Like it was an art, I leapt from one roof to the other with pin point precision. My dog tags were the only noises I made: I was trained to be quiet even if I was jumping across roofs or running through crusty snow. I paused for a second on one roof and peered around. From one side I could see my sister Roxy walking with the familiar, sleek, blue-eyed silver husky I remembered from puppyhood. Further down the street I could see my brother talking to a few of his friends. I took one last look at the girls but Roxy had spotted me. Roxy scowled and the silver husky made a face but I jumped on to the next roof and took off again. Finally, I jumped off the roof, onto a fence and then onto the ground coated with early fall snow.

“Heyya Scooty!” I greeted with a smile.

The black and white mutt didn’t need to tell his own brother his name was Scooter, but he sighed heavily anyway.

     “Weren’t you supposed to be in the pound?” Scooter frowned.

“Eeh, got boring pretty fast” I mumbled, sniffing around the trashcans for food. 

Scooter’s two friends stared at me in disgust.

“What are you looking at!” I snapped at them. “Beat it or else you’ll find out why they put me in the pound in the first place”

They didn’t need to be told twice and scampered away. Scooter rolled his eyes.

     “Do you need more food?” Scooter sighed.

“If it’s not too much trouble” I replied with a rare bit of humility.

     “Then hurry up. I have to leave on a mail run” Scooter mumbled.

Scooter led me down the street and I followed, not a hint of fear in my step. I didn’t have to be afraid. No one ever bothered me or even thought about bothering me. Scooter didn’t either but that was because he was some human’s goody-goody sled dog. 

My brother led me to his owner’s house and pushed the door open with his nose. 

     “You know the rules. Wait out here and I’ll be back with food”

I nodded and sat down, rolling my eyes. Scooter disappeared inside the house and returned a few minutes later with a metal bowl filled with dog food. 

     “Don’t get caught this time” Scooter said. “I need to go before the team leaves without me”

With that, Scooter left, leaving me to scarf down my dinner. Who ever said strays had to go hungry? As soon as I was done, I stretched and glanced around to see if there was anyone else I could annoy. The frosty streets and old wooden houses were empty and the sky was getting darker and darker. No one was around, so with a little smirk to myself, I trotted right into Scooter’s dog house for a nap. It wasn’t like he was there to use it anyway.

     The spotlight slipped across the snow and crossed over the sign reading CAUTION: K-9 TRAINING BASE. It slid along the edge of the fence and almost missed the figure struggling to squeeze under it. The red and white wolf hybrid just managed to get to the other side just as his handler raced after him with his leash. The dog didn’t waste a second and was off at a ferocious pace. The sound of barking reached the red dog’s ears and he made it into the woods just as the other handlers let a few other dogs off their leashes to catch him. The red dog wove through the trees but paused briefly when he spotted a fallen one. With the agility and cunning he had picked up from his training, he leapt up the trunk and huddled in the dying branches. A dog and two handlers raced by. A few seconds later, two more handlers and another dog ensued. The red dog waited for a while to make sure they were gone and carefully slid down the trunk. With a laugh, he started to weave through the trees again when suddenly, two dogs darted out in front of him, noses to the ground. When their eyes meant, the two other dogs started to growl.

“Asa, Caesar, stand down!” the red dog ordered.

The Doberman pinscher and German Shepherd sat down obediently.

     “Are you running away?” Asa, the Doberman asked worriedly.

“I have to. Staying here would kill me and it’ll probably kill you too”

     “What do you want us to do?” Caesar asked.

“I want you to lead them the wrong way” 

     “But that would get us in trouble!”

“Not with me it won’t, but there’ll be trouble if they catch me. Now as your commanding officer, I order you to lead them away”

They nodded quickly and the red dog gave them a curt nod.

“Good luck then” 

With that, the three split up, and the red dog took off, never to be seen at the base again.

     With a little snort, my eyes opened and I thought about my dream. It wasn’t foreign and although it was a dream now, it was reality not more then a few months ago. I had been that red dog and I had gotten away. Now why would a dog that was clearly the highest ranking want to escape? Because our handlers could make us do anything they wanted. And my handler could control me with his voice commands and I did them by instinct even if I thought they were stupid. Why would you trust someone who could control you? They could easily get you killed. So I left. And now I was in Platinum. With a wide yawn, I rolled onto my stomach and stood up. After I stretched, I headed back into the streets. 

     The first thing I saw when I entered town was my sister Azura. Out of all my siblings, she was the only one I genuinely liked. I could tolerate Scooter, Roxy hated me as much as I hated her but I got along with my youngest sister. She was always happy and smiling but now she was frowning and looked deep in thought.

“Hey Azura! What’s wrong?”

     “Some one called me a filthy mutt” she said slowly. “What’s a mutt?”

My blood boiled. No one messed with my sister.

“Who”

Still deep in thought she got up and led me through some of the back allies. Normal dogs usually didn’t hang out in the back of these allies. Only strays did. Laughter started to reach our ears and Azura showed me to the strays. A few dogs stood howling at some joke. The leader seemed to be a brown and tan Malamute cross.

“Which one of you insulted my sister?” I growled.

The laughter stopped and they exchanged glances. The Malamute stepped forward. 

     “I did! Got a problem with that?”

“Yeah” I growled, bumping my head into his so that we were eye to eye. “And I don’t think you know who you’re messing with”

With a snarl the Malamute snapped at me and I was instantly ready for a fight. I loved fighting. I had never lost a fight and I wasn’t about to start now.

The Malamute lunged at me with his teeth bared and when he reached me, I swatted him across the face. Stunned, the husky fell back. He had underestimated me. But now that he knew what he was up against, he was a bit more trouble the second time he charged. At first, I was a bit worried that his larger size would’ve gotten to me... but my army-dog training started to kick in. 

     “Alright! Now you really asked for it” the Malamute cross sputtered, after he got a hard hit.

Once again, he lunged but I was ready to end this. I charged right at him and just before his teeth snapped shut, I lowered my head and head butted him. He stumbled back, dazed. His two friends froze and looked between the Malamute and me. Still gasping for breath, the stunned mutt pulled himself to his feet. I braced myself for another round but instead, the other dog just grinned. I raised an eyebrow but didn’t let my guard down.

     “That” he said. “Was the best fight I’ve ever been in”

He shook the snow out of his fur and came closer.

     “We could use a guy like you”

“Apologize to my sister” I ordered flatly.

The dog’s darting brown and blue eyes turned to Azura.

     “Well miss… I…am sorry”

Azura smiled and tail wagging, left in the happy mood she was usually always in.

     “Thanks Dallas!” she called over her shoulder.

The Malamute cross stared after her.

“Who is she?”

“No one you’re gonna meet up with again unless you wanna get ripped to shreds!”

     “Easy!” the stray replied lightly, backing off. “I was just wondering”

“Now what were you saying before?”

The dog grinned.

     “First off, I’m Ivan” the Malamute cross introduced. “And I’m the leader of my own group of strays and I was saying that we could use a guy like you”

“No thanks, I’m not much of a group person” I muttered.

     “Then maybe we could have, you know, a kind of alliance”

I thought about it then grinned.

“That would be okay” I replied, quickly adding, “But stay away from my sister”

     After that day, Ivan was probably the closest thing I had to a friend outside of my family. We had each other’s backs. He wasn’t the most trustworthy dog in all of Platinum, but I relied on him more then any other stray. We’d fill each other in about our enemies and supposed friends if we bumped into each other. Sometimes, the information was a bit heavier then what was wanted.

     “Hey Dallas” Ivan yawned one day, after being thrown into the cage next to me in the pound. “Guess who came back to Platinum”

I opened an eye and glanced over at the Malamute cross. 

“Who?” I mumbled.

     “Remember that dog that dog you were telling me about? Uh.... Rick?”

I sat up, wide awake. “Rex?”

     “Yeah, him. He came back to Platinum today. He’s supposed to have a mate waiting for him or something...”

I took a few seconds to absorb this. 

“I owe ya one Ivan” I said, rising to my feet. 

     “For what?” he mumbled, half asleep.

I didn’t answer. Not that Ivan would care... With that, I climbed over the chain-link fence, carefully placing each paw in a space until I balanced on the top. With a single bound, I hopped to the snowy ground. Then I simply trotted away in plain sight. No one usually guarded the outside pound runs and most dogs that got placed in them usually ended up getting out.

     After I had spent the day tracking down my latest enemy, I finally had the black and tan Greenland Dog in my sights. He still looked exactly like he did when I was a pup. Except now that I was bigger, he seemed to have gotten smaller. We were probably about the same height now but he was easily thicker. I didn’t care. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. 

The sun started to set and when the sunlight started to fade, the Greenland Dog headed for a house that was a street off of the main street. Planning my attack carefully in my head, I slipped into the house’s backyard and hid in the shed. Wooden crates were stacked in front of the shed... that’d be a good hiding place if they found me in the shed. As I slipped into the old wooden shack, I accidentally brushed up against some human tool and sent it clattering to the ground. Cursing my stupid mistake, I held my breath and froze, but no other sounds followed it. With a sigh of relief, I hunkered down on the cold wooden floor and faced the house. Suddenly, the house’s back door opened and light spilled onto the snow.

     “-Daddy, I’m not your puppy any more! I don’t even think anything is in there! I just want to check!”

          “Just be careful Shelby”

I didn’t recognize either of the voices, but I could bet that the first one was Rex’s mate-to-be. I could easily start my attack like this! I crouched, ready to spring as soon as the figure came into the shed. But the figure that came in the old shed was the silver husky: Roxy’s friend. She was smaller and way thinner then me. She couldn’t do anything to me. So I let my guard down. Shelby sniffed the floor and peered around nervously. I slipped out of my hiding place and when her blue eyes darted to me, she gasped.

“Hey there sweet cheeks” I crooned.

Shelby franticly looked around for anything she could use or hide behind. She darted for a piece of rope on the floor and held it in her teeth, a new devious gleam in her eyes. I chuckled.

“Do you really think a little rope would stop me?” I smiled through half closed eyes.

The husky’s eyes flitted to something above me. Still smiling, I looked up. My smile dropped right off my face. Above me was a bundle of tools that probably couldn’t fit on the shed’s cramped floor and were bound by rope to the low roof. And the end of the rope keeping the tools from falling on me was dangling out of Shelby’s mouth.

“Isn’t that convenient” I mumbled softly. Then I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t have the guts to do it”

     “Try ‘be” Shelby replied through the rope with false confidence.

I grinned and started to waltz over to her. In an act of desperation and without actually meaning to, the silver husky scrambled away from me and pulled the rope. The rope above me quickly uncoiled. The tools fell straight down… right on top of me. Moaning, I pulled myself out of the wreckage. Shelby just stood there, horrified.

     “Oh my… I’m so sorr… I didn’t mean…” she stammered. 

I stood up and shook off. That was enough reassurance for the little husky.

     “DADDY! THERE’S A STRAY IN THE SHED!” She yelled, retreating.

She was throwing my plans right out the window! Just as the door opened once again and her daddy reappeared, I had managed to climb to the top of the wooden crates for leverage. The old husky’s blue eyes found me immediately.

“You’re mate ruined my life!” I yelled deliriously at Shelby, half out of my mind. “And now I’m going to ruin both of yours!”

A low groaning sound distracted me. The old husky’s ears twitched at the sound and Shelby burrowed into her father fearfully. Seconds before it collapsed, I realized the groaning was coming from the bending boards of the boxes I was standing on. I fell through one box and the others collapsed under me. Then it was lights out.

     Tail wagging furiously, I struggled to balance with the enormous bone in my mouth. I couldn’t wait to show Her the bone! I still couldn’t believe I found it! It was just sitting there in a metal bowl for me to take! And now I was going to give it to the puppy I had been admiring from afar until today! 

“Wow!” Scooter exclaimed when he watched me walk by. 

     “What are you gonna do with that?!” Azura asked, still in awe.

“I’m gonna give it to that pretty husky!” I said, dropping the bone for a few seconds to talk to my siblings.

     “You don’t even know her name!” Scooter argued. “We should just keep it!”

“No way!” I yipped. “Now she’ll finally notice me!”

And with that, I gripped the bone in my puppy teeth again and proudly stumbled over to the two pups talking in the cool shade. One was my sister Roxy before she had started to hate me. The other was my puppy crush, the silver puppy whose name I had yet to discover! Once I reached them, I proudly dropped the bone at Her feet.

“Hi there girls!” I said smoothly.

The girl’s smiles faded and a shadow dropped over me. Tail between my legs, I turned to see the black and tan dog named Rex.

     “That’s my bone pup!” he growled. “No one steals from me!”

Before I could explain, Rex lifted me off the ground by the scruff of my neck and carried me over to a sled. Then he tucked me into the cloths that were piled on it.

     “Have a nice trip” he sneered.

The musher got on the sled and called for the team to move. Too scared to get out, I sat in the folds of cloth and watched Platinum disappear.

     Very slowly, I opened my eyes. That sled had brought me to the army base. It was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. And I was over my little crush too... especially now that she’d dropped a ton of tools on me.

Then it all came back to me… where was I?! I glanced around. This was definitely not the pound. I was in a cage but this one had a bed and it was indoors. I could see my dog tags on a human bed on the other side of the small, dark room. I got to my feet and found that I was a little sore and my back leg was bandaged, but the cage I was in was easy to escape. I nudged the latch over with my nose and pushed the door open. Immediately, I went to the bed and slipped the dog tags back on my neck. I never went anywhere without them. Then I went over to the door and listened to the human voices arguing just outside in the hall. 

         “I don’t think you understand! He tried to attack our purebred Husky! If anything happened to her, our breeding program would have collapsed and we would’ve lost hundreds of dollars!"

“Then what do you want us to do with him?!”

“I don’t know! But just putting him in the pound so that he can escape again is unacceptable!”

The voices moved down the hall and I heard a door open and close. I waited a few seconds to make sure they were gone, then I set to work on getting through the door. The wood was thin and was probably as old as the shed and as soon as I started to chew and claw, the brittle wood easily fell apart. When there was a good sized hole, I squeezed through and limped down the hallway towards the door I was sure would lead outside.

Flames from a fire place in another room flickered on the floor but I ignored them… until a shadow moved across them. I stopped just before going past the room. It was a good thing I did. 

     “Stop fidgeting dear” said a stuffy female voice.

“Sorry Momma” I heard Shelby’s voice say.

I sat down on the floor, hiding behind the corner and rolling my eyes. 

     “We’re so proud of you” said Shelby’s father.

I made a face even though I knew no one could see me. Suddenly, someone entered the front door through the doggie door. I froze. Two of the three dogs in the next room got up to greet the dog… when I peered around to see who the newcomer was, my blood ran cold. The huge black and tan dog with gleaming brown eyes went over to Shelby and greeted her reverently. Unable to control myself and against all my good sense, I stepped right out into the room. Shelby’s mother, a white husky, let out a soft cry when she saw me.

“You’re the dog that put me through the worst years of my life” I uttered coldly.

At first shocked, Rex’s eyes lit up with remembrance.

     “You’re that brat I sent out of town” he said.

“I thought you said he was out cold Blizzard!” I heard Shelby’s mom whisper.

Blizzard, Shelby’s father, didn’t answer her. He seemed kind, but he was still shocked by my sudden appearance. Meanwhile, Shelby just stared, but in a different way then her family. At first it was hard to ignore her, but when Rex stood up and walked toward me, I bared my teeth too and crouched. He opened his mouth to say something but I never gave him the chance. I pounced right on him and knocked him over. But Rex wasn’t some poor fighting stray. He kicked my bandaged leg and with a smothered yelp, I fell on the floor right next to him. Shelby’s mother started to bark for her humans and Blizzard shielded his daughter from the fight. Rex was up on his feet in an instant and trying to hit my hurt leg only to get kicked in his face, but then the humans crashed through the door and gasped when they saw me. They didn’t care about how I had gotten out. But they did care that Rex had “caught” me.

     “Good boy” said the male human, patting the grinning Rex on the head. Then he went out the door and a few moments later returned with a rope. I growled softly. The man scowled and slipped the rope over my neck as careful as he could without getting to close to me. Then he yanked me back to a different room right next to the front door. This time, he tied me to a table and left me in there. I sighed and plopped down on the floor. I could tell from where I was that this door was thicker anyway. I was stuck. Although I could still hear the human voices and dogs voices still chattering excitedly, I let my heavy eyelids droop. I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon…

     The next thing I knew, my eyes flashed open. What woke me up? A soft scratching noise came from behind the door. Slowly, very slowly, I rose to my feet and hid in the dark corner as far as the rope would allow me, just in case I needed to launch a surprise attack. The door finally swung open and the only light that streaked across the door came from the fireplace. It must have still been night… A faint shadow moved across the floor. It looked like a dog’s but it was too dark to see clearly. Then the last dog I’d thought would ever come into the room came into view: Shelby.

“What do you want?” I sneered.

     “You should be a little nicer to me” she scoffed. “I’m your only hope now”

I narrowed my eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

     “My humans said that he’s going to get you put down… so I’m going to help you escape”

“Why would you do that?” I shot back, still a bit riled.

     “I’m a nice dog” she smiled pleasantly. “I just need a little help escaping myself and I think you could help me”

I narrowed my eyes again and stiffened. 

“Okay, here’s the plan: we can go through the front doggie door and you can escort me into the wild! Then I can find a wolf and he can be my mate! I’ve always wanted to lead my own wolf pack! I’d be so good at it!”

I opened my mouth to tell her how self absorbed she was, but before anything could come out, I jammed it shut. Then I just grinned. I doubted she could keep up with me anyway… and she wouldn’t last that long with a wolf even if she could make it out of town.

     “Okay” I replied, watching her through half closed eyes. “Let’s go escape!”

With a huge smile, Shelby slipped the rope off my neck and I shook, happy to finally be free of the itchy thing. Then Shelby cautiously led me to the front door. We stepped out and a fresh burst of cold air rushed into me. 

     “Well what are we waiting for?!” Shelby whispered excitedly.

“Good question… so this is where we part”

Before Shelby’s happy face could turn to shock, I leapt off the front porch and hit the frozen ground running. I let out a short laugh and ran as fast as my feet could carry me. I didn’t stop running until I had safely made it into the woods. Shelby, being purebred husky, didn’t stand a chance out here. However, my mother was half wolf and I was sure I had some hidden instincts buried in my head. I took a short break, smiling and panting, to take one last look back at the town. I didn’t believe it! Not more then a few feet back was Shelby! I gritted my teeth and dove into the maze of trees. Surely she’d give up then…

I dived under branches, weaved through tree trunks and used up any reserve energy I had left. A few minutes later, my leg was throbbing and I finally pulled up to a stop, carrying my left hind leg off the ground. I grinned at my own cleverness and panted happily again. Something crashed behind me. There was no way…

     “I can’t believe you!” shrieked Shelby.

I grimaced and sat deliberately on the ground. HOW?!

     “I saved your life! If I wasn’t as fast as you, you would’ve left me behind!”

“I’m injured. I could have easily lost you if you hadn’t dropped those human tools on me. So I think you owe me” I mumbled.

I picked myself up and dragged myself over to the small creek I had been running alongside. Shelby followed me and watched me suspiciously as I drank. Her blue eyes widened in surprise as she spotted the dog tags.

     “You’re an army dog?!”

I paused for a second, deciding whether or not to talk about it.

“Honorably discharged” I muttered sarcastically.

     “I don’t believe you. I’m smarter then that you know... I’m purebred... no dog that-”

“Are you really that self-absorbed or are you acting?! Does the whole world just revolve around your little purebred mind?”

Shelby’s eyes smoldered.

     “I have never-!”

“See! Every time something comes out of your mouth, it has to do with you! Now why don’t you go home to your purebred parents”

I stepped into the creek and sat down in the cool water, letting wash over my injured leg. Shelby struggled for a good comeback but nothing clicked. Finally she scoffed.

     “Well you’re a far cry from that pup I knew when I was little! I think you deserved to be sent to that place even if it didn’t fix you”

“I never deserved that!” I growled. “You deserve to be left out here”

Shelby whipped around.

     “You have no idea how hard my life is!”

“How hard could your life be?” I laughed dryly. 

     “How would you like to have everything in your life set up for you before you were born?! My owners are actually running a race to see who the fastest dog in Alaska is so that they can buy him to be my mate so I can have puppies for the rest of my life!”

“Not my problem” I snorted. “Why did you even try to get me of all people to help you anyway? I tried to attack you! For all you know, I could have tried something worse!”

Shelby shrugged. I was losing interest.

“Just go home. You can’t last out here anyway” 

Shelby started to walk away, then suddenly turned around with a coy smile. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

     “Well there is something else in this for you…”

She walked back loftily.

“None of that girly crap is going to work on me” I snapped as she got closer.

Shelby shrugged, but her eyes flashed back to mine again as if she had another idea.

     “Well... you obviously don’t like Rex for whatever reason…” she said softly, pretending not to care. “Well if I chose to be with some half- blooded, supposedly dangerous criminal over you, wouldn’t you want to pull your fur out?”

“I wouldn’t have wanted you in the first place” I muttered under my breath.

     “What?”

“Fine. You can follow me around… but I’m not catching your food, I’m not protecting you and I’m sure as heck not going to be friends”

     “Have it your way” she said, finding a good place to sleep in the frozen grass.

With that done, I plopped onto the ground and closed my weary eyes.

     “What was that?!” Shelby shrieked suddenly.

I opened my eyes and lazily looked at the frantic silver husky.

“I don’t know. Go to sleep or I’m leaving you behind tomorrow”

Shelby threw me a dirty look and lay back down; this time a little closer to me. Not a second later, she was back on her feet again.

     “There was something moving right over there in those bushes!” she yelped.

“I hope there was” I moaned. “If there wasn’t that would probably mean we were the only two for miles and that’s something no one should have to endure. Now go to sleep”

I heard Shelby lay down again and before she could jump at anything else, my mind finally carried itself away into memory-filled dreams.

     “Where’s mommy?” Azura whimpered, rubbing up against our father, Canton.

Canton didn’t seem very interested, but we all knew by now that no matter how much our father pretended to ignore our mother, he did care. But now wasn’t the time to pretend. Mom was gone. We had no idea where she was.

“Where is she daddy?” I asked worriedly. Scooter and Roxy had the same big, worried eyes me and my sister had and finally, Canton couldn’t take it anymore.

“You stay right here okay?” he said. “I’ll be back in a little bit with your mother”

The four of us watched him slip out the doggie door and the room was filled with quiet. Our owners had gone out to somewhere so there was absolutely no one watching us.

     “I’m scared” Azura whimpered. “What happens if daddy doesn’t find her?”

“Maybe we should go out and find her” I said, pushing the doggie door open. 

     “But daddy said-” Scooter started to object, but I could tell he wanted to do the same thing. With a sigh, he jumped outside first and the four of us wandered the streets together. 

After a few hours of searching, we heard a gun go off, making us all jump and whimper. 

“Maybe they found mom!” I finally said, voice cracking. The four of us took off toward the sound and when we came around the corner, we saw our dad standing over our mom who had collapsed. We started running toward them but we never got there. Before we knew it, someone had scooped us all up and I made my first trip to the pound.

     The lady in charge was nice. She gave us warm milk but we weren’t hungry. We wanted our parents and our owners. While we were there, I noticed that one of the boards was loose. It was just big enough for a puppy to go through. 

“We can go find mom and dad now!” I yipped. Scooter and Roxy didn’t seem so convinced.

     “Mom and Dad will find us if we stay here” Roxy shot back. “We got lost when we followed you!”

“Fine then!” I replied. I knew Azura would follow me. When we left, it was the last time we were house pets. Azura and I never went back to our parents or owners again... even though Scooter and Roxy were picked up and it turned out our mother had only collapsed from running so much. I saw them every now and them, but not a word ever passed between us. Mom probably would’ve been happy to see us... but Dad...

     The autumn sun was warming my back when my eyes cracked themselves open. It had been a lot warmer then I thought it would be… 

I glanced around and with a wave of shock, realized that Shelby was curled into me. I scrambled to me feet. Shelby woke up with a start looking around fearfully.

“I already told you! I’m not protecting you and I’m not bringing you along so that we can be pals!”

Shelby scoffed and got to her feet, stretching. Fur still tingling, I stalked over to the creek to catch a breakfast of fish. I had caught fish before… I just wasn’t very good at it. However, with a splash, I surprised myself and caught a wriggling thing in my mouth and brought it onto dry grass to eat. Shelby watched enviously.

“I’m not helping you” I said without even looking up.

     “I don’t need your help!” she replied, sticking her nose into the air and trotting toward the creek.

As I ate, I heard splash after splash. After each splash came a growl of frustration. I didn’t need to watch to know that Shelby was failing miserably. As soon as I finished, I got a front row seat to what was sure to be breakfast and a show. Shelby glared at me. I just smiled and watched through half closed eyes. Finally, the silver husky stormed out of the little trickle of water, soaking wet and shivering. 

     The next few days, I had to admit that Shelby wasn’t the stuffy purebred I was convinced that she would be. She did have her moments… like insisting that I make a bed for her so that she didn’t have to sleep in the mud. Or when her light blue collar broke. I was convinced she was going to pass out by hyperventilating, but she got over it. I was almost disappointed when we spotted a city’s lights on the horizon. This one seemed a little bigger then Platinum, but I’d had my share of the wild!

     “What if someone recognizes us?!” Shelby worried.

“You’d be surprised at how many people haven’t heard of you… and I haven’t done anything that bad yet”

     “How are we going to get food? There’s no fish to catch!”

“You can’t catch fish anyway...” I said. “And there are dumpsters… there’s bound to be something in one of them.”

     “You expect me to eat out of a dumpster!?”

I sighed.

“Not tonight. There’s no sense in trying to rush over”

I found a spot underneath a tree and plopped down. Shelby frowned.

     “You didn’t even find me a wolf pack to lead!”

“You barely survived these past weeks with me. You can’t catch food and you’re too afraid to sleep by yourself. You wouldn’t stand a chance out here without me” 

I didn’t need to open my eyes to see the look Shelby was giving me. 

     “Well I saved-!”

“Don’t even try that bit on me now! My legs better. I could outrun you in a second! So I suggest you stop talking and rest because we’re waking up early tomorrow morning”

I heard Shelby throw herself to the ground and mutter something under her breath.

     The next morning, I woke myself up just as the sun was streaking the sky with pink and gold. I yawned and noticed Shelby was curled into my side once again. I grumbled and scooted away. No matter what I did, she always ended up there like she was some kind of magnet but at least it kept me warm… 

“Wake up or I’m leaving you behind” I said, getting up and stretching.

Shelby opened her eyes and blinked a few times, but got up. I didn’t waste a second and headed for the town, Shelby mumbling as she stumbled after me.

     As soon as we walked down a side street, I could already tell that this town was a lot different from Platinum. The streets were a lot wider and the houses were tons bigger. This city must have been at least four times bigger then Platinum. Walking as if I was walking on eggshells, I carefully treaded down the main street, not yet ready to try the back alleys. 

     “This isn’t the wild anymore! No one’s going to attack us” Shelby said loudly.

“How would you know? You’ve never been outside Platinum”

     “Well I know enough about city life”

“Alright. Then why don’t you go off on your own” I replied carelessly. “I got you away from your family”

     “What?!”

“See ya around” I said over my shoulder. “I told you I wasn’t dragging you around so we could be friends and like you said, you know enough about city life”

Shelby stuttered, trying to think up excuses but finally pouted, “Fine!” before storming away.

Finally free of the extra burden, I started to wander down the back alleys in search of something to eat. A few trashcans stood next to someone’s front door. No one was awake at this time in the morning, so I tipped it over and helped myself to whatever edible things were inside. 

After eating my fill, I decided to explore a little and find a safe place to sleep off my meal. No other dogs seemed to be around. Finally, after a few minutes of walking around aimlessly behind houses, I found an abandoned crate. It looked comfortable compared to the hard, frozen ground I had been sleeping on. But I didn’t even get to settle down before I heard a short scream. It was Shelby. 

I paused, unsure of what to do.

“Not my problem” I convinced myself. In the distance someone snarled, making me sway indecisively. Growling at myself, I doubled around to go find Shelby. Never had I hated myself more...

Dallas, Shelby, Canton, Cocoa, Azura, Blizzard and Snow (Shelby’s mom) (c) me

Scooter and Roxy (c) ChaoticEbony

Rex (c) Scarlet BlackMoon

Ivan (c) FallenAngel