Northern Dream (#JustWriteIt)

Chapter Two

The majority of the first year of life at Xeren's was spent learning, growing, training and playing. By the time the snow came around the next year, I was-almost-successfully leading the team.

It didn't take a long time for Sya and I to realize that our human lived a lonely life. We had only met a small amount of other humans that Xeren invited over to the house. Even they seemed distant with him. He didn't leave the house very often, and when he did he wasn't gone very long. Even so, I enjoyed our quiet life. Our old human used to have many noisy humans over at once, or she would disappear for a long time with one of us. But with Xeren, it was just him and us.

About a week before our first birthday, Xeren decided to extend the team with a new, fully grown male he named Granite. He was a hefty, silvery colored male and he brought a big change to the group. His arrival meant that I wouldn't be the sole leader anymore. Xeren rotated Doufir, Granite and Sya at my side to see how I would react.

Although Doufir taught me what I know, she was hesitant and our paces didn't match. I didn't like Granite beside me because he was too aggressive and pushy. Sya and I pulled nicely together, and his slender, smaller size made it easy for us to pull in union. He became my running partner after that.

As winter progressed, we trained hard, running through the forest behind Xeren's house on trails he marked out for us. It was hard not to go off and explore all the tracks in the snow off the trail, but Xeren made sure I kept on the trail.

One day, while Xeren called commands from the back of the sled, I didn't feel the urge to explore off the trails. As we passed by a particularly well beaten deer track, I resisted the urge to track down the animal with my pack, instead keeping my eyes straight on the trail. Sya, on the other hand, could not resist. He leapt off the trail with a pounce, trying to drag me with him. I dug my paws into the snow and growled a warning, snapping at his side.

He yelped in surprise-I had never been aggressive with him before-but he fell back into step with me, moving away from such a tantalizing location.

"Good girl, Kiper," I heard Xeren call to me, surprise and pride in his voice. That very night, when we got home, we were signed up for a race.

The race took place near the end of the winter, when the air was warming but the ground was still good and frozen. We knew it was getting closer because Xeren was getting very nervous. He fidgeted, couldn't sit still, ran us a lot and began to eat less as the days counted down. The night before we left for the race, Xeren retched up his food until very late at night. Then he went to bed on an empty stomach.

The morning that we left dawned cold and early. The nervous man had us up, walked and relieved before the sun even left the horizon. He packed our harnesses, gangline, sled, food, treats, and spare equipment into the Car (which was really called a "truck" but to us it was just the Car), before calling us into the backseat. Xeren then put his own belongings in the passenger seat and we left home for our first long distance trip.

The race was five hours away from our little village, and it lasted for two days. We got to the lodge it was being held at at around noon that day. The place seemed abandoned, but I could hear the sounds of excited dogs all around me. My team could hear it too. Sya's eyes lit up and his tail started wagging enthusiastically. Doufir whined with anticipation. I stuck my head between the front seats and tried to spy the dogs.

Xeren chuckled and stroked my snout. I licked his nose but watched as a dark grey husky passed in front of the truck with its human. Our Driver stopped the Car in front of the main office and got out. I tried to follow him but he pushed me back and shut the door. I whined, wanting to go explore and meet all the strange dogs. The others were sharing in my excitement, pawing at the windows and whimpering. Xeren returned a moment later with a key and drove the Car down the little roadway. We arrived at a smaller building that wasn't attached to the main building, and our human parked and slipped our collars and leashes on.