Chapter 10
The young grey pup lay low down in the snow on the edge of another nameless river. Boris came running up from behind him through the deep snow that blanketed the forest bottom and crashed into the snow next to the pup with a fluff of flying powder.
Boris momentarily got buried in the snow. But he then rose his head up and shook all the snow off and looked around. They were out on a point in the river, a spot where the river curved sharply out and would flood during spring runoff. Upstream they could see nearly a quarter mile of ice with wisps of snow across it, before it turned around the bank of a mountain. Downstream the river went for nearly a hundred yards before turning around another bank that jettisoned out.
Both Boris and the young pup were set perfectly out on the river. They were far enough up on the bank that they were still hidden by the trees, and close enough that they could see every detail of a wood-be passer by.
Boris turned his head sharply as the pup raised his nose to the sky and began to sniff.
"What is it?"
"I smell something."
The two waited for a moment. Boris could feel the every so slight breeze coming down the river and hills.
"Where from?" Boris asked leaning over.
The young pup motioned his nose upstream. "Up stream. They're not far."
The two remained completely silent for some time. It seemed like hours passed waiting for something to happen. Boris thought he could feel his feathers beginning to freeze, or something, maybe it was his body freezing solid. Boris looked at the young pup, and was just about to say that he didn't think anything was coming when the pup flattened his ears and laid his head down in the snow.
Boris looked upstream and could see four wolves coming around the corner of the mountain. Boris laid his head down in the snow next to the young pup, but kept a watchful eye open. The pup was in his way so he couldn't see around him, but when they passed in front, he would surly get a good view of these wolves.
More time passed, but this was unnerving time, the kind of time that you feel when your getting ready for a big game. Boris looked out on the river where the wolves would be passing at any moment. He felt the wind, it would be blowing parallel when they passed by.
Then suddenly one wolf moved into view around the young pups head and continued on without even the slightest hint of stopping. The next two fallowed the same. But then the forth one stopped. He lowered his head and sniffed at the snow just two dozen feet away from them. What was he smelling? Could it be them? But the wolf didn't linger around that one spot to long. He raised his head and could see his friends moving off down the river, and so moved along the same route. They were in the clear.
Boris raised his head and watched the wolves head down the river. The young pup also raised his head and watched. It seemed like it took forever for the last wolf to vanish behind the next bend, but when he did, the grey pup and Boris were instantly off of the cold snow and on their feet.
"Should we fallow them?" the grey pup asked.
"If we want to try and get you into a wolf pack, we should."
Boris watched as the young pup grew a satisfied smile. The pup wanted deeply to get into a pack, and feel like he had a family. He had told Boris this several nights previous just before falling asleep, and Boris hopped that he would be able to get the pup into a pack. But also, Boris had a secret fear. He knew that the pup was not a full blooded wolf, and could see it in his muzzle and ears, and wondered if this might be something that would inhibit his entry into a pack.
The young pup dropped down through the chest deep snow onto the smooth river ice. He walked out into the center of the river and lowered his nose to the ice and began sniffing at the large wolf tracks.
Boris fallowed behind the pup, falling through the snow with a groan, and sliding on his back out to the pup's feet. The pup giggled slightly.
"Well come on." Boris said standing up and wiping the snow from his back with his wings. "Let's get after them."
The two of them turned and began walking down the river on either side of the tracks were left. They staid side by side and quiet for some time.
Boris began to worry, but that was just his worrying nature. He knew that if they fallowed these tracks long enough they would eventually run into the wolves who had made them, or the entire pack.
They came to the last bend in the river that they had seen the four wolves at. Both of them slowed dramatically. Then finally Boris stopped, just twenty feet short of the bend.
The pup noticed Boris stop, but he didn't. He dropped down into stealth mode lowering himself to the snow, making every step he took count, and trying to use all of his senses. He snuck to the bank and edged along under the overhang very carefully.
Boris could feel the tension in the air. What if they had just stopped after the bend, and were waiting for them there? What if they had seen, or smelled him and the pup? They were probably right there, waiting for them to jolly-walk-it right into their jaws.
The grey pup slowly moved around the edge of the river, and eventually out of sight.
For a moment Boris was completely alone, standing out on the river ice, waiting for something to happen.
"Boy chick!" he finally yelled bolting forward and running around the bank edge.
There he found the pup looking down the river. The tracks continued on as far as Boris could see, most likely on down the river and around the next bend.
"what." the pup said with a half cocked smile. "Did you think I would just leave you alone?"
Boris smiled, the pup was beginning to have a real personality and he was starting to treat Boris as … well, a father. Boris knew that he had to get the pup into a pack so he could have a proper puppy hood.
"Well, we better get moving if we want to catch them."
"Yeah."
Boris watched the pup start trotting on down the river. Then he wondered. If they were trying to find the pack, or any of its members, than why were they trying to be sneaky?
They trotted on the same as before, Boris on one side of the tracks, and the pup on the other.
At the next bend the motions fell out the same. Boris stopped cold and watched as the pup moved the edge of the river. And the same as before, the pup moved around the edge of the bank and went on, leaving Boris all by himself. And again, Boris screamed and caught up the young pup who had kept moving along the tracks.
Both of them fell once again into the same style of walking, watching the tracks move between them as they did.
Then suddenly, Boris and the pup stopped cold. They both stared down between them where the tracks should have been, they were gone. Boris took a few steps back and could clearly see where the tracks had been, they had just stopped.
Boris was just about to say something to the pup when.
"Looking for someone?" came a sinister voice from behind them. "Because, were right here."
Boris and the pup both whipped around to be looking in the eyes of four wolves, all spread out and watching with curious eyes. The one closest to them who had talked had a light grey coat with reddish guard hairs. Another had what looked to be a black cape in his fur that went over one eye and wrapped, windswept, back around his body. Another one with steely eyes and a ripped ear had his head lowered down in preparation for an attack. He had a large body build with a slate black coat. The fourth wolf had a small build with his black and white coat.
"Um-"
"Um what!" the red haired wolf demanded.
"I just wanted to introduce myself." Boris said mater-of-factually.
The red wolf just stared at Boris, then moved his gaze slightly to the pup who sat a few feet back and to Boris's left.
"My name is Boris." Boris said extending a wing to the wolf as if to offer a means for the red wolf to introduce himself.
He took a step back and tilted his head towards the snow as if he didn't want to tell his name, or trying to think of a fake one.
"My name is Anil." he then motioned with his nose to his right where the wolf with the torn ear stood. "This is Chiron." He then turned his head over to his left. "And this is Echo" The wolf with the black cape bowed his head "and Dipack." The smaller one bowed his head also.
"Now tell us who he is." Anil said looking straight at the pup.
Boris sighed. "Well, he doesn't have a name."
Anil dropped one ear in skepticism. "What do you mean he doesn't have a name? What are you doing here?" He ordered on.
Boris clasped his wings together, gulped, and looked once at the pup who stood behind him. "I was hoping that we might be able to speak to your leader."
"What do you need to speak to our leader about?"
"Wouldn't that be between me and him?" Boris said pointing a feather at Anil.
Anil snapped his teeth at the extended feather, missing by just inches with a metallic click. Boris pulled his wing back and examined it to make sure it was still there, and then tucked it back behind him.
"Any business you have with our leader goes through us first." Anil growled.
"Ok, ok, ok. I wish to speak with your leader about adopting this pup I found on his own. He has no family, and I know that a wolf pack will never let a pup grow up on his own."
Anil bit his lower lip within his mouth, trying not to let either of the two intruders in front of him see him do it. But they did.
"Let me confer for a moment." Anil said turning around. The other three wolves formed a rough huddle and whispered silently to one another.
The pup moved up next to Boris and sat down beside him. They both looked at the wolves who seemed giant compared to the pup, speak into each others nose.
Boris put his wing up to the side of his head to try and better hear them, but the spoke so low that it was useless.
Finally the wolves broke up, and Anil turned to talk.
"We will take you to the head of our pack. But I cannot say if they will hear you out."
Boris gulped hard. What did he mean, 'they will not hear you out'?
"ok." he responded with a withered voice.
The four wolves turned to the hill to their right. Echo, Chiron, and Dipack all set off in a group towards the edge of the river, up the bank, and into the trees where they vanished, leaving Anil standing before them.
"You will fallow us." he ordered, then turned and began a steady trot along the trail that his fellow pack mates had left.
"Where are we going?" the grey pup asked innocently.
"To find the leader of the pack so we can talk to him, and try to get you into this pack." Boris responded.
"But-"
"Hurry up, or I will leave you here." Anil shouted from the raised bank.
"Come on, we better get going." Boris said heading after Anil and the other wolves.
The grey pup looked Anil in the eyes before he vanished into the trees, and felt a sudden rasp of fear drive down his spine. He had a bad feeling about these wolves. But maybe it was just a half empty belly.
The wolves had led Boris and the grey pup on a great journey over hill and dale. They had crossed cracking ice bridges nearly ten feet above open water, where one misstep would have led to a quick death. They climbed up over mountains, through bitter wind and snow, before cascading down through endless rock-fields. Hour after hard hour came and went without the slightest of thought. Then they arrived.
They came to a river that was frozen clear to the bottom. They could all tell this by the lack of any gurgling sounds under the ice. Ahead of them it just looked like another mountain they were going to climb. Tree's came down to the rivers edge, and above them they could see the craggy snow covered peaks, that the grey pup swore he had seen before, looming up before them.
"Were almost there." Anil announced back from the very front of the small column.
Boris and the grey pup were forced to stay in the very back, not that they complained any. They didn't have to fight any through the deep snow, the wolves fought that for them, they only had to walk in their well groomed path and fear for what was about to happen.
Anil bounced up the bank in a flurry of snow that at first went up the hill with him, then fell back down in miniature overlapping avalanches that piled in a thick spot at the bottom of the bank. He turned and waited for the others to fallow. Echo, Chiron, and Dipack had it just as easy to fallow Anil to the top of the bank. There they turned and waited for the young pup to fallow in suite.
Boris had no trouble making it up the ten foot bank, but halfway up he realized that the grey pup was having troubles.
Everyone watched as the young pup leapt as far up the bank as he could. But when he hit the snow it was like hitting a patch of steep ice and he slid backwards, rolling once and coming to a sitting position at the bottom. He tried again, and jumped as high as he could, and when his feet hit the ice slick bank he tried his best to run. But he fallowed like he had before, and slid to the bottom again.
Boris slid on his back down the bank and got up behind the young pup.
"Ok, we'll try and walk to the top."
"Ok."
Boris pushed madly on the pups rear-end, switching from wings to shoulder and back, but all Boris did was slip and slid as bad as the pup.
Anil grew tired of watching this; he rolled his eyes in annoyance, and stepped to the front of his four fellow pack mates. He began to walk down the hill and the slick ice bank took him. But he had been expecting it, and with a simple grace he spread his feet out and pushed up more snow as he slid to the bottom. He slid right up sideways next to the pup, stopping himself from running the pup over just as Anil's side ran gently into the pup's nose.
Anil turned and opened his large jaws towards the pup.
The pup jumped back when he felt this weight on his nose. The pup cringed under his overshadowing weight and size. He turned, lowered his ears against his head, and tried to run the other direction.
Anil swiftly grasped him by the nape of the neck and lifted him into the air. The pup could feel his face press against his skull and his legs dangling beneath him as he was swung around and carried up the hill.
At the top of the small bank that had proved to be such a problem for the young pup, he was softly dropped into the snow.
"Lets get moving." Anil announced as he turned and began to lead the way through the trees.
Boris joined the young pup's side. He held out his wings and tried to coax the pup to his feet. It was unnecessary; the pup came to his feet fine and fell in behind the other wolves as they sunk into deep snow.
Boris watched the young pup and felt strong for him. He smiled with this pride of the young pup's strength, but cringed at the fear of what they might be being led into. Boris watched the pup moved into the veil of trees, and suddenly realized he was being left behind and bolted to catch up.
The four wolves led them both on a foray through the maze of woods and half rabbit trails. Soon they broke free of the trees into a clearing wide and long with rolling pure white hills of snow. The clearing slopped in an uphill direction towards a stand of spruce that looked to be the top of the world.
The wolves began to walk in a straight line towards the group of trees.
The young pup stood in the very back watching them carve a trail through the snow. The young pup knew that this was the place where the den was, that this was the place where the pack would be waiting. Maybe it was the lack of the sounds of nature around them that told him something was near? He didn't know? Whatever it was, he knew that it was close.
The field was long, but it seemed to take no time at all to cross. Maybe it was the fear of what was to come? Once inside the realm of the trees, the three wolves sat down on their haunches in the snow.
"Stop." Anil ordered.
The grey pup sat on his haunches and studied the forest around. It was a small forest, maybe a hundred feet across at the longest point, with windswept snow built up on the leeward side of the trees. Up above the tree limbs were old and dead to a height of ten feet, then from there up it was green and abundant with pine needles and pine cones.
A sudden sound caught the pups ear and sent his head wheeling about to look through the forest. He noticed something moving, something large. It was coming towards him.
"A bear." he whispered to himself. The creature was so large. Although he hadn't seen a bear in his entire life, but Boris had told him many stories about bears, and what they could do, he hoped that he would never have to tangle with one.
Boris had herd his insignificant whisper and leaned closer. "What?"
"A bear." the pup said pointing with his nose through the woods. "Do you think we should tell them?"
"No need to tell us anything." Anil spoke up without looking over at the pup; he was seeing the same thing that the pup was seeing. "It's our alpha male, Ajit … my father."
Boris noticed the distinct pause in Anil's last sentence.
The grey pup watched as the large reddish brown creature moved towards him. The creature was so large that he still didn't believe that it was a wolf of any sorts. Would he ever be that big?
Soon Ajit came to within ten feet of Anil, and here he sat. Boris and the young pup looked around, noticing that there wasn't anyone else fallowing him, no friends, no mate, and no nothing.
"What have you brought me son?" Ajit spoke up with that deep hardworking fatherly voice.
"I brought you intruders, we found them spying on us." Anil said turning his head slightly to motion towards the pup.
Ajit's' gaze fell on the young pup and his traveling. Bird? He cocked an eyebrow and stepped forward to the front of the pup and Boris.
The pup began to slip back behind Boris when the large wolf stood in front of him. He lowered himself down into the snow behind him, and waited.
"Why is he hiding?" Ajit ordered the goose. "Who are you?" he ordered on.
Boris made a fist with his wing and cleared his throat in it and took one mighty step forward. "My name is Boris." he paused and turned to show the pup who cowered behind his wing. "And this is…um; well … he doesn't have a name."
Ajit lowered his nose to the young pup. "How can a young one not have a name?"
"Well, he doesn't have any family. And he was separated from his mother before he could be properly named. I have been taking care of him for some time."
Ajit still stared, slightly cockeyed at both of them. "So you're a goose, who's been taking care of a, pup?"
Boris noticed that the other wolves were smiling, on the verge of breaking out hysterically, grunting and trying not to look at Boris.
"Well, yes-"
It happened in a sudden explosion of laughter to Boris's left. The four wolves who had escorted them in were laughing and crying, staring at one another, unable to hold themselves in. Even Ajit began to giggle under his smile.
"I'm sorry, it's just that …" he paused for a moment as he expelled a laugh through his tightly pinched lips. Then waited a moment to recover. The other four wolves waited for what he had to say. "I'm surprised that he doesn't honk, instead of bark."
This time Ajit broke out with an uncontrollable laugh that sent the other four reeling onto their backs in the snow.
The young pup was absolutely frightened by these large wolves. He was smart enough to know that they were laughing at him, and he didn't like it, but he was too small and meek to stand up for himself. Oh why couldn't this just get over with?
"Oh, aahh." Ajit said coming down from his laughter.
"That was good dad." Anil said with a smile. Ajit smiled back at his son, before returning to Boris and the small pup. "Ok, so what do you want?"
"Well, I know, at least I think I know, that if a young wolf is orphaned, that if the young pup can get to another wolf pack, he will be accepted. Because wolf packs don't let pups grow up orphaned. Right?"
Ajit shoot his head in agreement. "Yes this is our customs." he then smiled with an evil dark glare in his eyes. "But you must first be of full blood."
Boris cringed and ground his beak together. "What do you mean? He is of full blood."
Ajit stepped around Boris and sat down just a nose away from the young pup. The pup didn't feel comfortable with how close Ajit was sitting to him.
"Don't try and pass this, this, half-breed off on me … I am not stupid enough to fall for that."
"What do you mean; he has to be of full blood." Boris lied.
"You don't seem to listen, do you? His muzzle is to short, and his ears are to stiff. These are traits of a dog. If you look at me, my son, and his friends, you will notice that we all have long muzzles, and floppy ears?"
Ajit threw his right paw across the top of the young pups head, flipping his ear up and throwing him slightly sideways. "And he has dog, traits."
The pup was so afraid that he was being attacked that he bolted from under Ajit to hide behind Boris again.
"Now, I would please ask you, bird, to take your young ward, and leave my land." Suddenly Ajit had become overbearing and gruff. He no longer had any laughter to his spirit, or to any of his facial features. He had gone around the bend of anger, and had no intention of coming back.
"b- Bu-bu-b- but you are-"
"I, said, leave." Ajit was now stone serious.
Boris watched Anil and his three friends begin to close in on him and the young pup. But he had come so long, and so far, that suddenly Boris was filled with a power that helped him stand up in the face of these five vicious ogling wolves.
"Now listen to me!" Boris ordered with an extended feather towards Ajit's mouth.
Ajit took little heed to his heightened voice and tried to snap his jaws on Boris's wing. They came together with a click, and Boris brought the wing back and made sure it was still there with a wary glance.
"Now! You leave!" Ajit ordered
The young pup began to step backwards, looking warily about to his right and left, searching for an escape.
Boris still hadn't lost his breath of courage, and kept talking. "He is just a small pup. He has nothing. I want him to have a good wolf brining."
Ajit laughed and shook his head side to side. "You're not listening to me. I'm saying that you have to leave. Now, you're going to leave. And if you don't leave immediately, don't expect to be leaving."
Boris still held strong to his courage in the face of fear. For a moment no one spoke, and the tension grew thick in the air.
The pup could feel this tension, and it was more then he could bear. He spun around in the snow, and in a flash was racing back down out of the trees.
Anil and his three friends bolted after the small pup. They plowed right over Boris in a flash, and were on the pup in moments.
Boris hadn't even known what happened when he got hit. He knew that an attack was on, but he thought it was for him by the power that the wolves had hit him with. For a moment he lay on his back expecting the worst, expecting the wolves to circle around and start feasting on his plump body.
But the moment of fear passed just as quickly as it had come on when he herd the pup scream out in pain.
He rose to his feet and spun around to see the four wolves circled around the young pup. The pup was on his back, his paws up in the air and his small white teeth trying to flash back against the impressing odds against him.
"Hold it right there!" Boris yelled out and got a run towards the back of one of the wolves. But suddenly the group of wolves twisted violently about, and Boris got a face full of paw.
It knocked him over on his back, then he rolled over onto his side, only half the lights on in his head.
The young pup had seen Boris through the forest of teeth and fur around him. He had seen him get knocked down and out, now it seemed that he was going to die, and that was when he realized that he had nothing to loose in trying to fight back with his full force.
He snapped up into the field of teeth and managed to hook his teeth on a wolfs nose. He jumped back in pain, leaving a small sliver of furred skin inside the pup's mouth. He could taste the blood of the wolf, and found it bitter to him. He spit it away, then heard the wolf he had bit scream out.
The other three wolves were still thrashing about trying to grasp him in their mouths and rip him apart. He had already felt many of their teeth passing through his slim body parts. But he still felt like he didn't have a chance. Sooner or later they would get a good hold on him, and he would be split four ways. It was going to happen no matter what. So he quietly tucked himself into a small ball with his feet in the air, and tried to let everything around him vanish. He felt warm and full, death didn't seem too bad.
"Stop it! Stop it!" came a feminine voice from the trees. "You stop it right now."
The three wolves that had stayed on the young pup released there grip, Leaving the pup bloodied in the snow, but alive.
The turned and looked at who had told them to stop.
A young looking female trotted down through the trees towards the group of males. She looked disgusted with her mate, and every other male there.
"What do you want Triska?" Ajit said turning to confront her.
"I want to know what you think your doing."
The young pup saw his chance to escape. He rolled over on his feet and bolted through the feet of the wolves who still surrounded him with their heads held up to watch the female who the young pup didn't know, and didn't care to know. They hardly noticed him move, and only glanced down once as he ran towards Boris.
The young pup could see the Boris was still breathing, but he looked dead. His tongue hung out of his beak and his eyes cast coldly sideways. He wanted to say something to Boris, but was too afraid to say anything.
The young pup grasped Boris's right wing in his teeth, and then as fast as he could, he backpedaled down past the wolves the way that he had come and out into the field.
The circle of wolves glanced once again at him as he pulled the cold bird past their small circle, but didn't seem to care. They were too intrigued with their leaders squabbling that was just beginning to unfold.
"-so this bird comes up to be and tells me that I am to take this half-breed pup, and raise him as my own. So I told the bird that he is a half-breed, and the rules of the pack don't apply to him. He didn't listen. So I had my boys attack him."
"That is the lousiest excuse!" Triska snapped at him. "If I had wanted to hear lies, I would have asked you to lie to me."
"Triska, it's the truth." Ajit pleaded. He began to move slowly towards her in a loving, trusting way. "I would never lie to you." he said coming up to a distance that she could have easily reached out and ripped his shoulder or neck. But Ajit knew her, he knew that she wouldn't do anything but give up and leave. Especially when he acted this calm and suave.
Then suddenly something unexpected happened. She jumped forward with an open mouth and put one long slash along his right shoulder.
Ajit jumped back, throwing his left paw across the gaping wound in shock. It was nearly an inch across, and six inches long, and gushed blood down across his chest and leg and snow in moments. But he fumbled for balance on his three remaining legs and slammed his blood covered paw down into the snow, and let the wound bleed out.
Ajit took a moment to examine the wound. He could still hardly realize that he had just been attacked by his mate.
"You attacked me?" he said in astonishment. "You actually attacked me?"
Triska licked her chops and bared teeth that still had a watercolor thin film of blood across them.
"Maybe it will teach you a lesson. That I am half of this clan, and I am to be confronted before any situation is to be acted upon." she growled. "now." she calmed down and stood straight up from her spread out attack stance. "You will return to the den, where I will properly yell at you."
Ajit was still in to much shock to argue. He still couldn't believe that he had been attacked by his mate; she was normally so calm and laid back. This time he must have pushed some serious buttons to get her to put a six inch rip in his side.
"okay." he said still watching the blood course down his chest. His voice calm and agreeing.
He turned and slowly made his way through the woods like a silent warrior in repose.
Anil watched his father with a half cocked mouth. He could hardly believe that his mother had done something like that. Then his mother turned her cold eyed gaze onto him. His tail slipped between his legs and he lowered his ears flat against the back of his head.
But her wrath didn't open up on him. She sighed and came back to her usual, almost uncaring, self. But she did care and bit her lip lightly as if she were holding back a thrashing.
Anil turned and looked at the pup who still ran halfway across the field. Maybe this could be his way out?
"Do you want me to go out there and bring him back?"
"No." Triska said glancing at the pup who still bolted for the distant trees with a bird in tow. "We have hurt him enough, let him try and find another pack that will be nicer to him, and let him into their workings."
Triska turned and began to walk after her mate who had already vanished.
Anil was suddenly overcome with guilt. Somehow he felt that this was his fault, and now he could see the cruelty in his ways. He lowered his ears and looked one more time at the pup before he vanished into the trees. This was his entire fault.
The young pup stopped at the riverbank among some willows, and dropped Boris's wing. Boris began to sit up, putting his wing to his head after coming back from such a hard knock to the face.
The pup rested for a moment. He panted hard and had a bewildered look about his eyes a face. He constantly looked back to see if anything was coming, to see if the wolves were returning to finish him and Boris off.
After such a brutal attack the pup was amazed to find that he was fine for the wear. He only had a few scratches that bled consistently, but he was fine. Although he was afraid for Boris.
"Are you ok Uncle Boris?" the pup asked in one breathless heave. Then looked back the way they had come.
Boris rubbed his head a little bit more, and then examined the palm of his wing. "Yeah, I'm just fine. What happened?"
For the first time Boris noticed the cuts and scratches and blood all over the young pups tangled fur.
"Are you hurt?" Boris asked coming to his feet. "If so let me see."
"No, I'm fine. But we better get out of here before they come after us."
Boris looked back through the trees where he could see his own drag marks in the snow. "I wouldn't worry. If they were going to get us, they would have already done it."
"How do you know?" the pup said twisting his head around. "How do you know?"
Boris could sense the poor mood of the young pup. This meeting hadn't gone well at all, and he knew that the pup might not trust his decision again.
Boris turned and began to waddle down the riverbank. The pup barely noticed that he had left he was so busy watching the trail they had come down.
"Where are you going?"
Boris stopped and turned. "Well it's no use just waiting here for them to come and get us, might as well try and get away."
The pup bolted to his feet, and fallowed the goose who he thought of as father.