other from biting to even try it yet.  Star had never seen this before.  Most arguments within the trio were settled with a threat from from Steele or a blow to the head, but never a fight.

     "STOOOOOP!!!" Star's cry rang out.  Nikki and Kaltag both stared at Star in amazement.  How could such a weak and shy being demand something from two tougher and outgoing beings?  It was a rare event, indeed, and Star savored it.  For once in his life, he had gotten two of the toughest dogs he knew to obey him.

     "Who are you and what have you done with Star?!" queried a dumbstruck Kaltag.  Star blushed at this statement.  Never before had he received such praise from Kaltag.  Star quickly switched back to being stern.

     "You guys never fight like this?  What happened?" demanded Star.

     "Either your memory is going or you got hit on the head very hard." stated Kaltag.  "You don't remember?  Some volcano in Russia... Avachinsky, I believe, erupted.  The explosion was so huge that the entire volcano turned into a crater in a matter of seconds.  The ash cloud covered the earth so quickly that there was little time to prepare for it.  Every single human within an... um... two thousand mile radius died instantly.  I don't know how it happened, but most of us survived.  We've been waiting for the rescue parties for three years, now and we've been surviving on human food, corpses, and what's left of the wildlife in the area.  So far, it's been great! We've had six cargo ships this month wash ashore.  We're still, ya' know, hopeful.  We're confident that things'll all work out in the end... yeah..." Kaltag’s voice began to soften until it trailed off.  Kaltag was obviously lying.  The situation was grim, no one was confident that everything would be okay in the end, and certainly no one in their right minds could be hopeful about the current situation.  Star was now uncomfortable again.  Kaltag was never this unsure of himself before and never was this depressed.  Star began to think of a plan for the first time in his life.  The situation was bleak, nobody was going to return to Nome, and the food was not going to last forever.  This sort of situation called for someone who was confident, bold, and strong.  This called for a hero.  They needed that one dog that could do it all.  They needed Balto.

     "What about Balto?  Can't he help us out?" asked Star.

     "No, Star, we can't call Balto for help.  Balto has been dead ever since the eruption.  Steele has been the de facto leader of Nome since the eruption, but he'll be of no help.  All he does is somehow magically make anyone who poses the question of sending for help change his or her mind and then they never ask again." answered Kaltag.  With that option out of the question, it was time for Star to take matters into his own hands:  They would have to do it by themselves.

     "Why don't we go for help ourselves?" asked Star.

     Kaltag gave Star a surprised look.  "Do you know how crazy you are?  Steele has his goons all around the town, just waiting for somebody to escape.  Then, they take the so-called 'trouble-makers' and bring them to the furnace in the mill at the edge of town and you never hear from them again! It's risky, hazardous, unnecessary, pointless, hopeless-"

     "Shut it!" commanded Star, who was again surprised by himself.  Instead of wondering about his sudden personality change, he decided to focus on the matter at hand.  "Look, we'll go at night when they can't see us."

     "What about food?" wondered Nikki.

     "We'll tie it onto our backs in bundles." it was a simple answer.  Star had yet again surprised himself.  Why was he so heroic all of the sudden?  Was it the time travel, the pressure, the author?

     That afternoon was spent gathering food for the trek.  Star, Nikki, and Kaltag searched the entire town for food, and left it in a pile on the living room rug.  They gathered everything from bones to old meat, being careful to check for signs of spoiling.  After gathering all the food they could get, they took as many burlap sacks from the stores around town as necessary, and stuffed the food into the sacks.  Now, they took the sacks and tied them shut using twine.  It was hard without opposable thumbs, but they did their best.  Now that the sacks were tied, they had to carry them, but a problem soon became evident:  The sacks were too large and heavy to carry.

     "Okay, I'm stumped.  How are we going to carry these things?" asked Kaltag.

     "What about the sled?" questioned Nikki.

     "Excellent idea," exclaimed Star.  "Where is it?"  Nikki left momentarily as Kaltag and Star waited patiently.  It wasn't too long before he came back with a sled.  It was dusty, rusted, and obviously coming to the end of its time as a useful mode of transport.  The harnesses were still attached and decaying rapidly.  It looked just about ready to fall apart, but it was sturdy enough for at least one more trip.  It was then that another problem became evident:  How were they going to make contact with a rescue party that would be willing to rescue dogs?

     "Umm, not to be the bearer of bad news, but there's no way that we're going to last long enough to find anyone willing to save a bunch of dogs." said Kaltag.

     Once again, Star experienced a flash of genius.  "Isn't there a telegraph in Council?"

     "Yeah, but does it work?" asked Nikki.

     "There's no other way we can do this fast enough to save the town." stated Star.  There were no more questions about it.  It was Council or death.  Not wasting time, as soon as the last rays of sunlight disappeared and the last moments of vesper's hour were upon them, they hooked up to the sled with Star in the lead and slipped into the night.  They left Nome without a hitch, and were far enough from Nome when they finally encountered yet another problem:  Their fastest way to Council was blocked by a pile of snow, boulders, fallen trees, and ash.  They would have to go another way.  Luckily, the mountain path was clear, and they made their journey slowly up the mountain.  As time passed, it began to get darker, and the visibility was poor.  They would have to stop and rest for the night.  They unhooked and fumbled around in the ash a bit before finding good spots to sleep on, and they all fell asleep almost instantly.

     It was dawn again.  Ravens croaked as they soared overhead.  Star woke up, feeling that someone was watching him.  He looked up the trail to find that it was dangerously narrow.  He decided to check his surroundings before looking around for danger.  They were in a short stretch of the path that widened a bit before narrowing again.  He looked down the side of the mountain.  It was a steep drop covered in pine tree saplings that grew amidst a sea of fallen timber.  The ash had apparently caused an avalanche.  Looking up the mountain, Star saw some bushes and a few tufts of grass here and there.  There was a tall cliff towering over them.  Skeletons of Dall's sheep were scattered about at the base of the cliff, probably the remains of the avalanche's victims.  The cliff face was bare, but at the very top, Star saw something for a moment.  It looked remotely familiar, but there was too much backlighting to see what it was.  The figure then turned around and vanished.  It was definitely a canine.  It wasn't a wolf or a dog, but somewhere in between.  Star looked back at Kaltag and Nikki, who emerged from the ash like zombies in old horror movies.  Star took one last look at where the figure had stood, and then opened up one of the sacks.

     They immediately helped themselves to some old steak from one of the sacks and ate like they had been starving, and they were.  Without a word, they finished eating, tied up the sack, and put on their harnesses again.  They left the campsite without thinking twice, and continued up the mountain trail.  Up and down they went, following the trail closely and carefully so as not to fall off the mountain.  Eventually, the trail descended into the valley below where Council stood.  As they descended, the forests became denser, and more broadleaf trees began to appear. Council was not so badly hit by the ash.  Finally arriving at a stream, Star stopped.  "Do you smell that, guys?"

     "Yeah, wolves have been here.  We're definitely enterin' wolf territory now." answered Nikki.

     "Well, it's either this or we go back." said Kaltag.  There was no question about it:  They would be going straight through wolf territory.  They took the overgrown path through the shallow stream and onto the other side.  As they ventured deeper into the forest, they saw signs of recent wolf activity:  carcasses of marmots, sheep, and goats were strewn about the forest floor.  The scent of wolves was fresh in the air.  They became more and more afraid until they noticed something:  In all