the wire and it sparked. The leaf burst into flame, but was extinguished when it fell into the snow. Ilena gulped. If she didn't clear it then she'd be cooked, and the fence was even higher this time! She must've taken forty paces backwards, then she leaped to her highest and landed smoothly onto the snow, on the other side of the fence. A squirrel near by watched, jaw wide open. It suddenly shot off when a gun fired beside it.

"Not again!" Ilena groaned. By now this was stupid. But now she was over the fence, and they had to find a way around. She ran with a head start. The trees blocked her way, and Ilena was forced into the open. The men had known this, and while the ones on her tail whizzed through a gate, a group of sleds sped past her.

Trapped.

There was no alternative, but to go into the sled run. Ilena thrust herself onto the open, dry land. The dogs had already gone way ahead of her and there was just miles and miles of open terrain. If she was going to get away, she had to grab her chance. This was it. She had to break out now.

The shouting of the men made her decision. Her pace was steady, but when she heard the loading of a gun, this speed increased until she was sprinting. The land ahead closed and went up into the sky. Ilena forsted herself up the slope and over the other side. The track split up into three, smaller, narrower ones. Ilena took the one on the right. Then stopped. She made a lot of prints in the snow and crept into the trees once more. The men stumbled over the side of the hill. Instantly they saw the tracks and followed them. Ilena waited a short while before trotting down the track on the left.

Another hill approached. How long would this uneven ground go on? Step by step, Ilena pulled her body across the land. She was exhausted. But there was no cover and so continue she must. But the moon rose, and a glimmer of light could be seen in the distance. Ilena steadied herself down the slope. The moon shone on her coat like dew in the morning. Dark shadows appeared, but they were asleep. Ilena joined them in their slumber. When she awoke, wolves were standing around her. A female with blue eyes and brown fur came up to her.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I am looking for the leader of this pack," Ilena informed "I have already traveled to the coast to find them and they were not there."

"Well, you've found them. I am Alue, daughter of Balto,"

"Balto?" Ilena cut in. Surely this wasn't Balto's daughter, was it?

"How do you know him?"

"He raised me, with his mate, Jenna."

"So," Alue stopped and thought "You're my sister?"

"No." Ilena took a large breath and a gulp before continuing "I'm your daughter." This was astonishing. How could they both be there together? Mother and daughter who never knew each other?

Ilena told her mother all about what had happened to her. Alue offered to have her girl enter the pack, but Ilena declined.

"I don't belong here. I'm a sled dog. No, a sled wolf."