My first Balto fic! Slow first chapter. Picks up immediately in the second. 

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CH.1

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I was running, paws barely touching the snow as I flew over it. An icy breeze nipped at my face, but I hardly noticed. Nothing else mattered when I was running. Nothing and no one could bother me because there wasn’t anything fast enough to catch me- except, it seemed, the large canine running beside me.

She was as white as the snow surrounding us and as graceful as the wind we were racing. I had no idea who she was and yet I felt completely as ease beside her. I tried to get a better look at her only to see that she had picked up her speed and was disappearing into the fog ahead.

“Oy, Balto!”

A heavily accented and far too loud voice snapped me from the dream. I grunted and curled into a loose ball under the one, threadbare blanket I owned- or found in an alley, rather, but I was sure that no one missed it.

“Balto!” A sudden chill encased my body as the blanket was ripped away.

“Boris!” I groaned, tucking my legs under my frame in an effort to keep the heat from escaping, “Not okay.”

“Git up already. You need to see this.” I gave one last moan of protest, though I had already decided to see what he wanted. Boris treasured sleep more than I did, and I had to admit, he insisting I awake this early had grabbed my attention- albeit a half-focused, dazed and groggy attention. If he had sounded worried, I would have forced myself to be more alert, but he didn’t.

I finally opened my eyes to look at the old goose standing over me. “What is it?” I sighed, scraping a paw over my muzzle to clear it of the thin layer of snow that had collected there over night.

“Come find out.” He turned his feathered tail toward me as he waddled away and I had to fight the impulse to swat at it. Boris often enjoyed teasing me, but I didn’t appreciate it this early in the morning. Cryptic speech should be reserved for the hours following sunrise- and preferably after noon. Despite my less than enthusiastic interest, I knew Boris wouldn’t let up until I followed him, and I was still slightly curious. The question was, were a few more minutes of sleep worth his increased pestering afterwards?

I rolled my eyes, knowing sleep would not be coming back to me even if I tried, and staggered to my feet. I stretched my legs as I followed him out of the wheel house and onto the deck of the old broken down ship I called home. The weathered wood was currently covered in two feet of fresh, powdery snow from recent storms that made the usually uneventful journey much more tedious than usual. I stuck to the edges where the snow had hardened enough to prevent me from falling through. Boris kept to the railings as his walkway though I half-heartedly attempted several times to knock him off into the snow drift. Had I been more awake, I would have succeeded. As it was, I just wanted to see whatever Boris wanted to show me and see if maybe, somehow, sleep would come back, if only for another hour.

I yawned against the early dawn’s light and realized that I could actually see the sun peeking over the horizon. The recent bad weather had made that impossible for over a week now. The resulting darkness was partially responsible for my current near-hibernation state. Lack of food from the same storm explained another large portion, and Boris waking me up at this absurd hour completed the culprits.

“Storm’s let up, eh?” Boris commented from where he sat on the railing, keeping a wary eye on me for any further attempts to unseat him.

“Yeah. I’m guessing it would still be gone two hours from now and a lot more interesting to me then, too.” I teased.

He gave me a classic Boris glare and hopped off the railing, using his wings to soften the landing so he didn’t plummet straight through the powder. “That is not vhat I wanted to show you. Come see.” In a combination of hopping and waddling, he led me down off the ship and around to the side still in shadow.

I smelled what he was talking about before my eyes could adjust to the light. The scent caused the hairs on my back to stand up and any traces of lethargy immediately vanished from my body.

Someone else had been here.

I padded over and took a closer look at what Boris was motioning to. A trail of paw prints made their way around the entire ship before heading off toward the tree line. Judging by the size of the tracks, this wolf was just as big as me if not bigger.

“So…vhat do you think?” Boris asked, staring at me as though waiting to gauge my reaction. My first thought was that Boris should have acted a little more worried about this than he did. Another part of me was glad he wasn’t panicked because maybe that meant this wasn’t as much of a big deal as my instincts were telling me it was.

“Well it’s not one of the town dogs, that’s for sure.” I sighed, choosing to follow Boris’s lead and play it cool for now, though my pounding heart and heightened senses refused to calm down. “The trail is a few hours old. I can’t believe I didn’t hear him.” I silently cursed myself. While aware of the dangers of living alone on the tundra, I had at least been confident that my senses would alert me to threats- not anymore.

“Vell, you were sleeping quite deeply.” Boris replied with a raised eyebrow, still studying me closely.

I sat back and looked toward the trees. While this ship had been my home for almost a year, I’d never really worried about other wolves. Heh…I say “other” as if I was one. I could hardly be counted among wolves, or dogs for that matter. The wolves stayed in the forest and the dogs stayed in the town and I was right in between them in every sense.

My territory wasn’t all that big, but it wasn’t so much my territory as it much as it was just land that nobody wanted to begin with. It was enough for me to live off of, which was all I needed. I’d never been challenged until now- if I was being challenged. I really had no idea, which was part of the reason for my wariness. The few months I actually had a mother were not enough to ingrain in me the ways of the wolf as I’d never been a part of an actual pack. What I knew was based on instinct and what little I did remember being taught.

“The wolves are getting curious about you?” Boris suggested, letting out a short, nervous sounding laugh. That’s when I started to suspect that he wasn’t as unaffected by this as he seemed.

“I don’t know…” I put my nose to the ground, sniffing a bit more. “It’s just one wolf and he’s out of his territory.” I’d heard that lone wolves were dangerous, but then again, what was I but a lone-half-wolf?

“Maybe you are not intimidating enough, pup.” Boris teased.  I felt a little foolish as I realized his show of nonchalance was all on act on his part to calm me down.

I smiled back, embarrassed, but grateful for the goose’s attempts. In fact, it encouraged me to relax in order to put him at ease in return.  “Well, let me put it this way, Boris,” I started with a sly grin, “If he’s here looking for food, this ‘pup’ is all that’s standing between him and his breakfast of Russian bacon, and I enjoy my sleep.”

The goose eyed me carefully. “Well played, Sir.” Our familiar banter seemed to flip the switch I needed.

A genuine laugh escaped my lips and I shook off my anxiety. I was freaking out over tracks in the snow, after all. My pent up energy from being cooped up for days during the storm was causing me to overreact. If the wolf had wanted to hurt me or Boris, it could have easily done so. Maybe there was a curious wolf out there, like the white one I had encountered not long ago. That thought actually excited me. I’d often dreamed of meeting that wolf again, and asking all the questions I had thought of only after it was gone. I gave one last longing look at the forest before turning back to Boris.

“Well, I’m going to get breakfast. You want to come?” I asked before I dove into the snow and rolled around, releasing the recent build-up of tension from my muscles. I always asked even though I knew the goose hated town. He’d come close on more than a few occasions to being the dinner of quite a few different species that called Nome home. I asked more out of amusement than anything else.

He replied predictably. “I would rather not be ‘uman’s breakfast… or third vheel.”

I jumped up and cocked my head in confusion. “Third wheel?”

“You are telling me snow bath is for all the hybrid-loving people of Nome?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

I gave Boris a look before shaking the snow off my coat, making sure to splash plenty of it onto him. I knew what he was hinting at and wanted to stop the conversation before it started. This particular topic never ended well for me. “Suit yourself.” I shrugged, and started quickly trotting toward the town.

He flew in front of me and landed, halting my progress. “So, how is pretty lady?”

“No idea what you’re talking about, Boris.” I said, glad he couldn’t see the heat rising into my face as I sidestepped him and continued on.

He quickly caught up and hopped along beside me. “Your face says differently, Casanova.”

I chose not to respond, mostly because he totally had me. While usually able to keep a straight face when I wanted