My mind continued to fly with thoughts, but soon the people began to crowd the streets and I knew I should be awaking Issac.

      For an old dog he loved to sleep long and hard. If it weren't for me he would probably still be wasting away his days only to awake ready to begin his prowling in the night, but I think he and I helped eachother. I kept him from the danger of the night, while he bacame my constant friend and advisor. He kept me out of trouble, he was the only one, at the time, that could.

  "Alright, wake up" I said nudging Issac.

  "Up and at em' time to wake up and greet the sunshine"

  Issac groaned "Five more minuets"

  "Come on feel the hot breeze, the sun blistering your eyes, the sand scraping your feet, its heaven" I said sarcastically.

 "Sage, you drive an old dog mad"  he said rolling over.

  "Now Issac, we both know you were nuts long before you met me" I joked.

  "I was was I" Issac said "Back in my time, I would have ripped that smart mouth off of you."

  "Well whats holdin you back old timer?" I asked playfully.

 "I think that this old do could still teach you some new tricks." He grinned getting to his feet.

  "Well bring it" I laughed.

   He lunged at me sending me too my feet before I knew what hit me. I growled and gently bit his hear. He rolled me over and used his weight agianst me. Soon we were both on the ground gasping for air as we laughed.

 "Whats got you so chipper this morning?" Issac asked tunring to me. I lost my smile immidiately.

 "Chipper? whose chipper?" I asked

  "You, wheres your usual morning rutine" He asked.

  "I didn't know I had a rutine."

 "O yes you did, grow grumble fight, thats your rutine" Issac said.

 "Is not" I argued.

  "O sorry, I'll just forget for a slpit second that I'm sharing an alley with a serial dog" 

 "I am not" I grinned at his sarcastic little joke.

  "Right" Issac said standing to his feet. "Well come on what do you say we go find some breakfast?" 

  "Agreed" I said jumping up excitedly.

   We walked on and on and on. Issac refused to allow me to steal anything. My mouth watered as we walked by the unguarded cages of chickens and the freshly cut meat that was being kept in the ice boxes, but Issac wouldn't hear of it.

 "What is the point in walking all the way out to the dessert when all we gotta do is go back and take something off the open market?" I begged.

  "Because it dosen't belong to us, you don't steal from the humans unless you want trouble, and thats exactly what we don't need, you've gotten us into enough of that lately."  Issac said sniffing the ground as we walked father into the sandy desolate places.

 "O yea and what exactly have I done?" I asked.

 "Broken the stealing record for any dog thats been hear."

"And thats a bad thing?" I asked with a prideful grin.

 "Attacked three house pets, including chasing a six year old's cat up a tree."

 "They wouldn't stop yacking, and that cat well he kept meowing all day long just to get on my nerves" I explained.

 "You Bit a politicain's kid" Issac stressed.

 "Hey, I wouldn't have touched that kid, but he was hitting me and pulling my tail and he was about to throw me over the docks, I'm not that great of a swimmer you know."

"We had guards chasing us for days."

"That proves some politicians don't have anything better to do than go on wild dog chases, I didn'nt even bite him that hard" I  shrugged.

"And there is our dinner"  Issac said in a whisper.

 "Really, because I don't seen any ice boxes nearby." 

 "Hush your mouth for once" Issac said pulling me down to the ground with him.

"Now watch and learn, that is our breafast" Issac nodded. I looked in the direction of his eyes, and saw the biggest Jack Rabbit I had ever seen.When I looked back beside me Issac was already gone, I watched intently, this looked intersting.

   His body was low to the ground, his eyes fixed on the Rabbit. Each move he made was slow and fixed, I imagined Issac in his old life, a young dog, well taken care of. Huge musles to support his well built body, he had been a dog of magnificient once.

 Issac was now so close to the rabbit, but the unknowing animal kept getting closer and closer, and with one jump Issac was on him. There was a snarling growl and a rush of dainty fur, and then Issac carried the rabbit proudly.

  "That my young friend is how its done" Issac grinned ear to ear.

 "Hey that looked fun, think you could teach me?" I asked hopeful.

  "Me teach you, I thought us old dogs didn't know much." Issac smiled, he was gonna make me say it, I just knew it.

 "Come on Issac" I said pushing him with my big paws.

 "You know I'm just kidding" I argued.

  "Nope, I'm not hearing anything, whats that?" Issac said turing his ears toward me.

I rolled my eyes. "Ok fine, Your Bad, your bad to the bone, big and bad" I laughed.

 "Ok, lets eat" Issac shrugged walking off.

 "Wait thats it?" I ran to catch up with him.

  "I said it, your not gonna gloat or say some smart remark or, thats it?" I asked agian.

  Issac laughed and kept walking. Sometimes that dog just wouldn't do.

               ********************

       We ate to our fill in a place Issac new of, still in the dessert, but it was less sand and more of a rocky fortress. It was a big rabbit and we had a lot left over.

 "So you'll teach me how to hunt"  I asked agian and agian.

  "You already know how" Issac said simply.

  "You have a good sense of smell, now all you need is a little patience, and that I can't teach you."

  "Thats it?" I said a little dissapointed.

"Its not as easy as it sounds, look next time we go out, I'll let you do the tracking ok. You just got to block all other smells out and focus on what you want"  He instructed.

 "Sounds easy enough" I sighed thoughtfully as I stood to my feet and looked at the leftovers we had before us.

 "What should we do with the rest of this rabbit?"

 "Take it with us, it would be a waste to leave it here"  Issac said "Besides we could use the extra food, your getting skinnier" Issac said.

 "I am not"  I said trying to argue him out of his sudden worry.

 "You are too, I'm not that blind" Issac said seriously. 

   "I'm just lean"  I said.

  "Call it what you want, it still adds up to one thing, skinny, you need some meat on your bones" 

  I gave up, there was no arguing him out of this one. Besides, I was skinny, and I felt the effects of not eating, but I never complained, I knew Issac was hungry too. He thought I didn't notice when I wasn't looking how he would take some of his food and put it in my place. I never ate his cut though, I always put it back, for I was young, and he needed the strength more then me.

  "Ok lets get going" I said sniffing the air as the wind blew harshly. "I think a storms on the way." 

  "Feels that way" Issac said getting to his feet slowly. I grabed the rabbit and we almost started walking off when a low dark voice stopped us.

  "Then I guess your stuck then aren't you" It laughed.

  "No, we were just about to head on back to town" I said as the figure slowly appeared.

  It was a big solid black dog. He was taller than me, with big paws and firey eyes that seemed to reflect nothing but hatred. He was very skinny and I thought I hadn't eaten good for days, he looked like he had gone months with out much food. I had seen him before, but neve so close, he usually stayed on the outskirts of the town. Two other dogs walked with him. A medium sized gray and white dog and a sandy furred dog. They were no doubt older than me, most of the street dogs were, and the ones that weren't were to skittish to even whimper much. I stood my ground, not in the least afraid of him.

  "Sorry to tell you green eyes, but your not going anywhere" The dog said as they circled us.

  "Yes we are" I said without a doubt.

  "Smart mouth huh?" The dog said, "Well that can be changed."   Issac growled low as one of the dogs cut in a little close beside him.

   "I like to see you try" I said.

  The dog looked at me and growled, his eyes showing a sudden flare. "Hand over the rabbit"

  "Why don't you go hunt something yourself?"  I demanded, Issac stayed quiet keeping his observant eyes on the dogs.

 "You killed that animal on our territory, it belongs to us."  The dog snapped.

 I laughed.

 "Something funny lap dog?"

 "If you haven't noticed, its a desert" The dog looked at me angrily.

 "You know for a pup you sure do got a mouth, what happened Momma never taught you to talk right to your elders." 

  I laid my ears low to my head. "Sure she did, what about you, Did your Daddy never teach you to use your guts and stop using your mouth and start using your guts?" I asked and as the words parted my lips, I lunged.

   I tackled the dog before he knew what was coming. The others lunged on Issac, but I knew he was use to fights by now.

    Me and the dog fought. For being so terribly skinny and poor looking, he was strong. He had me under him quickly. Where ever my teeth landed thats where I bit down and did not let go. The dog growled in pain but continued to fight me. The wind blew harder, but we continued on.

  The dog was pushed by rage and I knew he wanted nothing mre than to kill me, plain and simple. He pushed me harder into the ground, forcing me to withdraw my grasp and gasp for air. He sunk his teeth into my neck and I howled in spite of myself. I gathered my senses and threw my paw into his face clawing his eye. He jumped back, and I was free, and standing on my own four paws.

   The dog prepared to rush at me agian, but then the wind blew firesouly. I was knocked to the ground and when I stood up, the whole area was blinded with sand. I knew a storm had been coming. I heard a shreiking yelp in the distance and one thing went through my mind Issac.

   I ran through the sand, pushing agianst the wind, I had to get too him.

 "Issac" I yelled "Issac where are you"  But I knew it was impossible to hear over the wind. As I almost gave up, my paws hit something, I looked down and burried my nose, it was Issac. I grabbed my teeth around him and pulled, but gently without breaking his skin. I pulled and pulled and pulled. Finnaly after what felt like hours the wind ceased and the sand settled back to the ground. When I looked up, I saw the town, and the dogs were no where in sight, but something told me that wouldn't be the last of that dog, I had insulted him, and his firey eyes screamed for blood.

            **********************

        Issac was unconscious for a few minuets after the fight, which for that I was thankful. His ear was torn, his shoulder showed a gash, and I was pretty sure he had a broken rib. Either was he was one bruised up mutt. I knew when we awoke he would feel the pain.

  A slow moan escaped.

  "Easy pal, your pretty beat up" I said gently.

  "How did we get here" He asked.

  "I brought you here, its all over now" I reassured him.

  "How do you feel?" 

 "I'll be ok, I'll be ok" He said taking some deep breaths.

  "Here go ahead and get some rest ok" I said making him lay back down carefully.

 "But what about"  Issac began.

 "Don't worry about a thing, I'll take care of it" I smiled, he seemed to belive me for the first time and he closed his dim eyes.

   The next few days he laid around alot. He was weak, but thats why I was there. Use to Issac could bounce back from these things, small little fights now put him down for weeks, it was the first eveidence I really saw that Issac was getting old, and now it was my turn to take care of him like he had taken care of me the past few months.

            **********************

  I figured I could learn to hunt well enough. Issac talked like it came natural once you tried it. My shoulder had healed well enough, and Issac was already becoming grumpy agian, so I knew we were out of the woods.

   It was agian, another normal day, for most, but I doubt it will ever be a day forgotten in my memory. I was heading back out to the desert to catch more game. I had always been a pretty fast runner, so I thought today I would try and beat the wind, I ran through the town, laughing as yappy house dogs yelled thier complaints as I rushed by, but I kept going, that is till I hit that sudden stop. Something, or more like someone, came out of nowhere and hit me. We fell side by side, but I was too dazed to tell who it was, my nose ached terribly.

  "Do you mind watching where you're going"  I said, but it was soon regreted.

 "Watch where I'm going" A soft stern voice said anoyed. "You were the one that was flying around like a mad dog, wheres the fire your running too?" It snapped.

  I looked up ready to give that dog a piece of my mind, but as I did my heart suddenly rushed. I was lost, lost in those blue eyes. My breath somehow stolen, and I stood there, like a dumb idiot.

  "Um," She hesitated.

  I suddenly awoke stuttering awfully. "Um, no, no, I'm sorry" I blurted out. "I should have been watching where I was going" 

   I looked at her, on ear down and one ear up, plus I looked like a wreck. A scratch across one eye, wind blown fur with sand mixed in, not to mention I my stuttering problem, and to make matters worse she giggled, quietly, and she tried to hide it but I saw, and if ever a dog turned red I did.

  "Its ok, I should have looked both ways before crossing the street" She said, I smirked.

  "I'm Sam, well Samantha, but I don't like that name much, everyone just calls me Sam for short" She said quickly before the silence could go on much longer, for I didn't know what to say to a dog like her, though she seemed to be a little nervouse herslef.

 "I think its a beautiful name" I said trying to be polite, she seemed to understand for she grinned.

  "I'm Sage" I said finally remembering my manners.

  "Well where do you live?" She asked curiosly, I thought to myself, this is good we are making conversation, but why oh why that question ask me about the weather anyday, but where do I live.

  "Um, well I guess where ever I'm sleeping at the time" I shrugged than thought, where ever I'm sleeping how much more stupid and you get?

  "That sounds nice" She actually sounded sincere.

 "I like being in different places, if I could I would go far away from here" She said with a sad expression.

  "Than why don't you?" I asked gently, she looked up at me, but before she could speak a whistle sounded from a little ways off.

 "Here girl, come on lets go" The voice said kindly, and I saw the same man she had been with before.

  She turned to me, after looking expectantly in the other direction. "I got to go" Se said standing to her paws, but as she did she got tugged back. Neither of us had realized that we were tangled in her bandana.

  "O" "ow" We both said as we laughed.

  "Sorry" I said puppishly.

  "Its ok" She smiled, then she turned to go.

  "Wait" I called back, she tunred around and I was at another loss for words.

  "Um,you never told me where you lived" I stalled. she smiled and I feared she saw right through me.

 "At the American base on the other side of this town"  She said.

 "Yea I know of it."

 "Maybe you should come look me up some time" She grinned slyly waving her tail in the air.

  "I think I'll do that."

  The whistle sounded agian. "Well, I'll see you around." 

   I was left standing there, I felt like the million dollar dog, if there was such a thing. If she had have wanted I could run to France and back, ok well maybe not literally but I could dream.

   I searched to find my breath, but it was impossible because right now I couldn't even find my heart, it was far away from here in Sam's paws, for like she had taken my breath, she now stole my stone cold heart and made me feel like I was safely back home and six weeks old all over agian.

                ***************

  Author's note:

     I hope you enjoy this one, the next will have more Sam and Sage stuff so keep reading and tell me what you think so far!

              Thanks,

                    SouthPaw