siblings, but always ended up having to eat the food himself, so it wouldn’t get bad. Because of this, he kept his weight stable.

But there came a time when he returned from his hunt, to find his father grieving over something. He wailed, unable to suppress his grief, and Balto walked over to him, and saw his siblings lying motionless on the floor. He carefully nudged one of them, but there was no response. They were still breathing, but... their spark of life had been extinguished, and their heartbeat slowly faded.

Tears came to his eyes, and he stayed with his siblings for hours, trying to keep them as comfortable as possible. But then one of them lost its grip on life, and one after another they all lost it. All which was left of them now, were empty shells, which would no longer move.

Balto left them, knowing that they were at a better place now, but sad that he never got to know them for any longer than six months. Life would be very empty from now on.

Yet again, Balto spent many nights outside, grieving, wanting to howl all the pain and sorrow away, yet it would not come. He could not howl, and he tried and tried.

One day, his father left on a trip with some musher, and Balto watched them leave. He had said his goodbye, and best wishes to him, and now he only hoped that his father would return safely. But he wasn’t sure about anything now... he was rather insecure, and did no longer care for himself. He didn’t want to be alone; he wanted to be with other dogs, or wolves... even humans would have been satisfying now.

So he ventured into Nome, for the first time of his life. At first, the big wooden creatures were frightening, but he soon figured out that they were not living, and humans and dogs walked in and out of their strange mouths without being eaten. Here was a completely new world. And there was this big wooden creature on the far end of the town too. It was coloured white, and was much bigger than the rest of the creatures.

Slowly, he ventured towards an open door, and there were scents of dogs in there. Closing in, he heard small barking and growling; dogs talking.

He peered inside.

“– and that’s why we cannot follow the sled team! We cannot allow our mushers to take us with them. We aren’t numbered enough to afford losing yet another team!”

“You’re wrong, Togo! We must find Cheroo’s team before it is too late! It is our duty as sled – “

“Do not speak to me about duty, Champ! I know our duty well enough, and that duty is to serve the humans as companions and sled dogs... -alive-.”

“Togo, listen; surely, our duty is to serve man, alive as you say, but there is a musher on Cheroo’s team as well, and is he not human?”

“Brego, I know... do you think I am making this decision light-heartedly?”

Brego lowered his head. “No...” he finally answered.

Brego was an Alaskan malamute, black and whitely coloured. His tail was completely black, and his chest too, although there was a white diamond-shaped pattern of white to mix in with that blackness. Other than that, he was completely white. Together with him was a small pup; one which looked similar to him, but he had a white chest, black shoulders and some more white patterns on his back.

Champ was a small Alaskan husky, brown in colour (pure brown), curly tail and rather big paws. Her face was slim and she had a small scar, going over her left eye and a bit longer fur than the average husky.

Togo, however, was an Alaskan malamute as well, but he was brownish black. His face was big and muscular, and the fur changed colour from black on the top to brown on the lower part of him on the middle of his nose. It looked like it just changed; no blending at all. He had yellow eyes, and a longer tail than most.

Balto listened to the conversation, but he couldn’t make out any sense of it. Mostly because he did not know his father’s name thoroughly, so he knew him only as “Father”. Then suddenly Togo turned his head towards the open door, and Balto quickly hid his head.

“Who’s out there?”

Balto almost cursed. He had been discovered.

“Show yourself!”

Darn, he didn’t have a choice. So he peered slowly into the room again, careful and wary of the other dogs.

“Why, it’s just a pup!” exclaimed Togo, relieved. “Have to admit you scared me a bit.”

Champ moved over towards Balto, whom crouched down on his belly, ears flat, and peered up at the enormous dog towering above him.

“Togo, he doesn’t look like a normal dog. Look at his paws, and size. I’ve never seen him before.” She said.

“Come on, Champ. Push him inside; he must be freezing.”

“Alright...”

She carefully grabbed Balto by the scruff, and dragged him slowly into the room, but Balto shook her off.

“I can walk myself, thank you...” he carefully mumbled, and moved a bit further into the room, and laid down on the floor. Champ simply chuckled and walked back to the group.

“Say, kid... what is your name?” Togo asked the pup, tilting his head a bit to the left. Balto seemed reluctant to reveal his name, but ultimately he mumbled “Balto....”

“Balto?”

Champ and Brego mumbled a bit between themselves, but didn’t say anything out loud. Balto swallowed a bit. These dogs scared him, and he didn’t know if they had friendly intentions or not. Possibly Togo might’ve known that the pup didn’t feel welcome here, or not, but he walked to Balto and sat down beside him.

“You know, young one, you should come and sit by us at the fire. It is much warmer there.” He said, and winked at Balto. If it was just a tactic to get Balto more comfortable, it worked. He looked up at the dog, and he felt a bit happier.

“Y – Yes. Yes, of course.” He answered, his voice a bit more cheerful, and he did as told. Sitting down comfortably by the fire, he peered around. This creature was big inside, and it was quite... woodly. He almost giggled at the word he just made up. Woodly.

“How much did you hear of our meeting, young friend?”

This time, Brego was the one speaking. The pup beside him stared at Balto, seemingly quite jealous of this newcomer getting all the attention now. Balto could only stutter forth “I – I... not much.”

Togo peered at Brego, and the mere gaze made the Malamute stop with the ‘interrogation’. Surely, Balto felt uncomfortable, but these dogs showed friendliness to him that he had not experienced with strangers in his entire life. He felt like he could trust them, but they didn’t trust him. The very thought of it made him sad. Why were the other dogs so wary around him? He had not done anything to make them act like they did, have he not?

“I – I apologize... Please, I will just leave...” he stuttered. Champ eyed him searchingly. “Alright, Balto... Have a good day, then.” She mumbled.

Balto got up from the floor, and headed for the exit. He was tired now, and needed rest. For some reason, however, he felt a small sting of regret and loss. What am I? And where is my father?

“I feel stronger!”

Night came upon the town of Nome, and Balto headed back to the place he called home. Somehow, he was hoping his father would wait for him, but he also knew, deep down, that he wouldn’t be there.

But when he arrived, an unfamiliar scent caught his attention, and he turned around. Right there, behind him, Brego’s pup stood, eyeing him carefully.

“What do you want?” Balto called out to the pursuer, who moved up to his side.

“What? Me? I want to be friends!” he answered. Balto peered suspiciously at him, and the pup smiled.

“I’m Steele.” He introduced himself. Balto’s ears perked a bit; Steele was a cool name. He thought he might like this guy.

“I’m Balto, as you heard earlier. I – it’s nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, I know. Say, wanna play?”

Steele snickered. It rhymed, and how he loved it when he made a funny one.

Balto’s face seemed to lighten a bit and he smiled. “Sure; let’s play tag! You have it!” he barked and pounced Steele with his paws, and began running. They played tag for some hours, before they were both exhausted. They rolled around in the snow, laughing.

“Wow... that was so fun!” Steele exclaimed. Balto nodded, and then they burst out laughing again. Steele had become Balto’s first friend.

“Son, what are you doing out here?” a voice called out from behind them, all of a sudden. Steele peered around, confused for a moment, before realizing that it was his dad, Brego, who had called. “Uh-oh... Uhm, Dad. Hi... I was just about to head home... Errr, meet Balto, Dad. He’s my new friend!”

Steele was looking for words, but they came out all wrong and he sounded like he had just been caught stealing meat from the slaughterhouse. His father looked from him, then to Balto, and then back on him. Steele’s ears fell flat on his head, and he whimpered a bit.

“Come on, son! I won’t allow you to even be in the presence of this mutt...” Brego growled.

“He smells wolf long way...”

Steele turned his head and peered at Balto, his eyes saying “I’m sorry...” before he turned tail and followed his father.

Balto followed them with his eyes until they were out of sight, before crawling into a nearby boat. Wreckage, it looked like. He was tired, and mentally beaten. Was he not allowed to befriend other dogs, because of his heritage?

But he was not allowed to think anymore. At least, maybe fate wanted to torture the poor pup with restlessness, agony and loneliness.

His ears perked; there was a snoring sound inside the wreckage. It smelled good, too. Carefully, he sniffed the wood, and it smelt rotten; not the scent he had caught. He moved around the wrecked boat, and then he stepped on a plank. It leads to the top of the big and dead creature, and he carefully moved up it. The snoring became louder, and he knew instinctively that he was approaching