Even as he tickled Gail, he felt blood drain from his paws and face to leave him paper-white with fear. “Where’s Robin?” He felt his heart choking him. Not Robin. Not his little bird.

Kira embraced him solemnly. He breathed in her warm scent, and when she stepped back he marveled at her glittering blue-green eyes.

“These little devilsdecided to follow you, and I had to go after them,” Kira explained pointedly, glaring at her children. “Little did they know they would get right in the middle of a war!”

Silver wriggled uncomfortably at Dusty’s feet. “How was I supposed to know?” he muttered.

“It was Silver’s idea,” Gail piped helpfully.

Silver shoved her over to Kira, and Gail swiped at him.

Kira nudged her daughter irritably and said heavily. “The other pack captured Robin when we were running through here last night. They would’ve gotten Silver and Gail, too, if a runaway hadn’t distracted them.” Kira threw Dusty a sharp look. “From the scent and how she ran, I think it was your sister, Chase.”

Dusty felt ice creep into his veins. He whipped around to see the cave entrance empty except for a snoring Kaila. Thunder rumbled in his ears. “No.” Not Robin and Chase. Why them? Why now? “Kaila!” He skidded over to her and poked at her sides, and face, and finally resolved to shaking her. “Where’s Chase?”

Kaila’s bleary eyes opened weakly. “Wha-what?”

“Chase! Where’s Chase?” Dusty practically shrieked. His paws shook. He was trying to calm down, but his body seemed to be on autopilot.

Kaila looked around sleepily, and then hauled herself to her feet. “I-I don’t know! Oh my gosh, I fell asleep! How could I have fallen asleep?” She suddenly froze, and her nose plowed through the snow at her feet. Her eyes widened, and then narrowed into slits. “Silver Arrow…It wasn’t a dream!”

Dusty felt himself spiraling out of control. “What dream? Who’s Silver Arrow?”

Kaila bit her lip as if she regretted what she had just said. “I remember Silver Arrow coming up to the cave and looking down at me. I thought it was a dream, but I must have been half-asleep or something. He was looking at me and then I heard someone call his name…” Her voice shook ever so slightly. “They…they didn’t kidnap Chase…did they?” Her eyes blazed, and she pounded the stone floor in frustration. “Oh, crap, crap, crap, and crap again!”

“Chase was kidnapped?” Ketch said in alarm as he slid in beside Dusty.

Kaila looked flustered. “Well, that’s what it looks like. The scents are all here. Chase’s leads away from the cave, and so does Silver Arrow’s…”

“I don’t care what happened. We need to get her back!” Ketch said fiercely.

“Chase was what?” Copper shouted as he pushed in next to Ketch.

The cave was in an uproar. Dogs, wolves, and mixes of the two milled about and tried to make sense of the yelling by yelling, adding all the more to the confusion.

Dusty stood very tense and still in the middle of the chaos, all his muscles clenched into a huge knot. What he saw in his mind’s eye was enough to make him scream in agony: Robin, small and trembling, crumpled on a cave floor as a huge shadow loomed above her. The figure that cast the shadow had claws like knives, and teeth like stones…

Robin’s image was replaced with Chase, but Chase was fighting back, hissing and spitting and sinking her teeth into anything that came near. Blood splattered her face and back, and she was lost in a barrage of wolves set to kill…

Robin’s and Chase’s screams mingled into one high-pitched, horrible note in Dusty’s head, and his muscles jerked as he kept his own cry from piercing the air. It was too much. The clamor pressed down on his ears, and he threw back his head and howled, “STOP!”

The shout echoed back in silence.

Dusty lowered his head and caught the eye of every canine around him. The pups were hiding, peeking out from behind Kira’s front legs. Dusty locked eyes with Kira and stepped slowly forward until he was by her side. He rubbed his chin against the top of her head, and she returned the gesture by touching her muzzle to his. He gave her a small smile, but then he stepped away and addressed the room with utmost seriousness. “Robin is like a daughter to me. And Chase is my sister. It looks as if they’ve both been kidnapped, and what do we do? We bicker and fight when we could be trying to save them! Today is the day of a battle. If we win nothing else, we need to win the presence of Robin and Chase here.” He glanced at Kaila. “And Lakota, Sage, Nilak, and Sarai.”

“I’ll be happy if my father is killed,” Taya said sharply.

Dusty watched her carefully. “He can be your target, Taya. The rest of us can fight to save the rest of the Anvil Creek pack and the others.”

“You know, I’ve only ever had to fight one-on-one,” Copper broke in, “But, Dusty, do you really think we can handle a battle?” He swept his paw to indicate the others. “There are only nine of us left.”

“We can fight, too!” Silver exclaimed, showing his teeth and growling, “We could get Robin while everybody else is getting Chase and whoever those other dogs are!”

“Easy, Silver,” Dusty said, placing a paw on Silver’s head and ruffling the pup’s fray fur, “You’ll be fighting only if we’re really desperate.”

Gail plodded up to her brother and pushed to have Dusty ruffle her head. “We’ll get Robin back, Dusty! We have to!”

Dusty nodded patiently, and turned to speak to Copper. “What else can we do? Sit around and wait for the rest of us to get captured? Who knows what they’re doing to Robin and Chase now? We need to act fast, and a battle is really our only option.”

Balto sighed resignedly. “Dusty’s right.” He mustered up a grin. “Well, this old dog will try to help as much as he can.”

“I’ll fight,” Copper said, “I guess it’s a good thing I went to those Northern Fights.”

“I’m a good fighter in the alleys,” Ketch said, “I’ll fight. For Chase.”

“Nilak taught me a little about strategy,” Cheyenne said quietly, “I could come up with a battle plan…”

Kiowa nodded, her pained eyes sparking. “I’ll do what I can…for Nilak.”

“It will be an honor to fight alongside my family, for my family,” Aniu declared in her husky voice.

Dusty turned to Kira. “Kira?”

“I’ll do my best to keep these two out of trouble,” she told him, nuzzling the backs of the pups’ heads with the very tip of her nose. Silver batted her muzzle away irritably, and Gail rolled her eyes. Kira raised her eyebrows. “At least the confusion will be less without them underfoot.”

Dusty knew she also meant she didn’t want the pups getting hurt or killed, but she knew the pups would complain about her worrying too much.

“I’ll fight,” Kaila muttered. She gazed out of the cave in a fierce trance. “It was my fault Chase was taken. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep.”

Dusty decided to ask the question that had been bugging him ever since Kaila had mentioned Silver Arrow. “Kaila, did Silver Arrow…hurt you at all?”

Kaila seemed indignant for some reason. “I would know if he did, wouldn’t I?” she growled, cocking an eyebrow.

“You know, I’ve been wondering if Chase was kidnapped at all,” Balto said slowly, “Think about it: why would they kidnap Chase and not Kaila? With her missing leg, Chase wouldn’t be much help to them. And they could have taken both of them; instead, they took the weaker one. Does that make any sense to anyone?”

There was silence like a stone wall inside the cave. Dusty felt the fur prickle on his neck as he realized the only two things that could have happened…

“Chase…wouldn’t go back to Steele’s side,” Copper said hesitantly. His voice was threaded with fear. “Would she?”

“No!” Ketch shot back. His cry ran defiantly through the cave. “Chase hates Steele! She would never join him again! Never!”

“Maybe she went for help?” Kaila suggested, but her tone was filled with doubt.

“Who could she ask for help?” Kira interjected.

“The street dogs,” Ketch muttered, but his voice was doubtful, too. “But she hates Ava…”

“Ava? Who’s Ava?” Dusty asked. A corner of his mind was screaming about how much time he had let pass without action. But he had to get to the bottom of this.

Ketch’s hazel eyes stared dully. “Ava is the dog who is looking after the street dogs while Chase and I are here. She’s Steele’s daughter…Everyone, including me, trusts her completely, but Chase hates her for who her father is.”

Taya’s head jerked up, and a puzzled expression filled her face. “I have a sister?”

Ketch nodded.

Taya frowned. “I don’t remember having a sister…” she mumbled.

Copper stood beside her and placed his paw on hers. “You were separated a lot from your siblings. Maybe you just need to see her to remember.”

Ketch’s brown, thinning fur bristled. “I don’t care what happened, or what the story is, or why!” he cried impatiently, “I need to have Chase back! I have to save her now! I’m leaving now, and if any of you think I’m being stupid, you can just shut your trap until I have her back!”

In the shouting and clamor that followed, Dusty saw Ketch turn towards the entrance, and only Dusty heard Ketch say, with the passion and sorrow that comes of a loved one lost, “I love her…”

A savage howl and the tramp of a hundred footsteps outside the cave cut everyone off in mid-sentence. Everyone listened breathlessly, and Dusty felt his heart and brain start to pound.

“Everyone get out of the cave,” he hissed, “If we get caught in here, we’re in a trap. C’mon, everyone out!” He dashed onto the tundra, and the sight took his breath away.

The snow had melted away almost completely, so the land was covered with green grass and patches of white and yellow flowers. The sky was a dark, swirling gray, but the white-gold sun shone brilliantly with two ashen clouds as its guards, shooting bright beams to earth to alight upon the unveiled trees and grasses. The scene was so picturesque, Dusty could hardly believe a battle would take place in it. But here they came, the Northern Hills pack, spreading like a stain across the beautiful spring tundra.

Dusty felt the others