Caspar...” Pete struggled to place the name. “Oh, the ru- uh, the little guy who wants to be like you?”
“Bingo.”
Pete's ears pricked forward. “What'sa matter with him?”
Toby heaved a deep sigh. “Oh, he's trying too hard to be like me. And I don't have the heart to tell him, but he's nothing like me at all. Now I'm trying to figure out something he and I can do that won't be some play on my old adventures. I'm hoping something will click and he'll figure out what he's good at.”
Pete nodded. “Huh. I guess that would be a bit of a problem, wouldn't it?”
“You can say that again.” Both of them stared into the distance for a minute. “I have to come up with something,” Toby stressed. “It's not like an idea will just walk up and smack me in the face.”
“Why dont'cha try just wandering around?” asked Pete.
Toby looked at him. “You think that would work?” he asked skeptically.
The husky shrugged. “Always works for me,” he replied. “When I was with the gang, if we didn't have any trouble to get into, we'd roam around looking for some. When I'm out with Trixie and we don't know what to do, we wander around and look for somethin'. When I'm bored, I go for a walk. It doesn't take a genius.”
Toby scrunched his chin and gently chewed on his lower lip, considering the idea. Why not? He could always pitch it to Caspar like they were exploring. That could be fun. Besides, what could it hurt? “I guess I might as well try it,” he replied. “Thanks, Pete.”
“Eh, don't mention it. See ya around.” And with that, Pete trotted off toward home, and Toby happily turned and headed for his.
Caspar was not in the highest of spirits the next morning. While his siblings frisked around with a leather ball filled with elk hair, he sat and moped, drooping so that he looked for all the world like an un-watered plant.
“Is something wrong?” Luna asked, nudging him slightly.
He sighed. “You got through to Dad, Mom. Now he doesn't want me to be like him either.”
Luna's heart sank, taking her gaze with it until her eyes were focused on the spot between her front paws. Now no one was happy, and she was the reason why. But what could she do? There was no helping his lack of similarity to his father. But should she have made such an issue of it? Maybe things would have been fine if she had just let him and Toby play. Perhaps he could learn how to do the things nature hadn't given him the aptitude for. Sure, she worried, but why? At heart her son was no different than his father, and Toby had turned out just fine. Did I do the right thing? she asked herself. And if not, where did I go wrong?
“Is everything okay?”
“Daa!” Luna jerked back. She'd been so lost in thought that she hadn't noticed Toby's approach.
Toby and Caspar both jumped too, startled by her cry. The pups also whipped their eyes in the trio's direction, wondering what was the matter.
“Luna, what's wrong?” asked Toby.
“Nothing,” she replied. “You just... surprised me, that's all.”
Toby nodded. “Ah.” Lowering his voice to a whisper, he added, “Well, I was wondering if I could take Caspar for the morning.”
His whisper wasn't quiet enough. “Can we come too?” called the other pups.
Toby shook his head. “No, Caspar and I need a little father-son time.”
The other pups nodded and went back to their game. It was hardly unusual for Toby to take one of them away for a few hours of “father-son” or “father-daughter” time, and although the pups coveted the attention it always brought, they had been taught never to interfere with one another's special time.
For once, however, Caspar wasn't interested. “I wanna be alone,” he said.
“I think you'll like it,” Toby said in a sing-song voice. Leaning in close to the pup's ear, he added, “It's something I did a lot of when I was a pup.”
“I thought you wanted me to stop that,” he replied.
“So did I,” Luna observed.
Toby shook his head. “Well, I just might have changed my mind.”
“Really?” asked Caspar, instantly forgetting the previous day's discussion. His eyes sparkled, and his tail began to wag again. “What, what?”
“I'll tell you when we get outside,” was the reply. Toby paused just long enough to give Luna a reassuring look, and then he and Caspar headed out the door.
“So, what are we going to do today?” asked Caspar.
“Exploring,” Toby answered, smiling.
“Oh, exploring.” Caspar didn't know how to respond. “What's exploring.”
“Well, we go around and look for fun places to go, things to do, that sort of thing,” Toby explained.
This pleased Caspar, and he fell into step beside his father. “How come you never talk about doing this exploring stuff before?” he asked.
He shrugged. “Well, it didn't really figure into anything I did directly,” he replied. “But exploration was where all my adventures began.”
“Really?”
“Sure. Like the storage lot where I met your mother and climbed on boxes and played all those games. That was lots of fun to explore, because the humans are always moving things around there.”
“Cool!” the pup was all smiles now. “Can we explore that?”
Toby shook his head. “Nah, we've been there lots of times. Most of the fun of exploring is to go someplace you haven't been before.”
“Oh.” Caspar seemed disappointed.
“But we can start there,” added Toby. Caspar grinned.
For once in the time Toby had known him, Pete's idea turned out to be a smash hit. Caspar delighted in finding new places in his hometown, from spaces to sniff out under buildings to interesting back alleys to nose around in, although Toby had to veto some of these, since one didn't always know what might be in them. All in all, the two of them had a splendid time of it. Even though much of it was nothing too special, there was the enjoyment of spending it together. And of course, with two imaginations as fertile as theirs, nothing stayed dull for long. A space under a house could become a bear's den, or a dim alley could be a mountain pass. Caspar liked it so much that Toby practically had to carry him home by force for lunch. Even then the only way he could convince him to stay was to promise they could do more in the afternoon.
“So,” asked Luna, “What did you and daddy do all morning?”
“We went exploring?” Caspar beamed.
“What's exploring?” asked Star.
“It's wandering around looking for new stuff and new places,” he explained. “Like bear dens and canyons, and...”
“You found all that here in Nome?” asked Star, wide-eyed.
“Sure,” he beamed. “Well, sorta. You've gotta use your imagination.”
“Well,” Luna chuckled, “It sounds like the two of you had a good time.”
“Can we go exploring too?” asked a chorus of eager voices.
“No, it's my and Dad's thing to do together,” protested Caspar.
“Hold on,” Luna countered sternly. “It's not like only you can go exploring with Toby.”
“But it's my time with him.”
“You had all morning,” she pointed out. “Toby's not just your father, you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” he grumbled. He wanted to argue further, but he knew there was no winning it. Luna was very firm on teaching the pups about sharing.
Toby was somewhat bothered when they put the question to him. He too had been enjoying the alone-time with his son, but he knew that it wasn't fair to exclude his other children. Still, he had promised Caspar that they could explore in the afternoon, and he felt sure that the two of them were on the verge of a breakthrough, that the elusive secret of Caspar's gift was just around the corner.
Luna sensed her mate's unease, and wondered how to balance things out. “What if you take Caspar,” she offered, “And I'll take the rest of the pups?”
“No,” chorused four voices. “We want to go with Daddy.”
Toby scrunched his chin. “It seems like the only fair solution to me,” he said, trying to ignore the ensuing moans.
“Maybe we can all do something special together another day,” offered Arrow.
“Good idea,” Luna smiled. “And since you brought it up, there's a place I've been meaning to take everyone at some point. This could be a good chance for that, maybe this weekend.”
“You mean the place?” asked Toby.
She nodded, gamely ignoring the curious looks and questions of “What place?”
And that was that.
That afternoon, or evening rather since Nome was still in near-total darkness that time of year, the two dogs' travels took them to the old sawmill. Toby was uncertain about going inside, but Caspar really wanted to check it out.
“OK,” Toby conceded, “But stay close to me, and be careful.”
“Why?” asked the pup.
“Because, um, it's enemy territory. Wolves live there, bad ones. Really clever too, they even know how to set traps like the humans do.”
Caspar's eyes went wide. “Really?”
“Yep,” said Toby. “So we can go in if you really want to, but we have to be careful.”
The pup nodded. “Okay,” he whispered.
Inside, the mill was dark and dusty. Piles of lumber, cut and uncut, lay on every side. To Caspar, they looked like