grass, her pad barely touching the soft ground then she took antoher step then she leapt into the air. She landed with a thud, warning the mouse to run, which it did. 

  "Nuts!" Ginny growled. "I was so close!"

  "All right," Olphin muttered. "Don't feel bad. That was a test to see where I need to help you. You have the stalking down so I'm teach you how to spring silently." Olphin got down in a crouching position and motion with a quick swish of her tail for Ginny to do the same.

  Ginny lowered her body down so that she was crouching. Olphin put a paw infront of her, as did Ginny. They crept side by side then Olphin flicked her tail, a signal for Ginny to stop. Olphin stopped moving for a momment then she leapt high in the air, as graceful as a bird, then she landed on her front paws, almost silently.

  Olphin turned to Ginny. "I'll tell you how to do that step by step, okay?"

  "All right," Ginny agreed. Then she narrowed her eyes. "What's the catch?"

  "Catch?" Olphin laughed. "Great joke, Gin!"

  "I'm not joking," Ginny said.

  Olphin looked at her, tilting her head to one side. "We don't have "catches" here. We help each other to help each other! We're all united here, conected by the same thing." Before Ginny could ask, Olphin said, "Friendship."

  This place seemed so unreal, so peaceful, and happy. Ginny finally found her voice and said, "Really?"

  Olphin nodded. "Yeah. What sort of place do you come from, Gin?"

  Ginny scuffed the ground with her black front paw. "Nome. It's a good place but it's overrun with cruel dogs who want to get rid of any one who is diffrent, even if they're only slightly diffrent."

  "Dang," Olphin muttered. Olphin continued, "Okay, so when you pounce make sure that you put your weight on your hind paws. Then push off, using moslty your hind paws but don't make your front paws usless. Then when you're in the air, if you think that you're going to fall on your back or something, try to twist around so that you fall on your paws. Make sure that you land on your front paws then use your front paws to get your back paws to land softly instead of landing on all four paws at once."

  "Ok, like this?" Ginny crept forward slowly. She put most of her weight on her hind paws and sprang. Once she was in the air, Ginny leaned forward a little too much so she ended up crashing down, with her paws tucked underneath her stomach slightly. "Ouch..."

  "Are you okay?" Olphin asked.

 Ginny got to her paws. "Yeah! I want to try again."

  Olphin grinned at her friend. Ginny had more spirit than half of her pack put together. "All right. 1... 2... 3... go!" Ginny started to stalk again. Olphin leapt onto a tree stump and looked down at her friend. Olphin wagged her tail joyfully as Ginny leapt into the air perfectly. When Ginny came crashing to the ground on both her hind paws and her front paws, Olphin couldn't stop her laugh.

 "You're getting there, Gin," she said. "Want to try again?"

  "You bet your tail!" Ginny replied. She crouched down again and started to crawl. Olphin tilted her head to one side again, how could a simple town dog be this freespirited? Ginny leapt into the air perfectly and landed on her front paws, silently.

  "Great job, Gin!" Olphin leapt off of the tree stump and trotted to her friend.

  "I did it," Ginny breathed.

 Olphin laughed at her friends astonishment. "You wouldn't give up. Try to hunt now." Olphin sniffed. "I smell a mouse."

  Ginny imediatly dropped into a crouch. she carefully crept towards the small creature. Ginny put most of her weight on her back paws and leapt into the air. She landed silently and then finished off the mouse before it could run.

  "Great job!" Olphin howled. "You're getting the hang of it. Birds are a little bit harder..." The two laughed and hunted for quite a while. 

  A few hours later, Olphin perked her head up and sniffed the air. "Get the pack," hissed Olphin, "tell them that there's a moose herd ahead." Ginny knew instinctivly that she shouldn't ask so she turned around and ran to The Underground's entrance. She dived into the tunnel zoomed into The Undergrond.

  "There's a moose herd near by!" she howled. The reaction was shocking. Wolves started to talk, pacing while they spoke. To regain order, Shade leapt on top of a cave.

  "Attention!" he howled. The wolves looked at him and were silent, although they were still fidgeting. "The following woves will go to hunt the moose with me: Tundra, Timber, Hammerhead, Mountain, Great White, and Ginny."

  "Why her?" demanded a redish/brown wolf.

  "She knows where the herd is," snapped Shade. "Move out." Tiplin ran to Ginny.

  "Where is Olphin?" he demanded.

  "Outside," she replied.

 "What?" Tiplin gasped. "No! When you hunt moose, the moose could kick and kill you! We've lost pack members because of those things!"

  Ginny understood immediatly. "I'll stay with her," she promised. Tiplin nodded, horror struck. Ginny darted into the tunnel, the rest of the hunting party following. The moment Ginny had led the pack outside, she heard a howl. "Olphin!" She ran towards where Olphin had been a few minutes before. She saw her friend on the back of a moose, her claws digging into its back.

  "Olphin!" Ginny ran to her friend's aid. She had to be careful. The moose was leaping around, kicking and crying out. Ginny leapt to Olphin's side and saw the hunting party attacking it from the ground. "All right. When I say 'jump', jump, okay?"

  "O-okay," Olphn replied. Ginny could tell that Olphin was horrified but Olphin wasn't about to give up. 

 "1... 2... 3... jump!" Ginny and Olphin leapt from the moose's back just as it fell. They landed on their paws and looked at their catch.

  "H-how'd it f-feel to c-catch your first m-moose?" Olphin asked, still a little scared.

  "Awsome." Ginny grinned at her friend. "Though I could do without the scare." 

  Olphin laughed. "Yeah, sorry about that. I was waiting but it charged me."

  "Why?" shade trotted to them. "Usually, moose stay away from us."

 "It was being chased," Olphin said.

 "Who was chasing it?" Ginny asked, alarmed.

  "I couldn't tell," Olphin relied. "I didn't recognize the smell, some towndog, I guess or a lone wolf. Whoever it was was gray...." She looked at Ginny. "To tell the truth, it smelled kind of like you... but yet it smelled kind of like you, Shade..."

  "That's not possible," Shade growled. He walked back to the kill. Ginny stared at her friend.

 "Was it a light gray dog?" she asked.

  "Well, yeah," Olphin replied. "Kind of purplish looking actually..."

  "No!" Ginny gasped. "No..."

  Later that afternoon, Olphin took Ginny to a small canyon. The gap imbetween their side and the other side was only about 2 and a half feet but the canyon was deep.

  "I'm going to teach you how to jump this," Olphin said. "Every wolf in our pack has to know how in case we have to retreat during battle. "You have to put all of your weight on your hind paws, as if your about to pounce on prey. We're going to practice on ground. Okay?"

  Olphin trotted to a large rock and said. "You need to jump from the edge of the canyon to this rock." Ginny nodded. She put her weight on her hind paws and leapt. She came about a foot short of the rock. She sighed. "All right," Olphin barked. "Are you ready to try again?" Ginny practiced sevrel times and, after about 6 tries, she made it.

  "Yes!" Olphin cried. "You did it! Now, we're going to jump across. I'm going to jump with you. Ready?" They positioned themselves on the edge of the canyon then they leapt.

  Ginny felt like a bird, as she was soaring over the canyon. However, when she landed with Olphin, she realized that she prefered keeping her paws on the ground but she made the leap again to get back on their side.

 That night, Ginny couldn't sleep. She trotted to Olphin and prodded her awake.

  "What?" Olphin yawned.

  "Come here," Ginny whispered. They padded beside the tunnel and Giny said, "Will you come outside with me?" Olphin nodded, looking concerned and they climbed up the tunnel. Once they were outside, Ginny sat down on the grass.

  "I need to talk to someone," Ginny said. Olphin tilted her head to one side and sat down. "Well, I have a sister..." Ginny took a deap breath and told the story of her life in Nome. Olphin was shocked when Ginny told her what she saw the other night. "And... I think that the dog herding the moose towards is Dusk."

  "Wouldn't be supprised," growled Olphin.

  "And you said that she smelled a little bit like me, that would be because we're sisters. And you said that she also smelled like Shade so I think that-" Ginny broke off.

  "Shade's your father!" Olphin exclaimed. Ginny nodded.

  "Must be," she replied. "But Dusk said that he killed my mother..."

  "Ask him about it," encouraged Olphin. "I'll wait outside so that I'll know if he attacks you."

  "I will," agreed Ginny.

  "So, you're half wolf, half Border Collie?" Olphin asked.

  "Yeah, I guess so," Ginny replied. "What about you?"

 "My mom is Forestpath, a light brown she-wolf and my dad is Mountain, a light brown male wolf, and he's also Shade's brother." Olphin grinned. "We're cousins."

  Ginny grinned back. "Awsome!" Both of htem knew that this would only strengthen their already strong friendship.

  "Shade?" It was later that night. Outside, the moon was high in the sky, shining brightly. A gray figure emerged from the back of the cave. Ginny stood her ground even