full.

Kodi shook off the impact, and squinted to make out this figure. It appeared to be a fairly large dog…a very muscular one, and it didn't seem friendly. "Listen, I don't know what you're doing with Annie, but if you don't let her go right now, I'll wake up my mom!"

The dog spat Annie, and pinned her to the ground with his other paw, so hard, she could barely breath. He moved closer to Kodi, and showed him his teeth. "You make one solitary noise, and you'll be lucky to see daylight," he snarled.

Fear overcame Kodi, to the point where he could hardly speak.

"You tell your mom and pop that I took your sister, and if any of you ever want to see her again, your dad will meet me near the entrance of the old gold mine tonight. And you tell him that if he brings anyone with him, I swear, your sister gets it..."

Before Kodi could do anything, he was thrown against the wall on the far side of the barn, knocking him unconscious. Surprisingly, none of the other pups stirred. The dog took Annie in his mouth, and went swiftly away. Little did he know that Aleu had also awoken, and was watching from inside the basket the whole time. Without even thinking, she bounded out of it, and followed close behind.

***

"What do you want from me?" Annie pleaded, nearly in tears. "My papa's never gonna let you get away with this!"

"Oh, I'm counting on that," Steele said with an evil grin. He had Annie penned into a corner, just inside the old gold mine, located a ways outside town. "I'm planning on turning your daddy into dog chow, once he shows up."

"Why?" Annie screamed.

"Let's just say, we've got a bit a score to settle. But, don't you worry about a thing, deary. You're not the one I'm after," Steele taunted. "So, if you cooperate until then, you just might survive this night." He started to laugh, and scratched Annie's head lightly, in a mischievous way.

Annie snapped at Steele's paw, but he moved it out of the way just in time.

"Ah, ah-ah! I wouldn't do that if I were you..."

"Leave her alone!" another voice suddenly boomed from behind.

Steele turned around just in time to see Aleu lunging towards him. Before he could react, she chomped down onto his tail. Steele let out a yelp of pain, as he dragged Aleu, trying to pull his tail loose. Acting quickly, he swung his rear end around, causing Aleu to fly off. She landed right near her sister on the floor of the cave. "So, another pipsqueak to take care of!" Steele said, angrily. Annie and Aleu moved closer to each other in fear, as they knew this dog had full intention to hurt them. He backed both of them into a corner. "We could have made this painless," Steele rumbled, "but since you wanted to do this the hard way..." He lifted his paw to take a swing at the pups. But, as he went to strike, his paw was stopped abruptly in mid-air by another.

"Leave them alone Steele!" a voice said. Steele turned around to find Balto staring him in the face.

"Papa!" Aleu said in relief.

"I was wondering when you'd get here," Steele said sarcastically. Before he could say anything else, two other dogs came up from behind Steele, and dragged him away from the pups. This caused him to lose his balance, and fall on his face. When he stood up, he realized that several other dogs were in the mine as well, all of which were growling at him. The whole dog council was backing Balto. "More backup, eh wolf-dog?" Steele rambled. "You just can't sink any lower, can you?"

"Annekay, Aleu, are you two all right?" Balto said to his pups. They quickly ran over to him.

"Oh, papa!" Annie cried.

Jenna came running up to meet her pups, too. "Oh, my darlings," she said, trying to choke back the tears. She had obviously been crying. "Did he hurt you?"

"No, but he was going to!" Aleu said angrily.

"What do you think you were doing with my daughters?" Balto demanded.

Everyone else broke out in similar anger.

"What is the matter with you Steele!" Jenna screamed hysterically.

But Steele ignored every one of them, focusing in on Balto, despite being dragged down by several of the council members. "You're playing with fire, wolf-dog!"

"So," one of the dogs said to Doc, who had made his way into the cave as well, "looks like Steele really crossed the line this time. What should we do with him?"

"I say we tear 'im to pieces!" another spoke. Everyone in the room was in agreement, although they knew it was against the ways of the council to physically punish others.

"I'm afraid due to traditional law, and for the sake of our moral dignity, we can't do anything, but ban him," Doc said.

"What!" Balto yelled, "Are you kidding me? You think that's going to stop him from coming right back, and doing this again?"

Steele grinned confidently in agreement.

"Well, hold on," Doc continued. "There is a much more serious form of punishment we've done to criminals like him in the past."

Everyone else listened in. Steele quickly turned his head to look at him in surprise.

"There is an isolated area, a great bit of a ways from here, in a secret location that only selected members of the council know of," Doc continued. "It's wide open, with no civilization for miles. We could take Steele, to serve out his banishment there."

"Ha!" Steele said in a cocky way. "I'd just follow your trail back. You can't get rid of me!"

"Oh, but we can," Doc said. "The area that you'd have to pass through to get back is infested with grizzly bears, wolves and other animals that would tear any trespasser to pieces if they were caught on their land. We know ways of avoiding them on the way there and back, and by traveling as a large group; we can lessen the chance of being attacked. But, if one, who doesn't know the land, were to try and make the journey alone, they wouldn't stand a chance."

"You're bluffing," Steele commented.

"He's not!" another dog spoke up. "I've been there before. That place is crazy."

Steele became fearful for his situation.

"Well, can we agree on this punishment?" Doc asked.

Everyone did. Several members of the council volunteered to escort Steele to this isolated area, and swore to do so first thing in the morning. In the mean time, they would keep him in confinement in the mine for the night. After it was all settled, everyone else turned to go home. As Balto and his family made their way out of the mine, they could hear Steele screaming from within. "I swear I'm gonna get you for this, Balto!"

Balto stopped at the mouth of the mine, and turned around to shout back. "I'm not going to fight you, Steele! But, mark my words. If you ever come near my family again, you won't live to hear the end of it!" He kept walking.

Before Steele could say anything else, the other dogs guarding him gave him a bit of a warning, and made him be quiet. "You might as well give it up, Steele," one of them spoke. "This time tomorrow, you'll be far away from here."

Steele grumbled, and looked down at the floor. "I'll be back, wolf-dog..." he said to himself. "Make no mistake, I will be back..."

***

Balto and Jenna were sitting on the side of the street next to the box containing their pups. On the front of the box, a sign read, "Free pups to good homes." Rosie and her parents stood by too. Balto had been apprehensive about allowing the pups to be adopted for quite some time. But now, after what Steele had done, the idea didn't bother him nearly as much. The pups certainly were excited about finding a new family. It didn't take long, for within a few minutes of sitting on the roadside, a boy, somewhere in his early teen hood came by.

Rosie's dad stood up to meet the approaching visitor. "Hello, Bobby," he called out.

"Hey there folks," he replied. "How are you, Rosie?" he said, kneeling slightly to talk to her.

"Good, thanks," Rosie said, as she turned to look up at her mother. "This is Bobby Simpson, momma," she said. "He's really nice."

"Well, it's nice to be meeting you finally, Bobby," she spoke, "I've been hearing a lot about you from Rosie."

"Nice to meet you too ma'am," he said. Bobby's father was a good friend of Rosie's family, and Bobby had been nice enough to look after Rosie during their get-togethers.

"So," Bobby said, getting back to business, "these are the new pups I've been hearing so much about."

"Yes, they are," Rosie's mom said.

"Well, they look like pretty good dogs." He petted them, as they all moved towards his hand, “Are they well behaved?" he asked.

"We haven't had any problems, yet," said Rosie's mom.

Bobby noticed one of the smaller pups was a bit more rambunctious than the others. He was running around in circles within the crate. "Hmm...I think I like this little guy the best," Bobby said picking him up.

"That's Kodi," said Rosie. "He's sort of the little guy, but he's got a lot of energy."

"He's perfect!" Bobby commented.

"Perfect for what?" Rosie's mother asked with a slight smile.

"Well, my dad owns a sled team, and they run the U.S. mail route between here and White Mountain," he