Luna smiled, enjoying the feel of a hand gently stroking her head, massaging every trace of anxiety from her mind like water from a fountain washing mud out of her fur. Connie was kneeling next to the basket, petting her. Toby was sitting on the opposite side smiling at her, standing vigil like some canine guardian angel. And in between them were the objects of his protection: Six perfect little puppies lay snuggled up in a pile against the curve of her stomach, fast asleep. Somewhere outside her visual notice, a fire burned in the hearth and filled the room with warmth. The husky mix closed her eyes and thought, It doesn't get any better than this.

A cold breeze blew into the room and Luna shivered, impulsively moving a paw to pull her children closer. But her paw met nothing. She opened her eyes and stared into the basket. No trace of the puppies, not even impressions on the blankets where their bodies had been.

"Toby?" she asked. "Where are the kids?"

Toby looked at her blankly. "I think Connie took them somewhere," he replied.

Luna turned her head to look at Connie. As she did, she became aware that the room had changed. The fire was no longer crackling in the hearth, and the room had grown dim and otherworldly. She could still see the floor and the walls and everything else, but she felt an odd floating sensation, as if the house had become some miniature of outer space.

Connie had mysteriously been teleported over to the kitchen door and was walking in their direction, but she was moving slower than her steps should have carried her, as if the floor were going the other way and walking only just faster than it was. Her face and body were lit as in the room=s previous brightness, even though all around her was darkness. As Luna watched, Connie too began to fade into the void.

"Connie!" barked Luna in fear, wanting to run to her girl but somehow unable to do so. Connie, seemingly unaware of what was going on, held out her hand and said something but no sound came from her mouth. When she was within inches of reaching Luna, she faded away completely. "Toby, what's going on? Toby!" Luna cried. For now he was also being ingested by the gloom.

He was hanging his head in sorrow, and just before he vanished, she heard him say, as if from afar, "It's my fault, Luna. It's my fault."

"Toby? Connie? Kids?" Luna called out to the suffocating stillness. Over and over, she cried out. "Anyone? Please? Where am I? Somebody, help me!" She began to run through the cosmos that had swallowed everything else up, calling, "They're lost! Everything's lost!"

Then a touch on her head slammed everything back to normal. Once more she was in the room. Connie was there, staring at her in concern. "Luna?" she asked. "What's wrong, girl?"

Luna forced her breathing to return to normal and stared around. But Toby was nowhere in sight; neither were Connie or the kids. And as the clouds of her dream drifted from her mind, she knew that the kids never would be.

Sometime later, Luna heard a familiar scratching at the pet flap. "Can I come in," asked a joking voice, "or are you getting dressed?"

She rolled her eyes. Normally she would have laughed at the joke, but after her nightmare she felt far from laughing. So in the most cheerful tone she could muster, she answered, "Come in, Toby."

The familiar brown face poked through the doggie door. "So, what's up?" he asked brightly.

Luna shrugged, working hard to hide her discomfort. "I'm fine," she replied.

She tried to keep her mind on the conversation, but some twitch of her ears or flick of her tail must have betrayed her emotions, for his face took on a worried expression and he asked, "Are you doing okay, Luna?"

She nodded wearily. She was sick and tired of the question―he'd asked it countless times since finding out she couldn't have pups―but was even more tired of what the real answer was.

Toby sensed her unease. "You want to go do something?" he suggested.

She shrugged. "What did you have in mind?" she inquired.

"I don't know," he replied. "I was thinking maybe we could go to the crystal caves again, if you like."

She smiled. Toby wasn't perfect by any stretch, but he did try to cheer her up whenever he wasn't trying her patience. "Sure," she agreed.

As they strolled the streets of Nome, Luna's ears picked up the sound of tiny barks. Don't look, she told herself. Do not look. But despite her efforts, her head turned as if an invisible pair of hands had seized it and forced it to point in the direction of the sound. There on the side of the street was a long-haired female border collie walking around, trailed by a litter of puppies like the Pied Piper leading, as it seemed to Luna, all the children in town.

Toby frowned. "Why do you keep doing that?"

She snapped out of her trance and willed her eyes to look at him. "Doing what?"

"That mournful look you get whenever you see another dog walking around with puppies."

Luna lowered her eyelids and stared at the ground. "It's just not right," she quietly lamented.

Toby sighed. "Look, I know you're disappointed. But you need to let it go. It's not going to happen, and there's nothing we can do about it now."

"I know that, but…"

Toby's tone took on a slight edge. "Look, it kills me too, especially since I'm the cause of it."

"Don't remind me," she interrupted.

"But we can't change the past. It happened, and that's all there is to it. I―"

She snapped. "Oh, just stop it already!" she shouted. "We can't change the past; I get that part. So stop lecturing me about it!"

Toby took a step back. "I-I'm sorry, Luna. I didn't think―"

"That's the problem," she retorted. "You didn't think about it, you just started talking my ear off. I know I'm taking it hard, but I have every right to, don't I?"

By now, every other dog in their part of town had stopped and was staring at them. Even a few humans, though deaf to their words, were taking in the altercation. "Luna," Toby pleaded, "you're making a scene."

"Who cares?" she demanded. "You have no idea what this is…"

Toby sized up the crowed, considered his bereaved mate, and started to walk away. One thing at a time, he thought. And there's only one way to avoid a spectacle.

"Get back here!" Luna ordered.

Toby disappeared behind a woodshed. "No," he replied. "You get back here."

"Ooh!" Growling with frustration, she followed him behind the shed. "Now, what…"

Toby sat down. "Luna, please just take a deep breath."

Despite her turmoil, Luna did as she was asked and then let out a choked sob. The torrent of emotion was subsiding to a river of pain and sorrow. "I'm sorry," she gasped as she quietly lay her head against his shoulder. "I just…I just wanted it so much."

Toby raised a paw and patted her neck. What could he say? "It's alright" would never work, because it wasn't all right and it never would be. "Calm down?" That might set her off again. Finally, he whispered, "I'm here, Luna. I'm here."

Luna fell to the ground, tears drenching her cheek fur. Toby circled around and laid down beside her, then leaned against her in hopes of giving her some of his strength. It was all too obvious she didn't have any of her own to spare.

"I feel so hopeless," she whispered. And she did. Her heart felt like a sponge that someone had wrung dry, and continued to wring until the torque broke it in two.

Toby didn't know what to say, and he decided there was only one place to go where he could find out what to do.

Later, Toby was at his mother=s house, pacing back and forth like a lion surrounded by a moat of lava, racking his brain for a solution to his predicament. He was confused about his current situation, worried about Luna=s emotional state, and just plain scared about the whole thing. "I just don't understand," he complained. AI was hoping to have pups too, but she=s been miserable ever since she found out she can't have any. I've been trying my best to keep her spirits up, but it doesn't seem to be doing any good and it's driving me crazy. It's been two months now and she's worse than ever!"

Terry sighed. "Toby, I'm not sure you can fully understand why she's so upset. And since I'm not Luna, I don't think I can either." She stared into the fire for a moment, then turned back to her son. "But for one thing, it's her body that has something missing or out of place. She's the one who's suffered the physical damage, not you."

Toby didn't know what to make of this. "And you think I'm not bothered by that?" he shouted.

She gave him a look. Not an angry look, or even an impatient one; just a quiet sort of expression that somehow snapped his mouth shut like a mousetrap. "Let me finish. The other part of it is that she has certain instincts. Most females do. She needs someone who depends on her and she can take care of."

"But she acts like it's the only meaning for her entire existence."

Terry considered this and replied, "I suppose that's because, to some extent, it is."

Toby heaved a sigh of frustration. "Not helping, Mom," he grumbled.

"Well, think about it this way. You don't spend every minute of every day with her, do you?" He shook his head. "What do you do when you=re not with her?"

Toby thought for a minute. "Mostly, I play with Charlie."

"And when he's not around?"

Toby was beginning to wonder where this was leading. "Sometimes I practice tracking."

"And when you're not doing that?"

"I'm sleeping or wandering around town or talking with a friend or you or dad."

"And if that's not possible?"

Toby shrugged. "There's not much else for me to do."

"Exactly," she answered, lifting a paw and setting it down with a thump for emphasis. "Luna's not a tracker like you, and her humans aren't at home any more than yours are. So when they aren't there and you're not there, she has nothing to do."

Toby nodded slowly as this sank in. He remembered when Luna had been in the hospital for the very accident that had started this whole mess. She had begged him to visit her as often as possible, and apparently her relatives had visited her too. Even with so many visitors she complained about how maddening it was when she was all by herself, and without her around to play with, Toby had suffered some of that madness. "So in other words, she's trying to find something to do with her time?"

"Like I said, I'm not positive about any of this. But I think it's more empty space than empty time. There's a hole in her life, and she needs something to fill it."

Toby thought hard about that. "What if I try spending more time with her?" he suggested.

Terry furrowed her brow. "I'm sure she'd appreciate it, but try not to overdo it."

"What's that supposed to mean? How could I overdo spending time with her?"

Terry gave him an odd little smirk. "I used to have you around all day every day, remember? I almost lost it."

"I'm not like I was then!" he protested. "I've grown up, I've matured, I've―"

"I know you have," Terry interrupted. "If you were the same now as you were then, we wouldn't be having this discussion. But take my word for it, she'd go crazy just like this morning. Any female would if her mate was always hanging around. Just look at what's happened with Pete."

Toby thought about what he had seen of Pete's behavior with his various girlfriends. It was true, he did tend to hover, and he never managed to keep a girl around very long. He had even heard Luna comment that when she had dated him during her bout of amnesia, he'd been unbearably clingy. But then he thought of something else. "Didn't Pete's dad live in the same house with you?"

Terry closed her eyes for the space of about five breaths, still pained by the memory even now. "Yes," she said finally, "and we got into a fair number of spats. Your father and I have argued now and then too, both before and after we became mates. Every couple will have times when they don't agree, even a pair like you and Luna. That's why you can't go trying to fill every single space in her life any more than she can try to fill yours."

Toby nodded, imagining what it would be like if Luna tried to take Charlie's place in his life. "I see what you mean. But that still doesn't answer the question of what I can do."

"Just be there when she needs you," she replied gently. "That's all anyone can do in a case like this."

Toby nodded, pretending to understand. In reality, he now felt even more confused than ever. "Thanks, Mom," he said sullenly.

Terry rewarded him with a smile, albeit a sad one, and nuzzled him. "I don't know how this is going to turn out, Toby, but if there's one thing I know about you two, it's that you'll figure out some way to pull through it."

Toby nodded. "Thanks." Something pulled at the back of his mind, telling him he had to be elsewhere, so he excused himself and departed.

Terry stared after him. I wonder…? She shook her head. No, it must be the stress of finding out she's barren. But if I didn't know any better…