A/N: Another longer one. More action. My favorite.

<><><><>

CH. 3

<><><><>

I woke up wishing I hadn’t.

My muscles were stiff and heavy, making any movement feel extremely uncoordinated and painful. The lacerations scattered across my body stung and throbbed with every new frigid breeze that slipped through the cracks in the aging wood.

Despite my exhaustion, discomfort kept plans for any additional sleep at bay. Maybe it was a good thing that I didn’t fall back asleep. The white wolf had taken over my dreams again, accompanied by the human hunter who shot her. In a variation of the same dream, she’d been running alongside me again when the dark wolf from the night before joined us. He ran with us for a while before suddenly leaping at the white wolf and taking her down with a powerful snap of his jaws. 

I didn’t know what the dreams meant, nor did I care very much. I had bigger problems than recurring nightmares. Take, for example, the one I was actually living in. A lone wolf was running around Nome and I was being blamed for his misdeeds. Despite my apprehensions, I had to go back to town. I had to know what was going on.

Boris was gone from my side. I assumed he’d gone out for breakfast. The ongoing storm limited visibility, but I could tell it was early morning. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself and climbed to my feet, fighting my protesting body. I immediately noted the tenderness of my left front paw and cursed the lone wolf for his horrible aim. Far from being a deadly bite to the neck, an aching paw was simply one of the most annoying and crippling injuries I could have sustained.

The snowstorm raged outside, casting the world into various shades of gray. The town was definitely not visible, but I could find my way easily enough. I wasn’t looking forward to this trip for many reasons, but the weather didn’t even make the top five. Before I could even leave the shelter of the wheelhouse, however, I stopped, catching the faint smell of someone familiar. Based on the way the gusts were blowing, which was every direction at once it seemed, whoever it was had to be close.

I caught another whiff, and simultaneously heard a bark which sounded far away as it was carried on the wind. Immediately I relaxed. I next saw a hazy yellow form at the base of the ship’s deck.

“Come on up.” I called.

Kaltag trotted across the deep snow easily with his long legs, bred for speed in his job as a sled dog. I always found it ironic that despite my being constantly ridiculed for being a half-breed, the great majority of working dogs in Nome were nothing but pure-bred mutts. Kaltag was no exception, but people had given his mash of genetics a name. Something like a Chinook. Not that I looked down on him for it. I just found it ironic. Weren’t all dogs bred down from wolves at one time or another? Every so called pure-breed was once an experiment. Somehow the dogs had forgotten that when bringing up my own heritage.

Kaltag had been one of those dogs. In fact, if he had been doing what he was now a few weeks ago, I would have been more than happy to chase the mutt back to Nome. However, since his lead dog had been disgraced and confined to his master’s home, Kaltag and I had become fast friends. Turns out he never really hated me as much as he pretended to. Out of guilt, he was overly nice to me in fact.

“Balto.” He greeted breathlessly as he gladly stepped out of the raging blizzard into the wheelhouse.

I nodded in greeting. Not much in the mood to be interacting socially, but deciding to humor him. “What brings you out here? Must be important to brave a storm like this.”

“It’s pretty crazy isn’t it? The most insane, the most uh-…” He stopped and glanced over his shoulder. His tail hung uncharacteristically low and his ears slowly started to drift back to lie almost flat on his head.  

Now he had my attention. For Kaltag to interrupt his own vocabulary rants, something had to be going on. “You heard about Rosy?” I asked, not really stating it as a question. Of course he had. The dogs knew more about the goings on of Nome than most of the humans.

Kaltag offered a sympathetic look. “Listen, Jenna told us about the wolf. We know it wasn’t you, but even though Rosy’s alive, the humans-.”

“Wait.” I stopped him. “Rosy’s okay?”

He cocked his head a bit. “I wouldn’t say okay, but maybe alive, surviving, holding on-.”

“But she’s not dead.” I said, feeling as though my heart had finally started beating again after hours of sitting lifeless in my chest.

“I think that’s what I just said, but you’re obviously not listening. Balto-.”

“No, I am.” I felt myself smile. “Rosy’s alive.”

“Balto.” Kaltag snapped, making sure to catch my eyes before going on. “The humans still think you attacked her.”

There went my heart again… “But Rosy, she would have told them-.”

“She hasn’t woken up yet. She was hurt bad. She can’t tell anyone anything yet, but the humans aren’t going to wait. They’ve all assumed it was you.” He hesitated, shifting his paws nervously. “They want blood now.”

My stomach seemed to rise into my throat. “What… what are you saying?”

Kaltag slowly raised his eyes to meet mine. “They’re coming to kill you, Balto.” He admitted softly.

I stepped back, shaking my head. “They wouldn’t. They can’t think I did this. I saved her life!” I barked.

The tawny mutt couldn’t look at me anymore. He stared at the floorboards. “I’m sorry, Balto. You know humans… they jump to conclusions. They only believe what they see. They didn’t see the wolf. Look, we don’t have a lot of time. The humans have already set out. Dallas, the hunter’s lab, is leading them in the wrong direction, but he had a hard time convincing his hunting partner, that elkhound, Nash, to play along. Nash doesn’t like deceiving his master and he’s not entirely sure if he believes Jenna’s story…” Kaltag rushed through the last part, but I managed to untangle his words.

“What, the dogs think I did this now?” I couldn’t help but feel completely betrayed. People I could wrap my brain around, but the dogs? They should know better.

“Very few of them, Balto, I swear. These are the same jerks that didn’t even cut you a break after the epidemic, so no big loss, right?” He suggested with a forced smile.

I could only narrow my eyes in response. Nothing I did would ever be enough, would it? Nothing would ever change my heritage, so I would forever be the outcast, the scapegoat.

“Balto, you have to get going.” Kaltag urged, breaking me from my daze. “Dallas can only hold the hunters off for so long before a human remembers where you live.”

“Where’s Jenna?” I asked.

 “Locked up in the shed. Her people didn’t want her running after you. Listen, Rosy will wake up, and she’ll tell everyone it wasn’t you. Everything will be back to normal and you can come home again. But right now, you need to go, or they’re going to kill you.” He looked at me with pleading eyes.

Great, I finally had a friend of my own species and I had to run away. “Boris,” I managed to stutter, “he’s out. I have to wait for him. He needs to know.”

“I’ll tell him then. Seriously, Balto, you don’t have time.” Kaltag pressed.

“Okay, okay. Just make sure you warn everyone about that wolf. He’s dangerous.” I stopped next to his shoulder as I moved to leave. “Listen…Thanks.”

Kaltag forced a small smile. “I owed you.”

I looked around my shabby excuse for a home and then out into the raging snowstorm. At least the weather would slow down my pursuers. With one last nod to Kaltag, I set off into the white void.

I immediately made a break for the tree line. It would provide more cover from both the hunters and the storm. There were plenty of caves back in the nearby mountains where I could bed down and wait out the both of them.

My thick fur sheltered me from the bitter cold, and the wind was usually at my back, easing my journey, but my paw continued to ache. That tiny little wound was proving to be my worst enemy in all of this. It didn’t hurt enough to slow me down, but only a little while after setting out, I was leaving blood streaked paw prints in the snow. I might as well have dipped myself in neon paint and run around the city screaming “Shoot me!”.

I looked over my shoulder, as if I could tell how close the hunters were, but all I got was a face full of blowing snow. So my options were to either carefully plod along on three legs or distance myself from the humans. Honestly, sticking around wasn’t very appealing. The snow was quickly covering my trail, but my scent was still there and would be enough for the dogs to track me. Moving