Ilena licked her pups. One was grey, the other brown and the last cream and brown. She and Jai were happy together, and now they were a propper family. Balto came through the dog-flap. He saw the puppies and smiled. He nodded at the creme pup.

"Sled dog. Mark my words, he'll be a racer." Balto declared. The brown pup whined.

"And him?" Ilena looked at Balto. He thought for a moment. "He'll travel." The grey puppy, the biggest of the litter, yawned. Balto didn't give an opinion.

"I don't know about him, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see..."

Three years later

"Hey! Wait up!" The three brothers ran and rolled on the sandy beach. Rusty, as usual, was way ahead of his siblings. Aleck was gaining on him though, but Ice was left far behind. He stopped running and took a break. "They won't notice me gone." he said to himself as he headed back towards the town.

It was fairly quiet, but it wasn't deserted. Ice made his was to the butchers. "Closed again!" he sighed. He sat down and watched the world go by. Nome became more busy throughout the day, and Ice saw someone.

She was a light-chocolate female with a tawny back. Her eyes were a dark, deep green and she had a pink collar with a white bone tag on it. The name on the tag was Tiala. Ice was smitten. As he walked over to her, a large group of dogs trampled him. They all crowded around the beautiful Tiala, she was talking to them all. Ice joined the group. Bit by bit, the dogs left, until there were only two more. Every boy wanted her attention, and when she said they weren't good enough, they left. Tiala took not much interest in the other dogs but completely ignored Ice all together! No matter what he did, she didn't take any notice. At long last, he was the only one left, but she turned and walked away. This angered Ice and out of nowhere he blurted out "Oi! I'm slaving away here and you are completely ignoring me!"

Tiala turned to him. Ice had a hope, but it was shattered when she looked around blankly, as if the wind had shouted the words. He wasn't invisable to anyone else, so there wasn't something crazy going on. She was just being difficult. Ice stormed away, mumbling some very rude words about Tiala.

"Uh, oh! Someone's in a bad mood!"

"I think it's because of his inability to run fast!"

"And impress women!"

Rusty and Alek were already inside and were teasing Ice. He glared at them. Alek faked a cough, spluttering "Loser!" He was rather nasty at times. Ilena walked up behind them.

"Leave your brother alone, or so help me I wil chuck you out in the cold!" she growled at them. Instantly, the two boys slunk into their baskets. She sat down with Ice. "Tell me all about it." she whispered. Ice told her about Tiala, how she minipulated the males, including him. "She ignored me! Even though I was jumping up and down right in front of her!"

"She does like you," Ilena chuckled. "Now, let's face it. You look more like a... a, wolf ... than me. She probably didn't want to admit liking you infront of everyone else. I know how high her standards are." She hoped her advice wouldn't hurt her eldest son's feelings but he understood perfectly well what she meant. "Try talking to her alone."

Ice suddenly woke up. The clock on the wall read 7 o'clock exactly. He remembered his mother's words from the previous night and slipped silently outside. It was spotting with rain but appart from that everything was still. Ice slowly made his way towards the boiler room.

The wind howled like a wolf and Ice was more than relieved to get inside the boiler room. Shaking the slush off his paws, he caught sight of a shadow in the corner. "Hello Ice," it said softly "Sorry about yesterday, it's just that, my parents, my friends,"

"You don't need to say any more." Ice cut in, rather sulkily. He knew it was Tiala. She got up and walked out of the darkness. She circled him, looking up and down. "You're better built than all of those huskies altogether. Why?"

Ice didn't know whether to metion his wolf genes or not. At last he said "I suppose I'm stronger." The female stopped. Tiala looked into his eyes. Ice felt himself melting a little bit, on top of that he was rather nervous. Tiala didn't waste any time. She flung her paws around his broad shoulders and kissed him. (It doesn't seem right for dogs to kiss, so I'll just say it was touching noses and licking.)

Once she finally let him go, he was as frozen as ice! He was in love, but quite frightened at how quickly this girl could change attitude. Tiala straightened her collar and whispered in a slightly threatening tone "Now you listen to me. You won't tell a soul." And she left! It was as quick as that! Ice curled up infront of the fire and went to sleep.

"Ice, Ice.... ICE!" He jumped up and saw mifa (Ilena's friend) standing over him. "Good morning! You were in a deep sleep!" she chuckled. Ice yawned. "What time is it?"

"Rush hour." This made Ice look up. He had to get back to his home, or else he'd be in big trouble. He thanked Mifa and ran back into town. On the way, he bumped into Tiala. "Whatch where you're going!" she snapped, but Ice caught her wink. He slunk away towards Rosie's house.Balto was now old and frail, but he still lived with Jenna. Rosie was now fithteen! She had taken a flight to New York to study and would return to Nome in the spring. Balto pricked his ears forwards at the sound of the opening door. "So you haven't disapeared?" he joked. Ice laughed, knowing that Balto would tell his mother he was there a lot earlier. The two of them ate and went to sleep.

When Ice opened his eyes he saw that Balto was gone and it was late in the afternoon. He stretched and padded outside. It was still buzzing with people but there were hardly any dogs around. There was Bea and June and an old dog that Ice didn't know. The sun was low in the sky and snow was begining to fall. He shook his head to rid a drop of water from the hanging iciles above and he walked off to the boiler room.

Tiala was there. She follows me... he thought, closing the door. As he did, a growl echoed around the room. "Leave my daughter alone..." It was Steele. Ice suddenly realised that his 'Girlfriend' was two generations back from him! What was worse, she was Steele's child. The malmute crept out of the darkness and stood infront of Ice, snarling all the time. Ice stepped backwards. Instead of hitting the door, he felt something soft.

"Don't make me fight you again, Steele." It was his dad, Jai. The door was open and a gust of freezing air blew out the fire and Steele ran, tail between his legs. Tiala followed her father, giving Ice a wink as she went by. He growled at her.

*

"Your girlfriend! Steele's daughter!" Ilena was pacing up and down the room giving Ice a good lecture. Over and over he tried to tell her he didn't know, but she didn't want to hear it. Ice was thrown out for the night as a punishment. He found his dad in an alley and slept with him in a cardboard box. The sunrise came early and Jai and Ice walked down to the butchers. But someone had beaten them to it...

"There you go little lady!" smiled the butcher. He flopped a ribeye stake onto a plate where a chocolate muzzle licked and chewed at it. Tiala. Ice's fur bristled. Jai looked at his son as if to say Her? Ice strolled away sulkily and lay down on the steps of Rosie's house. He had some thinking to do.

"I suppose I like her."

"But she told on you!"

"Well, maybe he bullied her into it, or it just slipped out."

"But she was there with him!"

"Why me?!"

He was just getting to terms with himself when a brown husky trotted up to him. She smiled and sat down next to him. Her name tag said Hannah.

"I'm Tiala's mother. I'm not mad with you, infact I'm here to appologize for my partner's behavior. And I'm sorry about how Tiala's acting. She's just difficult..." She sighed. A cloud drifted over the sea. "I think it's best for you to leave her. She never keeps relationships going and she can't treat people correctly. She get's it off her father!"

Hannah got up and walked away. Ice thought about her words. Who else, that wasn't comletely up the wall like Steele, could know Tiala as well as herself? He went to find his girl.

"Really? A race dog! How nice!" The female chuckled. The team gathered around her. They were all having a laugh with each other. The girl yanked one of them by the muzzle and kissed him. "Ooooooooooo!" hooted the dogs. Ice walked through the door.

"Tiala!" He shouted. Tiala pulled back from her prisoner and gaped at the sight of Ice. "Ice!"

"Oh. So you can see me?!" He was being very sarcastic. "I suppose these guys just work with you or something?"

"Heh, heh. Um...*tut* ... yeah?"

He growled at her. She was untrustworthy and unreliable. He stormed out of the boiler room, snarling and cursing. A creme and brown dog pricked up his ears. He ran after his brother.

"Ice!" It was Rusty. Ice kept going. Rusty pulled him around and spoke firmly. "I didn't touch her."

"Sure.........." Ice rolled his eyes. "Why don't you go and chat up some woman. I can't trust her because she was with you." Ice paused. "I'll Kill You!"

The two huskies rolled on the snow. Ice had gone insane. Rusty had no choice but to get involved in his brother's attacking. Ice ripped into his neck. Rusty let out a whimper of pain. He tried to run, but Ice got him by the leg. He pulled back and heard a crunch. He'd gone to far (excuse the pun). The huskies and Malamutes were at the door.

"Rust-I-Sty-Ice!" There was a mixture of barkings, most of them for Rusty. He reacted to their chants. Rusty dug his claws into Ice, let go of his leg and flipped him over. Ice lay panting on his back. He kept snuffing and spitting out blood. Rusty pinned him down and stood over his brother with pleading eyes to stop. For a moment the two of them froze, probably remembering the good times, when they were young and loved each other. Rusty became drained of his anger and eased