somewhere......sometime.... Aniu felt something was missing, that something should have happened, but she couldn't remember what. Aniu suddenly realized why she was running. She was running to escape something, but.......what? Aniu looked around her. She had no idea where she was. She decided to keep on running from whatever she was running from. Aniu somehow knew it was horrible and powerful. Then, Aniu thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. There was her mate, standing a little way ahead. He had gone off somewhere and never come back. Aniu tried to stop, but found that she couldn't. "No! Come back!" she shouted when the dog faded away as she kept running. Aniu started to cry. She then turned her attention to the land ahead. For the first time, she noticed it was rocky, barren and deserted. All of that lifeless rock stretching away before her sent a shiver down her spine. Then she saw that there was something alive ahead. It was gray, and as she got close to it she realized it was a puppy. A small puppy, and very familiar. It was her son! She had lost him to a big storm, just before the famine. Aniu tried with all her strength to stop, but she couldn't." As he,  too, began to fade away, she cried out, ''Balto! No! Wait......!'' Aniu began to cry harder. She ran a long time. Then, another wolf came into sight. She was all white, just like Aniu. Ania! Aniu didn't even bother trying to stop. She just shouted, "Ania! Are you okay?'' as Ania began to fade away. Almost immediately, Aniu saw a lot of wolves in a clump. It was her pack! She howled to them, and they responded. Then, not surprisingly, they faded away as well, their howls still ringing in the air. Suddenly, two more wolves appeared ahead. Luna and Tundra! As Aniu rushed passed them, Luna said, "You're running from greif, Aniu." Her voice echoed ominously. Then everything dissolved into blackness.

Aniu woke up, shaking. She realized that she had been crying in her sleep. She stood up. Aniu thought she might be able to catch something to eat if she could find it. She began to walk slowly northward. As she walked, she refleceted on the dream. What Luna had said was true. Aniu had been running from grief all her life, but in a different way than she had been running in the dream. When she lost her mate, when he disappeared, she had been so sad, so lonely, that she had not thought of him, ever, until now. Aniu realized that with all she had lost, she had never thought about any of that greif, that terrible misery. Aniu looked ahead. She realized that she had been so preoccupied in her thoughts that she had failed to look where she was going. Aniu had no idea where she was. She stopped and smelled the air. She smelled salt. Aniu realized she must be near the ocean. Aniu began to run. She suddenly stopped. She smelled goose. Aniu creeped along slowly. She came to a clearing, and in it was the goose. Aniu leaped on the goose. It screamed. "Aughhhhhhh! Don't kill me, please.'' the goose begged in a Russian accent. ''I've got to look after a puppy! He's out playing! My name's Boris! I beg of you, don't eat me!" Aniu let curiosity take over. She let Boris go and said, "You're looking after a puppy? Where are its parents?" Boris sighed. "Dead," he replied, "Dead, or gone away, or searching for him." Aniu thought of Balto, her own lost pup, and said "Well, I hope you find his mother." Aniu walked away from the goose, looked over her shoulder, and said, "Goodbye, and I'm sorry I almost attacked you." Boris smiled, and replied, "Don't worry! After all, if I hadn't been looking after that pup you would've eaten me!" Aniu smiled back, and broke into a run. She had run for only a minute when she met someone else: two polar bears. One seemed incapable of talking, and it seemed the other one did his talking for him. "Hi!" the smaller one said. Aniu was taken aback at their bravery. "Umm, Hello,'' she replied, stunned. The polar bear who had spoken to her before said, "I'm hungry, and he says he is, too, so we'd better go. 'Bye!" They ran off. Aniu smiled to herself. She had a feeling that she was going to have an interesting day. She walked out into the open, and saw two puppies. One was black, and one was reddish. The black one was bullying the red one pretty badly, so Aniu walked out and said, " Why are you bullying her?" She said this almost in a growl. The black pup took no notice until Aniu snarled. He took one look at her and raced into town. The red pup sat up and said, "Thanks. That pup's name is Steele, and my name is Jenna. He can be very mean." Aniu smiled. She was again surprised. She had expected Jenna to run after Steele. "My name is Aniu. I have been wondering: what is the name of the town that we are near." Jenna looked up at Aniu, and said, "We are near Nome. You must not be from around here." Then, Aniu heard a man yelling, "Jenna! Come on, girl!" Jenna ran off, and said without turning her head, "'Bye! Thanks!" She raced into town. Aniu began to run. She ran for a very long time. It became dark, and she still didn't stop. Aniu ran until dawn, and then finally stopped. She curled up under a overhanging rock, and fell asleep.

The next morning Aniu woke up starving. She hadn't eaten since the-day-before-yesterday! Aniu got up, stretched, and walked into a forest that she had seen the day before. She knew prey was plentiful, and it did not take her long to catch a rabbit. She scarfed it down and knawed on the bones for a few minutes. Then, she walked further in to the forest. It was very dark and wet. Aniu did not like it. She was going to walk out, when she heard a stick crack behind her. Aniu froze and slowly looked behind her. She saw something shiny and round. A barrel of a gun! Aniu jumped and ran. She heard gunshots behind her, and a bullet whizzed overhead. A second later, she the whizz of a bullet beside her. Aniu ran faster. The man wouldn't be able to keep up with her. But then a well shot bullet hit Aniu in her side. She fell. The man walked up to her. She growled, but felt pain shooting through her body. She dragged herself to her feet, and before the man could do any thing, she lunged. A second later, his coat was torn and his arm bleeding badly. The man picked up his gun. He wasn't going to give up easily, either. Aniu tried to run away, but she was too weak. The man got his gun ready and  shot. The bullet barely missed Aniu. She new that if she couldn't run, she would be history. Then, the man shot again. This time, the bullet hit. Aniu fell a second time. This time, she didn't get up. She felt the pain course through her all over again, but this time it was worse than she thought possible. Aniu bit the man's leg. She bit harder than she had ever bit before. She saw the man fall. Blood gushed out of his leg. Aniu guessed (correctly) that she had hit an artery. As Aniu died, she knew she had been a true wolf, fighting for her life until the end.