By: PFC Anthony E. Rotramel, USMC.

Started: 04/14/05

Finished: 04/22/05

Pages: 118 Words: 17,586

Note: This story was inspired by Balto, (copyright 1995.), Balto 2: Wolf Quest (copyright 2000), and Balto 3: Wings of Change (copyright 2005) by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment. The character’s Blaize, Jadze, Shadow, Dash, Melody, Shasta, Max, Flash, Timbre, Sheik, Lima, Hiluck Meko, Julic, Raye Gemini, Drake, Jamie, Tim, Tycha, Balto Junior Tango, Shairry, Tiru, Raize, Jadze and, Yukon, Kimer, Heamer, Julious, Alai, Ender, Magor and the events of this story are copyright 2005 by Anthony Rotramel. The other characters are copyright by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment.

Prologue

“So Aleu,” Balto said, “How long are you going to be staying here for?”

Aleu smiled.

“Well dad, you know I have to get back to the pack soon.”

“Well how long is soon?” Balto asked.

“A few days.” Aleu responded. “I probably should be there now, but I wanted to come and see you guys. Plus, I kinda needed to get away from them for a while, after what happened last month… well, I’m just not too sure about a lot right now.”

“Well be sure about this Aleu,” Balto said, “you’re always welcome here.”

“Yeah, you have a nice home.” Aleu said.

Balto smiled.

“Yeah I know, Luke takes good care of me.”

“I still can’t believe that,” said Aleu. “I seem to remember someone saying that humans liked cute little puppies, not old grizzly grownups, and that was what, four years ago?”

“Five actually,” Balto said, “and Luke is a special one.”

“Must be to put up with you all the time.” Aleu said.

“Yeah, we go flying all the time in his plane; we deliver supplies to out of the way towns like Isaloosa.”

“I know, mom was telling me all about it, and how worried she gets when you go up there.”

Balto laughed.

“Yeah, you’d think she’d be used to the idea by now, but she doesn’t seem to be.”

“Well it’s not exactly normal,” Aleu said, “for a dog to fly I mean.”

Balto sighed.

“Yeah, but the feeling I get when I’m up there… it’s indescribable “

He looked out the window, where the plane could be seen sitting in the yard.

“I’m growing to hate it when I’m not in the air, I feel so… anchored on the ground.”

“Well I like being anchored.” Aleu said.

Balto laughed.

“You know, I still haven’t been able to convince your mother to go up with me?”

Aleu laughed too.

“Yeah, I can believe that actually.

She paused.

“Speaking of mom, let’s go pay her a visit.”

“Well Aleu,” Balto said, “it’s pretty late, but we can see if she’s still awake.”

“Lead the way dad,” Aleu said.

The two of them walked out the door.

Balto and Aleu made it to Jenna’s home fairly quickly, and Balto scratched on the door.

A few minutes later, Jenna poked her head through the doggy door.

“Hey Balto,” Jenna said, “what’s up, why’re you here so late.”

Balto smiled.

“Do I need to have a reason to come see you?”

Jenna smiled.

“No, I don’t suppose so, would you like to come in here, or am I going to have to stick my head through the door the whole time?”

“Oh sure Jen,” Balto said.

Jenna’s head disappeared and Balto stepped through the door into the house, Aleu followed.

“Look who I have with me.” Balto said.

Jenna saw Aleu.

“Oh Aleu! When did you get here, here, come over here and sit down, wow, it’s been a while.

“Too long,” Aleu said.

“Is there a problem with the pack?” Jenna asked, “is that why you’re here?"

“No,” Aleu said, “everything is fine. I just needed to get away from them for a while, a few days anyway.”

“So, how are things with the Onasie clan?” Jenna asked.

“Oh, you heard about that, huh?”

“Of course,” Jenna said.

“Well, things are fine, actually,” Aleu said, “they’re better than fine, Hiluck helped me out a lot with the whole Gia thing, and our clans have grown close, we share the same territory, the same food, for now anyway, everything is peaceful. That’s why I took the opportunity to sneak away from the pack when I did.”

“Well how’s Lima doing?” Jenna asked. “I heard she got shot.”

“She’s doing fine, like her father, she has a bit of a limp that has stuck around, but I think it’ll go away with time.”

About that time Kodi ducked through the door, followed closely by Dusty.

“Oh hey,” Jenna said, “what are you two doing up so late? Dusty, you should be asleep, I know when I had mine, I was tired all the time, and it’s getting close isn’t it?”

Dusty smiled and looked at Kodi, then nuzzled him.

“Yes it is.” She said.

“Kodiak?” Aleu said.

Kodi stopped.

“Aleu?”

Brother and sister ran at each other, stopping just short of colliding with one another.

“Wow,” Kodi said, “it’s been a while.”

“Yeah,” Aleu said.

“What do you do now?” Kodi asked, “I haven’t seen you around town.”

“I lead a wolf pack, up by the river,” Aleu said, “I have a mate, you’d like him, he’s a fighter, Shadow and three kids, Sheik, Lima and Thunder, who I adopted.”

“Speaking of adopted,” Kodi said, “has dad told you about Luke?”

“Oh yes,” Aleu said.

“What do you think?” Kodi asked.

“I think it’s great,” Aleu said. “Kodi, who is that with you. You said her name was Dusty, I don’t think I know a Dusty.”

“Oh I’m sorry,” Kodi said.

“Aleu this is Dusty, my mate, and Dusty this is Aleu, my sister.”

“Nice to meet you,” Dusty said.

“Same here,” Aleu responded.

Dusty smiled.

Then abruptly her smile vanished and was replaced by a grimace of pain.

She fell on the ground.

“Dusty!?” Kodi asked.

“It… hurts!” Dusty said. “I think…. I think it’s…..”

She was unable to say anything else.

Kodi looked back up at them.

“Uh oh,” he said.

“Don’t worry Kodi,” Balto said, “she’ll be fine, let’s get her to doc’s.”

“Kodi helped her to her feet and the four of them followed as Dusty limped out the door.

The dogs and wolf were all sitting outside the hospital waiting for word from Kodi.

“So Aleu,” Jenna asked, “you never told us what happened to you when you left here, after you took over the pack I mean. What happened across the great waters?”

Aleu sighed.

“Well mom, that’s a very long story.”

Kodi walked down the stairs to them.

“Well, we’re going to be here for quite a while.”

Everyone looked at Kodi questioningly.

Kodi smiled sheepishly.

“The uh…. the doc said I was getting in the way.”

They all laughed.

“Well how is she?” Jenna asked.

“She’ll be fine, it’s…. it’s just going to take a while.”

He walked down the remainder of the steps and sat down next to his father and mother, unintentionally forming a semi-circle around Aleu.

“So sis,” he asked, “what really did happen?”

“Yeah,” Balto said, “you never told us anything, you just showed up one day.”

“Okay,” Aleu said, “since it appears that we’ll have some time, I’ll tell you.”

She took a deep breath and sighed.

“Okay, when we walked across the ice bridge, we came onto a snow covered, frozen, just… just a desolate place, and the pack was restless, they wanted to go home, but the caribou were there as well, so we knew that the great Aniu was watching over us…

She paused.

“I don’t know, but I suppose it was this attitude that led to them….”

“Well, I’ll just tell you the story……”

Chapter 1

It was late at night, and Aleu was having trouble sleeping.

She rolled and tossed in her sleep, shaking and whimpering every once and a while.

She was standing back in the cave that she’d met Muru in, back when she’d run away from home.

There was no one there.

Suddenly the pile of crystals in the center of the room lit up, and the room was bathed in orange light.

The cave paintings started to glow, and