“Why did you make me human?” Becky asks shivering as the only thing she’s wearing is the dog collar and a thick jacket given to her by the musher as they walked out from the kennel. Iiummi whines and lets out a sorrowful howl as he watches his mate walk away in human form. Becky looks back at the husky for a moment before the musher herds her forward using his arm. “Well, I’ve noticed that you’ve never let the transformation take over, you have never let the dog take over. The dog that began to grow inside of you ever since you got changed. But still, you haven’t tried to escape or trying to do any funny business. And since you’ve shown such loyalty, I decided to let you help me with shopping and such as I don’t always have time for such things” Becky gives the musher a cold look. “Why should I want to help you?” The musher smiles, as if was the question he’d expected her to ask. “First of all, you will stay human as long as I need you and don’t make any trouble. Secondly If you stay out of trouble long enough and serve me well, I will make sure that you stay as a human permanently and I’ll set you free” Becky narrows her eyes and look into the musher’s eyes, trying to see if he tells the truth. Damn! If I only would be a dog now, I would know if he lies or not in two seconds, she discovers herself thinking.
“Ok, we’re here” The musher suddenly says. Becky turns her head forward in surprise and sees that they stand in front of an old tool shed. “Ok, just to prepare to grab him if he slips through” The musher pulls out a key from one of his pockets with one hand and takes out a leash from under his jacket with his other hand. “Here take this. And leash him when I tell you” He says and pushes the leash into Becky’s hands. Becky first looks down at the leash and then at the musher who is trying to open the old rusty lock of the tool shed. “WHO should I leash?” Just as she says this, the musher manages to open the door a furry dog muzzle tries to squeeze through the opening. “It’s him you should leash! Hurry!” The musher shouts as he tries to stop the malamute’s escape. Becky rushes forward and gets down to her knees in front of the dog. She recognises the malamute as Bryan, one of her former pack mates. Bryan pushes his cold nose into her face, warming her face with a warm breath and tongue. Constant whines escapes Bryan’s muzzle as he seem to seek heat and company. Becky smiles and gives Bryan a friendly scratch behind his ear. “There, there we’re here now. You don’t need to be alone anymore. Bryan seems to want to come as close to Becky as possible and he presses his heavy canine body against her, giving the musher suspicious looks. The musher sees that Becky has the situation under control and watches the girl sitting in the snow next to the malamute. “He’s not going to try and hurt me?” Bryan whines in confusion. “Come closer and protect me from him!” Bryan whines in fear and tries to get closer to Becky. As he does this Becky puts her arms around the dog’s warm furry neck. She feels the fur brushing against her hands as the collar clicks in place.
“Good, now give me the leash and follow me” The musher orders. As Becky gets up on her feet Bryan moves up behind her and hides behind her legs. “Come here Bryan… I got something for yea. Something good” Bryan peeks cautiously out from behind Becky’s legs and tries to see if the musher is trying to lure him into a trap. But his stomach immediately dismisses this as the musher holds a tasty treat in his hand where he sits crouched. His tails starts moving from side to side as he walks towards the treat and almost swallows it whole.
The musher smiles and runs his hand trough the fur on Bryan’s back. After licking his lips, trying to not to waste any of the great taste of the dog treat, Bryan start smelling and probing the musher with his nose, trying to find more of those good tasting titbits. But his search is forced to end as the musher gets up on his feet. He begins to walk away and a sudden pull forces Bryan to follow. As the euphoria of the treat starts to diminish, Bryan starts feel worried once more. As he now notices that the musher now seems to have him under his control. He can sense through his nose and hear that they’re walking towards the other dogs of the kennel.
But just as he’s going to let out a whine of unhappiness and worry, he’s once more distracted by a tasty treat that seemed to appear out of nowhere from the musher’s hand. Becky looks with interest at the treats the musher is giving Bryan. “What kind of treats are those? He seems to like them” The musher smiles knowingly and looks at the girl. “They’re from of a special brand. I’ve always used them to keep my dogs calm and obedient” He puts his hand inside his jacket and when he’s pulled out the hand again one of the dog treats lies in his open hand. “Do you want one?” Becky leans her head forward and sniffs treat loudly before deciding to snatch it out of his hand. A pleasant warm feeling spreads through her body as she chews the treat, making her forget about the cold. “Now, go and get some proper clothes in the house. We’re going to go on an errand and we’re going to take old Bryan here with us. We’re going to take care if him”