"Kota! I'm here!" I yelled.

I ran towards the little light, ignoring Krishana's warnings. I probably should have been less trusting and foolish; it could have been a baddie mimicking me. But luckily, it wasn't.

As I got closer the light illuminated the darkness and I could see the features of everything. The glowing thing was hanging on a string from Reesha's neck. Kota, Jova, and a leopard I didn't know were following her.

I rammed right into Kota's chest and hugged him. "I didn't think you guys would come!" I said, feeling tears well up in my eyes.

"Why wouldn't we?" Kota asked.

"It's nine days till Christmas; we need all the help we can get." Reesha said. It was probably the best thing ever to hear her silky, rolling voice.

After seeing Kota, of coarse. And the others.

Shauna ran up to us, but she stopped a couple meters away. She hesitated to come near us. It must have been really hard for her to suddenly see other animals, especially chasers. She barely trusted me.

I drew away from Kota. He looked a bit uncomfortable. What was wrong? I thought we were friends.

"Who are they?" Shauna whispered quietly. Her yellow eyes slanted dangerously.

"These are my friends; they're chasers." I said. "They won't hurt you. You're with me. Krishana, this is Kota, Reesha and Jova. I don't know your name yet." I said, gesturing to the leopard with my tail.

"I'm Qiwi. I've heard a lot about you, Mika." She said.

"We should get out of here. Baddies could be anywhere; we met one on the way here." Reesha said.

"Tell me about it." I said.

"I'm not going to the North Pole with you." Shauna growled. "You're not taking me there."

"Krishana, why not? We'll take care of you there." Reesha said.

"I can take care of myself, thank you very much."

"I'll tell you about it later." I whispered to Reesha.

Reesha didn't say anything else.

"Follow us if you wish. We need to be out of here as soon as possible." Jova said.

We started to walk away. Just as I thought Shauna wasn't coming with us, she started to follow us. She caught up quick. "I need to get out of these caves. I don't know how." She whispered to me. I nodded.

"How do we find our way out of here?" I asked.

"We've placed glow stones every couple dekameters." Jova said. "I kept a few with me. When we get close to them, they glow. Like right now."

Ten meters away, by a fork in the tunnels, a stone was glowing blue. Pretty cool.

"How did you guys find me?" I asked.

"That blue thing hanging around Reesha's neck is part of a frost horse brain." Kota said. "It's 'programmed' to follow you, so it will glow when we get closer to you."

"That's cool." I said. I still had plenty of questions, but I didn't ask.

"Hey," Kota said. "Why did you think we wouldn't come get you?"

I didn't know how to answer that. I was about to say that I didn't mean it and I always thought my friends would come rescue me, but then I would be lying. I didn't rely on my friends to help me. I couldn't afford to. I couldn't sit around, hoping for them to rescue me while the ice wolf was planning something diabolical.

"Well . . . I hoped you would, but I couldn't be too sure. If you guys weren't coming . . . I'm very glad you did, but if you didn't come . . . I couldn't do nothing. I couldn't sit in the prison forever. You have to understand me, Kota." I said.

"I understand. I'd probably do the same thing." Kota said. I sighed with relief, but it was cut short. "But it would be nice if you'd trust us to help you for once." He walked ahead of me before I could say anything.

He was referring to what happened in Zion. When I got sent there through a portal, I thought I would never see my friends again, but they hopped through the portal at the last second. I got mad at them because they had left the battle at the North Pole.

I growled. Perhaps he was right. But what could I do? I can't rely on other animals, even if I do trust that they'll be there for me. I love having someone to watch my back, but I need to be ready for the day when I have no one.

><><><><><><><><

We came across plenty of baddies in the tunnels. I won't describe all twenty-or-so of them, but I will say this; they were ugly. It seemed like they wanted me dead, but I knew they wouldn't kill me. The ice wolf wanted me alive.

By the time we got to the end of the tunnel, I was exhausted. Nothing drains you more than being in the cold for several days, going without food forever, running for your life, holding your breath till you pass out and fighting off hordes of baddies.

I was surprised I hadn't passed out. It would have felt much better to have someone carry me or something, but I kept pulling through.

Actually, I almost fainted once. We came into a larger part of the tunnel, and I tripped over my own feet, panting. I couldn't find the strength to stay concious, let alone stand up. I think a baddie came to fight, but I'm not sure where. Suddenly Reesha hollered and from the corner of my eye I could see the flashing of silver claws and puffs of brightly colored smoke. Kota and Reesha helped me walk from then on out.

When we got to the door that led outside, I was surprised to see that it was several meters from the ground. I moaned to myself in frustration. Hadn't there been enough obstacles today? Why couldn't there be stairs leading to the ground, along with a plate of pre-cooked chicken and a heated blanket?

Getting down was easier than I thought it would be. I was awake enough to slide to the ground. It would have been fun, but I was tired and the rock was really cold.

"Will we portal back home?" I asked once everyone had hopped off the rock.

"Yes, but we must be careful. Anyone could be watching us. We need to make sure we aren't followed." Jova said.

"I'll go last and wait till the portal starts to close before I go through." Reesha said. "That way I can make sure no one sneaks through."

"Will you make it in time?" Qiwi asked doubtfully.

"Of course. Let's go home." Reesha said.

Jova pulled a portal orb from his scarf. Unlike most orbs, it had a deep black center with several blue arms, much like an octopus or a band of fire flickering in a circle.

With a single turn, Jova flung the orb at a tree and it shattered like ice. A portal the color of the night and day skies opened up.

"Planet Earth," Jova began. "North America, Canada, North Pole."

The portal hummed with pleasure, like a fan being turned on. The vortex intensified along with its vacuum-like power.

My stomach was already doing cartwheels, preparing for the unique feeling that came with portal travel.

Jova went through first, then Kota, Qiwi, Shauna and myself. Reesha did as she said she would and waited till the portal started to dim.

As I traveled I payed special attention to the universe around me. How exactly did it all work?

It isn't exactly what you would expect, with bright sparkly colors racing around you in a tunnel shape. It's more like you're in a ball that has been painted black with thousands of stars, kind of like the ball had been pricked with a needle many times. Two holes are burned through the ball opposite of each other. When you jump through the portal, it's like someone tipped the ball on its side and tries to shake you out through the other hole.

That's how it feels. I'm not sure if that's what happens, but that's how I feel.

The portal spat me out in the snow, like the first time I had portal traveled. This time I landed on my rump, not my face, which I counted as a success.

We waited for Reesha. If you looked hard enough in the blackest part of the portal, you could see a blob of light.

I could see Reesha flying through the portal as the other side closed. I stepped out of the way so I wouldn't get ran over by her.

Reesha popped through at the last second. She landed with a wobble, catching her balance. "All good. No one followed us." She said.

"Good. Let's go eat." Kota said.

"Yes. I'm famished." I said, trying to sound as serious as I could. (Having a slight Russian accent doesn't hurt when you're demanding food.) "Can we get chicken?"

><><><><><><><><

I would have eaten a dirty, ragged, peed-on sweater. I was that hungry. But the chicken tasted so much better than a sweater would have.

The elves working today were pretty happy to see me. They said that they were worried about me. I didn't think anyone from the North Pole knew me very well, but it was nice to know people were thinking of me. They got me the biggest chicken they had. I thought it was turkey at first, but it tasted like chicken to me.

"Here you go, dear. Glad to have you back." An elf named Pattie said to me as she brought me my enormous chicken. I had little doubt in my mind that I could eat it all. As Pattie walked away I nodded to her in gratitude.

I wished Shauna could have been there, but as soon as we got to the North Pole she had gone off into the woods. She said she was sorry, but everybody would blame her for her dad's mistakes.

I started to rip into it like a ravenous wolf, but Kota stopped me.

"Where are your manners?" He asked. "You are a chaser, not a cow! You're sitting at a table!"

"Sorry if I haven't eaten in three days!" I said with a mouthful of chicken. The other chasers laughed.

It was good to be home.

"So Qiwi," I said, swallowing my mouthful. "How long have you been training here?"

"About two days." She said timidly. She was pretty shy.

"Cool. Where did you come from?" I asked.

"Me, Thrush and Barb came from Calgary Alberta. We were brought here to train after Thrush was able to kill a bunch of top-freezers."

"Who's Thrush and Barb?" I asked.

"Thrush is a malamute-mix and Barb's a house cat. We've all come here to train." Qiwi said.

"You guys are training with Reesha, right?" I asked.

"Actually, no," She said. "We're training with Kota mostly."

I felt a bit of jealousy, but I drowned it with a bit of logic. Kota could train multiple chasers. And besides, I was supposed to work with Reesha, anyway.

"How have the repairs been going? That dragon destroyed a lot." I said.

"They've been going well." Jova said. "We're still trying to clean everything up, though. With Christmas right around the corner none of the elves can help us. Only the chasers have time for fixing the place up. We need every paw we can get."

"I'll be happy to help." I said. I wouldn't be very enthusiastic about it, though. I really wanted to get back to training.

"I'm glad to hear that." Reesha said. "We've missed you."

"I didn't really know you before," Qiwi said. "but I'm glad you're back. Kota really missed you too." She said quietly.

"What?" I asked, swallowing the piece of chicken I had been swallowing.

"Um- I said-" Qiwi started, but I wouldn't let her finish.

"No, I heard you. Kota missed me. Didn't you all?" I said.

They nodded nervously. Kota looked like a lamb being handed to the butcher.

"Yeah, but . . . He really missed you. It wasn't hard to tell." Qiwi said. She looked scared, almost.

I stared at Kota. What was that creature thinking?

Did he think we were anything more than friends?

Did I think- no. I couldn't think that. No way. There was no way that we could be together. The very thought of it made me want to throw up.

Kota looked around nervously.

"Look me in the eyes." I said sternly. I started to get up a bit so I could stand higher than him. "I've never thought of you like that. We're just friends. Nothing more, and we'll never be more."

He couldn't even nod. I think I scared him to death.

"I'm done." I said curtly. I kicked my chair out from under me and left the table. Then I left the restaurant. Then I left the village and headed to the woods. I wanted to go see Krishana. The one animal that didn't miss me.

Had I acted too rash? Did I think to much? Did I let my imagination get the better of me? What if Kota didn't like me? What if I had just made things confusing? Or at least more confusing than normal.

Yes, I had. But at the moment I was furious. And I had proved a little corner of myself right. That corner thought that maybe we could be together; it wasn't that crazy of an idea.

It's complicated to explain it to you. I'm sure you'd understand, but I don't know how to describe it. At least not the exact feeling.

Let's just say I was lying to Kota.