better get going.

The small snowfall soon turned into a snowstorm, which grew to be so strong that Aleu could hardly see her nose in front of her face.
She had been walking for days. It was early November by now, and the Alaskan tundra was doing its fair share to remind her of that. The snow made it all the harder to climb the mountains, and there were several mountains for her to climb over. Her visibility was greatly reduced, and oftentimes she would find her own paw prints in the snow—a betrayal that she was walking in circles. Food was scarce, but she was somehow able to find at least one filling meal each day. The day before, she surprised herself and found two: one mountain goat and the other a moose.
Aleu made it a point to take her time. She knew that, the more energy she exerted, the quicker she would be lost to the elements. She paced herself, controlled her breathing as much as possible, and whenever she found a small cave or other kind of shelter from the blinding snow, she took advantage of it to rest.
Were she in a hurry, Aleu could probably make it to Nome within the span of a week or two. But since she was being careful—and rightfully so—she figured that it would take until Christmas to make the rest of her journey.
She didn’t know what time of day it was—or was it really day? Her body’s clock had stopped working long ago, and now all she could do was go to sleep when she was tired and start walking again when she was awake.
It did not balance out so well.
There was a path that she was trying to take, but it was so hard to see it that she ended up actually needing to backtrack three times. After a while, the snow started clearing, and Aleu started seeing that the path in actuality zigzagged all over the mountain. At first she had thought it was a moose path, but after seeing the zigzag pattern, she decided that it was actually some sort of a fox trail. But she didn’t really care what it was; it led roughly north, and that’s all that mattered.
Day after day, she followed this path, as best she could. She managed to get her meal each day, and her style of getting drinking water was slow but sure: she melted snow with her breath, drinking only a few drops at a time. After a few days she got tired of this process and ate the snow whole, melting it inside her mouth for a crunchier yet quicker way of getting her necessary water.
And now, as she reached the top of the latest mountain, the snow cleared enough for her to see all the way to the base. She smiled in happiness: below her, less than a mile away, was a town.
It had been years since Aleu had seen human civilization, and she welcomed this latest discovery. She felt a spring in her step as she started her descent; her trip would take her through this town, and she was excited to be among humans again.
Soon, she was inside the town. It was like Nome in almost every way, except maybe it was a little smaller and had fewer people. There were plenty of private shops, and Aleu stared in their windows and marveled at the various items that she saw. There were houses of every shape and color. There were post offices, supermarkets, and…
Aleu stopped in front of the last building, reading the sign. After three years of not reading anything, the skill had almost left her completely. But eventually she could make out what it said. 
Pound, she thought. What’s a pound? She shrugged, deciding to look through a window to get an idea. There were no windows, however, so she decided to go in through the door to check it out.
The door was closed shut and locked. Shoot. She decided that it really wasn’t worth her time anyway, so she walked away.
She had hardly gone a few feet, however, when the door flew open and a man jumped out. He looked around quickly, saw Aleu, and raised an object in his hand, pointing it at her.
Aleu gasped, all too familiar with the weapon. It’s a gun! She carefully calculated where the gun would shoot, and took a calm step to the left.
The gun shot and missed.
Aleu wasn’t petrified; she was curious, if anything else. But she didn’t move, deciding it was best to stay where she was. She eyed the gun carefully, trying to figure out why it had made such a soft sound when it had fired at—
The gun fired again. This time it did not miss.

CHAPTER 5

BALTO STOOD IN front of the carpenter’s shop. He was trying to persuade the carpenter that he did not want a bone to chew on, he did not want a new water bowl, and he did not want an extra pat on the head. He was trying to let the carpenter know that he needed a new window cover for his boat.
“I’m sorry, boy,” the man said, “but I have no idea what you are trying to tell me.”
Balto lowered his head with a sigh, and walked away. After Saba had suggested the carpenter, Balto’s hopes had risen. Now he was back to where he started: a hole in his boat and no wood to patch it with.
So he decided to visit another one of his daughters, this time going to Tydye’s house. Tydye was one of his kinder children; he couldn’t remember a time when she had gotten angry. She had gone through a lot of hardships, as well, but had always come out of them with a smile.
As Balto came up to her house, she came out the doggy door out front. “Hi, Pop,” she called. It was obvious that she was expecting him.
Balto smiled in return. “Hey, Tiger.”
Tydye looked at his face, and concern began to show on hers. “Is something wrong? You look awful.”
Balto stared at her. “You know, your sister said the exact same thing.”
Tydye smiled. “Yeah, I know. Saba came over here earlier.” Her smile vanished. “But I was serious: you do look awful.”
“Yeah,” Balto admitted with a sigh. “I don’t sleep well anymore.”
“Because of Aleu?”
Balto slowly nodded. “I don’t know why I keep thinking about her. My dreams seem to always involve her.”
“How so?”
“I constantly see her going through mountains, being led by a mouse.”
Tydye raised an eyebrow. “Aleu…and a mouse?”
“That’s just what I said,” Balto agreed. “Anyway, the mouse leads Aleu, but for some reason, the dream always ends before I see where Aleu gets to.”
Tydye shrugged. “Wherever she goes, you cannot help her. Her journey is her own.” She chuckled. “Besides, it’s just a dream.”
Balto slowly nodded. “You’re right. I know you’re right, but some part of me is wondering why I’m dreaming about it. Will I be involved in her journey?”
“Pop, you’ve got to let it go.” Tydye stared at him. “I’m serious. Let it go.”
Balto gritted his teeth. “Now you’re sounding like your mother. And…you’re both right.”
Tydye smiled. “It’s okay. Besides,” she added mischievously, “I know where we can get enough wood to cover your window.”
Balto froze. “You…” He smiled, and then advanced on Tydye. “I’m going to kill you!” he shouted, purposefully letting Tydye outrun him. They both laughed all the while.

Aleu woke up in a sweat. He was hot, too hot to be healthy. She tried moving around, but she felt something pull her by her feet, preventing her from moving even an inch.
She opened her eyes, trying to look around. She found herself looking through thin metal bars. Am I dreaming? She tried to look past the bars, but saw only a bright light, which blinded her.
“Oh, look, she’s waking up,” somebody said. Aleu raised her head, trying to look around even more. She saw the bars moving away, only so that other bars could appear. She looked down, and saw that her feet were tied up with rope, which was attached to two of the bars.
Suddenly it hit her: she was in a cage.
Aleu desperately started looking around. She saw other cages littered across the room, most if not all of them holding dogs. One of them looked at her. “What do you suppose she is?” it asked.
“I don’t know,” another responded. “She’s doesn’t look like any species of dog I’ve ever seen…probably a wolf.”
“I’m not a wolf!” Aleu shouted, not out of anger but out of habit; she never did like being called a wolf.
“Oh, look!” a Scottish terrier announced. “She’s got a wee voice out there! She speaks!” The room erupted in laughter.
“Wait,” Aleu said, trying to get up again but without success. “How did I end up here? I thought I was shot.”
“That you were, miss,” one of the border collies said. “But it wasn’t with a bullet. The humans call them tranquilizer darts. But we call them…” He looked to his cage-mate. “What do we call them?”
“Sleeping pills,” was the response.
Aleu looked down at her chest. Sure enough, a little hole was there, marking the spot where the dart had hit her. “Ouch,” she murmured. Then, curious, she added, “Funny. I didn’t feel a thing.”
“Yeah, you got lucky,” one of the dogs said. Then, as if remembering something, she added, “And…welcome to the pound.”
Aleu stared at them all. “Pound?” she asked. Then, realizing what a ‘pound’ really was, she began to panic. “No!” she yelled. “I don’t belong here. I’m in the middle of a journey.”
“What kind journey?” a cocker spaniel asked.
“I’m going to Nome!” Aleu screamed. She looked at the lone door in the room, and yelled, “Nome! Nome!”
One of the German