back to their food storage cave, while the rest of the pack went out for elk.

“Couldn’t be having more fun than this!” said Ginger. “Good to hear. I told you we would make it. And we’re having fun in the process.” “I agree.” said Splash. “Same here.” said Amaroq, the newest member of the pack. “Couldn’t say different.” said Jessica, the second newest member of the pack.

Five hours later, they had three buffalo and eight elk. “I told you we could get enough food.” “Yes, but the storms are starting up again.” “And we’re done hunting.” “Good point.” “Done hunting for today at least. We’ll need all the food we can get if we are to survive this winter.” “Or we move.” “We will not move. We stay here and that is final.” “We can’t survive the winter unless we move.” “We’ve been through this and I say we stay.” “If you want us to stay, why did you move us across the great water?” “I did not make that decision. Nava made that decision.” “And you kept us going.” “I had no choice.”

By the end of the week, they had plenty of food to survive the rest of the winter. The only problem was that they couldn’t get to it. The food storage cave had caved in, and if it hadn’t, the snow surrounding it would have held them back. Over night, they had eight feet of snow and had to stay awake and keep moving to stay above it. They had no way of knowing where to dig for the cave, and if they did, it would take two days to finish. They had to get more, but keeping it safe would be a problem. “I guess being a human can be handy sometimes.” “How?” “You can hang your food in trees. Without the cave, how are we supposed to keep our food away from bears?” “We could have someone guarding it.” suggested Max. Aleu thought about this for a short while, and then agreed. “Max, Slash, Misty, and Shadow, you are to watch the food while the rest of us are out hunting. To get the food back, Robert, Kali, and Kiba will drag it back to where Max, Slash, Misty, and Shadow are guarding.” “Where will that be?” “Right over there.” Aleu pointed to a fairly large clearing in the trees.

They didn’t notice it, but by the time they were finished, the worst part of winter was over. “Great. Aleu made us do all this work for nothing.” “How was she supposed to know that winter was going to go by this fast?” “It would have been easier if we moved.” “How?” “This meat will go bad by next winter. Easily. And we did all this hunting and we can’t eat the meat.” “We could eat it and not go hunting anymore for a while.” “Why?” “You don’t think that it would be nice to take a break for a while?” “I don’t know. Well, OK, yeah. But that was fun.” “Then make a small little group and you can do that for us. We want to take a break, you want to hunt. Works just fine.” “How big or small would that group be?” “It depends on how many of us want to hunt.” “And if I’m the only one who wants to?” “Then you hunt and we don’t until all of this meat is gone.” “That might be a while. We have so much.” “And the meat in the cave is refrigerated by the snow. By the time the snow melts, we might be able to dig out the rocks from the cave and we would have even more meat.” “We don’t need more meat.” “Yes, but we’d better eat it while we have it. We don’t want to let any food go to waste. Remember, we crossed the Bering Sea just so we would have enough food. We wouldn’t want any of it to go to waste.” “And if any of it did?” “We’d be sorry.”

Well, they did get all the meat dug out from their cave. And eventually, all their meet was gone and they had to start hunting again. It was spring now, and there was plenty of prey. And it wasn’t long until they caught scent of another wolf pack coming from the west. A new pack. Aleu went out to find them and introduce herself to them and answer any questions that they had.

“You can stay here where Thunder’s pack used to live. There should be plenty of food and water. Thunder’s pack did well with survival, and I believe that it was because of this land.” “Where are the caribou located?” “I haven’t ever been on their land, so I’m not sure. A large stream runs through his territory and into ours, so I know there is fresh water to drink.” “Thanks.”

Again, the weeks came and went. Aleu’s pack got used to the new pack being near. “Where do you think everyone else went?” “Maybe there was another ice bridge and they crossed that over to Russia.” “It would be a little ways over to the other edge of St. Lawrence Island. And it was probably just as bad in Russia as it was here.” “This winter brought many chances to take. We took the “Stay Here” chance, and we survived the winter. They took the “Move Away” chance, and we can only hope that they survived.” “Why didn’t we take the “Move Away” chance?” “Does it really matter?” “Scylla has a point. It doesn’t really matter. We survived and we have plenty of food.” “Scylla is always the one with good points.” “So?” “Scylla can’t control her intelligence.” “She can control how she uses it, though.” “I’m trying my best to help the pack.”

The pack next door was happy with their territory. They came from Russia, but said that they didn’t see any other wolf packs. They saw a lone wolf, but not a wolf pack. There were only a few weeks left until summer, and Kiba thought it was time for a new leader. “No!” “Why not?” “What’s wrong with Aleu?” “You sound like Niju.”

“Someone mentioned my name?” said a low voice coming from the bushes. “Niju? What are you doing here?” “The question is what are you doing here? Why did you leave?” “Do you really care?” “Does it matter?” “I asked, WHY DID YOU LEAVE?” “You know why we left. Now answer our question. What brings you here?” “Yeah, and what about ‘You’ll all die!’? We’ve survived just fine.” “Never mind. I’ll see you soon.” Niju disappeared into the bushes again.

“What do you think he is here for?” “I don’t know. But we’d better be careful until we know he has left the island.”

The other pack moved westward, leaving the perfectly good ground unoccupied. Again. The reason why Thunder’s pack moved away wasn’t a mystery. The reason why the other pack did, was. Aleu’s pack had noticed that the caribou population was decreasing. As the weeks went by, it became more rapid. They, like over this winter, were running out of food. “It seems the spirits just don’t care about us anymore.” “We will survive,” said Aleu, and she quietly said “I hope.”

It was the time of year when caribou were greatly abundant. The young were born and grown, and the grass was plentiful for them to graze on. Yet, they were disappearing anyways. Perhaps the other pack had known this was coming, or maybe they were the cause of it. Niju wasn’t here anymore, and by scent, they had figured out that he went with that other pack. “You don’t think he joined them, became the leader, and is driving the caribou away so we are forced to go back to the mainland of Alaska, do you?” “I hope not, but it seems so.” “Why would he care about us being here?” “You don’t think that he changed and now he is trying to help us, do you?” “Not at all. You could tell by his voice that he was up to mischief.” “I do believe that we might have to go back to the mainland of Alaska, but, well, it doesn’t sound right that we are giving in to Niju’s plan.” “What if this isn’t part of his plan?” “Wait! I think I might have a plan to figure out what Niju’s plan is.” “What do you mean?” “I mean that Jessica, Amaroq, Scylla, and I will leave in the morning to go fallow Niju and that other pack.” “This is a little off subject, but, does “That Other Pack” have a name?” “Not that we know of.”

In the morning, just like planned, Aleu, Jessica, Amaroq, and Scylla left going west. And it wasn’t long until they were back. “Yes. He is trying to drive the caribou west away from us. If we leave soon, He might forget that we were here.” “You mean that he will come back here and forget why he was doing that?” “Exactly. So, what are we waiting for?” “But how are we supposed to get to the mainland?” “That.” Aleu gestured toward a giant boat with the words “The Traveling Alaskan Zoo.” “How do we know it is going to the Seward Peninsula?” “We ask any of the animals on board.”

Their luck was up. The boat was headed toward the Seward Peninsula. “Yes! Our way home!”

The trip back wasn’t good as they had hoped, but they got used to it. “I guess that with a life being on a giant boat, you get used to it.” “You got that right.” said a polar bear a few cages over. “Welcome home, guys!” yelled max from above. “Land ho! Home ho!” “Home ho?” asked Kali. “Max, you are weird, you know that?” asked Scylla. “Yes.” answered Max.

It was less than an hour until they had reached land and docked. It was nice to breathe the familiar air again. “Nava!” “Aleu, you mother has been hoping you would return.” “Are you sure you can lead the pack?” “You are a great leader, Aleu. I am sure you have taught them well the facts of life and being a pack. I believe that you should go home now.” “Are you positive?” “Yes.” Aleu looked of to her left for a few seconds and then said “Bye, Nava!” “Good-bye, Aleu.” The pack howled their good-bye and thanks to Aleu, and she was on her way.

“Aleu!” “Mother!” “Aleu? Jenna, you’re having more hallucinations.” “Am not! Come here!” “Papa!” “Aleu!” “Told you.” Aleu shook her head and smiled. “How’d you get here?” “Well, it wasn’t the Balto Flyer. A good name might be the Balto Floater, though.” “By boat?” “Yup.” “Who is leading the pack?” “Nava.” “He didn’t cross the Bering sea!” “No, he didn’t. but the pack did. Twice.” “Oh. Well I guess that makes sense.” “What do you plan to do with your life now?” “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe start a new pack right outside of Nome. Well, not right outside of Nome.” “I bet I could get Rosy to talk to the police.” “About what?” “Making it illegal to shoot wolves around this area.” “The police don’t make the laws.” “Okay, then she could get her parents to write a bill.” “Bills don’t always take effect.” “Yes but there is a fifty