he plowed into Balto’s side, and now Balto was tumbling helplessly down the rocky walls of the gully. When he came to, he began to look around, realizing he was on the muddy gully floor, surrounded by its steep walls a great distance away from him on either side. They would take some time to climb, he thought. However, straight ahead of him was a large opening of some sort. Balto walked over to see where it led to. He tried to call his daughter on the way over, but received no answer. Getting closer to the opening, Balto realized it was a huge drop-off, into the gorge he had seen on the way. This was probably a waterfall during most times of the year. Balto glanced over the edge to find he was several hundred feet above the ground below. There was no way he could jump down. "Guess this way's out," Balto thought to himself. He sighed, knowing it was going to have to be the treacherous climb he was hoping to avoid. Then again, he knew the only way to get to his daughter would be to do so. Then, he remembered his last disturbing image before he was knocked down…Steele! Balto perked up his ears to listen to the environment around him. Balto knew he was nearby. He had to be. “Steele!” he shouted, “I know you’re out here. Leave my daughter alone, or else!”

“Or else, what?” a faint voice said. Balto slowly turned around, revealing what he was expecting to see. Standing about 20 feet away in the tall grass, was Steele. "You!" Balto snarled.

"Well, wolf-dog," Steele laughed, "I admit, I vowed I was going to get you some day, but I never imagined this kind of luck! I didn't even have to make the return to Nome. Instead, you came to me! And how convenient for you to allow me to use your daughter as bait."

"Steele..."

"You didn't think you could run from me forever, did you? Ha! Now I've gotcha right where I want ya'."

Balto was scared. What could he do? There was no where to run, and he certainly wouldn't be able to climb fast enough to escape. "Steele, don't do anything crazy now."

"You will fight me. There's no escaping this time Balto!" Steele said, showing his teeth moving closer to him, "A fight to finally see who the better dog is. The winner gets your daughter. Oh and, if you try and escape, I'll throw you off the cliff...don't worry about your daughter though...she'll follow you down."

Balto drew in his breath, thinking hard, trying to figure out what he should do. There didn't seem to be any way around this...he was going to have to fight Steele. The tension was unbearable, but as the thoughts continued to race through his head, he began to feel...angry. All the times before that Steele had burdened him, and tormented him began to come back. Steele and his gang had mocked Balto, and attacked him on many occasions in the streets. And, then there was the time he threw Balto off track on his way back to Nome, nearly killing him off, and the rest of the team. Steele had hurt Balto's friends, kidnapped his daughters...and now he had Aleu. As these hurtful memories came back, Balto could feel himself becoming angrier, and angrier. His teeth clenched together, and he began to growl. "All right, Steele..." he said moving slowly forward, "If that's what you want, then that's just what you'll get!"

"I knew you'd see it my way..." Steele taunted, "Time to put you in your place, half-breed." They moved closer to each other, and began to circle, bristling and growling the whole time...waiting for the right moment to strike. Steele made a move, but Balto leapt backwards to get out of the way. Frustrated, Steele lashed forward twice more. Balto easily dodged, and somewhat snickered, as if to say, "That all you got?" Steele was infuriated by this, but he managed to control his rage, taking a deep breath, and stopping for a minute to think.

Balto was pleased with himself, but he knew he was going to have to do better than that if he wanted to win this fight. Realizing Steele had let his guard down, Balto saw his chance, and leapt forward. Unfortunately, Steele reacted quickly, and spun himself down low, taking Balto's feet right out from under him. Balto landed on his face, and Steele took the opportunity to pounce him.

"Nice try!" he said, pinning Balto to the ground. He lifted a paw to strike. But, Balto turned over, and managed to shove Steele off of him. Steele flew back, and tumbled several feet on the ground. He didn't have time to blink before Balto was on top of him.

Balto had found his adrenaline rush, and was now clawing, biting, and slashing away at Steele with everything he had! It didn't take Steele long to fight back, and the two of them were now a whirling ball of black, white and gray. This hectic scene continued for some time, until Balto was thrown, landing on his back, bleeding and obviously in pain. He ignored it, and jumped to his feet. A moment later, they were at it again. Both of them fought hard for a great deal of time, until it soon became apparent Steele had the upper hand. Before long, Balto was thrown yet again, and this time Steele did not let him recover. He rushed towards his vulnerable opponent, fangs bearing with full intention. Steele's teeth ended up slicing right through Balto's shoulder! Balto let out a yell, as he rolled over in agony. He was getting tired, and struggled to get to his feet. Surprisingly, Steele did not attack again right away.

"Get up!" he shouted, standing his ground, panting heavily. He was getting tired as well. They both stood, staring at each other in great rage. Panting, and waiting for one or the other to blink. Steele pumped his body forward, as if to fake an attack. Balto readied himself to jump out of the way. Then, Steele went to make his move, and Balto narrowly escaped with nothing more than a nicked paw. Still trying to catch his breath, Balto walked backwards slowly, as Steele came gradually onward. Soon, Balto realized what he was being backed up against...the edge of the cliff! He had to do something. In desperation, he went for Steele's legs, but Steele leapt up in the air, and landed on top of his opponent. He bore down with intention to tear Balto to pieces, clawing at his body. He only managed a few hits, before Balto made a rather slick move to slip from Steele's grasp, and get free. He came to his feet, completely out of breath. It was a valiant fight that Balto had been putting up, but it was becoming a losing battle.

Hearing the screams coming from close by, Aleu gave all she had to climb out of the pit. Finally finding some traction on one of the less-steep walls, she climbed out, and rushed to the edge of the gully. She arrived just in time to see Steele pushing Balto closer to the edge. She realized her father was on the ropes, and possibly about to be thrown off if she didn't do something, fast. Without hesitation, she lunged into the gully, and bounded towards the two of them.

Balto had managed to duck away from Steele's attacks, but he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. Just then, a mighty swing from Steele's paw cracked Balto across the skull. Balto fell like a ton of bricks, and landed on a pile of rocks, right on the edge of the gorge. He strained to get back up, but couldn't, stunned by the blow. Steele moved in slowly on him. "So, this is how it ends," he laughed triumphantly. "You walk right into a trap of mine, and now you die at the hands of me, after taking a nasty fall…I never thought it would be this easy. Good-bye, wolf dog!" He was about to deal the finishing blow, until a screeching female voice brought this scene to a halt. Without warning, Aleu knocked Steele down from the side. "Leave my father alone!" she proclaimed. Steele was slow to recover, weakened by his fight with Balto. "Thought you could get away with what you did?" Aleu continued. "Well, now I'm gonna getcha’ for what you did to me...and my sister!" She attacked Steele, out with a vengeance like no other. She managed to do some damage, but despite Steele's worn out state, Aleu was no match for her much bigger opponent. Before long, Steele had her on the ground. He grabbed her neck with his teeth, and threw Aleu, smacking her body into a nearby boulder. She tumbled down, hurt by this attack, and found she couldn't get up. Steele panted, and laughed lightly. "Now..." he said to himself, "Where was I before being so rudely inter-OOF!" He had been pummeled from behind, and was now rolling through the grass.

"Guess who caught a second wind!" a voice said coming from above him. Steele tried to stand back up, but Balto nailed him with a head-butt, causing him to lose his balance. On his hind legs, Steele found himself uncontrollably backing towards the edge of the cliff! He might have been able to stop in time, had he not tripped over a fairly large tree branch. He let out a yelp in fear, as he now was just barely clinging to the edge. His hind legs shaking, his front paws wavering in the air, trying to swing his weight away from the terrible doom that awaited him below.

Balto realized Steele was in a helpless state. He could win this fight right now...he could easily push Steele off the edge. But, he hesitated...there was no way Steele would survive such a fall. He had only a split second to decide what to do. Balto knew from the start he had to win this fight, for his sake, and the sake of his daughter. But now, the reality of what he was about to do sank in - all the same, he didn't have time to think about this. It was now or never. Balto knew his daughter must have been watching him right now,