dogs who would pick on Balto, along with Steele?”

“No.”

“Well I did, but after we kicked Steele out, Balto was willing to give me another chance, as long as I gave him another one too. We decided to bury our past feelings and leave them behind. We broke the cycle of anger that we had been caught up in and it worked out for the better for us. Now, Steele may be a horrible, egotistical jerk, but he’s already had justice served to him. He’s already been cast out of a town and has lost his champion status. I think he already has gotten what was coming to him.”

“I don’t know….” she said.

“Let me put it this way. Do you want to continue to be a constant target of Steele’s harassment, or do you want the cycle to end and to have peace?”

“I do want peace….. but Steele would never agree to it.”

“Oh he might, considering you’re the only one that knows the truth. A secret like that can be a powerful trump card and I’m sure he’d be willing to compromise if it meant keeping his secret safe.”

“I guess….. I’ll think about it,” she finished.

“You do that. It’s never too late to give someone another chance. You may find it better than fighting.”

“Kaltag! It’s time to go boy!” a voice called from the street.

“Oh, I’ve gotta run. It was nice meeting you Sonya,” he said as he turned to leave.

“Wait, one more thing,” she called out, “Even after everything you did to him, what did you have to do to get Balto to give you another chance?”

He stopped and turned to her, with a small grin on his face, “Oh it wasn't much really. I just had to ask him for one.”

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Chapter 7: Steele’s Treachery

The plan for Marcus’s run to Koyuk was straightforward. He would travel during the day, making it to the town late in the evening. He would stay at an inn in the town for the night and then come back home the following day. It would be the longest time Marcus had been out on his own, but it was something that he had been looking forward to. Even though it was only a simple mail run, it would not be without its risks. The hardest stretch would be the Darby Mountains, a mountain range that sat in between White Mountain and Koyuk. Any mountain trail was dangerous, with sheer cliffs, sudden storms and avalanches being just a few of the risks on the journey.

The first day was clear and passed by without incident. The following morning however, the weather had started to act up, growing into a full out storm by the afternoon. Jonathan and Ellie waited anxiously for their son to return, but as evening turned to night, there was still no sign of him. They lit a lantern in the hopes of guiding him home, but by midnight, there was still no sign of him, “Jonathan, where do you think he is?” Ellie asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied, “He may have been delayed by the storm. Maybe he turned back to Koyuk to wait it out.”

“You don’t think he’s lost do you?”

“I hope not, but our Marcus is a smart kid. I’m sure he’ll think of something,” he said, and knowing that there was nothing they could do tonight, they both went up to bed.

Sonya however was still wide awake. With her, Marcus was never late, always coming home on time, “Then again, he isn’t with me. He’s with Steele,” she thought, hoping that the husky had not gotten her friend lost.

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The next morning, there was still no sign of Marcus and the storm was still blowing. The dogs had gathered in the boiler room to wait it out while Sonya asked around for any information. Finally, she managed to get an answer from the lead dog on another team that had just come in from Koyuk, “Sure, I saw a kid leave yesterday; in fact he was a couple of hours ahead of us,” the copper husky said.

“Did you see any sign of him after that?” she asked, “Did you see him turn back?”

“I’m afraid not. My team pressed on through the storm and we didn’t see him stop or turn back to Koyuk. We had been following the trail his team had left, but it faded away in the Darby mountain pass,” he finished. Sonya’s stomach dropped. He had left the town, but no one saw him go back. He was still out there, somewhere in the mountains. She was starting to panic now. Getting lost in a mountain pass was the worst thing that could happen. There were sheer cliffs, avalanches, not to mention the fact that storms on mountains tended to be much fiercer than on level ground, “Look, I know you’re concerned for your kid and all,” he continued, “But we can’t do anything until this storm clears. Maybe they’ll send someone in the morning.”

“That’s not good enough!” she snapped, “Marcus could be lost, he could be hurt. Humans aren’t built for this climate. If he’s out there for too long he could…… he could….” Sonya could not bring herself to say it. She couldn’t bear the idea of losing her kid and tears started to form in her eyes.

“Look, you know as well as I do that it would be stupid to risk anyone else in this weather,” he said as the wind gusted outside, “There isn’t anything we can do now.”

“There may not be anything that you can do, but I’m not ready to give up yet,” she said as she started to walk out of the room.

“Hey, where are you going?” he asked, “You’re not actually considering going out there are you?”

“Well I don’t see you thinking up any better ideas,” she replied, pushing the door open.

“But-“

“I don’t want to hear it!” she snapped, “There isn’t anything you can say or do that will stop me.”

“Well, if that’s the case….. then good luck,” he said, “Bring him home.”

She nodded and stepped out into the storm. The wind was howling and the snow obscured visibility, but her thick double coat helped block out most of the cold. She turned to the east and headed out of the town, praying that Marcus was okay.

----------

By now, Sonya had been running for hours against the wind, following the trail that had been cut by the previous team. She had reached the Darby Mountains and was trotting up the western portion of the mountain trail. Her muscles hurt from the constant exertion and frost had started to cover her muzzle but she pressed on, determined to find Marcus. She would occasionally pause and sniff the air, finding faint traces of her team, but the fierce winds made pinpointing their location difficult. She trudged on, but one of her steps, she felt a sharp pain in one of her front legs and stumbled, sliding down a small embankment. She looked and saw that it was the same leg that Steele had ground his teeth into. The injury had not fully healed and had started to twinge from the strain of running, so she decided to rest it before moving on.

As she looked around, she noticed that there were faint signs of sled travel at the bottom of the hill. The falling snow may have obscured the tracks left by the runners, but the bent branches and the scent of her team were unmistakable. They had taken a wrong turn and had followed the hill down into a ravine. However, their path snaked north, while their home was west of them, “Great, as if getting one team lost in a blizzard wasn’t enough for Steele, he has to go and do it again,” she thought as she picked herself up and followed their scent through the ravine. The path continued down the slope to the bottom, before starting to climb out of the depression. Once she had scaled the opposite end of the ravine, she emerged on a shallow slope of the mountain, which gave way to a sharp drop thirty feet to her left. This path usually wouldn’t be much trouble for a sled team, but there was always the risk of an avalanche sweeping them away.

“Don’t think like that. You’ve got to hope that they’re okay. Oh I could spend hours searching this mountain - hours that the team might not have,” Sonya knew time was critical, so in a last ditch effort to locate her team, she did something that she rarely did. She arched her head back and let out a long howl. Her wolf ancestors had used howls to locate lost pack members in the past and she would use it today to locate her lost team. She let her howl fall and listened intently for any reply. She had not used a howl in such a way before, so she had no idea if her team would recognize it as hers - that is, if they were close enough to hear her at all.

However, her efforts would pay off as she heard a reply, ahead and slightly to her left. It was a husky howl and others soon joined it. Her team was okay and had given her the way to them. She dashed through the snow, stopping at edge of a steep hill, but she could not see her team, only the open edge over the cliff, “Could I have missed them? Maybe I should try again,” she thought. Just as she leaned back to let out another howl, she suddenly felt the snow beneath her start to give way from under her. She tried to dash away, but it was too late and she fell straight down, landing hard in a snow bank below. Pain shot through her injured leg on impact, but she ignored it as she tried to regain her senses from the fall.

“Sonya?” she heard a voice say, and she turned to see her entire team. They had stopped at the base of the drop on a ledge, which was about twenty feet across before giving way to