Before their evening respite on that difficult day when their bones were infested with ache and their feet were sore and numb and their lungs were fretful and their hearts beat with a delinquent commotion the dog ran off to chase wolves.  He ran through a bog of tamarack and black spruce onto a tier of rock and the boy called him back but the dog ran on and the men scrambled behind.  None could run.

They heard the fighting and the crying out and the fearsome snarling and when they emerged above a hillock the wolves loped off and stopped to gaze back upon them in wonderment and they loped off again with long high strides and the dog was not seen.  The men crawled among the rocks to locate King and they followed the sound of muffled breathing. 

The boy found him first and the dog was chewed up from his brawl and bleeding and unwilling to stand.  The boy knelt and touched the dog's one good ear and the dog whimpered in that fading light.

THE TIMEKEEPER
Trevor Ferguson

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