I’ll be alright.”

Blaize walked up beside him then.

“Junior, watch the musher, he tends to ride us a little hard, the rest of us are used to it, but… just watch your speed, be conscious of how fast you’re going, and don’t go faster than you can keep in control.”

Junior smiled again.

“Don’t worry guys,” he said, “I’ll be fine.”

Balto and the other’s with him, walked across the street to watch the team take off.

The female turned to Junior.

“So this is your first time out?”

Junior nodded.

“Mine too,” she said, “what’s your name?”

“Balto,” he replied, “but everyone calls me Junior.”

“Well Junior are you nervous?”

Junior nodded again.

“A little.”

“Don’t worry,” the female said, “everything will be fine.”

“I’m sure it will be,” Junior said.

“She’s kind of cute,” Junior thought.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“Jill,” she answered.

“Well Jill,” Junior said, “It’s a pleasure to run with you.”

“She’s extremely cute,” Junior thought.

Jill was about to reply, when Roger stepped out of the shed and walked over to the team.

“Are we ready to go?” He asked the team.

He climbed on the back of the sled, which was loaded down with mail.

“Let’s go, Mush!”

The team took off, headed for the horizon.

Tim watched them vanish from view.

Son, you’d better be careful,” he thought.

The trip to Applegate was uneventful, and the team dropped off the mail, and got the rest of it for Nome. Then they’d taken off.

A dense fog covered the ground and it was hard for Junior to see.

“We should be almost there,” Junior thought.

He loved pulling the sled.

He looked beside him at Jill.

“I’ve got to think of something to say to her when we get back.”

The two of them had talked for hours during the stop at Applegate, and Junior had found that he actually really liked for her.

Whether that was as a good friend, or something more, he didn’t know quite yet.

She smiled at him, and kept running.

“I’ll have to think about that.” He thought.

Suddenly Kaltag slammed on the breaks.

The rest of the team followed suit, and the y came to a sudden stop.

Roger got off of the sled, and went to investigate.

“What is it boy?”

Kaltag whined, and scratched at the snow with his paw.

Roger looked out at the snow.

He didn’t see anything.

“That’s strange,” he thought.

Then he saw why Kaltag had stopped, because the wolf landed on top of him.

The wolf tried to bite Roger’s throat, but he grabbed it’s neck and held it back, then threw it off of him, rolling over and tossing it.

He pulled out the 44 mag. revolver that he carried just for this purpose, and ran back to the sled.

“Mush!” he yelled.

The dog’s all took off and Roger jumped on the back as it sped by.

The wolf started to chase them.

“Must be a hungry wolf,” Roger thought.

He pointed the pistol back and fired.

The sound scared the team, who didn’t know who it was shooting, and they raced along faster.

Roger pointed the gun back again and aimed carefully, then he pulled the trigger.

The heavy round exploded into the wolf’s shoulder, throwing him to the ground.

“Got him,” Roger thought.

He felt the sled lift into the air, as one of the dogs on the third string fell.

Roger didn’t remember a whole lot else, as he was thrown from the sled, as it tipped over, and he was thrown from it, into a nearby tree.

Junior turned to see the sled barreling toward him.

Jill jumped out of the way, but Junior could do nothing but try to make himself as flat as possible. He couldn’t jump to clear it, because that would pull Jill into its path again.

He wasn’t completely successful, and the sled skipped off his back, the side of the runner hit on the side of the head, and fell to the ground.

He felt cold.

His vision was a little blurry, but he could see as the sled continued over to the cliff nearby, dragging Jill, who was still hooked to the guideline, with it.

Junior watched as the sled slid to a stop, Jill was on the edge of the cliff, and had to stand on her back legs, to keep from falling, the secondary guideline was holding her there, suspended over the cliff.

Junior sighed with relief.

“She’s alright,” he thought.

Then the secondary snapped.

Junior watched as she fell backwards over the cliff.

“Jill!” he thought.

The guideline snapped, freeing the other dogs.

The sled went over with her.

He stood up.

Pain raced up and down his back, all the way up to his head.

He fell back down on the snow.

“I’ve got to get up!” he thought.

Junior looked around him.

The wind had picked up, and though it wasn’t snowing, the wind kicked up enough snow to limit Junior’s vision severely.

He could still make out Roger, who wasn’t moving, and he could also see most of the team.

He stood back up, ignoring the pain in his back.

He stumbled over to a tree near the edge of the cliff.

He leaned against it, feeling as if he couldn’t stand.

He fought his way back to his feet and looked at the side of the tree. There was a good sized red stain on the part of it that he had leaned on.

“That’s probably not good,” Junior thought, “Mom is going to kill me.”

Junior stumbled over to the cliff’s edge.

“It’s just like Balto,” Junior thought, “I can only hope that this has a good a resolution.

He looked down, but all he could see was blowing snow.

“I’ve got to go after her.” Junior thought.

Junior stumbled down, moving down the side of the cliff.

“Forget it Junior,” Kaltag yelled over the wind, “get back here.”

Junior didn’t listen, just kept going.

About thirty minutes later, he stumbled onward, then he fell and rolled down to the bottom.

Junior didn’t know how bad he was hurt, but it wasn’t good. His vision was kind of black on the edges, and the rest was blurry.

He stood back up and stumbled over to the sled.

He didn’t see Jill anywhere, then a horrible thought crossed his mind.

He looked under the sled.

He could just see her head sticking out of the bottom of it.

Junior fell on the snow; the drive to find Jill had been the only thing keeping him going.

He laid there in the snow, his head inches from Jill’s.

A tear rolled down his face.

“I can’t make it back up,” he said.

“Y..You’ve got to.”

Junior looked up in surprise.

Jill’s eyes were open.

“You’re alive!” he said.

“Yeah,” she choked out.

Junior stood up.

He started trying to move the sled off of her, but anyway that he tried to move it, would just hurt her worse.

“”Look,” Junior said, “barely able to stand, “I’ve got to get this sled off of you, and it’s gonna hurt, it’s gonna hurt bad, but if I don’t…”

Jill nodded.

“I understand.”

Junior pushed on the sled, he heard something snap, and Jill yelped.

Then the sled rolled off.

Junior fell down beside her again.

One of her legs was pointed the wrong direction.

“Y..You were right, that… that did hurt,” she said,

“I don’t think I can make it back up,” Junior said.

“You’ve got to.”

She tried to stand up, but fell down.

“Don’t try to stand,” Junior said, “You’ll just hurt yourself worse.”

He stood up, and moved over to her.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“I’m going to carry you.”

“No,” she said, “n..no you’re not, you can barely stand, much less carry me.”

She sighed.

“Just leave me down here.”

“Not gonna happen,” Junior said, “we’re… we’re getting out of here together, or not at all.”

She smiled at him.

“I… I have to tell you,” he said, “the chances are pretty good that we won’t make it, like you said, I can barely stand, but… but I’m not going to leave a fellow team member behind/

“You’ll make it,” Jill said, she struggled to her feet , and managed to stand for a short while.

She fell against him and leaned on his shoulder, which really hurt Junior, but he didn’t say anything She looked up into his eyes, and licked his cheek.

Junior looked down at her, surprised.

She smiled, and then she fell to the snow again.

Junior got her up on his shoulder, ignoring the pain that it caused, and started to head down the mountain.

Junior stumbled into Nome, his vision was so blurry that he couldn’t see and he almost fell again.

“No,” he thought, “gotta keep going.

He kept stumbling onward, until he noticed the doc’s house, on the edge of town.

He made it to the porch, and fell.

Jill slid off of his back.

He didn’t know if she was still alive or not, she’d stopped talking about twenty minutes ago.

Junior didn’t think he could stand, so he just