here. You can take a break once you get there,” The team followed her call, finding themselves on a straight path. Everyone stopped to catch their breath with a few, including Steele, lying down out of exhaustion. They had only been on the road for about half an hour, but pulling a heavy sled uphill took a lot out of them.

As he lay there, Sonya approached Steele. He had just saved her best friend and she had to say something, “Steele, thank you. Marcus would’ve fallen if you hadn’t acted.”

“I guess it was a good thing that you let me come along then,” he replied, “Sonya, why are you doing this. You hate me. You didn’t need to come out here to save me; you could have stayed home and left me to freeze.”

“You’re right, I could have left you to freeze,” she replied, “That would’ve gotten rid of you, but it would mean that the rest of my team and my one of my owners would die too. Sacrificing them to get rid of you would be a very petty thing to do…… sound familiar?” Steele knew that she was alluding to what he had done on the serum run. He had tried to get rid of Balto, but in doing so he also put his team in danger. Before, he had always thought of them as underlings, but after some time away from them, he was actually starting to miss their company. After resting for a few more minutes, Sonya called out, “Alright guys, let’s get moving again.”

They all got up and continued following her through the mountain trail. Eventually, it led down into a ravine, one that Sonya recognized as the one that she had come through. Encouraged, she picked up her pace, with the team running to catch up with her. Finally, they left the ravine and were back on the main trail, turning west towards home. They had found the trail, but the storm was still howling, blowing snow across their path and obscuring their sight. Steele kept his eyes focused on Sonya’s tail, determined to not lose her, but the snowfall made it more difficult to keep track of her. It didn't help that her silver and white fur blended in quite well with the snow, causing her to disappear for minutes at a time.

Sonya’s injured leg had been throbbing all along this journey, but she soldiered on, desperate to get home. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through it and she collapsed, tumbling down a small hill. She had been running almost non-stop for hours in order to find her team and the exhaustion had finally caught up with her. She just wanted to rest, but she had to get home. Soon, her eyes began to droop, eventually closing.

Steele had lost sight of her again, but he simply assumed she was still running ahead. Finally, he realized that even her scent was gone from the trail; it was as though she had vanished into thin air. He desperately looked left and right, thinking that they may have passed her, but all he saw was swirling white. Finally, he stopped, knowing that running aimlessly would be useless.

“No, no, no! I can’t have lost her! Where are you Sonya? I can believe I’m thinking this, but I need you to get me home. I don’t want to be stuck out in the cold again,” he thought as he stood there.

“Hey Steele, what’s the hold up?” Jake asked.

“I can’t find her,” he replied.

“WHAT? You mean you’ve gotten us lost for the second time on the same trip! Are you going for some kind of record here?” Jake howled in anguish.

“You shut up!” Steele snapped, wheeling around to face him, “With all that yelling and howling, you’ll probably attract a wolf and-“ Steele suddenly stopped, as an idea had come to him. It was an idea that he had never considered before, because for the longest time he had thought it to be below his dignity. After all, howling was something wild wolves did. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this, but here goes nothing,” he thought as he arched his head back and let out a loud howl. At first it sounded like his usual mockeries, but with his second try, he pushed it towards a long, wailing note.

Sonya was shocked awake by the howl cutting through the wind. It sounded distant, and she mentally kicked herself for falling asleep out here. The howl was a husky howl, but it wasn’t one she recognized. The only husky whom she hadn’t heard a howl from was- “Steele,” she said to herself before howling back a reply.

Steele heard her reply and turned around to follow it, “What is Sonya doing behind us? She can’t be lying down on the job,” when he came up to her, he saw that she was in fact lying down, but it was not out of laziness. She was panting from exhaustion, and when she tried to get up, she would gasp in pain, “Sonya, what is it?’ he asked.

“It’s my leg,” she replied, and Steele noticed her one leg still showed the wound he had given her, “Ack, I can’t run with this anymore. I guess I pushed myself too far.”

“What do you want us to do?” Steele asked.

“You guys have to keep moving; you have to get Marcus home. Just keep going west along the riverbed and you’ll get home,” she replied.

“What about you?” Jake asked, “You’re coming with us right?”

“No, I’ll just slow you down and Marcus can’t afford any more delays,” she said.

“No! We can’t leave you out here like this! You’ll freeze to death,” Jake protested.

“I’m part wolf; I'm sure I can think of something,” she replied, “Every second you wait is time lost, you guys have to go now.”

“But-“

“No buts!” she said, “You have to get home while you can.”

Jake looked at Steele, “We can’t leave her like this. She’s our lead dog.”

“That’s right, I am your lead dog and I am telling you to go on without me,” she replied.

“No Sonya,” Steele replied.

“Steele, I’m giving you an order!”

“Yeah, well, you know how bad I am at following orders,” he replied as he unclipped himself from the harness.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“C’mon, get in the sled,” he said, picking Sonya up by her collar, “You’re coming with us whether you like it or not,” he pulled Sonya over to the sled and helped her get in. Soon, she was lying in the cargo bed, on top of Marcus’s chest. Steele resumed his position at the lead and started the team up again, pulling them towards their home.

----------

Jonathan had been tossing in his sleep, worried about his son. A few times in the night he thought he had heard Marcus coming home, but it would turn out to be someone else’s door opening, or a neighbor’s dog barking. He had finally started to settle himself down, until he heard more barking. At first, he thought it was another dog from the town, but the barking didn’t stop, and it was soon followed by the sound of scratching at the door.

He bolted out of bed and went down the hall to the front door. He lit a lantern and opened the door to find that Christmas had come early this year. Right in front of him was the entire team, with Marcus and Sonya lying in the sled. He jumped out into the cold night and quickly grabbed Marcus and Sonya in a tight hug, causing Marcus to stir out of his sleep, “Aah, dad? What’s going on? How did I get here?” he asked.

“The dogs… the dogs brought you back!” he cried, “I always knew that they were smarter than they looked. I bet it was our own Sonya that led them home - she always was the smart one.”

“I wish I could take all the credit, but it was the whole team that helped,” she thought, “They always were there for me.”

----------

Three Years Ago

Sonya was completely beside herself in misery. Her adoptive father had been banished from the town, and she had been pushed into being the lead dog with a team she wasn’t sure would trust her leadership, “They trust me as a teammate, but none of them would be willing to run under a half-wolf. Without Amak, it’ll just be back to the way it was before. No one will trust me and I’ll be the outcast of the team. Oh Amak, why did you push this on me? I’m not ready for this,” she thought as she sobbed her eyes out.

That night, Steele had told everyone another one of his stories, where he had valiantly fought away a wolf and Amak, making sure to rub in the fact that he had kicked out their leader to Amak’s team. Most of them were shocked over their loss, but they knew that one of them would be taking it the hardest.

“Sonya?” Jake called as he poked his head in the barn. Sonya had curled up in a corner and didn’t respond to his call. One by one, the team started to enter the barn. Even as they gathered around her, she didn’t respond, occasionally letting out another sob, “Sonya, I know that Amak meant a lot to you,” Jake started, “He meant a lot to us too. He was our lead, so he was….. he was…”

“Family?” she mumbled, remembering how Amak had once described a sled team to her.

“Yes, he was family. I know we haven’t treated you the best over the years, but Amak had always thought of you as one of his own, so that makes you one of our own too,” Jake continued, “You’re a part of our family Sonya, and we know that if Amak wanted you to be the lead dog, he’d want us to follow you.”

“You - you really mean that?” she asked,