I jolted awake to the loud sound of Colt's barking. Colt was standing right in front of me in his attack stance, hair on ends, and showing his fangs. I was terrified; I had never seen Colt act this way towards me. I then felt a grasp around my waist tighten; I looked behind me to see Peter just starting to wake up. He had had his arms around me all night.

"Let go of my human, boy," Colt growled deeply towards Peter; I quickly became somewhat relieved that he wasn't growling at me, but he still shouldn't be growling at Peter.

"Colt, be nice; he was just letting me use him as a pillow," I said as I moved towards him to scratch behind his ears. He eased as soon as I started scratching; I made a mental note to use that from now on any time he was ever on edge towards Peter again.

After Colt had calmed down, to my surprise, he apologized.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled out, "but if you ever hurt her…" I heard him threaten in a deep growl. Peter smiled softly.

"You don't need to worry about that," he said quietly. I stood up quickly, trying to hide the blush that Peter had brought to my face.

"Uh, I think I saw a river down the hill, I'm gonna go wash up a little." I informed Peter. He nodded.

"Ok, but if you're gone longer than 15 minutes I'm going to assume you're lost and you need me to come find you," he warned with a grin. I laughed and rolled my eyes, before curtseying. "Yes, your majesty," I joked before turning to walk down the hill.

"C'mon, Colt," I called as I patted my leg; he was quickly on my tail. Chippy was trying to catch up with us, but Peter called him back. I was grateful that he realized I wanted to talk to Colt alone. I really needed to talk to him about what I found out last night…even if it was a little weird…you know; having a conversation with my dog.

"Why did you sleep so close to him?" Colt asked once we were out of ear shot. I never thought I'd see the day when my dog was more protective around me with boys than my brother. I chose to ignore his question and explain to him what Peter had told me last night…

"So…you and I are here to help him and his family win a battle which we have nothing to do with?" Colt asked, his voice laced with skepticism.

"Yes, but we don't know what's going to cause it; like I said, what if we're the people who cause it? Then we'd most certainly have to stay and fight," I said as we reached the river. Colt scoffed before speaking.

"And if we don't and one or even both of us dies?" my dog asked while I took the chance to wash my face. I sat back on the riverbank and quickly dried my face with the sleeve of my shirt.

I had never thought about one of us dying. What would happen if we died here? Billy would never know what happened to us. He probably is at home right now…worried sick.

I sighed deeply and looked down at my dog.

"This is just something we have to do," I whispered to Colt, "at least until we figure out a way to get home. Let's try to get to know his family, you know, see what's going to happen," I tried to reason with him. He nodded before taking a drink of water from the river.

"You ready to head back?" I asked while gently scratching the top of his head.

"I really don't like this Peter guy," Colt warned me, as we started walking. I couldn't help but smile.

"Is someone jealous?" I teased. I was only greeted by a serious look upon his face.

"I'm not jealous, I just don't trust him yet," Colt said in all seriousness.

"I know boy, but right now him and his family are our only chance at getting home, so you need to lighten up a little bit. Go play with Chippy; try to have some fun," I said before I gently pushed him and took off running.

Colt quickly ran after me and soon caught up, so I stopped and watched him run ahead. After a couple of seconds he realized that I wasn't running anymore.

"Hey!" he screamed as he turned and ran towards me, laughing the whole way. I laughed and started running again. We kept running all the way up the hill until I turned my head to see where Colt was; as soon as I did I smashed into something hard causing me to fall down and lose my breath. It felt like I had run into a brick wall or something. I could hear a high pitched laughter coming from up above us; I recognized it immediately as Chippy's.

"Are you alright?" I heard someone groan; it was Peter, of course. I opened my eyes to find that I had knocked Peter down to the ground as well. Once I was able to catch my breath, I started laughing.

"She's fine," I heard Colt chuckle as he walked over to us. Peter stood up and held his hand out for me, "Need some help, milady?" I nodded with a smile on my face as he pulled me up.

"Not very graceful, are you?" Peter asked as I stood in front of him. I couldn't help but laugh.

"I am very graceful, thank you very much," I joked with a wink. He laughed this time.

"Well don't' worry; I'll always be here to help you up when you fall down," he said with a charming smile. I couldn't help myself as I let out a giggle. I could also hear Colt groan as he walked over towards Chippy.

"What were you two doing?" Chippy asked Colt as he jumped back on his head.

"We were playing," I said as I smiled at Colt. As much as I liked being able to talk to my dog, I missed the playful one. The one that got all excited when he heard the word 'walk', but oh well. I can only hope he'll be the same when we get back home.

"Everyone ready to go?" Peter asked; we all nodded.

"Good, we should be there in about two hours; maybe a little shorter if we could have Colt jog," Peter hinted towards my dog.

"I can do that," Colt said with a suspicious grin. Peter let out a whistle and called for Dusty. Soon we saw the beautiful brown horse come trotting up the same hill that Colt and I just ran up. Dusty came over to us and Peter hoped up then held out his hand for me. I gladly accepted as Peter pulled me up to sit in front of him like we did the day before.

"Let's go," Peter said to everyone; suddenly Colt took off running. We could hear Chippy's high pitched voice screaming as he had to hold on to Colt's ears for support. I laughed quietly.

"What's going on with him?" Peter asked with a smile.

"I told him he needed to lighten up more…so I guess he's going to take it out on that poor squirrel," I smiled.

"Better him than me," Peter joked before we headed off quickly to catch up with my dog and his new friend.