It all started the day of the incident when I woke up to find my parents awake and a strange hat on the table. The hat had a pretty blue background, like the sky, there were clouds and a rainbow going across it.
As a family with other dogs in Pawville and anywhere else, we were the only Siberian Huskies I knew.
"Good morning," my father, Arvin greeted. He was the wisest dog on the island that I knew. He wore a white shirt, rounded glasses, and a Scottish plaid hat.
"Good morning," my mother Ione greeted as well. She, for her part, is an amazing cooker, and I usually help her by handing anything she's cooked out to everyone in Pawville. Sometimes I wonder if her cooking will ever go as far as all over the island. She wore a yellow hat that I always found very pretty on her, and a necklace with a blue pendant.
"Good morning!" I said, then looking towards the strange hat. "Father, what is this?"
"Oh, this? This is the Magic Hat. I've told you about it before, right?" my father asked me.
"I've heard you talk of the Magic Hat. But you've never actually told me about it!" I said to him, excited for a story. The only thing I hoped was that something terrible happened and that the Magic Hat was the thing that saved everything. I was about to be disappointed, but I wouldn't show it.
"This Magic Hat has been passed down through many generations. It has truly amazing power."
The only thing interesting me is it had power that seemed unimaginable, though I had heard that before.
"Needless to say, terrible things could happen if that power was used by the wrong animal. It has never happened before, but it's possible." He became thoughtful as he spoke. "When I received this Magic Hat from your grandfather. . . . . . I made a vow to use it only for good." He looked at me expectantly. "I've kept that vow to the best of my ability. . . But now there are rumors of wrongdoers who want to get their paws on this Magic Hat! I'll have to be even more careful from now on!
Mother interrupted the conversation when it seemed to me that father wanted me to say something. "Oh, looks like we have a visitor!"
Victor walked through the door, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. My best friend. "Hey Kaci. Let's go and play!" He wore his usual red plaid hat and light orange scarf.
We walked around South Pawville, just talking when Victor turns to face me, stopping in front of the Aquarium.
South Pawville has a waterfall, on the left of it there's the Zoo and on the right the Aquarium. Some yards in front, away, from the Aquarium was the Drug Store, same for my house in front of the Zoo. And in between the Drug Store and my home was the Flowerbed.
There was a slope in front of the Drug Store that led to the Pawn Shop, and another smaller slope by the Drug Store where you could either go to Dolphin Coast to the right or North Pawville to the left. The small slope by me house led to another slope leading to the Fashion House and two bridges, the left one to Jade Fields and the right one to Lappy Lake.
I'd never been anywhere except Dolphin Coat and North and South Pawville.
"So, Kaci, have you heard of Ivlet?" Victor asked me.
I had no idea who he was talking about. "No, who are you talking about?"
"Ivlet is a wolf who does a lot of evil things." Victor told me excitedly. "But he finally got caught! Now he's in a cage at the Police Station on this very island! Want to go and take a look?"
"Yes, let's go see him!" I said with the same amount of excitement. I always welcomed Victor's thoughts of adventure, and that was our downfall that day.
We raced to North Pawville where the Police Station was, excited for what we thought would be quite the adventure.
South Pawville had quite a few more houses. There was a bridge in the middle that crossed a small stream, though you could also use the trail to go around North Pawville to get to that other side.
We reached the Police Station and stood outside for a minute, bracing ourselves for the sight to see. Then we walked in, slowly making our way towards Ivlet's cage where he lay sleeping on the bed left in there for him. Ivlet was strange to my sight as I'd never actually seen a wolf before. He was white with what seemed to be a darkish-light blue.
Victor and I were quiet for a few moments before I heard him say, "Looks like he's sleeping."
"Who's there?" a voice shouted behind us.
We jumped and turned around in surprise to find Ada in the doorway. Victor and I started shaking with fear of being scolded. We did dangerous things that we knew we'd be scolded for, and yet we feared scolding, I found it odd but never complained. The adventures Victor and I had were usually really fun.
She walked in and sighed in relief. "Oh, it's you two. . ." She turned to the sleeping wolf. "This is Ivlet, a very nasty wolf. Stay away from him, you hear?" Then she added the detail, "Most of the time he sleeps during the day, anyway." Ada then turns toward us and says, "Now, go on! Go home!"
Victor and I look at each other and walked out of the Police Station, shaking our heads with the sadness of being caught. We hated that.
As we walked the path away from the Police Station, Victor turned to look at me with what looked to be his mischievous face. "Did you hear what she said?"
"What else besides 'get out' did you hear?" I asked him. I never liked it when he heard something I didn't, and I would certainly see Victor regret it.
"Ivlet sleeps during the day." Victor said, making my thoughts jolt with excitement. "So if we go back at night, we might be able to see Ivlet awake and moving around!"
"That's right. And Ada won't be there because she looks over South Pawville at nighttime, Victor, that's genius!" I told him, and luckily he didn't decide to act like it was so true because sometimes his plans backfired. We were to see how much this would backfire.
"Let's go back again tonight!" Victor said, wagging his tail.
"All right!" I agreed happily.
"Let's play at Dolphin Coast 'til then." he then said, setting off towards his destination.
I ran after him, shouting at him that I would beat him there, yet I let him win anyway. This was going to be a fun day.
Victor and I stood under the coconut trees at Dolphin Coast, surprised at the boredom overcoming us. We had no idea what we could do.
"What shall we play?" Victor asked aloud. I don't even think he was asking me, because he was the one who chose the games. I could never think of one and I can't ever remember the ones we actually do play.
"Hide and seek? Tag?" I suggested questionably.
He sounded as if he didn't hear me. "I know! Let's play Cops and Robbers!"
"How do you play that?" I asked. He was always making up games, and it seemed that today he would be doing things that sound like Ivlet and Ada.
"I'll be the robber! Kaci, you be the cop and try to catch me!" Victor told me excitedly. "I'm the master robber, Woofenstein Von Barkley! All of the treasures in this world shall be mine! Ha ha ha ha ha!" he was looking as if he was staring into space as he said this. Then he looked at me, "Catch me if you can!" then he sped off.
"I'll catch you!" I shouted, speeding on after him.
I ran after him and caught up with him quickly. I had never actually realized how fast I could run because I never tried, and every time we played tag, I let him catch me or get away.
"Ha!" I shouted when my paw caught onto his leg.
"Ah! You caught me!" he said, turning around and starting on the way back to stand underneath the trees. I followed him with excitement, dancing my way over with happiness.
Once we were back, Victor complained, "Oh, I can't beat you at this game!"
"Ha, ha, ha!" that was all I could do. I couldn't find any words to say that he could beat me at the game with practice.
"What shall we play next?" he asked, and this time it seemed that he actually was asking me what I thought.
"Don't ask me, you choose!" I said, waiting for the game he wanted.
"Okay, let's play robbers next!" he said.
"How do you play that?" I asked.
He didn't seem to have heard my question. "I'll be the richest in the land. . . like Godfrey!" Godfrey was the dog who owned the Water Wheel in North Pawville, and he earned a lot of money. "You get to be the robber this time, Kaci." Victor then told me.
"Cool!" I said.
"I'll go and hide my treasure! Then you try to find it!" he said, finally explaining the rules to me.
"It sounds good to me!" I told him with excitement.
"All right. . ." Victor was saying, almost acquiescingly. "I don't know about this. . ."
"Are you okay, Victor?" I asked him. It wasn't like him to not want to play a game that he thought of.
"But we've already started our game of robbers." Victor then said with confidence.
I hesitated at first, still surprised by his reaction before. Then I said, "Well, let's play the game!"
"I can't believe that Woofenstein Von Barkley is after my treasure!" he said in a voice that sounded like Godfrey, making me laugh. "Psst. . . that's you Kaci!" he whispered to me.
"Who's Woofenstein Von Barkley?" I asked, having to say the name slowly because I'd never heard it before that day.
"Woofenstein Von Barkley is my own creation!" he said with pride. "He's strong, brave, and cool!"
I started dancing with excitement, because I had always thought that the villains had the most exciting part of everything. It scared my parents whenever I told them I thought that, and I never knew why until that morning when father introduced me to the Magic Hat.
"I won't let that villain Woofenstein Von Barkley get his paws on my treasure!" he said. I always thought about how good he was at staying in character for games unless he had to explain something to me. "I must protect my treasures! My bug cage and fishing tackle! I'd better hide them!" Then he got out of character to tell me, "Okay, Kaci, no peeking!"
"All right!" I said, closing my eyes and waiting for him to come back from hiding his treasures. This would be the first time I could actually use my nose to show Victor how good I was at it. My father had decided to teach me one day to find things by sniffing them out, because dogs hardly ever used their noses for things nowadays it seemed.
My father, Arvin, was the smartest dog. He knew so many things that I couldn't possibly know, and he always made it seem like he'd been to more places than just Pawville. I'd never even seen him leave South Pawville, or the house.
"Phew! That should do it! There's no way that Woofenstein Von Barkley will find them now!" came Victor's voice, making me open my eyes to see him stand before me, looking tired. "Well? Are you up to the challenge?" he asked me. I nodded. "I'll give you a big hint. . . the smell of the treasure!"
He gave me pieces of the two objects that looked as if they had been peeled off. He consoled me, saying that he'd gotten these pieces from other objects that were the same kind as the ones I was to find. I learned the smell of a fishing tackle and a bug cage.
"I got it, and I'm ready!" I said as I set of to find the smells.
The first thing I smelled was the fishing tackle, and I could tell that it was on the other side of Dolphin Coast. I set off at a run towards where it was, and when I wasn't sure where to move, I smelled again and went towards it. When I noticed the smell getting closer, I just let myself smell on until I reached where the smell was. I dug up the fishing tackle from under the warm sand.
Then I smelled for the bug cage, and set off toward it at a run. I wanted to get it done with to show Victor that I found them. And it was sadly hard to run and smell at the same time, so I had to stop every now and then before I could find where it was. When I noticed it was somewhere close to a snake, I paused, but it hadn't seen me, it was looking the other way. So I just let the smell take me to what I wanted to find. Then I found it and dug, taking out a sandy bug cage.
I took the objects back to Victor, taking care to stay away from the snake. What I found annoying was that the objects were so sandy that they were leaving the particles in my fur. That was the part about Dolphin Coast that I didn't like, the stickiness of the sand.
I reached Victor, and he was so shocked. "Oh no, you found them? Woofenstein Von Barkley, you'll pay for this!"
"In what way do I owe this pleasant surprise?" I asked, in the character of the robber. "If it isn't the dog who didn't know someone could easily find these just lying around!"
"I guess I can't fool your nose, Kaci!" Victor said with a small chuckle.
"Nope!" I said, giving him the two sandy objects.
"Oh, you can have the bug cage and fishing tackle!" Victor said with a wave of his paw.
"But their yours. Why don't you want them?" I asked. He used these two all the time, I remember one time he even let me play with them.
"I've got new ones, so I don't need them anymore!" he told me. And knowing me, he knew I'd start dancing, which I did.
I was dancing around with such happiness, that Victor had to use our secret way of telling me to calm do. The way he did it was that he heartily panted until I'd stop dancing to face his smiling face.
"No need to be so excited!" he said. Then, noticing the fact I'd dropped them on the ground to dance, he noticed how sandy they were. "Oh? They are a little dirty. . . Let me take care of them."
I picked the two up and handed them to Victor. He started setting off toward a small bank of water that surrounded Dolphin Coast. "I'll clean them up for you! Talk to me later." he told me.
"See you later!" I shouted out to him.