywire’s face. He whined, and rolled off of him, and he began to stagger up to his feet.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” Ambyr yelled.  She revved up her shoulders, and rammed the musher’s knees so hard, he cursed loudly, and fell back again onto an antique bookshelf (which, also shattered to pieces upon impact).
Haywire shook his head to the side, and barked loudly at the cursing man trying to get Ambyr unhooked from his leg. He grabbed hold of a loose block of wood lying around, then began to attack Ambyr. Luckily, she let go just in time, and Gill’s musher ended up hitting his own shin instead.
    “I’m having so much fun with this guy,” Ambyr said, laughing.
The musher cursed, and lifted up the block of wood to strike Ambyr with again. Ambyr, who was caught off guard when talking to Haywire, stared up at him in horror.
    “AMBYR!!”
    And that was when Haywire made the most unexpected decision. He once again ran up to Gill’s musher – from behind – and leapt on to his back, biting down on a tender piece of his skin...the only problem was...Haywire underestimated his jump, and instead of landing straight on his back to send him face-down onto the floor, he instead got a very proportional chunk of Gill’s musher’s arse stuck between his teeth.
Gill’s musher released a howl, and dropped the block of wood, trying to slap at a Haywire that wouldn’t let go from behind. Finally, Ambyr tiptoed over to him, and placed a chunk of wood behind his feet. The man tripped over it, and spun in a full circle before landing, hard, on the pile of mail.
    He lay there, and groaned, not moving.
    “Aah!!! Ugh!! Pa-tooey!! Pa-tooey!!! Ack!! My tongue!! Oh, my tongue, it’s stained for life!! Ack!! Pa-tooey!!”
    Haywire squirmed out from under the man, thankful that the bags of mail had cushioned his fall. Haywire had his tongue stuck out, and was desperate enough to get the taste off to start licking at the sawdust-covered floor.
    “Are you okay?”
    “OKAY?! Okay is when you get backhanded on the side of the head! But biting down on someone’s BUTT?! That’s...that’s....INEXPEDIENT!!!
    Ambyr made a face. “What does...’inexpedient’ mean?”
    At that moment, the door to the saw mill was forced open, and a stream of officers poured in, shouting and bustling throughout the building. Within seconds, they found Haywire and Ambyr growling at Gill’s musher, who groaned again as he lay on the three bags of mail.
    And leading them, was Gill.
    An officer came up and pulled the musher up to his feel, forcing his hands behind his back. “You’re under arrest,” he said gruffly.
    “But, no!” he wailed. “Those dogs!! Those rabid dogs attacked me! I ran in here for cover! You gotta believe me!”
    “Sure we do,” the officer replied, and led him out the door.
    Another one of the officers came up and patted Haywire, Ambyr, and Gill on the head. “You three did excellent!! Good work, boys!! Nice job, girl!! Couldn’t have done it without any of you!” He flashed all of them a tooth smile, and gestured for the other officers to take the bags of mail away. One by one, as quick as they had arrived, they all began to leave until only the three dogs were left.
    “Well,” Ambyr said strolling up to Gill. “I gotta admit...you’re not a complete imbasel...”
    A barely noticeable twinkle appeared in Gill’s eyes.
    “...but you’re still a coward.”
    The twinkle disappeared. “Oh yeah? Well, I still think the both of you are jerks. This still doesn’t make up for what you did a couple days ago!”
    “Look, I was trying to be nice...and honest...at the same time, okay?”
    “You want my honest opinion,” Gill huffed. “I hate all of you. Even you.” He snapped his head at Haywire.
    “Me?” Haywire said with an innocent smile. “Now what on earth did I do?”
    “You still haven’t told me how you knew it was my musher that stole the mail!”
    “Oh, that was easy,” Haywire replied with a shrug. He lifted a paw, and pulled out the crumpled, tattered letter from under his collar. “’Merry be the date / In dawning the sun comes up late / Lest it somehow finds it way home’. Obviously, someone wanted Mr. Drago out of the picture, and hoped he’d never come back – which explains the first two lines. But the third gave it away. Now, who – in all of Nome – would want to get rid of Mr. Drago, musher of the mail team?”
    “Sure. Other mushers. But why?”
    Ambyr suddenly perked her ears. “The Iditarod race! The mail team’s already entered, but Gill’s musher got jealous and wanted us all disqualified by framing Mr. Drago!”
    Haywire nodded, clearly pleased with himself.
    Gill huffed again. “Well, this has been an education,” he said. “Catch you losers at the race then.” He turned to go.
    “Wait,” Ambyr called. “You have no musher now! How are you going to enter the race?”
    “I’ll find someone,” he simply replied. And with that, he quit the saw mill, disappearing completely from view.

    Ambyr and Haywire looked at one another, each having the same thought in their heads. After a few seconds of awkward silence, they both burst out laughing.



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