BY: Anthony E. Rotramel

Started: 08/20/05

Finished: 09/04/5

Pages: 108

Words: 15682

Note: This story was inspired by Balto, (copyright 1995), Balto II: Wolf Quest (copyright 2000) and Balto III: Wings of Change(2005) by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment. The character’s Shadow, Dash, Melody, Max, Flash, Timbre, Sheik, Lima, Thunder, Shade, Blaize, Lightning, June, Talkeet, Rayne, Gareth, Drake, Ben, Tyrel, James and the events of this story are copyright 2005 by Anthony Rotramel. The other characters are copyright by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment

Prologue

Balto was just walking through the gate to his home.

Balto and Jenna had spent over two hours, just talking.

“It was good to talk to her for once,” Balto thought. “She’s right, we haven’t done that in a while, been too busy I guess…”

Balto stopped walking.

“Too busy for Jenna?”

He shook his head and stepped through the gate.

“I need to re-assess my priorities.”

He had been hoping that Jenna would help him convince their daughter Aleu to not go back to her pack, not yet.

As he looked up, he saw a gray shadow sneak around the house.

“Oh no,” he said aloud. “Aleu…”

Balto ran at the Shadow, which turned as he approached.

Aleu dropped into a fighting stance.

When Balto stepped into the light, she stood up.

“Oh, Dad, it’s just you, you scared me.”

Balto sighed.

“Aleu, what are you doing?”

“Well, um… uh…” Aleu stuttered.

She sighed.

“Oh screw it,” she said, “I have to go back to them Dad.”

Balto sighed again.

“Aleu, I told you…”

Aleu cut him off.

“Dad, I’m their leader, I’ve got to go back, god only knows what kind of conditions Gareth has them living in… they’re my pack.”

“Aleu,” Balto retorted, “I told you, I already went, and they’re too strong right now…”

Aleu cut him off again.

“I know Dad, but they are my pack, my responsibility…”

Her voice rose as she talked, until, when she finished, she was shouting at him.

“… give me one good reason why I shouldn’t go, and I won’t.”

“I can think of four.” Balto said.

“Oh yeah, and what are they?!” Aleu shouted, near tears.

“Follow me, and I’ll show you.” Balto said.

“Fine!” Aleu yelled. “Lead the way!”

Balto sighed and walked into the small forest behind the house, Aleu followed.

Balto stopped walking when he reached the clearing that Aleu had put her pack in for the time being.

He pointed at Shadow, Thunder, Sheik and Lima.

“One… two… three… four.”

Aleu scoffed.

“What are you talking about?”

Balto stepped in front of her.

“I mean all of them need you, alive, which is something you won’t be if you go back now.”

Aleu’s gaze traveled over her children, and came to rest on Shadow, who was sleeping soundly.

Balto saw a single tear well up in his daughter’s eye, and then slowly run down her face, until it reached her nose, and fell to the snow.

She sighed and stepped forward.

“Oh Dad!”

More tears came out of her eyes then, and she laid her head on her father’s shoulder.

“I don’t know what to do.”

Aleu began to sob.

Balto put his paw on his daughter’s back.

“I’m… I’m so confused right now.”

“Shhh…” Balto said, “It’s okay Aleu.”

Aleu buried her muzzle in her father’s thick fur.

“I… I want… want to help them so… so much, but…”

Aleu became incomprehensible then.

“It’s alright Aleu,” Balto said, “everything’s going to be okay.”

Aleu said nothing else, just cried.

Balto held his daughter and comforted her as best he could, as she grieved for her lost pack.

Chapter 1

At that moment, Kodi was standing outside in the town of White Mountain, staring up at the night sky.

His team was making their weekly mail run, and they had gotten a late start, and so had to stay the night here.

Kodi sighed.

He was glad that the team was doing so well, but their mail route had expanded.

“I haven’t been home for any length of time in about three months.” He thought. “Man I miss Dusty, and our family.”

Their pups were growing, and were now almost six months old.

“Getting old enough to take care of themselves.” Kodi thought.

He had some regrets in that area.

“I’ve missed out on a lot of that.” He thought.

The team had kept him away from home a lot, and he’d missed the day when their eyes opened, when they first started to explore the world…

“…but the team is my job, and Dusty knew that.” He thought.

He sighed again.

“Still I wish I’d been able to be there more, wish they knew me better, but there’ll always be regrets…”

Kodi sighed, and turned, walking back to the barn, the team, his team, were sleeping.

He stopped, and looked upwards again, at the racing lights in the north sky.

“I wonder what Dusty’s doing right now?” He thought.

Then he yawned.

“Got to get some sleep,” he thought. “I’m gonna need it when we head home tomorrow.”

Then Kodi walked into the dog barn, where he laid down, and was soon fast asleep, dreaming of home.

The same lights that Kodi had been watching in White Mountain, shined down on Nome as well, and lit up the street that a gray dog made her way carefully down, turning into an alley.

Dusty looked behind her, making sure she wasn’t being followed, as she knew Dixie and Sylvie’s affinity for gossip.

“That’s all I need.” Dusty thought.

Her heart fluttered a bit, as she thought of where she was headed.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Dusty sighed and continued walking down the alley way.

Ben was a nice dog who had saved her life not long ago. He wasn’t bad looking either.

That thought made Dusty shiver.

She stopped.

“What am I doing?” She thought. “What if he finds out.”

Dusty checked behind her again.

No one there.

She continued walking down the alley.

“It’s his own fault.” Dusty thought. “He’s gone so much with the team now, that I don’t hardly ever get to see him, and when he is here, it’s only for a few days, and then he’s back at it again.”

She sighed, and stopped again.

“Is it so bad to want to feel loved, to feel love?”

Dusty knew in her heart that what she was doing was wrong, and was also a ticking bomb that would probably eventually explode in her face, but her mind over ruled that feeling.

Dusty’s thoughts drifted back to when she had met Ben, barely a month ago…

Dusty knew the dangers of the road, and she knew that she shouldn’t do what she was about to, as she sprinted full out at the sidewalk.

Alai, her son, was running down the middle of the road.

Dusty saw the truck, knew what was going to happen, and also knew that she had to do everything in her power to stop it, even if it meant taking his place.

The truck was too close, she wasn’t going to make it, a tear etched it’s way down her face as she leapt over the sidewalk.

“Why’d I let him get so far away from me?” Dusty thought.

Across the street, a black husky sat on the porch of his home.

He saw the young dog running down the street, and knew that it was dangerous, but it wasn’t his child, and so wasn’t his place to correct him.

Then he saw the truck.

The husky jumped up and leapt over the railing of the porch, then he saw, as he sprinted toward the street, a gray dog, probably the pup’s mother, running for the road as well.

“She’s… beautiful.” He thought.

He shook his head.

“Later, there’ll be time for that later.”

She wasn’t going to make it.

The husky realized this as she jumped over the sidewalk.

The husky kept running.

Dusty hit the ice covered street, and slid into Alai, knocking him out of the way, however, she was now staring at the truck’s grill.

Her eyes went wide, as she realized that she wouldn’t be able to jump clear.

“I’m gonna die…” Dusty thought.

The driver of the truck saw her then, and slammed on his brakes.

The truck slid on the ice, barreling right for her.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion then, as the truck bore down on her, smoke curling up from it’s locked up brakes.

Dusty closed her eyes, and a single tear fell from her eye.

“I’m not ready,” She thought.

Then she