red-checked tablecloth formed a makeshift stage.  Everywhere throughout the room there were chairs and crates set up to serve as seats.  And in the middle there was a sawdust pit surrounded by a tall iron fence.  The sawdust had once been stained red, but now it was faded to a dull brown.

Taya’s mind flashed back to a time years ago, when the seats had been filled with as many as fifty or sixty people, all yelling like madmen (which most of them were).  Dogs were fighting in the ring.  Strong dogs, weak dogs, big ones and small, biting and slashing and howling loud enough to wake the dead.  Taya shivered as she broke out of her trance.  No wonder the building was so familiar!  It had been her home once!  This place… was the place of the Northern Fights.

A sound made her turn her head to an opening door at the back of the room.  Out stepped a man in old clothes, mostly mismatched.  She had last seen him in a reasonably good suit, but the face was still the same.  ‘ Carson!’ she thought, bristling.  Nicholas Carson was Taya’s former owner, and if there was anyone she hated more than Steele, it was him.

“Taya?” he asked in recognition.  “Well, waddya know?  Here I am, getting supplies to go back into business, and along comes my old champion!  Ha ha ha.”

Taya lunged at Carson, rage burning in her eyes.  She had no plans of letting him start this place up again, especially with her as the star attraction.  Seeing her fury, Carson slammed the door in her face, momentarily dazing her.  She heard him running to another door about ten feet away and was there waiting when he opened it.  But as she lunged, she found herself trapped in a bedsheet.  She tried desperately to claw her way free, but before she could get loose he had snatched her up, shoved her into a cage, and slammed the door shut.  The lock clicked just as Taya threw herself at the door.

“Don’t know how you got so cocky, dog, but you’ll remember soon enough who’s boss around here.”  He grabbed a rope attached to the cage and started to pull.  “Better put you in the kennel with the others.”

The kennel, as it turned out, was a storage room full of cages.  About half of the cages were full of dogs, and none of them looked happy to be there.  “Meet your new friends, Taya,” he laughed over the barking.  “Once I’ve got a few more, you’re all gonna fight each other so I can see who’s strongest.  Then I’ll smuggle the five winners down to New York City to be my new champions when I open up for business there.  Five champions, five times the money!”  He kicked Taya’s cage into a corner and walked out, laughing as he slammed the door behind him.

Copper was about a quarter of a mile away when he heard feet behind him.  He looked back and let out a groan.  “Great,” he muttered.

“Copper!” Toby called.  “My mom said I could come!”

“So I see,” muttered Copper.

Pete screeched to a stop next to Copper and looked over his shoulder at Toby and Luna.  “Okay, everybody off.”  He glared at Toby.  “And you’d better not have given me any fleas.”

Toby grumbled to himself as he and Luna jumped down.  “Thanks for the lift,” he said.

“Don’t mention it,” Pete ordered.  “Ever.”

“But I thought you wanted the girls in Nome to know you’re good with kids,” said Luna.

“Oh, right,” muttered Pete.  “Well, let me do the talking, okay?”

“As much as I hate to break up this little chat,” said Copper, “Shouldn’t we be getting a move-on?”

“Right,” agreed Toby.  He watched as his half-brother turned and headed back to Nome.  “I wonder if we’ve just found a way to get Pete to be nice to people,” he pondered.

“Maybe,” commented Luna.  “But I doubt it.  That big jerk-” but she stopped when she saw Toby’s dejected expression.  With a smile she added, “But hey, there’s hope for anyone, right?”

“Well, let’s worry about another time,” Copper broke in.  “Right now we’ve got bigger problems.  Toby, check the tracks.”

Toby sniffed the ground.  “Steele,” he muttered with a growl.  Smelling the other tracks he added, “These are Taya’s here, but these other two sets following her I don’t know.”

“Figures,” Copper growled.  “Can’t even take on his own daughter without a couple of rats to do his dirty work.”  He shook his head.  “Well, so far your nose has told us nothing useful, Toby, but since your ride into town has left you might as well come.”

“Sorry,” said Toby, “Just trying to help.”  As they walked along he whispered to Luna, “I’ve never seen your dad so… intense.”

“Me neither, but cut him some slack, will ya?” asked Luna.  “He’s trying to save my mom here, remember?”

They kept on going until they reached a spot where the tracks parted, with three sets going on and one set turning back to Nome.  “Looks like Steele left his hired help to escort Taya,” said Toby after inspecting the tracks.

Copper studied the ground.  “Who was running?” he asked, noting the lengthened strides of two of the dogs.

Toby sniffed.  “The street dogs,” he answered.

“But Taya just kept walking… muttered Copper.  “You kids had better hop on.  We can’t waste any time.”  As soon as they were on his back, he took off at a full run.

Taya clawed and bit at the wire mesh, but she couldn’t make any headway.  As her anger dissipated, it gave way to despair.  ‘I’m trapped,’ she thought, ‘And there’s no way out.’  Consumed with defeat, she laid her head down and let out a sigh.  ‘This time there’s no Copper to bust me out of here.’

“Hey, you okay?” asked a dog in the cage next to her old enough to be her father.

Taya scoffed.  “Do I look okay?” she asked.

The dog pulled back slightly.  “Hey, hey, easy,” he said.  “I’m just asking.  Name’s Blaze, by the way.”

“Taya,” said Taya anemically.

There was a moment’s silence as Blaze studied her, like he was trying to figure out some puzzle.  “So how’d you get here?” he asked.  “Did he kidnap you too?”

“No,” Taya answered.  “My…that is, someone I know chased me here.  I ran inside looking for safety…”

“…and found out you were better off outside,” he finished.  “I know how you feel.”

“I doubt it,” said Taya.  “My family must be going out of their minds worrying about me.”

“You feel like you let them down, huh?”

Taya shrugged.  “Yeah, I guess so.  I should have fought back, not run away.  Maybe then I wouldn’t be here.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” he said.  “But you’re not the only one to feel like you’ve failed someone because you didn’t try hard enough.  I’ve been in your shoes before.”

“Oh, have you?”

“In a way,” he said.  “I used to have a friend… a lady friend, but not a girlfriend, you know?  I really liked her, but she always seemed to already be going out with someone else.  Then after the epidemic in 1925, she started going with this guy who anyone could see was a real jerk.  I tried to tell her he was bad news, but she said that she thought she could change him.  Instead, he changed her.  Soon she wouldn’t have anything to do with me or any of her other friends."  He paused, visibly pained by the memory.  "My master moved out of Nome and took me with him.  When we came back to Nome for a short visit, I asked about her first thing.  They told me she died...giving birth to their pups, and he just left.”

“Sounds like what my parents did,” said Taya bitterly.

Blaze didn’t seem to hear her.  He was staring at the floor, numbly shaking his head.  “I tried to tell her Steele was no good, but…”

“WHAT?!” Taya asked, not sure she’d heard right.  Catching herself and forcing her voice to calm down, she asked, “Did you say 'Steele?'”

Blaze forced out a hard, cold laugh.  “Yeah, I know.  Pretty hard to believe he got someone to go for him after what he pulled.”

‘Not hard enough,’ thought Taya.  “What was your friend’s name?” she asked guardedly.

“Tasha,” said Blaze, seeming to wonder why she wanted to know.

Taya gasped.  She took a moment to catch her breath.  “You…you knew my mom?”

Blaze’s eyes widened.  “Do you mean you’re…”

“SHHHH!” Taya warned.  “Not so loud!”

“Oh, sorry,” said Blaze.  Pushing his head up as close to the cage as possible, he whispered, “Do you mean you’re Tasha’s daughter?”

Taya nodded.