A/N: Okay, I get it, apparently everyone wants me to write "Summer's Blossoming"! I actually wasn't expecting this Chief/Bright Star thing to be so popular, but I guess I was wrong! Someone had a question about the whole relationship thing, so don't worry, I'll explain everything in that story, so I hope you all read it!Oh, and I brought back someone that we hadn't seen in a while in this chappie.Enjoy!

Winter's Rising

Chapter Twenty: The Beginning of the End

Copper and Smitty turned their heads to see Nero standing behind a bush a few feet to the side of them. How had he managed to get there without either of them seeing him? Smitty squeaked nervously and tried to hide behind Copper's huge body, but he was just as scared as he was. Nero chuckled in a deep voice as he approached them.

"Well, well, well, and well. What do we have here?" he asked looking over the two hounds. "A trespasser and a traitor."

"Back off, Nero," Copper said in a firm voice to hide his fear. "You're not gonna get away with all this. What you're doing is wrong."

"Oh, I know it's wrong, but it's all so much fun. It's all a game, you see. A game of survival. The strongest survive and it seems that I am the strongest of all." He peered around at Smitty who was trembling something awful. "You really didn't think you could run away from me did you, Smitty? Tsk tsk tsk. So pathetic."

"Nero, you're sick," Copper growled, getting annoyed with his "I'm better than you" persona. "Don't you have a conscience? Any morality at all? You're destroying the wildlife with your so-called game and it's going to wind up killing us all. Everything will be thrown out of balance. If there's no game animals, what are we supposed to eat? In fact, if there's no wildlife to hunt, us hunting dogs are out of a job. You ever think of that?"

"You Americans are so conservative sometimes. Who cares about them—game animals. We hunters are the rulers of this land and I intend to keep it that way . . . and I have plans for rearranging this way of life the way I want it. I'll be the king."

"Never!" Copper shouted, lunging at Nero. But Nero was a trickster, he knew all the rules of the game and how to manipulate them. When Copper jumped for him, the English Foxhound rammed his head into Copper's lungs to make him fall back and lose his breath. Copper ended up on the ground gasping for air.

Nero glared at Smitty who was absolutely petrified for the moment. Smitty saw the look that he was being given and took off running for his life. Nero kicked up his heels and took after him. Traitors didn't live, not under his watch! Smitty tried his hardest to keep running from the mad hound but all the weeks of deprived nutrition wouldn't allow him to continue much longer.

At last Nero caught up with him and bit him hard on the back of the neck to make him fall to the ground. Smitty looked up tiredly, having given up hope of a better life elsewhere. The end had come for him. Nero smiled down wickedly before he . . .

Copper was still panting for air when Nero returned from his chase. Smitty was nowhere to be seen, causing Copper to fear the worst. One look at the deranged hound made his fears a reality—he had blood on his muzzle. Nero glanced down at Copper, wondering if he should even deal with this pup or save him for later. Noises in the back of the forest made up his mind.

The two hounds' ears raised up at the sounds. Nero grinned before telling Copper, "You'll never stop me, I'm invincible. This whole fores shall be mine."

He took off running towards the remainder of his pack howling at the top of his lungs. Copper tried to stand up but it took a lot of effort. He could hear Nero yelling at his pack to get up and follow him immediately. He heard the others gradually come to life and start howling as well as they plunged into the forest to rid whatever else living was around. Their master woke up from the noise and with all the excitement forgot to put out the campfire that had been burning. (A/N: remember that part)

Bright Star and Chief had heard the commotion and was running towards it to see what was going on. First thing they saw was the horribly mutilated body of a hound. He was lying on his side and his neck had been torn open, blood trailing everywhere. The kill looked pretty fresh from what they could tell.

"Nero is starting to go after his own kind," Bright Star realized out loud. "We are running out of time. You find Copper and I will go and bring the pack with me."

Neither of them wasted time. Bright Star took off threw the trees back to where her pack was waiting. Chief took another look at the body, shivered with disgust and pity for the creature, then ran past to search for Copper. As much as he had been annoying him lately he hoped nothing like that happened to him. Goodness, if he ever found Copper in that state, he would . . .

"Copper?" he asked when he caught sight of him up ahead. He seemed all right, but he looked like he'd been injured somehow. Chief ran to his side. "Copper, you all right? What happened?"

The younger hound coughed a few times before answering. "Nero . . . he . . . he snuck up on us."

"Us?"

"Me and Smitty . . . he was trying to escape from him and wanted to come with me. I think something happened to him, I hadn't seen him."

Chief's mind went back that poor dog that he and Bright Star had just seen. He didn't have the heart to tell Copper that his little friend had been murdered by that villain. Copper noticed Chief's expression and he knew then that Smitty had been killed. He sighed.

"I could have helped him. He looked so scared, I felt sorry for him."

Chief placed a paw on Copper's shoulder. "It's not your fault, sonny. Nero's just . . . crazy. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Which way did they go, we got to stop them before they do anything else harmful."

Nero and the hounds had picked up the scent of a doe—a young one. They had found where she had been sleeping. They noticed the smell of a young buck as well but the doe's was fresher and easier to follow. Nero led the way on a frenzied hunt to track down and kill this creature.

Howling louder than a storm, they all found her. The doe, frightened beyond reason, ran and found safety on top of a small cliff that was emerging from the side of a mountain gully. The dogs jumped up and tried to grab one of her long slender legs in their mouths to drag her down to them but they missed everytime. She began to scream loudly for someone, her mate probably, but they were too busy trying to catch her than worry about him.

Not much longer after that, a buck did come. He seemed enraged and began to use his horns and legs to battle them away from his doe. The dogs then became focused on bringing the buck down—they would worry about the doe later. Fighting and struggling to take the majestic animal down, the dogs ended up on the losing side. The doe had escaped during the ruckus and the buck gave them the slip while going up the side of a steep incline. Huge rocks fell and landed on the dogs, some of them killed from the impact of the stones slamming them on the head and then getting buried under the pile.

"Come on, don't worry about them!" Nero roared, enraged that the deer got away. "You can't help them now, let's go! We can't let them get away!"

But the dogs continued to mourn their losses. A few had been their kin, longtime friends of theirs, teammates. They couldn't just leave them without giving them a proper good-bye. Nero became impatient and grabbed one of the mourners on the ears and tore the end of it off, causing the attacked one to yelp in pain and fall back into the middle of the crowd.

"What are you waiting for! They're going to get away! Move!"

With that they snapped to attention and like robots they began to follow their leader once again.

"They're after a doe."

Copper looked at Chief with a confused look. "How do you know?"

"That scent's fresher," he replied, giving the nesting place a good look-over. "Besides, it's easier to take down a doe than it is a buck. But I'm almost positive that if they mess with her, that buck will show up and give them a fight. Come on, let's see if we can catch up."

The wind began to pick up. The blazing fire that Eric Lemmons failed to put out began to flare up and crackle. Flames began to grow and they started moving towards the direction of the hunters and the hunted . . .
Amos Slade woke up to the sound of someone beating down his door. He shot up out of bed and rubbed his eyes awake. Who could be here and at this hour? Grumbling as he walked across the cold floor, he yanked the door open and was about to give a good chew-out session when he suddenly recognized who it was.

"White Buffalo?" he asked in a surprised tone. "Where'd you come from?"

"No time to explain, Mr. Slade," the Native American said hurriedly, walking inside to escape the cold. "I have seen smoke rising to the east. I fear that a fire will ensnare the whole forest and kill everything in it."

"What are you talkin' about?" Amos asked, not understanding. He looked out the door and looked to the east and noticed that Cherokee was right. "Great Scot, what are we goin' to do?" He looked around his cabin and saw his dogs were gone. "And where'd my dogs go? I hope they're not out in that, they could get killed!"

"Calm down, Mr. Slade, I'm sure they'll be all right. We're going to have to hurry. You can ride with me on my horse to get us there faster, I doubt your truck can make it through those trees."

"Okay, but aren't we gonna need anything? Or at least call someone?"

"Call one of the rangers, tell them where the fire is and to get someone there right away. We haven't much time."

See, I hadtold y'all White Buffalo would come back eventually. Anyways, hope y'all liked, please review! OH yeah, I just read on the main page that we can somehow reply to the reviews that we writers get. I'll have to figure that one out . . . okay, signing out!