happened, my Grandsire took mother back to the camp. He arranged for my sister to be taken to a manvillage close to Nome known as Solomon. Under no circumstances could she be taken to Nome for reasons I couldn't figure out.Naturally, I decided as soon as I was able, the first place after Solomon I would go to would be Nome. 

 I was to follow her and be her protector, as my mother told me secretly. So when my sister began left the pack, I followed. My mother tenderly licked my sister goodbye, and nodded her head to me. A pang I didn't recognize hit me in the gut. I realized that I wished my mother could love me as much as she loved Aatha. But I looked too strange and  and Aatha looked just like my father. I was the strange one. We were but a year old. Most of my kind stay with their family for years, if not a lifetime. We left early the next morning, my mother gazing off after my sister. 

CHAPTER THREE~Phir of Man

Our escort dropped us off at the outskirts of Solomon. Wooden human-dens lay covered in melting snow. I didn't show it, but I was somewhat excited to start new somewhere. My sister started towards the town and I followed.

My sister called my name, wanting to enter the town together. Though we didn't share a deep bond, we were still connected, and embarassing her was really not necessary right now.  I found a wet patch of ground and rolled my face in it. It was disgusting, but when I looked in a muddy puddle, a dark smudge covered the right side of my face and looked like an innocent marking. Satisfied, I joined my sister, and she looked at me and flinched. I looked down. She couldn't forget what I was. It was so as we entered the town.

Smells overwhelmed us as we hit the small town. The human stench was the worst, though my sister didn't seem bothered by it. She fit in perfectly, her bold, dark markings just screamed dog. My mousy-gray pelt screamed mutt. I caught traces of dog, food, and a bunch of other stuff I didn't recognize. We traced around the cricumference of the town, looking for somewhere to stay. Suddenly there was growling from all around us. Spooked, I growled back, and my Aatha nipped me soundly on the muzzle. I was so overwhelmed by all of the human smells, I didn't even notice the smell of dog. Now we were trapped.

My hackles were up, and I was ready for a fight, even though I knew we couldn’t be a match at all for the six lean dogs that stood in front of me. They all had the markings of dog, and they were well muscled. A very handsome, yet large dog stepped forward. He had black at the corner of each eye. Besides that he was mostly white on his face, and starting with his ears, his body was totally black. The tip of his curly tail was white, also.

He approached my sister and circled her once, eyeing her hungrily. Her red-brown fur was a huge contrast to his coal-black coat.   

“Hey, there” he said, his blue eyes looking over my sister. I nearly gagged. He licked her face slowly and my Aatha tried to pull away, but he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. That was what put me over the edge.

I snarled as I lunged at him, and I felt my teeth meet his muzzle. My ears pounded with blood as I realized I was losing control. I was on the hunt again. I wanted blood. He fell over from my impact, but his brute size and strength soon had him up on his feet again. The dogs surrounding us were barking insanely while my sister cowered behind me. The black dog turned towards me and I was happy to see scarlet drops run down his white muzzle.

“Appreciate it while you can,” he growled, shaking the blood from his face.

“Don’t worry,” I replied, “I’ll give you more.”

Infuriated, he jumped at me, and I easily dodged him and bit down on his ear. I spit out a piece of black flesh, satisfied that part of his ear was now on the ground. He turned on me faster than what I would expect from such a large dog, and soon I was biting for whatever part of his body I could get my teeth on. His teeth met my flesh more than once, and blood was beginning to fall into my eyes. I kept trying to feel for that tender belly or the vital neck, anything to complete the kill.

Suddenly something grasped my scruff and I yelped as I was thrown away from the fight.

“Whoa, settle Flint. Bad dog.”

 Too tired and injured to stand up again, I looked at my new attacker. He was a human. He held Flint to the ground as he glared at me. The human slipped a collar over Flint’s neck and tied him to a nearby railing. I realized that my sister approached the human warily and the human was gently stroking her.

“Where’d you come from, girl? Eh?” My sister warily wagged her tail. It was all just too much for me. Between the fight, my wounds, and my sister abandoning me for a human, it was just too much. A black night fell over my eyes, and I knew no more.

Chapter Four~ Phir no More

I woke slowly, blinking in the early morning light. Slowly I heaved myself to my feet and stretched. I winced at the scratches that stung like heck. I felt something tug at my neck and I realized I was attached to a chain which was attached to some sort of small, wooden den. Then the previous night’s events struck me. Panicked, I darted, only to be yanked back by my chain. I continued pulling until my oxygen supply became very limited and even then I was still fighting the chain. After I wore myself out completely, I began to be rational again.

Then I noticed the seven other dogs staring at me, some vehemently. I recognized the black, white faced dog named Flint (I was very satisfied to see that part of his ear still was missing), and my sister who was looking at me in disdain. I realized what an idiot I must have looked like, panicking against my chain like that. But I didn’t care. After what I did for her she should have shown me a little compassion. Flustered, I started to groom myself, pretending that I didn’t care that these dogs were staring at me.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, a door opened from the human den, and the all the canines went crazy, except for my sister and I who had absolutely no idea what was going on. He had a bucket filled with something that smelled delicious. He began throwing silver things with big mouths and strange limbs. He came to me and I shied away from the strange thing.

“It’s only fish, girl,” he said, his voice gruff, yet friendly. I didn’t trust him one bit. I glared at him. My stomach growled but I dared not go near the human. He shrugged and walked on to feed the behemoth dog next to me. He was all a hazel brown with darker ears and paws and a white spot around his left eye. He eyed the fish and then gulped it down in one bite. He looked hungrily at mine, but he knew the limits of his chain.

The human went back towards his den. I saw my sister happily working on her ‘fish’, and since I refused to be outplayed by her, I approached my own. It smelled wonderful, so I took a tentative bite out of it. It was soon gone and my hunger was abated. I spent the next part of the morning dozing, wondering if I would spend my whole life on this infernal chain or if I would have a chance to escape.

I observed the rest of the team. They were all lying out in the sun, not doing much. My sister looked just like one of them, especially since the dog next to her was a beautiful red Siberian husky, the same shape as my sister, only Aatha had a slightly browner coat, larger build, and her paws were bigger, but they could’ve been sisters besides that. There was an orange-ish dog with black stockings and black ears, and then Flint. There was also a white, brown-speckled dog and a dark gray dog with strange speckles up his legs. Once I grew bored of watching, I began to doze off, dreaming of woods and freedom.

I woke when the monster-dog next to me let out a large bark. I growled irritably at him and he just kept on barking. Not the most intelligent creature, my neighbor. I saw the man come out, bearing the harnesses that I saw the dogs wear whenever a team came close to my old home. I had a feeling that this wasn’t going to turn out well.  Most of the dogs just stepped right into the harnesses, but a few had the human shove it on to them.

My interest grew as he neared my sister. He dropped the harness down gently in front of her, letting her investigate. Aatha began to gently wag her tail, and she let the man place the harness over her.I was taken aback by her fearlessness of man. Silly, I thought. We are sister, but she's nothing at all like me.

Eventually the man neared me. He placed the harness in front of me, but I had no interest. I backed away as far as my chain would let me. He stepped towards me, and I let out a low growl. He shook his head, and then pulled out some sort of meat from a pocket he had in his strange pelt. He dropped in on the ground, and it smelled delicious. My interest remained on the meat for too long, and suddenly, the human lunged at me, grabbing by my scruff. I couldn’t squirm away and I couldn’t bite him. He quickly slipped the harness over my head and jumped away. I couldn’t believe it. I was a dog. And I couldn’t escape it.

“That’a girl,” he said. “That’a girl…….Bryn.”