The Masked Entrancer

   Lena walked down Nome's main street, the snow lighty dropped to the ground. A snow storm had swept through over the past few days, but it dissapated today, and she wanted to explore. She lifted her nose into the air to smell her surroundings, she's always loved the smell of newly fallen snow. There was just something dogs could smell about it that humans simply couldn't, however, this time she smelled a sweet aroma, like the fruit stands the humans set up during the spring. She began to think to herself, the humans couldn't possibly at this time of year. She followed the scent to it's source, a dark street, this one had very little lighting, and now, on top of the sweet aroma, loomed this foul scent.

"Oh, that's disgusting." She grimaced as she muttered to herself. A voice spoke from the street.

"What, you don't like my friends smell?" A brown dog emerged from the darkness, a scar in the shape of a question mark was etched around his face. He had a sinister smile plastered to his face. Lena slowly walked backwards, but almost immediately bumped into a tall figure, another dog. This one was over two feet taller than Lena, and had his tongue dangling from the side of his mouth. A look of fear overcame Lena. "My friend doesn't like being insulted." At this, both dogs started growling.

"Listen guys, I didn't mean any trouble. I didn't mean to upset you." Lena backed into a corner. She gasped, and looked back to see a six foot wall behind her, there was no way she could jump it before they got to her. She turned about to see the scarred dog staring her in the face.

"You don't want any trouble, but listen to me toots, you got it one way or another." The dog growled. Lena promptly spit in his face. The dog smirked and wiped his face. "I was hoping you'd do that." He smacked her across the face with his paw. Lena reeled back in pain, no one had ever hit her before, not like that anyways. She started thinking about her siblings, then her parents, tears came to her eyes. She turned to face the dogs just in time to see his paw collide with her face, then everything went black.

   Balto woke from his dream to find himself curled up in the pilothouse of his boat. He'd recently been having mystical dreams again, only this time, instead of concerning Aleu, they were focused around his youngest, Lena. What could she have that Aniu wants now? Balto thought to himself. He stretched his front legs out, as soon as he heard the crack, he rested his muscles. "Ahh, it's good to stretch."

"Ah, finally, you're awake!" Boris yelled out. "You wouldn't stop with the noises. It got on my nerves after about the first hour." Boris cocked a brow.

"Oh, it was going on for that long?" Balto asked. "It only seemed like a few minutes."

"Well, are you having those dreams again, like when Aleu left." Boris scratched his chin as he spoke.

"Yeah, only, now they center around Lena." A confused look came over Balto's face, "What could Aniu want with her, she's still only an adolescent."

"Yes yes, I know." Boris flapped a wing at him. "Is probably nothing. Come on, let's go into town."

"What, since when do you want to go into town?" Balto stepped towards Boris.

"Since I became a real uncle, and don't start that business with Muk and Luk again. I'm not their uncle!" Boris pointed matter-of-factly at Balto.

"Okay, I won't bring it up. Let's go." Balto motioned to the gang plank of the boat. The two of them walked towards Nome.

"So, is anything going on with Lena to make Aniu curious about her?" Boris stopped Balto mid stride.

"I thought you said it was nothing." Balto glared at Boris.

"I said maybe, it's best to know all of the facts." Boris spoke swiftly. "Besides, the phrase is curiosity killed the cat, not the goose."

"Well, everything seems normal to me." Balto shook his head, " She's very open when she has a problem. You and I both know if there was something going on, she'd tell us."

   At that very moment, Lena's eyes shot open to find herself lying in a cage in a dark room. Wh...where am I? She shivered as she thought to herself, it was very cold in the cage. She squinted to try to see anything in the room that she might recognize, but it was no use. "Hello, is anyone there?" Maybe someone else was there.

"Oh..." A voice spoke out from the darkness. Lena's mind suddenly flashed back to the dark street. "You're awake, good."

"Wh...what do you want from me?" Lena whimpered, she'd never been this scared before in her life. Her mind started racing, thinking about what this crazy hound might do to her.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough." A glowing pair of bright yellow eyes appeared in the darkness, followed by a sinister smile. Lena began to cry, hoping, just hoping that her father would help her. No matter how slim the chance.

 Balto entered Jenna's house, she was no where to bee seen. Except, on the floor, he found a letter, the writing was extremely sloppy, Jenna had probably used her mouth to hold the pen.

Balto,

Please come to the mill. It's extremely urgent, a town meeting has been called, and I want to tell you why when you get here, please hurry. Jenna.

Balto knew if a meeting had been called, that it was bad news. He bolted out the door and past Boris.

"Balto, where are you going?" Boris called out.

"The mill, it's urgent!" Balto called back.

   When Balto reached the mill, he was out of breath, he wasn't the dog he used to be. The entire town was inside. As soon as Balto entered, the entire room turned to look at him, they all had sad expressions on their faces. He noticed Jenna was sitting at the far end of the room, tears were streaming down her face. He ran to her. "Jen, what's wrong?"

Jenna spoke through sobs, "It...it's...L...Lena."

Balto's concern doubled, "What's wrong with Lena?"

Jenna couldn't answer, so Duke, the town mayor spoke up, "She's gone missing Balto, we have an eyewitness who said she's been kidnapped."

Balto's ears dropped, "Wh...what?"

"I'd like to introduce you to one of our finest detectives." As Duke spoke, a German shephard walked up. "Balto, this is Detective Holmes."

The shephard spoke up, he had an english accent of sorts, "Pleasure to meet you Mr. Balto. I've heard all about you, and I promise, I will do everything that my considerable years of experience has taught me to help find your daughter.

A dog from the back called out, "Yeah, we're all gonna help!"

Another spoke, "Yeah!" The room erupted into a commotion of unreadable chatter. Until Duke broke it up with a booming bark.

"Silence!" The room died down. "I will organize search parties, and would the dog who said they witnessed Lena's abduction please step forward." Balto was shocked to see who it was. A smaller, slender grey huskie walked forward.

"Star?" Balto asked stunned.

"Hi Balto." Star spoke guiltily, as though he'd done something wrong. Holmes walked up to Star.

"You say you saw Lena when she was abducted?" He dove right in to questioning.

"Yes." Star looked at the ground.

"Where did it happem?"

"Fourth street."

"That makes sense, the power was out on that street the night she was abuducted, perfect for someone not to be seen." Holmes looked at Balto as he answered. Jenna dug her head into Balto's shoulder when she heard this.

"When did it happen?" Holmes started questioning again.

"About midnight, the snow was barely falling. She looked like she was looking for something, she had her nose lifted, like she smelled something, and truth be told, I was following the smell too."

"What did it smell like?"

"It smelled like ripe strawberries, but, when the two kidnappers appeared, the scent turned to a rancid oder, it smelled terrible."

"You say it was two kidnappers eh, what did they look like?"

"Well, the first one was a huge dog, he was about two feet taller than Lena, and the other was brown, with a scar that looked like a question mark." Star barely lifted his head to speak. When Holmes heard this description, he froze.

He spoke to Balto coldly, "Your daughters as good as dead Mr. Balto." Jenna burst into tears and collapsed to the ground sobbing.

"How can you say that?" Balto bared his teeth at Holmes.

"I know who kidnapped Lena. He's known as the Masked Entrancer, his real name is unknown. He's kidnapped six abolescent females in the past two years, they've all turned up dead. Their bodies mamed and brutally tortured. We've only come close to catching him once, but he barely escaped. This dog does not kidnap for ransom, or to make a point, or because he's a stalker. He kidnaps because he loves to torture, and killing. He will show no mercy to your daughter. I'm sorry Mr. Balto, I was afraid it was him again, and I will do everything in my power to catch him before he kills your daughter, but the chances are slim."

Balto began to tear as well, "How slim."

"You know how I said we