Ralph rolled his eyes and shook his head disdainfully. “You could have just said yes.”
Kirby stopped dead in his tracks and twisted his face into confusion over where the conversation had gotten turned and he had gotten lost. Ralph continued on with head held slightly higher at the victory in logic.
“No, no, no.” Kirby said with a boost to his feet, brining him shoulder to shoulder with Ralph again. “I mean he’s feeling bad about us being in the lead. And I think he might be feeling jealous about Sarge.”
“Sarge?” Ralph scoffed with a shrug of his shoulders. “What does he have to be jealous about? I mean Sarge is really cool, and he knows so much about everything, and he’s had some really cool adventures, but Kodi’s had some … really, neat …” Ralph trailed off before he could embarrass his friend.
“Exactly what I mean. Kodi doesn’t have much to compare with Sarge.” Depression filled Kirby’s voice like a warrior lost on the planes of despair; he sighed so to prove his point
Ralph looked over at Kirby with a deep understanding, and a possible solution. “Maybe if we brought Kodi with us and got him to know Sarge a little better?”
Kirby shot Ralph a glare of pungent petulance. “That is a horrible idea.”
“Why?” Ralph’s head bounded back in disappointment. “It seems like a good idea.”
“No it doesn’t. Dusty and the Sarge don’t exactly like Kodi, remember?”
“You’re right, I guess they don’t” Continued Ralph, a malignant grin grew across his face and the beginning of a laugh began to edge up on his lips “Neither do we for that much either.”
It could have just been perfect timing, a stroke of bad luck, or just some chance in space that at that exact moment Kodi stepped out into the street barely a foot in front of Kirby and Ralph. Kodi’s eyes seared to his lost ago friends and flashed with acrimony deep as a bear’s stomach.
“Err, a … Hi Kodi.” Ralph sputtered at the utter shock of his teammate.
“Hey Kodi, where ya been?” Kirby threw together with shaky haste.
Kodi had been listening in for some time, and in his mind barely saw it fit to cross their eyes with his own. Nevertheless what they did say was the truth. “Hey guys.” Kodi said without enthusiasm, forgetting what they had said about him. “What do you want?”
Kirby seemed to be the first to snap away from shock. “Well, we just came to see what you’ve been up to.”
“Yeah.” Ralph agreed.
Kodi looked them over for a better meaning. “Is that all?”
“No.” Ralph submitted in a low tone that said there was more. “We also came to get you for Mr. Simpson. He’s looking all over town for you.”
“Why?” Kodi shook his head. “It’s not the mail day.”
Kirby cleared his throat. “We’re beginning to train in our off days now, and this morning when you weren’t there we figured you didn’t hear about it; so we came looking for you. We’re running up north in the snow country today”
“Fine,” Kodi submitted with a bow of his head that stayed bowed. Pushing between Kirby and Ralph he began to walk in a less than happy, or even mildly enthused, way towards the post office.
Kirby and Ralph met eye’s for a moment, then looked at Kodi, swinging his tail low to the snow, then back at each other. Without a second thought Kirby and Ralph both bolted to Kodi’s sides.
Pulling up on Kodi’s right side momentarily before Ralph, Kirby spoke low and right into his broken teammate’s ear. “Hey Kodi, are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah,” Kodi lied. “Just tired from all this extra pulling we’ve been doing lately.”
“That’s a pretty lame excuse Kodi.” Ralph uttered without second thought. Two sets of eye’s locked onto him immediately and drove Ralph to lower his ears at the stupid remark. “Sorry.” He said under his breath.
“You know he is right Kodi.” Kirby continued. “We really haven’t been doing that much hard work lately.”
Kodi locked eyes with Kirby, full of rage and red with anger to prove it.
“Don’t look at me,” Snapped Kirby in a friendly way with a chuckle in between. “You know it’s true.”
A small boost of energy pushed at Kodi’s paws and he began to move away from his teammates.
“Come on Kodi.” Kirby begged. “Don’t be like that.”
Kodi kept walking at his faster pace, gradually outdistancing the two tumors that held to his sides.
“Oh come on Kodi.” Ralph spoke in the emerging energy of the conversation. “You’re being puppyish.”
His paws stopped cold in the snow, Kodi turned with a red rage in his eyes never seen by either of his friends. “What?”
Ralph stopped before he could get any closer to Kodi’s razor sharp teeth and infuriated voice. “Nothing.” He said clear and calm.
Kodi snapped his entire body around. “I am not being puppyish!”
Kirby came up to Kodi’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. He doesn’t know what he’s saying Kodi; you know how he is.” Kirby swirled his extended front toe around his ear and crossed his eyes.
The logic seemed to sink into Kodi. “Fine … but Ralph if you speak again don’t think I won’t do something.” Kodi continued on, leaving Kirby and the tense moment.
Ralph followed suit up next to his look-alike friend. “I didn’t think I said anything.”
“Don’t worry.” Kirby turned and continued. “Kodi’s just having a hard time with everything.”
Far north of Nome, nearly thirty five miles from the safety of town and nearly six thousand feet above the ocean, the team carried on in a never ending trudge through the thickest snow they had ever encountered. It was already growing late in the day and the sun had fell into the darkness of space; the only light that kept the team from plummeting over a possible cliff being the green, blue, and red hue’s of the northern lights that shimmered insecurely above. Plummeting temperatures and an acid wind blew across the ragged mountain plateaus; the team traversed with something far less than ease or comfort.
“This sucks.” Kirby grinded through his bared fangs of anger. By chance, or bad leadership, Kirby and Ralph had led the team into snow deeper than Mr. Simpson was tall. Kirby floundered forward into the snow, trying to knock down what was in front of him and build up a pad under him so he could leap forward into the powder to repeat it. Ralph copied him, and both panted and screamed out in exhaustion.
The rest of the team could do nothing more than keep the slack on the two leaders as loose as they could, and keep from sliding off the trail into the unpacked sides.
“Don’t worry boys, we’re almost there.” Mr. Simpson yelled on. “Just a couple more feet.”
“I’m, so, tired.” Ralph’s red silhouette panted when he paused for a break while Kirby continued. “And my toe is just killing me.”
“Just keep trying Ralph, you’re doing a good job; you to Kirby.” Dusty encouraged. “Just remember that it can’t last forever.”
“Sure seems like it.” Said Ralph before leaping into his harness at the snow in front of him with a growl.
Kodi glanced at Dusty and felt a virulent feeling of acrimony flow through him towards her. Personally Kodi had been pleasantly watching Kirby and Ralph work themselves to death at the lead. It seemed only fair that after the stuff he had heard them talking about in the street several hours earlier they should be punished; and whether the punishment come by him or just inauspicious luck didn’t matter much in Kodi’s mind.
Dusty caught Kodi watching her and suddenly snapped at Kodi with her open jaws, barely missing Kodi. “What are you looking at!!”
He let his eyes cast slowly forward and Kodi felt the
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