Waggit's Tale by Peter Howe Read Free Book Online Page A

split up, you two attacking from one side and we’ll attackfrom the other. Because Waggit and Magica are the fastest they should try and get ahead of any prey and drive it toward Raz and me for the kill. If it’s a curlytail make sure it doesn’t get up a tree. That’s how we always lose them.”
    While Waggit was glad to hear from these instructions that he wasn’t expected to actually kill anything, they still sounded complicated to his puppy brain. Which side would they attack from, and how would he get ahead of whatever it was they were attacking? How did you drive something in a direction it didn’t want to go, anyway?
    â€œWaggit, you’ll do just fine.” Lady Magica had been watching the frown on his face. “We work as a team, so if you make a mistake we cover it for you. Nobody expects you to be a hero the first time out.”
    While her kindness gave him some comfort, he was anxious as they prepared to move out into the stillness of the park at night. Before they left, Tazar stood in front of an old movie poster that was stuck to the wall. It had been there longer than any of them could remember, and showed a fierce-looking dog with its fangs bared, staring directly and menacingly out. It had faded to muted colors, with long streaks fromwhere water had run down it, but it was still a powerful image. Tazar looked up at it with reverence, for team legend had it that it was the face of Vinda the Powerful, a mystical being upon whose favor success depended.
    â€œGreat Vinda, give us good fortune on our hunt tonight, and protect our brothers and sisters,” he chanted. The dogs gave soft howls in response, and the hunting party moved out of the tunnel.
    When they had cleared the bushes that surrounded the entrance and had emerged into the open, Waggit noticed the way the other dogs lowered their bodies close to the ground as they went forward, taking long, slow steps, ears pricked and noses twitching. He tried to do the same, but it seemed awkward, and he caught his foot under a tree root. He yelped in pain, breaking the silence that was so important if the hunt was to be successful, and so he resumed his normal walk. Then a strange thing happened—he’d gone only a short distance when he realized that he was moving just like the others were. The gait came naturally if you didn’t think about it, and with it you could move noiselessly through the park.
    At first it seemed that they were the only animalsaround. They moved up to a wide path that cut across the park, which the team called the Crossway. Humans used it as a shortcut, but for the dogs it marked the boundary between the Skyline End and the Deepwoods, where the paths were narrower, the bushes thicker, and the trees much closer together. Waggit had never been in this part of the park, and he couldn’t see how you could chase anything through it, because the undergrowth was so dense. If he were somebody’s prey it would be exactly the sort of place he would choose to live. Which, of course, was why Tazar had brought the party there; he knew that it was an area full of the small rodents that were the dogs’ main food source in hard times.
    The hunters followed their leader into the Deepwoods until they came upon two paths, narrow but negotiable, that ran almost parallel to each other. In silent communication Raz and Magica took the right-hand path, while Tazar veered to the left, followed by a nervous Waggit. As soon as they entered the wooded area they could hear the rustling sound of their would-be suppers escaping. Suddenly Magica leapt forward and plunged into the undergrowth, her powerful legs propelling her in great leaps over thelow-growing bushes and through the clumps of trees. Without thinking Waggit ran forward down the path he and Tazar had taken, instinctively trying to get ahead of whatever it was she pursued. Suddenly she stopped dead and looked up at one of the trees. Waggit saw a