Dogs Book 3 - Cold Nights

Chapter 1: An Adventure Filled with Unknown Danger

My name is Brisly, and I'm an energetic husky dog. I live happily with my friends and family in the Bygray Forest, where there are no No-Furs (humans). One and a half years have passed since my younger brother Grey and I found our parents' missing pup, Risley in the Graylands (city). On our last journey, we met a black Great Dane dog called Skipper and a pure white dog called Whine, who disappeared on our dangerous journey. 

After a long hunting trip with Skipper and Grey, I noticed Grey started to sweat a lot and to talk, walk, and eat in a weird way. All of a sudden, Grey dropped on all paws and fainted for no reason. I followed Skipper as he dragged Grey with him to his den nearby and Skipper started to have a close look at poor Grey. I waited for a while and Skipper said to me with a Western accent: "Bet he got the snow-fever or the bladder stones. Ain't it crazy? The snow-fever and bladder stones ain't common to get in these areas, like the Bygray Forest."

I asked Skipper anxiously, as I respected him for being the smartest one among us: "Can you tell me the remedy for the fever and the bladder stones?" 

"Kay", replied Skipper. "Tufted saxifrage will do the trick. Ya' have to get to the Coldlands (Arctic) to get it. Plus, this is serious since most dogs die in twenty five days without the remedy."

"Then," I said, "we should go there to find the tufted saxifrage to heal Grey."

Skipper told me that Grey had bladder stones instead of the snow-fever and that if we didn't find the saxifrage and bring it back in around three weeks, Grey would die. I went home and told my Ma (mother) and Fa (father) about this emergency, which made them very worried. They even suggested we should bring Risley, their youngest pup to the Coldlands to help us find the tufted saxifrage. I agreed with this idea since Risley was very agile and small which might help us in very tight spaces. Risley and I then went to Skipper's den and heaved Grey back home and laid him in his moss bed in his own den.

The next morning, Skipper showed up at our dens. Skipper, Risley, and I were set on our journey after eating lots of prey. We had just walked to the edge of the Bygray Forest, heading north until... we saw a large black bear ahead of us. It was the first time I saw one and it was bigger than I expected, but Skipper seemed to know a lot about them.

Risley was very scared and he hid behind me and asked with a trembling voice: "Will that large animal kill and eat us?"

Though I was frightened too, and that I had never seen a black bear before, I replied: "Don't be afraid. That's a black bear and bears don't eat dogs. They're very nice and gentle, you know..." However, the black bear somehow became irritated by us and it started charging towards us.

Risley shouted at me angrily: "I thought you said black bears don't kill dogs."

"Just stop talking and run," I yelled at Risley. "or else the black bear will catch us!" 

We ran for a long time, and I finally had to stop to catch my breath. I looked around myself. At the sky, at the trees, at the ground, and at my sides. I actually looked everywhere. Then I noticed that Risley and Skipper were nowhere to be seen. They must have ran off, so I wandered around to look for them. I found out they were trapped in the same Dark Scalite (alligator) murky swamp, into which Grey and I fell into during our last trip. I had to find a smart way to save Skipper and Risley from the Dark Scalites. My first idea was to distract them by giving them a chance to catch me. None of the Dark Scalites noticed me at first, so I thought this plan was going to fail for sure. But all of a sudden, a giant Dark Scalite attacked my hind legs. I was sleeker and thinner than the Dark Scalite, so I managed to outrun it. I saw a lake that looked dangerous ahead, so I pretended to rush into the lake, but actually, I hid behind a tree close by, which lured the Dark Scalite into the lake, never to be seen again.

I decided to attack the Dark Scalites now, since the rest of them ignored my distractions. I didn't knock out any of the other Scalites by throwing rocks, but I injured a few so some were unable to trap Skipper or Risley. Now there were only two Dark Scalites left that were healthy and strong, and still in battle with Skipper and Risley. I told Skipper and Risley to attack the smaller Dark Scalite's eyes, head, or mouth, as I knew those places were the Dark Scalites' weak spots. We all striked the small Dark Scalite's weak spots and finally, it got knocked out. The other Dark Scalite was so scared, after a short fight, it escaped in a hurry. In the end, I got Skipper and Risley out of the stinky swamp safely.

I said to them in a relief: "Phew, we finally managed to escape from those mean Dark Scalites in one piece."