Balto: When Love Goes Sour

Written by: PFC. Anthony E. Rotramel USMC

Started: 0233 12/08/04

Finished: 1037- 01/27/05 -

Pages: 134

Words: 23,690

!WARNING!

This FANFIC is rated

PG-13 for Blood and

Viloent content!

Note: This story was inspired by Balto, (copyright 1995) and Balto 2: Wolf Quest (copyright 2000) by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment. The character’s Shadow, Dash, Melody, Shasta, Max, Flash, Timbre, Sheik, Lima, Gemini, Drake, Shep, Charlene (Char) Jack, Gus, Mitch, Dix, Heran, Gus, Lucky and the events of this story are copyright 2004 by Anthony Rotramel. The other characters are copyright by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment

Chapter I

Balto opened his eyes to see sunlight streaming through the two windows that were in the shed that He and Jenna lived in now. He yawned and stood up.

Then he looked down beside him, where Jenna still lay. She was still asleep. He nudged her. She opened one eye and groaned.

“Balto,” she said, sleepily, “It’s too early to get up.

“Jenna,” he said, “today is the day.”

Jenna’s eyes snapped open. “Oh yeah,” she said standing up and yawning. “I almost forgot.”

Balto walked over to where Max and Flash were sleeping. Flash woke up as Balto neared him.

“That time already, huh?” He asked. “

Just about,” Balto said. “Better wake Max up, Roger will be here soon.”

“Alright,” Flash said. He nuzzled her behind the ear.

“Flash,” she said, “what are you doing?”

She still had her eyes closed and stretched. Today is the mail run,” she said. “

Yep,” Balto said, “Roger will be here soon.” “Yeah, I guess it’s time.” She yawned and stood up. “I’m glad Rosie’s family moved back here,” she said. “It must be great to have her around again.”

“Yeah,” Jenna said, “it is, but, I don’t know, there… there seems to be something different about her.”

“Yeah,” Balto said, “she’s growing up.”

“Well,” Max said, turning to Flash. “Are you going to make it this time?”

“Never felt better,” he said as he jumped at her. She squealed and giggled as she and Flash rolled around on the ground.

“Now kids,” Balto said, smiling.

“What,” Jenna said, “is grandpa too old to wrestle?”

“Jenna,” Balto said, “that hurts.” He mimicked crying.

“Oh, you poor baby,” she said, as she tackled him. Soon all four of them were laughing and rolling in the floor. Roger opened the door.

“Having fun?” he asked. He walked over and patted Max on the head. She grinned and barked. “You guys ready to get started? It’s almost time, let’s go!” He opened the door and they ran out to the barn where Roger kept his sled. “I’ve got to load this thing,” Roger said, as he pulled the blanket off of his old sled, “So it’ll be a few minutes.” Flash and Max continued to play in the snow. Balto and Jenna walked off away from them a little ways.

“A week huh?” Jenna said as she stared at him. “Yeah,” he said, “it’s a long trip.” “What about you? Are you going to be all right here, all by yourself?”

“What, me?” Jenna asked,. “Balto, I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.”

Balto smiled. “Okay,” he said.

“Let’s go guys,” Roger yelled, holding up three empty harnesses. “Let’s go!”

“That’s me,” Balto said. He started to walk away. Jenna stopped him.

“Balto?”

He turned.

“I love you,” she said. He smiled.

“I love you too Jenna,” he said, then he ran off to join the team. Roger borrowed six other dogs from his neighbors, because he couldn’t afford nine of his own on what the mail service paid him. They were already hooked up to the sled. Roger slipped the harness over Balto’s head and hooked him to the guide line. Balto looked behind him to see Max and Flash. Roger climbed up on the sled, and kissed Rosie and his wife good-bye. Then he cried “Mush!” and the team took off. Jenna watched as they vanished over the horizon, headed for Nome.

“Be careful Balto,” she said aloud as the cool wind began to blow. Then she walked back inside.

Jenna had to leave the cabin; it was driving her insane, sitting there alone. So she got up and went to see Rosie, but Rosie had homework to do and she didn’t want to play, so Jenna had decided to go into Nome. Some of her old “friends” still lived there. Dixie and Sylvie still hung around. No one had seen Steele lately. That was fine, as far as Jenna was concerned. She didn’t like Steele at all. She thought, when she’d first met him, that he was a little, no a lot, stuck on himself, but the whole town loved him. He was the fastest sled dog around, and it turned out he liked her quite a bit. She’d thought that she’d get to know him better, if nothing else; it would be a good way to meet some of the other dogs in Nome. She even started out liking him a little, but as she got to know him, she found out he cared for no one but himself. The more she found out about him, the less she liked him, but even she, skeptical though she was, wouldn’t have thought him capable of murder. He tried to kill Balto when Balto found the lost sled team that Steele was leading. Steele had gotten the team hopelessly lost, and managed to wreck the sled. The musher was hurt and the team was stuck with meds that the children of Nome really needed. Jenna still didn’t know how Balto had made it back that night. It was the worst snowstorm Nome had received in a long time. Balto was lucky to be alive. Steele told

Jenna and everyone else that Balto had died. She didn’t want to believe him, but he had the red bandanna Jenna had given Balto just before he left. She didn’t know how else he would’ve gotten it. She was so upset. That night was when she discovered how much she really cared for Balto. He was such a nice guy, so misunderstood. He was a bit of an outcast, still was to a certain degree, but that was fine with Jenna, she didn’t care. When Balto returned with the anti-toxin, everyone saw Steele for what he really was, a liar and a bully. The other dogs ran Steele out of town. The dogs also got to see Balto’s true character. He was a hero, he was her hero. Since then she’d always been kind of watching her back, glancing to see if Steele was there. He was extremely jealous and she thought he was dangerous. Balto had told her not to worry, but she did anyway. She was almost to Nome now. So she stopped thinking about Steele and looked at the bustling town around her.

Nome had changed a lot since Jenna had moved there. Vehicles were starting to populate the streets, everyday more and more people moved to this once small town. She walked down the street to the house where her son Dingo lived; maybe she’d just go see him for a while. It’d been a while since she’d spent a day out on the town.

Chapter II

Steele couldn’t believe what he was looking at. It was a body. The body of a female he knew. He’d lived at a little town called Applewood since he’d been banished from Nome. The female’s name was Jingle. He’d known her for a little while. She was a sweet dog. She really liked Steele. He couldn’t believe she was dead. He tried to remember what had happened, but there was a blank space in his memory. He turned and ran from the barn. He ran to the abandoned shed where he lived for now. He was tired, even though it was morning. He curled up on the hay and went to sleep.

Jenna was tired, she’d spent all day in Nome, and was just now getting home. It was getting dark and the wind started blowing. Jenna shivered as she walked through the open gate into her yard. Rosie’s bike was gone.

“So she must be staying with a freind tonight,” Jenna said aloud, she sighed.

She was getting worried. Rosie was acting so different. Maybe Balto was right.

“Rosie’d never forget me though, would she?” Jenna said as she crept into the pantry. “I hope not.” Jenna looked at the bed she usually shared with Balto, which was lying in the corner. She was a little worried about Balto.” It was snowing pretty hard outside. She looked around the room again and realized how truly alone she was. Rosie was gone, her children had all moved out. Strangely enough both of them had wound up with Aleu. Max and Flash were gone with Balto… she was alone. She heard the wind howl as it blew around the cabin. She looked out the window again to see the snow accumulating on the window sill outside.

“Be careful, Balto,” she said quietly. Then she curled up and went to sleep.

Steele woke up. He’d had a horrible dream, it had been a dream hadn’t it? He couldn’t remember. He got up and walked outside. There was a gray dog outside the shed. He saw Steele. He walked over to Steele, he was new to Applegate. He looked upset

“Hey…a Steele,” he said. I know you was a… running with Jingle and a… I just…a there’s really no easy way to say this but a…. she’s dead.”

“What?” Steele said pretending to be shocked. He thought it