She felt like he was making fun of the marking on her eye.

 

Ashlie wasn’t going to let Banshee get away with that. She lunged forward and locked onto Banshee’s neck and took him down. Banshee flipped onto his back and kicked Ashlie, trying to get her to let go, but Ashlie still held strong. She released her hold on Banshee, and pushed him down the hill with her two front paws. Banshee rolled and slid down until he flipped onto his stomach and dug his claws into a huge boulder. Ashlie surfed down to Banshee and put her paws over his, ready to push him down further, until Balto pushed Ashlie out of the way and immediately pulled the injured husky up and dropped him down.

 

Ashlie rolled and then skidded to a stop.

 

Balto approached Ashlie and growled fiercely at her.

 

“Leave him ALONE!” Balto scolded.

 

Ashlie snarled viciously at Balto as she stood up.

 

Rylie cut in front of Balto and nudged him away.

 

The rest of the dogs looked away and continued climbing.

 

“You alright Decoy?” Scout asked.

“Yeah.....sure.” he replied weakly. He looked at and Banshee, who was still climbing, and he whined. His white fur was now stained with blood.

 

“Jenna, are you ok?” Balto asked as the dogs continued to climb.

 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” she replied miserably.

 

Balto took the lead and stopped when he reached the dirt, roots, and stones.

 

The dogs caught up with Balto and stopped.

 

“Well...lets go.” said Balto.

 

The dogs began to climb up, but it wasn’t easy. They would sometimes slip or fall when they took a step since the dirt wasn’t very compact, and it would sometimes hurt since there were several small rocks.

 

“Man, you know, this would be a lot easier if this dirt was slightly muddy or something.” Decoy said.

 

“Yeah, everyone knows that would be easier.” Scout agreed.

 

“Deal with it pup.” said Banshee.

“Don’t listen to him, you’ll do fine.” said Brendon.

 

“Balto, slow down!” Jenna said as she strained to keep herself standing.

 

Balto looked back and saw the dogs falling behind. He slid back down towards them, but he soon found out that it wasn’t such a good idea. The rocks cut into his pad and he started to bleed a little bit.

 

“Ah!” Balto yelled.

 

“Are you alright?” Ashlie asked.

 

“Yeah....fine.” Balto replied. He turned around and continued climbing.

 

Ashlie noticed that there was a big bloody paw print left on the dirt. She gasped, and then paused for a moment. She shook and regained focus, and kept climbing.

Jenna’s back right paw slipped and was cut on a small rock. She was going to tell, but she didn’t want to cause any more trouble. She inhaled sharply and continued on.

 

Brendon was walking behind Decoy, when all the sudden, Decoy just paused and stood still.

 

“What’s wrong?” Brendon asked.

 

“Nothing, I’m just getting really tired.” Decoy replied.

 

Brendon nudged Decoy up the hill more. “Keep going, you’ll make it.” he said

 

Just then, Scout slipped and fell on her side. The rocks were scraping her as she slid down towards Steele. She banged into him, and Steele fell to his knees, and slid down. He cut his elbow on a sharp rock and yelped.

 

The entire time, the group of dogs were watching as they yelled and gasped.

 

Steele finally skidded to a stop, and he and Scout both panted heavily.

 

“You alright?!” Rylie yelled frantically.

 

“No! My side and paws are all scraped up.” Scout said weakly.

 

“I’ll help them, you guys keep going.” said Sage. She carefully walked down to help Steele and Scout.

 

The rest of the group kept climbing.

 

Finally, they were there. Balto stopped a few feet from the top and watched the dogs pass him up, making sure they got up safely.

 

Rylie had gone down to help Sage with Steele and Scout, so he was the last one to come. Balto figured that he wouldn’t have to wait for Rylie. He let him catch up and they both continued to climb the rest of the way.

 

Then, they suddenly slipped and fell.

 

Decoy grabbed onto Rylie’s scruff, careful not to hurt him, and then grabbed onto his back with his paw, but his paw slipped, and his claws slashed Rylie.

 

Balto continued to slip, and scraped his elbows and his stomach as he tried to hang on.

 

Ashlie, who had already made it to the top, jumped down and grabbed onto Balto’s paw with her mouth, forced to bite down so he wouldn’t let go, and dug her claws into Balto’s shoulder blade.

 

Then, Ashlie slipped and she and Balto began to fall. Decoy grabbed onto her tail to pull her up, but Decoy fell and slipped too.

 

Decoy banged into Brendon as he was slipping down, causing Brendon to fall along with him.

 

They all slid down towards the long boulder protruding from the slope. The dogs slid onto it, and Decoy hung off the edge on his side. He kicked and whined as he tried to make his way back up.

 

Decoy flipped onto his stomach and tried to pull himself up. Rylie grabbed onto Decoy. But as he was about to pull him up, the dogs suddenly dropped down lower.

 

“What was that?” Ashlie asked.

 

Then, the boulder they were on began to point downward. The weight from all the dogs was too much for the thin rock, and it was about to fall.

 

“Let’s go!” Balto yelled as he got up.

 

The dogs at the top of the hill started jumping around and yelling.

 

Rylie pulled Decoy up and they followed Balto and Ashlie up the hill.  

The boulder fell off of the slope right after Decoy’s back paws lifted from it’s surface. It dropped down 12 feet, and rolled to the bottom and landed with a loud bang. It kicked up a bunch of dust as Balto, Rylie, Brendon, Ashlie, and Decoy made it to the top.

 

The group of dogs ran around, asking if they were alright.

 

Balto looked at the way down, and it seemed pretty calm, and he could also see the river again.

 

“Alright, we’ll rest for a bit, then we can head down to the river.” Brendon said.

 

All the dogs knew why they had to head for the water, so they all just nodded and agreed.

 

“Ashlie, I’ve been meaning to ask you, where did you get that thing around your neck?” she asked as she examined the string and furs.

 

“I was in the woods, and I saw this old woman, and a young girl sitting in front of a fire. Judging from the looks of them, they must’ve been Native Americans. I figured that they were camping out or something, and I saw they had food. I snuck up on them, and then when they looked away, I walked up to their camp site, and tried to grab a scrap of their food. Then, they looked at me, the child seemed frightened, but the old woman just smiled. I liked her for some reason, and she must’ve seen something special in me. She handed me the meat I was going to steal, and I ate it up as fast as I could. And then she pulled this out of her pocket, and put it around my neck. I’ve kept it with me ever since. Not a very exciting story, but that’s what happened. She must’ve had a passion for wolves or something.”Ashlie explained.

 

“Not interesting? That’s amazing.” Jenna replied.

 

The dogs rested for about 10 minutes, and then headed down and made their way to the river. They all jumped in to wash off all the dirt and blood, and anything thing else from wounds that could’ve been infected. They stuck around for a while to grab a couple of fish, then they reluctantly continued on.

 

At night, the dogs were in a forest area again. They all lied down close together to get ready to sleep.

 

Rylie laid down next to Scout.

 

“You alright?” Rylie asked.

 

“I guess so. I’ve just been through a lot. I can’t wait until it’s all over.” Scout replied.

 

“I know...me too.” said Rylie. He thought for a moment, and licked Scout’s scraped up paw.

 

When he stopped, Scout spoke. “Thanks Rylie.”

 

“No problem, Scout.” he said. He laid his head down and sighed.

 

“You guys?” Decoy said.

 

“What is it?”Ashlie asked.

 

“I just wanted to say, I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused. And for what happened on the slope today.” he said.

 

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” Balto said with a smile.

 

All the dogs rested their heads and closed their eyes.

 

Scout rested her head, and then thought for a moment. She slipped her head under Rylie’s neck until his neck was on hers. She closed her eyes and drifted off.

 

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

Day 6

 

The next morning, the dogs woke up. They were very excited, home was only a few days away.

 

The pack traveled down, and then came to a cliff. It went straight up, several feet, about 50 or a little more.

 

“Now what?” Brendon asked as he licked his lips.

 

“We just have to take this path around the cliff, and then we should start heading down.” Balto said.

 

The dogs walked onto a thin path that was sticking out from the perimeter of the cliff, only about 5 feet wide, and on the opposite side of the cliff, was a steep hill that lead down to flat, muddy, and snowy, ground. On the other side of the muddy pit, was another

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