want that too get in the way. His spirit was not yet broken. He put a straight face on and got prepared too sprint faster than he has ever before. Roan was tense and anxious. All the dogs were barking and yipping, not in a joyful way. They were all restless and afraid, even Akiak.

Balto stood back from them with a worried face. Mush!

The team suddenly bolted into the darkness of snow. Aleska’s face had changed from worried, to determined. Akiak howled back to Balto, but it was faded away by the wind. All Balto could hear was a faint whistle in the distance. As they disappeared from his sight, Balto watched the horizon and sighed. He whispered to himself,

“Be careful you two. What would I do without you,” 

The wind was howling in Akiaks ears and the snow was fogging up his sight. He was panting like he never before, and his legs were stiff and tired. The snow was deep and treacherous and he didn’t know how much longer he could take. Several times behind him, Moss slipped in the snow pulling him backwards. It hurt him to pull back on the harness so he didn’t fall back, but he couldn’t delay the team. Balto was counting on him. Soon after terrible running, they reached the main base. It was a heavy load to carry and the team were exhausted. Vets checked the dogs at base and all were fine. The dogs didn’t feel fine though. Akiak felt a dreadful sting in his legs and ears. Roan was still nervous and felt the cold worse than anyone else. Moss also had terrible pains in his legs. Silver was having trouble breathing in the frosty air, she was panting very bizarrely. Max had awful shoulder cuts from the harness, he was a massive husky and the harness was digging into him. Scoot, who was the youngest in the team, was worried and couldn’t control his nerves; he jumped and barked all the time, which didn’t help the team. And Aleska, she was aching everywhere and was incredibly worried for the team. But she was determined and didn’t let her pain and worry get in the way of the journey she had to make home.

Balto lay down on the floor of the tent with anxious eyes.

“Doesn’t look like I’m going to get any sleep tonight,” He said to himself quietly, “I wish Jenna was here,”

From the thought of Jenna, Balto thought of home and how greatly he missed Jenna. It was actually a good thing that she wasn’t with him, she would be so concerned she would run after them. Balto laughed at his thoughts, “It’s a good thing she’s not here,” But then he sighed and thought again about Akiak and Roan.

The time the team had to stop, was to them, merely a second. The next minute they were racing at maximum speed again through the bottomless snow. Aleska was faster than anyone and the dogs found it exceptionally difficult to keep up with her. “Slow down!” Moss called to her, “We can’t run like that Aleska, SLOW DOWN !” But Aleska ignored him and continued to run faster and faster. She was looking straight ahead with her eyes, never moving, strained on in front of her. They were running at the side of a mount. At the bottom was a sea lake, covered completely in slowly braking ice. The pain in Akiak’s legs was getting worse; he couldn’t take any more of it. He could feel his legs breaking down. Suddenly, Akiak lost his breath and tripped over in the snow. The harness snapped off and Akiak tumbled downhill. Roan barked, “Akiak!” as he rolled nearer to the sea lake and…         smash!

Akiak crashed through the ice, but not into water. He fell through with ice that had shattered like broken glass into a frozen cave that had been covered by a thin layer of ice. Roan hurriedly struggled out of her harness and ran down the mount to where Akiak fell through the ice.

 “Akiak! Are you all right?!” She shouted to him.

Akiak had no idea what hit him. Hid head rose slightly and found himself in a solid ice cave. To him it was more like a freezing pit with no escape. He heard his sister, barking his name from above him. Akiak looked up at her and smiled slightly. Roan laughed,

“You nearly gave me a heart attack! Thank goodness your alright!”

Akiak laughed a little as well. He tried to get up, but rapidly fell back down with a terrible pain and his body slammed back down again onto the ice. “Akiak,” Roan shouted to him.

He raised his head so he could see Roan and said in a very tired and bewildered voice, “Yea,”

“Are you alright ?”

“Emm…  I think I’ve broken my leg or something. I can’t move,”

“Don’t worry! We’ll get you out of there!”

Akiak didn’t say anything and looked at his leg. He had cut himself all over from the sharp ice that cut him like a broken bottle. Luckily it wasn’t bad. It was his leg he was worrying about. Soon he heard the bark of Aleska, she was looking down on him.

“Akiak, don’t worry. We will get you out of that cave in no time,” She said.

“Aleska, I’m really sorry,” Akiak said as he swung his head down and stared at his broken leg, “I let you and the whole team down. I’m wasting time,”

“No Akiak! It’s not your fault! If it was anyone’s fault it was mine,”

“It wasn’t your fault, Aleska. You were trying to help the team!”

“I was pushing you far too hard! I’m the one who should be sorry,”

“Aleska, I…” Akiak began to say but suddenly yelped out as he felt an awful pain in his leg. Roan reappeared, “Akiak!”

“It’s okay Roan!” Akiak shouted up too her, “My leg just hurt’s a little that’s all! Don’t worry about me!”

Akiak could hear everyone above him. He heard the clang on harnesses and the bark of dogs. They were wasting time. And time wasn’t what they had.

“Aleska!” Akiak shouted. He saw her worried face appear over the ice.

“Aleska, you have too go. You don’t have much time left before nightfall,”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Akiak sighed, “You have to…”

Akiak was too afraid to say it. But he had to be strong.

“You have too leave without me,”

“What?!” Aleska’s said, astonished.

“You don’t have much time left. You must get the supplies and the team back before nightfall! You will never make it back in time with me. Leave me here and go on!” Akiak shouted, now determined. He was frightened and knew that he probably wouldn’t survive. But he had to do this for the team. Or then more lives would be lost. Winter was coming fast and soon, when nightfall finally came. The continent would be plunged into darkness until spring.

Roan heard what Akiak said and shouted to him, “No Akiak! I’m not going to leave you! You cant do this too yourself Akiak!”

“Yes Akiak! You’re the strongest on the team! You keep us together!” Aleska shouted to him, and she meant it. Aleska never thought she was most important or the strongest, she always thought it was Akiak and admired him for it. Akiak couldn’t have been happier when he heard those few words. But no! He couldn’t stop the team,

“Hurry up! There isn’t much time! Go now before it’s too late! I will stay here. You must leave me…     please,”

Balto was right, he couldn’t sleep. He was too worried. He didn’t eat anything before and now he couldn’t sleep. It was unusual for him to get so worried. Balto didn’t know Antarctica or it’s dangers. He was told it had a lot of dangers and he just loved Akiak and Roan too much. What if he loosed them? What would he do? What would he tell Jenna? He didn’t want to think of Jenna and his home. What made him feel worse was that he never even said anything like “I love you” or “You can do it! I’m counting on you”. He tried to make himself feel better. But it wasn’t working. Other dogs tried to make him feel better as well; many dogs came up and told him, “Don’t worry, Balto! Their the best dogs you could ever get!” When Balto finally got to sleep, he started to have a terrible nightmare:

Balto was in a blizzard. Surrounded by snow and nothing else in the centre on Antarctica. He could see ice walls towering over him getting taller and taller. He was trapped in the centre. Balto looked around him and saw…   Akiak. He was on the other side of the ice limping. He fell suddenly into the snow. Balto shouted to him and ran towards him. He tried to climb the ice but kept on sliding down to the bottom. Akiak disappeared under the snow. Balto ran up to the ice and crashed through it and fell through the snow as well. He fell through darkness until he saw a light below him. He landed in…    the beach by Nome. He saw his home, the boat with Boris watching over the side. He followed his gaze and saw…       his and Jenna’s pups. Alue, Kodi, Akiak, Roan and the rest…    all playing in the water like they had done a long time ago. Balto watched them. He saw Akiak run straight past him. He ran to the top of the beach and began too howl. Balto stared at him, trying to figure out what was going on. All of a sudden, Balto felt himself being sucked out of that world and into another. He sank through the sand and into darkness again. There was no light, all he saw was darkness. Suddenly, he heard a wolf howl and he landed right in front of Anui. She was howling like she did when he was on the serum run. Then she suddenly changed to Alue…     she was howling as well; with her wolf pack that she became the leader off. Then Alue changed to himself. Balto watched himself howling like he did with Anui, and then last he saw himself with Kodi. Kodi was howling like a wolf like he did many times before. Kodi was proud of Balto being part wolf. Balto was suddenly pulled out of these worlds and into darkness again. He could hear a howl, getting louder and louder and louder as if it was getting nearer and nearer and nearer. All of a sudden the howl turned into a sharp bark…

Balto suddenly woke up from his dream and bumped his head hard on the hard, wooden roof of the kennel. 

“Oww !” Balto barked, “Wow, what a dream,”

It was still night, and all the