so he just crawled to the door, and scratched on it.

Junior lost his hearing, as the doc opened the door.

Then the blackness on the edges of his vision closed and he couldn’t see anything.

Balto was laying in the warm bed that he shared with Jenna

He’d just woken up, he just had this feeling…

“Something’s not right.” Balto thought.

He looked beside him at Jenna, who was curled around him, still asleep.

Balto smiled.

Then there was scratching at the door.

Jenna’s eyes opened and she yawned.

The scratching noise came again.

“Who’s that?” Jenna asked.

“Don’t worry about it Jen, Balto said, “I’ll take care of it.”

He stood up and stumbled over to the door.

Jenna laid her head back down and soon was back asleep

Balto stepped out of the doggie door and into the chilly night air.

Kaltag stood on the porch,

There was blood on his face.

“Kaltag?” Balto said, “What happened to you?”

“What?” Kaltag asked.

“You’ve got blood on the side of your head.” Balto said.

“Oh I.. I didn’t even recognize it.”

“What brings you out here this late?”

Kaltag hung his head.

“It’s Junior…..”

Balto stood outside of his old home.

“How am I going to tell them,” he thought.

Balto walked up the gangplank, and into the boat.

He walked over to Tim.

Tim opened his eyes.

“Balto?”

He yawned.

“What are you doing here?”

Balto sighed.

“Tim… there… there was an… the…”

Tim was awake instantly.

“What happened?”

“The sled flipped, Junior’s hurt.”

“What?” Tim said.

“One of the other dogs fell, and the sled tipped over, Kaltag thought he was dead, because he couldn’t find them, but… but he made it back on his own, Tim… he saved another girl on the team, he… he almost didn’t make it, but the doc got him fixed up.

Kaltag is bringing him here now.

He sighed.

“Tim I’m sorry….”

“No,” Tim interrupted, “don’t apologize for anything, you… weren’t even there.”

“I’ll step out while you tell Tycha,” Balto said.

“Yeah,” Tim replied, “that might be a good idea.”

“You say he’s gonna be alright?”

“I don’t know,” Balto said, “I haven’t seen him, all I know is what Kaltag told me, but… well he was hurt pretty bad, and he walked over twenty miles with that girl on his back.

“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned a girl?” Tim said.

Balto smiled,

“Might have to watch him, he might be growing up on you.”

His smile faded.

“If she makes it, she’s still in real bad shape.”

“Alright,” Tim said.

“Why don’t you let me talk to Tycha.

Balto nodded and walked out of the boat.

Tim walked over and nudged Tycha awake.

Tycha immediately noticed the disturbed looked Tim’s face.

She stood up.

“It’s Junior isn’t it.

Tim nodded.

“Is he alive?”

Tim nodded again.

Tycha stormed out of the boat, leaving Tim by himself.

Chapter XV

Balto laid down beside Junior, who hadn’t moved, since Kaltag had brought him into the boat last night.

He’d been awake for about ten minutes, before he’d gone to sleep again.

He looked over on the other side of the room, and saw Jenna, Tim, Tycha, and Blaize all up against the far wall, asleep.

Balto had been unable to sleep, not without knowing for sure if Junior was going to wake up at all.

The female that he’d rescued, Jill, wasn’t doing very well.

She’d been hurt bad, and Balto wanted to talk to Junior to find out what had happened to her.

Balto stood up, and walked out of the boat, watching the sun come up.

“You’re Balto right?”

The voice startled him a little, and he turned to see a black wolf standing on the deck of the boat.

“Yeah,” Balto said, “who are you?”

“My name is extremely unimportant at this point,” the wolf said, “just let it suffice for me to say that we need your help.”

“Why is that?” Balto asked.

“We lead a wolf pack nearby,” the wolf said, and we need your help trying to deal with another pack.”

“I make it a point not to get involved in wolf business,” Balto said, “too easy to wind up dead that way, besides… I’ve got a lot going on right now.”

“But,” the wolf said, “this is about your daughter.”

“Aleu?” Balto asked. “What’s wrong, what happened?”

“All will be explained at the meeting,” the wolf said, “we need you to act as a mediator between our pack, and another.”

“Not until you tell me about my daughter.”

The wolf paused, thinking/

“Okay,” it said, “I guess it doesn’t matter too much, she’s been captured, by our pack. See her mate, Shadow I believe?”

Balto nodded.

“Anyway,” the wolf continued, “Shadow has something that we want very badly, and we know that he wants Aleu, so we’re going to compromise.”

“She’s my daughter,” Balto said, “not some kind of dealer’s chip. You’re lucky I don’t kill you right here.”

“You’re welcome to try.”

Balto whirled around at the sound of this new voice.

There was a sliver wolf standing behind him.

“Go ahead,” the wolf said, “attack him, we’ll see how far you make it wolfdog, I give you about ten seconds, maybe less.”

Balto stood down.

The silver wolf shrugged.

“If you should change your mind, you can find us at the cave, where Aleu used to live, ask for Gia.”

She turned to the black wolf.

“Come Raminou, Let’s go.”

The two wolves jumped off of the edge of the boat and walked away.

“Blaize,” Jenna said, “are you coming?”

“Of course mom, I always do don’t I?”

Jenna looked at Balto, who was sleeping, next to Junior.

She smiled.

“I don’t want to wake him up,” She thought.

She turned to Tim.

“Hey Tim,” when Balto wakes up, tell him that Blaize and I went on a walk.”

Tim nodded, then he too laid back down.

Jenna and Blaize walked out of the boat.

Jenna and Blaize had made it to the outskirts of town. Usually, they tried to stay clear of this area, as it was known be one of the more… dangerous places in Nome.

With growth, some of the city was abandoned, so there were probably twenty or twenty five run down houses on the outskirts. The outskirts were home to some of the rougher characters around Nome.

They walked past one old building, and into an alleyway.

Jenna heard a voice.

“Hey there sweetie.”

There was a black dog standing with some of his friends, also black, in the alley.

“No,” Jenna thought, “that looks like a wolf.”

Blaize turned around, looking for an escape, but another two black wolves closed off the end of the alleyway.

“Mom.” Blaize whispered, don’t look at them, don’t, let them know you’re scared.

I’m going to try to take the two behind us, when I do, run.”

The black wolf whistled.

“You are a pretty one, aren’t you?”

The look in his eyes told Jenna everything she needed to know.

The wolf stepped forward.

“I’m gonna take this one out right now, screw what Gia said, this one’s just a civilian right? She’s not important.”

At that moment, Blaize bolted toward the two wolves behind them.

The wolf in front of her smiled as she turned to run.

He was on her extremely fast, landing on her back, and pushing her to the ground.

She slid into the brick wall of one of the houses.

She stood up, still facing the wall.

The wolf hit her in the back of the head, and her face slammed into the wall.

“Okay,” she thought, “that hurt.”

She slid down the wall to the snow.

Her vision was blurry and she was a little confused about where she was.

She could see that Blaize was already on the ground, the two black wolves stood over him, she didn’t know if he was alive or not, but he wasn’t moving.

“Come on,” one of the wolves said, “it is done, let us go report our success to Gia.”

The wolf in front of her smiled.

She didn’t like his smile.

“You guys go ahead.”

He looked down at Jenna.

“I’m gonna have some fun first.”

Jenna shuddered at the thought of what was going through the wolf’s head.

Suddenly someone stepped in front of her.

She was so disoriented that she couldn’t see the wolf itself, only a black blob.

“Gia said this one was to be left alone.”

“I don’t care what Gia said,” her assailant retorted.

“Good you can talk to Gia when we get back Raminou, but for now I’ll defend this one because of Gia’s orders.

The other black wolves stepped up behind him.

“Okay, okay,” Raminou said, “I was just going to play with her a bit, fine, we leave.”

Jenna looked up at the wolf who had stepped in front of her.

“Sorry miss,” he said, “I don’t usually hurt females, but orders are