In the memory of Avenged Sevenfold's Jimmy 'The Rev' Sulliven.

The moon was at it highest. It was white a Aniu's snow white fur. It beamed down on the Alaskan town of Nome and brought light to the darkest alley. it gave Balto the light he needed to navigate his way to Jenna's house.

Jenna. Balto thought in a daze. That name brought warmth to his body on the coldest nights. His love for he deeper than the ocean and higher than the heavens. The same when for his pups: Stark, Saba, Kiona, Kodi, Dingo, and Aleu. The thought of his daughter echoed through his mind. For about ten minutes of every day, Balto would think of her and hope that she was as happy as the day he saw her leave from his sight.

Balto turned down an alley and let his paw sink into to snow beneth him. When he reached the end of the alley, he started to move his body to the right. Jenna's house awws just another block away. But Balto froze to a faint but fowl smell that his hybrid nose could only pick up. He tunred his head down the oppisite direction and widend his eyes to what he saw. Tracks of bloody paw marks in the middle of the street. Balto moved his head back to the direction of Jenna's house.

"Sorry, Jenna," He sighed. "Someone could be hurt and leaving someone to die would be the worst thing I've ever done." He said to the wind hoping it would carry his message to Jenna's ears. He spun his head around and bolted up to where the bloody trial started. He looked over the paw prints and knew that it was a dog. He took in a sniff of the print so he could get a scent. His inner wolf started to kick in: He broke out into a full sprint and sniffed the air as he went. Balto didn't needed to know where he was going. He knows Nome by heart and let his nose lead the way. He turned down Main street where the scent got stronger. Balto was getting close. He started to slow down, when he ran past to post office. The trial lead down alley next to the hardware store. Before he looked down the alley, Balto closed his eyes and prayed that he wasn't goanna see something horrific. He peeked down the alley and saw that his prayer was worth less than nothing. The moon was bright enough to beam some light in the alley. There, lying on the ground was a husky covered in cut's, bruses and blood all over the place.

"Oh no." He said in a tone that was rich of dispair. Balto slowly walked up to the dog and looked down on the body. Feeling that he could have gotten there sooner, Balto drew in a large amount of air so he could howl to Aniu above him.

However, he was stopped by a groaning sound that was coming from right in front of him. Balto snapped his head down to the dog twitching his paw.

"My god." Balto whispered breathless. "He's alive." Balto knew he went for help, he;d come back and it would be to late. There was only one option: Balto reached his head under the dog's body and mounted it on his back. Balto's inner wolf strength was amazing. Much to Balto's suprise, the dog was really light. He felt like he was giving his pups a piggy back ride. He''d do that alot when they were young and that was fun for all of them. It was nearly midnight, the vet closed at that hour. There was only one place where he could take the dying dog: Jenna's shed. Balto ran, at half speed so the dog wouldn't fall off his back, to Jenna's house. The blood slowly pouring out of the dog's cut moved down Balto's gray fur.

Balto was a couple yards away from Jenna's she when he started to call out her name.

"Jenna!" Balto called alarmed. The door to the shed didn't open. "Jenna!" He called again. He got closer and the door started to swing open and Jenna was there.

"Balt..." Jenna started to say but screamed when she saw what he was carring on his back. Balto slowed to a stop and set the dog down. "What is going on!?" Jenna said in total confusion.

"I found him in an alley," Balto explained. "I thought he was dead but then I saw him move. The vet's not open at this hour so I had no where else to bring him."

"You did the right thing." Jenna assured him. "But are we supposed to do?" Balto moved his head away from Jenna's beautiful face and looked out the small window and saw the snow lightly falling from the sky. He saw the stars dance and shine like they were having a party. Then it hit him. Balto looked back to Jenna.

"I got an idea." Balto said. "But I'm goanna have to do it here, alone."

"Why" Jenna asked.

'"It's kind of privite." Balto told her. Jenna squinted at him for a bit and sighed.

"Ok." She whispered. "What shoudl I do?"

"Go get the pups. They'd wanna see this." Balto suggested.

"All right." Jenna said moving around him. "I'll be back." She whispered and left the shed. Batlo watched until she was out of sight. Balto stepped out of the shed and looked up to the moon and the stars beamind down on him and the rest of Nome through the think clouds.

"Aniu." Balto said. "Mother." He corrected. "I need your help. I found this dog and he's dying. I'm asking as your son, please let him live. He's young and no one, dog, wolf, or human should die at such an young age." Balto finished spaeking and heard nothing. He hopped that his prayer had worked. Balto tunred back into the shed. All of the sudden, a sharp gust of wind came up behind Balto. They wind passed by him and moved over to the dog. The enitre shed was caught in the gust of wind, for a minute or two. Balto turned back to the nameless dog and saw that the cuts and bruses on his body started to heal slowly. "It'll take a while for him to heal." Balto said to himself. He looked back to the sky. "Thank you." He uttered. his ear then picked up the sound of footsteps coming and looked out the door. He saw Jenna, followed by, Kodi, Stark, Dingo, Kiona and Saba coming to him. He walked outside to greet them

"Hey Dad" Dingo said with a smile. The girls all went up to him and gave him a nuzzle.

"So where'd you find this guy?" Kod asked.

"He was i the ally next to the hardware store." Balto explained.

"How bad are his bruses?" Saba said looking over Stark's shoulder.

"Pretty bad. But I'm sure they'll heal in the next few hours." Balto added.

"Did you ever find out what his name was?" Stark asked. "Did he have a dog tag?"

"No. He's been knocked out eversince i found him."

"Can we seen him?" Kiona asked.

"Sure, come on." Balto said turning back into the shed and the others following him. They all gethered aaround the stranger. Looking at him he looked maybe a few months younger than the pups, his fur was a pure brown color with a darker underbelly. Each of them had there own thoughts for him.  

This guy must have been through hell. Kodi thought.

He's cute. Kiona thought.

Poor guy. Dingo thought.

Someone must have really had it in for this guy. Stark thought.

We must what ever we can to help him. Saba thought. Jenna kept her head close to Balto. She was scard for all of them.

"Do you think we should give him a name?" Kodi asked.

"That's a good idea." Balto agreed. "At least until he tells us his name when he wakes up." There was a moment of silence.

"How about Zack?" Stark suggjested.

"That works." Balto agreed.

The other's mumbeled in agreement.

"Why don't you guys get some rest?" Kiona asked. "I can watch him." Stark yawned and that told the others that he agreed with that. They all scattered around the shed. Jenna laid right next to Balto. Kiona sat in front of Zack and watched over him.

"It's ok, Zack." She said hopeing that he would here her. "Your goanna be fine."  

the moon passed over the sky and shrank into the sea. The sun rose over the hills and sent it's bright beams down on Nome. Kiona had fallen asleep and hadn't woken up since. She heard something move and she opened her eyes to Zack groaning and moving around. Kiona jumpped up, in alram.

"Everybody, wake up!" She shouted. Everyone opened thier eyes and look to KIona and saw that she was looking down on Zack.

"He's waking up." Kodi said suprised.

"It's about time." Stark mused.

The all gave Zack some space so he could get up.

Zack, started opening his eyes. Everything was blury.

Oh, my head. He thought to himself as he tried to get his paws to stand him up.

"Is he okay?" A voice called out. Zack gasped and scurried up to all fours. His eye sight became more clear. He looked around him and saw seven dogs all looking at him.

"Wha..." He said in confusion. "What's going on here!?" He said in a panic and started backing away from them.

"It's ok." Kiona's said and that brought Zack to look to her. the vey sight of Kiona's face made him feel like he was goanna pass out agian.

"Wh...Wh...who are you guys?" He said looking around.

"I think the better question is who are you?" Jenna stated.

"What are you talking about?" Zack asked.

"I found you," Balto said stepping forward. "In an alley. You were practiaclly dead."

"I was?" Zack asked.

"You don't remember?" Saba asked.

"No.