Wren opens her eyes slowly to a blur of trees. Underneath her she could feel that she was gliding. As her surroundings come more into focus she realizes she is in a dog sled in the middle of nowhere. As she tried to move but her hands were tied and her mouth was stuffed with knit mitten secured with a leash tied over her mouth around her head. Looking around she notices her kidnapper standing on the rails of the sled not paying attention to her but at the team pulling the sled down the trail. Using this opportunity she shimmied her hands free from her restraints while settling into the furs, closing her eyes waiting for the perfect chance to escape.

The sled slows as she hears a husky voice yell “Whoa!” Then all of a sudden the sled lunges forward and there is a thud of what sounds like someone hitting the ground. Wren hears more yelling, though sounding further and further away as the sled moves faster and faster. It only takes a moment for Wren to realize that her kidnapper fell off the sled and was left behind. “This is my opportunity,” she thought. Wren start to wriggle out of the sled when the team makes a sharp turn flipping the sled slamming her face on the ice and dragging her a quarter mile before stopping just inches from a tree.

Hustling to get free of the sled unwrapping the snow hook from her arm the team takes off leaving her behind. Slowly pulling herself to her feet she senses someone behind her and turns just in time to be knocked to the ground by a powerful blow to the chest. Looking up it was her kidnapper. As he goes in for another punch she kicks him in the knee bringing him down to the ground. Wren rolls out of reach and gets up and starts running through the trees. Once confident that she was far away from danger, Wren stops and looks around getting her bearings. She has been on these trails before. She helps train Iditarod dogs for a musher. She was on the back half of the 8 mile trail, about two miles from the parking lot. Following the trail she can make it back to safety, but needed to be quick as she wasn’t out of danger. This time of year it gets dark early and with everything snow covered you could lose your bearings. You also had wildlife to deal with like moose and wolves. Mushing community chatter had mentioned a wolf pack in the area. Though that was the least of her worries.

The crunching of snow brought her back to reality and she sees her kidnapper walking along the trail making his way back to the parking lot. She dives into the snow trying to bury herself under as much as possible as to not be seen. Staying behind her kidnapper she crawled her way pack to the parking lot waiting for him to leave his dogs no where in site. Soon another trail runner came in from the trail with an extra line of dogs. Wren stepped out and approached the musher asking for a ride to town. The musher was hesitant and wanted to find the owner of the team first. After begging and pleading the musher agreed. Safety at last!