answer. And if you give me the wrong one, then maybe I’ll finish off your little friend instead of you, or both, I frankly don‘t care. But the question is… would you really want his death on your conscience?”

Kaltag glanced over to Star and saw the small dog both paralyzed and trembling with fear. Oh now what was he supposed to do? He gulped as he saw the twisted, sadistic grin plastered on this nut job’s face. He was going to hate himself for doing this, but he nodded anyways.

“Good, good!” Hal chirped, “Then let us fetch our other comrade shall we?”

Kaltag suddenly coughed as the pressure on his throat was lifted. He rose to his feet and walked along side Star as they followed at a safe distance behind Hal. He sighed heavily.

“Star… why did you have to drag me into this?”

Star bit his lip and said nothing for a few moments. “… You don’t understand. He was going to kill me, and possibly you too if I didn’t. I’m so sorry.”

Kaltag smiled faintly. “Don’t worry Star. We’ll find a way out of this… We’re going after Nikki next, aren’t we?” The smaller dog simply nodded his head. “Great…”

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

“Easy now, just a two more left,” Jenna encouraged.

“Just make it qui-ICK!” Balto suddenly yelped.

Jenna dropped the bandage to the floor, clumps of Balto’s fur still clinging to it desperately. He soon relaxed as she began to lick the once stinging area tenderly. She smiled at him before she moved to the next band-aid.

“Ready?” she asked.

Balto smirked. “You were right. These things definitely aren’t fun.”

She let out a giggle and took the band-aid in her mouth. Jenna was just about to pull it off when a sudden blast of cold wind caught her by surprise. A black and white husky entered through her door and shook off a powdery mess of snow from his pelt.

“Good evening Henry,” Jenna mumbled because of the bandage still in her mouth. She quickly ripped it off and dropped it as Balto flinched away. “Don’t worry, that’s the last of them.” She walked up to Henry smiled. “So, what brings you here this late at night?”

He gulped and his knees started shaking. His heart began beating faster, and Jenna could see the insides of his ears turning a shade of pink. She giggled into her paw and he started to wear a silly grin.

“Well, ugh, I was, ugh, just getting to know everyone better by, ugh, visiting them,” he managed to stutter.

He continued to stare at her until Balto came up to him. His posture gave a sudden change and he became much calmer. Balto extended a paw out to the visitor and smiled warmly.

“Welcome to her lovely abode. I know we didn’t exactly have the best of greetings earlier, but I hope that I can still have the chance to be a friend of yours.”

“Yes. It would be most pleasurable to have your friendship.”

Henry shook Balto’s paw, squeezing it rather tightly before he pulled away and rubbed his paw on the floor. He looked beyond the two and saw the clumps of fur that littered the floor. He pointed to them.

“Excuse me if I may be intruding on your own affairs, but what is that fur being used for?”

“Oh, nothing. Actually, I just finished up removing some band-aids that my girl put all over him.”

“Ahh. I see… Here. Let me be a good citizen and clean that all up for you.”

“Oh, I’m sure we could get it,” she said.

“Nonsense. I feel absolutely dreadful for my behavior earlier, so it’s the least of what I could do to make up for it.” Henry moved passed them and kneeled down. “And I won’t take no for an answer.”

He gripped the fur in his mouth tightly and headed for the exit, mumbling something that vaguely sounded like ‘Good night’ before leaving the house.

A fierce wind lashed out at Henry as soon as he stepped foot out of the building. His eyes started to sting as snowflakes whirled around his face and pelt him. He glanced up and down the desolate street before walking down the nearest alleyway. He crinkled his nose. The fur he carried smelled most unpleasant. It was almost a dingy, musty smell, and he didn’t care for it in the least. He was so relieved when he finally saw it. A garbage can, half open, and frozen in place by the bitter ice.

~-~-

Henry walked out of the alley only to go down another. His paws made loud crunching noises as he crushed the snow beneath him, and he began to shiver occasionally from his exposure to this most bitter of winds. He spied two figures halfway down the alley, but had no cause for worry. He had stationed these two to guard the scene of the first murder, as to keep it from being meddled with. He was the only one allowed past, and only to inspect for clues.

“Alright you two. You can go home now. I’ll stand watch.”

The two dogs nodded before parting ways to return to their owners. Henry looked over the two bodies, holding his breath as he did so. He let it out in the form of a sigh. He still couldn’t find a single thing to go on from this. It was starting to seem pointless, but he was determined not to let down the town so quickly. He spotted another trash can, only this one was down, open, and looked clean enough to suit him. He tried to make himself comfortable in the hard metal can, and after some effort, he was able to get some rest.

Chapter Thirteen:

The sled seemed to increase in speed as Nome came into the horizon. Along with gleeful barking, there was also much groaning and grunting. This mail run had taken nearly twice as long to get through as it should have. But what could you really expect? The only dogs available had rookie experience at best, and just the clear shortage didn’t help.

“Oh thank goodness!” called Saba, “I thought we’d never see home again!”

“Really now,” Denali panted, “you are so overdramatic. Tired from a little run?”

She stuck her tongue out at her brother as the four dog sled team whizzed past a weather-beaten sign that marked their town. They barked louder and louder until they were finally in front of the post office. The dogs sat down and panted together as Mr. Simpson lifted the sack of mail. The post office door opened and there stood Mr. Conner. 

“Ahoy!” he called, “I see ya finally got here!”

Mr. Simpson could only smile. “Well, for a four dog team, I dare say that we didn’t do too badly.”

The musher threw the mail bag to the post master, who just barely managed to catch it, and stumbled as he did so.

“Careful now Sir,” Mr. Simpson joked, “I had to mend up the last post master, and I don’t want to do another.”

As the two men laughed together, the four dogs began to wander away. After all, they weren’t needed for awhile. As Denali and Saba strolled down the street, they spied a figure coming towards them. He had a limp from what the two could gather, and he seemed to struggle towards them.

“Kodi! You’re supposed to be in the vet’s!” Saba scolded him.

Kodi smirked, “I couldn’t stand being locked up in there any longer. I want to get back to work as soon as possible.”

“Careful now. You don’t want to kill yourself, especially over something like working. You have to learn when to rest,” Denali commented.

“You could be right. But speaking of learning. Apparently a lot’s been going on while we were off the street. Want to help me find out?”

“Sure thing. You know how Denali is about learning. He has to know everything.”

“For once, I have nothing sarcastic to say to that true statement.”

“Now that’s a scary thought,” Saba giggled.

Kodi coughed, “Anyways… Let’s get going. I’m going to Mom to ask about what little I did hear. Apparently, Doc has been replaced by some new guy.”

Surprisingly, Denali was the only to show shock. “Are you positive?”

Kodi nodded his head, “Absolutely. Someone told me when I snuck out of the vet‘s office.”

“Incredible.. I would have never expected something like this to happen to Doc.”

“Well, I vote we go find out from Ma about this,” Saba chimed in.

“Agreed. It wouldn’t be wise to jump to conclusions so hastily.”

The three siblings began their walk to their mother’s house as a harsh wind blew past them and the dark storm clouds on the far horizon inched closer and closer.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Henry jumped awake, hitting the top of the can as a clump of snow fell from a roof and rattled his bed. He peeked out, rubbing his head. He sighed heavily as he moved towards the scene of the bodies again. He began to study it once more, obviously not expecting to find something.

“Wait a minute… What do we have here?” he whispered to himself.

Henry knelt down closer to the female and began to carefully inspect her collar. He nearly jumped when he heard footsteps from behind him, but he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was only the two dogs that had offered to guard the scene.

“Is something wrong?” the first asked.

“Of course not,” he smiled up at them before he went back to pawing at the collar, “but I think I found a clue, and a good one at that.”

He pulled something out from between the