Steele.

Steele was motionless on the ground under a tree. His blood stained the snow around him and he knew he probably would never leave that spot again. His vision was fading but he could still make out his attacker, a large, and angry, grizzly bear. Steele may have had endurance and skill when it came to mushing, but he put up a pitiful fight against the bear. It wasn't much for the bear to fend off his attacks anyway, but Steele was in no way a match for it. He closed his eyes one last time as he saw the bear lift up a paw, preparing to do the final deed to end Steele's life.

"This is where I end, where my entire life of accomplishment turns meaningless, I only regret that I could not apologize for my egotistical ways". Steele thought.

Almost impatient by the bear taking its time to kill him off, he opened one eye just in time to see the bear being fought off by... Something... His senses blinded by pain, he could not see, smell or hear very much of anything, but he made out a wolf-like animal, it was much smaller than Balto would have been, but for reasons he would never know, he perceived it as the very wolfdog that he has hated his entire life.

"Thank you... Balto" his last thoughts before slipping out of the conscious world. From this point in time, and on, Steele would learn that he had to put his ways behind him, and respect Balto for his deeds.

But it wasn't Balto, was it? No, Balto woke up right as Steele slipped into a dreamless sleep.

Balto.

The clouds overhead looked like the bottom of an ocean. It was chilly, as always, but when the sun chose to peek through, it got hot. So it was another one of those days that would be freezing in the shade, and hot in sunlight.

"What a beautiful day" Balto said with a hint of sarcasm.

He got up to survey the horizon. Balto was awake early today; he went over and sat out on the front of his boat like he does every morning. He was looking and smelling into the distance, his powerful senses reaching the town, along the far coast and to the other side of the plain where it met dense forest. He wasn't smelling for just anything, but was honing his senses on Jenna.

Luckily his vision wasn't one of the things to use against him to show his age. His sense of vision and smell were just as good as they were when he was a young pup, and because of his half-wolf heritage he could use his nose to "see" things that his eyes can't. He "watched" as Jenna and Rosie walked from the store back home, he loved her scent, it was a scent he would not forget for all of eternity. His eyes closed and enjoyed the cool Alaskan air flow through his scruffy coat as he continued to sniff about.

Balto chuckled as he knew he no longer had to steal her scent from afar. He could actually go up and talk to her, and nuzzle her as they kissed, to feel her fur against his and not forgetting being able to take in her scent at point blank as it stuns him. He smiled, not believing how it was possible, how he accomplished something that made Jenna his mate, and lets not forget his six beautiful pups. His smile grew larger as he began to mentally plan his trip to Jenna when suddenly something foul hit his nose like a kick to the muzzle.

Steele.

The smell was faint, but for some reason to Balto it felt like Steele was hiding right behind his boat. Balto waddled over to investigate, but when he got there, Steele was nowhere to be found. Balto took another whiff of the air then realized that the scent was much farther away, towards the forest behind his boat.

"Better not be playing any tricks" Balto said to himself. He turned to head back, when a change of wind brought new smells along with Steele's. Blood, fear and... A bear... He froze, Steele was defiantly hurt, and he was almost sure there was a bear involved. Balto hesitated for a second before bolting off in the direction of the dense forest that surrounds the town. As he neared the source, not 100 meters away, a few new, faint smells appeared. He didn't think much of them, but it was enough for his brain to make a note of it and classify it as "wolf". When he finally got there, he traced the smell to the other side of a tree; he slowly looked around it, knowing it would be a horrific site.

Sure enough, there he was. Steele, well, whatever was left of him.

Steele was as good as dead, his body completely destroyed, Balto counted, 4.. 5.. No at least 8 broken bones and those were just from what he could see. He had a huge bite mark, and a missing chunk of flesh removed from his back. Numerous scratches and bite marks all over the rest of his body. his muzzle was ripped at the nose, exposing his teeth and gums fully. He brought his paw to Steele and gently nudged him over, then felt his heartbeat. 4 seconds passed before it finally got back in a steady rate, for seconds until it stopped again... For a few seconds. Balto shivered, a small part of his cruel side was smiling at the sight of the good-as-dead dog who tormented him all his life, but the much larger compassionate side - the one Jenna fell in love with - told him he needed to help. First things first, he would have to... sanitize what wounds he could reach so that it didn't get infected... The very thought of having to lick Steele, even to potentially save his life, made him vomit. But it was due in part because of the smell and the shock of seeing Steele's mangled body. He looked around, halfway hoping nobody was around to see this, and then he started. He began licking the larger gashes and cuts, then the bite marks, checking to make sure there was no sign of rabies; thankfully the bear didn't have it. He stopped and held back his stomach after realizing again that he was licking Steele. But had to return to finish his aid, his licking lead to Steele's head and to his muzzle, where Balto's worst fear at the moment happened, Steele momentarily woke in shock and saw Balto licking his muzzle! He was instantly knocked back out, possibly due to his left front leg all but completely destroyed. Balto was surprised but continued what he was doing.

"Great, just what I need, Steele recovering and spreading rumors that Balto was sneaking kisses to the love of his dreams while he was unconscious" Balto muttered. A sound came from the trees behind him; Balto's ears perked up in response, but quickly figured it was nothing, then sat and stared at Steele for a second before walking off to the left. He grabbed a branch that had leaves and many sticks on it, a veritable sled, then brought it over to Steele and, after gently tossing his body into it, dragged the "sled" off towards town.

"Clever, Balto". Said an anonymous being that watched them the entire time, and Steele's real savior.

Balto couldn't shake the feeling that someone was following him as he dragged Steele towards town. 10 min past until he reached the forest edge. The feeling shook off as soon as he left the closed forest and entered an open stretch of land roughly 2 km to reach the small settlement of Nome.

Steele's savior sat and watched, it was a female wolf pup, not older than a year. If she was going to talk to Balto, she would have to enter town...

Siku.

She had just awoken from another frightful night that consisted of waking up every hour or so at the slightest sound, every time fear caused her to wait even longer before falling back asleep. Siku watched from behind cover as a large black and white malamute entered the forest. He was muttering something... something about stealing his fame and glory... And his girl, then he mentioned Balto. She instantly perked up, listening closer.

Siku was little more than a pup at 11 months old, but she was not a dog, she was a wolf. A wolf that was abandoned mere weeks after she was born. Sound familiar, huh? Her fur was almost a pure white over her body, mostly being puppy fur, but had grey patches of fur on her chest and belly. Her muzzle also had a darker grey shade. But her eyes were a mysterious difference, her left eye has Blue pupils but her right eye was Brown. She had nobody in this world, and she rarely ever saw other wolves or dogs in her life. So this was interesting to her. The malamute stopped at a tree and looked around for a few seconds then... he started crying. It was a sort of angry, yet desperate sort of sobbing. Siku felt like she should go and ask the dog what was wrong, but of course instantly retracted herself; after all she didn't know anything. Something else approached from the opposite side of Steele, it was a small brown bear cub.

"Go away disgusting excuse for a life; I will kill you, right here, right now if you don't get out of my sight!" Steal barked, obviously angry that someone saw him crying.

The bear cub ran off in fear. Siku now knew that this dog wasn't too friendly. Steele pulled himself together and started walking off again, Siku followed secretly. She was fascinated by seeing another of her species not knowing, much less caring of their different genetics. She was a wolf, and he was a pure-bred Alaskan Malamute. Two different species from two very different worlds, but she didn't know any better so she followed him and accidentally knocked some snow off of a low lying branch. This got Steele's attention and he zipped around and walked over to her to investigate. She did nothing but drop down and huddle in fear at the possibility that she was going to die right then and there. Before Steele even caught eye of the creature, he was literally thrown off a good 10 feet into a tree, by a bear...

Mama bear.

Accompanied by her cub, she was furious with the dog, and he stood nothing against it. He tried to run off but was grabbed by the back right Leg and tossed into the air carelessly by the bear. It