“Uhhh…”

Deciding to intervene before things got more complicated than they had already become, Jenna motioned to Boris with her head. “Boris, can I talk to you for a second?”

 Boris, noticing the gesture, nodded as he refocused his attention on the pup. “Balto, wait here for little while, okay, kiddo?”

Balto blinked a couple more times, before smiling. “ ‘kay, Boris!”  

Boris gave an affirming nod before glancing at the polar bears; they were <i>still</i> struggling, but Muk’s front legs were beginning to wriggle their way out. “And keep eye on these two, alright?” Balto answered with another, even more enthusiastic “ ‘kay!’”.

Walking up to Jenna, goose and dog walked around to the back of the boat, leaving Balto with the bears. The pup watched intently as Muk gradually began to squirm his way out from under Luk’s body. His body suddenly gave out, and he lay on the wooden deck, panting. His back legs were still trapped. Balto’s eyes widened, gazing with rapt attention at the two.

Boris groaned, hearing the noises even from the back of the old boat. “Sometimes, I am wondering why I put up with those two…” Shaking his head, he looked up at Jenna. “Alright, Jenna, what is going on?” He paused briefly as he overheard Muk (who had gotten a second wind) continuing to struggle his way free. “I wake up, see Balto. Balto is puppy. Balto has no injuries. Balto doesn’t even seem to remember being big dog in first place!”

Jenna shook her head, glancing at Balto. “That’s what I tried to tell you.” She sighed, almost a bit sadly. “He didn’t remember me, either.”

<i>That</i> caught the goose’s attention. “He is not remembering you?!” Jenna nodded. “Are you being serious, Jenna?”

“Yeah.” Jenna once again glanced in the puppy’s direction. “Not to mention he didn’t know who Muk and Luk were.”

Boris’ raised both of his eyebrows. “Yes, I was kind of figuring that when he told me how weird they were being.” In spite of himself, Boris chuckled. “He was knowing full well how annoying the bears could be.”

Chuckling a bit herself, Jenna nonetheless managed to regain her serious demeanor. “Anyway, we still don’t know how this happened…” a small, relieved smile spread across her face as she said this. “…but right now, all that matters is that Balto’s okay.”

“Relatively speaking, you mean,” Boris shot back lightheartedly, although he was unable to stifle a smile of his own.

Jenna laughed. “Yeah, that’s true.” As she calmed herself, she addressed Boris. “We should probably check on Balto, and make sure he’s…”

A loud WHUMP suddenly sounded through the air, startling both dog and goose.

“What the…” Boris cautiously turned his head, almost afraid to see what was going on.

“LUK!”

Muk’s voice, pained and annoyed, rang out loud and clear. As Jenna listened, bemused, a third, rather different sound came forth: giggling. It wouldn’t have taken a genius to know that it was Balto.

Boris and Jenna looked at each other.

“So…” Boris began. “You want to just wait here, or see what bears have gotten themselves into this time?”

Sighing, Jenna started towards the front of the boat. “We should go check it out. After all, we need to tell Muk and Luk what’s going on.” Jenna’s ears pricked up as she heard Muk yell irately at Luk. “Right now, it doesn’t sound like they’ve noticed anything strange yet.”

Boris grumbled as he began following her. “Would not surprise me in the least…”

Cautiously, they both walked, not knowing what they would see. Once they reached their companions, however, they both stopped in their tracks and stared, open-mouthed, at the scene before them.

Muk was  sprawled out on the deck, his lower body sticking up in the air. Luk sat and towered above him, attempting to look down at his sibling with worried eyes. This proved rather difficult for him at the moment, however, for a very apparent reason.

Both of Muk’s legs was crammed into Luk’s mouth, which the former was struggling to free. To the side, Balto shook in his sitting position, still giggling.

Jenna was the first to speak. “What…how did…”

“Sometimes, is better not to ask, Jenna,” the goose interrupted her. Taking a deep breath, he waddled up to the polar bears, glaring at them before unceremoniously delivering a smack , light but firm, to both of them. The impact finally jarred Muk’s feet free, and sent him tumbling backwards a short distance from Luk. Picking himself up, he began trying to clean Luk’s saliva from his fur, shooting his sibling a dirty look. Luk spared the smaller bear a glance before turning his attention to Boris, whimpering.

The goose, clearly annoyed, responded to the unintelligible noise. “Well, would you rather have been stuck like that all day?” The goose crossed his wings in front of his chest, frowning. “How you get yourselves into these situations, I don’t wish to know, but try to practice little common sense, alright?” He turned his gaze to Muk as he said this.

The polar bear in question was still cleaning himself, making a face of disgust as his paws found a particularly nasty glob of slobber. Shaking it off messily, he began twisting his body and running his paws through his thick coat, attempting to get as much moisture out of it as he could.

It just so happened that, midway through the process, he happened to twist his head in Balto’s direction.

The sight of the regressed half-wolf caused the young polar bear to completely stop moving, his eyes widening until it seemed as though they would fall out of his head. Balto, happily oblivious to this reaction, greeted him.

“Hi! My name’s Balto! What’s yours?”

This simple question set  Muk stammering as he attempted to put together a coherent response. “L-L-Luk!” He called out to his brother, who had, up until then, been whimpering apologetically to his ‘Uncle.’ Startled by Muk’s cries, he turned in the other bear’s direction, bounding towards him and bowling a very annoyed Boris over in the process. All the while, Muk continued stammering, choking out a barely-intelligible sentence.

“E-‘ey, Luk! L-lookit this!”  Muk gestured frantically at the small puppy who, for the fifth time that morning, was completely baffled, this time by the strange polar bears. Everyone was acting so funny today…

The large polar bear stared at the puppy, his eyes as wide as saucers. Leaning in close, he tentatively sniffed the younger creature, who began to look a little uncomfortable at the nearness of the strange bear.

Then, a massive smile split Luk’s face. Uttering an unintelligible vocalization, he lunged forward, grabbing the puppy and hugging him tightly even as the younger creature yelped in protest. Muk, shaking off his shock, ran forward and tried to hug the puppy as well, embracing much of his sibling’s bulk as in the process. Balto, predictably, was not faring well; he looked exceedingly uncomfortable in the presence of the two-pronged crushing force that was being applied to his tiny body. He was so starved for air, his face was beginning to turn the slightest shade of blue.

Jenna watched all of this with a growing sense of alarm. She’d somewhat expected the bears to manhandle (or bear-handle, if one wanted to get nitpicky) Balto, but she’d stood back; after all, Balto was their friend, too, and they were probably overjoyed to see him alive and unharmed. However, when she noticed Balto’s face turning blue from lack of oxygen, she immediately decided that enough was enough.

“Muk! Luk! That’s enough!” She ran towards the three. “He can’t breathe!”

“Huh?” Muk glanced quizzically at the female husky. “What are ya talkin’ about? We’re just huggin’…”

Luk, at that moment, happened to glance down, noticing Balto’s complexion. He whimpered to his brother in his usual unintelligible manner. In response, Muk looked up at him, confused.

“What, you too? I told ya, we ain’t…”

Muk’s voice trailed off as he, too, noticed Balto struggling for air. “…Oh.” Instantly, both polar bears released their grip, dropping the puppy onto the deck. He laid there, gasping and taking deep breaths of air. Jenna, worried for Balto, sat down beside him, giving him her best apologetic and reassuring look. In the meantime, Boris, having finally recovered from Luk’s charge, stormed over to the two bears.

“BEARS! Is self control meaning ANYTHING to you two?” Boris fumed at the two, who lowered their heads apologetically. Boris, undeterred, carried on.

“You’re happy that Balto’s okay; I understand that. We are, too.” Boris hardened his tone, just a little bit. “But if you had PAID ATTENTION, you will notice that Balto is PUPPY right now, and he is not doing well with the HUGGING and the LICKING!” He took a break mid-rant to offer a concerned aside to the puppy. “You doing okay, kiddo?”

Balto, still catching his breath, managed to raise his head and nod weakly, smiling. Boris smiled in return, before returning his attention to the two other young creatures present on the boat.

“In future, take stock of situation BEFORE rushing in and