golden bundle was a kid-aged dog, a Golden Retriever, dripping with purple cider. His eyelids lowered over scarlet eyes, long ears runny with purple juices, he got up and shook himself, scattering the droplets of cider.

Good guess--it was our very own Fang.

"Food was lousy anyways," he grinned. Over the months he had developed a street-slang accent. "I'd give it five stars, but, ah, they didn't serve steak. Heh-heh-heh." He turned and began care-freely trotting down the alley. "Now to find some real lunch."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Arf! RRRrrrr-ar-arf!"

Fang blinked. "Hel-lo-o-o," He went down another alley, following the sound. He poked his head around a fence corner to see the streets. "Whaddo we have 'ere?"

There was a female pup, about his age, maybe a week younger, with crystal-white fur, and multicolored spots, brown, gray, black, tan, orange, and yellow-gold all over her. She had mismatch-colored eyes, one brown, one blue. But she was breathtakingly gorgeous.

The girl puppy was barking at an orange, plain, run-of-the-mill stray cat, making the poor thing cower as it clawed further up a wooden telephone pole. To the female's left, or rather, behind her and to her left, were two bones--two juicy, delicious T-Bones. Fang licked his lips.

The girl dog turned and smiled craftily, looking down at the bones with her tongue hanging out, about to bend down and probably chew on one, then the other.

Fang took a deep breath and ducked back behind the fence. He ran a paw over his always-messy head-fur twice, shook his head to let his ears flap, and posed for a moment. Then he swaggered out from behind the fence.

"Heya, doll, how's pickin's?" Fang trotted up behind the female and stood there.

The girl pup spun around and immediately bristled. "Who're you?" she growled. She had a tomboy voice, and the nastiness in it just then caused the hair on the back of Fang's neck to stand up.

"Uh, name's Fang." He circled her. She never turned her back on him, but turned around in a circle with him, following his gaze to the bones. "An' t'whom do I owe th'pleasure?"

"I'm Afghanna," she snapped. "Now what do you want?"

"Who, me? Simple." He raised his eye brows and locked his gaze on the bones. "You wanna share yer pickings with th'rest of us, doll?"

Afghanna lowered her eyebrows. "Number one, don't call me doll. Two, it's a negative; these bones were too hard to find--and keep--to share them with some slack-jawed," she looked Fang up and down, "wide-eyed pedigreed blonde-fur with an attitude."

Fang nodded, eyes closed. "I totally get it, no worries. I wouldn't wanna share it with that kinda dog either." He opened his eyes, eyelids lowered, and gave her a handsome crooked smile. "But since he ain't here an' I am..."

"Back off, WhatsYourName, or--" Afghanna jerked her head forward, baring her teeth, hackles raised.

"Up-bup-bup," Fang interrupted loudly. "First, the name's Fang, doll. B, I ain't backin' off till you share some T-Bones and we call it square. And three, when we're done, how's about I take you to a place you'll have so many bones, y'won't even care about these."

"Don't call me doll." Afghanna snarled. "And if you have that kinda of place, why not go there instead?"

"You're a bright one." Fang wiggled his eyebrows. "But lemme show ya anyhow. You'll love it there."

"Where is it?" Afghanna asked suspiciously.

Fang lifted a paw, turned it toward him, and studied his claws with lowered eyelids and half-smile on his muzzle. "Fer th'right price, I'll show ya."
 

Afghanna sat down and scratched an ear with her hind leg. "Uh, no thanks. Whatever your little plans are, leave me out of them. Beat it, keep your moves to yourself, and have a nice day."

Fang stood up. He began slowly, very slowly edging away. "Ah well, if that's how y'want it." He shrugged. "Maybe we'll meet up again, sometime, 'uh?"

Afghanna arched a brow. "I have a feeling we won't be spending any time together ever again."

Fang nodded, continuing to edge away. "Yeah, me too. I wouldn't wanna meet up with you when you notice."

"Notice? Notice what?" Afghanna cocked her head, completely baffled.

"Look down." Fang winked and slipped around the corner.

Afghanna jerked her head downward. There, at her paws, was a bone. She breathed a sigh of relief. Whew. That was close. Good thing he didn't steal either one.

She stiffened.

Either one.

One.

One bone.

Wait a minute...

Afghanna sprang on her paws, bolting forward after Fang. "Hey! Hey you! Stop! Come back here!"

Fang cackled softly to himself as he ran, wind blowing his ears and head-fur/hair back, eyes closed with the stolen bone gripped in his mouth. He tossed his head. "Hah-ha!" I love this place.

Speeding up, he skidded, turning a corner. He sat as he skidded, eyes widening. He dropped the bone. "Ah, nuts," he grumbled.

A dead end. Great. A brick wall with trash cans and crates stacked on either side of him faced the Golden Retriever puppy.

Afghanna rounded the same corner, breathing like a locomotive, she was so furious. "That's the last time I get pulled in by some flashy, smooth-talking..." She stopped running, seeing the dead end. She knew she had him now, but...

"Where'd he go?" Afghanna asked herself aloud, jerking her head from left to right.

"That way!" came a mocking voice from above. 

Affy looked up. There he was, on the rooftop of the building before her!

 Fang's eyes were wide, and he jerked his head to the left. "Quick, before he gets away!"

His laughter echoed as he, with the bone in his mouth, dissapeared from sight when he trotted across the roof, care-free.

Afghanna scanned the alley she was in currently, trying to figure out how he'd gotten up there. She leapt onto a crate, then another, a trash can on top of that, and squirmed onto the roof. How he had done it so quickly was beyond her, but she pelted after him. 

"Oooh, catchin' up, are we?" Fang snickered. Afghanna looked across from the building's roof she was one and saw him, bone at his paws, on the roof of the brick building across from hers. He'd obviously jumped.

She got to the edge of her building's roof, then looked down.

"Uh..." Afghanna swallowed hard. High. So very, very high. She was afraid of heights. But she wasn't about to let on, not in front of this pesky fraud of a Street Dog. "Umm..."

"So, doll," Fang yawned and sat down as he called across to her. "You gonna jump, or am I gonna sit here all day?"

Afghanna glared at him, then backed away from the edge. She took another deep breath. "It's okay," she murmured to herself. "You can do this."

"While I'm still young, darlin'," Fang was barking. He scratched at a flea casually by his right ear, making it flap as his hend leg's claws dug into the itch.

"You've got this. You can do it," Afghanna kept muttering, gritting her teeth. She backed up even farther.

"Y'mind if I take a nap?" Fang called. He laid down on the next roof of the building across from hers, stolen bone between his front paws.

"Okay. Okay." Afghanna crouched, then sprang, running as fast as she could, eyes scrunched closed.

Fang lifted his head, lazily watching her.

She got closer to the edge of her building.

Fang sat up.

Afghanna finally reached the end of the building's roof. She leapt, hind paws leaving the edge as she soared toward the edge of Fang's rooftop.

Fang rose to his paws. His eyebrows narrowed. Wait half a minute.

He could see what was coming.

Afghanna's front paws hit the ledge of his roof. She'd made it!

Then the rest of her began slipping, and her heart thrummed a terrorized beat.

She struggled to pull herself up, but she was dangling hopelessly over the edge of the cement-covered alley below. A horse pulling a cart whinned. Wooden tires clattered on the streets to her right, her front paws scrabbling for a foothold on the rooftop she clung to.

Then her paws slipped in frenzy of horrific movement, making her plummet helplessly toward the hard pavement underneath her.

Afghanna didn't cry out. She couldn't. She couldn't find the sound, her heart clogging her throat as she hurtled toward the cement.

Then she stopped falling. Something had her extra neck fur, her scruff, and wasn't letting go. She dangled in thin air.

"Aht-id-oo-eet-oo-day?" came a garbled, street-accented voice somewhere above her head.

Afghanna twisted to look up at her rescuer. A pair of scarlet eyes met hers, one of them squinted tightly, and the corner of someone's mouth was open, a set of extremely-long and sharp fangs clenched visibly inside.

"You!" Afghanna cried gratefully. You must remember, she had only met him about 20 minutes ago, so his name escaped her. Names will do that when you're plummeting to certain death.

"Esh. Nee." Fang