As soon as I stepped through the portal, it closed up behind me. The Jack Russell Terrier sniffed the air and looked around.
"Shadow Wolf, that way." He pointed west. "West is the evil direction up here in Barkida. It kinda goes with the Western Dragon thing. The Black Wolf's Forest is that way too." He sniffed again. "Follow me."
He ran through a patch of deep grass and we arrived in a large village. The buildings were medieval style. Up on a hill behind the village was a castle. It was huge and had billowing flags with an E on them.
As we moved on, the terrier always kept his nose pointed west. We started through the town and ran along an alleyway. Suddenly, the little dog came to an abrupt halt.
"Get down! Behind those trash cans!" he whispered.
"Why?" Sadie asked.
"Do you want to live? Just do it! And hand me the jackal!" Sadie was reluctant, but when he growled she let go of the rope. Bast gave a little hiss when he growled but he pretended not to notice.
The Jack Russell paced towards the back of the alley."Come out come out wherever you are!"
Suddenly, both the jackal and the terrier's ears went back. The dog untied the rope around the jackal's neck. Four huge arrows with some sort of shiny fluid on the ends came flying out of the wall. Sadie gasped. I covered my eyes. I felt the arrows whiz by and when I looked up, the two canines were unharmed.
"Good. Very good." a voice came out of no where. "The jackal is ready." The big black dog appeared. Zap.
"Sir, Agent 5734B Boulder Brackenfur reporting for duty. The mission has been successful." the terrier saluted to Zap.
"Good work agent. I'm putting you in for a leadership role." Zap saluted back. "As for you three and the baboon, you can come out now."
"Agh!" Khufu barked angrily.
"What was with those arrows?" I asked.
"Testing. Only a real agent could have dodged those." Zap answered.
"But how did the jackal know?" Bast squinted at Zap accusingly.
"I have my ways. A jackal is a canine after all." Zap said with a hint of a smile. "Now please follow me. Agent Zip has come up with a formula that might just turn this jackal back. Agent Boulder, you have earned a break. You may leave."
For a big dog, Zap was quite nimble. He hopped over crates and practically bounced off the walls as he made his way through the alley. Bast and the jackal could keep up well enough, but the rest of us were having a hard time.
"The Shadow Wolf is getting closer. Through this tunnel." Zap pushed his paw against the wall and a door slid open. As he lifted his paw, I noticed something weird on it.
"May I ask, what's on your paw?" I inquired as we stepped into the tunnel which was lit with circular blue lights. The door slid closed behind us.
"Oh this?" he flashed the paw at me and I realized, that engraved in his paw pad was the word wolf. "It was scratched there so everyone would know who I am."
"Kind of like a brand?"
"I guess you could say that."
Soon we emerged into a room. It had two bunks and a singular bed in it. The wall was lined with pictures and there were two windows. The shades were drawn. There were four other dogs in the room. Two of them were Rocky and Zip, but the other two were bloodhounds.
"Meet Sniffer and Sleuth." Zap pointed at the two hounds.
"Um, hi." I stepped out of the tunnel.
We all stepped out into the room.
"This is our dorm room. Technically it's a boys dorm, and two of you are obviously female. I mean none of you are supposed to be in here in the first place cause you're humans, but you know. We are a top secret organization." Zap explained.
I looked at all the pictures on the wall. One was of an old dog who had a grey muzzle. The one next to it had a picture of a pretty brindle greyhound. The frame was a heart. The one above those was a picture of a beautiful silver wolf and a handsome black Newfoundland dog.
"What are those pictures of?" Sadie asked.
"Well that one's my step dad Butch." Zap pointed to the old dog. "The one over there is my girlfriend Ginger." he pointed to the greyhound. "And that one…" he hesitated as he gazed at the last picture. "Those are my parents."
"Where are your parents now?" Bast cocked her head. I looked over at the other dogs and saw them wince.
Zap sighed. "My parents were captured by the Black Wolf before I was even old enough to realize what was happening. I don't really remember them that much, just that my father was a dog and he ran away from his owners to live with my mother. They had me, and before I turned nine weeks old they were captured. That old dog named Butch, my step father, found me and took me back to his home in San Francisco. I lived as a city stray mutt for most of my years until I came here."
I didn't know what to say. Did I know how that felt.
"See, the Black Wolf's original heir was killed by my parents. But there are two ways to die. Through soul and through body. Most people die through body. Of course that's what happened to the heir. His soul is still there and the Black Wolf has it. He wants to kill me through soul, which is much more difficult than through body, and put his old heir's soul into me. He needs a body that is strong in magic and power like mine." Zap told us.
Wow. That is just creepy. I thought, but I didn't say anything.
"Anywho, should we get going?" Zip said after a long silence. He had this expression on his face that basically said, Awkward! The feeling was mutual. "We have two hours. Follow me to the lab please. Only one of you. Sadie? Alright. And bring the jackal." Sadie stood next to Zip, who pressed a button and the floor began to lower like an elevator. Before she disappeared, Sadie gave me a forlorn look. The floor closed up behind them and they were gone.