I apologize for this chapter being so short, but you'll see why at the end I decided to end the chapter. . . Enjoy!


The sunlight had been coming into the cave for almost three hours now, and Dundee had been patiently letting Alex sleep for at least two hours. Now the ginger pup was having a major argument with himself.

'He's been through a lot,' his soft side said. 'Let him sleep a few more minutes.'

'I get that, but Alex had his head on my probably broken ribs all night' His pain tolerance said. 'I'm not sure how much more I can take!'

'Besides, I already have a plan.' The dingo's smarts spoke up. 'The sooner we put the plan into action, the sooner we get Alex home.' His smarts being, well . . . his smarts, had figured out how to win over his soft side.

He woke Alex.

"What happened?" The boy yawned, and then remembered and asked, "So, what now?"

The dingo smiled. "We're going to go back to the river and follow it down stream to the ocean."

Alex nodded, "alright, let's go!" Right on cue, his stomach growled.

Dundee laughed. "And well also try to find food along the way."


The pair followed the dingo's plan perfectly. It only took about an hour to find the now infamous river and after stopping for a berry breakfast, Alex and Dundee followed the river for a couple of hours until they found a beautiful view of the beach and the ocean. The only problem now was the fact that said beach and ocean were about sixty feet straight down a jagged cliff face.

"Now, what?" Alex said, staring over the cliff.

"That," the dingo said, "is a very good question." He studied the grey rock for a few moments, and then looked at the boy. "How do you feel about climbing down?"

Alex looked at the ginger pup as though he had grown two heads. "What?"

"I don't think it would be that hard to do." He pointed at the rock. "There are enough holes and small ledges to hold on to, and it's not that far."

"Looks pretty far to me." Alex said unconvinced.

Dundee smiled. "Come on, mate." He tried to encourage the boy. "It can't be more than eighty feet or so. I climbed cliffs larger than this when. . ." He paused. Dundee was going to finish that sentence with 'when I was your age', but that would only raise questions that he really didn't want to answer right now. Instead he said, "When I was younger. If I can do that, you can do this." The dingo moved to the edge then looked back at Alex. "I'll start down, then I'll have you start so I can direct you where to go."

Dundee then edged his back right paw of the cliff to his first ledge, and then his left. Once his paws were in a sturdy position, he moved his front paws to two holes he saw when he first looked over the cliff. From there, he slowly moved his paws from ledge to ledge, and hole to hole, until he felt it was safe enough (relatively speaking) for Alex to come down.

"Alright mate," the dingo directed, "bring your right leg over the cliff staying as close to the roc as you can without hurting yourself." He watched as, almost immediately, Alex tentatively slid his leg over the side almost right against the rock. "Good," the pup smiled, "keep going. . . Keep going. . . Stop! Now put your foot on the rock." The boy did what he was told and was able to catch his shoe on to a ledge the pup had used earlier.

"Great, now slide your left leg down and stop about five inches farther down than your right." Again, Alex did what he was told perfectly. "You're doing wonderful mate." Dundee praised him.

"I think I can see where I need to put my hands now." Alex said.

"Bonza! I'll just keep telling you where you need to put your feet then." Dundee smiled. "Is that alright with you?"

"Yea, that's fine. Thanks. . . Bonza?" Alex responded.

Dundee shook his head slightly, 'Americans'. To Alex he explained, "It means something's good or wonderful in Australian."

"Oh. . . Okay." Alex said as they continued climbing.

Once Alex climbed down face to face with the pup, he smiled. "Wow, I can't believe I'm doing this."

Dundee smile was wide as well. "You're doing really good, mate. . . Alright, I'm going to climb down a little more, and then I'll direct you."

The boy nodded, "sounds good."

They continued climbing down the cliff face in this same way until they were about twenty feet from the soft sand.

"Almost there." Dundee said with a bright smile as Alex met up with him. The bright smile was covering up how much the pups ribs hurt. But like he just told Alex, they were almost there. 'Then', he told himself, 'we can take a long break.' He moved his back left paw to a ledge, and then moved his right to a nearby hole. Just as took his front left paw off the face, the ledge unexpectedly gave way making the dingo lose his balance. And, before he could react, his right front paw came off as well.

"Dundee!" Alex reached for the pup with his free hand, but only grasped air. He could only watch and listen as the dingo screamed, then hit the ground with a thud.


Cliff hanger. . . I am so evil!. . . Please Review!