Crash! Crash! Crash!

Watching the orbs beak against the outer rings was hypnotic. They would be spherical one second, and in millions of pieces the next. But I wasn't throwing orbs just to watch them shatter. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get anywhere near the third inner ring, let alone the center.

I had tried everything: I positioned myself differently, shifted my weight, went through drills and called Reesha and Mark down to help me go through the moves, but I never hit the bullseye.

Mika and Reesha were arguing upstairs. They had been for the last few minutes. I felt awkward and uncomfortable listening to them. (Well, I mostly heard Mika. Reesha was pretty quiet)

I threw another one. It hit the wall half a meter away from the target.

"Ha! That one was horrendous!" Barb scoffed. She claimed she was practicing orb throwing as well, but I think she was just there to make fun of me.

"Shut up." I grumbled, throwing another one.

"It's like this, Thrush." She grabbed an orb four times too big for her mouth, twirled gracefully and released the orb. It hit between the second and third ring. She was getting better, not only at orb throwing but at most other chaser things. She was also getting quite cocky.

"Perfect!" She purred.

"That wasn't perfect. You didn't even hit the middle." I retorted.

She shrugged.

Mika came thumping down the stairs, breathing heavily. Steam blowed from her ears as she stomped to the chest, ripped it open and hastily grabbed a handful of orbs. As she huffed back upstairs, the lid of the chest came back down with a boom. The metal lock clattered shut.

"I don't like her." Barb said.

I tried my best not to belittle others behind their backs, but from what I knew about Mika, she wasn't very nice. I'd never talked to her, but everyone in the North Pole knew her. From what I heard she sounded stubborn, rebellious, cocky and impulsive. She had done a lot of clever and cool stuff, like dealing with the dragon attack and escaping from the Ice Wolf's prison. And she was the youngest trainee to be made a chaser since . . . Well, I can't remember if there was younger chaser than her, but if there was it had been a while.

According to Nick, Mika was a Bran Hjertet, like me. We seemed like polar opposites, it was strange to think we both had the same . . . condition.

"I don't know." I said, fixing my pile of orbs Mika had messed up. "Maybe she's just having a bad day . . . everyday."

"You say that about everyone." Barb snickered.

"I believe everyone wants to be good and happy, but they aren't always good and happy because it's impossible to be always happy." I said, throwing another orb. It hit the fourth ring.

"And some people are just cotton-headed ninny-muggins." Barb said. She was always negative.

I grabbed my last orb and threw it at the wall. "I think I'm done for today. It's almost lunch anyways. Do you want to come with me to the restaurant?" I asked.

"I'll come. But if they're out of mac and cheese, I'll need another word with their manager." Barb hated everything on their menu. She had them make some Craft macaroni and cheese every time she ate there.

We cleaned up the glass shards and headed to the restaurant. Everyone was very busy, except for Barb, Qiwi, myself and the other trainees. We weren't allowed to go chasing yet and we had nothing to prepare for Christmas, so we did what we would do all year; train and train and train. Since Kota was missing, Reesha had taken up our training, but she was terribly busy and didn't have the time to tutor us. We were left to ourselves to go through drills.

The restaurant was warm and cozy, like all the other buildings in the North Pole. The interior looked like a warm, cozy lodge and smelled like spices. Two bright Christmas trees decorated with dried oranges and twinkling lights had been put up inside.

Barb and I got in line. Only a single elf was working, so it was held up a bit. Once it was our turn, she scowled.

"I suppose you want some mac and cheese, hmm?" She asked.

"Duh." Barb said. "You guys should get some fancy feast or something, everything on the menu is nasty."

The elf didn't say anything.

I got two pulled pork sandwiches. We ate at a table with Jova and Marsha. They were both pretty experienced chasers from what I had heard, but they were friendly enough to invite us to sit at their table.

"Have you guys been practicing?" Marsha asked.

"Yeah. We haven't done anything but practice." Barb complained.

"Enjoy it while you can, chasing isn't always as fun as it seems." Jova said, taking a tear from his roasted duck.

"It's pretty stressful. And cold." Marsha chuckled.

"What have you guys been up to?" I asked.

"We were both out chasing, but we coincidentally decided to take a break at the same time." Marsha said.

"I was just patrolling a mountain in the Rockies, down in Colorado. There are all sorts of creepy baddies down there, one of them was like a snake-spider-gorilla thing, all covered in fur. It was terrible; I almost lost my tail." Jova said. He lifted his tail to show us; it was all bandaged and spotted with blood. Barb gagged a little. "Luckily he wasn't poisonous and it didn't get infected." He gently patted his tail.

"I found a herd of tiny sheep in the Andes. There were a couple hundred of them and they kept nipping at my feet. I burned them all with a cherry bomb." Marsha said. She held up her bandaged paws.

"But that's all normal stuff. If you don't come back to the North Pole without a few dents and scratches, it was a waste of time and energy." Jova said.

"It's been pretty crazy this year though." Marsha said. "There have been more and more baddies. Normally they mope and pout in their burrows all winter and come out when Nick does his Christmas Eve deliveries, but they're all over. They really started coming out around Halloween, but it's been bad all year."

"I told you; Halloween is a bad holiday. It's the day where demons come from the other side and they wake up the baddies." Jova declared.

Marsha snickered, rolling her eyes. "Jova doesn't like Halloween, he blames all his problems on it." She told us.

"What?" He yipped. "Halloween is the reason I have any problems at all! It gave me Samhainophobia, spectrophobia, Kinemortophobia, Achluophobia, Arachnephobia, Teraphobia-"

"You don't even know what those words mean." Marsha interrupted.

"Yes I do! I have a dictionary, I've read it three times."

Marsha scoffed. "You can't read!"

They went on with their friendly argument as Barb and I ate. Barb complained her mac and cheese was too hot, but a minute later she said it was too cold.

We said goodbye and left the restaurant once we were done eating. I didn't realize how cold it was till I left the warm building and entered the brisk, snowy landscape.

Barb wanted to see if she could sneak into Santa's workshop, but I made her come to the bunker with me. We needed to go over one on one combat again.

On our way we ran into Mark, the german shepard who found Qiwi, Barb and myself in Alberta and brought us to the North Pole. Barb always joked about how he was German when he was really Canadian.

"Hey guys, what're you up to?" He said contentedly.

"Thrush wanted to go practice one on one combat. I wanted to go see the Christmas lights." Barb whined.

I rolled my eyes. "We really need to practice it. How are you, Mark?"

He looked out past the foggy horizon. "Eh, besides all the chasing, I'm doing alright."

"Oh, how's chasing been? Is it as cold and miserable as usual?" Barb teased.

"More so, if you ask me." Mark said. "There had never been this many baddies before, at least not for the last eighty years. Most of them are harmless, but they like to tease and we need to get rid of them all. They aren't trying hard; They think they've won already." He spoke with frustration.

"I wish we could do something to help." I said forlornly, but Barb didn't seem to agree.

Mark shook his head. "Nah, we're good. I'm sure we've seen worse. The best thing you guys can do is stay here and train. We need strong chasers for next year." His breath was spectral.

I hated it when people said that. I felt so helpless.

"Well, I better get going. I have a meeting, and I'm already late." Mark said. He ran towards Santa's workshop.

"I wonder what the meeting is for." I thought aloud once he was out of earshot.

"Do you want to follow him and find out?" Barb asked curiously.

"No." I said quickly; It was my default reaction to most of Barb's ideas. "And Frej would never let us inside."

"Look, he's not even going to the main doors. He's going through the side."

She was right. Mark was running towards a little door covered by an awning, buried halfway in snow.

Before I could say anything, Barb hopped gracefully over the snow bank she was trapped in. "I'm following him!"

"No, Barb! You can't do that!" I yipped.

She pretended not to hear me and kept running. I followed after her.

Mark kicked away some fresh snow that had gathered in front of the door. He carefully tread down the icy steps and easily pushed it open. Barb followed him very quietly.

"Barb, stop!" I called to her. She always did stupid things like that!

I hated icy stairs. I tried my best to go down them carefully, but I slipped down all of them. I wasn't as graceful as Barb, most definitely not. The wooden door was very old and simple, a Scandinavian design had been carved into it long ago, but the wood had been warped and cracked from the bitter weather. As carefully, quietly as I could, I slowly pushed it open. It creaked like a haunted house.

"Barb!" I hissed.

"Get in here, flabby! Under the table!"

I sneaked in under a table directly to the right. It was covered by a purple table cloth. I hit my head and shoulders against the top of it.

"You're on my tail!" Barb hissed.

"Sorry." I mumbled, shifting my butt out of the way and bumping my head on the table again.

It smelled dusty in the room and the wooden floor was in the same condition as the door. An old record player was playing a version of White Christmas from the 40's.

"What was that?" An older feminine voice called out from about the center of the room.

"I'll check." A younger female said. She walked right by the table and checked outside. "It must have been the wind." She walked back to where she came from.

Thank goodness the record player was there. It camouflaged most of my loud noises.

"Now that Mark is here, we can begin." A male with a thick, booming voice said. "Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I'm pleased you all came, there's no other chasers I'd rather have with me."

It was silent for a moment.

"I don't think you understand fully the pressure that is put on our shoulders." A female with a silky voice rebuked. "We have around five hundred baddies for every one chaser. Christmas is in six days and nothing concerning the Ice Wolf has been addressed publicly by Nick. Dealing with this fryse dryet is not our most imminent problem."

"That may be true, but taking care of the Ice Wolf will drastically change the amount of average baddies we need to deal with." The male with the big voice said. He seemed to be the leader.

"And how will that work?" The old female asked.

"Isn't it obvious? The Ice Wolf is leading the baddies! There are a few rogue beasts, but the majority of them follow him. The baddies have always been attracted to power, like a moth to an electric lamp. That is why they always follow Santa when he comes out to deliver presents! The Ice Wolf is a great threat and holds much power." The male said. "If we can terminate the Fryse Dryet, the number of baddies will plummet. And who knows what kind of horrendous scheme that snake has planned."

"What? You can't seriously plan on attempting this!" The old female yipped. "This is all insane! You can't kill a Fryse Dryet, much less the Ice Wolf! His fortress is nearly impenetrable, there are baddies everywhere and it's bitterly cold. It would be suicide! And the Ice Wolf is not our first priority!"

She stood up quickly and stormed to the door. "I will not let this go through!" She slammed the door behind her. Two more animals followed her. I could see their paws from underneath the tablecloth.

"Well then. I am afraid she is partially correct. The Ice Wolf's fortress will be . . . difficult to get through. But there is a way to kill a fryse dryet. Their touch will stone freeze any living thing and their icy hides are tough as diamonds, but those who have an immunity to unnatural cold, the brann hjertet, are supposedly able to pierce the skin of a fryse dryet with their bare teeth." The male said. "Mika is a brann hjertet. I would have invited her to this meeting, but she is currently . . . preoccupied."

"If she's the reason we're having this meeting, why aren't we waiting for her?" A cranky older male barked. "As far as I know, she's the only brann hjertet alive! The last one died in the nineteenth century!"

"Actually, that's not true." Mark piped up. "Thrush is a brann hjertet."

I almost gasped, but Barb covered my mouth with her paw. That information was top secret!

"What? Who's Thrush?" A female asked.

"Isn't he a newbie?" A male asked quickly.

"He's new, but when I found him in the sewers of Alberta he was crushing top-freezer snakes with his teeth and stomping them to bits with his bare paws. It was terrifying, witnessing such unnatural power." Mark replied.

I felt my heart rate quicken. I waited anxiously for what they would say next.

"He's just a newbie, not even a real chaser. There's nothing he could do against the Fryse Dryet. Top freezers are child's play." The leader boomed. "Now Mika, she's a real chaser! She's a true fighter! Thrush doesn't hold a candle to her."

Mika? The stuck-up, cocky brat who threw tantrums everyday? She didn't have a week's more experience than I did. Before Mark found me, I had faced plenty of baddies when I was a feral in Alberta. I could bite the neck of the Ice Wolf as well as Mika could, and with far less whining.

I jumped out from under the table, turning it over in the process. A vase of winter flowers and the record player popped across the room and crashed on the wooden floor. The older chasers in the room looked appalled.

"I can kill the Ice Wolf! I may not be as talented or as lucky as Mika, but I can bite someone's throat as well as she can." I barked. I was surprised by my own words and actions, normally my inhibitions would hold me back.

"Oh dear . . ." Mark muttered, putting his head on the table.

"What are you doing here?" The leader male (who was a rather large lion) growled as he stood up. "This is an intrusion of a private meeting!"

At that moment I regretted speaking out and began to shrink a little. Thank goodness Barb was there.

"This isn't privacy, this is talking bad behind someone's back!" Barb stepped up. "Thrush is the strongest animal I know. He's tough as a turtle and heavy as a horse. It's stupid to believe he can't do it. You must be dumb as a doorknob to even dare say such a thing about Thrush!"

The older chasers were shocked at her sharp words. She wasn't called Barb for nothing.

The large yellow lion was fuming. "Why, you little pest! Imps like you demoralize the honorable name of chasers!"

"Brutes like you demoralize the name of chasers!" The silky-voiced, white she-dog barked. "We are not rulers or judges of others, we are only to serve!"

It was quiet. Everyone was afraid to make a noise, for fear of being the one to shatter the tension by speaking.

The lion growled deeply in his chest. "I suppose you are correct . . ." His eyes lingered to the mess of table, record player and flowers I had created. "I am . . . I am sorry for my cruel words. I spoke wrongly about you, Thrush."

"Since Mika has been only partially present lately, we should include Thrush in our plans. Let's not cast Mika aside, not yet, but Thrush can definitely help us." A brown, male house cat with a long blue and green scarf said.

"I agree. There's no telling when Mika will be here, and we can't operate around whenever's convenient for her." A chestnut-colored dog replied.

The lion slowly nodded. He didn't seem to like the idea of me replacing Mika, but it appeared as if he understood the situation and agreed with it. "Yes. Thrush, would you like to help us assassinate the bane of the Ice Wolf?"

Barb looked up at me to see my expression.

"Yes." I choked on the word a little. It tasted like old egg nog.

I had never killed anything before. Of course, I smashed top-freezers with my bare paws and crushed them with my teeth, but I was defending Qiwi, Barb and myself. Going out intending to kill something, or someone, was a completely different conundrum.

"Splendid." The lion said coldly. "Then clean up this mess you made, ask your lively friend to leave and help us make plans."

"You better go, Barb. I don't want any more trouble for you or myself." I whispered to her.

She pouted. "Fine. I'll leave, but you better tell me all about it later. I don't want you doing anything too dangerous, okay? Wouldn't want you to mess up your fur or anything else."

"Whatever you say, Barb."

She flicked her tail at me and snuck through the swinging door. I didn't really know what to say to the older chasers, but I started with:

"Umm, I'm sorry about the flowers and the record player. I'd replace them, but . . . they don't make record players like that anymore . . . I'll just clean it up."