see you.” She said.

She grinned, and ran off.

“So,” Jenna said, it’s starting to get dark…. You want to go for a walk?”

Duke smiled.

“Sure.”

The two of them walked away.

Dash was getting worried about Kalia.

It had been almost eight hours since she’d run off, and he hadn’t seen her.

He stepped into his chambers.

The kids were playing.

“Have you seen your sister Talkeet?”

Talkeet stopped.

“Yeah…” he said, “… she… she left.”

“She what?!” Dash yelled.

He started to talk to himself.

“What is she doing, what was going through her head? It’s snowing and… and….”

A terrible thought came to him then.

“Did… did she tell you where she was going?”

“She said she was going to follow the river, that she had to prove it to you….”

“Shoot.” Dash said. “Talkeet, I’ve got to go after her, you’re in charge while I’m gone.”

Talkeet nodded.

Dash turned and ran away.

June was talking to Shadow when she saw Dash walk into the chamber, and head for the exit.

“Excuse me Shadow.” She said.

Shadow nodded, and walked away.

June ran across the chamber to Dash.

“Dash?” She asked.

Dash sighed.

“June I really don’t have time…”

“Time for what?” June asked, “I’m just asking you why you’re going out into that storm.”

“Sorry June.” Dash said.

He sighed.

“Kalia and I got into a fight, and… and I yelled at her, said something I shouldn’t have, and now she’s gone.”

“Into the storm?!” June yelled.

Dash nodded.

“And it gets better. She’s following the river, downstream.”

“Oh no,” June said, “the Uniea clan.”

Dash nodded.

“She thinks she has to prove something to me, because our fight was about whether she could go with us tomorrow.”

“You’ve got to go after her.” June said.

Dash nodded and turned around.

“I’m coming too.” She said.

Dash sighed and turned around.

“June…”

She cut him off.

“Dash, you don’t need to be going down there alone, and I told you I’d be there for you.”

She smiled.

“Let me go… as a friend?”

Dash sighed.

“Okay.”

Dash turned to a wolf that happened to be walking by.

“Hey, tell Aleu that Dash and June are going after his daughter, who ran away. We don’t know when we’ll be back.”

The wolf nodded, and ran toward Aleu’s chambers.

Dash and June ran out into the blowing snow.

Chapter 10

Duke and Jenna were still walking.

They’d gone about fifteen miles outside of Nome.

Jenna was finding that she kind of liked Duke. He was nice to her and he could, and did, make her laugh.

She almost forgot about the whole situation with Balto when they were together.

“So,” Jenna said. “What about you Duke, any kids?”

Duke smiled.

“Me? No, never… never had the time I guess.”

Jenna smiled back at him.

“Well you sure are good with them, Sheae and Likea told me they miss you.”

She paused.

“Duke, why didn’t you come back? You didn’t even say good-bye. We just woke up and you were gone.”

Duke sighed.

“Well, I… I am involved in a little…. trouble… and I didn’t want to take the risk of endangering you, or your family.”

A concerned look came over Jenna’s face.

Duke laughed.

“Jenna, it’s fine, okay? Everything’s fine, I… I just didn’t want to take the chance.”

Duke looked around for a minute, as if searching for something, or someone. Then he looked back at Jenna.

He laughed.

“So where are you taking me anyway?”

Jenna smiled.

“It’s my favorite place in the world, actually…”

She hung her head.

“Balto?” Duke asked.

Jenna nodded.

“He showed it to me.”

She smiled.

“.. but let’s not let that destroy this time, come on, it’s right up here.”

Jenna ducked through some low hanging branches, and Duke followed.

He emerged from the dense trees to come to a clearing in the forest.

Beautiful was the only word that came to mind.

The clearing was about twenty feet across. A stream ran through the center of it, and a series of small waterfalls added to the scenery.

But it was the lights that made everything so pretty.

The lights filtered through the hole in the forest and lit up the clearing in a myriad of colors.

“Wow…” Duke said, staring upward as he walked toward Jenna, who was in the center of the clearing, laying on a big rock.

“Isn’t it wonderful?” She said, as she stood up.

Duke nodded, his mouth hung open partially in awe.

He made it to Jenna’s side and stopped.

He looked down at her.

“It’s beautiful.”

She sighed.

“Yeah…”

The two of them stared up at the lights for a minute, then Jenna felt something push her, and her paws slipped on the wet rock.

She went over backwards and hit the pool of water at the bottom of the waterfall with a splash.

She stood up, right under the waterfall, but she was too shocked to notice.

Duke stared at her from his perch on the rock, grinning.

“Jenna, now’s not the time to go for a swim.”

She laughed.

“You… you pushed me!”

“I know, I’m mean huh? Here, I’ll make it even…”

“What ?” Jenna asked.

Then he jumped off of the rock, splashing her, as he sank beneath the water.

When he came back up he splashed her.

She grinned, and splashed him back.

Then he tackled her.

This caught her completely by surprise, and she went under fairly quickly.

As soon as Jenna’s head went under, Duke let go of her, and she kicked her way back to the surface.

“Wasn’t much of a fight.” Duke said.

Jenna smiled, and leapt at him.

The two struggled back and forth for a little while, but eventually, Jenna got her front legs around his shoulders and forced his head under.

The two dogs romped and played in the water, the only witness to their joy the Aura Borealis, as it whipped its way across the artic sky.

Jenna and Duke lay on the rock, their swim finished.

The water was warm, and it was fairly cold outside, which for Alaska meant that it was about twenty below, but due to the warm spring, the area around it was warm, and the ground around it, including the rock that they lay on, was devoid of snow.

The warm environment also meant that the rock was warm.

Jenna sat up, and Duke followed suit.

She shook the water that remained in her hair off, and smiled.

“I can’t believe you pushed me in there.” She said, “and then you dunked me!”

He grinned slyly.

“You’ve got to watch me; sometimes I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”

She laughed.

“I doubt it.”

He smiled.

Jenna was aware that he was staring at her, but he’d been doing that all night, so she didn’t really think anything about that, the other thing she was un aware of, was that she was beginning to lean toward him a little.

He too felt a little warm, and was somewhat surprised when he opened his eyes and his nose were about an inch away from hers.

He closed the gap, and they brushed each other.

He was kind of afraid of how she’d react, and pulled back.

She smiled, and nuzzled him.

He smiled back at her, glad that she took the affectionate gesture so well.

The two of them just sat there for a while.

Dash was walking through the worsening storm.

He looked over his shoulder, where June was walking.

He didn’t know how he felt about her.

Actually, that’s a false statement.

He knew how he felt about June, he’d always liked her, enjoyed talking to her, and since she was his best friend’s mate, they got to talk quite a bit.

Now… he really liked her, and he knew she liked him.

But…..

He couldn’t get involved in a relationship now, not this soon…. it didn’t feel right.

Shasta was the reason he’d made the decision to leave his home, and his family, to come live in Aleu’s pack.

The two of them had shared something that Dash had thought he would never experience again when she died.

And yet….

When he was with June, he almost felt the same way.

Dash knew that Shasta was still watching him, or hoped she was anyway.

He liked to think that there was an afterlife, that he’d see her again.

Dash also knew that Shasta would want him to move on, to get to know someone else, to share the same thing they’d shared with someone else… but….

It just didn’t seem right to him.

He sighed.

“I don’t know what to think.” He thought.

His thoughts turned toward his daughter.

He hoped she was safe, but knew that the opposite was true.

Not only was she headed into extremely hostile territory,