Chapter 3 - Sprinting

The dogs were lining up for the small race. There were no sledges or mushers involved, just all the dogs by themselves competing to see who's the fastest. The race was completely pointless apart from gambling and seeing whose dog was the best. Everyone knew Rex was going to win and sometimes people would leave the village $100 richer through well-placed bets. In fact, Rex was so over-confident that he couldn't bear to have anyone pass him. This sometimes led to some casualties.

Stone walked up to the line of dogs, squeezing in between two young pups. The younger one gasped and nudged away from him, obviously recognising him as a wolf. Stone didn't care; so long as the humans didn't notice too much he'd be all right.

The man with the whistle called for all dogs to line up on the start line. Some more dogs squeezed into the line. There was loud muffled barking throughout the square. Rex was wearing a new golden collar and posing for the people taking photographs. Stone was smiling to himself. He would win, he thought, and then he would be a sled dog.

“All ready!”

The dogs crouched, ready to leap out and sprint round the track.

“…Set!”

Stone's legs were quivering with impatience.

The loud whistle let out an ear-piercing pitch and all the dogs ran forward. Right from the starting line, Rex was in the lead. Stone had started at the back but was bounding forward faster than anyone else. He had just passed Rain when the crowd let out a cheer for him. He continued to sprint until he was neck and neck with Rex, about 5 meters in front of the rest of the dogs. As it was only a short race, the finishing line had begun to appear already. Stone began to slowly overtake Rex. This annoyed the Husky and he snapped at Stone's legs. Stone jumped but continued to sprint ahead of Rex. They crossed the finish line. Stone had won. Half the crowd cheered but the other half of them were booing, as they'd bet a lot on Rex. They had not expected him to lose. Neither had Rex. The rest of the dogs crossed the finish line and began to crowd around Stone, muttering things like “What are you doing?” and “You shouldn't be here!”

Stone wagged his tail nervously to keep up his act.

Rex was not happy at all, he ran to get his owner, who was the whistle-blower, so he could beg and get sympathy. But his owner gave him nothing of the sort. He simply walked right past Rex, towards Stone, talking excitedly to another man.

“And let's have a look at our new champion!” he shouted

The people who were once taking photos of Rex began to take photos of Stone. Rex growled deeply and ran in at Stone, knocking him over. Stone got up and growled ferociously.

Stone and Rex were facing each other and the crowd began to see the difference between them more.

The crowd gasped loudly. Then there was silence.

Everyone was staring at Stone as if they couldn't believe their eyes. The “dog” they had thought he was turned out to be a wild animal. Stone began to shuffle backwards; he wasn't going to like what they were going to do to him.

“It's a wolf!” someone finally shouted.

An old man from the back took out his gun and fired at Stone, missing only by a few inches.

“Get out of here, you savage!” he yelled

Rain ran to Stone and stood in front of him. Rex made a move as if he were going to walk over but thought better of it. Rain barked at the crowd. Stone, from behind Rain, looked around at all the faces staring at him. They were angry, but somewhat unsure why a wolf would want to run a race like that. A small girl about the age of ten walked out from the crowd, over to Stone.

“Emma, no!” someone shouted from the crowd.

The small girl put her hand on Stone's nose and smiled.

Suddenly, a howl was heard from the south. Stone turned and, to his disgust, saw one of the black wolves from the enemy pack, standing howling at the top of his hill. He growled deeply and bared his teeth.

The small girl yelped slightly and ran back to her father. The black wolf saw her run and bounded over, knocking her over as it trampled over her. She was screaming by now and so was her mother. The wolf took notice of this and grabbed her necklace that a wolf's tooth was attached to. She screamed more.

“My necklace! My Gram's necklace! My wolf's tooth! Oh, Harris, that's all I had left of you …” she sat down and began to cry.

Rain looked at Stone.

“Go get him, Stone. Go get it back for her,”

Kipper walked over to him, also.

“A dog cannot make the journey. But maybe a wolf can,”

Stone looked at Rain, then at Kipper. Without thinking, he howled his little moaning howl to the heavens and ran after the wolf, intent on bringing Emma her necklace back.

“Run Doggie, Run!” She screamed at him, tears in her eyes.

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