announced, in a dignified, authorative way, (and yes, with a whine somewhere inur bucket of details) that he was much too tired to carry on, and had to be picked up. Lily stifled a giggle when she remembered the way he'd said it; the puppy had made it sound like an honor.

"How much farther?" she called angrily up to Cudgeon. She'd had it with this dog.

"Two minutes." Cudgeon shouted backward.

"Ohhhn, that's what you said two minutes ago!" Fang moaned from his mother's jaws.

"Ease up, kid, I'm doin' my best. Ah, here we are!" Cudgeon woofed. They came upon a rundown, old green shack of sorts on the outskirts of town. "We'll be dry here, believe you me."

"Is it safe?" Chestnut asked in his deep voice.

"What do I look like, a newspaper?" Cudgeon chuckled at his own joke. "Yeah, yeah, it's clear, I checked it out earlier. Follow me."

A strange, pushing and cracking sound came from somewhere about a few minutes behind them.

"What was that?" Lily asked nervously.

"Lightning?" Cudgeon suggested. "Hey, y'wanted shelter, I gotcha shelter. Y'wanted safety, here it is! Now come on!"

"If you're sure it's all right." Chestnut jerked his head forward over her shoulder, eyes locked on lily.

The sound came again.

Cudgeon's eyes flashed. "Get inside, quick!"

He bolted forward until he was at the door of the shack. He stood there, letting Lily--carrying Fang--go first through the door and into the shack. Chestnut came next, stopping beside Cudgeon to give him a stare. "Thanks for all your help."

Cudgeon lifted his shoulders, tilting his head. "Hey, don' mention it, pal, it wasn't nothin'."

Chestnut gave him a respective nod, then entered the shack.

It was dark inside. He heard soft noises, like...

"Lil', do you hear that?" Chestnut whispered.

The door was shut behind them.

"Hear what, what do you mean?" Lily, only half-visible in the darkness, shook out her fur of the rainwater. She set Fang down and began licking him.

"Hey, lemme up, I can do it myself!" Fang growled. "Mo-om! Get off, you're making me more wet!"

"That's even more wet, dear," corrected Lily, who always felt the need to correct other dogs' grammer. "And I most certainly am not. I'm licking your fur the wrong way because it gets you dry more rapidly than any other way. Standing around will make you cold and miserable?"

"Yeah, then how come you're standing around?" Fang challenged, ducking away from his mother. "Where are we, Dad, I can't see you!"

"I'm here, son, don't worry." Chestnut let out a long sigh, shaking himself. "Well, at least we're dry and safe."

The sound came again.

Lily sniffed the air. "Chestnut? Do you...(sniff)...smell that?"

"Yes--" Chestnut took a deep breath in through the nose, wrinkling it when he was finished. He let out a soft, low growl. "Something strange. And that sound..."

"Hype hype hmmm hmm hmmmmmm!"

Fang jumped, spinning around and tripping on his too-long ears. "Wha'was'at?" he whimpered.

Lily shook her head, lifting an ear. "Is that..." her eyes widened. "...Whining?"

Chestnut blinked. He raised his head. "Yes. Dogs whining."

Fang let out a loud bark. "Hullo?" He howled. "Hell-lo-o-o?"

It echoed.

"Ssshhh, Fang, sweetheart, not so loud," Lily whispered.

"Is anyone in here?" Chestnut barked. 

No answer. More whimpering. Some howls. Fang crouched by his mother's side, his tiny body trembling with fear as he pressed up, sitting, against her right front leg.

"Please," Lily called in her honey-dipped voice, "We've come to escape the storm. You see, we're in very real danger, and--"

"You ain't gettin' outta here, doll," came a croaky voice from the shadows.

Chestnut let out a growl. "Who are you? What do you want?" he turned in circles. "And how do you plan to stop us from leaving?"

"Oh, it ain't me wants to stop ya," said the scruffy, young voice.

"No?" Lily growled. She stood over Fang, protecting him. "Where are you? Show yourself."

"I'd escape while ya can, doll," continued the voice. "You don't have much time."

"Where are you?" Chestnut snarled again. "Keep talking. We'll find you."

"Name's Toughy, mister...?"

"Chestnut. Hang on, I think..." Chestnut stopped cold. He blinked twice.

Finally he backed away, bumping gently into his mate. He turned around and stared at her, eyes wild. "Lillian. We have to get out of here. We're in the--"

BOOM!

C-CRACK!

Thunder. Lightning.

SLAM!

The door burst open, lightning flashing again to reveal the sillhouette of a human, darkly clad, eyes gleaming, a net in one hand...and a long gun in the other, a hunting gun.

Lily trembled. "No. Oh, no," she whispered.

"He-e-e-ere, doggie doggie," came the human's voice, cold and creepy. "So you're the ones who've been stealing food and biting children. I'll give you a solution you won't be able to ignore." The human crept closer.

Fang shivered uncontrollably. "M-M-Mom? Who--Who's th-that?" his teeth were chattering, paws shaking so badly he had to lean against to to stand.

"Oh please, no," Chestnut murmured, awestruck.

One word came to mind--a name.

Cudgeon.

"They've found you!" Toughy howled from the shadows. "Git out while ya can!"

"How? Why?" Lily backed up, pushing Fang behind her. There was only so much room between her and the back wall now.

"Cudgeon." Chestnut panted. "He did this. If it's the last thing I do, I'll..."

POW!

Chestnut felt an aching pain jolt through his body. He fell to the ground, yelping in agony.

"Chestnut!" screamed Lily, throwing herself at his side.

"Dad? Dad?" Fang pushed his nose into his father's chest fur. He pulled back, smelling blood.

"Run, Fang..." Chestnut gasped. "Take your mother...get out..." His eyelids fluttered, eyes flickering.

"Chestnut, no," Lily wailed. She threw her head back and howled. "Nooo!"

"C'mon, Mom, we gotta run!" Fang head-butted her leg, still shaking with fear.

POW-POW!

With a blood-curdling bark of pain, Lily slumped to the ground beside her mate, eyes closed.

"Mom? Mom?" Fang pushed himself under her foreleg. "Get up, please, please get up! We gotta run! We gotta...run..." he began sobbing, not fully understanding why his parents wouldn't move. "Please get up," he whispered. "Please."
 

"Oh-oh, kid, you bettah move it! Scram, tyke, gitta move on, here 'e comes! Head fer the wrong side o' the tracks! Go! Go!" Toughy's voice, frantic and grieved, barked through the storm sounds and Fang's whimpering.

The human was reloading his gun. "...Teach you t'spread your diseases to innocent children...mangy thief..." he was grumbling.

Other dogs were howling, barking now.

"Run! Run!" came an accented voice. "You not suffer same fate as Boris, puppy, run!" The R's in this dog's voice trilled.

Fang slid out from under his mother's paw, standing, head jerking from side to side.

"Go!" Toughy was shouting. "Scram an' don' evah come back! Quick, now! Get lucky, pup, nobody never escapes th'Pound!"

The Pound? Fang thought, the word numbing his mind.

He looked down again at his parents.

"M-Mom?" he wailed. "Dad! Get up! He's coming! Please, help me! Mom! Dad, run! Please! Please."

"They're gone, sonny, yer th'only one's gonna make it out! GO!" Toughy shrieked.

A dog's head--orange and white, probably Toughy--appeared from in between two bars, taking the human's pant-leg into his teeth and jerking until the man tripped and fell flat on his face, gun sliding across the floor.

"What in the blazes--" the man snapped. "Get off!" he kicked at Toughy, who jerked back and let out with snarls and barks.

Fang, with one last desperate look at his lifeless parents' bodies, turned and bolted for the door.

POW! POW! PO-POW!

The gun went off behind him, the man obviously trying to shoot him in his limping state. Fang didn't hesitate any longer, sliding through the open doorway and out into the dark, stormy night.

The words echoed in his mind, the last words his father had uttered:

Run, Fang, run.

Chapter 2

(4 Months Later...)

CRASH!

*Tinkle Shatter Clink*

A bottle of purple cider splashed and crashed against a brick wall in an alley, shattering into a million glassy pieces.

A man's angry, beet-red face appeared on a resteraunt's doorstep. He ducked back inside, and out of the door, a golden-furred bundle went flying.

"And stay out, you filthy thief!" the man shouted, repositioning his chef's hat.

With a slam of the wooden door, he dissapeared inside the building.

The golden bundle