know,” she agreed. “I discovered it when I was just a pup, and I’ve been coming here ever since.”

 Kato looked at her, flattered that she had taken him to a place that was so close to her heart. He looked around. “Have you ever tried catching a fish?” he asked her.

 She grinned. “Oh, yes. I tried when I was a pup. I ended up falling in the river. My owner was so mad when I came home dripping wet!”

 Kato laughed. “I can imagine. It must have been hysterical! After all,” he added mischievously. “I bet you’ve never gone swimming since!”

 Jada growled playfully and chased him up and down the bank. The two dogs howled and laughed joyfully. Then suddenly, Jada disappeared.

Looking around frantically, Kato called, “Jada! Jada, where are you?” What had happened to her? Where was she? He raced up the creek, the sand stinging his paws and the sun blinding him. He stumbled as a large boulder blocked his path.

As he stood up again, a large weight crashed down on him. Jada’s scent reached his nose. Turning over faster than a snake, he flung her off.

She was laughing. “You should have seen your face!” she giggled. “You were so scared!”

Anger shot through Kato like fire. Not only because she humiliated him, but also because she had treated his fear for her so offhandedly. He snarled at her angrily. She stopped laughing immediately. A questioning look came into her eyes.

Kato decided to tell her just what he thought of what she had just did. “Yes, I was scared,” he spat. “But not for myself. I was scared for you, and what might have happened to you. And now you laugh in my face?”

 Jada’s expression had changed from amusement to hurt and confusion. Fuming, he stalked off to sit beneath a willow tree, not looking to see whether Jada followed him or not.

 One hour later, the sun began to sink. Kato wasn’t so angry anymore, but he still didn’t want to let Jada treat him like that. He wanted her to fully understand how angry and scared he had been.

 So he stayed under the tree, watching the sun sink lower and lower. He snuck a glance behind him. Jada was sitting by the water, her head down and her shoulders hunched. Kato couldn’t see her face from this distance, but the sounds he heard told him that she was crying.

 He supposed that he should go and comfort her, but anger had him rooted to the spot. She deserved to be sad, after what she had put him through!

 About thirty minutes later, he heard footsteps behind him. Jada was approaching him warily, as if she wasn’t sure how he would react to her appearance. He didn’t want to make her angry, so he just turned his head away.

 “Kato?” she asked.

“What?” he growled. “What are you doing here?”

“I… I came t-to a-a-apologize.” Her voice sounded thin, like she was barely keeping back her tears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that you were going to react like that.”

 She gained confidence with every word she spoke. “I thought that you would just think it was a joke. I didn’t mean any harm, honest.”

 She barely managed to keep back a sob. “I’m flattered that you care about me that much-“

 Then her tears came, flowing like the creek that they sat beside. She leaned against him. Carefully, he tucked his head over hers so that his muzzled touched her back. He just sat there as she sobbed into his neck fur. He wasn’t angry now.

 “Thank you,” he said quietly. “And I do care about you. I care about you more than you could know. If you and the entire world were both in danger, I think I’d put you first.”

 He wasn’t surprised when his words drew renewed sobs from her. When she finally stopped, she looked up at him. “I th-think that I can say the same. I love you, Kato, if that’s what you were trying to say…”

 He looked down at her gently. “I think it was, Jada. I think it was.”

 Joy sparked in her eyes. “Kato, you’ve given me what I’ve wanted ever since you first came to visit me, all those months ago. Thank you.”

 Swallowing nervously, Kato rasped his tongue over her head. She relaxed at his touch. They sat there together for a few more minutes. Jada’s tail was waving absently as Kato’s tongue stroked down her head and ears. Kato didn’t know what he was feeling, but he thought it was something like love.

“We’d better go,” Jada murmured. “It’s getting dark.”

 Only reluctantly did Kato heave himself up from the sand. Jada followed him, and the two dogs made their way down to the stepping-stones. Kato’s fear of falling had only increased since the last time he had leaped from the mossy rock to the opposite bank.

 “Let me go first,” he insisted. If there was anything dangerous out there, he wanted to be the first one to encounter it.

 He jumped. He landed squarely on the mossy rock. Picking his way carefully across the others, he watched as Jada prepared to make the jump. He tried to stop his legs from shaking as she flew across the water.

She had jumped too far. Missing the mossy rock, she landed on another, more slippery stone. Kato watched, frozen with horror, as she tried to regain her balance. It looked like she had managed it, but then her legs began to slip. She seemed to fall slow motion into the fast-moving creek. She shrieked with terror as her head went under the water.

Without bothering to think about whether this was the smart thing to do or not, Kato dived into the frigid water. He pushed himself down under the water at the place where she had vanished. His teeth closed on nothing but the creek water. He came up, gasping for air, only to find that he was several feet from where he had started.

Then, he saw a flash of red fur. Swimming toward it, he caught hold of Jada. She coughed feebly. Kato realized that he didn’t have to fight the water as hard now. Then he glanced at the bank and realized that he recognized it.

He felt his hind paw touch something hard. Ignoring the fiery pain that flashed through his foot, Kato pushed against it, only to find that when he glided through the water, more little sharp, hard things grazed his legs, making shallow cuts.

Thinking quickly, he hoisted Jada onto his back and stepped down. Pain coursed through his foot as he stepped. Ignoring it, he carried Jada all the way to shore. Dragging himself and Jada onto the bank, he looked down at his paws. They were covered in blood.

 He grimaced as he dragged Jada, who had slipped off his back, over to a large willow with roots that spread out over the sand, making a kind of crude bed.

 Jada squeaked with protest every time she was dragged over a bump. When Kato finally came to the tree, he laid Jada down among the roots.

 Her eyes closed, she asked him, “Are you okay? I can smell blood.”

 Kato glanced down at his paws again. “Just a little banged up. I stepped in some sharp rocks. You?”

 Jada sighed. “Yeah, that part of the stream’s full of them. That’s why I never cross there.”

 Kato gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the pain that seeped slowly through him, leaving behind only numb exhaustion.

 “But are you okay?”

 Jada nodded. "I’m a little banged up, too, and I think I swallowed some water, but nothing serious. Just tired. I’d be dead now if it weren’t for you.”

 Kato just shrugged. “It was nothing. I would have done the same for any other dog.”

 At the skeptically amused look on Jada’s face, he added truthfully, “I admit, though, I wouldn’t have worked half has hard if Tomek, or Amber, or Merla had been drowning instead.”

 Jada smirked. “I know. Now, let’s sleep. I feel like I’ve run across Alaska and back.” She settled deeper into the roots.

“Shouldn’t we try to get back to the city?” Kato asked. He didn’t want her to freeze or them to be attacked by some wild terror.

 Jada scoffed. “Not unless you want to make that jump again from the bank to the rock when it’s even darker than before, and then slip and slide on the smaller rocks, and then try to find your way around dark woods at midnight, and then-“

 Kato interrupted. “Okay, okay. I get it. We’ll sleep here.”

 He began to collect some moss and dead leaves. Plopping them down in the sand, he motioned toward the pile. “Get some sleep, Jada. Lord knows you need it.”

 Jada looked up at him, concerned. “But what about you?” “I’ll go get some more,” he said gruffly.

 As he trudged back into the woods, he heard Jada call, “Be careful, Kato! I’ll need you to help in case I fall into anymore rivers!”

 Snorting in amusement, he padded away. When he got back, Jada was fast asleep. Looking down at her, he saw that she was shivering violently. She would freeze if she stayed like she was. Hesitantly, making sure that she was still asleep, he crawled over to her. Spreading his body over hers like a furry blanket.

 Her body relaxed. Kato had a sneaking suspicion that she was only pretending to sleep. He was about to get up when he realized that he didn’t care. He would make the best of this night!

 He lay on top of her, pushing down his panic that she would freeze to death. Soon she stopped shivering. Relieved, he curled his body around her.

 He looked around at the night. The moon shone down, reflecting beautifully on the creek. Moonlit water snaked its way toward the horizon that Kato could not see, because he had closed his eyes and fallen fast asleep.

A soft warm thing pushed against Kato’s fur. He opened his eyes lazily.

 Jada was just awaking beside him. “Morning,” he yawned. “Had a good night?”

 Jada looked vaguely surprised to see him beside her, then excited and amazed.

 She shook herself. “Not the best. We weren’t exactly sleeping on silk blankets.”

 Kato nodded assent, then stood up. “We’d better get going,” he remarked. “You owner will be worrying.”

 Jada nodded, looking faintly disappointed to leave the beautiful creek. “Yeah, we’d better,” she agreed resignedly.