and looked at the two other men and nodded. The two each grabbed Thompson’s arms and stood him up.

"Perhaps this will teach this dog not to speak out of place."

Rubashov made his hands into fits and swung them into Thompson. Dawn turned away, she could not watch Thompson being beaten like this. Whiskeyjack watched though, with every punch upon Thompson, the more angry he became. But if he stepped in to help, he would do more harm than good. After several minutes of the beating, Rubashov relaxed himself.

"Alright, that’s enough."

The two men dropped Thompson. He fell to the ground, and his body seemed to be like a rag doll. Thompson was bleeding from his nose and mouth, and he was badly bruised.

"My turn with this urchin." One of the other men said.

"No. He’s had enough. Unless he makes the same mistake once more." Rubashov said.

The other man grabbed the skins and walked out the door. Rubashov looked at Thompson on the floor.

"We will be back in two weeks. By then, you better have more than this. Or you and your dogs will be the ones who get skinned." He laughed from the bottom of his breath.

The other man left and the sound of their heavy boots echoed through the night, until it could be heard no more. Whiskeyjack ran to Thompson’s side. Thompson didn’t move, he just laid there. Whiskeyjack nudged him to see if he would get up. Thompson opened his eye and had blurred vision. The other dogs came to see if he was alright, including Dawn. Thompson pulled himself up and patted Whiskeyjack on the head.

"Uhhhh......" Thompson said as he tried to stand still.

"I need to get some rest and clean myself up. Everyone go to bed." Thompson said.

When Thompson left and went to his bed, Whiskeyjack became very angry with everyone.

"Why didn’t you help!? I was ready to attack, but the rest of you just stood there! Thompson counts on us, and we let him down. Together we could have easily taken them down! How much worse can they possibly be?"

"Worse. Far worse. That was only a small demonstration to what they can really do to him....and us." A low voice said. Whiskeyjack turned to see who it was. Stone came from a corner of the room and steeped forward.

Dawn came to Whiskeyjack’s side.

"He’s right. They could kill us." Dawn said.

"Well.....what are they planning to do with the skins?" Whiskeyjack asked.

"They are crooks. They sell them for money, and take from other families like us." Jason added.

"The best thing we could do is to hunt more. We’ll have to gather more skin so this will never happen again." Stone told Whiskeyjack. For the time, they would have to put aside there differences and work harder.

"Fine...everyone get some rest. Were going to need it if were going to hunt more." Whiskeyjack ordered everyone. Stone would usually be angry about how Whiskeyjack gave an order and everyone would listen. But this was not the time for that.

Whiskeyjack was younger, but he was bigger than Dawn, so now he had his own bed. He would place his next to hers, he loved her. He never told this to her, but somehow, he thinks she knows. Whiskeyjack had one word fly through his head. "Kill" that was the last thing he wanted. He laid next to Dawn, and whispered to her.

"I wont let them do anything to you, I promise." And then kissed her.

"I know you wont. I fear nothing with you." She replied kissing him back.

The moon slowly made its way to the sky, and the sun hid behind the mountain to rise again tomorrow.

Whiskeyjack was awoken earlier than usual. The sun was not even yet close to rising. Thompson had all of his gear on, boots, hunting knife, coat, bow, and his rifle. Whiskeyjack knew what this meant, ever since yesterday. If he was to obtain more skin, he would have to wake up earlier so he had more time to hunt. Thompson was back to his friendly self again. He was smiling and was cheerful once more. Both Dawn and Whiskeyjack were awoken by him walking past them. Whiskeyjack looked up to him with tired eyes.

"C’mon boy. Today’s your turn." Thompson said patting him.

Whiskeyjack jumped up with excitement. It was his turn, his day to prove how useful he was to everyone. He looked at Dawn who seemed as happy as he was. He nuzzled her and remembered his promise to her.

"Im going to finally prove myself to you. Ill be the best I can be."

Dawn kissed his muzzle and said,

"You don’t need to prove anything to me. I know you’ll do great. Ever since I first saw you, I knew you were someone who never gives up. Even when the future seems long and hard."

Thompson opened the door and motioned for Whiskeyjack to follow.

"Ill be back." He said kissing her back.

They both steeped outside as Thompson shut the door behind them.

"Alright boy, I know this is your first time so I don’t expect a whole lot out of you. There’s a few rules that I should tell you, lets work on them." Thompson held out his hand with his fingers together. "This mean stay." Thompson made the hand once more and backed away.

‘This is child’s play. I just have to know what’s what and obey them.’ Whiskeyjack thought.

"Good, very good. Alright, lets try this." Thompson made a fist. "This means move forward. I want you to move forward when I signal this." Thompson made the signal to move forward and Whiskeyjack walked past him and kept walking. He noticed that Thompson then made the signal to stay, and Whiskeyjack obeyed.

"Excellent! Fantastic! I was testing you, to see how long it would take you learn this. But you’re the fastest one who caught on to this! Your going to make a fine hunting dog!" Thompson praised him with such enthusiasm.

‘The fastest? That means im better than Stone! Now I just need to prove myself when we get to the real hunt.’ Whiskeyjack thought.

"Ok. Deer are grazing around this time. We should try to move upwind, it will be easier to hunt them." Thompson said.

Thompson walked into the forest and Whiskeyjack followed. In order to really impress Thompson, he would have to keep an open mind about his surroundings. It was about twenty minutes or so before they began to walk in tall grass.

"Damn frost. Every time I take a step, it can easily be heard. The deer will surely run." Thompson became irritated.

Whiskeyjack however, was light and not as heavy. He could walk without making a sound. Thompson made the signal to stay and he hid himself in the grass. Whiskeyjack could not see, but he sure smelled deer.

‘Alright. This is it, I hope I can do this right.’ Whiskeyjack thought.

Thompson armed his bow and signaled for Whiskeyjack to move forward. Whiskeyjack moved up slowly and could see a group of deer in the middle of an open field.

‘Too much open field, Im gonna have to move around in order to keep hidden.’

Whiskeyjack moved around and went into the forest where he was more covered.

"That a boy Whiskeyjack. Keep going." Thompson whispered to himself. He was amazed how quick Whiskeyjack was learning.

Whiskeyjack kept walking until he saw Thompson’s arm come out from the tall grass with the signal to stay. Whiskeyjack was sure he could move a few more feet forward, but Thompson was the hunter, he knew best. He stopped and realized how close he was to the deer.

"I hope he knows what to do when they run." Thompson said. He pulled his arm back and aimed at the closest deer Whiskeyjack was near.

‘Almost...almost....’ Whiskeyjack was ready.

The arrow flew from Thompson’s bow and into the deers shoulder. The deer made a loud cry of pain as blood came falling to the ground. The group of deer ran, along with the wounded one.

"Shit! Cross breeze!" Thompson’s arrow hit a large male buck. He was originally aiming for a doe. He didn’t want Whiskeyjack to chase something this large and dangerous on his first hunt.

‘Now!’

Whiskeyjack chased the wounded deer. He had to execute this just right, if he made a false move, the antlers could easily tear through him like paper. Whiskeyjack was now next to the running buck, he jumped and grabbed the throat. He felt his teeth sink in and he pulled with all his strength. The buck lost its balance and flew to the ground. Whiskeyjack threw himself on the squirming buck, he looked into the frightened eyes of his prey. The buck looked into the eyes of death, the deer stopped moving, it was still alive, but it didn’t move. Whiskeyjack knew it was looking into his red eye, the one that everyone feared. Whiskeyjack grabbed its throat once more and pulled. Blood came running down the bucks fur and onto the snow. Whiskeyjack had blood on his teeth and mouth, he began to shake with excitement because of what he did. He liked it....the feeling of taking another life, the chase, the blood, he loved it and he wanted more. Thompson came running up to Whiskeyjack and, he had to admit, he was extremely impressed.

"You...you just took down a full grown male buck! On your first day, your first kill! I didn’t think you were going to be able to...but you did." Much praise came from Thompson.

Whiskeyjack felt so proud of himself, Thompson was proud of him as well. He couldn’t wait to get home and show Dawn, and Stone his first kill, and more impressive a male buck. Thompson grabbed the corpse by the antlers and dragged it to a very heavy wooded area.

"I know we should head back to the house. But its still early and I want to see what else we can catch. Ill leave this here so no other predators will take this." Thompson said.

Thompson knew he had to gather more skin. He did