Chapter 2: Introductions

Moments later, another flare went off in the sky.

"The one mile marker!" Rosy exclaimed in glee as she rode on her sled. "Mush, Jenna and Perdita! Mush! Let's catch the end of the race! Woohoo!"

"It seems like she's a quick learner, Darling." Melanie Radcliffe told her husband, who only wore a proud smile at their Daughter's delightful innocence and thrill-seeking exuberance.

Anita decided to go ahead of them to catch up to Rosy before she rode off any further.

"Rosy, slow down!" She called out to her Baby Sister. Rosy heard her request, and called out to Jenna and Perdita.

"Whoa, Girls! Whoa!" Rosy chorused to the two Dogs, and they obeyed. Both Dogs and the sleigh slowed down at a fair speed for her Parents and Sister to catch up to her.

Just as both Dogs came to a steady stride, two other female Dogs sauntered up to them, a lavender furred Pomeranian with the same color of pupils, 16, and a sandy furred Afghan Hound with green eyes, 17, keeping up in step with them.

"Hey, Jenny~… Perdy~…" The Pomeranian greet both females by their nicknames. "I see you two decided to watch the race, did ya?"

"Well, we couldn't disappoint the Family now, would we?" Perdita told them in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

"Easy, Perdy…" Jenna said to her surrogate little Sister. "They just want to know if we're going to watch the race or not."

"Don't sweat it, Jenn'…" The Afghan Hound told her. "We asked for a reason and we got it, that's all."

Jenna smiled at her friend for understanding as they strolled along with Rosy and her family behind them.

"Say, do you think Steele will notice my new collar?" The Pomeranian said in a blissful tone while presenting the said collar proudly on her neck.

"Just say something about it before she'll get whiplash." The Afghan Hound whispered to the two Sisters as quietly as she can so that the lovestruck Pom' didn't hear her except the Husky-Dalmatian pair.

"Oh… That's very pretty, Dixie." Jenna told her friend, trying best to sound the least bit interested, though it clearly sounded unconvincing.

But fortunately for her, the Pomeranian, Dixie, easily lapped it up as a praise.

"You think so?" She said with joy. "Oh, Thank you, Jenna! Now I know I will catch his attention with this thing on."

Dixie then dashed towards the sidelines to catch the end of the race so she could try to ease her way into Steele's heart after the race.

The Afghan Hound just rolled her eyes at her Pomeranian friend's exuberance, though she also had an admiration for Steele, but she doesn't express it as openingly as Dixie.

"That Dixie…" She said in a sarcastic tone. "Always the enthusiastic one."

"Oh, Sylvie…" Jenna replied to her friend. "You know how she is with Steele."

"Yeah, well… she's so eccentric all the time…" The Afghan Hound, Sylvie, responded. "But, I guess that's what makes her fun to hang around with."

Jenna only chuckled, along with Perdita (though it was rather forced), as Sylvie went on ahead to join Dixie. Now, both Jenna and Perdita were both on their own in comfortable silence. Perdita was the first to break it with brutal honesty.

"Honestly, the only way that daft riff-raff will notice any girl is if they were wearing a mirror for a mask." The Dalmatian said bluntly.

"Perdy! Such language." Jenna scolded.

"Why not? Don't you think he's just nothing but a good-for-nothing, stuck-up, self-absorbed gizzard?" Perdita countered.

"I know… But you know how both Dixie and Sylvie feel about him." Jenna tried to reason.

"Well, I guess they're just his blind, lovestruck followers." Perdita said with sarcasm.

"Perdita!" The Husky said firmly, finally getting the Dalmatian to pipe down.

Personally for Jenna, she never liked raising her voice, and felt that it was only needed whenever there was some situation where other Dogs were having a heated argument and she would usually come in to diffuse the fight before it turned into something worse.

Jenna just sighed and resumed.

"Let's just see who will win the race, Okay?" She said calmly.

Perdita only nodded, but just as they were already striding along to the race track, a soft, foreign feminine voice called out to them.

"Excuse me, Dames- I mean, Ladies?" It said, catch the attention of both surrogate Sisters.

They both turned to the source to see a Husky, age 18, with black and white fur patterns, hazel eyes, and white markings above her eyes, which acted like eyebrows, joining in on their walk to the sidelines, and based on her accent, she was likely from France since she said 'Ladies' in French. She wore a light-silver-grey bandana around her own neck.

"Could you please help me?" She asked timidly. Both Jenna and Perdita both looked at each other to convey a mental conversation before they both came to a mental agreement.

"Eh bien, bien sûr, nous vous aiderons, mademoiselle." * ("Why, of course we'll help you, Miss." *) Perdita answered fluently in French.

(*Translation)

The Husky was instantly dumbfounded by the Dalmatian's fluency in her native tongue before she found her voice.

"Y-Tu peux parler français?" * ("Y-You can speak French?" *) She stuttered a bit, also speaking in French, astonished.

"C'est vrai, Madame." * ("That right, Ms." *) Jenna confirmed, also speaking fluent French, surprising the Husky even further. "Nous avons suivi des cours de langue à la maison donnés par un de nos amis." * ("We've been taking some homeschooled language classes from a good friend of ours." *)

"Incroyable!" * ("Incredible!" *) The Husky said in an astounded tone.

"Voulez-vous que nous continuions à parler français?" * ("Would you like us to keep speaking French?" *) Perdita couldn't help but ask.

"Oh! No, no, no…" The French Husky answered, switching back to English. "It's fine. As much as I like to speak in my native tongue, I wouldn't want to cause you any hindrance by speaking French all the time…"

This caught both Jenna and Perdita off-guard.

"Why would you say that?" Perdita asked, completely astonished. "French is a beautiful language."

"Well… My ex-boyfriend said to me…" The Husky hesitated for a bit before she relented, sighing dismally. "He wanted a girl who only speaks English."

This shocked both Jenna and Perdita even more, while anger started to course through the Dalmatian in ten-folds.

Who in the world would have the right mind to put down and dump someone for speaking French, which was arguably one of the most beautiful languages in the world? She'd tear them to shreds if she'll ever get her paws on them-!

Perdita suddenly felt a paw on her own, snapping her out of her mental rant, and turned to the source. Jenna had placed her paw with Perdita's own as a form of holding one's hand and had a look that conveyed to the Dalmatian to calm herself down.

Perdita relented and took a few deep breaths. When she finished, she directed her attention to their new friend, who was looking rather worried at the Dalmatian's moment of uncomfortable silence.

Perdita smiled at her reassuringly.

"Don't let someone tell you who you aren't." She said wisely. "Be happy for who you are."

These words alone were enough to make the French Husky smile, feeling touched by Perdita's kind advice.

"Anyways…" Jenna interjected. "What is your name, and what do you want us to help you with?"

This instantly snapped the Husky back to her early question and made her realize that she had forgotten to introduce herself.

"Oh, my! I forgot to introduce myself! Silly me…" The Husky said in an embarrassed tone, whilst blushing a little. "My name is Mila. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Mila." Jenna greeted her back. "I'm Jenna, and this is my sister, Perdita."

"Greetings." Perdita said as she bowed her head to the Husky.

Mila bowed back, before she continued. "I have lost my owner amidst the crowd. Could you help me find her?"

"Why, certainly." Perdita responded kindly. "We could look for her along the sidelines. We were just going there ourselves."

"Oh, Merci!" Mila thanked the surrogate sisters in French. "Thank you very much, you two!"

"Vous êtes les bienvenus." * ("You're very welcome." *) Jenna answered, making Mila giggle. With that, the trio continued on in the direction of the racetrack to find Mila's owner.

The Radcliffes noticed the whole interaction between the three dogs, and were striking up a conversation amongst themselves.

"It seems both Perdita and Jenna have made a new friend." Anita said.

"That's wonderful!" Rosy answered cheerfully. "It's great for them to meet someone new to play with."

"But who's her owner may I ask?" Melanie Radcliffe inquired.

"She looks lost… We may be able to find her owner on the sidelines." Andrew Radcliffe reasoned. "Come along."

Coincidentally, the family followed the three dogs to the same location, in hopes to find Mila's owner, just as the trio in front of them were doing the same.

(V)

A brunette haired woman, aged 28, with hazel eyes, who came from France, was looking frantically for someone in the huge crowd of people. And while she looked, she called out a name.

"Mila!" She called out loud. The woman was Mila's owner.

She had spent almost half an hour looking everywhere for her beloved Dog, even so far as to ask anyone if they had seen a Husky with a grey bandana, which all sources said 'No'.

She was now trying desperately to find Mila at every corner, but she luckily didn't need to look far. To both her pleasant surprise and relief, she spotted Mila walking along with a family and their two Dogs, who were also looking for her as well.

"Mila!" She cried out happily, to which the said Husky directed her head to her owner, and had happily ran over to her, giving some kisses when she reached her owner.

"Oh, Mila! Don't scare me like that." The woman scolded lightly. "I don't know what I'll do if something happened to you."

Mila licks her face as a form of an apology.

"So she's your Dog, I believe." Anita quipped, getting Mila's owner's attention.

"Oh, Yes, she is." She responded. "Been with me since she was just a 10 year old Pup. Adopted her when I was 20."

"Wow! That long, huh?" Rosy said. The woman gave Rosy an affirmative nod.

"May we know your name please." Melanie Radcliffe asked kindly.

"Oh! Forgive me! Where are my manners?" She playful scolded herself before she introduced herself. "My name is Marcie Carla. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. My name's Melanie Radcliffe." Melanie said. "This is my husband, Andrew, and these two are my Daughters, Anita and Rosy."

"Pleasure to meet you, Marcie." Andrew said, shaking her hand.

"How do you do?" Anita kindly greeted her.

"Hi!" Rosy exclaimed cheerfully.

"Nice to meet all of you." Marcie greeted back.

"Your accent… French, I believe…" Anita inquired. "I could tell the difference between both France and Quebec."

"Mm-Hm. Very good." Marcie replied. "People usually mistake me as a citizen of Quebec. I'm glad to meet some who recognized that I came from France."

Anita let out a small laugh. "Charmed." Marcie chuckled.

"So, where were you and your little friend headed off to?" Melanie inquired politely.

"Oh! We're both headed for the race track to see the race come to an end." Marcie answered.

"Well, small world…" Anita replied. "We were all just going there ourselves to watch the following race come to a close."

"My! Looks like we are a group of people with a common goal, are we?" Marcie playfully quoted.

"Well come on, then! What are we waiting around for? Let's catch the end of the race!" Rosy excitedly squealed, urging everyone to move on.

The adults in the group came to the same mental decision, and started to follow the little girl to take any available space that was waiting for them.

(V)

Balto and Pongo had reached the sidelines, just in time to see if the two teams had reached the finish line yet.

"Do you see the teams yet?" Balto asked Pongo.

"Not a sign." Pongo replied. "I believe we're early."

At the same time, Marcie and the Radcliffes had just arrived at the sidelines to catch the end of the race along with their three dogs. Little Rosy was already jumping up and down in anticipation of who will cross the finish, much to the adults' amusement.

Just as the boys scanned along the racetrack from left to right, Balto caught the most breathtaking sight in his entire life. And that sight was of Jenna, her beauty in all her glory, glowing in his eyes.

Everything about her, from her fur and the color that coated it, to her encaptivating bright brown eyes. Everything about her was perfect. Balto couldn't help but admire her.

While Pongo was scanning along the sidelines, he turned to Balto to say something, but was immediately confused as to who or what Balto was staring at.

The Dalmatian decided to look for himself, and saw Jenna, took in her features, and felt an aura emitting off of the Husky.

He immediately understood why Balto found her so captivating to look at, but to him, he felt a maternal aura emanating from her for some reason, but couldn't put his paw on why.

Before he could look on further, they heard a shout amidst the crowd, snapping them out of their trance.

"And... here they come! Heading this way, coming soon into town square!" An announcer said into the microphone, directing everyone's attention to a Mega-screen, humans and dogs alike, for all to see two sled teams nearing the town's square, making everybody cheer once more.

The two sled teams were just a few miles away from the finish line, both trying their best to outdo the other.

The team near the right side line was Steele's, whilst the lead Dog was pushing all his stamina to the limit to outrun his opponent on his left, a Husky who was showing no signs of exhaustion.

The Husky of the other team had brown fur, with brown markings over his blue eyes, and a bauge undercoat. His right ear had a small notch on its top left corner.

Mila, who had been watching the race attentively, had an instant look of distaste when she set her eyes on Steele, even slightly belching at the sight of other females swooning over the Malamute.

She then directed her attention to the other team to ignore Steele, only to be instantly captivated by the lead Husky's crystal-like blue eyes as the two teams clashed in over taking the other.

She had been letting her eyes follow the brown Husky for a few seconds before she was instantly snapped back into reality when Perdita called her name.

"Mila!" Perdita called out-loud.

"Huh? Yes?" Mila responded.

"You were spacing out on us for a bit. Are you alright?" Perdita asked.

"Oh! Yes… I'm fine… I'm sorry…" Mila replied timidly. Quickly thinking, the French Husky immediately asked for the lead Husky's identity. "Anyways, who's the lead Husky, Girls?"

Both Perdita and Jenna looked at one another, instantly connecting the dots, and the duo slyly smiled at each other. They both then looked at Mila, who was waiting patiently for an answer.

"Him?" Jenna playfully asked. "He's the good friend who taught us French."

(V)

I'm going to end it right here. So, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, as well as getting to know a few new and familiar names in this chapter. The next chapter will reveal the name of the Good Friend Jenna mentioned, as well as more new and familiar characters to come. French translations are from Google Translate.