intently.

Balto wasn't sure what was going to happen. Then, the musher knelt beside him, and laid his hand on the back of Balto's neck. "Okay, boy," he said. "I know you're brand new at this, so I'm going to try and teach you the best I can. Your job is to lead us where we need to go, and keep us out of trouble. Now, when I yell 'HIKE', I want you to run as fast as you can. When I yell 'HA,' I want you to turn to the left, and when..." He continued to explain all the commands to Balto. There were quite a few of them.

Balto began to think that maybe this wasn't going to be so hard after all. It sounded like there was going to be a lot for him to remember, but was it really as simple as following a bunch of commands?

"Well, what am I wasting my breath for?" said the musher, "it'd probably be better if I show you what to do. Star, come here, boy!"

Star walked over to where the musher was standing.

"All right, now watch him, Balto" the musher spoke. "Okay Star, you know the course. Ready...HIKE!"

Star began to run, as the musher began to bark out commands. He ended up leading Star through somewhat of an obstacle course that he had pre-determined in his mind. Star executed perfectly, obeying the commands to turn left, duck under an obstacle, jump, turn around, circle a tree, and come back.

"Good boy Star," the musher said, giving him a pat on the head.

"Wow!" Balto thought to himself. Star was a lot smarter than he looked! No wonder he was the team's swing dog (the dog immediately behind the lead).

"All right, Balto. I want you to do the same." He figured it might be easier to teach a dog what to do when he had seen another dog do it. The musher wasn't really expecting much, as it usually took a while to teach a dog to do something so complicated.

Balto took a deep breath, as he made his way toward the starting point.

"All right," said the musher. "You ready? HIKE!"

Balto took off with everything he had towards the course. He managed to run it perfectly, as he simply had to duplicate what Star had just done. Although because of this, he was able to ignore the musher yelling out commands, and he wasn't forced to think, and remember them.

"Good job!" the musher said, as Balto came back to the start.

Balto panted, as he came to a halt. That was pretty easy. But, he knew it was going to get harder.

"Okay," the musher said. "This time, I want you to start in the same direction, but I'm going to direct you to go different directions, and to hit the obstacles in a different order." This was getting complicated. Balto knew the musher was trying to challenge him. This course was something the musher made the other dogs do from time to time, but Balto was to be the one to do it the most, since he would be leading. Balto knew the commands would have to become second nature for him.

"Ready, HIKE!" Balto took off once more, and listened carefully to the musher's commands, as he led him down the course. He made his fair share of mistakes this time, and the musher reacted a bit violently to this, as expected. But, Balto tried to ignore it, and focus. It helped too, that Star yelled out from time to time to correct him.

As he made his way back, the musher spoke up. "That was great for a first try!" he sounded impressed. He gave Balto a pat on the head.

"Wow, look at dat!" said Nikki.

"He's pretty good," commented Togo.

"Geez, I did terrible on that course the first try," added Kaltag, "Took me forever to get it down."

It took Balto several tries to get the general gist, but he eventually figured it out. The musher made it a bit harder for him after each run. He would add an obstacle, or an object in Balto's path for him to watch out for. A few times, he even gave Balto something to pull through to course, simulating a sled. After a while, Balto found he was actually content with this! It wasn't so hard.

The musher was so impressed with Balto's progress, he decided to go right ahead, and put him in the harness.

When Balto saw the musher let the rest of the team out, that confidence suddenly disappeared. Fear overcame him. He knew the real test was about to begin.

…

"A'ight Balto, get in the harness," the musher commanded. He did so. The rest of the team was already strapped in by now. The musher kneeled at Balto's side again. "Okay boy, same thing. Only this time, it's for real. We're going to leave town, and head for the outskirts," he said, pointing toward the horizon. "Listen to everything I tell you to do, and make sure you watch out for trouble."

As he got up, and walked towards the sled, Balto found himself trembling. He was so nervous. This was going to be much different than practice. The pressure was really on, now.

"Balto, you okay?" asked Star.

"Uh...yeah," Balto replied, finding himself short of breath. "I think so."

"You sure?" Star asked again.

But before Balto could answer, the musher grabbed the reigns, and gave the signal. "HIKE!" he yelled.

Balto took a deep breath, and took off running, the team following close behind. Balto felt a little better at this point, now that he had finally gotten over the initial hump and was actually running with the team. But as they moved farther away from town, Balto heard the musher begin to yell out commands. Balto could barely hear him over the barking of the other dogs, and the sled crashing through the snow. He tried his best to keep up. But, after messing up a few times, he became scared as he heard the musher's booming voice.

"HEY! Listen to what I tell you, ya' crazy mutt! Come on, MOVE!"

Balto found himself becoming tense. He knew he was screwing up. Just then, he got a rude awakening when a branch stuck in the snow slapped violently against his leg. He let out a yelp of pain, and nearly lost his balance. He hadn’t been paying attention, and ran right into it. He heard the other dogs cry out too, as it hit all of them as they ran by.

"Come on, Balto!" yelled Kaltag, "It's your job to watch out for that kinda' stuff."

"I know, I know!" Balto snapped in frustration. "I just..."

"It's all right, Balto," said Star, "Just try to focus."

Focus? How could he do that? He had just made several key mistakes; many he knew were very uncharacteristic of a lead dog. As the musher kept yelling, Balto kept finding himself going the wrong way. Everything was just crashing all around him. That feeling he had had the night before began to overtake him again. He heard the taunting voices of all those that had mistreated him in the past. His mind had gone astray. Intense fear began to overtake him. He was running all out now with everything he had. Yet, he was too panicked to realize where he was headed. Suddenly, in the midst of all this, he heard the whole team yell out in mixed commotion.

"Balto, watch out!"

"Hey! Look out for that..."

Balto looked up to find a tree less than ten feet away from him! He gasped in panic. There was no way he could steer the whole team around. He dug his forepaws into the snow, desperately trying to stop. But, to no avail. As he began to come to a halt, some of the dogs behind him began to trip over his body. The rest of the team was turned sideways, and the sled began to skid. Many of the dogs tried to brace themselves, for what was going to be a terrible collision. The sled ended up swerving, and crashing right into the tree, sending the musher flying! Many of the dogs also received quite a shock to the system, as they came in contact with the tree, and each other.

After it was over, Balto groaned as he slowly stood up, and shook the snow off. He gasped upon seeing the aftermath. All of the dogs half buried in the snow. A few appeared to be hurt, and were moaning, and the musher was flat on his face. As they began to recover, Balto began to realize how terrible a mistake he had made.

"Balto, how could you have missed that tree?" Kaltag screamed, shaking the snow off.

"Yeah, you trying to kill us?" added Tilley, one of the team's wheel dogs.

Balto hung his head low. He knew he was in a lot of trouble. He saw the musher get up out of the corner of his eye, and dust himself off. "Wha'd'ya think you're doing!" the musher screamed at Balto, moving towards him. "You almost got us all killed!"

"Way to go fearless leader!" Steel's laughter echoed through Balto's head. All the painful memories began to come back once again. The horror escalated as the musher came closer, walking briskly toward Balto. "In all my years, no dog has EVER!" he yelled. Balto became afraid he was going to beat him! He suddenly felt like the whole world was bearing down on him. It was just too much to take.

Without thinking, he bounded out of the harness, and took off for the hills as fast as he could.

"Hey, what's the deal!" one of the dogs spoke.

"Balto, where are you going?" Star yelled.

"Get back here, you!" boomed the musher's voice.

But, Balto ignored them all. All he could think about was just getting away. "Run! Run!" was the only thought that passed through his mind. He could hear the rest of the team calling out to him in confusion. But, he kept running, and he didn't even look back...