its path and take them by surprise… just like the attack two days ago.'

Immediately, alarm bells started going off, warning him of impending danger before he heard the sound of boots crunching in snow. It was Gunnar, coming to rouse the dogs for the morning. The sun was barely over the horizon, but they would want to start early if they were to maintain their position in the race. One by one the rest of the team woke up and stretched themselves out.

"Is it mornin' already?" Nikki asked, finishing with a very loud yawn. "It feels like I just lay down."

"Better get used to it Nik, we're going to be running low on sleep for the next little while – more time on the road that way," Kaltag replied, stretching his back and hearing a few pops as everything loosened up back there. "Why can't you be more like Balto over there? He's already up and ready to go."

"'Cause I like my beauty sleep."

"In that case, you definitely need more of it," Star quipped, causing the rest of the team to burst into laughter, while Nikki just grumbled at him. Balto however, was barely listening to his friends' shenanigans. He was anxiously surveying the area, trying to see if there was anything out of place. A quick headcount proved his entire team was accounted for, and looking at a few of the other teams showed nothing out of the ordinary.

"Hey Balto, watcha lookin' at? Youse look like youse ate some bad kibble," Nikki asked.

"I'm just seeing if… did anyone see or hear anything strange last night?"

"Well, Kaltag's snoring was probably loud enough to wake the dead, but other than that, no," Star replied, right before the Chinook cuffed him with his paw.

"What's up, Balto? You look like something's wrong?" Kaltag asked.

"I don't know if it is… it's just a feeling I'm getting," he replied. "Maybe we should take a look around-"

"But we're going to be strapping up and leaving soon!" Kaltag protested. "I know the past couple of days might have freaked you out a bit, but there's nothing wrong today." No sooner had those words been uttered than a yell erupted a short distance away.

"Wanna bet?" Balto replied, before dashing off to investigate. His musher noticed him break away, and called for him to return, but he refused, leaving the man to give chase. He ran towards the voice and found a man holding a tangle of sled harnesses while cursing every nasty word found in the English language. The man's dogs watched him anxiously, and a couple of the harnesses fell from the man's hands to the ground. A quick glance at them showed that they were heavily damaged.

"There you are you crazy mutt! What's gotten into you?" he grumbled, grabbing onto Balto's collar before noticing the other man, who paused his frustrations to watch. "Sorry, my dog just got away on me," he explained.

"You're lucky – by now a runaway would be the least of my problems," the other man replied. "Look at this, what do you see?"

With his hand still on Balto's collar, Gunnar looked over the harnesses. "It looks like those harnesses are all cut up there."

"Not just cut up, look closer," the other man continued, showing one of the breaks in the line. "You see these teeth marks? Something chewed through them – all of them. The lines too – these things are useless now!" Sure enough there were tell-tale marks in the leather lines that looked like something bit down on it – and it definitely wasn't a human. "I don't have any spares and without them, I can't hook my dogs up!"

"Hang on, maybe there's something we can do for ya," Gunnar put in, letting Balto go to help in any way he could.

The news greatly unsettled Balto, as it confirmed his worry. Something else had happened in the night, right under their noses. The storage shed was only a few yards away from where they had been sleeping, so it wouldn't have been much of a stretch for whoever did it to come over and sock them in the night.

"What's with all the hollering?" a voice called behind him. It was Sonya, and judging by her yawn, she had been abruptly awoken by the raised voices. A few other dogs followed, including some from his team as well, all curious to find out what was going on.

"What happened is that someone or something destroyed our supplies," one of the dogs from the affected team replied. "If our owner can't pull together some replacements, then we won't be able to hook up to the sled for the race."

"Surely there's got to be some spares hanging around. You guys will be up and running in no time," a young malamute piped in, but a few dogs shook their heads.

"A small town like this wouldn't be as well equipped as some of the bigger towns. I doubt it if there are any to spare around here," an older dog put in. "I also doubt that the other teams will be able to donate spares because we don't usually carry them – we've got to save as much weight as we can for the race."

"But who would chew up sled harnesses? They certainly don't taste that great," Star asked.

"Yeah, but whatever did it destroyed all of the harnesses," Balto said. "And if all of them are destroyed, then the team can't run… which is probably what they wanted."

The street fell silent with that, with everyone starting to think the same thing before Kaltag broke the quiet. "Are you saying… it was sabotage?"

"It's starting to look that way," Balto affirmed. "The fact that all the harnesses were destroyed shows that this was deliberate. Someone wanted to stop this team from running the race."

"But why?" Sonya asked.

"Isn't it obvious? To knock them out of the race of course," another voice put in. It was Steele, once again late to the scene.

"And to not just knock anyone out of the race, but us, the guys who are currently in first," one of the dogs from the affected team continued. "If we can't run, then all the better for the rest of ya."

"You don't think one of the other dogs here did this, do you?" Sonya asked.

"Heh, it's certainly possible," Steele replied. "These races can be quite competitive, and some might do anything to win."

"Yeah, I'm sure you'd know all about that," Kaltag snidely added, catching Steele's attention.

"And just what do you mean by that?" he grumbled.

"Nothin', nothin'… it's just that I know you well enough to know what you've sometimes done to win," Kaltag added, his expression neutral.

"What, you think I did this?" Steele snapped, baring his fangs. "Why you miserable little fu-"

"Hold it, we don't know for sure that it was one of the dogs here, so we can't start pointing paws at each other," Balto cut in, sensing the tension forming between Kaltag and his former boss.

"You may think that, but the way I see it, anyone here could be a suspect… even you, half-breed," Steele replied, pushing his face right up against Balto's.

"You seem pretty sure about that Steele, but do you have any proof?" Balto countered, not letting Steele's accusation rattle him.

"I don't need any proof; I've never trusted wolves and I never will," he muttered, pushing Balto back a bit before storming off. He made sure to give Kaltag a good shove to the side as well, before stalking off down the street. With that, the rest of the dogs departed, some glancing at others with suspicious eyes. A couple of those suspicious eyes fell on Balto as well, discouraging him. Sonya however, stayed behind, her expression neutral

"Great, it's almost like Steele's wanting to start a witch hunt here," Balto grumbled.

"It's the way he's always done things," Kaltag continued. "He gets everyone worked up to win them to his side, and then uses those who are with him to push back those who aren't. He's probably behind this - doing things to scare dogs and keep them in line."

"Weren't you listening when I said pointing paws won't help us out at all?"

"But it makes sense. He was probably behind the attack two days ago too - why else would he have vanished for so long?" Kaltag retorted.

"There's no way to know if this is related-"

"But we can't trust him! You only know a part of what he's done," Kaltag exclaimed.

"Then why don't you tell us," Sonya added. "If you know Steele the best, then tell us what he's done."

"Lots of things. He's snapped at dogs when they come too close, sometimes he even rams them from the side. Once he forced a team right into a tree, just to get them to back off. And then there's all the stuff he did to you," he explained, turning to Balto. "I'm sure I don't need to remind you how nasty he could get."

"You don't, but when I look back, it doesn't quite fit this," Balto added, taking Kaltag by surprise. "Yes, he could be a bully and yes, he could turn nasty, but a lot of what he did was often spur of the moment. You know as well as I do that Steele was often impulsive – even when he turned on us in the serum run, he was acting only out of anger towards me," he explained.