said.

She walked over to him and sat down.

"I'll take care of that for you." Balto said.

He used his paw, and tried to smooth it out as best he could.

"It looks a little better," Balto thought to himself.

"Better?" Jenna asked.

"Yeah," Balto responded.

"Okay then," Jenna said, "let;s go."

Jenna and Balto walked out of the yard.

Balto was exhausted.

"Jenna has a lot of energy," he thought, as he continued walking up the hill.

It was early in the evening, and Balto had spent the entire day with Jenna.

The two of them had walked around town a bit; the other dogs seemed to be accepting their relationship.

Balto had been a little sacred about that.

"She's so well liked here, I'd hate for her to lose all her friends because of me." Balto thought, but he also knew, that it wouldn't matter. For some reason Balto hadn't figured out yet and probably never would, Jenna seemed attached to him like glue now.

"Not that I mind," Balto thought.

After that, the two of them had run around outside the town, in the fields, the rest of the day.

"Where does she get all that energy?" Balto thought.

He looked over at her, she wasn't even breathing hard.

Balto was about to die.

The two of them reached the top of the hill then, just as the sky was lit up with the northern lights, casting an almost eerie, but beautiful hue over the snow

Balto walked over and fell on the snow, grateful for the reprieve.

Jenna laughed and imitated him.

"Aww, did I wear you out?" she said.

Balto had to catch his breath before speaking.

"No," Balto said, "of course not."

Jenna laughed again.

It was silent for a while, and the two just stared at the lights.

"They're really beautiful tonight," Jenna said, quietly.

"Yeah," Balto said.

"Jenna looked at him, and smiled.

"Balto, do you ever look at the lights?"

Balto realized he'd been staring at her.

"Well," he stuttered, a little embarrassed at getting caught.

"I know you don't," she said.

Nothing was said for a little bit, and the two of them just looked at each other, then Jenna leaned over and pushed her nose against his. The two cuddled for a little while, the only witness to their emotional fervor for one another, the northern lights, as they whipped through the Alaskan night sky....

“That was such a wonderful night,” Balto thought. “Oh Jenna, I hope you believe me, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Balto looked behind him, and saw that Tim was practically dragging himself along.

“Guess we’d better stop,” Balto thought.

He slowed down to a walk, then he stopped.

“Why’re we stopping?” Tycha asked.

Balto turned and looked at Tim.

“I think we’d better stop for the night, some of us are having a hard time.”

He smiled.

“Are you sure Balto?” Jake asked. “We’ve still got a few hours.”

“Yeah Balto said, “we’ll be fine, right here, there is a little break of trees over there, about a mile off, should serve as a good wind barrier, don’t ya think?”

Jack nodded.

“Should.”

“Let’s go then,” Balto said.

They all followed him, as he made his way to the trees.

They didn’t see the gray dog, that was crouched down, behind the hill.

“So Balto,” Trinea thought, “you found your witness. That just won’t do my love. How can you come to me, as it is meant to be, if this… Jenna is around. I’ll either have to take her and those precious little pups out of the picture, or you can come with me, and nothing happens to them. I know it will hurt at first, but all growth does. You’ll be so much happier with me. I don’t want to do anything to your little family, but I will do what I have to do, to ensure the success of my plan, after all, this is all for you, for your benefit. Just let her fade into the past, and let them live in peace.”

She crept slowly after the retreating group.

“Please Balto, please don’t make me hurt them…”

Jack woke up, he couldn’t sleep, he was having an odd dream, a dream that had occurred to him several times now, twice tonight. The thing that scared him, was that he died in the dream.

He stood up, a little shaken up from this latest episode.

In the dream, he was talking to a gray dog, who all of a sudden turned on him.

He walked out of the tree line, and up to the top of a hill in the near distance.

He spoke into the cool night air.

“Lucky, sometimes I wish that you were still with me, though I know that is selfish of me, as I know you are happier there, than you were here… still I miss you so much…”

“Who are you talking to?”

Jake turned, his attention focused on where the voice came from, out of the shadows.

Out of the shadows stepped a very beautiful gray dog. Jake couldn’t tell what breed, but definitely a mixture of some sort.

She was quite possibly the most alluring female he had ever laid eyes on.

“I was just talking to myself,” he said, “where’d you come from?”

“I was just passing through, when I heard you talking,” the female said. “Who’s Lucky, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Not at all,” Jack said, “Lucky…. She was my mate for eight years.”

“Was?” The female asked.

“She… she died, last year.”

“Oh,” the female said, “I’m sorry.”

Jake smiled.

“Yeah, but at least it was fairly quick, she didn’t suffer much.”

“How’d it happen?” The female asked.

“Well,” Jack said, “it all started because of our lead….”

The sled was speeding along the ground, there were times when Jack could actually feel it lift up off the ground.

“We need to slow down, in this storm, someone’s going to get hurt.” He thought.

He’d voiced his concerns to the lead dog, Hiat, at the last stop, and had been told to shut his mouth.

“All Hiat cares about, is getting to the finish in time, he doesn’t stop to think about the consequences his decisions may have.”

Jack looked over at the dog running beside him. “Lucky,” he asked, “you alright?” he had to

yell, to be heard above the wind.

She didn’t respond, rather she just nodded her head.

“Eight years today that we’ve been together,” Jack thought. “It seems like just yesterday, we were just pups, meeting on the streets of Fairbanks..”

Suddenly the ground disappeared under Jack’s paws, he was running on air, then the team, and the sled behind it, began to fall.

They’d come up on and shot off of an extremely steep incline.

Jack hit the snow, and he could feel something pop in his shoulder, as he crashed to the snow. He was on the second string, so he saw the rest of the team rolled up in front of him. He rolled around the ground too, bouncing off of rocks, and even a tree, as the sled continued it’s erratic decent.

He felt the guideline go slack, and looked back. The sled had slid sideways, and was flying right at him!

He ducked and the runners sliced into the leather harness he was wearing, causing it to come off.

He rolled to the side, away from the rest of the team, until he hit a rock, then…. Blackness.

Jack came to, against a huge rock. His head hurt pretty badly, but he was alive.

That which he had feared, had finally happened, the sled had wrecked.

He stumbled down the hill, unable to see, because of the blowing snow.

It seemed like an eternity before he stumbled on the wrecked sled.

He could only see it, when he ran into it, it was snowing that hard. He made his way up to the brush bough and found the guideline.

“Lucky!” He thought.

He followed the guideline down, finding the other members of the team, the musher was nowhere to be found, Jack didn’t know if he’d made it or not.

He kept going until he’d found the part of the guideline that Lucky was attached to.

He followed the secondary line, but all he got was a broken line.

“Lucky!” He yelled.

He heard a whimper, through the wall of snow in front of him, and stumbled through it, in the direction the voice had come from.

The first thing he saw, was her paw, laying on the ground. He walked up to it and slowly, he could make out the rest of her, laying in the snow.

He stumbled over to her side.

“Jack…” she said.

“Lucky are you alright?” He responded.

“Jack I…”

“What, what’s wrong?”

Jack took a step forward, and stepped in something wet.

He shook his paw, and then looked at it, it was covered in blood.

Jack understood then.

A tear came to his eye, for he knew what had happened, and what probably would… the sled runners were very sharp.

He stumbled over to her, stepping in more wetness, but he didn’t pay any attention to it.

As he neared her, he could see the evidence of the runner’s presence.

They had sliced through Lucky’s harness too, just like his, but she didn’t duck, the runners clipped her back, and looked like they took a chunk out of her neck.

Jack laid down close to her.

“Oh geez Lucky,” he said, “we need to find the musher, and maybe he can get you to a doctor.

Lucky smiled, blood spattered across