you can just forget it, Papa,” Aleu huffed angrily, lifting her head up in rebellion. “I’m staying here whether you like it or not, and you can’t make me change my mind.” 

“Well, . . . that wasn’t the only thing I wanted us to talk about,” Balto slowly muttered, struggling with the way to bring the subject up. He did want to try to convince his daughter to return home with him, but there was something he had to talk to her about first. “I . . . well, I . . . I wanted to talk to you . . . about . . . ah, what I’m trying to say is that I . . .I-I want you to know . . . about your mother.”

Aleu, for once, was silent. The only things she had learned about her birth mother were the things that she heard from Steele’s daughter, Ebony – what else did her father hiding about Jenna, the purebred husky that apparently was the mother she never knew? 

“Come on; less talking, more walking, you two!” Geona barked with a slight growl in her voice. “It’s still not safe yet.”

As the trio continued slowly onward, Balto sighed, not noticing that his daughter had done the same as well. “Sorry. I’m just . . . so glad to see that my baby’s okay.” He looked into Geona’s eyes, knowing full well that Aleu was embarrassed by being called ‘baby’ when she clearly told him she wasn’t only a day ago. Aleu let out a groan after hearing that comment from her father, but it didn’t stop him from talking about her. “My daughter’s lucky to be friends with a wolf like you, you know.” 

“Huh?” The light-gray she-wolf tilted her head to the side, confused by the hybrid’s comment. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand.”

“Well, I’m surprised that any wolf would accept her into their pack at all, . . . especially because of her—” 

“Being only part wolf, you mean?” Geona completed Balto’s sentence, much to his surprise. “Don’t worry. Our Alpha accepts anyone – purebred or not – into her Clan. She also happens to be a half-wolf, though you probably wouldn’t believe it if you looked at her . . . but you, . . . you are a half-wolf too, right?”

“How did you—” Balto’s ears pricked up, but Aleu’s voice interrupted his. 

“I told her yesterday, once I was brought here, Papa,” she told him, her head still low to the ground. “But the other wolves could easily tell that I was a part-wolf just by smelling me.”

“I see,” the hybrid smirked, putting the clues together. “So that’s how she knows about your breeding.” He looked back at Geona. “What about you? Are you a purebred wolf or a mixed breed like us?” 

The light-gray’s ears lowered against her neck. “Like most of our Clan, I am a purebred wolf, . . . but also like most of our Clan, I . . .” Geona’s eyes closed, causing a slight tear to streak down her cheek. “I’m sorry, but this is difficult for me sometimes to talk about.”

“I understand,” Balto calmly spoke, reading the she-wolf’s actions and words as if he were some kind of shrink. “Your pup-hood wasn’t very easy either, right?”  

Geona’s eyes opened widely, but calmed as she nodded slightly. “Yeah . . . yeah; how did you figure that out?”

“I could see it in your eyes, just like with my own,” Balto replied. “Pup-hood wasn’t easy for me since I was both yet neither, but I never learned about it until later. I barely remember my mother and father, but I know that I was separated from them at about 6 months old. My father sent me away to Nome, a human town that he once lived in, while my mother, who happened to be a wolf, took my two sisters back to her former pack. I . . . I never saw them again, but I’ve always had a feeling that my siblings are still alive . . . somewhere out in the wilderness.” 

“Why didn’t you search for them?” Geona asked, all while Aleu silently listened as she walked with them. “If you missed them so badly, you should have looked for them!” She let out a huff, a quiet one. “Our Alpha lost her brother too, and she’s tried whenever she can to search for him; why couldn’t you do the same for your own family?”

Balto’s head drooped along with his ears. He turned to the side slightly, facing the wall. “Well, other things came up for me . . . and as I searched for acceptance in this new world, I felt like I didn’t belong in the wild . . . although I looked as if I belonged there. Even when I saw small packs of wolves travel nearby and heard them crying out at me, I thought they were mocking me, telling me with their howling, ‘Why are you like us, but not like us? You are cursed, one that will never belong in our world or theirs. Why do you continue trying to find acceptance?’ I could have answered them since I was half-wolf, but I was afraid and ashamed of how different I was to them; as I watched them walk away, I felt that they were right about me. I was indeed cursed, torn between the two worlds that had created me: the wild world I was born into with the call of the wolf as my lullaby and the tame world of the human’s leash and collar that my father gave up forever to be with my mother. I often asked myself, ‘Where does my heart lie when I fully belong in neither world? Half-dog, half-wolf, yet I can’t be accepted anywhere.’ At times, I swear I felt like ending my life and committing suicide, for I saw no clear purpose if I couldn’t find my true calling.” 

“Papa . . .” Aleu muttered softly into the air, but it was inaudible to the other two creatures that continued talking.

“But then over a couple of years ago,” Balto continued, this time with a more hopeful tone. “I watched a local pastime in Nome that made me change my mind; the humans loved harnessing their dogs and huskies to wooden sleds and racing them against each other within the wilds of the Alaskan wilderness. Just seeing their bodies rush against the powdery whiteness of the snow beneath their paws made the tame blood within me pump even harder. I wished and prayed for the day when a human would notice my skills and natural talent as a dog, but every time I won a selection race for new dogs to be chosen for training and sledding teams, I was always turned away because of my wolfish looks and the fear of my wild instincts returning to attack the men and their teams. Even the dogs that shared husky blood with me teased and ridiculed me, all because of my wolf heritage.” 

“How awful!” Geona murmured; just by hearing her tone of voice, anyone could tell that she had easily grown a sense of compassion for the hybrid father’s struggle through his early years. “How could you manage to survive in a world that hated you?”

“Well,” the hybrid began to respond. “I did find friendship with a couple of others – it wasn’t much, but they were better than having no friends at all. There was a Russian snow goose that acted as a temporary guardian to me ever since I was abandoned as a pup, two polar bear cubs that were orphaned because of the fact that they couldn’t swim,” Aleu could tell that Geona tried to hold back her laughter after hearing about the trio of odd companions that she had grown up with all her life. Even she let a small chuckle slip from her lips as her father continued. “and . . . a hidden treasure that always seemed to calm my spirit whenever I needed guidance.” A smile formed on his lips as if he could see his hidden treasure in the eyes of his heart. “Say, have you ever heard of the Northern Lights?” 

“Yeah,” the light-gray nodded. “Our Alpha enjoys them whenever she can. Our Clan . . . and actually all wolves believe that they are signs sent from the Great Spirits, praising the creatures they continuously watch on the earth below.”

“The Northern Lights? What are they, Papa?” Aleu finally spoke up, asking. She had never seen them before, so the quarter-wolf was curious to learn about what intrigued her father so much. 

“I don’t remember the first time I actually saw them, but I do remember one time that I wandered underneath the doctor’s office when I was about your age, Aleu. It was grimy and dirty, but I think I ran in there to hide from the dogs that would chase after me and use me as their punching bag. I remember being drawn to a pile of broken pieces of colored glass – probably from bottles from the trash – and how the lantern light from above looked like bright sunlight. Once I moved aside, I saw them . . . the most beautiful sight in the world . . .” Balto lifted his head up, closing his eyes as if he was soaked inside the glow of the light he described. A thin line of tears fell from his closed eyelids, only intensifying his emotions on the subject. “I could see every color in the world – white, blue, red, yellow, green, orange . . . and so many more – as I looked at what was created in front of me. They flashed and danced, almost like a colorful ballet against the wall. I felt like it would last forever, but once the doctor turned off his light in the above room, the dancing lights vanished into thin air.” He let out a small chuckle. “Back then, I didn’t know what they were, but I called them ‘My Guiding Lights’ – my own little ‘Keys to the City,’ I sometimes called them that too – for they helped me see that something beautiful could still be made from two completely different . . . and sometimes misunderstood things. Once I saw the real lights shining high in the midnight sky one night, I learned their real name – Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights – and from then on, I called them the Northern Lights ever since.” The hybrid turned to his daughter, letting out a little sigh. “Oh, I wish I could have shown them to you, Aleu, . . . but they . . .” He let out a louder sigh, one that sounded as if he was frustrated and yet sad. “I just couldn’t bear to go back there again . . . not after what happened to me in there almost a year ago . . .”

“You mean, . . . Does it have anything to do with my mother?” Aleu asked