A young Drifter sprinted through the trees; his panting was being followed by a series of angry snarls behind him. Drifter looked back. Three wolves tailed him, and were gaining fast. Their eyes were glowing, a seething fury burned inside unlike any Drifter had ever seen. Why was the pack doing this? Was it another test?

Drifter wanted so much to believe it was, but his mind screamed at him that it wasn’t. This was real. A young wolf...betrayed by his own pack.

Drifter ground his paws to the dirt. He gaped in front of him. A large, impassible waterfall blocked his way, the seemingly endless pit swallowing the water in huge gulps. Drifter whined and looked behind him.

The wolves slithered out from the thicket. They moved effortlessly around him, surrounding him on both sides. Right in front of Drifter was the pack. Behind him, was the waterfall. Drifter lowered his head and whimpered again.

The wolf in front of the other two sneered. “Look at him – cold, pathetic, and worthless!! I don’t even know why our leader bothered to take you in as one of us.”

“He’s not one of us,” a wolf behind him said.

Drifter put his paw on the ground. “I am too!” he said with a childish, uncertain voice. “This is my first time...aren’t we supposed to be hunting?”

The front wolf stepped closer to Drifter and growled. “Oh, but we are...” He advanced forward, forcing Drifter to step back, closer and closer to the waterfall’s edge.

“But...Tonrar!” Drifter whined and looked behind him at the other two wolves. “Iqniq? ...Yakone?” He stared at them pitifully, a sad, expecting look on his face. “...Why?”

The two wolves replied with a growl. Tonrar stepped forward again, causing Drifter to take his last step. A few pebbles rattled, and came plummeting down to the dark depths below. “...It’s a wolf thing,” he said simply.

With another furious bark, Drifter’s hind leg instinctively flinched back, over the edge. Drifter whined and whimpered as he tried to claw his way back on the ledge, but it was too late. His body was already pulling him down, and before he knew it, Drifter was plunging down into the thick blackness. Falling...falling...falling. The freezing cold splash was soon followed by a numbing blackness. Then...silence.

Drifter snapped awake and rose, accidentally banging the top of his head on a trashcan. It clattered loudly, but the silence of the night sky soon had the noise sealed up. Drifter was panting hard, just like he was in the dream. He shook his head from side to side, hoping the clear thoughts would return...but they didn’t. The nightmare was etched onto his mind forever. He crawled out from under his fold, and shook himself. Looking around, he instantly recognized the familiarity of his surroundings; an old, abandoned alleyway lined with filth and garbage. Yup...home sweet home.

He walked out. The streets were deserted, and the lights were all diminished. Nome was a ghost town. Not ever the mushers were up yet.

Drifter looked up at the full moon and whined. That dream only returned when something terrible was about to happen. And he could feel it in the chilly night air. Something, indeed, very terrible was about to happen. But he had no idea what. Skulking back into his alleyway, he ducked under a pile of crumpled papers and soon fell back into an unrestful sleep.

Ambyr awoke to the sound of people opening their shops, and the newsstand calling out the local reports. Ambyr got up and shook herself. She yawned as she stretched, and strode on over to the sleeping dogs beside her. She nudged one of them on the head. “Haywire...come on, we got mail duty, remember?”

Haywire groaned. “Did I ever tell you how much I hate it when you’re right?”

Ambyr smiled. “Get used to it.” She then strode over to the light blue Husky lightly snoring next to the heater. Ambyr lowered her head to his ear. “WOLVES!!”

Blitz jumped up, and snapped his head to the side, knocking Ambyr under the muzzle. “WOLVES?! WHERE?! WHY?! HOW?!” He looked around frantically, but only saw Haywire staring at him, and Ambyr rubbing her nose.

“Remind me not to do that anymore,” she said. “Come on. Mr. Drago must be waiting for us.” She threw the two dogs a wink and trotted out the door.

No one even noticed the shaggy dog in a nearby alleyway watching their every move, and hearing their every word.

Mr. Drago was, indeed, waiting for them. A soon as they were in sight, he latched them onto the sled. The other dogs came soon after, and the same thing was done to them. A heavy bag of mail was lifted onto the sled as the musher mounted. “White Mountain! Ya!” He threw the harnesses, and Blitz started leading the way. With excited barks, the rest of the sled team happily followed.

The first trip all the way to White Mountain ran very smoothly. No unscheduled blizzards or storms happened, and the snow was nice and padded. It was runs like these that made Blitz proud of being a mail dog.

The dogs were each given fresh bowls of water as the new mailbag was being loaded onto the sled. Haywire quickly finished first.

“You know if you drink that too fast, you’re gonna end up throwing it all up again,” said Blitz.

Haywire shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me.”

“Forget you, what about everyone else?” Ambyr said.

Haywire turned to her. “What about everyone else?” He smiled.

Ambyr was about to say something mean, but Mr. Drago gave out a yell to start the return trip back to Nome. Blitz barked and sprinted ahead.

Not long into the trip, the team found themselves running through the forest. Although it wasn’t too thick to pass through, Blitz had to maneuver around in order to dodge incoming trees in their way.

Haywire looked around. “Are you sure this is the right way?”

Blitz panted. “Of course I’m sure! Why?”

Haywire continued to wave his head around. “I dunno – this place somehow looks a little...different.”

“We pass through here every trip,” said Ambyr.

“Maybe that’s what worries me,” Haywire muttered. He looked past the trees, where the forest grew darker and more unfamiliar. Suddenly, it seemed as though Haywire was passing through this place for the first time. Get a grip, he told himself. But no matter how much he tried, he still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was not right. “Guys,” he said. “I think –“ Haywire gasped as he saw a slick shadow dodge among the trees. It only appeared for a brief moment, then it disappeared.

“What is it now, Haywire?”

“...I-I think we should get out of here...and quick.”

“What’s wrong?”

Haywire looked around for the shadow. He spotted it for another brief second as it dodged from tree to tree, following by the sled team’s side. “I know you guys think I’m crazy...but...I think we’re being followed.”

“Yeah? By who?”

A blood-curling howl answered Ambyr’s question. It pierced through the air, and seemed to shatter the sky as it traveled. The sled dogs fearfully turned their heads, this way and that, to try and find the source of the sound. Mr. Drago was also looking around, shocked. Blitz was about to turn his head too, but he had to think fast as he narrowly dodged a tree.

“Hey! Pay attention, everyone!”

The sled dogs tried and focused their attention directly in front of them, but uncertainty still filled their eyes.

Another howl filled the misty air around them. Blitz half expected one of the dogs to suffer a heart attack.

Haywire was darting his sights. The shadow appeared again...but then, another one followed...and another! It scattered his thoughts, he couldn’t think properly. Suddenly, he heard a snarl, and one of the dogs behind Haywire yelled. He turned his head to see one of the shadows running side by side with one of the dogs in the sled! It was furiously snapping at her, angry and violently. Then, another dog gave a scream when the second shadow appeared on the other side of the sled, growling and snapping as well.

Blitz couldn’t look back, “What’s going on?” he asked urgently.

“N-Nothing! You just concentrate on what you’re doing,” Ambyr replied.

Haywire was still staring in horror at the team being attacked. “SNAP BACK, YOU IDIOTS!!” he yelled to them.

Most of the dogs took the hint. While trying to traverse among the trees, some of them somehow found the courage to growl back and snap their jaws back.

“There’s three of them,” said Haywire to Ambyr. “Where’s the third?”

“Three of what?!” Blitz asked.

“NOTHING!!” yelled Ambyr. She was about to answer before she heard a startled gasp from Mr. Drago. Horrified, she turned back to see the last shadow trailing right behind their musher!

Mr. Drago had one hand on the sled, He was trying to distract the shadows by waving his free hand in the air, but none of them pain him any mind.

What ARE they, Haywire thought. He tried to focus on a shadow, but it moved too quickly and sharply for him to get a clear view.

Mr. Drago was desperately trying to shake off the shadow behind him. He tried taking small objects out of the sled, and throwing them at it, but none of them hit their mark. Then, the shadow lunged. Mr. Drago had nothing to do besides shift his body to the