Chapter Three
I couldn't believe what was standing right in front of my eyes.
It couldn't be... but yet it was.
It was Auntie Janette's vase.
But that's impossible, I saw it in pieces last night.
I walk closer an stretch my hand out. I go to touch it but bring my hand back, scared to even lay a finger on it.
Though now that I'm up close, I see the lines running all the way round it.
Something... Someone must have fixed this. But who?
I start thinking of anyone who may have access to the house but come up with no one.
Oh no, someone must have broken into my house and put it all back together, piece by piece.
But that doesn't make sense.
I look around the room to see if anything is out of place or missing but everything was still there in the right places, so it couldn't have been a burglar. Who would know that the vase got broken? Who would want to take hours upon hours just fixing a vase when they could have spent that time to look around the house and steal something valuable? Not that we have anything valuable.
I stood in the same spot for quite a long time until I was nudged on the hand by Gypsie. I shake my head and look down at my wrist watch.
Oh no. We're late for mushing!
Turning around so quickly I nearly trip over Gypsie, I run back to my room totally forgetting about the piece of glass on the table.
I rush to change into the thick clothing, falling over a few times trying to slide my legs into the trousers. Once I'm dressed - boots and goggles included - I grab the harnesses and lines from the shed outside and whistle for the dogs to come and get into position.
I attach them up to the sled and step on. I yell the command "Hike!" and they are off running towards the location.
Eventually I arrive at the circuit. My friends are stood by the starting line, so I wave to them when the Seven slow down.
Once I reach my two friends I step off the sled.
"Late." Autumn sings in a teasing voice, her voice much higher than usual.
"Be quiet you, you're the one who is usually late." I say while sliding the goggles from my eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say Shae."
I hear a cough behind me and I spin around. A second later me and Aiden are locking hands and bumping hips, doing our usual special handshake.
"It was nice of you to turn up Shae-Lynn." Aiden scolds playfully after we end the handhake with kisses on the cheek.
I roll my eyes, "would you two stop, I'm here aren't I?"
"But we can't!" Autumn whines, "This is a big deal. You've never been late for anything at all." Right now she's pretty much sounding awfully like Fang when I deny him of a second helping of dinner.
Shaking my head, I walk back to where my hand-made sled stood in the middle of the Circuit.
The Circuit is where my two buddies and I come to race. It's a big round field and is covered in snow - just like every other place in Orhollow. We come here a lot, sometimes to just hang out instead of racing but the majority of the time we are here is spent trying to see who gets over the finishing point first. This has always been our place, no one knows of it except us as it is a few miles around the back of the woods from where I live. I found it when I decided to search around the few acres of land that Auntie Janette passed down to me. So technically this area belongs to me because it is in Auntie Janette's land.
I never really thought about it before until now. I own land. This land belongs to me! I can do anything I want with it. I could plant trees, build small buildings from those trees and have my friends stay over in those house that I built from those trees that I planted and grew.
The more I thought about it the more excited I got.
While picking up the lines, I turn to look at my two friends who at the moment were having one of their regular sibling argument.
They are always arguing, mostly over silly things but as they are sibligs they do like to lose track on what they are arguing about and start to argue about something serious.
It's one thing having sibling friends but it's another having twin sibling friends.
Before their argument could escalate any further I drop the harnesses I unstrapped from the dogs and walk over to tell them about my exciting ideas for my part of the land.
While we let all of our dogs run about in the snow we sit and talk about the plans for this land; we come up with many ideas including making three small houses which join together via a secret tunnel, so if there is a storm we can still visit eachother. The more we spoke about it the more these ideas sounded like they will work.
"Looks like we're not going to be mushing today." Autumn states while lifting herself from the snow-covered ground.
"We could fit one round in before it gets dark, three laps won't even take five minutes." Aiden tries to encourage us.
I shrug my shoulders, "I don't know Aid, it gets darker quicker around this time of year."
Now it's winter the wuicker it becomes dark and it is also a lot colder during the night, not that it's cold during the entire year but it's practically the Ice Age during the winter.
"Just one more round? Please, please, please!" He begs and finally we give in.
