Dedicated to all the Balto Source members, my friends, and my family.

Aleu’s Destiny

Aleu finally got to St. Lawrence Island after many many miles across the Bering Sea. She woke up after her nights sleep only to find her pack arguing. She got up and asked, “What’s going on?” Everyone became silent. Someone then answered, “Will Nava ever find us here? Will he cross the ocean?” Everyone looked at Aleu waiting for a response. She then told about Nava’s never rejoining the pack.

“I would like to get to know all of you now that I am the leader of this pack.” There was a long moment of silence until a charcoal black wolf stepped forward. “I am Scylla. I used to help Nava lead hunts and watch over the pack.” “Great! Maybe you can teach and help me to be a good leader.” said Aleu.

Another one, almost all brown, introduced herself as Ginger. “I did not usually do much other than watching over the pups.”

The next wolf was a mixture of brown, white, and black. He refused to introduce himself and Aleu asked another wolf of the pack who he was. “His name is Shadow. He always refuses to do what anyone tells him.” Aleu knew already that she would have many problems over him.

The next wolf was completely white. She said her name was Molly. She walked with a slight limp, but didn’t seem to be hurt.

Then came the wolf that told Aleu about Shadow. “I am Max.” the black and white wolf said.

The next wolf, Misty, was brown and black. “I was always keeping Shadow and Slash out of mischief. Would you like me to still do that, Aleu?” “Sure! That would be great!”

Aleu saw a wolf slip into the bushes through the corner of her eye. She pointed her paw at that wolf. “You.”

She slunk back out of sight. Aleu chased her back to the rest of the pack. “Well?” “I… I… cannot tell you.” “Yeah right.” “I…” “Who are you?” Aleu demanded. The red and white wolf remained silent. She tried to escape again but Aleu was ready. Ginger said, “Her name is Slash. She always is getting herself into mischief.” Aleu groaned and rolled her eyes.

The last adult dog’s name was Jack.

The other three were pups. “This is Robert, the red one. The black one is Kali, and the white one is Kiba.” said Ginger.

“Ok. Now I know all of you.”

“Let’s hunt!” said Max “I’m starved!” Many others agreed with him. Aleu told Shadow, Jack, Max, and Molly to go on this mornings hunt. “Ginger, stay here and watch over the pups. The rest of you, follow me. We will go and find our territory boundaries.”

The group that went to find territory boundaries met up with three packs. All three said that the land Aleu’s pack was on had never been owned by any other pack. The leader of the first one said his name was Garret. The next, Thunder. And the last, Sam. Aleu was delighted that finding territory boundaries saw so easy. “Now to go back. The hunt is probably over.” Sure enough, the hunting group was just returning.

Aleu announced the boundaries and then ate her share of the breakfast. Then, the rest of the pack ate.

“Ok. So we’re going to be able to walk this land with our eyes closed, right? I suggest that we start memorizing it now.” said Aleu.

Many hours went by while the pack figured out how to get from anywhere on their territory to anywhere else on their territory without getting lost. Before they started, Aleu told the pack to split into groups of two. The remaining wolf went with her group.

Aleu’s pack went past a rock that reminded her of her mother, Jenna and her father, Balto. Still she pressed on. They also encountered a caribou and stalked it down. They stored it in a cave another group had found earlier.

Each group was memorizing the layout of the land and then, when everyone was done, they drew a map in the dirt, with their paw, the land that they explored. Now they had a map of the place.

Then, with no warning, Slash dashed towards the woods on Thunder’s pack’s territory. Misty tried to block her from leaving this territory but by the time she got there, Slash was already off Aleu’s pack’s territory. Thunder heard her and surprised her by jumping from what seemed to be nowhere. He asked, “Why are you here?” Slash was so surprised that she fell over. She hesitated to get up then started running back to the territory she belonged on.

Aleu was the one who apologized, not Slash. There was a long silence until Kali woofed. A few wolves giggled but then there was more silence after that. Slash knew she would be in huge trouble not just by Aleu, but by the whole pack and still, Thunder. She slunk back into the bushes and finally returned to the rest of the pack at dinnertime.

Aleu said, “I think we need this pack to be more organized. In order to do that we will need to know our neighboring packs more and know each other more.” A hum went up in the pack. All eight wolves were whispering to each other. One of the pups whimpered and Ginger went to take care of it. When ginger returned to the rest of the pack, the noise stopped. A caribou was standing right there out in the open.

Everyone lowered themselves into the long grass. The wolves farthest away from the animal crept forward. Then they all attacked in unison. Not one single order was told. They just somehow knew what the others were thinking. The caribou was so startled he fell over! This made it a lot more easer for the pack to kill it. They laid it down near the cave to be eaten.

Jack was still hungry after the caribou was gone so he went into the woods to find a rabbit to hunt down. When he came back, it was dark and everyone was asleep. He went over to a vacant spot, spun around three times, laid down, and went to sleep.

In the morning, Aleu was the first up. She trotted around the territory searching for a rabbit to eat before breakfast. She had no luck but did find a smooth and shiny stone. She pried it out of the dirt with her paw and carried it to where the rest of the pack was sleeping. She still had it in her mouth when Shadow woke up. Shadow asked “What’s that?” Aleu set it down, put her paw over it so he could not get it and said, “A stone. Why do you want to know?” Shadow gave no answer. Aleu asked again, “Why do you want to know?”

Ginger woke up next and walked sleepily over to Shadow and Aleu. “What are you two doing?” she asked only to find that neither one answered. Shadow went and woke up Slash. Ginger said, “Those two are kind of in their own little group.” Aleu rolled her eyes. Shadow and Slash were whispering to each other, and then both looked toward Aleu and Ginger. They went back to their whispering and Ginger and Aleu went back to their talking.

The next wolf to wake up was Scylla. She yawned and looked around. The rest of the eleven wolves started waking up one by one. Aleu noted that everyone woke up in the same order. Scylla told Aleu about this by explaining how most wolf packs are arranged. “There is the alpha male, the alpha female, beta male, four groups of puppies (oldest males, youngest males, oldest females, and youngest females) and the scapegoat. In this pack there is no alpha female, two groups of puppies (the youngest males and the youngest females), and two scapegoats.”

Aleu did not care about how most packs are, just how this pack was, but the extra bit of information was very helpful, so she accepted it.

The pack went on their hunt and had breakfast. Robert jumped onto Molly. She shook him off and trotted to the center of the group waiting for Aleu to say what she was going to say. “I think we should hunt more than just two caribou a day. That is pretty much the whole reason we came here to St. Lawrence Island. We followed the caribou. Why did we do that if were only going to eat two a day?”

Misty walked foreword. “Aleu has a perfect point. We should not run out of caribou anyways since they will reproduce.”

“Many of us are hungry after meals, too.” said Max.

“Also,” said Scylla, “We never have leftovers to store for the winter.”

Aleu asked if anyone had a reason why not to hunt more than two caribou a day. No one had an answer. “Ok then. If everyone wants more than two caribou a day, we will. That will only take about twenty to thirty minuets more of our day. We have many more three hundred sixty-five day years ahead of ourselves to hunt for Caribou, why don’t we start today?”

The rest of the day was very uneventful, but Aleu did do something. She went over to the rock that reminded her of her mother and father. “I didn’t even say by to my mom. What are they doing now? What happened to my brothers and sisters? Is everyone okay?” Her mind exploded with questions about her family.

Scylla went to Aleu. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine; it’s just that I miss my family”

Aleu went back with Scylla to announce the evening hunt. They came back with two adult caribou and on very young one. They ate and went to bed.

That night, Aleu had a dream about when she was younger. Somehow that dream drifted into the dream she had the night before she crossed the Bering Sea. That one woke her up in the morning. “How did I have that dream?” she asked herself.

She thought she saw Mauro, her spirit guide, standing next to her. Sure enough, he was she asked him about her dreams she had the last night. He said, “Only you can find the answer to that question.” “Does this mean another quest?” Aleu asked. Mauro explained to her that life is one quest itself. “The quest you went on to find out who you were was just one part of one big whole quest, Aleu”

Aleu exclaimed “Now I get it!” She watched as Mauro disappeared into the wind. “Now I get it.” She said almost in a whisper. The rest of the pack started waking up, one by one again, in the same order as before. This reminded her of how the pack was set up.

They were very successful in this mornings hunt, coming back in less than half an hour with three caribou. After they all ate, they stored the leftovers in the cave.

Aleu saw, through the corner of her eye, Slash crawling into the cave.