saw…

 “Terry! What are you doing out here?”

 “Trying to help,” she replied as she struggled with a black dog.

 Rex threw off his opponent and rammed into Terry’s, which turned to fight him instead. “Terry, get back in the house!” he hollered over the uproar.

 “But what about you?” she asked as she evaded an attack from a blotchy brown-and-white dog.

 “I’ll be fine, just get inside where it’s safe!”

 “But…”

 “NOW!” he ordered.

 Terry nodded reluctantly and retreated inside while Rex threw himself all the more fiercely into the fight. ‘Got to protect Terry,’ he thought; his reservations about her all but gone in the fray. ‘I’ve got to protect the dogs of Nome, but especially Terry.’

 Just then a howl split the air, and to Rex’s surprise the army began to retreat. In the space of a minute, perhaps less, the street dogs had all disappeared except for those who were too badly injured to run.

 “After them!” Rex shouted, but as he moved to lead the pursuit his leg crumpled beneath him. “AAAGH!” he cried out in pain.

 “Rex!” Orde exclaimed. Thinking quickly he barked to the others, “After those dogs and see where they went, now!” Then he swiftly turned his attention to his friend. “What’s wrong?”

 Rex struggled to his three working feet. “Something happened to my leg,” he grunted in pain. Every move sent a white-hot dagger lancing through the injured limb. “I can barely move,” he panted.

 “Let me help you,” offered Orde.

 “No!” Rex gritted his teeth and limped toward his house. “…Go with the others. If those strays are regrouping… we’ll need every dog we’ve got. I’ll be fine.”

 Orde took only a second before nodding in agreement. “I’ll hold you to that promise!” he called as he dashed off after his comrades.

 Trying not to black out from the pain, Rex limped up to his front door and dragged himself through the pet flap. Terry was at his side in an instant. “Rex!” she cried in alarm. “What happened?”

 “It’s nothing,” he replied, lying through his teeth. “A bad leg, nothing else. I just… need to lay down.”

 Terry shook her head. “I’ll go get the vet,” she volunteered, “Even if I have to drag him out of-”

 “No,” Rex cut her off as he set himself down on the rug. “The street dogs could strike again at any time.” He gestured to the bolt on the pet door. “Lock that if you can manage it,” he instructed, “and whatever you do, for Heaven’s sake don’t go outside. I’ll be fine until the chief gets back.”

 Terry nodded and trotted over to the door. With some effort and a little trial and error, she managed to maneuver the bolt with her teeth and draw it shut. ‘First Yuke died watching me, now Rex is hurt protecting me! Please,’ she mentally begged, ‘don’t let me lose my friend.’ Then, unsure what else to do, she came and laid her head on top of his.

 Rex didn’t have the strength to do anything but grit his teeth against the pain in his leg, and feel the fleeting annoyance coupled with an odd dash of pleasure. ‘If Orde saw this, it would follow me to my grave,’ he thought ruefully. “You don’t need to do that,” he told her gently. “I’m not afraid.”

 She shuddered. “Maybe you aren’t, but I am.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Since Orde hadn’t caught up to them yet, Ewan had taken control of the chase, running for all he was worth while trying to figure out the strays’ strategy at the same time. ‘This is ridiculous,’ he thought with a growl, turning a corner and veering to miss a stunned local who was standing in the middle of the road, blinking at all the dogs surging past. ‘They retreated before they caused much damage at all! It’s almost as if that howl was a signal to get them to fall back…’

 The howl played back in his mind, cutting clearly through the rest of the noise he had heard in his memory of the moment. It sounded strangely familiar…

 Eyes widening, Ewan turned his head quickly, relieved to see Orde had caught up with them. He returned his gaze to the street, feeling a sense of urgency as he realized what part of town they were in. He didn’t have the breath to shout to the others about his sudden suspicions, but he couldn’t help but feel worried the farther he chased the strays. ‘This is getting way too close to Jenna’s house. I hope she and her girl are indoors…’

 With a jarring abruptness, the pack suddenly stopped. Ewan only had time to register his shock at the unexpected move before instinctively swerving to the left so he wouldn’t crash into the suddenly still group. He and the others stood panting in the snow, blinking in confusion.

 The strays, to Ewan’s surprise, didn’t appear to even be trying to hurt anyone or anything like before. Instead there was a lot of yapping and barking going on as the strays gathered in a tightly packed group, making it nearly impossible to clearly hear anything that was said.

 Comet swallowed nervously. “Question; How are we going to arrest this many dogs without getting turned to dog-chow?”

 How indeed? “Leave that to us.” Orde said with a nod in Ewan’s direction, though in truth Ewan had already begun to wonder the same thing. He decided it was a question that would have to wait. “Right now, we need to find the leader.” He grimly scanned the throng of dogs. “We’ll worry about the others later.”

 As they began to try and force their way through the crowd, Ewan managed to pick out a voice somewhere in its midst shouting, but the only word he picked out was “-father!”

 There was more shouting from the unseen canine then, which caused a bit of a stir among the dogs. They stopped barking nonsensically, but the conversation that swept through the dogs like ripples in a pond was little improvement. All Ewan managed to pick out were two names; ‘Balto’ and ‘Chase.’

 At the mention of the latter name, Ewan’s mouth dropped open in shock before he tried harder to get through the mob. ‘Chase? What on earth is she doing getting involved in this?’

 Before he could even try to plow through the solid wall of fur and muscle, there came a maddened cry, and everyone paused long enough to catch some movement on the far side of the crowd. A black-and-white dog was making a run for it, causing the other dogs to turn almost as one body and start to pursue him.

 The three police dogs would have given chase in an attempt to see what that was all about, until they saw four dogs emerge in the parting crowd. One was a brown mutt he didn’t recognize, the second was Balto - thankfully mostly unharmed except for a deep gash in his shoulder - and the third was…

 “Jen!” cried Ewan, dodging a random stray and racing to his sister. “Are you alright?” his keen gaze swept over her. “What happened?”

 There seemed little reason to ask about her well-being. From one look at her glassy eyes, all could tell that Jenna was very obviously sick. But Ewan’s breath caught in his throat once he saw the fourth member of the party. For on the ground in their midst lay a young female, almost identical to Jenna save for one difference. She had obviously been in a fight, and by the looks of it her twisted right hind leg had taken the brunt of it. She was bleeding profusely.

 He stared at his youngest niece, wearing an expression of someone who had seen a loved one die, and knew for certain that the loved one hadn’t taken the high road. “Chase?” he swallowed, his gaze flitting to Balto’s face. “Is she…”

 “Alive,” Balto reported, the strain of the ordeal showing itself in his tight expression and tone. “But she’s passed out.”

 “Who did this?” asked Comet, wide eyed as he looked to Ewan and Orde.

 The last puzzle piece clicked neatly into place. “Steele,” Ewan uttered, his fur rising just a bit as he realized who the mysterious leader had been all along. “…He’s the one behind all these attacks!” Worst of all, he must have been the black and white dog who had just ran off! The coward had slipped from their grasp before they even knew who to look for!

 “Steele?” Comet echoed, “I thought that creep was chased out of Nome back in ’25!”

 Ewan didn’t hear him over the tumult of his thoughts. Steele had always been an enemy of Ewan’s family, one way or the other. He had harassed Balto numerous times, followed Jenna around like a bee after a rose, and had put all of Nome in jeopardy after he got his sled team lost during the diphtheria scare. Every single time though, he was able to elude true judgment. A hot fury started to flare up inside. As far as Ewan was concerned, social exile