His shoes probably had been lost when those liquid tentacles caught him. His feet were hurting with the cold, and now he could barely feel them. The cold was making him tremble, seeing he was still soaked. He was unused to that temperature, having been just taken from a warm place. He was still trying to get used to the cold air he was breathing, making a small mist in front of his mouth. Finally at the boat, Dan started to walk up the board that gave access to the deck, when he heard voices inside. He stopped and listened. There were two male voices there, one of them, in which he noticed a strange accent, was seem to be annoyed by something. 

- I'm telling you! Those two are getting on my nerves! If they force me to play hide and seek again, things are not gonna get pretty for them! – the voice with the accent shouted, angry, sounding a little familiar to the boy.

- You know how they are, don't get so angry with them. – a calmer voice said, strangely familiar as well.

- It's easy for you to say, Balto! They don't jump on you every other minute! – the first voice exclaimed.

"Balto"? How could it be? Dan couldn't help it, he went inside the boat and looked to the two figures sat on the deck. There they were: Balto, the grayish brown wolf-dog hybrid, just like in the film, and Boris, the goose, the same way he remembered. Both were surprised with Dan's presence. Boris got closer to Balto, raising an eyebrow.

- Where did he come from? And why is he soaked and with no warm clothes? – the goose asked, probably not conscious that Dan could hear them.

- I don't know Boris, I think he's lost - Balto said, showing to be worried.

Dan just got more and more shocked at every phrase.

- Why isn't he saying anything? – Boris asked, curious.

- Because I'm still shocked because I can understand everything you're saying! - Dan said, startling both Balto and Boris.

The two animals looked each other, wide-eyed, unsure of how to react, but then, Balto stepped forward.

- Can you understand us? – he asked, confused.

- Yeah. – Dan answered, still startled himself. – Though I don't even know how, or how I got here.

- Wait, you'll freeze out here. – the hybrid said, concerned about him.

Balto was right; Dan had almost forgotten how cold he was. The canine caught the blanket he used to sleep with, and passed it to Dan. The boy involved himself with it, trying to ignore the uncomfortable dog smell on it, and sat on the wooden deck. Boris seemed to be distrustful at Dan.

- Are you going to tell us what happened? - he asked, a bit harsh.

Dan sighed.

- Yes, I guess no human around here would believe it anyway... – he answered.

Dan told them what happened since the tentacle's attack at Mr. Wellington's farm to that moment. Balto looked confused, and Boris, skeptical.

- Do you want us to believe you came from the future and gained the ability of talking to animals? Ha! – the goose said, barely holding his laughter.

Balto threw a reprehensive glance at him. 

- What would he gain from lying to us? He's lost, in the middle of a place he doesn't know and he has a proof: he's talking to us.

Boris looked to be not fully convinced. Dan ignored that.

- What do I do now? – he asked, worried about himself. – I mean, I can't just go into Nome and ask for somewhere to stay. They would start asking me where I came from and where my parents are, I have no answer to that!

- Well, before you do anything, we better get you decent clothes. - the canid suggested. - There's a house with a clothe washing service on the other side of Nome. You could go there and get some warm clothes.

Dan agreed, and got up leaving the blanket on the wooden ground. Balto leaded him out of the boat. Boris followed them, annoyed.

They walked rounding Nome's houses and shops, until they saw a small house close to another part of the woods, a little away from the rest of the town. They saw a clothesline when they got there. Boris went closer to the shop and peeked through the window.

- No one's inside. - he told the other two.

Dan approached the clothesline, and selected some warm clothes of his size. Balto and Boris waited near the house while Dan changed his clothes in the middle of the trees. After some moments, he came back, wearing traditional thick clothes and a coat. They then started to walk back to the boat quietly. Suddenly, Dan heard a noise of steps on the snow besides their own. He turned back, and saw a strange white figure amongst the woods behind the house. It was hard to tell what it was, seeing it was almost the same color of the snow. The creature, whatever it was, turned back and started running inside the woods, heading to the closest mount.

- Guys! There's something in there! – the boy warned the others.

Balto looked back.

- I see it! – he said, watching carefully. - Wait, is that... - he found the figure very familiar.

- I think it wants us to follow it. – Dan said, starting running after the creature.

- Dan! Wait! – Balto called, but his warning fell on deaf ears.

Dan was running after the creature through the woods, following the trail it had left on the snow. He would stop occasionally to watch closely at the trail when it was too faint, and would restart running. It was getting dark, and the sun was already setting. He could hear Balto following him from far, but he kept running. He didn't even know why he was chasing that creature like that, but something told him that he should do it. “Now where are you?”, Dan thought. The trail leaded up the mount, when he reached its base. It wasn’t steep. He could run his way up almost normally. He kept running. He crawled some steep areas he found on his way, but none gave him much trouble. After some minutes, he started panting because of the effort. That chase was starting to feel stupid, but he had already gone that far, there was no point giving up now. The trail was gone, so he trusted on his own intuition and kept running to the top. With some more moments, he finally reached the top of the mount. It was a plain rocky ground with some boulders and stones. There was the snow white creature, staring at Dan, expressionless. It was a white wolf. Dan gasped, surprised. He was smart enough to know that wolves were dangerous in real life.

Night arrived, covering the place in darkness. Dan and the wolf stayed there, staring at each other, without making any sound or movement. The eyes of the canid were