At this point you are most likely thinking that Mike and Peter are basically doomed with no way to get home. Fiona had no phone, and in the blizzard, her CB radio had been broken. However, all was not lost. Micky and I were not about to give up on Mike and Pete.
In Alaska, Peter's recovery from the wolf bite was extremely slow. Also, it seemed to have developed an infection or something, because he was very sick. He was delirious, and was in great pain. The second day that Peter was there, Mike left early in the morning to go to a small town. He needed to buy food, medicine, and some tools. The purpose for the tools was so that he could attempt to fix the radio. Also, he doubted if the dogs would remain very loyal if not fed. He became rather close to the dogs. The trip to town, which was 60 miles away, took two days. Mike found it easier to do, now that he'd gotten the hang of driving the sled. It was rather slow going and Mike was often bored on the trip. He had no one to talk to, and while the scenery was beautiful, it was boring to look at snow covered trees and mountains for the whole day. He might have made it in a day, but he wasn't in a hurry, so he enjoyed the ride and stopped frequently.
At the cabin, meanwhile, Peter was still rather ill. During the night, while Mike was gone and Fiona was sleeping, he got up, wrapped the blanket around him and went outside into the snow. In the morning, Fiona discovered him missing, but, since it was snowing rather heavily now, decided not to look for him. She instead resorted to sticking her head out of the door and yelling his name as loudly as possible. However, in the thick snow, the sound seemed to reverberate, and despite yelling at the top of her voice, the sound did not go very far. Where Peter was or what he did, I am not sure, he's yet to tell us all, but for some reason he felt that he needed to leave there, so he did.
Meanwhile, Mike had finally reached the town, and began to head back. It was nightfall at this time, the day after he'd left, but he was trying to get back in time. Macho wasn't too thrilled about going back, he'd been running all day, and so he wasn't going too fast. For some reason, Mike felt the urge to head back quickly, though he wasn't sure why.
At this point, Peter still had not returned from his trek out in to the snow. For this reason, Fiona was worried. She spent a good deal of time yelling his name. She also read her book. This may seem like an odd thing to be doing, but Fiona was not one of those normal human beings, you see. Her book was of spells, incantations and such. I know, you're thinking, what am I, nuts, but it's true. I didn't believe it at first, either. What she was looking for in that book was a spell or something she could use to find Peter. She didn't have much luck, however, because Peter remained gone. When Mike returned the next day with supplies, Peter was still nowhere to be found. By this time the snow had stopped, and without even stopping to warm up, he headed out in to the snow to look for his friend.
An hour later, he returned, practically frozen, having seen neither head nor tail of Peter. He had to stop, he was freezing and hungry. Fiona made him stay in and rest, and she went to look for Peter.
While she was gone, Mike fell asleep. While he was sleeping, a noise came from the door. Something was pushing at the door. Mike awoke. He was afraid it might be a wolf, and stared at the door nervously. Something outside the door whined. It sounded like a wolf , so he picked up the ax and went to the door. He crept up to the door and opened it, ready with an ax to defend himself if necessary (He expected it to be necessary). The door opened, and something ran into the house, bypassing Mike altogether. Mike turned to see what it was, still afraid of a wolf, and saw that it was a small creature, almost covered in snow. He was unable to tell what it was, just that it wasn't human. It laid down by the fire and tried to shake off the snow, but found it impossible, it was practically glued to him. Also, it was a mixture of snow and ice, and the creature was unable to get it off. Mike, feeling a rare burst of compassion for the creature, went to it and tried to warm it up by rubbing it with blankets. This was a slow, yet effective method of removing the snow and deicing the fur. When done, Mike sat back and was finally able to determine what it was. It was a small, yellowish dog, almost like a golden retriever, though obviously not a purebred dog. At first, he wasn't sure what to do, but the dog whined at him and, giving him what could be considered puppy dog eyes, Mike felt the urge to give the poor thing a rub on the head. Then, Fiona returned, and, seeing the dog, immediately asked where it had come from. Mike explained.
"He just kinda came in out of the snow," he said. "I'm not usually big on animals, but he was practically frozen." To this, Fiona smiled. "Any sign of Peter?" he asked.
"None," she replied. "I'm worried. Out in this snow, which is several feet deep, he'd freeze without any shelter. "
"We've got to find him," Mike said, starting to put on his coat.
"You can't Mike. It's almost dark. In the dark, you'd never find him, and what's more, you'd probably get lost. I'm sure he's found a cave or something to stay in, and he'll be fine," she said.
At this remark, the dog let out a whine, which then accelerated to a howl. Mike looked at it."What's the matter, you worried about Peter, too?" Mike asked it.
"Actually, I think that he most likely would prefer a snack," Fiona said, and gave the dog a piece of meat, which it gobbled up quickly.
The dog served the purpose, if nothing else, of distracting Mike from the problem of Peter. If nothing else, Mike was at least somewhat happy while the dog was there. Had it not been there, he most likely would have gone out in the snow to search for Peter, but since it was there, it made it easier for Fiona to convince Mike of the impracticality of going into the snow in the dark. The dog basically saved Mike's life, since had he gone out in to the dark snow he most likely would have been killed. The dog was not expecting a reward for this, however, and had a purpose other than this for coming to find Mike.
Meanwhile, Micky and I had at this point passed the border of the Canada and Alaska. It's amazing how far you can go in a few days when you don't stop. Anyway, we were hit with another of those heavy and dangerous blizzards. We managed to go into Alaska about 100 miles when we got stuck. I was sleeping when we got stuck, and Micky woke me.
"Davy, Davy, wake up," he said.
"'eh, what is it?" I asked, half asleep.
"We're stuck," he wailed. " And the snow is piling up around us."
I opened my eyes and saw what he was talking about. Out of the windows, I saw the snow was falling so quickly that it had reached the windows and was piling up around the car. I went to the door and tried to open it, but the snow was packed so tightly that it was impossible.
"What are we going to do?" he wailed. "We'll either freeze or starve, but either way we're going to die!"
"Relax Micky, we're not going to die," I said. "Someones bound to find us. And we won't freeze. The snow insulates us and we won't starve because we still 'ave the sandwiches we picked up in the last town."
"Yeah, but how long can they last? And no one will find us because our car is going to be buried," Micky wailed.
I could see he was going to get hysterical if I didn't do something, but what could I do? Yell for help? Who would hear us? Micky had a point, but I knew we had to preserve our sanity. Or at least my sanity. Micky's was already half gone. I knew that being rational wouldn't work on Micky because it never did. So we sat and waited for someone to find us.
Meanwhile, at the cabin in the woods, Mike, Fiona and the dog were better off then us. Mike was unable to sleep, because he was worried about Peter, so he concentrated on attempting to fix the CB radio. Mike was no electrician, not by any means, however, and had no idea what he was doing, so he eventually gave up and began to pace the cabin. The dog looked at him with a look of confusion, and Mike sat down to pet the dog. This calmed him a little, though he was still concerned for Peter.
Then, all of the sudden, he sat up and cocked his head, sniffed the air, and began to whine. Mike looked at him, concerned, but didn't know what the problem was. The dog got up and walked toward the door, and back, then repeated this again. Mike went to the door and opened it, and the dog ran out in to the snow. Mike watched him go, but was reluctant to follow because it was so cold, and snowing rather hard. The dog ran in circles, then came back, and ran inside. He began to whine.
Mike went over and hugged the dog, but then felt something odd and stopped. He looked at the dog in a wierd way, and pulled off what he felt. It was a string of beads. Not just any beads, but those which belonged to Peter. Mike looked at the dog, then at the beads.
"Look at this," he called to Fiona, who was reading. "These are Peter's. The dog was wearing them. Do you think he knows where Peter is, or..?"
"Of course," Fiona said. "Why didn't I think of that before? All those clues. "
"Huh?" Mike said, confused. "What are you talking about?"
"That dog doesn't just know where Peter is. That is Peter," she said. "He wasn't just bitten by a large wolf, he was bitten by a werewolf."
Mike was lost."You're kidding," he said. "That's Peter?" He looked into the dogs eyes, trying to see the humanity in them. "But why didn't Peter turn into a wolf? "
"I don't know," she said. "But that is definetly Peter. I can communicate with him if you like, to find out what he wants," she offered.
"You mean, you can go into his brain?" Mike asked.
"Yes, and I can teach him to do the same," she said.
"Go ahead," Mike said. "I can tell there's something wrong with him."
Fiona looked into Peter's eyes and stared. She and he both seemed to be in a trance. Then, almost as suddenly as it began, it stopped. She sat up, and explained to Mike.
"It's Peter all right. He says he needs to tell you that your friends are in trouble, " she said.
"Friends?" he asked. "You mean Micky and Davy?"
"Yes," she answered. " They're in a car, a long way from here, and they're stuck in the snow. "
"But, how?"
"I don't know. Peter says he knows where they are and can find them. He has the strength of several dogs, or humans. He has offered to pull the sled. He will get you there faster, and he knows where he's going," she explained.
Mike agreed, and, grabbing a few blankets, he put on his coat, hat, and boots, and, together, he and Peter managed to get to the car in record time. Inside, Micky and I were practically freezing, but still awake and pretty much ok. Mike managed to clear the snow around the car, with help from Peter, and that was why Mike was the first thing we saw when released from our icy prison. He loaded us on to the dog sled and Peter got us home. Back at the cabin, Micky and I were so tired that we fell right to sleep, and Mike, Fiona, and, Peter managed to keep us from freezing to death. Then, as we were showing signs of regaining consciousness, Peter ran off again. No one noticed, because they were too busy noticing that Micky and I were awakening.
"Mike, we've found you," Micky said.
"I think that's the other way around Micky," Mike said, laughing.
