Murder in the Flames

Chapter Eleven- Suspect

When Dasher awoke, he felt a flame of suspicion in his stomach that had kindled over night. He narrowed his eyes, eyeing Oz as he slept peacefully in his nest. I know Oz is a trustworthy dog..... but is it possible that he was the one following us? He wasn't supposed to be on guard, so maybe he really wasn't. He followed us instead.

But no, Oz is a good dog. The best kind of dog. Oz couldn't possibly have murdered Trickster. Dasher let out a soft growl. But I'm here because I have an unbiased opinion. And believing Oz is good just because of what I've seen is biased. I need to at least investigate. With a spark of alarm, he realized his growl had awoken Oz, and the collie was staring at him. "Is something wrong, Dasher?" Oz asked.

"Oh, uh, er, nothing," Dasher replied hastily. Smooth, Dasher! Oz tipped his head to one side.

"If there is, you know you can tell me."

"Well....." Dasher thought fast. "I was annoyed, I found a thorn in my bedding and it got into my paw! Did a thorn get you? Can I check your paws?" Dasher asked, forcing an extra note of innocent stupidity in his voice.

"Of course, but I'm quite fine," Oz rumbled, lifting up his paws one at a time. Something on his left paw caught his eye. His claw. It's broken. The beta's voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Get up! Get up! Patrol time!" Trip barked. Trip? Usually it's Frost waking us up. "Oz is leading the patrol with Jessica, Boots, Sunny, and Peanut Butter."

"Ugh, of course it has to be me! And it's raining, the ash will never come out of my fur now!" Peanut Butter complained. Trip just grunted, then disappeared from sight. The dogs that were called started getting up.

"Hey, why wasn't Frost here?" Dasher asked.

"Probably because she's due to have pups any day now," Boots replied, panting.

"Hopefully nothing goes wrong and the pups die," Jessica sighed. The dogs ignored her, she was always sad and making depressing and dark comments. Oz lead his patrol out of the den. Too bad I can't follow him. I'll have to do it later. I'm definitely not going to tell Pumpkin and Lucy yet, or Flash, I need more evidence. He could just have been in the wrong situation at the wrong time.

Deciding he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep, the Dalmatian got up and stretched. After he finished, he nosed Lucy awake. "W-what is it?" she asked sleepily.

"I'm going to check if there's any prey on the pile. Want to come?" he asked.

"Nah," Lucy replied, with the same glint in her eyes that Frost had. "Take Pumpkin." Rabbits began hopping around in his stomach at the thought of sharing prey with Pumpkin. What is wrong with me? What is this feeling? Am I sick? Lucy was still waiting for a reply.

"Okay okay, I'll ask Pumpkin," he muttered, and nosed the fox red lab.

"Who's attacking?" Pumpkin barked, leaping to her paws the moment Dasher touched her.

"Woah, calm down!" Dasher barked. "I'm just going to see if there's any leftover prey, want to join me?"

"Oh," Pumpkin replied. "Sure."

"And finally you can leave us in peace, some dogs want to sleep!" Popper barked.

"Oops, sorry," Dasher whispered, and Pumpkin chuckled, ducking out of the den. Dasher followed. They reached the prey pile, just to find a few small bones.

"Nothing. Should have known, there wasn't much last night," Pumpkin barked.

"You two looking for prey?" Both dogs turned around to see Flash, their Alpha.