been living on the streets for some time now because I was separated from my parents when I was even more smaller. So were my other brothers. I miss them so much…”

Jenna heard Becca start sniffling and her mothering instincts started to take over. She nuzzled the pup tenderly and smiled.

“It’s alright honey. You can stay here with me as long as you like. I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I just let you wander around the streets with no one to look after you.” she cooed.

“Really? You’d do that for me?”

Jenna smiled and nodded her head briefly, causing the pup to nuzzle her and laugh with glee.

“Thank you! Thank you very much!” she shouted ecstatically.

“No problem, but we really should be getting to sleep, it’s awfully late.”

Becca shook her head up and down rapidly before cuddling up to Jenna and starting to nod off. She waited until Becca was fast asleep before she too laid her head down and started to dream.

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

The snow fell in sheets upon sheets, covering up the streets of Nome in its white wrath. Another lonely pup wandered the streets, trying to find his way in the whiteout. He was also a black and white husky, except he was more white than black compared to his other siblings.

“Why do I have to be the one to stay at someone else’s home? I wanted to stay with Uncle, not some strangers I’ve never met. Of course he probably likes Stevan more than me, just like Mom and Dad…” he thought aloud, “but at least he kept drilling me and Becca on how to get to the houses though.”

He trudged on through the snow, making little headway. He finally made it to a house, and knew it was the right one from the scent he had picked up before.

“But I’ll show him, I’ll be better than Stevan one of these days…”

He walked onto the porch and started to claw at the door vigorously, howling and whining loudly. There was a noise of footfalls from the other side and he stopped his scratching so he could hear.

“Who’s there?” he heard from a feminine voice.

“Seth, please help me.” he whispered in reply.

“Speak louder, we can’t hear you,” this was more of a masculine sound.

“Help me,” Seth whispered again.

“Still too quiet,” the female said.

“Oh Hun, maybe we should just let whoever it is in so we don’t have to strain our ears,” Seth heard the male say.

“Fine, but if it turns out to be some murderer who wants to kill us, I’ll have your head after I wipe the floor with him,” she countered, and then talked with a manufactured pleasant tone, “oh come in lovely guest!”

Seth jumped through the dog door as childishly as he had been told to and he skidded across the floor as soon as he was inside. He looked up to see two red and white huskies looking at each other. One had a green bandana around his neck, and the other had a purple one around hers.

“Do you always have to be so sarcastic all the time?” The male asked sternly.

She put a paw to her chest and batted her eyes, “Who, me? I’m never sarcastic. I’m just the more sensible one who plans for the worst.”

“Oh that’s it,” he said, rolling his eyes. He then looked down and noticed the pup. “Oh, hello there.”

“P-Please h-help me. I’ve been t-trying to find a place to stay all n-night, but no one would t-take me. I-I’m so cold. Could I maybe st-stay with you two?” Seth whimpered, just like he had rehearsed.

“Well…” the female said with a pause.

“We’d be honored,” he finished for her, “as long you behave of course.”

Seth grinned and pranced over to them, “Th-Thank you so much! I will, I-I will! My name’s S-Seth by the way, and I can’t repay you for this!”

The mostly white pup ran to the male first and nuzzled him, than to the female and did the same.

“Aww, isn’t he just so adorable Duchess?” the husky wearing the green bandana said.

Duchess couldn’t help but smile, “He sure is Ritchie, what’re the odds?”

“Million to one, that’s for sure,” Ritchie grinned.

‘Well, at least I know the names and how to tell them apart now,’ Seth sniggered quickly before turning his head up to the two. He shivered violent and whined. Ritchie and Duchess looked down at him worriedly.

“Let’s get you into bed-” Duchess started.

“And warm you up.” Ritchie ended.

Ritchie lifted Seth up by the scruff of his neck gently and walked up to the second story of the house while Duchess followed closely behind.

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

Balto groaned quietly as he started to awaken. His eyes fluttered open and he stood up, stretching and yawning in the process. He glanced around to the other sled dogs and some that were just starting to wake up as well and others that were down like a sack of bricks. Kaltag was one of the latter, so Balto decided to casually nudge him with his paw. The Chinook batted his paw away.

“Balto, I’m Sleeping Beauty and you are far from my Princess Charming. Let me nap a little longer,” Kaltag protested sleepily.

Balto waited a few moments before pushing him with a paw once more. He sniggered when he saw Kaltag’s eyes shoot open.

“Alright, alright. I’m up!” he complained.

The tan hybrid chuckled as Kaltag started to try and wake himself up. He listened as the wind continued to howl outside and he looked around the dimly lit barn. Something didn’t seem quite right to him though. The patch of hay next to Kaltag was completely empty.

“Hey, Kaltag, wasn’t Star sleeping by you last night?” he asked.

Kaltag didn’t even look at the empty spot as he answered Balto with a more jolly tone, “Yeah of course he was. Little weasel wouldn’t stop whispering stuff last night. Had to drown him out in order to actually get some shut eye.”

“Well, he’s certainly not by you anymore,” commented the dog on the opposite side of Star’s bed. His name was Max who was also a husky, but of an orange persuasion.

Kaltag turned his head to the other dog and saw that Star was defiantly not there. “Where’d the little guy get to?” he asked.

Balto shrugged his shoulders and focused his attention on the other dogs. “Did anyone see Star this morning?”

The sled dogs looked at each other, many shrugging and a series of mumbling started. Each one of them eventually turned to Balto, gave him a simple “No”, and went back to their conversations. The wind was still whistling while the clouds continued to pass over, making the already dim sky that much more bleak. Over the wind, Balto could hear the sound of a pair of boots. Kaltag had just started to sniff around for Star’s scent when the barn door opened and Mr. Simpson walked in with a large load in his hands and shut the door.

“Hey guys… Got some food, and blankets for ya.” he said, staggering forward a little.

Mr. Simpson knelt down and dropped seven blankets. He took some steaks out of the folds of one blanket and began to pass them out. Balto was the first to walk to him and Mr. Simpson patted him on the head, said “Good boy,” and watched him take the steak away. He repeated this routine until he only had one left.

“Alright, who didn’t get one?” he paused, “Where’s Star?”

His dogs just looked at him with dumbfounded expressions and turned away. The musher scratched his neck and sighed. 

He stood up, shrugging, “Well, I’m hoping that you guys know. But if you can’t find him, then it looks like we’ll be stuck here… Too much mail to go without him, and besides, we aren’t leaving a teammate behind.”

Mr. Simpson turned away from them and opened the door again, letting loose a frigid gale before forcedly shutting it once more.

“Hurry everyone! I have to find my punch bag before I go insane!” Kaltag shouted in a false panic, chuckling at his own performance along with a few other dogs.

“Seriously, this is not the time to joke. I don’t know about you, but I want to get home,” Kodi said sternly, being the only one not to laugh earlier. 

He went to Star’s bed of hay and started to sniff around. He caught a scent that almost smelled like Star, but seemed somewhat distorted. Balto walked over to his son and put a paw on his shoulder and his head turned up.

“Kodi, we all do, just like we all want to make sure Star is okay. Even though some don’t show it as much as others,” he chuckled, motioning his head to Kaltag, “But from past experience, he’s probably just wandering around like he normally does.”

Balto smiled at Kodi, but the gesture wasn’t returned. Kodi’s face showed an upset expression.

“Well, what if he isn’t Dad? What if he doesn‘t come back?”

“Then we’ll go looking for him,” Balto saw that it wasn’t helping much, “I promise we’ll go looking soon, if that makes you feel better.”

Kodi nodded and sat down sighing, “Yeah Dad, that’ll make me feel much better. I don’t want to leave anyone behind.”

Balto smiled and placed himself near his son. “We won’t leave anyone behind. You don’t have to worry about that,” he said