Balto and the White Wolf

The White Wolf moved swiftly through the forest, concealed from curious eyes by the snow, only visible when she passed one and another tree. The snowflakes around her seemed to dance around her, and the wind was blowing gently, helping her towards her destination. She was a big Wolf, as white as snow. Her voice was as soft as the snow which she stepped on, and her fur almost felt like it was made of the finest silk.

Right now, she didn't move with the ease she was known of; her movements were strained and heavy and even her fur seemed strained, as it had become raggy, and she was in great pain. But finally; a small and abandoned den! She hurried into it, it was a tight fit considering the size of her belly, and laid down on the floor. Sleep was to be denied her this night, but that is nature's sacrifice, for performing the ever-fantastic creation of life.

“Father, is that you?”

Summertime had arrived, and the forest was lightened up by the sunlight. Polar bears were doing their business in the water, and the birds did theirs. But in the deepest parts of the forest one could hear barking and howling.

“Come on, slowpokes!” A young gray wolf, probably not older than a few months, raced against his siblings. This wolf was naturally raggy, and was, if possible, even more wolf-like than his brothers and sisters. They were racing for fun, this time, and as usual, this wolf won with ease. He laughed a little, and peered at his exhausted siblings, whom, unlike him, had become exhausted by running as far as they had.

”Balto, that's unfair!” whined one of them. ”You always win because you have longer feet and bigger paws than us!” whined another. Balto really disliked that they blamed his body, and not his abilities. Sure, if he had heard 'You always win because you're so good, and much faster than us!', then surely, he would have howled in joy. His siblings denied this to him, however. He grunted and walked away from them. 'Who needs ‘em?' he thought.

Balto was relatively big, compared to his siblings, but that was his legs' fault, and only that. He had gotten hints of white socks on his legs too, and this worried him; he wouldn't look like anything else than a dog if he didn't have a pure-coloured fur. He had spoken to his mother about it, but she just told him she didn't know.

But other than that, he looked at himself as pure; purebred wolf.

”Balto, where are you?”

His mother called him, and on instinct he began moving towards the voice, although he wanted to move further away from his siblings. “I’m coming, Mom!” he barked as he ran. ‘Wow, have I really moved this far from home without noticing?’ he wondered, but soon he saw his mother, and his sibling waiting for him.

“What is it, Mom?” he asked her. Aniu smiled. “Remember when you asked about your father, Balto?”

He nodded.

“Well, we are going to see him today. You don’t want to miss that, no?” she said. Maybe she didn’t notice it, herself, but Balto could see how excited she really was. In his own mind, he didn’t even want to meet his father; after all, he had not ever known him, and what if he was a mean wolf? There were so many things Balto feared, but he hadn’t seen his mother so happy in weeks, and something inside him told him to come with her.

Balto shook his head, and put on a smile. “No, I don’t! Let’s go!”

Aniu chuckled a bit. Her son was growing to become a fine wolf. And off they went.

*

About two hours later, the scent of humans hit Balto’s nose and he whined. It smelled badly!

“What is it, Balto?” asked one of the siblings, and his mother eyed him carefully.

“Humans. I smell humans... Shouldn’t we hide?” he asked. Aniu shook her head.

“No, my son. The scent of humans is a sign that we are close to your father.”

Huh? Balto was even more confused now (he often referred to it as confuzzled, since he found that version of the word more funny). His father, a wolf... is living close to humans? But that’s dangerous!

“Mom!” he whined. “Let’s go away! I’m scared!”

But Aniu kept moving towards the scent, and Balto could not, but follow her. He wasn’t ready to be separated from his mother just yet, and the mere thought of it made him so sad, his heart felt like it would explode.

Soon, they walked into a big open area, and... a bit away from them, there were strange trees! Square-shaped trees?

“What is that?” asked one of his siblings for him, and he was glad she had. He did not want to bother his mother further.

Aniu shook her head. “I don’t know, sweetie. I’ll call your father.”

Then she raised her gaze up to the skies, and peered at the clouds for a moment. Then she felt an unmistakeable urge to let out a giant howl, and the feeling in her throat was unbearable, until she let it loose; a great soft howl, loud enough to be heard even many miles away, yet so soft and caring at the same time. Balto couldn’t help, but admire that sound. He wanted to howl like that too, one day.

Then, for Aniu, the feeling faded; leaving nothing but an empty desire to howl again. But she couldn’t manage another howl; the howl itself had disappeared from her. So, she simply lay down in the snow, and waited.

About thirty minutes, or so, passed before yet another scent was closing in on them. Balto widened his eyes, mostly in fear. The scent bore the smell of dog.

“Mom, there’s a dog running towards us! We have to run!” he called out, but his mother didn’t move an inch. He whined loudly now, trying to push his mother up, but she ignored his efforts. Balto was getting desperate now, and he lost control, and bit his mother in her front leg, and tugged. Aniu yelped, and knocked him away, and a hard glare from her prevented Balto from doing that again. The poor pup lay down on the snow, his ears lying backwards on his head, and he did as his mother did; waited.

Suddenly, Aniu stood up from the ground and she walked calmly towards the dog and ... Balto couldn’t believe his eyes; his mother was actually licking the dog! As if they loved each other!

Carefully, he crawled forward to his mother, and hid behind her. His siblings did the same; they all feared the dog.

“Aw c’mon, Aniu! Did you raise them to be scared of me?” the dog said, and he sounded quite surprised, if not a bit disappointed. Aniu simply shook her head.

“No, my love. But we had a... incident with some of the town dogs, about a month ago.”

The dog nodded; he understood.

“Mom...” whined Balto. “Can we go see father now?”

He kept his eyes on the dog, eyeing his every move as he said this. Aniu peered at him and his siblings with quite a confused spark in her eyes.

“Balto, this ‘dog’ IS your father...” she said simply. The world seemed to crash down on top of the pup’s head as he heard this. So, he wasn’t a purebred wolf after all...

The truth of this hurt him much more than any wound he could receive; he was a half-breed... a mutt.

“What am I?”

Balto stared at his father. He couldn’t believe it, yet it seemed so logical. The socks on his legs; they were almost the same as his father’s. And he had his nose, and his eyes. Even his fur was coloured like his father’s. Only, unlike him, his father was a Husky, and had a curled tail and some more white marks on his fur. His jaw dropped a bit, and his father peered at him.

“Hey, son... you alright?” he asked. This seemed to shake Balto back to reality, and he almost shook his head, but changed his mind quickly, and nodded.

“Yeah, I am fine...” Balto said, looking a little away, almost unable to hide his disappointment. He had expected his father to be a great wolf, and discovering his real heritage had hurt him...

“Balto... Look at your father, and tell me what you see...” His mother nudged him gently. So, Balto did just that, and stared at his father for some time. His siblings had already grown to like their father, and were already snuggling with him. However, no matter how much Balto tried, all he saw was a dog. Not his father. Aniu started to worry a bit.

“Mom... I see... a dog. A dog, not my father...” he finally said. His father, Cheroo, sighed heavily at this.

“I’m sorry you see it that way, son.” He said. “Aniu, should we – huh?”

Aniu had suddenly disappeared, and it was like she never was there. The pups stopped moving, and stared at the empty spot where their mother had just been, and most of them started to whine, soon ending up crying. Cheroo tried to soothe them, but he couldn’t. Nor could he leave the pups here all by themselves too, so he took them with him back to the town. Balto followed; he knew that he couldn’t run and look for his mother all by himself... and he had a feeling that forced him to follow his father. Looking back one more time, he turned his tail to the forest, and began running after the rest.

Cheroo wasn’t owned by anyone, so naturally he took them to his own home; a nice little hut at the beach. It was warm and nice, and all of the pups lay down in a pile on the floor, trying to soothe the others, and receive comfort. Only Balto did not seek their comforting presence; he was sitting outside the hut, in the snow, staring at the moon. He wasn’t sure how to feel. His mother had left him and his siblings in the paws of their father, who they didn’t even know... or trust.

He, himself, was still shocked about finding out, who his father is, and now he, the strongest of the litter, now had the responsibility that the others were safe.

At least he felt it that way...

As the weeks passed, Balto’s siblings seemed to get more and more depressed. They just got thinner and thinner, and they refused to eat. Soon, they would die of starvation.

Balto managed to cope well enough, however. He hunted for his siblings, but always