track me. Moving slowly would do me no good. If I made it deep enough into the wilderness, the humans would have a harder time following me and would eventually have to turn around.

My mind set, I ignored the throbbing in my paw and started running. I preferred this to walking anyways. It helped me to clear my head and focus on something else. It went against everything in my nature to run from something like this, and it had been eating at me with every step I took until I picked up my pace and finally came to grips with the fact that it was either this or get killed. I couldn’t exactly reason with humans. I barely understood their language to begin with, relying mainly on body posture and expression to decipher what they were saying. From what I’d seen of humans, the majority of them had next to no knowledge of canine communication either. If I went ahead and did what my heart longed to do, which was stand up to the humans and prove my innocence, the conversation would be quick and short and end with a bullet between my eyes.

I grew less and less aware of my surroundings as I traveled. My paw stopped hurting, my mind stopped swirling, and I was able to relax. The storm went on, but the trees had managed to dull the intensity of it. I climbed on over icy rocks and pine covered hills until I found myself deep in the mountainous terrain with very little idea as to where I actually was. Not that I cared. I rather enjoyed the feeling of freedom it offered. I still longed for home and Boris and Jenna… but until I could return in safety, this would suit me just fine.

I came to a wide river where the frozen banks gave way to raging rapids and figured this would be a good place to rest for the night. Light was fading fast and the temperature was dropping quickly. Before I came to the river, I felt like I could have run through the night, but as I stared at the frothing water, my body changed its mind. Mental exhaustion added to physical and all I wanted was to find a spot to get out of the weather and curl up.

I tried to fight the encroaching thoughts of the past few days as I searched for a suitable resting spot, but Jenna’s face kept appearing before my eyes. Kaltag said she had been locked in the shed after last night. I wondered if she was still there, worried about Rosy, and maybe me, but unable to do anything about it. I knew how that felt. After all that was exactly what I was feeling right now.

It seemed so incredibly unfair that after all I’d done to save the little girl, something like this, which couldn’t be healed with medicine anyone could bring, would try and rip her from the world again. I couldn’t save her this time. I couldn’t even save myself. In fact, I was counting on Rosy to save me. Only her words could change the minds of the humans, but even if they couldn’t, I still wanted her to be okay. She had shown me the only human affection I’d ever known before the serum run. She had a pure heart. She deserved to be okay.

My thoughts lingered on the two girls as I found my bed for the night. There wasn’t much in the way of shelter, but I settled next to a giant, lopsided rock, digging myself deep into the snow before shutting my eyes.

<><><> 

The white wolf didn’t invade my dreams that night, but the dark wolf did. He ran through Nome, snatching up children and attacking the humans who tried to stop him. At one point, the wolf scooped up a small puppy. It yelped in protest, screaming for his mother who cried out after him. The squeals continued long after the wolf had left and I slowly realized that the sounds were not a part of my dream.

I lifted my head, breaking through a few inches of snow as I did so, and blearily searched my stark white surroundings. The sun had finally beaten out the storm and its reflections off the icy landscape nearly blinded me. I listened hard for the noises again and finally figured out the direction of their source.

Crawling out of my snow-den, I headed back toward the river. The cries were growing louder, but I couldn’t see anything. That could have been the fault of the sun’s glare, or I maybe I was just going crazy. Suddenly it all went silent. I looked around in confusion. That’s it. I was going nuts.

Then out of nowhere, the yelps resumed, almost directly in front of me. Finally I spotted it. It hadn’t occurred to me to look in the river simply because it would be insane for any living thing to be in it, but that would be the cause for the cries for help.

A small brown puppy was being swept along with the river, tumbling over the rapids and screaming for help with every breath it could take above water. I didn’t even think about what I had to do. I took a running leap and splashed into the water just down-river of the pup’s position. The icy water almost instantly froze my muscles, but I could only imagine how long the poor kid had been in there and needed to get him out. I kicked against the current and finally managed to get close enough to snatch the puppy up by the scruff of his neck and at least pull him partly out of the river as I lifted my head as high as I could.

We were quickly being pulled along by the swiftly moving water as I struggled to reach the shore. The problem was ice stretched out over much of the river. One sheet of ice we floated past broke off as I tried to hold onto it. I swam harder and managed to grip onto a large rock poking out of the riverbed. The water pulled at me as I tried to hang on, kicking my back legs with everything I had. I managed to place the pup on top of the rock, but pulled him along with me as I slipped off.

I was running out of strength quickly and knew we had to get out, now or never. I made a bee-line for the ice-covered banks, pleased to find that even though the current was strong, it became weaker the closer we got to shore. I reached another sheet of ice and placed my paws on top of it. They broke through, but I immediately reached out again, and again as each section broke free. Finally the ice became thicker and started to hold as I gripped at it with my paws. I placed the puppy on the ice and nudged him as far forward as I could with my nose before I tried to move up onto the ice again. I could hear it cracking beneath me and managed to scoot the puppy just out of reach of the next section that snapped.

As I moved forward, I could finally feel the freezing mud of the bank under my back feet. It was hard enough that I could push against it and gain that extra boost I needed. Using my last reserves of strength, I pulled the back half of my body up and onto the ice. Not giving myself time to rest, as I was afraid once I stopped, I wouldn’t move again, I grabbed the shivering puppy by the scruff again and carried him to a spot in the sun. I shook off as best as I could and dug another shallow den. Placing the pup between my paws, I started to lick him, trying to stimulate him and get his blood flowing again.

He was starting to come around when frantic cries reached my ears yet again, coming closer quickly. The pup’s ears perked up as he listened. “Mom?” He mumbled, lifting his head shakily to look.

“Hey!” Before I could have time to think of the repercussions of being caught with a wolf’s child, I spotted two wolves coming out of the trees, running straight for me. The smaller gray one had to be the mother. She glared as she ran for me. I tripped and stumbled in my efforts to back away from her kid and ended up just lying in the snow, hoping a sign of submission would be enough for her to pause and listen before ripping out my throat.

“Miki, wait!” The larger wolf cried as she placed herself between me and the mother.

The gray wolf only did so because she was more worried about her child than killing me. She went to the pup and continued licking him. He was much more alert now, though still shivering. “Mom! Mom, he s-s-saved me.” The pup stuttered excitedly.

The gray wolf looked to me for confirmation and I nodded slightly. The larger wolf, who was mostly creamy white except for a stripe of black ticking that ran from her nose to her tail, looked down at me with a smirk. Confused, I looked back up at her, not wanting to move yet. If I had wandered into their territory, I was dead, drowning child or not.

“You saved a pup you did not know?” She asked me.

I was surprised when I found it hard to talk, and not because I was fearing for my life. Along with all of my limbs, my mouth also seemed to be frozen. “I wasn’t g-going to let him d-drown.” I muttered in response, keeping my eyes averted.

“Well get up. You’re going to freeze if you just lie there.” She continued, sounding amused.

In surprise, I glanced up at her and saw she was wearing a kind smile. Feeling I was at least safe for now, I staggered to my feet, finding my muscles almost too drained to hold me up. I tried to shake off again, but nearly fell over in the process. If I had the strength, I would have jumped when I found the white wolf leaning against my shoulder to hold me up. She was about my size, maybe a little smaller. It was hard to tell, hunched over as I was, but she was strong.

“You need to walk around. It will help warm you.” She said, continuing to support me even as I started to move around unsteadily on my numb legs.

The gray wolf was focusing solely on her pup, now curling around him to help warm him up with her own body heat,