her to move any further. As she lowered her head and eyelids in dismay, Boris simply explained his reason for thwarting her path. “This is a journey for Father and Daughter; you must have faith in them.” 

Well, she did have faith in Balto . . . but it was her daughter that she was more worried about. Aleu was only a yearling, and running out into the woods with no clue on how to survive was dangerous – and Jenna had learned that at an early age. She had felt a strange, ominous connection to her from the day of her own birth, but it was something that she had just now begun to remember . . . something about her own past that made the situation very critical.

I have to tell her . . . and Balto . . . She thought, but she might as well follow along with this charade for right now and show Boris that she could manage her emotions with the current situation. “You’re sure Balto has her trail?” Boris nodded, making an agreeable noise with his beak. “And you’re sure Balto’s all right?” Jenna asked with a tinge of concern in her voice. As a mother, it seemed that she was almost always worried about things sometimes. 

“Don’t worry, Jenna,” The gander began to rub the husky’s head as he spoke, setting her mind at rest with his touch and words as he reminded her of their connection to each other. “Remember, they’re both well equipped – they’re both part-wolf.”

She began to smile when she heard those last words. Yes, they are, aren’t they? Inside, Jenna let out a slight chuckle as she talked to her inner self and watched a relieved Boris take his leave of the mother’s house.  

Once he had left, she collapsed onto a basket that was lying within the shadows of the storage house. The basket was slightly musty, the smell was stale, but it smelt of blood and dog . . . it was a place of memories to her.

Ah . . .This is where I struggled and strained over a year ago, Jenna placed her head on the side of the wicker basket, reminiscing of the most painful and yet most wonderful moments of her young life. All those long hours of intense labor . . . I can remember feeling each contraction and every push that I made, bringing each of my six children out of the darkness of my womb and welcoming them into the bright, wide world that I have made my home. She sighed as a small smile formed on her face, and a familiar scent passed through her nostrils. Aleu . . . Her smile grew wider. My first-born . . . my wild daughter. I wish I was with your father right now, looking for you out there. Jenna sighed again, remembering what Balto and Boris had said to her earlier in the day; she had understood that because Balto had to tell their daughter about her wolf-like appearance and heritage, it was his duty as a parent to find her and bring her home, hopefully mending their broken fence. 

I wish I could tell you . . .

Suddenly, her ears pricked up once she recognized that Aleu’s scent wasn’t just in the basket – it was outside of her house too, and as noticeable as daylight in the high noon sky. Unknown to her, a thin mist began to line the edge of the house. 

She’s . . . here? Impossible!She lifted the rest of her head up and began to approach the doorway carefully, pausing after every few tiny steps to sniff the ground, confirming her thoughts. It is her! She’s close!

Jenna darted out of the side-house, rushing quickly into the evening streets of town and still tracking the mysterious perfume of her runaway daughter in the wind. Before she knew it, she had reached the border between the forest and the tiny town . . . and Aleu’s scent continued within. 

I never told Balto about when I was younger . . . She thought as she panted, catching her breath from running. This time, she did notice the translucent fog as it grew in front of her, covering the highest pines with a thin veil of light silver haze. I didn’t know any better back then, but that was when I learned something he should know about myself . . . Jenna closed her eyes and tilted her head back slightly, remembering when she was still a precocious pup.

It was sunny that day when she, a young seven-week old pup with recessive amber-hazel eyes, had curiously ran into the forest outside of Nome, the town her parents raised her in. She was always raised in such a prim and proper society by her red-coated mother, Tasha, and her brown-furred father, Tundra, and she knew that in about a week, she would be with a new human – an owner to call her own. For once, she wanted to experience the wild outdoors for herself, for she saw it as being beautiful and majestic whenever the sun’s shining gaze passed over it, but her parents never allowed them to leave town for safety reasons. 

“Wolves are out there, honey,” her mother would always remind her. “If you’re unprotected out there, who knows when one of them will come up and take you! It’s far too dangerous.”

Without her parents or three siblings noticing her sneaking through the back door of her house, Jenna had scampered away like such a naughty, mischievous puppy. At last, she was free out in the open wild. Her mouth opened wide with glee as she leapt forward, giggling happily with every step she made within the safety of the woods.  

The rush of the nearby stream, rolling past rocks and jagged stones . . . the mountain fresh breeze that whipped around her fur . . . the melodious symphony of the birds and wildlife that whistled into her ears . . . Her senses were all newly heightened from every aspect and detail of the rough country that was laid out in front of her.

So this is what real freedom feels like . . . She thought as she stopped at a comfortable rock and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath of the fresh air and savoring it. At the heat of the moment, the young pup felt a strange energy deep inside her soul . . . one that she had never noticed before in her short life of only seven weeks. 

“Aaa-whooooo . . .” was what came out of her lips . . . for no reason at all. She giggled, thinking that the fact a howl came from her mouth was completely crazy.

Suddenly, a strong, sinister shadow of a scruffy yet strong dog pulled her up off the ground, as if she were a rooted carrot being harvested from a patch of quaint garden soil. She squealed in fear, thinking it was a large wolf that had grabbed her from her neck fur. 

“Aah! Wolf!” She screamed out in her high puppy voice. Never before had she felt so frightened in the few weeks she had been alive than she was underneath the jaws of this stranger canine. “Someone help me! Mommy! Daddy! Help! It’s a real wolf!” She continued to cry out, hoping that someone would save her from this nightmare.

However, the intruder that grabbed her quickly carried her to a safe place underneath a tall pine near the river and dropped onto the soft grass beneath the shade of the tree. She let out a soft squeak as gravity returned to her body, let out a groan, and looked up at the one that stole her from her newfound freedom. Once the pup looked up at the dog’s face, she gasped, recognizing it as someone she never would have expected. 

“Huh . . . Daddy? What are you doing here?”

The she-husky sighed, remembering how relieved she was that her father wasn’t upset with her sudden fascination with the great Alaskan wilderness. 

I never knew that he was interested in the forest too, but I knew he was a trained sledding dog like Mom was . . .

I thought that he loved the outdoors because he had been used to always being surrounded by it while he was running on the sled . . . but that was when he told me the real reason . . . a reason that he never told anyone, not even Mom before she was separated from him over a year ago . . . 

After a moment, Jenna placed a slender foreleg into the welcoming brush that lined the forest. Without hesitation, she continued into the forest, not caring anymore about her appearance or her lover’s warnings.

Sorry, Balto . . . but you and our daughter aren’t the only ones that are well equipped for this journey . . . 

I may not look it, but I’m part-wolf too . . .

END 

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Author’s Note (after): 

Yes, I made Jenna a quarter-wolf too.

Go ahead. You can flame me, comment me or do whatever, but I’ve always wanted to make Jenna rebel against Balto’s wishes. (Hence the title, “Rebellion” . . . originally, I tried titles like “A Mother’s Secret” and “Jenna’s Rebellion”, but just plain “Rebellion” speaks volumes. Gosh, I love short titles!) I mean, who hasn’t wanted to read something so far from the ordinary WQ storylines, right? Besides, I know most of you guys (unlike me) hate WQ as it is, so it doesn’t hurt to spice it up a little bit. 

Anyway, let me just straighten things out: this is a one-shot story . . . that doesn’t actually take place in the Balto storylines (even though, I’m sure some fans would like it if it did . . . right?). I stopped it before she runs catches up to Balto because Jenna never did that in the sequel, and I probably won’t write that part . . . (I’m not going to, but if someone’s interested, PM me or something – maybe we can start something!)

Besides, I always wondered that if Balto and Jenna’s other five pups could survive with husky looks and part-wolf blood, Jenna could be able to as well . . . thus the idea of making Jenna have a secret: her father is actually half-wolf too. (Actually, Tundra has made an appearance in a couple of my other stories: “Forbidden Bond” – as the best friend of Balto’s actual father – and most recently he has been in “StarCrossed” as the head of the Capulet family; in each fic, he remains as Jenna’s father of course.)

To conclude this note, I hope this one-shot has left you intrigued in some way . . .