despise every bone in his body,” Douglas said, obviously able to hear her.

“Oh really?” Hal hummed quietly as he began circling this stranger, “Interesting.”

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

“Dead. Three of them. Found ‘em this morning.”

“No way, you must be pulling my chain.”

“Nope. Being one hundred percent honest. Two of ‘em were pretty messed up. Had that huge stack ‘o barrels fall right onto ‘em and crush ‘em. Third one weren’t much better off neither.”

Dixie gasped. “This is so unbelievable! I gotta tell Sylvia about this one, and thanks for the tip!”

The dog nodded, “T’weren’t nothin’.”

Dixie rushed down the street, her collar clanking as it bounced about her small frame. The first signs of dawn were beginning to show themselves as the sky began to warm up beyond the horizon. The prissy dog passed by a lamp post just in time for it to flicker out. She giggled when a snowy wind danced around her, swirling her fur before whisking away. The drifts of snow that lay upon the houses in thick blankets groaned and heaved at each pass of the breeze. A chunk finally gave way and slid clumsily off its roof before plopping to the ground with a thud. Dixie punched her nose through the drift that had just fallen on her. She crawled out of the pile of snow and looked herself over again, gasping unhappily at the sight.

“Oh my fur!” she wailed.

She shook herself vigorously, throwing off the powdery fluff that was trying to decorate itself on her.

“Really now? It’s only snow,” said a familiar voice.

Dixie turned around and saw Sylvia shaking her head at her. Dixie coughed in her paw quietly and then suddenly remembered why she had been looking for her friend.“Oh Sylvia!” she chirped, “Did you hear what went down in the boiler room last night?”

Sylvia quickly took interest, “Actually, no I didn’t. Give me all the details.”

The blond dog lowered one of her long ears towards Dixie as she whispered into it intensely.

“I heard they found three more dogs that kicked the bucket. One was a sled dog, and we couldn’t even tell who the other two were from how badly they were messed up. Apparently, the killer dropped barrels on them and then got away without anyone seeing.”Sylvia’s jaw dropped at the mention of this hot tip. The shocking thing for her though, was that this news could fit into what she had wanted to share with Dixie.

“Well, isn’t this interesting,” she whispered back, “I heard that a dog saw Balto wandering out with Jenna from her house this morning, and they both looked pretty beat up from their appearance. Jenna was exhausted, and apparently Balto was looking quite proud of himself… I wonder.”

“Wonder what?” Dixie asked eagerly.

“I wonder if Balto had something to do with this, maybe even killed them. And Jenna saw and so now he’s forcing her to be quiet. Maybe…” she suddenly paused and then began looking more enthusiastic, “What if Doc is in fact using Balto to do his dirty work for him, because he thought no one would doubt either one of them because of their status in our town’s hierarchy. If so, then we were right about that wolf-dog all along, and now we may have an actually theory linking Doc and the murders.”

“Careful though Sylvia, remember what happened last time we accused Balto of something. We were so wrong, and I don’t want to feel ashamed again.”

Sylvia pondered for a moment, “For once, you actually may be right. We won’t actually accuse Balto though. We’ll just tell everyone to watch him, make sure he doesn’t do anything too suspicious. Oh, and no letting anyone of Balto’s close friends know. We don’t want them to ruin the test. Deal?”

“Deal.”

The two quickly separated and darted off in opposite directions, stopping anyone that appeared onto the streets as the town began to stir to life.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

The trio, Nikki, Kaltag, and Star, walked casually down the street. Kaltag was in the middle, and he was frequently looking back and forth between his two other friends. He was frowning, not because of a disappointment in either of them, but because of how depressed both of them seemed, their heads hung low and their feet dragging through the snow.

“Oh come on guys, cheer up. I’m sure it won’t be that bad. I’ll be sure to vouch for the both of you,” Kaltag said warmly.

Nikki sighed, “But who’s gonna believe you’s guys? We was helping that scoundrel.”

“But hey, neither of you actually injured anyone that badly. And from what it sounds like, there wasn’t much choice that you had.”

Star turned up to Kaltag, “If the gossip hounds get a hold of this though, no one will believe what any of us have to say.”

Kaltag grinned, “Well, I won’t let them hear this though, and I’ll make sure that none of the other dogs spill either. I just talked with Doc this morning, and he promised to hear what happened as soon as this whole thing blows over with him and the town.”

“What’s going on with him and the town?” asked Star.

“’Member Star, we was locked up there for awhile, so we had to miss somethin’.”

“I’ll tell you guys later. But I’m sure he’ll go really easy on you.”

Star bit his lip. “But Kaltag, we were told that if they came back that we-”

He suddenly held his tongue when Nikki shot him a look. They couldn’t even let their friend know, because Nikki knew that they’d basically under house arrest for an unspecified amount of time, and he didn’t want that. Star fell silent and lowered his head again.

“You’d what?” questioned Kaltag, not seeing the look Nikki had given Star. “You can tell me,” Kaltag encouraged.

“Thing is Kal, we can’t. Wish we could, but we can’t,” Nikki said.

Kaltag opened his mouth in protest, but decided it would be best not to take that route. “Well… I guess if you ever feel like saying anything, you can tell me whenever you like.”

“Thanks for understandin’ there.”

“What’re friends for?”

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Jenna and Balto walked along side each other as they headed away from town. They saw the shape of Balto’s derelict ship off in the distance and they hurried their pace, making sure to not injure themselves in the process. They walked up a plank to the deck of the vessel which sighed under their weight and Balto called out.

“Honey! I’m home!”

Balto grinned as he saw Jenna giggle from the corner of his eye. A Russian snow goose looked down at them from atop a crate and smiled.

“Oi! Finally you are getting home! I almost call Coast Guard.”

Boris then stared forward again and leaned back against the wall of the cab, folding his wings behind his head.

“Hey Boris, what’re you doing up there anyways?”

The goose stood back up and hopped from the crate and waddled towards the two dogs. He put a wing to his beak and began whispering like he had a secret he was dying to tell.

“To tell truth. Muk and Luk come to play game, and I mention hide and seek,” Boris pointed his other wing back towards the cab, and Balto and Jenna could see a large lump moving clearly underneath Balto’s blanket, “but vhat they are not knowing is that I vill do no seeking. Is genius, no?”

“Until they realize what you’re doing that is,” Balto chuckled.

Boris laughed, “Those two? Figure that out? Is riot!… Ay! Vhat are these things?”

The goose examined little brown strips that were placed strategically over their bodies. He took the end of one strip on Balto and began tugging at it curiously before he started to tear it off, which Balto winced at. Boris quickly stopped and Jenna smiled.

“I warned you about these things Balto.”

Boris saw how the two were nearly decorated with these strange accessories and he scratched his head.

“Vhat on Earth is use of these?”

“They’re used to help heal things if I understood right, but they really hurt when you get ’em taken off. I would know,” Jenna said cheerfully.

“But vhy would you need such things?”

Balto paused for a moment, “Well, let’s just say that a lot happened last night.”

“I knew I should not have left you alone by yourself! You are like magnet for trouble!” Boris fumed, “From now on, you are not to be leaving my sight.”

“C’mon Boris, you don’t need to get overprotective on me now,” Balto protested.

“But-”

Jenna stepped between the two, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he stays out of trouble. I’ll be your eyes.”

Boris laid a wing on her shoulder, “Alright then Missy. But I am counting on you to be keeping taps on this one. He is quite the slick one.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Balto raised a paw, “Don’t I get any say in this?”

“Of course not. Is for your own good,” Boris smiled slyly.

The lump underneath Balto’s blanket began to stir. Muk peeked his head through and looked around cautiously.

“Uncle Boris? Have you found us yet?” he called out