crawling into the cave. Aleu dashed over to the cave with Slash inside. “What are you doing?” asked Aleu. “Nothing,” was the answer that came out of Slash’s mouth. Slash had this word already planned to say if anyone found her sneaking into the cave. What she did not have planned was what to do if anyone found her eating some of the meat inside the cave.

“Are you hungry?” asked Aleu.

“N-n-no.” “Then why are you entering the cave?” “I…”

Slash finally gave up and explained her plan to Aleu. “I admit that was pretty clever, but I know how much meat is in that cave and you would eventually be found out. You should have just caught a rabbit.”

“I know, but Caribou tastes better than rabbit.” “Does that matter?” “I…” “No. It does not matter. If you are hungry not at meal time, you catch a rabbit, not eat out of our storage cave. That food is for winter.”

Slash had to vow not to do it again to leave and go back to the pack. She did not want to go back to the pack, but she did want to leave so she did it anyway.

Back at the pack, everyone was still and quiet. “What’s going on?” Aleu asked as very quietly, though loud enough for the closest wolf to her could hear her. Jack was that wolf and he answered, “Shh! There’s a huge caribou a few of the pack members are hunting down.” Aleu counted the wolves that she could see. There were only six!

When the five wolves returned after about half an hour with the caribou. They laid it next to the cave to be eaten at dinnertime. “Wow!” exclaimed Ginger “That thing is humongous!” One of the five wolves that went hunting sat down, panting, and said, “Whew! That was exhausting!”

The next thing anyone knew, everyone was standing over the huge caribou. “How old do you think this is?” and “How much do you think it weighs?” was almost all the wolves said. It took four wolves just to move it from one place to another!

After dinner, everyone went to bed except Aleu. She went to the ocean, which is off her territory but was not anyone else’s territory either. She sat down on the beach thinking about the dreams she had the night before. “With all this excitement, I never had a chance to stop and think about these things. I got what Mauro meant, but not what my dreams meant.” After about two hours out on the beach Aleu went back to the territory. She still did not get what her dreams meant and decided they probably did not mean anything.

In the morning, nothing unusual happened so everyone was pretty much just resting. “I’m bored.” said Kali “I want to go play out on top of the cave.” The other pups agreed with him so Ginger took them over to the cave, which was their favorite place to play.

They heard a rustling in the grass. The pups froze, but Ginger was already frozen, resting and watching the pups. The rustling stopped. There was no movement by any living thing in that ten foot radius other than the grass blowing in the wind. “Must have been a rabbit going into its hole.” said Ginger.

As they walked back to the rest of the pack, there was another rustling in the grass. Ginger told the pups to stay still while she went to investigate. Ginger did not find anything so she went back to the pups and they went back to the rest of the pack. Ginger told Aleu about the noise and Aleu went over to try and figure out what it was that Ginger and the pups heard. Just as Ginger, she found nothing. “That’s strange.” said Aleu.

“I think we should go and hunt down one more caribou for dinner.” and they went out to hunt. They came back with the caribou and ate dinner. Aleu and Ginger told the pack about the whatever it was in the grass and it was forbidden to go there until what it was, was found out. The next few days were all the same until Molly found out what made the noise.

She got permission from Aleu and went to that spot. When he came back to the other wolves, he showed a bullet to them. A big gasp went up in the whole pack other than Jack and the pups, who did not know what was going on. Aleu, Molly, Max, and Jack went to the spot where Molly said she found the bullet. Garret heard about the situation and asked Aleu if he could help. “That would be great!” said Aleu.

After hours of investigating, they found nothing. Garret went back to his pack and Aleu, Max, Jack, and Molly went back to the rest of their pack. “We didn’t find anything. Though, we did pick up a scent. There was a human over there very recently.”

They did not see or hear the hunter anymore and there were no recent scents other than the one that was already found so the wolves were allowed over there, not that anyone did go there.

Two weeks later, Sam came to Aleu and asked her if he could investigate her territory. “Why do you want to do that?” “We had an incident with something.” “What something?” “Shadow.” “What did he do?” “Not he, she. I’m sure it was a she.” “Than it was Slash, not Shadow. Shadow is a boy, Slash is a girl.” “Ok, then it might be Slash, but it might be any other adult female wolf in your pack, including you.” Aleu didn’t know what to say so she just stood there. “So, am I allowed to search your territory for anything that might help me to find who it is?” “First tell me what she did.” “She stole meat from my pack.” “From where?” “Our storage holes.” “How much meat was stolen?” “About three pounds.” “Only three pounds!?! What does three pounds matter?” “Are you going to let me investigate or not?” “Sure.”

Sam found no evidence and told Aleu that he would go back. “How do you even know it was a wolf from my pack?” “Because it ran in this direction after it stole the meat.” “It might have trespassed onto two territories, not just one.” Just then Thunder came and told almost the same exact story as Sam. “That leaves only someone in Garret’s pack left.” “And there are only three females in his pack so that makes it easy.” “There are only three suspects.”

The three pack leaders met on Garret’s territory and explained the situation. They investigated the territory, no luck. They investigated the land around it, again, no luck. That’s odd.” said thunder, “I agree.” said Aleu, and Sam said this is very puzzling. Will we ever find out who did it?” “We only have searched this place once. Sam searched my territory once. We still have lots of land to search with as much time as we want to use.” said Aleu. “Good point.” said thunder.

The next few days were filled with searching but no one found a clue. The packs got curious about what the pack leaders were doing. The days still had the same routine Garret and the four packs, but not for the other three pack leaders. They got up earlier, went to bed later and almost did not rest at all in the day. “We need to pick up the pace.” said Sam.

One night, Aleu’s pack could not find any caribou. “I’ll bet this connects to the mystery of the stolen meat. We finally have a single clue!” exclaimed Aleu. She told Sam and Thunder about this. “Maybe, the hunter stole the meat and the wolf that came onto my territory is not guilty!” said Sam. “But why would he take all the caribou?” asked Thunder. Maybe, the hunter didn’t take any caribou, but did scare all of them off. Although, he could have taken a few.” “To take them all, there would have to be way more than just one or two hunters.” said Sam. “This is too puzzling to figure out tonight.” said thunder. “Who said we had to?” asked Aleu. “We might, if we can travel to the closest place humans live tonight.” said Sam “How will that help if other humans live closer than those hunters, if there were more than one?” asked Aleu. “It won’t, but if the hunters live closer to another forest, why would they come here?” asked Thunder. “Because that forest is already out of caribou!” exclaimed Sam.

When she got back, Aleu told her pack about what she and the other two pack leaders found out. “So this place does not have more abundance of caribou than the mainland did. Why did we come here then?” asked Misty. “Niju was right. Balto is a fraud!” said Max. “Do you know what Nava would do if he heard you say that?” asked Molly. No, and I don’t care what he would do. I have proof. BALTO IS A FRAUD!!!” “No, he is not. Do you think I am a good leader?” asked Aleu. “Not as good as Nava.” said Max. “But am I good enough?” “Yes.” said Max. “Do you know who brought me to you? Balto, my father, did. And he taught me part of how to be a good wolf pack leader, too.” “Who taught you the other part? Nava did. So you want Nava back, don’t you? Well to bad. Nava couldn’t have made the swim. If the ice flows line up again next winter, you can go back and try to find Nava and Niju.” “Are you saying you are better than Nava?” “No I am not. I am telling you Nava will not be able to come here and that my father is not a fraud. He, nor Nava, knew that there would be hunters here taking all the caribou.” “What about the caribou reproducing, Misty?” “Why don’t we all just shut up and drop the subject?” asked Molly. “So Max is joining Shadow and Slash, is he?” asked Ginger. “No, I am not! I am joining Niju’s side. I already said this, but maybe you didn’t hear me. BALTO IS A FRAUD!!!” Max yelled. “Ok, we get it, Max.” said Jack. “Let’s just BE QUIET!!!” said Aleu. “We get it, Aleu” said Max. “So why aren’t we doing it?”

Ginger was right. Max was joining Shadow and Slash. Max was right, too. He was also joining Niju. Aleu was another wolf that was correct. Neither Nava nor Balto knew that there would be hunters here taking all the caribou.

“I don’t know why we’re arguing about something when everyone is correct.” said Scylla. “Look. There’s a Caribou over there.” said Aleu. “Great. Do you know that there is only ONE!?!” asked Max. “Look.” said Jack pointing a paw towards the caribou as more and more caribou emerged from the trees. “I only see… eleven.” “One for each of us, including the pups. That’s plenty.” said Aleu. “What about when those run out?” asked Max. “I said this about a month ago, and Max still remembers it, the caribou will reproduce.” said Misty. “WHY