yelling now, angered beyond reason.

Balto began to whine, and Nilak glared at him. "And this, this thing," he spat. "This is the largest affront of all. Neither one of you deserves to live, for your crimes against me, our pack, and against our entire race."

Aniu knew there would be no changing his mind then, especially with the two younger wolves watching what he did. The three wolves continued to circle her and she knew they were about to attack. She slowly bent down and picked Balto up in her mouth, watching Nilak for an opening, and when she saw one, she took it.

She watched for one of the wolves to move in front of an open path through the forest, and she jumped over him with all her might. He turned and snapped at her legs, making contact with her ankle and sinking his teeth in. Aniu yelped in pain as her momentum ripped her leg away from his jaws, tearing her flesh. She blinked the tears away and ran as fast and hard as she could away from the wolves.

I ran as fast as I could on my wounded leg, trying to put some distance between us. I knew I wouldn't be able to get away from them because I was leaving a blood trail, which was easy to follow. Nilak was in his prime and the two younger wolves were full of endurance, they would have no trouble keeping up with me. I was ahead of them but not by much, and I knew I would have to do something drastic to get away from them. The only way to make my trail disappear was a river.

I remembered a river I had seen one day while hunting, and I sprinted in that direction. The others were slowly closing the gap between us, and I knew they would kill us both if they caught me. I ran harder than I had ever run in my life, desperation driving me to push past my pain and exhaustion. At long last I spotted the river in the distance, and I made a break for it. I heard the howls of the wolves behind me and ran in a straight line to the river, and jumped in.

The river was freezing cold and very rough, and I was swept away by the powerful current. I began to lose the feeling in my paws and legs as the river mercilessly slammed me against rocks and held me underwater. I was terrified that you would drown but I would not let you go. After what seemed like an eternity, the river calmed itself and slowly dragged me along with it. I was barely conscious and trying to stay on my back so that you could stay above water. I was almost completely numb and could barely hear your cries of fear any more. As long as you were crying, I knew you were alive, and I took comfort in that.

The river pushed me towards the bank where I tried to climb out of the water, but I was so cold and tired that I could barely move. I lay there in the water, listening to you howl with your tiny voice, hoping Nilak and the others were too far away now to hear it. I had escaped, but would not live to see another day unless I got out of that river. Somehow, I eventually managed to pull us both out of the water and onto the sandy bank. It was winter but the sun was shining high above us and I could feel its meager rays beginning to wick the water away from my body.

There was nothing else I could do but lie there and hope the sun could dry and warm me enough to restore my limbs to working order. Once we were out of the water and lying on the sand, you curled up at my belly and tried to stay warm. I drifted off to sleep, hoping I would wake to see you again.

###

I woke as the sun disappeared behind the mountains, and a chill blew through my fur. You were still asleep at my belly, and my leg was beginning to hurt again. I hoped that was a good sign, as I tried to turn over and stand up. I was at least able to move again, and my legs would support my weight. You woke as I moved away from you, and you began to cry again. Even though I was injured and exhausted, your tiny howls and whimpers were the sweetest sound I had ever heard. I nuzzled you and spoke soothing words into your ears, and together we walked away from the river to look for shelter. The sky grew dark as I looked for a safe place to spend the night, but I wasn't able to find a suitable hiding place. Eventually I settled for a small group of trees in the forest, with enough underbrush to mostly hide us from sight. We lay there under the trees and slept through the night.

When dawn broke the next day, I thought about what I had to do. I could never go back to that cave or anywhere near my pack, as they would kill me on sight. It was too dangerous for us to stay in the area, so I decided we would keep going in the direction of the river's current, away from my home. So we found the river again and traveled, catching small game when we could and sleeping under whatever shelter we could find. After many days of traveling like this, we came to the place where the river merged with the ocean.

I knew that we couldn't continue to live like this. You were a growing pup, and you needed a stable environment and safety from the wolves. I knew I had to find Suka. I was sure Suka and the dogs would be more tolerant of a half wolf pup, especially when it was his own son. I also knew that my time with you was coming to a close. If I placed you under Suka's care, I would not be able to see you again. Suka's humans would never allow a wolf like me anywhere near them, and I would have to run far, far away so I wouldn't be killed by my former packmates. Even Suka's barn was much too close to my pack's home, and I would be taking a terrible risk just trying to get there, but I was sure you would be safe if they agreed to take you in.

So we set off in the direction I thought would bring us to Suka's home, following the ocean along the coast, and staying out of sight as much as possible. We had been traveling for two days when I saw the first signs of a human town along the coast. Far off in the distance I could make out what looked like buildings and I could see smoke rising from the horizon. I was about to start running towards the town when I caught a whiff of something. It was a familiar scent, and it chilled me to my core.

"Nilak", she thought. "What is he doing all the way out here? Unless... unless he's been tracking me the whole time." Dread welled up in her chest and she looked at the human town, and back to the trees. Maybe she could make it to town before the wolves caught her, but then what? She was no better off in the town, the humans would kill her just as surely as Nilak would.

She caught Nilak's scent again, stronger now, and she knew she was out of time. He was almost upon her. She looked around in a panic and grabbed Balto by the neck and ran him closer to the town. She put him down behind a large snowdrift where he would be sheltered from the wind and close enough to the town to mask his scent.

"Balto, my darling son," she said, and began to cry. "You must be brave and stay here for me. Do not leave this spot, or your life will be in danger. Do you understand?"

"Yes mama," Balto said. "Why are you crying, mama?"

Aniu broke down into sobs at hearing her son's innocent question. This was her punishment for failing in her mission, she thought. This was the cruelest punishment of all, to have to leave her child without a mother, and without a family to call his own. She pulled Balto to her and hugged his body to hers, weeping openly into his fur.

"You- you remember what I said, my son. Stay here, and wait for me to return." She sobbed quietly into his coat, matting it to his skin. "Be a good boy, my precious son. I love you more than you will ever know." And with that, she placed him back behind the drift.

She looked back at her son one last time and turned inland toward the forest. As she began to run, she heard Balto's voice fading away as he said "I will, mama..."

She ran as hard and as fast as she could back to the forest, to lead her pursuer away from Balto. She cried the whole time, because just as giving birth to her son and watching him grow was the best thing she had ever experienced in life, leaving him alone and afraid was the hardest thing she had ever had to do. She finally made it to a clearing in the woods and stopped. She sat down and howled at the top of her lungs, crying out in grief for what her choices in this life had forced her to do. Her son was an innocent, yet he was the one who would suffer for her choices.

She knew that ultimately she had done the right thing by having a child born of love, and that he was destined for greatness no matter what, because he was the mortal-born son of Aniu, the wolf spirit. That, at least, gave her a small measure of comfort. But to leave him abandoned and alone was too much for her to bear. She howled and howled, and waited for her pursuer to catch up with her.

"What a sad song, Aniu," said a voice from the woods behind her. "You should be happy now that you won't have to run any more."

"It doesn't matter what you do to me, Nilak," she said without turning to look at him. "My son is the only thing left of any importance, and you will never find him."

Nilak emerged from the woods and circled Aniu to stand in front of her. "No resistance this time Aniu? I didn't expect your spirit to break this easily."

Aniu snarled at that, and her eyes began to glow yellow. "Know this, Nilak. You may be doing what you think is necessary, and you may be exacting vengeance upon me for what I did to you. But killing one of your own pack will not be tolerated by the great wolf spirit, and you will face her for your crime when your mortal skin is shed."

Nilak was taken aback momentarily by the sudden change in Aniu's demeanor, but sneered at her anyway. "What would you know of