toward the edge of the crowd.

Drake was still running.

His lungs burned, his legs hurt, his shoulders ached, and he could feel a distinct sharp pain in his left front paw, but still he ran.

“I’ve got to do this.” Drake told himself. “I must not lose!”

As he came over the hill Drake could see the Applegate ahead… but no Steele… not team.

“Did they already beat me?” He thought.

Drake’s spirits sank.

He heard barking then.

Drake looked off of the edge of the pass, and saw…..

STEELE!

The team was just ahead and about twenty feet below him.

“I can do this...” Drake thought.

Suddenly he hear d the musher’s call.

“Whoa boy! Whoa!”

Drake looked up.

He was running headlong at a cliff.

“I can’t stop,” Drake thought, “not after all of this.”

He increased his speed.

“Can I make it?” He thought.

Truth be told, Drake really didn’t know, he just ran.

The edge was growing closer and closer, and Drake was beginning to wonder if his death was as well.

“Here goes…” He thought.

Then the ground dropped from beneath his paws.

Drake heard the musher and several dogs on the team scream as they plunged downward.

The sled hit the ground before Drake did, and bounced, throwing the musher off the back.

Drake landed pretty hard himself, and felt a sharp pain in his leg.

He kept running, the jump having placed him about six inches in front of Steele.

Drake looked back to see the musher dragging along behind the sled.

“Good thing he tied himself on this time.” Drake thought. Then he turned back to the approaching town.

The musher pulled himself back up on the sled.

Whoo-hooh! Yeah! Move on boy! Move on! Let’s go Drake! Let’s go!”

Drake could see the finish line now.

“Almost… there…” He thought.

“Almost there.”

Jenna was sitting right beside the finish line as the teams came over the last hill.

She jumped up.

“Drake!” She thought.

“Come on Drake!” She yelled.

“What!?” Dixie said, standing as well. “It’s… it’s not possible…”

Jenna smiled and barked.

Steele and his team shot over the hill then, hot on Drake’s tail.

“Here he comes.” Dixie said.

Steele pulled alongside Drake.

“Come on Drake, come on, you can do it!” Jenna thought.

“Oh no.” Drake thought, as he saw Steele coming up fast on his right flank.

“There’s no way he’s beating me this close to the finish line.

Steele pulled up alongside Drake.

Both of the dogs were out of breath.

“Good…. Good job today….. Drake…” Steele said. “… but…. but I’m afraid… I have… to …. Cut you off…”

Steele suddenly lunged sideways and bit Drake’s leg, puling it out from under him.

Drake went down on his side, sliding with the momentum that he’d picked up coming over the hill.

“NO!” Drake thought.

He flipped over onto his paws and began running again, putting all the effort he had into a last , desperate sprint for the finish line.

Jenna didn’t see Steele bite him, but she did see Drake go down.

“No!” She thought, “Drake, get up, come on, you’re so close!”

Drake pulled a little ahead of Steele, and then fell back, pulled ahead, and fell back.

“Come on Drake!” He thought. “You can do this! You’ve got to, Jenna’s watching!”

His leg hurt, and Drake could feel blood, and quite a bit of it coursing down the inside of his right front leg.

He did his best to shut out the pain and kept running.

“There it is!” Drake thought.

He was almost there.

Then Steele surged in front of him.

“No!” Drake thought.

He leapt forward.

Jenna saw Drake leap, and the sled come off of the ground.

Drake crashed to the ground, the sled rolled over and sent musher and dogs sprawling to the snow.

Jenna broke free of the crowd then, and ran over to Drake, who was half covered by snow.

He wasn’t moving.

“Oh no…” Jenna said.

She knelt down beside him.

Drake groaned and opened his eyes.

“Did…did we make it?”

Jenna smiled and licked his nose.

“Yes.”

A grin spread across Drake’s face, then he fell back to the snow.

Jenna smiled and stood up.

The crowd flocked around Drake.

“Is he alright?” One man said.

“He’s the hero of the day,” another said. “He better be alright.”

“I’ll go get the vet,” one of the women in the crowd said.

She disappeared into the crowd.

“Hero of the day…” Jenna thought with a smile. “My hero…”

A few minutes later the woman came back, but by that time Drake was standing again, though he required help from one of his team mates to do so.

“He looks alright to me.” The vet said. “If he gets worse later on, come and get me, but for now we’ll just see what nature herself will do for him.”

The musher nodded.

“I’m mighty proud of that one, thought he’d lost his mind when he took off up that pass, off the trail, but… I always said he knew what he was doing. Brought us right up on Steele and his team he did, then he fell, and he still beat him. Hell of a dog there, hell of a dog…”

Steele saw Jenna walking by herself, and thought maybe he could salvage the day after all.

He walked over to her.

“Jenna, what are you doing here? Come to see me race?”

Jenna frowned a bit.

“Not exactly Steele….”

“Look, Jenna….” Steele said.

He paused.

“I’ve been doing some thinking, and… well, I’m glad that you refused me the other night, it shows character, character that I like, and I was just thinking that maybe we could.. I don’t know, start anew?”

“Well Steele….” Jenna started.

About that time, Drake limped over to her.

“Hello Steele,” he said tensely.

Steele smiled.

“Heck of a limp you got there.”

Drake growled.

Steele laughed as Kaltag, Nikki and Star walked up behind him.

“What are you gonna do Drake-ie boy, feel like taking on all three of us?”

Drake limped forward, but Jenna stopped him and turned him around.

“Don’t” She mouthed. “Please?”

Drake sighed and Jenna began to help him limp away.

Steele understood then.

He growled.

“Jenna, you should know something right now.”

Jenna stopped and turned around.

She had just about had it with this dog.

“And what is that Steele?”

Steele smiled, and it wasn’t a happy smile.

“No one, and I mean no one refuses me… get it?”

Inwardly Jenna shivered, but outwardly, she tried not to let Steele see how much his comment had rattled her.

“Well someone just did.” She said. Then she helped Drake into the Dog shed.

Chapter 8

A few days later Jenna and Drake were back in Nome.

They were walking down the alleyway behind the General Store.

“… so, you glad to be back?” Jenna said, “Do you like it here Drake, or do you like it when you’re gone?”

Drake smiled.

“You know, home sweet home…”

Jenna smiled back at him.

“Yeah, but do you like home?”

“Oh… I don’t know…” Drake said. “I mean… well I was born here, so… I guess I like it here, but…”

“But what?” Jenna asked.

“Well, I guess I think that I’d like to be new, start over and make the right friends, instead of getting on everyone’s bad side but… well, now, I’m happy being wherever you are, that’s home for me now.”

Jenna smiled and he nuzzled her.

The two continued walking.

Balto walked along the roof, trying to find Boris.

The goose had told him he was going into town to… “acquire” a new broom for the boat the two of them lived in.

Balto jumped to the next roof.

He climbed up to the peak of it, and looked around.

He’d come into town to find Boris, to tell him that Muk and Luk would be coming soon, and would probably want to see him.

Muk and Luk were two polar bears Boris knew.

Balto didn’t know the story between the three of them, and he’d never asked Boris, but they were a mess.

Muk was pretty smart when he wanted to be, but… well he didn’t apply himself very often. The other, Luk was bigger than his brother, much bigger, and the smaller sibling seemed to be the only one who could understand him, as Luk spoke in mumbles and whimpers.

Balto had found it hard to believe that the two bears were brothers when he’d first met them, they were so… diverse from one another, but… they got along pretty well.

Balto looked around and sighed.

“If I don’t find Boris soon,” Balto thought “I’m going to have to go back to the boat and wait for him there, so someone will be there when they show up.”

Balto ran down from the peak, and jumped to the