father?” “Why don’t you go back to Nome? Its where you belong!” “After what that lobo had done to me! I can’t show my face back there! Even Jenna wouldn’t want to see me,” Steele replied. Iron thought for a very long time and finally broke the silence. “You always wanted a good luck charm, ever since you were a pup. Well I left one for you; I wanted to see if you could find it on your own. Well it seems like you still haven’t found it. Go to the town library and go inside. Over near the east wall, there is a small patch of dirt. Dig it up and you’ll find it,” Iron said. After that, he gently left his sons mind.

Ch: 4

Steele did as he was told in his dream and went back to Nome, he didn’t start off at a fast pace, and he would need the walking time to think of an excuse of why he was going back. He walked to Nome and by the time he had reached the edge, he had thought of it. He held his head high and hoped that he would still have that same Give me respect air that he always use to carry. He passed Nikki, Keltag, and Star, they all looked at him funny. “What?” he barked at them. “Steele? Well, nice to see you back, but you could use a little cleaning up,” said Keltag. “What do you mean?” Steele snapped. Keltag only stepped away from a mirror. Steele looked at his reflection and saw that he was filthy, from his nose to the tip of his tail, was covered in dirt. Steele was horrified; he couldn’t go into town looking like a mangy dog that was rolling around in mud and snow. “Where is the nearest warm bath?” Nikki spoke first, “The vet has a bath, you can use that,” he said. “Where!” Steele savored the flash of fear in their eyes and followed them around town to the vet’s office.

“Here we are,” said Keltag. Steele held his head high, curled his tail, and walked in through the doggie door. The vet noticed him and laughed. “Long time since you had a bath ay Steele?” Steele only barked and than snorted at the comment.

Within a half an hour, Steele walked out of the front door, as clean as a whistle, his black and white fur gleamed and shown in the afternoon sun. As he walked out, Dixie looked at him and stared at him in disbelief, “Steele?” Steele only looked at her and held his head high and gave a fake smile. Dixie melted as he looked at him. “Been a long time since you left,” she said as Steele started walking away. “Yes it has,” he replied without looking at her. Sensing that Steele didn’t want her around, she turned around and decided to go and see Jenna, she would love to hear this, she thought.

Dixie took off at a very fast pace to go and see Jenna. “Good afternoon Jenna, I have some news for you,” she said. “Hello Dixie, you always have news, what is it?” “Steele’s back!” Jenna’s breath caught. Steele? Back? How? Why? Seeing Jenna’s surprised look only made Dixie grin a little. “What do you think he’s doing back?” she asked, “I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”

It didn’t take Steele long to find the town library. “Good, it didn’t move,” he muttered to himself. As he waited for someone to go in or out, he saw few dogs go by. One was Kodi, Aleu’s brother, another was Saba. Dixie passed by again. It took him a while to notice that there was a doggie door in one of the doors. “Stupid idiot,” he scolded himself. He walked in and went over to the east wall. And there, sure enough as his father said, was a patch of dirt, already dug up, but not recently. He went over to it and started digging. It took him a few minutes and finally he felt something solid against his digging claws. He looked down and saw a small box. He looked at it questionably, and dug it out. He held it with his paws and used his nose to open the lid. Inside it was… “Mom’s locket,” he muttered. Steele had been very young when his mother died; he was told that she always had a locket on her collar, her good luck charm as she called it. “Dad use to always have this on his collar too, except when he was in races,” he said to himself. Steele’s dad always had a locket on his collar too, but never during races, he didn’t want to loose the only piece of his mate that he had left. Steele’s collar was very worn and he needed a new one anyway. He closed the box and reburied it; he set out to the grommers to get a new collar. He stopped before he finished burying it. He unburied it and took it with him. “Those knuckle heads need to have some clue in what kind of collar I want,” he muttered to himself.

As Steele exited the library he heard a voice. “Hello Steele.” Steele nearly jumped out of his fur. He turned to see… “Jenna! Well what a pleasant surprise,” he said. Jenna only looked at him. “Why did you come back.”? “Well, I wanted to see you of coarse.” Jenna only held her ground and stared at Steele. “Why did you go into the library?” “I had to retrieve something, I’m sorry Jenna, I must leave, see you around down.” With that, Steele put down his package quickly and dashed over to Jenna and kissed her and picked up his package and left. Jenna was shocked at what just happened.

Steele reached the groomers and scratched at the door. A man answered it and looked around and saw no one. He looked down and saw Steele, happily wagging his tail. “Well Steele! What a surprise! Hmm, looks like you want something,” she said. Steele walked in and went right over to the collar selection. He looked at each of them. Black ones, white ones, leopard print ones, zebra ones, gray ones, and then he saw it. He sat down and looked at the perfect collar that would go perfectly with his family heirloom. He opened the box the same way he did with in the library. And jumped and got the gold collar that he wanted and put it next to it. The groomer looked at him and back at the collar and back at him. “I always knew that you were an intelligent dog Steele, but this is the first time that your trying to tell me something without snarls or barks or yelps,” she said. The groomer tried to pick up the box but Steele stepped in front of her and looked at her. The groomer got the message and took off Steele’s old collar and put on the new one. She also took the box with the precious locket in it and placed the locket on the tag ring. “There, now don’t you look handsome,” she said. She held out a mirror and Steele looked at himself. Perfect match and she still has the sense of tightening the collar just right, he thought. Steele got up and looked at the groomer approvingly and left.

As Steele walked into town, he noticed Jenna walking out of town. He bounded toward her and jumped in front of her. “Steele!” Jenna cried out in alarm, but her alarm quickly changed to a stone face. “What do you want?” “Why I wanted to see you Jenna, I see that you are doing well,” he said. “Quite, now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and see Balto,” she replied. This touched a very raw nerve on Steele. “Go and see that lobo? What for? You’re a pure breed, and I’m a pure breed, we should get together, and you can forget about that half blood,” said Steele with a snort. Jenna only snorted back at him and tried to go around him. “Oh I don’t think so,” she said. As she went around him, she slapped him with her tail. “That was for the last time we saw each other,” she barked sharply at him.

Aniu watched her family carefully, especially Balto, if Steele approached him, then he would be in serious trouble. Thankfully she saw none of Steele around him. “You love them don’t you,” said Iron approaching Aniu. Aniu looked at him and nodded. “You miss your son,” she said. “Yes,” he replied. “There is an eclipse coming, why don’t you go down and see your family while I watch things up here,” Iron offered. This was music to Aniu’s ears. Then she remembered his competition over her rank in the heavens. “I’ll think about it,” she replied. Aniu stood and walked away from the clearing to go and see Snow Cloud.

“Hello? Snow Cloud?” Aniu called. “In here Aniu,” Snow Cloud called back. Aniu followed her voice to find that she was in her cloud cave. “May I come in?” “Of coarse. What brings you here?” “Iron. He offered to watch everything while I’m down watching over my son,” explained Aniu. “I need your advice.” Snow Cloud was silent for a little while and said, “I’ll watch everything for you, and I think that this is a trick.” “Thanks Snow, I owe you one,” Aniu said and left. Aniu leaned over to Snow Cloud and whispered, “Personally, I don’t trust Iron.” “I don’t blame you, he’s been after your hide for a very long time.”

Ch: 5

Day two, tomorrow she’s coming! An excited Balto thought. For two days, he couldn’t stop thinking that his mom was coming to see them. He thought of how everyone else would react to seeing her. “What are you thinking about?” asked Jenna, “Oh, about mom. It’s been forever since I’ve seen her.” Jenna nodded and lay down with him.

It had been only 5 minutes until the happy voices of pups reached their ears. All of them asking questions. “Here comes Aleu,” Balto said with a chuckle. Balto was right, in walked Aleu and Merlin, the three pups