Balto corrected.

Maybe she was right. Maybe Balto should've followed her

"Sheesh, knowing a wolf with a crush on you is kinda scary." Rusty said.

"There's nothing scary about it, Rust. It's like husky love only more wild and free. Plus nobody gives the pups away. What are you doing here anyways? You're supposed to be asleep."

"I had to pee. So, planning on going wild and free tommorrow night?"

"Not yet, why?"

"Boiler party tommorrow. You should go."

"I don't like going to those. It's just a lame excuse for other dogs to steal meat from the butcher and give it to other dogs."

"I'm not complaining, but the real reason they have them is to meet other dogs. Especially females and single guys like us." Rusty nudged Balto's shoulder.

"Please, I hardly have time for females."

"Aw, c'mon Balto. You're kinda like the alpha male of the team. And every great alpha male always has a great alpha female at his side."

Balto sighed and lay down.

"And six or seven little puppies at his paws."

"Give it a rest Rusty! I'm not going to be anybody's mate. And I'm certainly not going to be anybody's father."

Rusty knew exactly the next few words and mouthed them along with Balto's voice, "I don't have the time."

"Balto, i'm sure you're a very busy dog, but consider yourself. I know you like to look out for Gunnar and the other dogs and the miners but really, do you want to be stuck alone all your life?"

Balto was getting frustrated but he couldn't lie because nobody could lie about it, "No." he said reluctantly.

"Then will you come?"

"Will you keep bugging me until i do?"

"Yes."

Balto mumbled something to himself and then said, "Fine."

Chapter 2 Miah

January 4, 1925 Nome, Alaska 

Behind the doctor’s officer was a small boiler room that the people in the hospital used to keep warm. It was left on at night for the people sleeping in the building. At night, the dogs also used it to share food, stories, and meet mates.

Spitz was always there. Most males regarded him as a fallen hero. Spitz was lead was lead dog in Gunnar’s team before Balto was and was much more popular than Balto ever was; mostly because Spitz was an excellent story teller. He stretched the truth far enough to be considered lying, which is precisely what it was. Spitz told fabulous tales of adventure across the Alaskan tundra.

His stories were always filled with romantic views of the wilderness and action packed stories where he was always the hero, and woe to any witness that exposes his fabulous lies.

Rusty had learned his lesson more than once.

Spitz may no longer have been interesting to the males, but most of the females that went to the boiler room were still wowed by Spitz. After all, he may not be lead dog, but he was still a hunky-looking husky.

Only Miah, Rusty’s sister and two of her friends didn’t hang around Spitz. Rusty told the truth about Spitz’s stories to the three girls while Spitz was lying up a storm. Miah and Princess listened to him and didn’t bother to notice Spitz after Rusty told them the truth the first time but while Rusty talked about the truth to Miah and Princess, Gracy turned her ears to Spitz.

By the time Spitz was done, so was Rusty. Because even though he was surrounded by females, Spitz had his eye on Miah as a mate and usually liked to ask her about what she thought about his heroics. Miah would mostly agree with anything he said and occasionally would expose him inconspicuously. Miah clearly wasn’t interested, but Spitz kept trying.

Balto stared at the locked door of the boiler room. He looked to his left at Rusty, “So, how are we supposed to get in?”

“The same way the others did.” Rusty responded.

Rusty walked to the right side of the door and sniffed the base of the building. He caught a scent and started digging out a hole at the base. He was done in a few seconds and he revealed a small hole that Balto and he could crawl through.

“Follow me.” He said. Rusty got on his belly and crawled under the hospital. There was about a foot and a half of space between the floor of the boiler room and the cold dirt. Balto followed Rusty down into the crawl space and looked around. The light from the boiler room seeped through the cracks in the floor and illuminated the crawl space; although there wasn’t much to look at.

“So, I guess all sorts of dogs come to this thing?” Balto asked.

“Yeah.”

“What about old Benjamin? The Saint Bernard?”

“He’s the one who started these. He thought that there shouldn’t be any controlled breeding so he started the parties for males to meet females they felt more attracted to.”

“Not a bad idea, but I was wondering, how does he get to these parties? Certainly he can’t fit into these crawl spaces, I mean, we’re pretty big already.”

“Well, under the actual hospital part of the building is a wider crawl space and a few broken boards he can fit through.”

Suddenly, the floor lifted as they left the boiler room space. Balto could now stand up fully, “See, we’re under a hospital room now.”

Behind them was a vent leading into the boiler room.

“C’mon.” Rusty said, he pushed the vent open and stepped into the room. It was mostly silent when he stepped in, “What’s up guys? I hope you’re in the mood for a new celebrity tonight, people, I give you the lead dog of Nome’s best sled team: Balto!”

Balto climbed from the vent and got to his feet. He looked around the room. Most of the 20 dogs were huskies; one or two were St. Bernards, a few malamutes and one female was a Samoyed.

“Uh, hi everybody.” Balto said.

Spitz glared at Balto. Then he turned to his female friends, “Ladies, have I ever told you about the time I pulled my entire team from a cliff?”

“Well, gee Spit, that happened about four times the same exact way.” One of the huskies said.

“Yeah, I’m sure Balto has some new stories we’d like to hear.” Another commented rather conspicuously.

Four husky females sauntered up to Balto and sat or lied down surrounding him, “So Balto, you’re the new lead?”

“As in ‘new’ you mean never been seen in public, then yes. I’ve been lead for about a year.” Balto said.

Balto mingled with the other dogs for a while until he finally got back to Rusty, “Your friends like leads, I guess.” He said.

“Yeah, leads are in the same league as human celebrities.” Rusty said, “By the way, Balto, this is my sister, Miah.”

Miah lifted her head and lowered her ears in front of Balto. His eyes widened, he’d never seen a more beautiful female before. Miah was the female version of Rusty, sleek and a petite body. Her fur made her seem bigger than she was. Miah was a dark reddish-brown and had a white belly.

“Hi Miah, I’m Balto.”

“Rusty’s told me a lot about you. It’s nice to finally meet you.” Miah said.

“Really? What does he say?”

“From what he tells me, you’re brave and think about yourself last. He also tells me you’re a great athlete.”

“Well, I’m no superstar-“

“On the contrary.” A female malamute was sitting next to Miah.

“Really?”

“Balto, my name is Princess, you can call me Prissy if you want, any ways, I like to run with Miah so I stick by her here. Rusty tells us all the true tales about you and your team.”

“What do you mean the truth?”

“Yes, Spitz enjoys exaggerating to the point of a fictional story.” Princess said.

“He lies. While everyone surrounds Spitz, we’re somewhere else listening to Rusty tell the truth about him and his stories.” Miah said.

“Oh, so then I’m sure you know all about me. I don’t know anything about you.” Balto sat down and stared into her crystal blue eyes.

“Well… Princess? What’s the time?”

Princess was the only one who knew how to tell time, “Nine o’clock.”

“Let’s go for a walk.” Miah suggested.

“Why?” Balto asked. Amazed at himself for asking that question.

“Because, old Ben likes to have discussions about politics and other stuff like news and science. We won’t be able to talk

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