Tchaikovsky and the Snow Buddies

Chapter 9

The next morning, Shasta came out of the igloo to see that it was morning and woke everyone else up. 

Wonder yawned while she stretched. "Morning already?"

"I was sleeping like a puppy" Budderball said while getting up. 

"Uh, Budderball... you are a puppy" Tchaikovsky told his chubby friend. 

"Oh!" Budderball said in realization. 

Adam had a look outside for himself and smiled to see the freshly fallen snow. He then looked back to his team. "Let's go, pups. We've got a race to win"

The pups were soon hooked up to the sled and the team took off while the Eskimo waved to them, wishing them luck as they were now on their way to win the race. 

The gang was soon rushing through the forest to get to the finish line first. 

"Come on, Shasta, we can do this. Hike! Hike!" Adam encouraged.  

But suddenly, Jean George's team appeared around the corner as the two teams were about to collide with each other. This made Adam yelp in surprise, causing him to fall off his sled while Jean George laughed, speeding off with his dogs. 

Tchaikovsky growled. "That's totally cheating!"

"Not cool, man!" Wonder called out to Jean George and his team. 

"Whoa, that was close!" Shasta said in relief, but then turned back and gasped to his owner. "Adam's hurt!"

The puppies quickly came over and licked the boy's face, trying desperately to wake him up. 

"What happened?" Adam groaned as he started to come around. 

The pups moved away while Adam slowly came back over to the sled and placed it back up right while dusting himself off. 

"I think I'm okay, guys" Adam told the pups assuredly, before telling them. "Hike!"

The pup team did as Adam said and took off again, determined to win this race.

"Come on, Shasta, we can do this" Adam told his puppy. "Hike! Hike!"

The little puppy team soon came into view of the finish line while the announcer announced their arrival and the crowd cheered. 

But suddenly, Adam had the pups stop in their place. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!"

The team looked up ahead to see Jean George had stopped and began walking away from his sled. 

"Where are you going?!" Adam called to the bully musher. 

"It iz too late. You cannot save zhem!" the French musher yelled. "Zhey are goners, uh! Bah!" 

The gang got a closer look to see that Jean George was right. Two of his dogs had fallen through the ice into the freezing water and it looked like they had no chance of survival if someone didn't do something. 

Shasta then told his team sadly, remembering this is where his parents died. But Mudbud softly replied with "We know, dude". This surprised Shasta to his friends, out of all the risks and dangers they'd face on the trail, they still raced. 

Like Talon said, sometimes you just have to have faith.

"What are we going to do?" Wonder then asked the team, knowing they couldn't leave those poor huskies to die. 

Adam got an idea and had Shasta take a hook across the ice to connect to Jean George's sled in order for the team to pull them out.  

"Okay guys, I'm gonna hook you up" Adam told the pups, getting them ready to pull the larger huskies out of the cold water.