“Then Scout came, then Banshee, then Buller, then Trigger, then Decoy got here 2 months ago.” He explained, then he was interrupted by Balto.

 

“Oh right, I remember when a dog went missing 2 months ago, it must’ve been you Decoy.” Balto said.

 

“Yup, that’s me.” Decoy answered sadly.

 

“Ever since then, Rick has just been waiting for the right time, when you became more valuable, and then he’d go and get you.” Rylie said.

 

“Why would he want me?” Balto asked.

 

Decoy jumped to his feet and looked at Balto as if he was crazy. “Why wouldn’t he want you? You’re a hero! A champion! Any musher would want you on his team!” he yelled. Decoy walked in a circle and barked at the lock on his cage and clawed at it again.

 

“Yeah, but I meant why would he want to steal me? He’s gonna get in so much trouble for that.” Balto said.

 

“He should’ve gotten in trouble for stealing us too, but the police never caught him. They don’t even know that Rick exists.” Trigger replied.

 

“How do you guys know that I’m a hero now?” Balto asked.

 

“Rick talks about you all the time.” Trigger said.

 

Balto sighed and plopped himself down on his blanket. He was silent for a few seconds, then lifted his head and spoke. “What about your owners? Aren’t they looking for you?” Balto asked.

 

“I don’t know, but Rick tells us all the time that the cops are looking for us, but they can’t find us here. We’re not sure if we’re ever gonna get home.” Scout said sadly.

 

“We’ll probably be here for the rest of our lives.” Buller said sadly as he slowly laid down.

 

“Would you stop saying that?” Scout asked bitterly.

 

Balto rested his head on his blanket and sighed. “The rest of my life?” he thought to himself.

 

A few days later, Balto had already become a little thinner and he was always hungry, even after he ate the nasty food that Rick had given him. His back thighs were constantly in pain from all the whippings that Rick gave him from sledding every day, and his shoulders were aching from all the pulling with the old, uncomfortable harness that he would wear.

 

Just then, Rick walked in and looked at the dogs. “Time to go sledding again!” he said.

 

Rick took a leash from a hanger and tied it onto Balto’s Golden Collar. He tugged hardly on the leash, yanking Balto out of his cage. Rick always kept the sled tied up to a post so the dogs couldn’t run away with it. He hooked up Balto at the lead, then went back in for Rylie, who was now the second dog. Then Scout, then Banshee, then Buller, then Decoy, then the Trigger. Trigger was known as the “wheel dog” or, the dog on the team that was closest to the sled.

 

Balto had never taken notice of his harness before, he decided to take a look. He examined the straps that he was in. The harnesses was old and warn out, and the material was frayed and dirty, Balto had never seen such a terrible and run-down harness in his life. It looked like it would snap and break at any moment.

 

Rick stepped onto the sled and untied it. He grabbed a long whip, he whipped Balto’s back end and yelled. “Go!”

 

Balto and the dogs started pulling on the heavy sled. They started walking at first, and eventually got the sled going. They ran into the woods, getting whipped every few minutes.

 

“Faster Tonrar! Faster!” Rick yelled. Rick only stole dogs with tough or vicious sounding names. But he made and exception for Balto. He decided to change it to “Tonrar” which was Inuit for “Devil.”

 

Balto growled every time Rick called him that, he hated that name.

 

Rick whipped Balto once more and yelled. “Faster!”

 

Balto bolted as fast as he could. The entire team was yanked, and Buller tripped and fell forward. Decoy, Banshee, and Trigger banged into each other, and Scout, Rylie, and Balto were yanked back and landed on top of each other.

 

Balto knew that he was going to be in BIG trouble.

 

Rick got off the sled and stomped over to Balto with his gun.

 

Balto stood up and shook the snow off him.

 

“You’re going to fast!” Rick yelled. He swung his gun across Balto’s face. Balto whined and fell back to the ground.

 

Rick went back to his sled and stepped on it. “Let’s go home!” he yelled.

 

The dogs got back up and made their way back to the shed.

 

Rick unharnessed the dogs, and put them back in their cages. He then unharnessed Balto and threw him in his cage and slammed the door shut. “Your not getting any food on the next feeding day. You’re gonna have to wait for the next one!” he yelled.

 

Balto gasped. The last feeding day was yesterday, he was going to have to wait 5 days until he could eat again. Balto plopped himself down and sighed. He had never been so miserable in his life, not even back when he was rejected by the people of Nome, and all the dogs as well.

 

“Why does he call me Tonrar?” Balto asked.

 

“Because he only likes tough names for dogs. That’s one reason why he took us. So he changed your name to Tonrar. It means Devil.” Buller explained.

 

Balto perked his ears. He had an idea!

 

“What is it Balto?” asked Rylie.

 

“I know how we can get out of here.” Balto said.

 

“How?” Banshee asked.

 

“You’ll see tomorrow.” Balto made an evil grin and laid his head down and fell asleep. He had been up the night before, so he was very tired.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

The next morning, Balto woke up, and saw the dogs already awake and looking at him.

 

“So when are we gonna get out of here?” Scout asked.

 

“As soon as Rick comes in to hook me up.” Balto said.

 

A few minutes later, Rick stepped in and grabbed a leash from the hanger. He tied it around Balto’s collar and dragged him out of the cage. “Let’s hope you do it RIGHT today.” he said piercingly to the wolfdog.

 

Just then, Balto bit Rick’s hand as hard as he could.

 

“AHHHHHHH!” Rick yelled as he held his hand. Balto ran in circles around Rick, causing the leash to wrap around Rick’s legs. Rick fell with a loud thud. The leash came loose and detached from Balto’s collar. Balto jumped on Rick and attacked him. He bit, scratched, cut and slashed him until Rick was covered in wounds. Balto jumped off and unlocked each cage with his teeth. The dogs ran out of the shed as they barked and howled. They stopped when they saw police cars and a big van pulling up to the shed.  

The dogs watched as Rick was arrested and put into the police car. Balto ran into the wild, finding his way home.

 

“Let’s get these dogs back to Nome.” said a cop.

 

“Look! There’s Balto!” said a cop as he pointed to the running dog.

 

“BALTO!” Yelled an officer.

 

“Where’s he going?” asked another officer.

 

“He’s going home. He’s done it before, he could do it again.” said a cop. “Good luck Balto.” he said. All the officers watched Balto run until he disappeared from sight.

 

“Do you think he’ll be alright?” asked the woman who drove up in the van.

 

“Yes, I think he’ll be fine. And thank you for finding Rick for us.” said the officer. The woman who drove up was the one who found Rick’s hiding place, and turned him in.

 

Balto kept running, then he slowed to a walk. “I need to find some food.” he whispered to himself. He looked around, but not a single animal in sight. He sighed and kept walking. “I’ve never been in such a horrible place.” he said as he kept walking. Balto went into the perimeter of the forest and kept walking. He collapsed from hunger. “I’ll never make it home.” he said. He closed his eyes and put his wrist over his muzzle. He eventually fell asleep and stayed that way for hours.

 

He woke up when he heard a sniffing sound in his ear. He opened his eyes and slid his wrist off his muzzle and put his paw on the ground.

 

In front of him, he saw a white female wolf. She had grey tips on her ears, and her pure white fur was thick and warm all over her. Her legs were slender, and had huge paws, almost as big as Balto’s. She was also the same size as him. She was the most beautiful wolf he had ever seen.

 

Balto lifted his head and sniffed her nose. The wolf licked Balto’s nose and giggled. Balto snuffed and shook his head. The wolf, as a reflex from Balto’s snuff, snuffed and shook her head as well.

 

“Are you ok?” asked the wolf.

 

Balto stood up. “Not really, I’m starving.” Balto replied. “Who are you?” he asked.

“My name’s Nakita, what’s yours?” The wolf said with a smile.

 

“Balto.” he answered.

 

“I have some left over food, you’re more than welcome to have some.” Nakita offered.

 

“Thanks.” Balto said. He smiled at Nakita and they both headed off to her den.

 

“You know, you seem a little smaller than the other wolf’s I’ve seen.” Nakita said.

 

“Well...that’s because I’m half dog.” Balto

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