knows what else he might be up to while you're out today."

Balto thought for a moment, but waved it off. "Nah, he's not the type to do that. Besides, I'm not the only one who looks after the town. Kaltag, Doc; there are many dogs who keep an eye on things."

"That's good… though I suppose we wolves do something similar with our packs," Maska mused. "Out here, you need to look after your fellow wolves in order to ensure the survival of everyone."

"Or in this case, wolves, dogs and everything in between," Balto replied, earning a chuckle from Maska.

"Yes, that's true," he said. "There are many wolves that only see their immediate families, or only think of other wolves as brothers, but I'm a little more open than that. I see you as an extension of my family, and the same goes for anyone who is close to you."

"That's good… especially if we decide to… add a few more to the family," Jenna said, looking right at Balto. Balto simply smiled back; he knew what she was getting onto again. He wasn't the only one, as Maska also caught on to her hint and chuckled a little, but decided not to comment. The rest of the trip passed in silence and it wasn't long before they reached a frozen riverbed where Maska stopped and sat down.

"Are we here?" Balto asked.

"Sort of; this riverbed acts as a buffer between our two territories," Maska explained. "It is a neutral ground where we can meet and talk. However, the last time we talked with them was over a year and a half ago. They aren't the most social of packs, so we've made it our business to keep our distance from them."

"Do we wait for them to come?" Jenna asked.

"No, we have to call them," Maska replied before leaning his head back and giving out a piercing howl. After a moment, they heard the crunching of paws through the snow as a grey-furred wolf came over the hill, descending towards them. As she approached, Balto recognized that it was same female from the night before. When she saw him, her expression turned very sour.

"You…" she growled at Balto, her eyes narrowing. "Maska, what is the meaning of this? What are you doing with these… dogs," she said, putting extra venom on the last word.

"Yes, it's nice to see you too Kisa," Maska replied flatly. "Getting to the point, where is Tikani? There's something that we need to discuss."

"I'm not going to trouble him with the whining of these pets," Kisa snapped.

"Oh you are, because if you don't I'm just going to march in there and find him," Maska shot back. "Either way, we're talking to him."

"… Fine, I'll get him," she mumbled, before trotting away.

"Now you see why we don't talk to them very much," Maska said to them and Balto and Jenna agreed. If they had neighbours who were that sour, they would be reluctant to talk with them as well.

Soon they saw Kisa return with a larger, dark grey wolf, whom Balto assumed was the alpha male. "Alright, what's all the fuss about?" he grumbled.

"Maska is here, but he's with two dogs from that nearby human town," Kisa explained. "I recognize one of them from the raid last night - the brown one."

"Dogs? Well Maska, I'm surprised. I never thought of you as the type to associate with those who would rather kill us all and take our land," the alpha wolf said.

"These dogs have done nothing to harm your pack; I brought them here because they only wanted to talk with you," Maska replied. "Besides, you should know that it's rude to not introduce yourself to those you meet."

Tikani grumbled at being addressed in such a way, but he maintained his composure. "Very well; I am Tikani and you've already met my mate Kisa."

"My name's Balto, and this Jenna," Balto replied. "Oh and for the record, I'm not all dog. I'm actually half wolf. That's how I gained Maska's trust. In fact, I'm not a pet either. I suppose you could call me a stray that decided to call Nome home."

"A mutt eh?" Tikani said before turning to Jenna. "Are you a mutt too redhead? Let me guess… part fox?"

"Honestly Tikani, there's no need for that," Maska cut in as Jenna scowled at him. "These two only wish to talk so the least you could do is hear them out."

Tikani frowned, but nodded, allowing Balto to speak up. "Instead of beating around the bush I'm just going to lay it out for you. We know that it was your pack that attacked the town last night and I have a pretty good idea why you did it too," he started. "I'm here because I want to resolve this before anyone else gets hurt."

"I think it would also be fair if we heard your side of the story," Jenna put in. "Can you tell us about the first time you encountered the sled dogs?"

"Fair enough. Many days ago, our scouts spotted a sled team entering our territory. They didn't seem to be heading towards the core so we weren't concerned, but I still wanted to investigate," Tikani started. "We may be protective of our territory, but we are willing to let others pass through… as long as that is the only thing they do."

"It soon became clear that the dogs had other plans in mind," Kisa continued. "We watched as the team approached a caribou, and the human used his weapon to kill it before taking it away."

"Having them poach from our territory is unacceptable!" Tikani exclaimed. "We need caribou to feed our own, and if the humans take too much, then we may not have enough game to hunt for ourselves! What gives you dogs the right to take from others?"

"They didn't mean to steal from you," Balto protested. "That man was simply hunting to provide meat for his own family and his dogs."

Despite saying that, Balto's explanation didn't sway the wolf. "That may be, but why are they taking it from our territory?" he demanded. "Wolf packs don't steal from others' ranges, so why are they taking from ours?"

"That's it; you're treating this like it's another wolf pack, but you're dealing with different creatures," Jenna said. "The rules of land for humans and dogs are different from yours. They don't know about your borders; they only see open wilderness."

"So you're saying that we should let them go above our laws simply because they use different rules from us? You're saying that we should roll over for them?" Tikani asked.

"I'm just explaining why they would stray into your territory, so don't put words in my mouth," Jenna snapped.

"Look, we can argue semantics all day, but I want to hear the rest of this," Maska cut in. "Shortly after you first saw them you started to confront them."

"Yes, but we weren't trying to kill anybody," Tikani said. "We were simply trying to deter them from returning and taking more caribou. You know… scare them off."

"I guess they didn't take the hint," Balto said, acknowledging that this fit exactly with Spitz's story.

"They continued to come into our territory, with their human even wounding one of our own with his weapon yesterday. We decided that greater action would be needed," Kisa replied. "If they weren't going to stop, then we would take the fight to them."

"So you thought an eye for an eye would solve everything?" Maska said.

"When you say it that way, you make it sound like petty revenge," Tikani countered. "This was compensation for what they had done to us."

"The plan was to give them a message to never come back again," Kisa explained. "We would knock some of the huskies around to show that even in their home, they wouldn't be safe. It was supposed to make them think twice about coming back."

"And then you tried to sabotage their supplies to keep them from hunting," Balto continued and Tikani nodded, confirming more of Balto's theory. "There's one last thing you did that still puzzles me a little. Why did you try to steal the caribou carcass they had hunted?"

"We weren't stealing it! It came from our territory, so we were simply taking back what was ours," Kisa barked. "Our plan would've gone on without a hitch had you not decided to interfere."

"I don't know about you, but most don't take too kindly to having others cause trouble in their town," Balto said. It was becoming clear that the wolves saw themselves as victims as much as Spitz and his team did. This was not going to be easy to explain back in Nome, especially to Spitz.

"Just as we don't take kindly to having unwanted visitors in our territory," Tikani said with fire in his eyes. "We may have lost our surprise and our kill may not have been reclaimed, but we still managed to damage your tools. That should give us at least a little peace."

"I hate to break it to you, but it might not," Jenna put in. "The human can simply buy new harnesses and traps from the stores in town. It may come at a bit of a cost, but he'll soon be back out here, hunting as usual… though he may be a bit more upset with you due to the cost that you incurred on him."

"If our efforts carry a cost, then we'll continue until they