Puppy Pirates Super Special #3

by Erin Soderberg

  Puggly moaned, “It’s hard to think straight when your belly’s full of marshmallow.”

  “Frost!” Wally cried all of a sudden. “The cold bites at your paws and fur, but it doesn’t have teeth. Is that right?”

  Henry’s eyes grew wide as he glanced at Mrs. C. “Is it frost?”

  “Spot-on, mateys,” Mrs. C. said. She handed Henry the last section of the map, and the puppy pirates took off again. They ran as fast as they could while Henry called out commands.

  Breathing hard, the puppy pirate team raced toward the final checkpoint. As they burst out from the other side of Candy Cane Forest, Wally glanced to his left. That’s when he saw the North Pole Racers—only a few leaps ahead of them! “We can do this,” he barked to his teammates. “We can win!”

  “Mush!” Henry yelled. “Almost there!”

  The racecourse had led the teams in a big circle. Mrs. C.’s final checkpoint was just ahead, and Gumdrop Trail was off to their right. A red-and-green flag waved high in the sky. Crowds of puppies were gathered, cheering and hollering. Wally spotted Old Salt, Curly, the Weirdos, and the rest of the crew rooting for them.

  “Our treasure’s waiting for us,” Captain Red Beard said, panting. “Mush! Mush!”

  The puppy pirates sprinted. But every time they drew closer to the husky team, the North Pole Racers shot ahead.

  The huskies pulled into the final checkpoint, with the puppy pirates right behind. The crowd went wild. Wally glanced over his shoulder, but he couldn’t see any other teams. Their sled might have been simple and plain, but it had served them well! Now the race was down to just two teams. Only one could win.

  But which one would it be?

  “Welcome,” Mrs. C. said, cross-country skiing into the final checkpoint. She had magically changed outfits again. Now she was wearing a snazzy ski-racing suit and a fluffy hat.

  “Congratulations on reaching the final checkpoint,” Mrs. C. announced. “You are the first two teams to arrive. The Great Ice Race will come down to my last riddle. Whoever solves it first will get a thirty-second head start for the final stretch of the race.”

  The puppy pirates and the North Pole Racers eyed each other. Both teams wanted to win. “Where is the finish line?” Henry asked, scanning the horizon.

  “Right over there,” Mrs. C. said. She pointed across the snowy landscape. “You’ll know you have made it to the end when you see the North Pole.”

  “In case you were wondering?” Henry said, laughing. “There isn’t an actual pole at the North Pole.”

  “Is that so?” Mrs. C. said, smiling. She waved her hand. When she did, the wind picked up. Snow swirled and twirled around them in the air. Moments later, a huge red-and-white-striped pole appeared in the distance. Wally was sure it hadn’t been there before. “Sometimes you just have to believe. Now, are you ready?” Mrs. C. asked. “Here is your final riddle:

  “It has a golden head,

  it has a golden tail,

  but it has no body.

  What is it?”

  Both teams began shouting out answers. “A phoenix!” cried Blizzard.

  “A yellow Labrador retriever wearing a life jacket!” hollered Captain Red Beard.

  Piggly and Puggly put their heads together, whispering. Wally thought hard.

  Captain Red Beard stomped his foot and whined, “Come on, pups. I want me gold coins! I want me riches. I want me presents!”

  The husky team all gave him funny looks. “Gold coins?” one of them muttered. “What is he barking about?”

  “Wait a second,” Henry said, his eyes growing wide. “I think—”

  “That’s it!” Piggly yipped at her sister.

  At the same time, Piggly and Henry shouted, “A GOLD COIN!”

  Mrs. C. nodded. “Gold head, gold tail, but no body. The answer is a gold coin, indeed.”

  “We win!” Captain Red Beard barked. “We win, we win, we win!”

  “Thirty-second head start for the puppy pirates!” Mrs. C. hollered. “Ready, set, goooooo!”

  Henry leaped into the sled, shouting, “Let’s go, mates! Mush!”

  The puppy pirate crew set off at a run. Thirty seconds was a big head start, but the huskies were fast.

  The two teams raced through the snow along Gumdrop Trail, toward the red-and-white-striped pole. Wally ran faster than he had ever run before. His heart pounded. His paws plowed through the snow. But no matter how fast the puppy pirates ran, the huskies ran faster. Soon the two teams were neck and neck, nose and nose. Wally and Captain Red Beard leaped across the finish line just as Mrs. C. appeared, waving her flag.

  “It’s a TIE!” Mrs. C. cried. She snapped a picture of the two winning teams. “Congratulations to the puppy pirates and the North Pole Racers! We’ve never had a tie before. How fun!”

  Wally liked the idea of a tie. The puppy pirates were the fastest riddle solvers, and the huskies were the fastest runners. Maybe this meant they could share the treasure.

  Then he remembered how much Captain Red Beard hated to share.

  “It’s not fun,” the captain yelped. “It’s not fair.”

  “This is our treasure,” the huskies all howled.

  Mrs. C. held up her hands for silence. “Enough yapping,” she said. “There is no reason you can’t all enjoy the treasure.”

  “Noooo!” Red Beard wailed. He dropped his head into his paws.

  Old Salt, Curly, Steak-Eye, Einstein, and the other puppy pirates gathered around them, barking out congratulations. But Captain Red Beard was too busy moaning. “Treasure is not for sharing! Every sailor worth his salt knows that!” He glanced around, then scratched his reddish beard. “Where is the treasure, anyway?”

  Mrs. C. waved her hand, and the red-and-white-striped pole began to rise up, up, up out of the snow. All the pups backed away as the snow under their paws shook and shuddered. The pole stretched taller and taller. All of a sudden, the roof of some kind of house burst out of the snow.

  “Whoa,” Henry said, his mouth hanging open. Wally stood beside his best mate, watching in wonder as a huge green building grew out of the ground.

  Frosty nudged Wally. “I still remember the first time I got to see Santa’s workshop. It’s really something, isn’t it?”

  “Did you say…um…Santa?” Wally yelped.

  “Welcome to my husband’s home away from home,” Mrs. C. said. She opened a huge door and invited them all inside. “Welcome to Santa’s workshop.”

  “Oh, man,” Henry said. He knocked his palm against his forehead. “C stands for Claus, doesn’t it? You’re Mrs. Claus?”

  Mrs. C. laughed. “That’s a fact. But I always go by Mrs. C. Too much fame in the family name for my taste. Santa and I, we have very different interests. He loves making toys…and eating cookies. His whole year is built around one wonderful, magical night. Me, I prefer a little more action and adventure every day.”

  The puppy pirates followed Mrs. Claus and the North Pole Racers into a giant room that was stuffed with goodies. The pups from the Salty Bone sniffed in corners and poked their noses onto shelves. Mrs. Claus gave them time to explore every inch of the workshop.

  More little elf pups bustled around them, hard at work building new toys, wrapping presents, and baking treats.

  “This is the best treasure ever!” Captain Red Beard barked, gazing around the workshop. “Toys, games, snacks, stuffed ducks…every single thing on my list is inside this workshop!”

  Wally barked excitedly. Maybe he would finally find the perfect gift for Henry inside Santa’s workshop. He nosed through piles of toys and treats, but nothing inside the shop seemed perfect enough.

  Mrs. Claus clapped for attention. “Shall we get to the treasure, then?”

  “Isn’t this the treasure?” Henry asked.

  Mrs. Claus laughed. “Oh, dear me, no. The r
eal treasure is in there.” She pointed to a huge door. Then she held up a gold key. “Who wants to do the honors?”

  Captain Red Beard and Blizzard both raced forward. They shoved and wrestled, trying to get to the key first. Finally, the two teams’ captains fell to the ground in a tangle of legs and paws.

  Shaking her head, Mrs. Claus slipped the key into the lock and turned it. Then she looked at Frosty. “You, pup, went out of your way to help our visitors take part in the race today. So I will let you do the honors. You have truly embraced the spirit of this season. Please, friend, show us the treasure.”

  Frosty stepped forward. He nudged the door open with his nose. On the other side was a huge golden—

  “Sleigh!” Henry cried. “It’s Santa’s sleigh! But…I always thought reindeer pulled Santa’s sleigh?”

  “Ho ho ho,” Mrs. Claus chuckled. “Everybody knows there’s no sled team like a dogsled team!”

  The pups raced inside and crowded around the giant golden sled. Captain Red Beard sniffed it. He pawed at it. He tried to dig under it. “Where is the treasure? The gold coins and jewels and such?”

  “The greatest treasure of all,” Mrs. Claus told everyone, “is having the chance to pull Santa’s gifts in this sleigh. You get to help Santa share the joy of this season. What could be better than the gift of giving?”

  “This is hoodly-toodly nonsense!” Captain Red Beard wailed. “I am not giving away this treasure. It’s mine! This season is about getting, not sharing.”

  Wally didn’t know what to think. Giving sounded like a lot of fun. On the other hand, so did treasure.

  Old Salt rapped his peg leg on the floor to get the captain’s attention. “Listen here, Captain,” he said quietly. “I think you might want to pay attention to what Mrs. Claus is sayin’.”

  “She said we won a gold sleigh,” the captain whined. “But we don’t get to keep it!”

  Old Salt cleared his throat. “I think what she’s actually telling us is that the greatest gift of all is having the chance to share joy with others.”

  “He’s right,” Frosty woofed. “I loved helping your crew in the race today, even though it was cold!”

  “Remember how much fun it was to help the Weirdos fix up their old ghost ship?” Spike barked. “That was a good day.”

  “One of my best days ever was pirate school. I loved helping the rest of the crew learn how to read maps,” Einstein said quietly.

  Wally thought about it. How had Mrs. Claus put it…that giving was a gift? Wally realized this was true. That’s why he wanted to find the right gift for Henry. Nothing made Wally happier than making his friends happy. That was number one on his wish list. “Giving really is the best gift,” he barked. “Maybe we should try this.”

  Old Salt said, “What do you say, Captain? I bet we can be the best givers the North Pole has ever seen.”

  “Aye!” Captain Red Beard woofed. “I will be the best. It’s time for us to do a little more splashing through the snow!”

  But before Red Beard could squeeze into one of the harnesses at the front of the sleigh, Blizzard barked, “Hold up. Our teams tied for first. That means we get to pull the sleigh, too.”

  “Fine,” Captain Red Beard said. He didn’t look happy. “But I’m in charge.”

  “No ho ho!” Blizzard laughed. “I am in charge.”

  The two pups growled at each other. Captain Red Beard barked, “Puppy pirates, line up. Let’s take the front.”

  Blizzard howled, “North Pole Racers, line up. We will take the front.”

  There was a mad dash for the harnesses. Wally was poked and jostled as he wiggled into his harness. He had just slipped his shoulders through when Captain Red Beard called, “Gee!”

  At the same moment, Blizzard barked, “Haw!”

  The puppy pirates ran right.

  The North Pole Racers ran left.

  The sled squeaked and creaked. Mrs. Claus shouted, “Be careful! You need to work together. This sleigh is centuries old. We have to treat it with respect or it will—” Mrs. Claus went silent as a loud CRRRRACK split the air. Everyone stopped, but it was too late. Mrs. Claus sighed as the sled split in two. “Or it will break.”

  The puppies all froze. They stared at the golden sleigh. A giant crack sliced straight down the middle. Was Christmas ruined?

  Wally had been pulling to the right, as hard as he could. He felt like this was partly his fault. “I’m sorry!” Wally woofed.

  “No, I’m sorry!” the husky named Dasher barked back.

  “We’re sorry!” Piggly and Puggly yipped together.

  Soon all the puppy pirates and the North Pole Racers were apologizing to each other—and to Mrs. Claus. Even Captain Red Beard dipped his nose in his paws. “I’m usually the best at everything,” he told Blizzard quietly. “But maybe I’m not the best at sharing.”

  “It was my fault, too,” Blizzard told him.

  “You’re right about that!” Captain Red Beard barked. But he barked it nicely. “And you were also right that a tie means we both won. Your team ran a good race.”

  “Exactly as good as your team!” Blizzard said.

  “In case you were wondering, Santa can’t deliver his presents without his sleigh!” Henry said. “What do we do?”

  Mrs. Claus shook her head sadly. “I don’t know. And Christmas starts tonight.”

  “Can we fix it?” Wally asked. Just as he said that, the sleigh let out another loud CRRRRACK. Everyone jumped out of the way as the enormous sled split into four parts. Gifts spilled out, all over the ground.

  “We have millions of presents to deliver,” Mrs. Claus said. “And no way to deliver them.”

  “Will Christmas be canceled?” Frosty asked, his head hanging low. The other dogs whined and moaned.

  “Canceled?” Red Beard howled. “Noooooo!”

  “Maybe we could use a different sleigh?” Wally suggested.

  “Every team that raced today was pulling a sled,” Henry pointed out. “Couldn’t Santa use one of those instead?”

  “Hmmm.” Mrs. Claus frowned. “None of them are big enough. Even if we used all the sleds in the whole village, we still wouldn’t have enough room for all these gifts. If I had more time, I could fix Santa’s sleigh. But with only one hour until sunset, it’s not possible.”

  “Only one hour till sunset?” Puggly yelped. “No wonder my stomach is grumbling. It’s dinnertime!”

  At that, Piggly’s tummy let out a loud rumble. “I sure could use one of Steak-Eye’s steaks right about now,” she said. “A pup can’t live on marshmallows and peanut butter.”

  Wally laughed. Even when things were at their worst, the pugs never stopped thinking about food. Wally was hungry, too. He imagined Steak-Eye’s big crates full of steak. Then he suddenly got an idea. “Maybe we have more sleds than we think,” he told the others.

  “What are you yapping about, little Walty?” Captain Red Beard asked. “Are you hiding sleds?”

  “Remember when the pugs turned our steak crate into a sled yesterday?” Wally said, glancing at Piggly and Puggly. “Of course, that wasn’t a real sleigh—but it worked like one. I bet we could find other things we could turn into sleds for the night. They don’t have to be fancy—they just have to do the job.”

  “I have an idea!” Henry broke in. “Maybe we could use the dinghies from the Salty Bone as extra sleighs!” Wally woofed his approval. The little wooden boats that hung off the side of their ship would make perfect sleighs!

  Mrs. Claus looked hopeful. “It’s certainly worth a try,” she said.

  “But who gets to pull the sleds?” Captain Red Beard asked. “Who gets the treasure?”

  Frosty said, “Maybe this year, it’s time for the village to start a new tradition. Instead of just the winners getting to deliver presents, every pup who wants to join in can pull a sl
eigh.”

  “We need all the help we can get,” agreed Old Salt.

  “Hear, hear!” everyone barked.

  For the next hour, the whole village worked together to turn as many things as possible into sleds. Everyone then helped the pups load gifts into hundreds of different sleds. Mrs. Claus took pictures and helped with sled repairs.

  The puppies had made sleds out of boxes, food crates, and large Frisbees. Some of these could fit only one or two gifts, but they were light enough that even little pups like Einstein, Curly, and the pugs could pull them. All the Great Ice Race teams loaded their sleds high.

  The rest of the Salty Bone crew harnessed themselves up to the ship’s dinghies. Even though they didn’t look like sleds, the little boats held lots of gifts. And they slid smoothly over the snow and ice when there was a team of eager pups pulling them!

  As the last gifts were loaded, Wally searched for Frosty in the crowd. He found the little husky cuddled up in Mrs. Claus’s arms. Frosty was shivering in the biting-cold night air.

  “Aren’t you coming, Frosty?” Wally asked. He didn’t want his friend to miss out.

  “Not this time,” Frosty told him. His little nose and eyes were the only things sticking out of Mrs. Claus’s thick winter parka. “It’s too cold tonight.”

  Mrs. Claus winked at Wally. Then she pulled a special Frosty-sized parka out of her pocket.

  “For me?” Frosty said, eyes wide.

  “Merry Christmas, Frosty.” She slipped the parka over Frosty’s pointed ears and zipped it tight against his belly. She wrapped his feet in booties and tucked a warm water bottle into a special pocket on the back of the jacket. “The cold isn’t going to keep you from going on this adventure, little pup,” she said with a smile. Then she carried Frosty over to the largest sleigh and plopped him onto the seat beside Henry.

  “Did you hear that?” Henry asked. He tilted his head, like he was listening to something in the distance.