Current Cover and Banners by @ImberLapis
Alaska. The site of the current Holy Grail War, a ritual comprising of seven Masters and seven summoned Servants, seven pairs fighting for the omnipotent wish granter. Copied off the ritual based in Fuyuki, t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Graham shut the door with his foot as he slung his rifle across his back. He locked the door to his cabin and stepped off the porch, sliding away the key in a crack in the wood. Straightening, he heard a woof from behind. He turned to see all 16 of the dogs all waiting to be hooked up to the harness. Smiling, he went on over and began hooking them up. They were patient and obedient, as if they were trained for this.
Once more, Graham found himself wondering where exactly these dogs came from. Runaways was the likely conclusion, but he had looked all up and down the area when he had discovered them a couple nights before and saw no traces of footprints beyond where the dogs already were. Nor had he seen any sled tracks to accompany the sled that was with them. For all intents and purposes, Graham had no reason not to believe they simply hadn't just appeared out of thin air, sled and all.
Finally he reached the last two dogs. Both huskies, but it was the black one Graham felt like he had a connection to. He stared at Graham with a curious sort of intensity and the back of his right hand seemed to grow warmer at the gaze.
"We'll be on the road soon, Kaskae," Graham murmured, rubbing his head as he put on the harness. After taking a day to get to know them, he had given them all names that seemed to fit them nicely. Kaskae, meaning 'Chief' in the Inuit tongue, was given to the black husky since he seemed to be regarded as a pack leader. His partner beside him was named Aga, 'Mother', for she treated all the others as pups as if she were their mother.
Graham walked back to the sled, avoiding a playful nip from Pakak, a husky. Like the meaning of his name would suggest, he would get into pretty much everything he could from the few days Graham had had him. His partner growled at him, as if reproaching him. Graham guessed he was half-wolf by his looks, and also because he had a couple of scars, had named him Tikaani, meaning 'Wolf Warrior'.
Boarding the sled, he took the reins and whipped them upon the wood, shouting, "Mush!"
Starting with Kaskae and Aga, followed by the rest not even a second later, the dogs began running. They slid through the snow easily and Graham couldn't help but grin. He had been into town the other day with his dogs, but he always enjoyed this. He closed his eyes, reliving some of his best memories. Competing in races years past, his original sled team always doing their best to win. He would never forget them, especially Crisper...
He was jerked from his memories as Kaskae and Aga led the other dogs into a sharp turn into Seward. There he saw people in the streets, yelling and cheering. Every time he had set off to Anchorage to begin the Iditarod Race, the people of Seward would gather to cheer him and anyone else competing on. As though bidden by Graham's thoughts, Joseph and his team appeared from a side street and rode side-by-side Graham.
"Hey," Joseph grinned, waving a gloved hand, goggles fitted over his eyes. "Almost feels like the race begins now huh?"
"Almost," Graham nodded, pulling a wool beanie over his head. "Don't try and race just yet; we don't want to tire our dogs out that quickly."
