"There! Right there!" Toby's pulse raced as he focused on the task before him. Terra zipped across the room, Toby right on her heels. Their racing feet took them all over the little chamber before they collided against a stack of bags, crashing skulls in the process. But knocking heads wasn't the only result of the incident: The bags, made from rough cord and full of wheat flour, was unbalanced by the impact and tumbled down on top of them.

After a few minutes they wrestled free of the heavy sacks and lay there for a moment, regaining the breath that the sacks had denied them. Toby stood and shook his head, then looked down at Terra, concern evident in his tone and expression. "You okay?" he asked.

Terra nodded. "Yeah, I think so." She rubbed a paw between her ears. "Aside from a nice goose egg, I'm right as rain."

Toby smiled. "Good. Now, where were we?"

"Hey, Luna."

Luna, who had been relaxing in the sun on her front porch, looked up to see her sisters, Phoebe and Haley, coming in her direction. "Oh, hi," she said. "How's it going?"

Haley shrugged in her signature way that Luna had learned meant she was onto some juicy piece of gossip and trying not to show it. "Oh, nothing much. How are things going with you and Toby?"

"Never better," Luna replied. It had been exactly two weeks since she had accepted Toby's proposal, and those fourteen days had been the happiest of her life.

Haley and Phoebe exchanged a worried look, which didn't bother Luna one bit. Her sisters were terrible gossips, and anything that went normally was sure to leave them disappointed, worried, or both. "So there are no problems?" asked Phoebe.

"None," answered Luna. "Why do you ask?"

"Because we saw…" Phoebe started to say before a look from Haley stopped her.

"Has Toby been acting…strange lately?" asked Haley.

Luna smiled. "Is that a trick question? He's Toby! If he wasn't acting strangely, I'd be worried."

"Not what I meant," said Haley.

Luna tilted her head. "Then what do you mean?"

Phoebe sighed. "Well, we hate to be the bearers of bad news…"

That's a switch, thought Luna, rolling her eyes.

"But yesterday we saw Toby going into the granary with somebody."

This didn't worry Luna too much. Whenever Toby wasn't with her, which wasn't often, he was out talking with his parents or one of his siblings. "So?"

"He was with a female dog," Haley clarified. "They were talking about something she didn't sound like she wanted to do, but he said they had to do it. A few minutes after they went inside, we heard a lot of barking from the second floor."

"So what? Toby has other female friends besides me." Luna knew her sisters well enough to guess what they were implying, and knew Toby well enough to know that it was stupid.

"There's more," added Haley. AThey stayed in there for about an hour, and when they came out, they both looked kind of tired. She said that she was glad they did it, and he suggested they do it the same time today.

Luna rolled her eyes. "What are you driving at?" she asked. She already knew, but she wanted to make them say it.

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Phoebe. "He's two-timing on you."

Luna shook her head. Here we go again, she thought. "Phoebe, the last time you thought a guy was cheating on his mate was working on a surprise for their anniversary."

"This is different," insisted Haley. "Today we went back there at the same time and followed them inside the bakery. They went back to the second floor and shut the door behind them, so we couldn't see what was going on. All we heard was a lot of growling and barking and running, like he was chasing her or something."

"And he said lots of stuff, too," added Phoebe. "He said she was a feisty one, and that she was good for a beginner."

Luna groaned. "Both of you have been listening to too many rumors," she said. "It's starting to affect your minds." Not that there's much to affect, she thought to herself. She loved her sisters, but they'd always been just a little featherbrained. In fact, she suspected that if somebody looked inside their heads, the observer would see something with all the sense of a game of pick-up-sticks.

"We're telling you, Luna, he's playing you for a dope," insisted Haley.

Luna shook her head, starting to get annoyed. "Toby's not that way." She got up and headed inside. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got other stuff on my mind." Almost as an afterthought, she stuck her head out the doggy door and added, "And for once in your lives, don't go spreading rumors around."

Her sisters shrugged and agreed. As they left, Phoebe asked Haley, "Do you think we should have told her we brought our friends to the granary the second time around?"

Haley shook her head. "No, she's bothered enough already."

Luna almost laughed at what her sisters had said. Toby double-dealing? It wasn't possible. There were dozens of logical reasons why he might be going to the granary every day. With a strange female, shutting himself in a room with her, running around and making strange noises…

She shook her head. No, Toby's not like that, she thought. Besides, we don't keep secrets. We tell each other everything. She would have just shaken it off except she'd never known her sisters to tell an outright lie. Embellished, yes, but not lie. If they claimed to have seen or heard an event, they were bound to be telling at least half the truth. The trick, then, was figuring out which half was true and which half was false.

Toby decided to pay a visit to Luna, now that he was finished with his other business. He trotted down the street, heading for her house. That's odd, he thought as he came in sight and saw the empty front porch. Usually, she likes to lie in the sun this time of day.

"Luna?" he called as he stuck his head in the pet flap.

Luna came into the room and jerked at the sight of him, as if she were surprised to see him. "Oh, hello, Toby."

Toby frowned. "Do I have something on my face?" he asked as he stepped inside.

Luna shook her head. "No, why?"

"Well, you just seem a little…" He searched for a word other than strange. "Jumpy," he finally said.

Luna waved a paw. "Oh, it's nothing. I just wasn't expecting you to drop in, that's all."

Toby nodded. "Well, you should know by now that I'm full of surprises."

More than I can imagine, I'm sure. She caught herself, disgusted with what was going through her mind. What am I thinking?! "Oh, I know," she replied.

They sat down and started talking like they usually would, though Luna was pretending to have her mind on the conversation. Toby was so confused by her awkward state that he asked several times if she was feeling sick, even asking at one point if she was expecting puppies.

"No," Luna replied each time, adding a little extra edge to her voice when he brought up the tender subject of puppies. To change the subject, and to check an idea that had occurred to her just then, she asked, "Hey, did you happen to pass by the granary any time today?"

Toby blinked in surprise. "Yeah, now that you mention it, I did," he admitted.

Luna simultaneously rejoiced that he was at least admitting it―and therefore it couldn't be anything too bad―and worried that apparently her sisters' story might be true after all. But she kept her reaction hidden. Outwardly, all she did was ask, "Did you happen to see any of your brothers there?"

Toby furrowed his brow. What's going on here? he wondered. "No, I don't think so," he answered. "Why?"

Disappointed, Luna mentally scratched the possibility of mistaken identity even as she remembered that none of Toby's brothers looked like him. She scrambled for an answer that wouldn't sound suspicious, crazy, or both. "Oh, just curious," she replied. "Was anyone with you?"

Toby was getting very anxious by now. Does she know? he wondered. He tried to figure out a way to dodge the question. "Yeah, I happened to be with a…friend," he admitted.

Luna perked her ears. "Who?" she asked.

"Oh, uh…nobody you'd know." Toby was really wishing Luna would stop asking questions. "Why the sudden interest? What do you want to know?"

Luna's suspicions were rising, but she suddenly felt embarrassed. How could she doubt Toby, especially when her only real reason to be suspicious was a story from her sisters, Nome's two certified worst gossips? "Oh, somebody said they saw you over there, so I was wondering what you would be doing at the granary."

"Oh." Toby relaxed. "Well, I bumped into someone I know who needed a little help, so I decided to see what I could do. Like I said, it wasn't anybody you know. Maybe I'll introduce the two of you sometime."

Luna nodded. "I'd like that," she agreed, mentally adding, I'd like that very much.

Toby was relieved when Luna asked no further questions on the subject. For a moment there, I thought I'd have to tell her, he thought.

After Toby left sometime later that afternoon, Luna sat down to think. He'd admitted to going to the granary with a female dog he wouldn't identify. However, he hadn't admitted to going inside, nor had he indicated that they had done anything in there. It's just silly, she thought. He's not the type to pull a stunt like that. Still…