Down the train line that left the centre and high up into the cold snowy regions of the continent, Bolt and his friends were blissfully unaware that someone else was peacefully residing. In the town of Lakelands, high up on the mountain side of mount WA, WA sat a dark red and white wolfdog husky cross named Nek. He was digging in the snow for his favourite ball and soon found it buried under the snow pile. Dragging it out he started shaking it harshly. Of all his toys, the ball HAD to take the cake as his favourite. The wolfdog grinned when he was finished trying to tear his ball to shreds and put it down, yawning before plonking himself down and beginning to slide all the way down, dodging around falling rocks that were the mountain side's claim to fame, past the small cabin that served as his house, and all the way to the entrance to the mountain top. Once there, he travelled along the mountain top to the cable car system and hopped aboard one to head down to the high street. The humans riding the car didn't seem to mind him, so he sat in one corner with a yawn and waited for the boring trip to end. Once he'd reached the high street, he exited the car and trotted down the street to the café by the train station. He'd promised himself that one day he'd ride the trains, but they were always so busy he'd never gotten around to it. He entered the café and trotted to the slot machine they had there. He wasn't quite sure what the purpose of it was, he'd heard of this 'gambolling' from people up at a place called Boom City. He also knew there was a train that went up there, but because of the busy station, he was yet to check it out. He still remembered the day the people had come down. They'd chatted to the café owner for hours about 'gambolling' and how it worked. Nek was pretty sure he'd heard the word 'illegal' somewhere in their explanation, which really made him interested. 'Illegal' was one of his favourite words. A few days later, this slot machine had been installed. When checking it out he'd immediately been confused as he was certain that they Boom City people had mentioned having to pay to use it, however, this slot machine was free. It didn't matter much to him, considering the lever that made the thing work was well within his reach. Nek pulled down the lever and wagged his tail as he watched the three symbols spin around at uncomprehend able speeds. As a sled dog, he'd always dreamed of being able to reach such speeds. Eventually all the pictures lined up and Nek wagged his tail even harder as he saw the pictures were all the same and stared at the slot his prize would come out of. What emerged was a lemon. Nek scoffed at the fruit disapprovingly. He couldn't eat that! Unless he wanted to throw up of course, which sounded like a good naughty thing to do, but he'd learnt from experience that that was a bad idea. Nek exited the café and instead headed to the ski slope down the road where he ate all the dog food from a local Weimaraner.
"What do you think you're doing, Dakota?" someone snickered.
"I'm eating, what does it look like, smart-ass?" Nek scoffed turning and brushing past the Weimaraner. They were roughly the same size. The Weimaraner stepped in front of him.
"Ya know, I was coming here to eat too, but I might as well eat YOU!"
"You're better off hunting a bull moose than eating me." Dakota laughed. The Weimaraner growled and lunged at Dakota, pinning him and attempted to bite at his throat. Dakota expertly kicked him over his head with one hind leg. Dakota rolled back onto his paws to face off with the Weimaraner. Dakota grinned overconfidently.
"I'm Diallo now!" he thought. There was no way the Weimaraner could win this fight, as a wolfdog, Dakota was way stronger than him. The Weimaraner lunged at Dakota who expertly dodged and clamped his teeth around the Weimaraner's neck, pulling hard. Not hard enough to draw blood, but it sure made the dog afraid. As soon as Dakota let him go, he ran off yelping.
"That's right, back to the top of the ski slope where you can pretend to be top dog in safety." Dakota scoffed watching him run off. "Is there anyone I can't beat?" he asked himself. Then his expression fell as two names came to mind. The first he thought of was Demon Eye. Demon Eye was better known as Killer and, unlike Dakota, had travelled every train line with the local dog catcher as his owner. He was a fierce Doberman who stopped at nothing to catch his prey. In this case, stray dogs. His eyes were bicoloured blue and yellow and he was a force to be reckoned with. Dakota had taken him on once and hadn't landed a single attack on him. The fight had technically ended in a tie as his owner had turned up to save him and gotten into a heated argument with the dog catcher. The last he heard the matter had been taken down in a place known as 'court' in Boom City which neither dog attended. Dakota wasn't very interested in what had happened anyway, it sounded boring. The second name he thought of was Gus. Gus was a wolfdog like him and a real weakling. He'd barely attacked him when they met in the dog fights. He'd only ever fought him once in his entire career of dog fighting. But then he ran into him a ways into his career as a sled dog. Initially he'd laughed at the mention of his old foe's name but when he showed up later, he'd almost beaten him into a pulp with two hits. Had it not been for that super dog Bolt, there was no way Dakota would be alive right now. Dakota stood up and began to run back to the high street.
