here.”

 She took a deep breath.  Her body still ached, but she was beginning to regain just a little of her strength.  “I’ll live,” she answered.  “It takes more than this to kill me.”  She rubbed her muzzle against his and flicked her tongue across his nose.  He kissed her back, but the tender scene was interrupted by the door opening.  Toby instinctively dropped to the floor to shield the puppies from the icy blast of air as two snow-caked pairs of boots rushed in.

 “Are they here?” asked Charlie’s voice.

 Connie nodded.  “Yeah, they’re here.”

 Charlie knelt next to Toby while Eugene stood behind the group.  “Good job, boy,” he said, patting his dog on the head.

 “What’s he saying that to you for?” asked Luna.  “I did all the work.”

 Toby chuckled.  “When I figure out how, I’ll point that out to him.”  After a pause he added, “And I’m going to remember you said that in case you ever try to blame this on me.”

 Luna groaned.  “You’ve been practicing your bad jokes,” she noted.

 “What should we call them?” asked Connie, interrupting the discussion.

 “You remember our deal,” answered Charlie.  “I name the boys, you name the girls.”  He looked over the pups.  “Which ones are boys?”

 Connie’s father pointed to the three on the left.  “These three,” he answered.  “I put the boys and girls lined up so we’d know which ones were which without picking them up too much.”

 Charlie nodded.  “Good thinking,” he acknowledged as he knelt down.  “I was hoping there’d be three boys,” he added with the air of one who had thought things out beforehand.  Pointing his finger to each in turn, he said, “Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior.”

 Connie made an odd face.  “Those are some pretty weird names.”

 Charlie shrugged.  “They were the names of the three wise men.”

 “But how will anyone learn to say their names?” asked Eugene.  “ Casper, Belshazzy, and Melcho?  See, I can’t even say them.”

 He shrugged.  “They can use shorter ones,” he replied.

 “Caspar and Mel would work fine,” observed Connie’s father thoughtfully, “But Bel would come across as a girl’s name.”

 Charlie sagged.  “I guess I never thought of that,” he admitted.

 “How about Zar?” suggested Connie’s mother.

 Charlie brightened.  “That’s good!” he agreed.

 Connie looked over the girls, thought for a moment and asked, “What does Luna mean?”

 “Crazy,” Toby joked.

 “I think it means moon,” replied Mr. Calvin.

 Connie thought for a moment.  “Okay, then I’ll name her Star.”

 “Wasn’t there a dog on the medicine team with that name?” asked Eugene.

 “Now that you mention it, there was,” said Connie’s father.  “But I’m pretty sure that team was all male.”

 “Well I say her name is Star.  Let’s see, what about the other one?”  Connie looked at the second girl with a hand to her chin.  “What about you?” she asked.  “What should I call you?”

 “Angel?” offered Arrow.  She had no idea where the name had come from, but it seemed to fit.

 “How about Angel?” suggested Eugene as if he had understood her.

 Connie smiled.  “That’s a good name,” she said.  “How did you think of it?”

 Eugene shrugged.  “I guess it just came to me,” he replied.

 Connie nodded.  “Well, it’s a good name,” she decided.  “Angel it is.”

 “So which one do we put on the tree?” Charlie joked.

 Connie’s eyes widened.  “You leave those puppies alone!” she cried as Charlie laughed at the look on her face.

 Luna just stared at Arrow.  “How did you do that?” she asked. 

 The pup shrugged.  “I dunno,” she admitted.  “I guess he guessed what I was thinking, like a miracle or something.”

 Toby’s gentle smile could have pacified a rampaging bear.  “I think that’s what this whole thing is,” he replied.  “A miracle.”

 “All of it?” asked Arrow.  “Even all that noise Mom was making?”

 Luna nodded.  “Oh, especially that.” 

 As Arrow nestled herself between Luna’s front paws, Charlie impulsively began to sing and was soon joined by the Calvins.  Even Toby hummed a few lines, though to human ears it was just the thumping of his tail.

“The first No-oel, the-e angels did say,

Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay,

I-in fie-elds whe-ere they la-ay keeping their sheep,

On a cold winter’s ni-ight that wa-as so deep.

No-oel, No-oel, No-oel, Noel,

Born is the Ki-ing of I-Israel.” 

As the humans continued their soothing music, Luna felt the last of her pain slipping away.  Arrow felt her loneliness disappear, and Toby felt like a fifty-ton weight had been lifted off his shoulders.  Taking the place of all these was an overwhelming sense of peace and calm, as if there were some magic, or a thing beyond magic in the song.  They all knew the new additions to their family would take work to raise and somehow or other each manage to get into trouble, but for this blessed moment they were all at perfect rest.  Arrow smiled and pushed her head against the underside of Luna’s chin like a cat against a hand that wasn’t petting.  “Merry Christmas,” she whispered.

 Luna smiled, then in a quick motion bumped Arrow onto her side, buried her nose in the puppy’s fur, and blew making a raspberry sound.  Amidst her daughter’s laughter she said, “Merry Christmas.”

 Toby, drained but satisfied by the events of the past few hours, let out a prodigious yawn and added, “Merry Christmas… to… all…”

 As his mind drifted into slumber, Toby found himself thinking of the mysterious stranger who had led him to Arrow.  ‘I wonder where he disappeared to?’ he drowsily pondered.  ‘I wish I could thank him.’

 Meanwhile that same wolf stood by the front door, smiling at the whole scene.  “And to all, a good night,” he whispered in a voice no one could hear.  Then he passed through the door and walked through the streets of Nome, quietly enjoying the peace in the air and the satisfaction of a job well done.  No one noticed him, which is quite a pity.  After all, very few ever get to see a “wolf” spread out his wings and fly into the darkness.

Toby, Luna, Norik, Arrow, Connie, Eugene, Connie’s parents, Charlie Winters, Pete, and pups © Dragon Tamer

Taya, Copper © redwolf03

Kodi, Dusty © Universal Studios

Please Note: Due to the religious nature of the song lyrics in The First Noel, personal approval was obtained months in advanced from steet.  If you have any objections about this or any other content, please contact me or steet for resolution.

To find out the story of what went on before the Toby series, go to my shared account with Kelev http://baltosource.timduru.org/en/fanfic/PoliceDog/1456.html for the upcoming story, "Toby: The

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