be back?" he asked.

"He was going to be late tonight, so I don't think we'll catch him tonight," she said, before yawning widely. "I wouldn't blame him if he went straight to bed – I know I'm ready to crash right now."

"Yeah, but you're also carrying more than yourself," he noted, taking a quick glance at her swollen belly. "Do you know when they're going to come, because right now you look about ready to pop," he observed.

"For the umpteenth time, no... but it's almost been nine weeks so they will be coming very soon."

"Well, let's hope that you can hold off on that until tomorrow because I don't think Balto would want to miss that, them being his pups and all."

"I hope so too," she agreed, stopping briefly to let out a small groan.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I'm fine – the little guys were just acting up a little… don't worry, it's passing," she replied and continued walking.

"I'd say those pups are eager to get out into the world too," Kaltag put in.

"No argument here," she replied, just as they reached her shed. "Thanks for looking after me Kal. Have a nice night."

"You too Jen – sleep tight," he replied, letting her enter her shed while he turned towards his own home.

While Jenna just thought that her pups were kicking around again, she didn't know that they would have a surprise in store for her that night…

----------

Chapter 4: Six Bundles of Joy

He was running and it didn't take him long to figure out why. He wasn't running a race or running to see his love – he was running with the raven again in his dreams. The landscape shook, crumbled and crashed of its own accord while he raced along to avoid the destruction. He evaded the crumbling ice, carried on an ice floe towards what his dreams always carried him towards - the wolves with the unearthly glowing eyes that called to him, leaving him torn. He wanted to be back with Jenna and his family, but the raven's call urged him forward, growing louder until it became a deafening roar.

"Balto! Wake up!"

He shut his eyes to block out the vision, right before a sudden cold shocked his entire body. He snapped his eyes open and found himself sopping wet on his boat, while Boris stood in front him, holding his water dish and wearing a very annoyed look on his face.

"What? What? What's the matter?" he asked.

"The matter is you are having dream again," Boris replied, poking Balto's head with his wing.

'Dream or not, there are so many better ways to wake me up,' he thought as he shook the water from his thick fur. "So what if I was – it's just a dream," he retorted, echoing the words he'd used so many times before.

"HA! This 'just a dream' is keeping you from a decent sleep, and if your eyes get any droopier, you'll have to keep zem open with toothpicks," Boris said, pulling one of his eyelids open for extra effect.

"Boris, they'll stop drooping if you just go away and let me get some rest."

"Wrong, you won't be getting rest with that dream hanging around like dark cloud."

"Ugh, I hate it when you get all dramatic," he grumbled, averting the questioning gaze from his friend.

"How else am I to reach you? I'm telling you boitshick-" he said, grabbing Balto's muzzle and bringing it closer to his face. "If you keep having the same dream again and again, it meanssomething!"

Balto wrenched his muzzle free with a grunt and started to get up. "Boris, dreams don't mean anything. They're just… dreams," he replied as he let out a wide yawn. He trotted out of the wheelhouse and made his way over to the side of the boat. "Now, do you want to come with me? I have to go check on Jenna," he asked, before vaulting over the side and landing on the freshly thawed-out beach. The sand crunched underneath his paws as calm waves from the blue-green sea lapped at the shore, producing a calming rhythm that Balto had missed during the winter.

"Of course I come – I'm not finished nagging you yet!" Boris cried as he followed Balto towards town. Try as he might to filter out the old bird's pestering, Boris continued to try to convince him that his dreams had some sort of meaning or message.

'Oh give it a rest. Even if it was a message, I have no idea who'd want to give me one, much less how'd they'd do it in my dreams,' he thought as he walked along the tundra, passing by some sparse patches of snow that had yet to disappear.

"So, if dreams mean nothing, then why does it have a raven and a pack of wolves, eh? Why not pickled herring?" Boris asked, finishing a long speech that Balto had only been half listening to.

"Because herring would be in one of your dreams, not mine."

"Precisely - raven and wolves have meaning only to you – Balto, look!" he gasped, pointing to what stood in front of them. It was the totem pole that Balto used as a marker to Jenna's, and the carvings on it instantly grabbed Boris' attention. "On totem pole there is raven and wolf!" the old bird cried. While Boris saw the carved figures as some sort of omen, Balto thought differently. He'd passed by it countless times during his life, never giving the old pole of wood much thought. However, he was familiar enough with it to find a few holes in Boris' theory.

"Calm down Boris, there's also a fox and a wolverine-"

"Oi, such scary creatures. They should only live vell far away from me," Boris cut in.

"And a bear and a caribou," Balto continued, ignoring Boris' comment as he listed all of the shapes carved into the wood. "They're just wood carvings, Boris.

"Yes, I know, I know. Humans use them to tell stories; but of vhat, I don't know," Boris mused, while Balto decided to give a more thorough look at the totem pole. Despite passing by it so many times, he'd never taken the time to take a closer look. The carvings were arranged so that the animals were stacked one on top of the other, with the raven overseeing them all, its wooden wings stretched out as though it was ready to take flight.

"Balto, maybe seeing the raven and wolf on totem pole is making you dream something very important?" Boris suggested.

"Like what?"

"Like something you've forgotten… or maybe something you're supposed to know?" Boris explained in a whisper, as though it was some classified government secret.

"Look Boris, all I know is that the totem pole marks the shortcut to Jenna's and that's good enough for me," Balto replied, wanting to finally drop the subject. 'I don't think there'd be anything related to wolves or ravens that I'd be forgetting... or is there? Nah, it's more likely that the whole totem pole thing is just a coincidence. I shouldn't get myself caught up in what is probably a wild goose chase.'

"Ooh boy, stubborn," Boris grumbled, but Balto didn't continue it further. The dream that morning had given him enough wolves and ravens for one day. He was eager to move on and see how Jenna was doing.

'I hope she's doing okay today. She's so close to having our pups - maybe I should put my visits to Maska on hold until after they're born,' he thought as he entered the town. 'I'd hate to think about missing what could be the most important part of my-' His thought was cut off when he heard rapid barking closing in on him. The source was a small terrier charging towards him, obviously cheerful about something. So cheerful in fact that it slid to a stop and crashed right into Balto's front legs. Fortunately, his small weight wasn't enough to knock him over, and the terrier was quick to regain his senses.

"Aye! There you are laddies," the terrier greeted with a very thick accent that Balto hadn't heard before. The terrier wasn't a dog he knew personally, but he'd seen him a couple of times around the town. "I've been smellin' all over for ya," he exclaimed while jumping in the air. His antics made Balto wonder if this dog had truly great news, or if it simply had a little too much coffee to drink in the morning.

The terrier's constant bounding and barking was starting to become a great annoyance for Boris, who held his head to try to block the sound out. "Oi, would you stop with the bouncing and make with the talking?" he groaned. "I'm getting dizzy!"

The terrier got the last of its barking out of its system, before finally delivering its message. "The stork… has landed," he declared. "I repeat - the stork has landed!"

"Jenna?" It didn't take much for Balto to understand the meaning behind the terrier's message, and when he put two and two together, he bounded away, knocking the excited terrier over and leaving Boris behind in the alley.

'It must have happened during the night - ugh, and I'd been sleeping in my boat only a mile away when I should have been by her side. I've been looking forward to this for weeks and I miss it by a hiar. Oh, I hope she isn't mad at me for this,' he hoped as he dashed towards her house. There was no denying it - his pups had been born, and it wouldn't be long before he'd get to see them for himself. He wasn't sure what to