Finale: One Last Chance

 Kaila lay staring up at the stars from the deck of her father’s boat. The night was pitch black, and the wind was restless, tossing her fur about and stirring her soul. She sighed and shifted around. The wind’s wild gusts mirrored her spirit. She was restless, too.

From somewhere among the hills a wolf howled, and the eerie cry ran through Kaila’s bones and made her shiver with memories. She had once been part of a pack, but she had chosen to stay with her family here in Nome until she felt it was time to go back. It had been six months, and the wolf in her mixed blood was reawakening. She could feel it. It was time.

Kaila stood up, and to her satisfaction she found she was wide awake, her senses open to every sight and smell. She tensed her muscles to spring from the deck, but then she stopped to consider something.

Last time she had met up with the Anvil Creek pack, she had been running away. Now it was different. She wasn’t running away; in fact, she was running to something, to her future. She needed to make sure her family understood that.

Kaila turned around and pattered down below deck, where her father, Balto, lay curled up in a corner fast asleep. Kaila nudged him with her nose. He mumbled something and turned over.

She poked him with her paw, and when that didn’t work she grew impatient and hissed, “Dad!”

Balto’s eyes half-opened blearily. “What? What is it, Kaila?”

“Dad, I’m leaving,” she whispered, “And this time it’s for good. I’m not running away. I just know that it’s time the Anvil Creek pack got their best hunter back.” Her tail wagged slightly with pride.

Balto’s tired eyes tried to focus on her. “You’re leaving? But…”

“Don’t worry, Dad, I’ll be fine,” Kaila told him, “Really. Don’t worry…I love you.” She rubbed her cheek against his ear.

“I love you, too, Kaila…” Balto nudged her affectionately, but a few seconds later his breathing was even and deep, and she knew he had fallen back asleep.

She shook her head, and fairly leaped up to the deck and sailed over the railing to hit the ground with a thud that was muffled by the snow. Thinking back, she bounded across the beach and ran to the hills that edged the other side of town.

Kaila slowed to a standstill to decipher where she was, and then she climbed the slope of the nearest hill to come across a pile of broken colored bottles at the top. She stared at them as if half-expecting the Northern Lights to shoot out of the glass of their own accord, but it turned out even the Aurora wasn’t necessary.

A regal white wolf seemed to blow in on the snow-scattered wind to stand before Kaila with a knowing look in her eyes. Kaila nodded to her grandmother, and wondered how the old wolf knew. “Aniu.”

“Kaila.” The old wolf’s golden eyes gleamed. “We’ve been waiting for you.” Aniu turned and melted into the night, and as Kaila followed excitement kicked in her stomach.

Grandmother and granddaughter traveled across the tundra to the same pack cave they had all those months before. The only difference was Kaila was there to stay.

Copper awoke with a jolt the next morning, and looked up irritably at his owner, Johnson, whose loud snores had interrupted Copper’s sleep. Johnson lay sprawled out on the bed with his mouth wide open to let earth-shaking snores rattle the room. Copper sighed and stood up, shaking out his bright fur. Johnson had been staying up late working on a novel or working at whatever job he could find. He was still in debt, but at least he was bringing in some money. He would be snoring for a long time, so there was no point in trying to sleep anymore.

Copper padded into the kitchen and sniffed the lingering smells of last night’s dinner. His stomach immediately clenched. He couldn’t eat. If Johnson remembered to put out dog food, Torpedo could have it all.

Copper slipped through the doggy door and out into the cold morning. The frosty wind whipped inside his fur, chilling him, and he shivered. He trotted down the empty street and kept going, winding his way out of town until he came upon the hills.

The sun hung waiting behind the snowy crests, and then in one glorious moment it rose, dipping the hills in a molten red-gold glow. Copper sat to take in the beautiful event that happened every morning, yet was missed by all the people who slept on. ‘Pity the sleepers,’ Copper thought with a sad smile.

The golden hills were almost the exact same color of the fur of a girl dog he had once known. Her name was Taya.

Copper sighed again. He had been dreaming about Taya, and that was why he had been so annoyed at Johnson for waking him up. Much of the dream was lost to him, but he could still remember her face. Taya had been as angry as ever, spitting insults at him with the fury of a burning fire, but her soft blue eyes carried another message altogether. In real life, he had helped her escape from a dog-fighting ring and put her on a sled as a stowaway so she could start a new life in White Mountain. Now it had been six months, and he missed her with a strength he had never experienced before. He doubted he would ever see her again, though, and that made the hurt even bigger than before. But the worst part wasn’t that she was a few miles away, living a life that he would never be a part of. The worst part was he was Balto’s son, and she was Steele’s daughter, so they could never, never be together.

A wild cry echoed from the other side of town. Copper’s eyes widened and his ears perked up when he recognized the voice as Balto’s, and his heart almost stopped when he heard the word his father was shouting: “KAILA!!”

‘No,’ he thought as his mind seemed to empty out. He couldn’t feel anything inside or outside. His mind was blank with disbelief. ‘No. Not again. Never again.’

Suddenly his heart bounced harder and harder against his chest, and his mind sped up with his pulse. Copper flew across the snow, his paws mashing down so hard they stung, but he barely felt it. As his father’s boat rushed nearer and nearer to him, all he could think was, ‘Kaila. Please be there. Please be safe. Oh, Kaila…’

Chase’s eyes fluttered open, and she yawned and started to get up, but then she remembered who was lying beside her. She shifted in the dirt of the alleyway and looked over at Ketch, her closest friend. He lay sleeping beside her, his body gently bobbing up and down and a small smile on his face. Chase couldn’t remember how she had ended up sleeping in the alleys. Maybe it had been the long day of training the alleyway dogs, making them stronger; Steele had once come and made the street dogs fight each other to build a strong army against Balto and his family. Chase and Ketch had continued the practice, but an army or violent group it was not. It was simple training to make the street dogs stronger, since most of them were suffering from some kind of weakening handicap or sickness.

Chase huddled against Ketch and curved her body to his, and smiled. Right here, right now, when there was no one to watch her or judge her, she let down her guard. She relaxed, and let her usually-determined face wash through all the emotions she hid from view from the world.

Ketch was warm and comforting. Chase watched as he moved his head to the side, his face close to hers. She looked around before nuzzling him tenderly, brushing back the brown fur that so easily came loose because of an illness he had had almost as long as he could remember. She stroked his side, and without thinking softly licked his ears. His musky smell filled her, and she sighed with half contentment, half fear. Why was she doing this?

Ketch just felt so safe. With him, she was safe. With him–

Ketch’s hazel eyes cracked open, and Chase froze, wondering what he would say.

He lifted his head, shivered, and grinned at her. “Brrr. It’s cold out here. Good morning, Chase.”

“Hey,” she said in reply, relief flipping inside her stomach. He hadn’t noticed her sudden affection. Today would just be a normal day, with the two of them as normal friends.

Suddenly an anguished cry pierced the air: “KAILA!!”

The echo faded away, and Chase leapt to her feet. “My dad,” she said, her ears straight up and listening hard, “Something must have happened to Kaila. I’d better go find out what.”

“Would you want an escort?” Ketch asked.

Chase hesitated. “Thanks, Ketch, but no thanks. If it’s about Kaila, it’s probably family-only.”

Ketch snorted. “With all that happens with your family, sometimes I think I’d have to become a member just to understand what’s going on around here!”

Chase stiffened. Was he implying…? No. It was just her mind mocking her. ‘Snap out of it, Chase,’ she commanded herself. “Start the troops if I’m not back in five,” she told him, referring to the street dogs, which they called ‘the troops’. She ran out of the damp alleyways and onto the tundra. She circled around Nome before catching sight of Balto’s boat and two figures waiting on the deck.

She ran as fast as her three legs could carry her, and padded up to the deck to skid to a stop in front of Balto and Copper. “Okay, what’s up?” she demanded.

“I just can’t believe her,” Copper muttered to himself.

Balto’s face was solemn and seemed to age before her eyes. “Chase…Kaila’s gone.”

Chase stared at both of them in disbelief. “What?”

Dusty slowly emerged from sleep and shook himself, his red-speckled fur tossing back and forth. He looked across the room and smiled, and jumped out of the armchair and padded up to the four dogs huddled against each other on the carpet. Three of them were pups, two gray and one gray with a red chest. They were Silver, Gail, and Robin, the pups Kira had unwillingly had with a gray mutt named Lucas, who was now dead (murdered at Kira’s paws). Kira lay behind her pups, curled around them as if to protect them even in sleep. Dusty gazed down at her fondly. They had been through very hard times, but now it seemed things had quietened down. And that was