two

“Hey guys,” Balto said, he lowered his voice a little.

“I need to talk to your dad for a minute, alone.”

Lima nodded, then she and the other two walked out, leaving Balto and Shadow in the chamber alone.

Nothing was said for a while, and Balto just stood on the other side of the room.

Finally Shadow sighed and walked over to him.

“Balto…” he said, “I’m… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed you like that, I just…”

“I don’t know what to do.”

Balto nodded.

“I understand Shadow”

Shadow sighed again, and looked back at the little pup, who was now sleeping.

“That’s Raye, she’s a part of the Onasie clan, the strongest pack’s leader’s only daughter. It would be so easy; I mean she means nothing to me. I could solve this whole problem by just giving her to Gia.”

“But.. but I promised Aleu…”

Balto interrupted him.

“I know, I did too, and that’s why that isn’t even an option.”

“Shadow sighed.”

“Balto, we’ve only got two, we can give up Raye, the consequences of that being that Raye would die and with that, any chance we had of ever gaining peace with the Onasie clan would go up into smoke. The other, we keep Raye, find some way to get her back to her family, and… Aleu dies.”

“No,” Balto said, “I won’t accept either of those solutions.

“That’s it,” Shadow said, “I’ve thought about it for a week.”

“No,” Balto said, “there has to be another way.”

“I think we should meet Gia soon.” Balto said, “even if we have nothing to tell her, we could keep her on her toes, make her think we’re trying to work something out.”

“Balto,” Shadow said, “Gia doesn’t seem to be one to fool around, she will kill Aleu, without even thinking about it, we can’t make this a waiting game. You’re right though, that might buy us some time. I’ll set it up.”

Shadow turned to walk away.

Balto stopped him

“Shadow.”

Shadow stopped, and turned.

“You ought to talk to Lightning, you really hurt him.”

“I know.. I.. I didn’t want to… well actually I did, but… Oh I don’t know how to feel Balto, I’m so confused, about everything now.”

He stopped and looked at the ground, then back up at Balto.

“I’ll talk to him.”

Balto nodded.

“You do that I’ll set up the meeting.”

Shadow nodded.

Balto turned and walked out of the chamber.

Lightning was waiting for him outside.

“You go on in there,” Balto said, “I think you’ll be okay now.”

Lightning took a step back.

“It’s okay,” Balto said, “he wants to talk to you.”

Lightning limped into the chamber and Balto left to make preparations for the meeting with Gia.

Chapter XVIII

Balto walked up to the rock with Shadow and Lightning.

“She said she’d meet us here, at the ridge.” Balto said.

Just then, two wolves, a black one and a silver one walked down from the rock.

“Shadow?” She said.

Shadow nodded.

“Where’s she?” Gia asked.

Balto was the one to answer.

“We’re here to negotiate Aleu’s release.”

Gia laughed.

“Well, you’re going to have to give me Raye first, I already told you that.”

“What if we promised to leave you alone,” Shadow said, “to go away, you’ll never see us again.”

Gia laughed again.

“And how would I profit from this?”

“Please try to understand,” Balto said, “Aleu believes…”

Gia cut him off.

“Aleu is stupid, and yes, I know what she believes, I’ve talked to her about it, she’s wrong.”

“Well you didn’t exactly help yourself by killing Kilu.”

“We did what was necessary,” Gia responded.

“What was necessary to start a war.” Lightning said.

“You,” Gia responded, looking toward Lightning, “you’re a traitor, and you’ve got a lot of nerve coming here. It’s only because I like you, and only that, that you still breathe. I should have killed you… but I didn’t, something I feel, now, I’m going to regret. It would be best for you to keep your mouth shut.”

Balto stepped forward.

“You let him talk, we’re all equal here, we all want a peaceful resolution to this whole thing.”

“Maybe you do, I really don’t care what I have to do, who I have to kill, I will get that pup, whether you live through this acquisition is your decision.”

She turned to face Balto.

“As for you, do not forget that I have your son, you continue with that attitude, and I’ll see to it that he get’s to see his mom again, right before I rip her freakin throat out, do you understand?”

Balto didn’t even think about what he was doing; he just leapt at Gia.

He slammed into her, and the two rolled along the ground, Balto actually came out on top.

The black wolf, that had accompanied her, tensed up, ready to help his leader if she needed it.

Balto sat on top of her.

“I could end it all right here,” he thought.

Gia laughed at him.

“Good Balto, good, just follow through now, kill me, come on.”

She laughed again.

“You can’t do it, can you?”

Balto stood up.

“I’m not you Gia,” he said, “but I promise you, as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, if you threaten Jenna again, I will kill you.”

“Come on Shadow,” Balto said, as he walked by him, “let’s go.”

Shadow, Lightning and Balto walked away from Gia.

Balto stood on a hill outside the small cave that Shadow and the remainder of Aleu’s followers were living in.

It was snowing, and Balto was again standing out in the cold thinking.

“What are we going to do now?”

Though it had angered him, it may have been counter-productive to attack Gia.

“I’m sorry Aleu,” Balto thought.

“I don’t know what to do?” Balto said.

The wind blew, and the snow swirled around him, as a fog moved in, obscuring his vision of the pack.

“You know what you should do dad?”

Balto recognized the voice immediately.

“It can’t be…” Balto thought.

He turned, and saw her walking towards him.

“Jadze?” Balto said.

She nodded, and smiled.

“Raye is the key, you already know this, what you must think about is how you could use her.”

“Jadze, how?” Balto said, “I saw you….”

The fog started to close in.

“Her pack is quite strong. I don’t have much time dad,” she said, “remember that which I have told you, and don’t worry about me… I’m…. happy….”

The fog completely obscured Balto’s vision then, and he desperately called out his daughter’s name.

“Jadze?!”

He paused.

“Jadze?”

The fog cleared and Balto saw that he was alone once more.

He sighed.

“Did I imagine it, was that real?”

He thought about what Jadze had said.

“How can I use Raye?”

“How can I use Raye?” He repeated aloud.

He thought about what Shadow had said earlier.

“There is strength in numbers.”

Suddenly and idea occurred to him, and he ran back to the cave.

“Absolutely not,” Shadow said, “Balto, I know that you want to save Aleu as much or more than I do, but that doesn’t mean that you need to die doing it.”

He paused.

“They know who you are; you’ll be dead before you even see them. Gia killed one of their pack’s leader’s only son. They don’t like the Talbourne clan right now.”

“But I’m not part of the clan,” Balto said.

“They know that you’re Aleu’s father, so they’ll classify you as part of her clan, after all what better way to get back at Aleu, who they still think is leader by the way.”

Balto sighed.

“Shadow, I’ve got to do this…. Jadze showed me this avenue.”

“Jadze?” Shadow asked, “Balto… I know it was hard losing her… but…”

“Shadow, I saw her.”

Shadow shook his head.

“Balto..”

“I did… even if I didn’t, she’s right.”

Balto paused.

“You’ve got to let me do this Shadow, for her… for Aleu.”

Shadow sighed and nodded.

Balto looked over his shoulder back at Raye.

The little pup smiled at him.

Balto stepped through the woods that marked the beginning of Onasie territory. He had Raye on his back.

Balto never knew what hit him.

The wolf suddenly slammed into him. and he hit the ground, rolling.

When he stopped, he looked up.

Balto saw a brown wolf, which glared at him, and slammed his paw into Balto’s face.

Balto opened his eyes to see an orange wolf staring down at him.

The last thing he remembered was a brown wolf hitting him.

Balto looked around him and saw that he was in a cave.

The orange wolf walked over to him.

“Hey, you finally woke