by Peter Howe
“Where could they all be?” wondered Cal.
“You don’t think,” offered Magica hesitantly, “that they could be doing exactly what we’re doing and that they’re at our place right now?”
“Dear Vinda, you may be right,” said Tazar in alarm.
“Alicia!” gasped Raz.
“Let’s go,” snapped Tazar, and the team started as one to run back to the Risingside, heedless of the dangers of passing cars or Uprights. As they rounded the bend that led to the tunnel they pulled up short at the sight of Lady Alicia lying in front of the entrance, licking her paws without a care in the world. She looked up.
“Didja get ’im?” she casually inquired. “Is he dead?”
“Not only did we not get him,” said Tazar, “we didn’t even find him. No one was home.”
“Well, where else could they be?” asked Alicia. “They’d never leave that place without someone to look after it.”
“That’s true,” said Tazar. “Even if they had been intent on raiding our place, they would have left someone on guard back there. Let’s think what this could mean.”
The dogs fell silent as each one grappled with this strange situation. It was a mystery, and mysteries were always unnerving.
“I don’t think well on an empty stomach,” said Gordo. Bits of garbage were still sticking to his coat where he had collided with the trash container.
“You don’t think well on any kind of stomach,” said Cal, accurately if somewhat unkindly.
“I think worse on an empty one,” insisted Gordo.
“Let’s sleep on it,” said Tazar, “but tonight I want two on eyes and ears. Cal and Raz, you take it and stay alert. This could be some kind of trick.”
When dawn broke a few hours later most of them were still sleeping. Cal and Raz, who had spent a tiring night on duty, came down to the tunnel exhausted.
“Waggit, take over, will you?” pleaded Cal.
“Sure thing,” Waggit said, and scrambled up the slope. He liked sentry duty, especially during the daylight hours. He felt safe in the undergrowth on top of the tunnel, and it was interesting to see the life of the park unfolding before his eyes.
Waggit scanned the view from side to side as he had been taught, noting anything unusual. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he thought he could see a shape moving, dark against the whiteness of the snow. He looked again. Yes, there was definitely something there—some kind of animal moving in the woods close to the tunnel. He didn’t want to use the alarm system because the tumbling cans would alert whatever was out there as well as the sleeping dogs below, so he crept very quietly down to the interior. His white coat made him almost invisible against the snow, and the intruder clearly didn’t notice his movements.
As he reached Tazar’s sleeping form, the black dog opened one eye.
“What is it?” he said.
“There’s something out there. I’m not sure what, but some kind of animal, and it’s checking out the tunnel,” said Waggit.
“Okay, let me take a look,” said Tazar. He climbed up the slope and then stopped, his head tilted to one side inquisitively, but without fear. When Waggit scrambled to his side he saw that a nervous brown female dog was facing him, ears down, quivering and crouching close to the ground. Her whole body language was submissive, and as she crept forward the snow piled up in front of her chest.
“A good morning to you, sister. Why the pleasure of your company so early this day?” asked Tazar.
The brown dog looked up at him with frightened eyes. She went to speak, but no sound came out.
“Don’t be frightened, sister. We’re not going to eat you,” said Tazar in his most reassuring voice.
“Please, sir,” she finally whispered, “I want to join your team.”
“I’ve seen you before,” said Tazar. “You’re one of the loners that lives on the Goldenside, near the Deepwoods End.”
“I used to,” she said, “but I can’t live there no more. That’s why I need to join you.”
“Something bad must have happened if a loner wants to be part of a team,” said Tazar.
“Very bad, sir,” agreed the female. “Very bad indeed. It’s the Ruzelas; they hit the Goldenside hard. They got many loners and took all of Tashi’s team. They got them with those big nets as they tried to escape. I saw them being loaded into a roller. It was horrible to see, sir.”
“You say they got all of Tashi’s team?” asked Tazar incredulously.
“All the ones I know,” the female replied.
“Well, that would explain a lot,” said Tazar. “But you are welcome. Come, come with us, and meet your new brothers and sisters.”
Tazar, Waggit, and the female entered the tunnel. The rest of the team looked curiously at the stranger, who was so uncomfortable that she seemed to be praying for a hole in the earth to appear and swallow her up.
“Dogs, listen up,” said Tazar commandingly. “This is a sister who has asked if she can join our group. She has lived in the park for many risings as a loner, but now she wishes to be a team member, even though it’s against her nature. She realizes now that the power of the team is the only way to survive the threat of the Ruzelas. Tell me, sister,” the leader continued, “what’s your name? How shall we call you?”
The female muttered something beneath her breath.
“Speak louder. You are among friends, among your family,” said Tazar.
“Please, sir, I have no name. Loners don’t need names.”
“Well, we must give you one,” said Tazar, “for you are alone no longer.”
“Once a loner, always a loner,” said Gordo in a surprisingly philosophical frame of mind.
“Gordo, my friend,” cried Tazar with delight, “you have become mighty skilled in the naming of names.”
“I have?” said Gordo with surprise.
“Indeed you have. You gave us Waggit’s name, and now you’ve named our sister here.”
“I did?” Gordo was now completely mystified.
“I thought I heard you say she would always be Alona, and so she shall be. May I present to you the Lady Alona,” said Tazar with a flourish.
There was a chorus of yips and howls, and cries of “Lady Alona,” and “Good name,” and “Welcome to the family.” The reception was so warm, it was impossible for even a dog as shy as Alona not to relax a little and begin to feel safe. Even Alicia, seeing no competition in the plain, shy little thing, was hospitable in a condescending sort of way.
Meanwhile Gordo was sitting with a frown on his face, scratching his ear in confusion, and still trying to work out his part in the naming ceremony.
“Lowdown…” he said as the short dog walked by.
“Don’t worry about it,” Lowdown said without stopping.
“One more thing.” Tazar interrupted the celebrations. “Our new sister told me something that I should pass on to you. While on the Goldenside, on her last day as a loner, she saw something that, if it’s true, is of interest to us all.”
“It is true.” Alona spoke more firmly than at any time since her arrival. “I only speak the truth. I saw it, sir,” she insisted. “I saw it as clear as I see you now.”
“What?” said Lowdown. “What did she see? What did you see?”
“What she saw,” said Tazar, “was all of Tashi’s team being captured by the Ruzelas and taken away in rollers. All of them, she says.”
“Including Tashi himself?” asked Cal.
“That I don’t know,” admitted Alona. “I didn’t actually see them put him in the rollers, but there was no one left. They must’ve got him.”
“Whad’ya think, boss?” said Lowdown.
“Well,” said Tazar, “it would explain why the camp was empty when we got there, but on the other hand, it hasn’t been my experience that problems solve themselves as easily as that, so I’ll just let this sit for a while.”
“My feelings exactly,” agreed Lowdown. “If it seems to be too good to be true it probabl
y ain’t. Not, of course,” he added hurriedly, “that there’s anything good about dogs being captured by the Ruzelas, even Tashi’s gang of delinquents.”
Tazar and Lowdown walked away from the main group. Waggit had noticed how much the leader depended upon the wisdom of the smaller dog in times of uncertainty, and not knowing where the enemy was or what he was doing made Tazar anxious.
“So you don’t think she’s telling the truth?” he asked Lowdown.
“I dunno, boss. Like you said, if it is true it could explain a lot, but I would hate for us to relax and let our guard down, which may be exactly what Tashi wants us to do. As for Alona, she’s a strange one all right, but then, so am I, and if we said ‘No strange ones’ we’d have to disband the team altogether.”
“I tell you one thing,” said Tazar. “I don’t think she’s a spy. She’s a genuine loner. I’ve seen her many times at the Deepwoods End, always by herself, always staying clear of everyone, Uprights and dogs alike.”
“Well, if I was you, boss, which I’m glad I ain’t,” Lowdown continued, “I’d maintain vigilance, but in a low-key kinda way. Double up on eyes and ears at night, have a quiet word with Cal, and maybe even Waggit. We don’t want Alona thinking we don’t believe her, ’cause she’s going to have a hard enough time fitting in as it is.”
Both dogs stood quietly outside the tunnel entrance for a moment.
“One other thing, boss.” Lowdown broke the silence hesitantly. “It might be a good idea if you spent more time around the camp than you have lately. If we’re attacked and you’re in some far corner of the park you ain’t gonna be much use to us, and, honestly, I’m not sure we could win without you.”
“I have things I have to do that you don’t know about. You’re going to have to trust me on that,” said Tazar mysteriously and somewhat defensively.
“I don’t doubt it,” said Lowdown. “All I’m saying is, we need you.”
The rest of the day passed uneventfully, much of it spent trying to get Alona to relax. Lowdown had accurately predicted the difficulty she would have doing this, and with the best will in the world, there was little the other dogs could do to help her fit in to their communal life. She had realized that for her own survival she needed the protection only a group could give her against the two great enemies—the Ruzelas and hunger. Being part of a team even helped combat the cold, something that was becoming a problem for her. But despite all these obvious advantages, she had spent most of her life by herself, depending on no other dog and trusting none either. This was something you couldn’t just put down like a stick you were carrying; it would take time for her to make a big adjustment.
Waggit felt sorry for her. He knew from his own experience how hard it was to commit to being part of the team. He tried to make conversation with her.
“I like your name,” he said.
There was no reply.
“They gave me a name too,” he continued. “I didn’t have one either when I came here. Mine’s Waggit.”
Still nothing.
“I wasn’t too sure of it at first.” He pressed on despite the one-sided nature of the conversation, “But now I like it. It’s sort of masculine. Yours is very feminine.”
Waggit had run out of topics, for his social skills were not great. So he just stood there, his tail wagging anxiously.
Suddenly Alona whispered, “Tazar don’t believe I saw what I saw.”
“You think?” said Waggit, completely taken aback.
“He don’t trust me,” she continued in a low voice, “and if he don’t trust me I can’t stay here; I can’t be a team member if I’m not trusted. It’s all about trust.”
Now it was Waggit’s turn to fall silent. He sat down and scratched his ear, which always seemed to help the thought process. After careful consideration of her statement he said, “I don’t think it’s that he doesn’t trust you. When it comes to security Tazar’s very careful. He’ll take risks, but he likes to have all the facts before he does.”
“Well, he’s going to have to trust me on this one. Nobody’s coming back from where those dogs went to tell him I was right.”
This ended the conversation, such as it was, and the two wandered apart.
The meal that night was sparse. The hunting party of Cal, Raz, and Magica had returned with an assortment of small animals, none of which provided much meat. Tazar, who had taken Lowdown’s advice and stayed around for most of the day, authorized the supplementation of the meager spread with food out of the store. When it was really cold the dogs kept any food left over from previous nights in a hole in the ground that they had dug and covered with branches. It was placed so that the sentry on duty could keep an eye on it, for although the branches would have fooled an Upright, any other dog would be able to smell it out easily. Not that there was usually very much in it, mostly items that the dogs didn’t like—stale bread, carrots that had fallen off carriages that the horses pulled, or the occasional half-eaten apple tossed away by a human. It was a rare occasion that the store contained their favorite food—meat in any form.
As they were about to sit and consume their modest meal, a long and lonesome howl shattered the silence of the night. All the dogs rushed to the entrance to see where the forlorn sound came from. Sitting on a rock not far from the tunnel was Tashi, his head pointed to the sky, his lips pursed, and his ears flat to his head. Next to him was his evil lieutenant, Wilbur. When he realized who was there, Tazar stepped forward.
“Tashi, we heard bad times have fallen on your team. Indeed we heard that you yourself had been taken,” he said.
“The Ruzela ain’t born yet what can take me,” replied Tashi belligerently. “But the team, yeah, it’s tough, but they’ve gone.”
“It’s a tragedy.”
“It’s a pain in the tail,” answered Tashi, “but it ain’t a tragedy. You know you’ve got to be sharp to survive in the park, and those guys were good, but they just weren’t sharp enough.”
“What Tashi means,” added Wilbur in his obsequious voice, “is that though he’s personally devastated by the loss of dear friends, he feels you have to move on.” Wilbur spent much of his time trying to explain what Tashi meant.
“Yeah, move on,” said Tashi. “You got to move on.”
“Why didn’t they get you two as well?” asked Tazar.
“Well, we was sharp,” said Tashi. “We saw them coming. We was up on the big rocks overlooking the fountain, so we lay low until they went.”
“You didn’t try to warn your team?” Tazar was astonished.
“Listen,” barked Tashi, “the first law of survival is: look after number one. You’ve got to take…what is it you have to take for your own life?” he asked Wilbur.
“Responsibility,” the other dog replied.
“Yeah, that’s it. Responsibility. It’s every dog for himself,” Tashi explained, with the air of one well versed in philosophy.
“This is not to mean, of course,” continued Wilbur, “that we wouldn’t have warned them if it had been at all physically possible, but frankly, it was too dangerous.”
“Did the Ruzelas get them all?” asked Tazar.
“It pains me to say that they got every last one,” Wilbur replied with very little pain in his voice.
“Look, let’s cut out the garbage,” said Tashi, with obvious impatience. “What’s done is done. There’s no use chewing on old bones. What this means is that Wilbur and me don’t have any soldiers left to defend the realm, so we was wondering whether you all would be interested in joining our team.”
“And what team would that be?” inquired Tazar.
“Me and Wilbur’s team of course,” replied Tashi, slightly mystified.
“As I understand it your team is in the Great Unknown. We seem to be the only team in this part of the park, and we’ve already joined us,” said Tazar. “So it would be more the case of you joining our team—if we invited you, of course.”
Tashi paused to consider this statement
, which obviously put the situation for him in a completely new light.
“Of course,” oozed Wilbur, “it would be an honor for us to be a part of your team, but we just felt that with Tashi’s unparalleled skills in leadership it would be to your team’s advantage to place themselves under his protection. We would, of course, Tazar, offer you a position of the highest rank within the new organization.”
“Tashi’s not a leader.” Tazar growled, getting angry now. “He’s a bully. He rules by fear and always has. Anyone who abandons his team to the fate of the Great Unknown in order to save his own flea-bitten hide is no leader in my book.”
There were murmurs of agreement from the Tazarians, who had moved behind Tazar. They advanced a step or two closer to Tashi and Wilbur. Both dogs on the rock regarded this as an aggressive movement. Their hackles rose, and Wilbur took a defensive position behind Tashi.
“Now, fellers,” he said from behind Tashi’s back. “Let’s talk this over. I’m sure we can come to a suitable arrangement.”
“The only suitable arrangement I’m interested in is for you to get out of our realm right now,” said Tazar.
Tashi stood up on the rock and looked down on Tazar, his small, mean eyes blazing and his strong, muscled body taut and ready to spring.
“You always was a fool, Tazar, and weak as well,” he growled. “You’ll live to regret this. There’s dogs who would kill to live in my realm; I’ll get another team together in no time, and then we’ll see who joins who.”
“You don’t have a realm,” answered Tazar. “The realm you did have is up for the taking by anyone who wants it and can defend it, and there’s nothing you can do about it. As of now you’re just a couple of loners.”
Tashi glared terrifyingly at Tazar, and said through clenched teeth, “You are dead, Tazar. You are dead.”
He turned and, closely followed by Wilbur, disappeared into the night.
10
Hidden Treasure
The Tazarians were proud of the way their leader had handled the situation. Tazar himself didn’t share their satisfaction. Perhaps it might have been smarter to be less confrontational. He knew that he had humiliated and angered Tashi, and that because of this the other dog would be determined to get revenge.
