"What about you, Tyee?"

    "What I do with the female is none of your business," he said, rather rudely. "But both of my parents died and I became a sled dog after my master took me."

    "What happened to your parents?" Benjamin asked.

    "They got shot." There was a moment of uncomfortable silence because Tyee decided to break it. "What about you, kid?" he asked Dakota.

    Dakota looked up from his spot. His eyes rested while he was listening in on the conversation, but didn't want anything to do with it. "I just want to win this race. My reason is probably more just than any of yours." he scoffed.

    "Yeah, I'm sure you wanting to win her to force her to become your mate is very 'just'." Benjamin growled. Dakota abruptly stood and snarled at the red husky.

    "Only the sick and twisted would do something as wicked as that!" he yelled. "Or is that how YOUR mind works?" Dakota looked up and saw that the sun was coming up. He felt he rested enough, so he began the race again. He ran until the sun was as high in the sky as it could get, he heard the rest of the dogs trailing behind him. He expected to see Julius and Leonti to be at rest somewhere ahead, but instead he smelled the worst smell he could ever detect. It was the smell of blood and as he ran further ahead, he found the source of the scent, and he stopped.

    Laying in the muck and slush, in puddles of thick mud and blood and water, was Julius. It was no doubt he was dead. His entire stomach was ripped clean, and his fur was sprinkled about the area in salivated chunks. The tracks in the ground were from the two dogs, and a bear. There was not anything Dakota could do about Julius now, and it was best for him to get out of the area as soon as possible so that the bear wouldn't come back for seconds.

    Dakota saw the prints of Leonti headed in the wrong direction, so he knew he had one less competitor to worry about in this race. Or two less competitors, rather. Dakota began to continue running south when he heard the others gasp behind him from the sight. He knew that he should just leave them to deal with the bear if it showed up again and he needed to get the heck out of there that instant.

    Before he got too into the race again, he heard screams coming from behind him. He stopped and whipped his head back to see Benjamin and Tyee running right past him. "Where's Cobalt?" he asked himself. He heard another scream coming from where he saw Julius' dead body and without a second thought, Dakota ran to aid Cobalt. He saw the dog crouching down in the snow shaking, bleeding from his leg, and right in front of him was the bear with blood on it's face. The bear wasn't huge, but it was big enough to take on two dogs.

    "Help me!" Cobalt cried. Dakota ran towards the bear and managed to latch his jaws on the inner thigh of the bear. The animal roared in pain and slashed at Dakota. He got hit, but luckily not with claws. The bear was then after Dakota, who started to run, but stopped after he heard the bear bellow out in pain again. He looked back and saw Benjamin and Tyee attacking the bear. Dakota didn't know why the hell they were doing that, but he didn't ask and joined in the fight.

    Benjamin was hanging onto the bear's throat while Tyee was biting at it's feet. Dakota bit the bear's foot opposite the one Tyee was biting, and pulled. The bear fell, and once that happened, the poor animal ran away in cowardice. At that moment, Tyee and Benjamin ran away, urging Dakota to follow. He didn't right away and looked at Cobalt who was laying by the tree was he originally up against. He approached him.

    "Are you coming?" Dakota asked once he realized Cobalt was still alive.

    "I can't." Cobalt said irritably. "My leg is busted, I can't race."

    "Lemme help you." Dakota offered.

    "No! Get away! Just go!" Cobalt ordered. "I'll make my way back, its not that far." Dakota looked at him, rather puzzled, but did as he was told. He knew when a male had his pride and he wanted to respect that, so he kept running and eventually caught up the Benjamin and Tyee, although he was still lagging behind a ways. He kept his pace until eventually they all stopped for the night. Dakota received no sleep the previous night, so he decided tonight was the night to catch up on it.

    Dakota only let himself have three hours of sleep before he left, and when he woke up, Benjamin and Tyee were still sleeping. He looked at them, knowing he had actually grown close to them without realizing. But he couldn't let them have Kiona, no matter what their intentions were. He couldn't trust them completely, and wouldn't. He turned around, ran as fast as his legs could carry him, and never looked back, even when they caught up behind him. Dakota planned on making it to Kiona that day; that evening at the latest.

~~~

    Even running as fast as he could, Dakota still barely made it to the town by sunset. He snooped around, not caring if Benjamin or Tyee were following, trying to find where his sister was. Slinking through the town, he finally found where she was. It was a little dark to see, but she was inside of the house, looking for any means of escape. He went over to the hinges of the door and lifted a screw out of one of them (a little trick he learned from his father), when he heard two sets of paws walking towards him. Benjamin and Tyee were there, knowing that "their prize" awaited them inside. Dakota got into a protective stance and bristled his fur.

    "Back off! I found her first!" he growled.

    "Ah...but kiddo," Benjamin started. "I believe you've forgotten that the rules were specifically that whoever GOT to her first, wins. And...by the looks of it, it's still a race." He smirked.

    Dakota growled. If it was going to come to him beating the pulp out of both of them to keep their filthy paws off Kiona, then so be it. He wasn't going to let them violate her--

    There was yelling coming from inside the house and the three outside dogs froze. A middle-aged man opened the door and spotted them. He yelled out something in some foreign tongue and whipped out a gun. Tyee and Benjamin bolted, but Dakota didn't until he saw his sister run past the man and out of the house. He followed her. Benjamin saw the two running in another direction, so he followed them too. There was a single gunshot and when Dakota looked back to see who was following them, he only saw the red husky.

    "Run faster!" Dakota yelled to his sister. They made it into the woods, but when they did, Kiona tripped and Dakota tripped over her, landing on top of her.

    "Get OFF ME!" she yelled. There was something different about her voice. It sounded...younger. Dakota stood up and looked down.

    "Sorry, Ki--" The female below him did indeed resemble Kiona in uncanny ways, but...it was not her. "What...? You're not my--" Dakota was tackled off the female by a large body that belonged to none other than Benjamin. Dakota gathered himself and witnessed the husky straddling himself over the female, her struggling to get away, frightened out of her mind. "Hey! Get off her!" Dakota grabbed Benjamin's neck with his jaws and pushed him off her.

    "So that WAS all you wanted her for!" Dakota snarled, teeth still around Benjamin's neck. "You don't deserve to live, you disgusting DOG!" Dakota was so blinded by his rage, he didn't comprehend until it was too late that Benjamin had kicked him off and started biting him.

    "I'm not going to let a stupid mutt get in my way!" Benjamin spat in between attacks. The wolf dog was bleeding, but he didn't let it defeat him. He found an opening for himself to attack and he did, taking a big chunk out of the husky's face. Benjamin cried out in pain as blood splashed from the deep wound across his eye. Dakota took that as the opportunity to get rid of the scum bag. He took a tight grip around the dog's neck and offered to let him go free if he never went near the female again. Benjamin was foolish enough to refuse and Dakota tightened his grip and shook him. The husky did not die, but he was so overwhelmed, he passed out.

    Dakota snorted and went to face the female, but when he looked, she was gone. She had not gone far because he ended up finding her. She kept running from him, though, unaware of his intentions.

    "Wait! Come back!" he pleaded.

    "Just leave me alone!" she cried, stumbling due to her blinding tears. She fell in the snow and her tears fell harder. Dakota sat by her side.

    "Are you okay?"

    "Go away!"

    Dakota looked down at the poor female. She was still scared. He didn't touch her, although he did feel the need to comfort her. "I'm not going to hurt you." he said. She looked up at him and stared at him for a moment. Then she broke down next to him. He put his head on her, but not the rest of his body. She fell asleep, and he kept watch over her, feeling rather embarrassed that he thought she was his sister, but after seeing how she acts, she noticed how she wasn't anything like Kiona at all.

~~~