teams. As the evening started to wear on, the other teams came in one by one. The next couple of teams also took the mountain shortcut, before Sonya and Steele rolled in right after sunset, back in eighth position. Both seemed to be fuming at each other by now, and after getting unhooked, Steele stormed off, as if they'd been arguing for most of the day. Balto noticed Sonya's glower as she started to dig the hole in the snow she would settle into for the night. Hoping to offer some support, he padded up to her.

"Hey, how's it going?" he asked.

"Fine… I guess," she mumbled, trying to vent her frustration out through her digging.

"Is that leash of yours still holding up?"

"It actually was… until this morning at least," she replied. "I don't know what's happened, but ever since he saw you, it's like… it's like he's turning back into what he was before. It's actually a little scary to see him like that again. If he's not careful, he's going to get the team in trouble, and then it won't matter if we win or not."

"Well, I'd still say you ran pretty well today," he added. "Besides, it's just the first day - a lot can change before the finish."

"That's what I keep telling him, but he's so stubborn."

"Should we go find him?" he asked.

"Naw, it's better if you just let him vent. Besides, you should spend your time resting - you have your own team to look after, so let me worry about my egomaniac."

"Okay… well, goodnight and good luck in the race."

"Same to you… who knows, we might be neck and neck for the finish," she returned.

----------

Other than Steele fuming around, nothing seemed out of place that night. This was because very few noticed that not all the teams that started were in Minto. While having a team pull out of the race was a common occurrence, it was rare for it to happen that early in the race. After all, it was only the first day, and the race's toll wouldn't be seen until later on. Whatever the cause, one team was running very late, but just being in last place would be the least of their worries.

The first indication that something was up was the sound that woke Balto up in the middle of the night. He'd just been enjoying his dream, almost at the finish line again when the barking of an approaching team reached his ears in his little cubby in the snow. While it roused him awake, he elected to just roll over and doze off again. Nothing at all was out of the ordinary, so there was no reason for him to be concerned.

"Holy hell! What happened here?" The cry pulled him out of his doze, and his head snapped up, looking towards the source of the exclamation. It was definitely from a human, and judging by the tone, something very out of the ordinary had just happened.

He got up and saw the team that had just come in. The dogs hooked up to the sled looked exhausted, and some were lying on the ground, whining. However, their whine was not out of exhaustion - it sounded more like fear. Around the sled were a group of humans, all looking at the cargo bed. They muttered between each other, and the general mood was more of shock than anything. Balto trotted over and poked his head between two sets of legs to see what had captured all of their interest. Once he saw it, he knew that there was very good reason to be concerned.

In the cargo bed was another dog, covered in wounds. While injury was a real possibility during the race, this dog had not been injured in an accident. The scale of the wounds was too great, and it looked like a couple of his legs had been broken. He moaned softly from the pain, but the severity of the injuries was not the main thing that concerned him. What worried him was that he instantly recognised what made them.

The dog was covered in bite wounds from an attack, and he knew that only one thing could make wounds like that - a canine, like a wolf… or even another dog.

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Chapter Six: The First Casualties

"What did this to him?" a man asked, but the injured dog's owner only shook his head.

"I don't know, it all happened so fast," he replied.

"Oh my, the poor thing."

"C'mon, let's get him inside. This feller needs to have his wounds looked after."

"But the nearest doctor is back in Fairbanks!"

"We'll do what we can here."

"Hey, what happened to you?" Balto asked, but the injured dog only let out another moan. His eyes were barely open and unable to focus on him – whatever attacked him left him in such a rough shape that he was barely aware of his surroundings. "Hey, c'mon buddy, can you hear me?" he queried. "Just give me a sign you're okay."

"Balto, leave him be." Kassen's voice cut in, gently nudging him away with his gloved hand. "Go on, shoo. This doesn't concern you," the human continued, before joining a few others in lifting the dog out of the cargo bed.

'That's where you're wrong,' he thought as they tried to gently to move the wounded dog. Despite their best efforts, there were still a few times where he let out a loud yelp of pain. They gingerly moved toward a nearby house, leaving Balto with the frazzled team. A few of them were licking fresh wounds while others just quivered in terror; whatever had happened was very sudden and devastating. Despite his musher's wishes, Balto was going to get to the bottom of this because he could do something they couldn't – he could talk to the only witnesses.

"What's going on here?" another voice called. It was Kaltag, accompanied by Star, Sonya and a few dogs from the other teams.

"One of the teams got attacked," Balto replied.

"Attacked? By what?" a burly malamute demanded.

"We don't know, but the team's right there so we can ask them," Balto added, before turning his attention to the team. "Are you guys okay?"

"You tell us," a dog with a gash on his shoulder replied, his face solemn. "We're just glad that we got here in one piece."

"Can you tell us what happened?" Sonya asked. "Start at the beginning."

"I suppose our troubles started when we took a wrong turn shortly after the race started. We ended up lost and off the trail for hours before we finally found the tracks of the other teams," the same dog explained. "By then we'd lost so much time that it was dark when we cleared the mountain spur. We thought that falling behind would be our only problem, so our musher didn't mind stopping us near a grove of trees. He just had to… well you know how humans sometimes get on long trips… nature calls." A few dogs nodded in agreement, allowing him to continue his story.

"He just went off to find a good tree, but no sooner was he out of sight, then wham! Something clear jumped out at Mickey," another dog added. "We had no warning and the fact it was dark didn't help us any. It came out of nowhere, dark as the night around us."

"By the time we knew what was happening, our lead was already down and it was bitin' into the next one," a third dog added, this one with some scratches on his muzzle. "A few of us tried to help, but we were still tied up in our harnesses. We were practically sitting ducks out there."

"Fortunately, it didn't take long for our human to hear our barking, and the second he arrived, the… whatever it was, just took off and ran," the dog with the shoulder wound continued. "It ended as quickly as it started, but not before it did some serious damage."

"Did anyone get a good look at what it was?" Balto asked.

The members of the team mumbled a bit between themselves before giving their answer, "Not really. As we said, it was dark by the time it happened, and whatever it was had dark fur too, allowing it to blend into the night," one of the unhurt dogs replied. "It certainly didn't stay around long enough for anyone to get a good look."

"Good thing, because I don't think we'd have lasted much longer than that," the dog with the shoulder wound added, before shuddering a little. "I don't think I've ever seen a creature as vicious as that. It was like it had no soul."

"We were still able to run, but with one dog down and the rest of us banged up, the going was slower than we would've liked," the second dog continued. "If that thing wanted to get us again, it wouldn't have had any trouble. We're lucky we got here in one piece."

"What should we do? What if whatever attacked them follows them here?" Star asked, his head darting back and forth in apprehension.

"I want everyone to go back to their teams, make sure that all are accounted for, and spread the word," Balto urged, before turning back to the team. "You guys can stay here and try to get some more news on your friend. I'm sure most of us will want to know how he's doing."

"You can count on us," the first dog affirmed. With that, Balto and the group broke off to return to their own teams.

"I think you should know I couldn't find Steele before I went to sleep," Sonya said. "I don't know where he is."

"If he isn't back with the team by now, then we'll go looking for him. He can't have gone far - he'd have no reason to," Balto replied.

"Do you