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Yukon Husky always had one dream throughout his life. He had always wanted to run in a true Alaskan Sled Race, but he was never given the chance. Having lived in Alaska his whole life, he'd gotten to watch more than a few races, but he always seemed jealous that he could never participate. Yukon lived in an extremely snowy area of Alaska and the view from the log cabin window he had was definitely a sight to see. In fact, Yukon actually had a pretty good life. He owned the home he lived in, so he didn't have to worry about rent; his house ran on a backup generator so if the electricity ever failed, he was ready; and he had a rather wide selection of TV channels and movies to watch at his leisure.

As the sun shined through Yukon's bedroom window, he awoke with a rather large stretch before pulling back the sheets and climbing out of the bed. The husky was about of average build and size with snow white fur and patches of black along certain areas of his arms and back. He stood just a little over six feet. As the husky walked to his dresser, he looked into the attached mirror, giving himself a smile as he put on his clothes. He made himself a quick breakfast of eggs, toast and juice before he opened his front door and walked outside into the Alaskan snow. He looked around a bit, still smiling as tiny flakes of the white powder fell from the sky and tickled his nose. Pulling his front door shut behind him, Yukon walked out into the snow for his usual morning walk.

Now, the first thing you might notice about Yukon which made him different from the other anthro huskies was the fact that he never wore shoes, and actually seldom ever wore a shirt. This was simply because he preferred to be as close to 'feral' form as it was possible for him to be. Although born an anthro creature, secretly Yukon also longed to be a feral dog, as he thought they always had more fun.

Yukon began his usual hike to the forest of trees, only occasionally stopping to look around. As he reached the opening of the forest of trees though, he happened to notice something that he didn't usually see there. In the distance, though barely visible, there appeared to be another animal in the forest. The animal, though, appeared to have blue fur, a rather curious color, even for Alaskan climate. Naturally curious, Yukon walked on toward the blue creature, and as he got closer, he noticed the creature was a dog, much like him.

The blue dog happened to have noticed the curious expression and turned to look at him as well. The blue dog had a white furred chest and tail, but aside from that, he was covered in blue fur. He also appeared to be about the same height as Yukon, though a tad fatter. "Hey there," the blue dog said with a smile as he waved Yukon over.

Yukon cautiously walked over toward the other dog and smiled. "Hi... what are you doing in this forest? I don't think I've seen you before."

The other dog laughed. "Ha, yeah, well that's because I just moved here. Me and my sled dogs, that is. My name is Scatterpaws, but you can just call me Scatter."

"My name is Yukon," he replied. "Did you say something about sled dogs?"

"Oh, heh, yeah. I do a lot of sled races. They're a lot of fun." Scatter had a bit of a smile on his face now as well.

"Sure sounds like it. I've always wanted to be in a sled race, but I don't think I can." Yukon told Scatter.

"Well, why not," Scatter asked. "All you need is enough dogs for a team."

"Well," Yukon said, sounding a bit uneasy. "I don't want to just be the captain. I want to actually be a part of the action, but since I'm not a feral, that's just something I can't do."

"Is that all you're worried about," Scatter grinned even bigger. "If that's your problem, maybe I can help you out. As it turns out, I'm actually one dog short for my race this afternoon because my lead dog got sick. If you would really like to, you can take his place. You're good at running, I assume?"

Yukon's eyes lit up. "Yeah, really good..." His voice then relaxed again as he sighed. "But I'm an anthro. You need a team of ferals to race, don't you?"

"Well, yes, but that's easily fixable," Scatter told him. "You see, I've got a little secret. I'm actually really good with magic. I could turn you into a feral no problem. Then you could run the race and I could change you back."

"Are you... serious?" Yukon's jaw dropped to the floor. "Can you really do that?"

"Without breaking a sweat. What do you say? Up for it," the blue dog asked.

"Heck yes!" Yukon seemed overjoyed.

"Then I guess you and I have some work to do," Scatter told him.

About two hours had passed from that point before anything noteworthy had happened. By now, Scatter was dressed in his usual snow clothes for the race and Yukon was in a harness of sorts.

"Here's how this is going to work. I can turn you into a feral for the entire course of the race, but during the race itself, our only means of true communication is through telepathy. In other words, you'll hear me inside your head, and vice versa. Don't worry. You won't be in any danger." Scatter looked over seeing what appeared to be another team preparing.

Yukon noticed this as well. "Who's that," Yukon asked.

"Wallace Wolfer. He's won this race the past three years. He's a good friend, but he's also got quite the competitive streak. Beating him won't be easy," Scatter explained. "Anyway, are you ready?"

"Oh, definitely," Yukon said.

Scatter closed his eyes and began muttering something under his breath. When he opened his eyes again, both he and Yukon began to slowly notice the changes taking place in front of him: Yukon's body and facial expressions changed shape, as did Yukon's hands which changed into normal dog paws as the husky dropped down on all fours. There was a slight warmth that came over Yukon's body before the transformation was complete.

"Can you hear me," Scatter asked, probing into Yukon's mind with the telepathy. The now-feral version of Yukon immediately shook his head and barked.

"Good, now come with me," Scatter said as he led Yukon to the front of the line of dogs he had.

As Scatter led Yukon to the front of his pack of dogs and harnessed him in front, Wallace, an older looking wolf, walked up to him giving him a smile. "Good luck today, 'Atter," the wolf said.

"Same to you, Wallace. Don't think I intend to let you win this year." Scatter gave Wallace a thumbs up which the wolf promptly returned before walking off.

"Why'd he call you Atter?" Yukon asked, probing into the dog's mind.

"Speech impediment. I think it's kinda cute actually." Scatter's ears then perked up as the announcer for the event told them they had five minutes to prepare. "Let's do this. You ready?"

Yukon nodded as he led the other dogs to the starting line. Scatter then placed the map in front of the dogs, tracing his finger along the path for the dogs and Yukon to give them a quick idea of what they were up against. Of course he knew that only Yukon could actually reply back but at least this way his dogs knew what to do.

"Don't worry. I'll be guiding you to where you need to go. All you'll have to do is lead the way." Scatter then climbed on his sled. Beside him, Wallace did the same. No more than a minute later, the announcer began speaking.

"Welcome, one and all, to the 23rd annual Alaskan Master Sled Race. On the gun, take off and may the best sled team win. On your mark. Get set. Go!"

The gun was fired and a rush of paws and sleds took off immediately. As the race began it seemed the snow was well padded to the ground making for an easy trek. Scatter smiled as he held the sled, with Yukon guiding the team forward. "Don't worry if the snow slows you down," Scatter told him telepathically. "After a little bit, you shouldn't even really notice it."

Yukon nodded as he ran. As he did, the snow indeed did slow the husky down a bit, and, upon looking, he quickly noticed he wasn't the only one having trouble, though he kept focused and trudged through the snow at a steady pace.

"The next leg of the race is on an ice patch covered in snow. If we take it one step at a time, we should be fine." Scatter instructed.

Yukon nodded once more as he continued to push through the snow, which now became harder to navigate as the wind picked up. He didn't let it slow him down, though Wallace had actually managed to catch up and take a bit of a lead as Scatter and his team made their way to the ice patch.

The sled beneath Scatter slid around a little as it hit the ice, but using his foot to push off, he continued along with a smile on his face. "Doing good, Yukon. Keep it up."

Yukon let out a satisfied bark as he continued to run the course, ever so slowly catching up with Wallace, who was beginning to slow down. As he ran, he began to slip a little reaching the edge of the ice but quickly caught his footing again and took off even faster.

"There will be a quick rest stop after the next leg. It's back to the snow for a while," Scatter told Yukon, who now seemed completely focused and determined to prove himself to Scatter.

The snow's depth proved to be rather interesting over the next several miles of the trek; going from shallow to deep, soft to hard. It wasn't until the pit stop was in view that the snow seemed to keep any specific stiffness beneath the paws of the dogs.

Scatter pulled in literally no more than a few seconds before Wallace did. When he did, he climbed off the sled and quickly un-harnessed his dogs, who all ran toward a large water bowl.

"Some race so far, huh 'Atter?" Wallace said, coming up behind him.

"Oh, definitely. The second half, though, is going to be tough, and I've been practicing my steering so I won't have the same problem I did last year." Scatter chuckled.

Over the course of the next several minutes, the other three teams pulled into the rest stop. It was then that each team captain was given a letter. On it was written the words: Choose one dog to send into the forest. That dog must look for a set of trees and retrieve one colored scarf from it and bring it back.' On the bottom was a map showing where the dog had to go.

Scatter walked immediately over to Yukon and explained what he had to do. As soon as Scatter finished, without even finishing his water, Yukon took off.

Within a matter of minutes, Yukon had found the trees and jumped up, snagging one of the scarves. He quickly rushed back to Scatter who was reading a board now. Each scarf had a time written on it. They were not allowed to leave the rest area until that time had come. Above the board was a giant clock, reading 3:25. Scatter checked the scarf to see that he had to wait until 3:30 before he was allowed to leave. A tad upsetting when he saw that Wallace no sooner had gotten his scarf than had gotten to take off. Scatter figured that Wallace had gotten an earlier time.

As it became close to the time, Scatter re-harnessed his dogs, and at the mark, the dogs took off again. Shortly after he did, though, he heard a shot go off. Originally each of the team captains were given a flare gun. In the event of an emergency they could use the gun to signal for help, but it also meant instant disqualification.

"I wonder who fired their gun," Scatter thought as he held on to the sled tighter; the ground having gotten a tad bumpy. A minute later, he would find his answer, surprised to see that the noise didn't come from behind him, but rather in front of him, which meant only one person could have used their gun. "Wallace? Are you alright?"

The older wolf had in fact seemed to have injured himself, and was clutching his ankle. "'Atter, I'll be fine. Don't worry. Just go win the race for me."

Scatter looked at Wallace and reluctantly nodded, taking off as soon as he saw help was coming for his friend, which caused someone to pass by them. "Yukon... let's do this."

It seemed that Yukon's speed had doubled since meeting up with Wallace, and despite how big of a lead the other team had gotten, he quickly caught up and passed them.

"Whoooo!" Scatter hollered out as he felt the wind against his face. Continuing to guide the dogs, Scatter quickly saw the finish line approaching and urged the dogs forward. Finishing the race in a matter of another minute, Scatter nearly fell off the sled stopping it, and rushed to the front of the sled to Yukon, who practically jumped on top of him. "We did it!" he said to him telepathically.

"Yes, you did," Wallace's voice intruded.

"What the," Yukon looked at Wallace. "How did you do that?"

"Oh, did I forget to mention he's good with telepathy too? That's how he guides his lead dog Terry." Scatter laughed.

"Congrats," Wallace said. "And by the way, you don' have to hide behin' your feral form anymore."

Yukon blushed a little, and made sure no one was watching before asking Scatter to change him back. "I loved that!"

"I figured you would. You can be on my team any time, Yukon." Scatter told him.

"You mean it?" Yukon said, sounding excited.

"Of course, I had a lot of fun with you helping me." Scatter replied.

"Best day of my life," Yukon remarked, before hugging Scatter.

THE END