Foreword

For the past year or so, I have been writing stories that have served as introductions to several ideas I have had surrounding the Balto movies. Now I am going to take some of those ideas and follow through with them to see where they can go. This story will be the first of many that will follow the events of my first fanfic "The First Day", but it also takes place a little bit before "A Second Chance". The town doesn't know what has happened to Steele yet, and Kaltag has just been pushed into replacing him, a job that he might not be ready for. While Balto may have saved the day, there are still those who don't like the idea of having a wolfdog hanging around their town, so - oops, I almost spoiled the story there. :P

Much like the stories preceding it, this one jumps between the past an the present to tell the backstory of the centric character. This time around, we're looking mainly at Kaltag to see why he, Nikki and Star joined up with Steele, and how they progressed into the trio that seemed to support him, but secretly dissed him behind his back. However, this will probably be the last story that also delves into character backstories, ditching the two stories in one format (unless I can think of something really compelling for Jenna) in order to focus on the present.

There are two things I have been grateful for while writing this. The first was my beta reader, Walto Disney (which is a name some Balto Sourcers may or may not recognize), who helped work out the kinks during the writing process and helped to alleviate any doubts I had about this story (I can sometimes be my own worst critic). The second thing I'm grateful for – Flash Drives. I did quite a bit of work on this during my spare period at school, and having a flash drive to quickly transfer it from school to home and back saved me a lot of time and effort. So, without further delay, I bring you my fourth Balto story – "Finding Your Place".

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Chapter 1: A New Day

The first rays of the morning sun passed across the frozen shore, on which an old fishing trawler had been beached years ago. The light entered the wheelhouse, illuminating a young, brown canine. His tail twitched as he dreamed of innocent days gone by; of his days as a puppy when his mother was still with him…

"Your father was a sled-dog too you know. In fact he was a lead dog, and in my eyes, he was the greatest champion of them all," his mother, a snow-white wolf told him as they watched a group of sled dogs run on the beach for their training.

"My dad was a dog?" he asked.

"Yes, and you look so much like him too," she replied, smiling.

"But if he was a dog, and you're a wolf, then what am I?"

"You are both; a mix of the two. While you may come from two different worlds, that doesn't mean you are inferior to anyone. You have the strengths of both in you, and you can choose which path you wish to follow," she replied.

The young pup looked back out onto the beach as the team passed by, and saw how their powerful legs propelled them at lightning speed. He wanted to run like the sled dogs. He wanted to run as fast - no, faster than any of them. He wanted to be a champion and to go on the adventures his father went on, "They're so fast; I wanna be as fast as them! I'm gonna be a racing dog," he said excitedly. "I'm gonna be the fastest and the strongest one of all. I can be champion for you momma, just like dad."

His mother smiled down at him, "Tell you what, if you want to run around, why don't we race around the beach. A champion has to start somewhere…"

As the sun continued to rise, its light started to pass over him, waking him from his dream. This canine's name was Balto, and those scattered memories were all that he had left of his long gone mother. It was for that reason that he treasured those memories; his mother had disappeared when he was a small pup, and he had never learned her fate. She left one morning to go out hunting and never returned. For most of his life, he had been an orphan, but there were times when it felt as though his mother was still with him, watching over him. However, after she left, one of the aspirations that made her so proud of him left with her. When Balto tried to enter the nearby town of Nome, he was pushed away by the humans and the dogs because of his half-breed status. He was an outcast because he was half-wolf, and that had convinced him that he really was worthless. After all, what kind of wolf would be a champion?

However, there was still one dog that saw through the labels put on him, and stuck with him through all the ups and downs of their youth. This dog was a female husky named Jenna, and while Balto had held feelings for her since he was quite young, his thoughts about his outcast status caused him to hold back his affections. It would take quite a while before he would finally admit his love for her, but in the end, it was worth it. In fact, that morning Balto woke up with her snuggled up to him, cozy in his thick chest fur. He had rested so that one leg was under her neck and another was over it, holding her in something resembling a hug through the night. Balto looked over at her, and saw that she wore a calm smile on her muzzle. Traveling down from her head and along her back was rust-coloured fur, which smoothly transitioned into a cream underside, ending with a fluffy tail curled towards her back. Topping it all off was a bright orange bandanna, which only complimented her appearance.

While his outcast status had caused him to hold back his feelings for her, he still held onto them in the hope that one day, he would get the chance to say those four powerful words to her: "I love you Jenna." Balto had loved her for a long time, but it was only recently that he saw any hints that she felt the same towards him. It had been a week or two ago, and he had found her looking into the window of the hospital. Noticing that something was upsetting her, he came over to find out what it was. She told him that her human girl, Rosy, was sick. She had developed a deep cough, along with a fever. Wanting to help her find out more, he took her into the crawlspace underneath the hospital in the hopes of listening in on the human's conversation. However, while under there, he was distracted by his desire to impress her…

"That's 'cause you're looking at the bowl half-empty. See this? It's the polar ice caps," he said, pushing pieces of broken glass onto a mound of dirt.

"Balto, those are broken bottles; and they're not half-empty, they're all empty," she replied. However, he ignored her misgivings and continued his demonstration, knowing that this would be worth it.

"The sun…" he said, indicating the lamp shining through the grates in the floor.

"Balto…"

"And… to the north," he finished, moving away so that the light would shine through the broken glass. She turned and gasped as a colourful display was projected inside the small crawlspace, resembling the real northern lights.

"The northern lights… Oh Balto you're right, it's beautiful," she said, amazed by it all.

"Yeah… beautiful," he said, not looking at the beautiful lights, but at the beautiful husky beside him. She noticed his glance and turned towards him, starting to inch towards him. He would have nuzzled her and confessed his love there and then if fate hadn't intervened. Someone above them walked in front of the lamp, ending the light show, and they were quickly reminded of why they were down there in the first place. They listened to the doctor, but the news was grave. Rosy had come down with diphtheria, a very serious illness, and the doctor had run out of the antitoxin used to treat the disease. It was this information that prompted Balto to take action. He wanted to help Rosy and the other children get better, so he entered the race that would decide who would be on the sled team that would fetch the medicine.

It was at this moment that his childhood aspiration started to return. He would be a true sled dog, but this time, it wouldn't be for the glory of being a champion; it was to help those that he cared about. Unfortunately, despite coming out on top, he wouldn't get to run on the team. A large husky named Steele made sure that the humans would only see him as a vicious wolf, and he was left behind while Steele led the team. They made it to Nenana to pick up the medicine, but got lost in a fierce blizzard on the return trip, prompting Balto to make one more attempt to help. Going out and braving the elements, a nasty grizzly, a self-centered husky, an avalanche and a collapsing cave, Balto managed to lead the medicine back to Nome. On the last leg of the trip, he saw, projected on the mountainside past the town, the northern lights. It was a beacon, set up by Jenna to guide him home. Balto made it, howling his heart out, and the medicine was delivered safely. He was hailed as a hero, while Steele, who had tried to sabotage Balto's return trip in order to get rid of him, was exiled from the town.

"Well Balto, you saved the day, defeated the bad guy, and got the girl of your dreams. Now what are you going to do?" he asked himself. Days after the fact, he still didn't have an answer to that question. While he had wanted to earn Jenna's affections for a long time now, he had never really thought of what he would do if that did happen. He had been an outcast for so long that he had always thought that Jenna would be out of reach, "But she's not out of reach any more. She's right here, snuggled up against me," he thought,