intruder. After we finished our howl I saw Muk and Luk screaming and running in circles, in till they ran into each other and fell to the ground making a large splash. Boris merely looked at us over the rim of the boat, smiled and waved, and then said, “Eh boy chicks, nice seeing you both again.” and then went back to moping. Jenna and Balto came down the gang blank to greet us.

“Hello.” Aerik said as he nodded to each of them. Smiling and wagging his tail and I did the same.

                “Hi, it’s been a long time since we last saw you. How have you been?”

                “Good, we just thought we’d stop by and say hello.”

                “That was nice of you two.” Balto smiled

                I trotted over to Jenna and we picked up our conversation as if we’d never left from our visit before. We all went to the boiler room later that day and met up with the other dogs of Nome, at first some of them didn’t remember us and were hesitant because we were wolves. But once they got to know us they opened right up. We all had a lot of fun and played games. As Aerik knew I was the fastest wolf in Alaska and Balto the fastest Wolf/Dog in Nome we had a little race. And of course everyone had to bet on who they thought would win. Jenna and the others betted on Balto and Aerik, Kirby, Star and Nikki voted for me. We got ready on the starting line and then when Aerik howled we bolted. We ran to the shore, around the boat, the trail that led through the woods, the perimeter of Nome and then came back. We were neck and neck the entire time, I was saving my energy for the finish, and I had a feeling that so was Balto, so I let him pass only by a few paces though, as everyone was cheering us on. I held a comfortable gait and then when the finish line was in view I noticed Balto’s pace quicken, I didn’t want to let him get to far ahead, so I bolted as fast as I could, everything was a blur to me, Balto’s figure slowly faded back till I could no longer see him in front of me. It was a short mile till the finish line and I gave it my all. I could feel that Balto was trying hard too. And when we finally crossed the finish line I looked back to see that Balto was right at my tail the hole time, he was fast. He was half wolf he was born fast. And since im a pure bred wolf I am twice as fast, but we were both evenly matched as competitors. I thanked Balto for racing and being such a fair sport. And he congratulated me on the win.

                The dogs that betted on Balto laughed as the ones that betted on me crept over and took the winning bones. And the bones that I earned I shared with everyone. And then I looked up at the sky and noticed the last lights out day were fading I told Aerik that we had to start heading home soon. He agreed, and after saying our goodbyes and saying that we would come back soon we pranced off, homeward bound. We both turned around and howled to them all and heard them all bark and howl their replies, and then we darted home. We wanted to get to the den before night fall, it’s not safe to be out late at night, there’s Grizzly’s and Bull Moose roaming around. And luckily we reached home before we become wolf chow.

We both went inside and lied down ready to sleep when Aerik said, “I want puppies, I want to be a father and have a family like Balto and Jenna.”

                I completely ignored him and closed my eyes hoping he would just let it go, but knowing Aerik and how persistent he was it didn’t end there.

                He then continued, “Don’t you want puppies?”

                I simply replied, “No.”

                “Why not?”

                “I’m not the ‘mommy’ type. I don’t know anything on how to rear a pup, they wouldn’t like me.”

                “That’s not true! They would love you. And it’s instincts when their born you’ll know just what to do and I’ll be right with you the whole time.”

                “No. I don’t want pups. End of discussion.”

                Aerik let out a loud sigh, then seeing as the conversation was over fell asleep, but I knew he would bring the question up again, and again, and again till he got the answer he wanted.

                I didn’t have my nightmare again and that gave me plenty of rest and I was bounding with energy the next morning. Before Aerik even woke up I scampered off to my favorite Cliffside. I sat on the cliff and overlooked everything from the babbling creek to the sandy beaches. The morning breeze ruffled my long coat and I smiled. My ears started twitching as I heard someone approaching. I turned around and smiled, “Morning sleepyhead.”

                Aerik yawned and kissed me good morning, “so I take it you’ve had no nightmares last night?”

                “Yup, I slept like a pup.” I smiled and went to his side as we started walking to the creek to get a drink.

                Aerik’s eyes brightened and he smiled, “And speaking of pups….”

                I cut him off in mid sentence, “No Aerik, just drop it.”

                Aerik moaned, “Oh come on Brooke, wouldn’t you want to have a family?”

                I growled at him and snapped, “No!” Then I took off towards the beach. I didn’t actually bite him, just raised my voice and growled. I was just trying to make a point.

                But for some reason the tears came. I deliberately fell to my side and let out a long sigh. Why did he even have to bring up that stupid question, none of this would have ever happened and we would have gone on living totally a normal life, just as before.

                I saw him coming over out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t move. And neither did he. He stayed a few paces away from me, probably giving me a second to cool down. Then when I was calm I stood and walk towards him, “I’m sorry Aerik, I don’t know what came over me.”

                “its okay honey, but I would like you to put more thought into your decision other than saying that they wouldn’t like you.” He smirked and wiped the tears from my face.

                “Okay.”

                “Good. I love you.”

                “I love you more.” I said laughing

                “That’s not possible.” Aerik said jokingly as we ran around the beach, chasing each other, I pounced on him and he twirled me so he was pinning me down, and we were both laughing.

                I pushed him off of me and he landed in the water making a splash. When he stood he was sopping wet and all his fur hung flat on his body and was dripping with the salty water. I couldn’t contain myself any loner, I burst out in a fit of laughter and fell on the ground from laughing so hard. And after a few seconds Aerik was laughing as hard as I was and trotted over to me, then he shook himself trying to get dry and purposely get me wet. Our fun was soon interrupted though. A nearby alpha wolf in the territory next to ours was howling to us, calling to us as a plea to help him. We sprinted over to him to ask what was wrong, he was sweating and pacing and all he said was, “My m-m-m-m-mate! She’s having h-h-h-her p-p-puppies now! P-p-p-please help! She’s in t-t-the d-den; please h-h-hurry!”

                We jogged into the cave and found his mate panting