something:  In all their fear, they had not noticed the absence of one sack that was on the sled.  It could not have fallen off.  The sacks were securely fastened.  Someone or something had taken the sack off the sled.  Their suspicions were confirmed:  A couple of yards behind them laid wolf tracks and signs of a large object being dragged along the ground.  They had been followed, and hadn't even noticed.  They quickened their pace and raced along the forest path, hoping to never encounter any wolves, but they were only delaying the inevitable.  They knew that sooner or later, they would be intercepted.  Unfortunately, they were right about that.  Six wolves closed in behind them from some series of shrubs, hoping to get either the sacks or a live meal.  Not wanting to stop and contemplate the situation, the trio forged ahead, but they were too slow.  Two of the wolves caught up to them and nipped at the harnesses.  The fragile link to the sled was already close to snapping and easily broke.  They had lost a lot of their food.  Not wanting to press their luck with the wolves, they ran even faster to Council, and raced to the telegraph office without even stopping to look at their surroundings.  Still frightened, they all started to scratch at the door and only stopped once they finally got in.  Looking around, they found little else besides telegraph equipment, a Morse code reference poster, a burnt-out light bulb, and a table.

     "Does anyone know how to use a telegraph?" asked Star.  It was a pointless question.  None of them knew how to use a telegraph, but Star's recent streak of genius saved them again.  He found looked at the Morse code reference sheet and scratched at the table the telegraph was sitting on so it would be easier for him to send a message.  Once he scratched his message into the table, he immediately started working the telegraph, hoping that what he was doing was going to save Nome.  The telegraph furiously beeped, and the message was sent flawlessly, but was it being sent to the right location?  Star could only hope.  "I'm pretty sure that I sent the message.", claimed Star.  It was good enough for the three of them.  They were sick of the adventure they had, so they left the office quickly and hoped that trouble would not find them.  They had wasted too much energy, though, and decided to rest.

     "Which way do we go?" asked Kaltag as they stopped to take a breather at the edge of town.

     "We ain't goin' back dere!" said Nikki, looking at the wolves' forest.

     "Let's try the blocked route, then." suggested Star.  They departed immediately.  When they arrived at the blockage, they found that their journey to Nome across the debris would be an easy one.  The avalanche had left plenty of boulders on their side of the debris pile to climb on.  Being careful of where they stepped, the crossing of the debris pile went without a hitch.  Nome was within sight, and the cover of darkness would soon be there.

     As they slinked back towards the old house, they noticed something strange.  There were some silhouettes of dogs moving towards the house.  Star started moving faster, but noticed something else:  Nikki and Kaltag were nowhere to be found.  Star decided that waiting inside the safety of the house instead of looking for them, and proceeded to turn towards the house, but found that Nikki and Kaltag were in front of him.  Star tried to move in between them, but was blocked.  He tried moving around them to the left, but they again blocked Star.  He was frustrated, now.  Just as he was about to talk, he looked at both of their eyes.  He saw that their eyes were not focused on him, but staring blankly into space.  Star again looked behind him and saw nothing of interest.  He then decided it was necessary to get their attention.  "What are you guys doing?  I thought we were going to go back to the house and wait for help!" inquired Star.

     "Sorry, but we can't let youse do that." answered Nikki, still looking like he was in a trance.

     "The leader requests your presence at his throne immediately." added Kaltag, who also looked like he was not all there.

     "If we can go back home after this, then I'll go." decided Star, who was now wondering what was going on.  Nikki stepped behind Star and Kaltag led the way into town.  Star could not believe his eyes as he walked through the empty streets.  He saw ice-statues of Steele all along the way, idols of Steele in what seemed to be altars, Steele's face scratched into the sidewalks, his image etched into windows, and a monument to him made of various discarded items topped with a tile of ice with his faced carved into it.  By the time they had turned the corner, Star was completely sure that something was wrong.  He saw two rows of ice-statues facing each other.  They were all statues of Steele.  As he went farther, he could see the abandoned mill.  Dogs started to appear on both sides of the street, forming neat columns and rows.  They were all staring blankly, too.  Star was now wanting to run away, but knew that he had no chance to escape.  They soon arrived at the door.  The trio walked through a makeshift dog-door and Star was now horrified and disgusted at what he saw:  Dogs frozen in ice.  Dogs trapped in ice lined the shelves of the building.  All of them had terrified looks on their faces and looked as if ready to burst out of their icy prisons and head for the hills.  Then, Star heard a voice he had hoped to never hear again.

     "How have you been, Star?  Have you been taking in the sights of my wonderful new kingdom?  Did you like the "art gallery" I set up just for your arrival?" inquired the voice of Steele.

     "What did you do to my friends?!" demanded Star.

     "Don't be so hot-headed, Star.  Keep your cool." answered Steele nonchalantly.  With that Star found his paws instantly frozen stuck to the floor.  He almost made the mistake of licking the ice off of his paws when he remembered what had happened last year when he tried to lick an icy bone.  "Since you're not going anywhere, let's have a little chat.  I've been wanting to add you to my list of royal subjects ever since I began ruling, but you disappeared.  After my royal subjects became unwilling to follow my orders, I made them obey with this collar I found at a curio shop.  It's nice, isn't it?" said Steele, craning his neck in order to show Star his gaudy dark blue collar that broke so many fashion laws, it would have been illegal to wear it if any humans were around.  "Anyway, this collar made me so powerful that I was able to control the thoughts of every dog in town.  When I saw you fall from the sky, I ordered your two closest friends to recover your body.  Somehow, their emotions got in the way of their work and they disobeyed direct orders.  Luckily, I was able to regain control after they came back.  In a cruel twist of fate for you, I failed to control your mind when you came back, so I ordered your friends to help me dispose of you." continued Steele.

     "So why did you freeze all these dogs and how?" inquired Star.

     "Isn't it obvious?  They were the dogs who disobeyed me and tried to overthrow me.  Of course, mind control wasn't the only power that the collar gave me..." responded Steele, who was now grinning.  Star looked down in amazement as ice crawled up his haunches and onto his back.  His limbs were now completely frozen.

     "Wait a second!  Why are you freezing me when you can mind control me?" wondered Star.

      "I don't know why your mind can't be controlled, Star, but I don't want to waste time figuring out how to solve the problem, so I'll just freeze you and make you an example for all of those who dare to even think about being disloyal to me!" it was an answer that made Star panic.  Star began to squirm around in order to free himself, but to no avail.  "It's no use, Star!  You might as well give up and make it easy on yourself!" continued Steele.

     Star looked around frantically for anything that could help, but formulated his most ingenious life-saving and risky plan yet:  Call for help.  He began to smile at his best plan yet.  Though it relied entirely on luck, Star was certain that it would work.  He began to smile as he finished formulating his plan.  "Smiling at one's death?  I respect that in a dog!" claimed Steele.

     "Oh, I'm smiling, but it's not my death I'm smiling at. No, it's my freedom.  NIKKI!!!  KALTAG!!!  HELP ME!!!  STEELE IS CONTROLLING YOUR MINDS!!!" Star screamed at the top of his lungs.  Star continued to yell their names, but his plan seemed to be failing.  Just as Steele was starting to freeze Star's neck, Star let out his loudest call for help yet, and immediately, Kaltag and Nikki pounced on Steele, ripping the collar off of him.  The other dogs outside came rushing in to help and started to swarm around Steele.  As the crowd engulfed the evil canine, Kaltag and Nikki came up to Star and congratulated him.