Author's note: Now keep in mind that I have zero knowledge on the Alaskan history of towns and such, so please bear with me >_>

*********************

It was late evening at a farm a few miles out of Fairbanks Alaska and Miksa was just finished with his supply delivery to and from the woods. It was winter, and his master David wanted to stock up wood for his large family to stay warm. Miksa was resting with his teammates in the barn just outside of his master's house. He was a dark brown and white husky and was large for his size. His teammates were Watson, a white malamute; Storm, Boomer, Talleulabelle, a gold malamute; Tazwell, a german shepard, saint bernard mix; Gina, a brown husky; and finally Jack. They were all pretty close, and Miksa enjoyed running with them, whether he led or not. They were all bought at the same time to grow close and work together as a family, and all of them were six years old.

Miksa sat in some hay and faced his teammates. "Good run, guys. That was tough pulling all of that wood, huh?"

"Tough is putting it mildly! I would've keeled over if David put me in the back of the sled to pull all that weight!" Storm laughed. Storm was a female black and white malamute. She was also Watson's older sister. Although she was small for her breed, she was probably the loudest and most aggressive of the group. For every sound she hears, she makes loud barks and growls in hopes of scaring away any danger. Storm looked to her side and seen Boomer asleep next to her. He was a red and white husky who never spoke, nor barked. Everyone probably only heard him speak once when he was introducing himself as a puppy. But since then everyone was only able to know what he was thinking or saying through his facial expressions.

|"Psh! That dog! I wonder how he can fall asleep so fast. You'd think him not talking would make him more energetic than any of us," stated Jack, a black, brown and white malamute.

"I'm sure he is more energetic on the inside," Miksa grinned. "I'm just WAITIN' for him to burst out with something amazing to say."

"THAT will be the day!" laughed Watson. The other dogs joined in with soft chuckles.

After David ate with his family, he entered the barn with a bucket of raw meat. He threw to each of his dogs a handful of meat for them to eat as a reward for a hard day's work. Miksa led that day and David gave him more attention for that reason. The same thing went for any of his dogs that led. David was about 42 years old and had four kids, two boys and two girls, his oldest son being 18. Miksa didn't care for David's son because he rarely seen him at home. When David left the barn, the eight dogs fell asleep with a full moon's light pouring in from the window.

It wasn't long before dawn, and David hooked up all of the dogs to the sled. He casually stated that he needed to mail some letters and get some money out of the bank. He decided to let Miksa lead the sled again. The weather was very nice and cool that morning. The wind was bearly blowing and it made it easier for Miksa and the others to run. He sniffed the air and he could tell that it was going to snow soon. He ran a little bit faster than usual, because he didn't really want to be caught in the snow. No matter what he wouldn't let it get to him. All he wanted was to run and bring his master home safely.

After a few minutes, they all eventually made it to Fairbanks. David hooked the sled near the bank, gave Miksa a word of praise, and strided up the small flight of stairs and through the door into the bank. It seemed a little more crowded than usual in town that day. Everybody was probably aware of the snow coming and wanted to get things done. Whatever those things were, they didn't seem important enough to Miksa and he wondered why humans were always in such a hurry. They seemed rushed no matter what time of the day it was. He sighed to himself and thanked the heavens that he was a dog.

A scruffy-looking man walked up next to the sled. The dogs looked at him and growled, especially Storm. She barked at him trying to get him to go away. He eventually did, and walked to the front where Miksa was. Miksa just looked at him with an expressionless face. The man didn't look very happy, he seemed more depressed than anything. He was definately shorter than David and was wearing a long coat that looked too big for him. The man looked like he was going to steal the sled, but thankfully Storm wasn't going to let him anywhere near it. He scoffed and ran inside the bank.

"Is it just me, or did that guy look very creepy?" Miksa asked jokingly to his team.

"No, it wasn't you," Tazwell said in a suspecting way. "I'm usually good with people, but I did NOT want that guy anywhere near me."

"I know what you mean!" Storm exclaimed. "Why, if he were to lay ONE hand on the sled, I would've--" Storm was interrupted by a gunshot. The dogs all looked where the gunshot came from. It was from inside of the bank.

"David's still in there!!" Miksa cried. He wandered around as far as his harness would let him. He looked through the windows from where he was and tried to see any sign of David. While he was looking, people were scrambling in the street away from the bank. Miksa spotted David in one of the windows with his hands up to his shoulders. Some words were exchanged. Then there was another gunshot, and David fell from Miksa's sight. HIs eyes widened as the scruffy-looking man ran from the bank with a bag of money in his hands. He ran into the crowd of scrambling people and disappeared. Miksa looked into the bank and seen that a few people were alive, but shaken with fear. And just beyond the door was David's dead body. It began to snow outside.

******

It was four days since David's death, and it was snowing lightly ever since. That fourth evening, Miksa layed in the straw, staring into nothing. He couldn't stand the thought of being on the farm if David wasn't around. Without him, the family had no money because David was the only one working, and David's wife would eventually have to sell the dogs. Miksa knew that would happen, and the thought of being sold to a man like the man who shot David angered him greatly. If he could help it, he didn't want to leave his teammates. He knew he shouldn't fear the inevitable, but he couldn't help it.

Tazwell eventually walked in the barn and sat next to Miksa. "You've been sitting in here for a long time. You cant let this bother you, Miksa." Miksa stayed quiet. He knew he couldn't let David's death bother him. He felt a little bit responsible for it, though, because he seen it happen, and he kenw that somehow he could've stopped that man from ever entering the bank. But what really bothered Miksa was what would happen after he and the others were sold.

"Well, it's official," said Tazwell, sadly. "The Mrs. is going to sell us to help pay for the family's needs."

"I don't see how selling us is going to help the family," Miksa said sourly. "We're only worth a couple hundred dollars each anyway, the money would run out in no time."

"I know, but the least we can do is ensure them a little bit longer, right?"

"Yeah, but what would happen to you and the others after we all got sold?"

Tazwell was silent for a moment. "...I don't know." He accompanied Miksa a few moments longer and left the barn.

Boomer walked into the barn a few minutes later and stood next to the laying Miksa.

"Hey Boomer," said Miksa. Boomer stared at him with an annoyed look in his eyes. "You come to give me a peptalk too? I'm all up for hearing anything you hafta say." Miksa chuckled.

"Just because David's wife is going to separate us, doesn't mean that life has to stop." Boomer said simply. Miksa was a bit amazed that Boomer said that much. But he took what he said into thought, and smiled.

"You're right." Miksa said after Boomer left. He looked up at the moon that was peeking through the window. He wondered why he never thought of having a better life after this one. He seemed to go back to his optimistic self. When all of the dogs came into the barn to sleep, he figured it was time to do so as well.

******

Miksa woke up in the middle of the night to light footsteps in the snow outside of the barn. He sniffed the cold air. It definately wasn't the scent of David's wife, or any human for that matter. Miksa quietly got up and padded over to the barn door. It was always cracked open so that the barn never got too warm for the dogs. His ears moved around to hear if there was anything outside of the door. So far, there wasn't, so he slowly walked out of the barn and looked around. He couldn't really see anything because it was snowing, so he relied on his sense of smell. He made his way to the back of the barn. The sled was parked there.

"Hm," Miksa thought. "They must have forgotten to put it away." He looked behind the sled from afar and seen a figure whiter than the falling snow staring at him with gold eyes. "A wolf!" Miksa exclaimed in his thoughts. The wolf was pure white with the brightest gold eyes he had ever seen. It was definately smaller than Miksa, maybe only a year or so old, and judging by the sweet smell of the animal, he could tell that the wolf was female. She stood very still, knowing that Miksa had spotted her. He tried wagging his tail to show her that he meant her no harm, but as soon as his tail flinched, she turned as fast as she could and sprinted towards the woods. Miksa gasped and before he knew it, his feet were carrying him right after her.

The snowfall lightened up after a minute and made it easier for Miksa to follow the wolf. She dashed through the trees trying to get rid of Miksa, but he kept up with her. She must've been getting tired but since Miksa was trained to run long distances, he wasn't tiring at all.

The wolf eventually turned and Miksa lost sight of her and stopped. He listened. He couldn't hear her running so she must've stopped too.

"You still here, miss?" Miksa asked aloud. "No need to fear me, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just as curious as you