whisper.

“Sarai, it wasn’t all your fault. Sooner or later someone would’ve accidentally cracked the ice, or it would’ve cracked all by itself. Sirius was old, anyway. Maybe it was time for him to go. Maybe it was his time, or fate. Maybe that was how your dad was supposed to go, heroic and brave. Everybody will still remember him, and miss him. You shouldn’t blame yourself for his…death.”

Kaila wasn’t sure if her words were comforting, but she tried, and she could feel Sarai listening. After another awhile, Sarai sniffed again and got up.

“C’mon,” she said, and Kaila followed her into the whelping den. They passed Lakota, who lay just outside the den, and he gave Kaila a strange look as she walked by. She ignored him, and entered the cozy smallness of the den.

Kiowa wore an expression of sadness mixed with pride as she nursed two tiny puppies, her first litter. The first one was smaller than the second, and had black ears, paws, and tail, but the rest of the pup’s fur was reddish-brown. Sarai nudged Kaila to tell her this was the girl puppy.

The second one, the boy puppy, was larger and had silvery gray fur with tints of white. Kaila smiled as the boy mewed pitifully as he wondered away from his mother, and both Sage and Aniu nudged him back. Kiowa licked her new pups tenderly, then looked up with wide, serious eyes.

“I’m going to name them now, before anything else happens, so they’ll at least have names,” she announced to the room. They all smiled a little.

“This one is so small. She needs a good name, one that describes her,” Sage said, ever the leader, and nodded to the girl pup.

“Flikka?” Sarai offered. Everyone stared at her. Sarai flushed and hid her face, mumbling, “Well, I heard it before, and it sounded like a nice name to ME.”

“Pet?” Kaila suggested. Lakota’s shout came from outside.

“This isn’t any PET dog, stupid! Think of some real names!”

“OK, OK,” Kaila said, hurt.

Kiowa licked the pup again and said thoughtfully, “She’s so little and tiny. I think Cheyenne is the best name for her.”

An agreeable silence followed this statement, and Lakota didn’t say anything from his post at the den’s entrance. But, after all, who could argue with the mother of the puppies?

“Now this one,” Aniu whispered reverently, nudging the boy puppy. Kiowa drew him close and looked at him with her big, blue eyes. Her face was still, and her jaw was set decisively.

“I know exactly what to call you,” she said as the pup squealed and rubbed against her paw. “You will be Nilak, ‘chipped ice’, so no one will forget how your father died, especially not you.” She pulled the girl puppy close and embraced both.

After watching for a minute, Kaila slipped out and laid down next to Lakota outside. She had something to say to him, but she wasn’t sure how to say it.

“What do you want?” he growled fiercely.

“Nothing,” she said. “Um…thanks, for saving me out there. On the ice, I mean.” There, she had said it. Would he reply? No, he just gave her another one of his strange looks. One eyebrow curved up and the other swooped down, and he didn’t smile, just stared at her with those hard, green eyes. Kaila shifted uncomfortably, then burst out.

“Why do you keep STARING at me like that?!” she exclaimed.

“Like what?” Lakota asked, unfazed, and she imitated him. He laughed, and Kaila realized in surprise that it was the first time she had ever heard him display some other emotion besides annoyance or anger. What was different about him?

“It’s just looking at a person that I’ve saved that makes me do that,” he explained. “It’s just weird. If I hadn’t saved you, you would be dead right now, and whenever I see you I think about that, and I just get a weird feeling. It gives me the creeps.”

He shrugged, and she nodded. She understood.

Kaila opened her mouth, but before she could say anything he plunged ahead.

“I was just standing on the edge of the ice, not sure what to do, when I saw you go under. Sage was helping Sarai out, Mom was trying to get Dad”-grief flitted across Lakota’s face, but he pushed it away-“and Kiowa was just sitting on the shore. I was the only one that could get to you. I tried to run across the ice, but I got stuck a few times, so it took awhile. Sorry.” He smiled apologetically, and she smiled back. She waited for him to continue. “I didn’t like you that much, but I didn’t want you to DIE.”

“Do you like me now?” Kaila asked quickly, then bit her tongue. ‘Please let him say yes, but not in that way,’ she prayed silently. He smiled at her again, but in a funny way this time.

“Yeah…but as a friend, just a friend. Don’t go into the boyfriend and girlfriend stuff, ok?”

Kaila snorted. “I thought you would’ve noticed by now that I’m not that kind of girl.”

“Just friends?”

“Just friends and nothing more.”

Kaila marveled at how much Lakota had changed. Somewhere, out on the ice, he had found it in him to accept and trust her. Maybe he had realized she was more a part of the pack than she ever thought she could be, and more a part than he had realized. Somehow, they needed her. It was a good feeling to finally be accepted by the whole pack.

Lakota suddenly jumped up and growled deep in his throat. Kaila, surprised at his reaction, leapt up too and looked out past the river. A dark, wolf-like shape was making its way towards the whelping den, and Kaila squinted to see who it was. Realization shot through her, and she raced away, yelling, “It’s my dad! My dad! Oh my gosh, he’s found me!”

“Huh?” Lakota said with a confused look on his face, but Kaila was already far down the riverbank, barking and yelling and crying for all she was worth.

Balto sped up as he saw two dark shapes lying on the riverbank, and the smaller one began to run towards him, and he could hear barking and crying and a familiar voice saying, “Dad! Dad! Dad!”

“Kaila!” Balto cried, and he skidded to a stop at the edge of the riverbank. They both yelled and danced with joy on their opposite sides, but a river still separated them.

“Careful, Dad,” Kaila called out fearfully as Balto stepped onto a floating block of ice. It tipped about, and Balto unsteadily leaped to the next ice piece. It began to sink, and he vaulted over to another, bigger piece. This pattern continued as he jumped his way across the river. Once he misplaced his footing and fell into the water, and Kaila cried out, but he pulled himself back out, panting, and kept going.

Finally he was standing on the last ice block, and vaulted onto the shore, tackling Kaila and bringing her down to the ground. They both rolled and rolled down the riverbank, and only stopped when Kaila got up and pounced on her father. She cried as she played with Balto, and tears ran down his face too. They were so happy to see each other again after…what? Only two days?! To Kaila and Balto, it seemed like forever.

After they had both settled down, Kaila lead her father back to the den, where everyone except Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Nilak were waiting for them.

“Dad, this is Lakota, the new alpha male of the Anvil Creek pack,” Kaila told Balto. Balto nodded respectfully, then raised an eyebrow and questioned.

“ ‘New’?”

“My father, Sirius, died while we were crossing this river,” Lakota said quietly, “Now I take his place.”

Balto’s face was sympathetic. “I’m sorry about your father,” he said. Kaila almost cried again, she had grown so fond of Sirius. She hastily changed the subject before she could start to sob.

“Dad, this is Sarai, Sage, Aniu, and Kiowa is inside with her new puppies, Cheyenne and Nilak.”

Balto nodded to each one, then softly padded up to Aniu.

“Mother,” he said, and they both nuzzled.

Aniu said to Balto after he drew away, “Your daughter has shown great skill in surviving as a wolf does. She does not need to go back with you if she does not want to.” Balto looked startled.

“But why did you lead her to this pack in the first place?” he asked. Aniu shook her white head.

“Your daughter wished to know where she belongs, where a wolf lives, or where a dog lives. I decided to show her the life of a wolf to see if she could endure it, and she has proved that she can. Now, when she first met Sirius, she made a deal with him that at the end of three days he would decide if she could stay in the pack.”

“You were thinking about joining a wolf pack??!” Balto exclaimed, turning to his daughter. Kaila cast down her eyes and nodded wordlessly. Balto’s eyes got very wide, and he shook his head. “Just like Aleu,” he murmured, but didn’t say anything else.

“However,” Aniu continued, but more gently now. “Since Sirius is…gone, Kaila must choose for herself. Today. She has shown she can survive with the pack, and, I must say, is a very skilled hunter.”

Kaila gave a small smile at that, but when she looked up Balto was still shaking his head. He couldn’t seem to believe that she had almost joined this pack.

“C’mon, Dad,” Kaila beckoned, and she lead her father to a small hill she had seen from the river. It was far enough away from everybody so they couldn’t hear, and as Kaila and Balto turned away, Kaila looked back to see all but one wolf go back into the den.