would you know of the afterlife? I don't even believe there is a great wolf spirit any more. And even if there were, she could not help you now."

Aniu's voice had taken on an ethereal quality, and her eyes had begun to glow brighter. She stared directly at Nilak. "It matters not what you do to me now, my time here is at an end. My son will continue my journey in my stead, as it was foreseen. Ending my life will not change the course of events to come."

The light faded from Aniu's eyes and her voice returned to normal as she hung her head and looked away from him. "All it will do is make you a murderer of your own kind."

Nilak grew wild with rage, and he lunged at her.

###

Blood coated Aniu's pure white fur all along her neck and chest, dripping down onto the snow and forming tiny red rivers that made their way down the hill, a deathly red halo circling her pure white body. She could no longer see it, as her lifeless eyes stared upwards towards the sky. Nilak sat nearby, trembling as his rage subsided. His paws and muzzle were covered with the same blood that darkened the snow around Aniu's motionless form, and he stood up and left without so much as a second glance towards her.

Aniu recalled the sensation of dying, the pain and then the darkness. It was not as bad as she thought it was going to be, and now it was over. She watched Nilak leave, then shifted her focus to a snowdrift outside the nearby town. "I'm sorry, my son," she said sadly. "I did everything I could do for you, but in the end our time together was destined to be short lived. Not even I had the power to change that."

She looked closer to see Balto sitting dutifully in the snowdrift, waiting for his mother to return. Aniu began to weep, as the sadness of what she had been forced to do would not leave her. "I am so sorry, my little one," she cried. "Though I know that you will survive, I hope that one day you will forgive me for leaving you all alone."

She turned to fade into the light, but made her voice just loud enough for her pup to hear it. "I will always be with you, my son. You will never walk alone."

Balto heard his mother's words and thought he might have imagined them. He looked around to see if she had come back, but he didn't see or smell her.  He sighed and turned back around to wait, and that's when he saw a goose mumbling to himself in Russian, walking towards his snowdrift and past a small signpost that said "Nome, Alaska".

###

Chapter 4: Closure

"Mother, I didn't know - I didn't realize how much you sacrificed for me so that I would live. You gave your own life for me. I thought you just abandoned me there," Balto said quietly. "I didn't understand."

Aniu looked into the distance. "Even as the wolf spirit, at times I am haunted by the memories of what I did to you, little one. To leave you there without your mother goes against everything I believe, and everything wolves stand for. All wolf children belong to the pack, so that they will never be without a family. I failed in providing this for you." She looked down at Balto and smiled. "But I would have given my life a thousand times to save you, so great was my love for you."

"I'm alive and well because of you, mother," Balto said and nuzzled her chin. "I have a mate and six beautiful children of my own now, and I would also give my life for each one of them. I love you mother, and I understand now."

Mother and son shared a few long moments of affection together, and a smile crept onto Balto's face. "The gift you were going to give the wolves, the guide and leader that I couldn't be - It's Aleu," he said with sudden realization. "That's why she's so much like a wolf, isn't it?"

His mother smiled at him and nodded. "I have chosen my granddaughter to be the leader I had originally thought you would be, before I met Suka," she said. "She is strong, and I have given her a guide to help her along the way. She is destined for greatness just as you were, little one."

Balto grinned. "She always was more wolf than I ever was, even as a pup. Thank you for watching over my little girl, I miss her and think about her every day."

"I understand how it feels," Aniu spoke soothingly. "She is stronger than you know, and she is becoming an excellent leader. I am proud of her, as I know you are. She carries her mother's gentle and even tempered disposition along with your wolf side, and it has made her wise beyond her years. As one who knows how to listen and not just act on impulse, she is uniquely suited to the task of uniting the wolves and ending the fractured relationships and in-fighting we have endured for so long."

Balto nodded, satisfied that his daughter was doing as well as he could have hoped. He wanted to ask something else but he began to feel as though he were burdening Aniu with a lot of questions, and he didn't know how much more time he had with her before he would wake up.

"I sense you have more questions for me, little one. You would like to know about your father."

Balto looked at his mother with hope. "Where is he? Can I go to see him? Does he know who I am?"

Aniu smiled and nuzzled his face. "I did not know it at the time, but Nome was not the town where your father lived. After I returned to the spirit world, I searched for your father and found him in a town the humans call Buckland. I was disoriented when we were running from Nilak, and I went the wrong way. Suka was hundreds of miles in the opposite direction."

Aniu paused and looked thoughtfully across the dreamscape at the mountains in the distance. "Your father is with me now, little one," she said. "He died when he and his team were caught in a blizzard not long after I returned to the spirit world. They froze to death in that storm."

Balto stared at her in shock. "No..."

"I was sad to witness the death of my beloved Suka, but he is here by my side now." Balto's eyes grew wide as he saw a shape begin to take form behind her. A large black and brown husky emerged into the light, and walked up to sit in front of Balto. He was darker colored than Balto, but the markings on his face and body were unmistakable.

"F-father?" Balto could not believe his eyes. "You - you're my father?"

Suka smiled kindly. "Yes, my son. I've been watching you alongside your mother since the day I was brought into the spirit world. I was overjoyed to see my Aniu again, and I had so many questions about our pup. Your mother was patient with me and answered all my questions. Imagine my surprise when I learned Aniu was the wolf spirit, the creator and guardian of all wolves! I was amazed that she chose me as a mate, but I'm glad she did."

Aniu smiled at Suka and licked his cheek.

"We watched you together as you grew to a strong adult, we saw the difficult times and the hatred you endured as an outcast, belonging neither to wolves nor dogs. It was hard to see the life you had been born into, as I had expected you would have grown up within the safety and family of your mother's pack."

Balto stared at his father, trying to familiarize himself with his father's features. He had the same lighter colored rings around his eyes, and the same lighter colored paws and forelegs. Balto's appearance was more wolf-like overall, but there was no denying the similarities between them.

"I am so proud of you, my son. I could not be a happier father. We saw you save the children of Nome, we watched as you were a good father to your own children, you are the fastest and most famous lead dog in Alaska, and you are the son of the wolf spirit herself!" Suka turned and nuzzled Aniu. "You are everything I could have wanted in a son, and my only regret is that I was not able to know you in life."

Balto sat in front of his parents, tears filling his eyes. "Come here, my son," said Suka gently. Balto approached his father timidly, and Suka placed his paws around Balto's shoulders and pulled him close. He cradled his son's head against his chest, as Balto wept. "We love you, my son. I love you."

"I only regret that I was not able to bring him to you, Suka," Aniu said softly. "He would have been safe with you."

"He would have," Suka agreed. "But perhaps it was better this way after all. I died mere months after you did, and Balto would have been left without a father in either case. And he wouldn't have become the hero of Nome if he had come to live with me, or met Jenna and had six beautiful pups."

Aniu smiled, and looked at Balto. "Perhaps it was destined after all. For all the hardships you have had to endure, you are now a hero, and you have a wonderful mate and children who are descended from the wolf spirit herself. It is as I told you when you were a pup, you were destined for greatness... and you have found it."

Balto's eyes were closed, and he wanted to stay like this forever, in the embrace of his long lost mother and father. He had often wistfully imagined what his father might have been like, and to actually see him and smell his scent was better than he had ever dared to hope. He rubbed his head further into his father's chest.

"Dawn is approaching, little one," Aniu said as she looked out across the snowy plains, and through the dream into reality. Our time together is coming to an end."

"Again," Balto thought