Gypsy did not stop to look back until after she had put the road safely in-between her and the humans. With panting breaths, she dropped Finn and searched the hazy line of houses up the slope for the one she had just escaped from.

Her heart clenched as she saw the blobs of the humans milling around each other. They had retreated farther from their grill, and the two people holding puppies were now climbing into a car that sat parked beside a curb.

No, no no no.

But, yes- Gypsy knew it was true. She had no choice but to watch as the car was started, then pulled lazily out of the driveway and onto the street. Only three humans remained on the lawn with the grill; but the others had all taken the puppies into that car and driven away.

The minivan went the opposite way of Bronx's territory, back towards the town where Gypsy had first escaped the shelter from. I have no way of tracking it. The entirity of a road smelled of nothing other than just that; road and cars.

And so the pup's scents could not be tracked along a trail of any sort. As her heart's thunderous pounding subsided, the profound realization of all she had lost hit her.

"Help!! HELP ME!!" She screamed into the cloudless sky. "I don't know why this keeps happening. I-I'm not causing it. I can't be causing it its not my fault MY PUPPIES ARE GONE!" Visibly shaking, the Pitbull retreated a few paces from the road. She lowered herself into a ditch beside Finn, screwing her eyes shut against the blinding sun. Something in her chest had torn, shattered, and bled out. A ferocious parasite of guilt was winding itself into a knot in her throat.

My third pup is lost.

"Why? Why me? Again, after... After my last litter of pups all died." With wet eyes, Gypsy kept her head lowered. She heard the sound of cars whizzing by above the ditch, yet still didn't open them. It felt as is she was bleeding, not crying. It felt like she wasn't living- but dying.

With a moaning sob, Gypsy drove her claws deep into the earth- staining them with dirt.

"You still have me, mother. I'm still here," Teeny brown-and-white Finn advised with a soft tone. Though Gypsy didn't see him, she felt his smooth puppy skin press against her flank.

"But I failed. I failed Star and Kiwi and Lavender... and now Copper, too. I-" her voice broke off and she knew she could not continue. The vast blue sky lazed about above her, oblivious to Gypsy's grief.

Copper called out for me to help him. And even though I tried... I didn't.

Her tiny little male pup, so special and careful, was lost to her forever now. She knew she could not track a car- not by scent, sound or sight because of their high speeds. There would be no further trail of Copper and Lavender, as they continued their lives to who knew where.

But... Lavender is North's pup. She told me not to put a scratch on her. This is... much worse... Gypsy got to her paws and opened her eyes, but the hot reek of grief still burned in her throat.

"We have to go back and tell North. I know she'll hate me for this... but it was a mistake." Gypsy paused to laugh at herself, tears flicking off of her muzzle. I've made a lot of those recently.

"I can show her where Lavender was taken tonight after the humans go inside. And... maybe me and North could figure out some way of finding them." The hope was so pitifully lost, that the mother-dog didn't spend another second on the thought.

I can't second-guess myself or mope around here. I've got to tell North and Bronx what happened to the pups!

She picked up Finn, knowing he wouldn't be fast enough. The she-dogs leg's thwacked against the earth as she took off in a stampeding run back to camp.

~

Unsuprisiningly, North was not in the clearing. But Gypsy had enough luck to catch a fresh scent-trail leading away from it. North's musky yet feminine scent would not be hard to track.

"Watch him for me, please!" She begged as she swerved past Ace, dropping Finn and barely pausing to get his reaction.

"Wh-okay." Ace agreed without fault, but then looked around with confusion. "Where's Copper, though? Is he with Lavender somewhere?"

The male dog's voice faded into the distance as her paws raced away. I'm sorry Ace, but this is more important. I'll tell you all the details later.

Leaf litter was ruffled and kicked up by Gypsy's retreating paws as she practically flew through the forest. Trees and foliage were a green-and-brown blur as she kept her nose lowered to North's scent trail.

She pounded up and down the uneven slope of forestry, tripping on roots or ivy trendils and at one point being yanked back by one. Huffily, the she-dog ripped it away with her teeth and kept running.

Gypsy then rounded the bend of a hill, and was almost out of the tree-line before North's scent trail abruptly grew stronger and the curly black dog appeared between the trees.

The white Pitbull slipped as she forced her paws to slow. With a crashing slide, she fell and felt her skull thump the ground.

North's eyes were chastened and wide, as she beesechingly lowered her eyebrows with suspicion.

"Why did you follow me?" Then North shook her head, peering seriously around Gypsy's head.

"Wait, no- Where's Lavender? You were supposed to watch the pups while I tried my luck at hunting. Are you so daft that you've forgot-"

"No!" Gypsy barked anxiously, cutting her off. She was still out of breath and so her words were airy as she forced them out.

"Lavender. Got captured by one of the housefolk who set out food for us. They took Copper and her into their rolling-den and drove away. I-"

"WHAT?" The tall she-dog's fur fluffed out to twice it's size. Gypsy took a step back, but wasn't scared- just intimidated by her larger stature. Defensively, the Pittie narrowed her own brown eyes back at the taller female.

"It was an accident," young Gypsy said in an attempt to explain herself, but North was already stalking forward.

Her eyes screamed outrage, as the white-rimmed edges of them grew in hysterical hatred. Lifting one paw, North slammed it back down so hard that dirt flew into Gypsy's face. Then, she scornfully curled her lips in a toothy grimace.

Oh, eek. She looks even uglier than usual like that.

"An accident, you say." North's reply was deadly calm, and clearly not a question. She gave a throaty snarl at Gypsy's scornful look of dissaproval.

"Yes... And of course I'm very sorry for my mistake." It pained her to say this to North, of all dogs. The black shepherd lifted her ears as if happy to hear Gypsy groveling.

"But I'm going to go back tonight. I'm gonna try to get them back, or find them. Even if it takes a million nights, or I have to go far away I won't-"

North bashed that sleek black paw right down on Gypsy's head. Gasping, she reeled back and her haunches bumped into a tree.

Taken aback, she glanced over at the advancing shepherd.

"I'm going to love killing you. All I needed was a reason- Bronx can't stop me now. Why would he ever go after a hideous, filthy she-dog like you anyways?" Jeering, she exposed her pearly white fangs just inches from Gypsy's face. Impulsively, the young white Pitbull did the same.

"You're so whiny and needy. Oh, Bronx-" North mimicked with her jaws snapping open and shut like a fridge door.

"My name is Gypsy and I'm just so hot for you. Blah, blah, blah, I'm hungry. Feed my pups. Love me. Blah, blah, blah, I'm a fat she-dog with super dumb pups."

A hot simmer of fiery rage caused Gypsy to dart forward like a bullet. She threw her head over North's back and forced her to the ground, snarling.

"You won't kill me. And take back what you've said about my pups."

"Why?" She smiled up at the white Pitbull. "Your white one was dumb enough to get snatched by an owl. And I wasn't finished yet." North shoved Gypsy off, as the Pitbull pricked her ears with resentment still hot in the back of her throat. It was piercing her soul like a bursting thorn. She wanted to snap off North's ears for saying all this.

The curly shepherd's muzzle lifted, revealing her sinewy gums underneath. Repulsed, Gypsy puffed out her chest and raised the fur along her spine, assuming a defensive position as North laughed.

"Ha! It's crazy how you don't know. Because your so... dumb. Impulsive, reckless... and trusting." Her voice was laced with satisfied mockery.

"What?" Gypsy quelled, her anger melting away like dew under the afternoon sun. What is she talking about?

"Oh, nothing. I'll let Bronx tell you himself... if he ever does. Oh wait!" North leaned forward with ferocious delight, her mouth opening.

"It won't matter because you'll be dead!"

With a deep-throated snarl, North leaped at the stiffened Gypsy. The surprise attack took the Pittie off guard, as she'd had no time to process the accusation of Bronx's supposed lies.

North's aim had landed true. Her long pearly fangs sunk welling holes into the pitbull's white fur, pulling her down and onto her side.

Gypsy kicked out in vain and screwed her eyes shut as North grabbed her throat once more, in an attempt to smother her air supply.

Gasping, the young she-dog flicked her feet underneath her and shoved her weight against North's. The black shepherd's eyes widened as she was pinned against the earth, skull being crushed underneath Gypsy's broad shoulders.

The taller female let go and snapped at her muzzle so ferociously that the white she-dog had to back away, flinging blood off the tooth-marks.

North leaped for Gypsy's eyes and managed to rip the skin from above the white dog's eyebrows. Enthralled with adrenaline, Gypsy ignored the blood flowing into the eye and attacked back.

She landed squarely on the she-dogs back, snarling above her and throwing her weight against the black female in a powerful rush. This technique had always worked to down Ace in their play-games.

This time Gypsy didn't hesitate to snap her own teeth around North's neck, but it was reciprocated with a heavy bite to her foreleg. North squabbled and shoved her long legs against Gypsy before then getting up. The female snapped at Gypsy's tail, ripping skin from the end of it and even a long strip of flesh. Gypsy was starting to feel the pain now, and frantically took a pace backward.

"Wait!!! We need to stop fighting. We can look for them together," she panted with weary eyes over at the bloody North.

"No. You need to die now. We've used you enough... and you've proved you're not a competent mother, after letting Kiwi and my pup Lavender die."

Taken aback, Gypsy searched North's gaze.

"Used me for what? I haven't given you anything...? And Lavender isn't dead! She's just-."

Instead of answering, North grabbed for Gypsy's throat. Her teeth cracked together with the articulate sound of a powerful bite closing in on itself.

As she missed, the white Pitbull turned tail and made a frantic escape.

________
North