Deep in the Alaskan wilderness, standing on an over-hanging ledge on the side of a mountain a large white wolf with blueish markings and a small glowing blue orb that looked like a blue fire ball that floated above it's back, it looked out over a large forest and to the mountains beyond, it sighed,                                                "Zarnesti sir, we have found it", a large black wolf with grey-black wings announced as it landed next to the white wolf, a slightly smaller white wolf with brightly coloured markings and white-cream wings the opposite side,                                              "Where?", Zarnesti questioned without looking away from the forest and mountains,                                                                "Over beyond the high peak, deep in Clawe Valley", the black wolf, named Kain, answered cooly,                                          "Smoke rises from the wasteland in the middle", the white winged wolf, named Kraven, added,                                                    "I see", Zarnesti commented, "Time to set things in motion", the two winged wolves flew upwards and then off toward another mountain, Zarnesti howled and slowly disappeared as he did.

Quite a long way off to the east in the small town of Nome a large wolf-dog named Balto jumped from an abandoned boat, stretched then walked slowly toward the town, a goose followed behind him, "Not staying behind today Boris?", Balto giggled to his friend,    "No", Boris answered sharply, Balto gave him a sideways look and smiled,                                                                           "Don't you look at me like that!", Boris snapped, Balto turned away, still smiling, "Besides, you're useless without me" Boris added, Balto coughed sarcastically,                                                    "Whatever you say Boris", Balto exclaimed as he rolled his eyes, Balto picked up the pace, he was on his way to see his mate, Jenna, who was with one of their pups from their second litter, a female named Saluka, she was trying out for the local sled team that ran the mail run everyday, another of their pups from their first litter, a male named Kodi, was moaning something to Jenna when Balto and Boris arrived,                                              "Kodi I've heard enough, behave yourself", Jenna scolded him, he sighed and held his head down,                                                 "Why can't you find a racing team to join!", kodi whispered to Saluka,                                                                            "Coz I don't wanna race, I wanna do the mail run, deal with it!", Saluka scoffed at his comment,                                            "Kodiack!!", Jenna snapped, tired of hearing him moan,           "Listen to your mother Kodi", Balto warned as he approached, Kodi sighed again and looked back at his younger sister, she stuck her tongue out at him, he screwed his nose up at her and turned away, she giggled to herself, others near her giggled too. Kodi did'nt like his younger sister much, he always thought of himself as being the next fastest dog in town but Saluka had ruined that, she was smaller than him and thinner, much sleeker too and that made her faster, she'd always been the fastest of Balto and Jenna's second litter whereas Kodi had been slowest of their first litter, Saluka was agile too and ran rings around him whenever she got the chance, Kodi felt his parents always took her side and unfortunately for him Kolchak was the only one of his siblings still hanging around and Kolchak could'nt care less if Kodi was having a hard time of it,                                                            "Thanks for the help Kolchak!", Kodi spat at him when he walked past,                                                                               "No problem", Kolchak replied sarcastically, Kodi huffed and scraped the snow with his paw,                                                        "Get the dogs ready!", a man shouted to all the owners, Saluka's owner was a young man, about 20ish, he strolled over to her and led her to the starting line,                                                "Knock 'em dead girl", he said to her as he ran his fingers through the long, soft fur on her neck, she barked and licked his face, the announcer signalled the race was about to start and everyone moved away, the dogs readied themselves, Kodi sat on the sidelines feeling annoyed, he knew Saluka would probably win, three more dogs came and stood next to him, one looked mostly like a huskt with only a few brown marks, the other was mostly brown with patches of red and the other was all brown with cream markings, the mostly red one was called Mika, the brown one with red patches was called Zarkee and the all brown one was called Sarchie, they were Saluka's siblings, Kodi never had much to do with any of them but Sarchie made him laugh, he reminded him of his own sibling, Aleu, she had been all brown too and had run away to join a wolf pack, Sarchie had been planning to leave to join a wolf pack too, he was going to find his older brother Tenaka, he'd also joined a wolf pack but he did'nt look like a wolf, just preferred to live like one, Balto and Jenna did'nt mind, they'd talked with him about it and he'd agreed not to go until he was 2 years old, he'd be leaving in two weeks. The flare went off and the dogs set off, the track went around the outskirts of the town then back down the main street, the same track Balto had run years before, as predicted Saluka came first, Kodi groaned as she crossed the finish line, he turned away. Saluka's owner went to her, gave her a hug and stroked her head, the Musher of the sled that ran the mail run congratulated him as they agreed she would run on his