“Do you see what I see?”

Kodi squinted through the falling snow and could just barely make out a light in the distance.

“That’s… that’s a light!”

“That’s gotta be him,” Balto said.

He and Kodi sprinted toward the light.

Balto and Kodi stopped when they saw where the light was coming from.

Balto couldn’t believe what he was looking at.

“A cave?” Kodi asked.

Balto nodded his head and walked forward.

Kodi for one was glad to get inside the cave, for though it was still mind numbingly cold, the wind didn’t even touch them inside the cave.

Kodi and Balto walked deeper into the cave.

Balto stopped and howled.

“Ar-ar-arwooo-oo.”

The sound echoed off of the cave walls.

Balto listened….. and heard nothing.

He turned to Kodi as he walked into the next chamber.

“I don’t know if he’s here or not, most humans would respond to something like that.”

Kodi followed after his father.

“Either that or they’d get a…. GUN!” Kodi suddenly yelled.

“He jumped forward, landing on top of his father just as a loud BooM! echoed through the chamber.

Kodi rolled off of Balto and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

He didn’t move.

The pilot holstered his weapon, and tried to stand up, but fell. He settled for crawling toward Balto.

He leaned against the cave wall.

Balto opened his eyes.

He’d shut them when he saw the man there with the pistol pointed right at his face!

He saw Kodi and walked over to him.

Kodi didn’t move.

“Oh no,” Balto thought, “is he?”

He walked over and sniffed his son.

“Balto?” The pilot asked, “how’d you get out here, how’d you know?”

He crawled over and sat beside Kodi.

“Darn this stupid leg.” He said.

“I came after you, to save you, and you shot my son.” Balto thought. “Maybe I should have listened to Kodi, and let you freeze to death.”

He looked over at Kodi, who still hadn’t moved.

“Maybe then my son would still be… alive.”

“Gosh, I’m awfully sorry Balto,” the man said, “but you look just like a… well I thought you were a wolf.”

He stretched his hand out towards Kodi.

A variety of emotions ran through Balto at breakneck speed.

“What, it isn’t enough that you killed him.” Balto thought.

He growled at the human.

“Take it easy boy,” the human said. He reached into jacket pocket and withdrew some more of the jerky.

“Here ya go,” he said.

The pilot threw the jerky at Balto.

Balto sniffed it and stopped growling.

“There you go boy.” The man said.

Balto pushed the jerky away with his nose, and started growling again.

“Listen boy,” the pilot said, “I flew in World War one with the RAF, and us pilot’s have to know a little about first aid. If you let me I just might be able to help him.”

“Help?” Balto thought.

He stopped growling and stepped back.

“Huh, that’s odd,” The pilot said, as he scooted over to Kodi. “It’s almost like you actually understood me.”

He looked at Balto.

“But I guess that’s pretty silly huh boy?”

He looked at Kodi’s shoulder.

“I think he’ll be alright,” the pilot said, taking off the white scarf around his neck.

He wrapped the scarf tightly around Kodi.

The scarf was big enough to go around Kodi twice.

“There we are,” the man said.

He leaned back and laid down.

“I tell you Balto,” he said, “reminds me of hat dogfight over France. Yes sir”

He took a sip from the canteen at his side.

“Bullet came right through the plane and hit me in the knee, then a few shot’s later, that German bugger shot me down.”

He sighed.

“That was an awful fight, yes sir.”

The pilot’s eyes took on a blank stare, as if he were in a far away land only he could see.

“Yes sir, terrible day.”

Balto walked over and nudged Kodi, who had yet to move a muscle.

“Don’t worry about ‘im, he’ll be alright.” The man said.

As if on cue, Kodi coughed and opened his eyes.

Balto stood up and walked over to him.

“Kodi, you’re alright?! You’re not… you’re not dead!”

“Last time I checked,” Kodi responded.

He winced.

“Dad, what happened?”

He winced again.

“My shoulder hurts, bad.”

“Yeah well you got shot.” Balto said. “Probably saved my life.”

He smiled at Kodi.

“But don’t ever do it again. You almost gave me a heart attack.”

Kodi smiled, and then winced again.

“I think you can be assured of that…. Wow, this really hurts.”

The man watched the two dogs interact, glad that he hadn’t killed the one that he shot.

He looked down at his leg.

“Well, boy,” he said, “wonder how I’m getting out of here. I’m obviously not walking.”

He thought for a moment, as Kodi climbed to his feet.

The man snapped his fingers.

“I’ve got it!”

He grabbed a small piece of metal off of the floor of the cave.

“I used this to sled down that hill, don’t know why I brought it in here, but it worked pretty good.”

He pulled a knife out of its sheath at his side, and stuck the point into the thin metal.

Soon he had two holes carved into one end of the metal.

“It used to be the cargo door to the plane., but it’ll work.”

He dug around in the pack on his back, and found a long length of rope.

He threaded the rope into the holes, and then made a makeshift harness out of the end of it.

“Come on boy, you know the way to Nome,” he said, “take me there, and then we can get your friend there some treatment. He’s fine right now, but he’ll be in trouble if we don’t get him help soon.”

He held the harness out to Balto.

Balto walked over and stepped into it.

The man tightened the rope around Balto’s shoulders.

Then he gently set Kodi on the piece of metal with him.

“Alright…” the man said, “what was it that those musher’s say?”

He thought for a minute.

“Hike!” He said.

Balto started forward.

“Hike! Hike! Hike!” The man shouted, “whoohoo!”

Balto took off, dragging the piece of metal towards Nome.

Chapter 12

Dusty struggled up the next hill.

Her leg gave out on her and she fell down it.

She rolled about fifty feet before sliding to a stop at the bottom.

She stood up, but started coughing so hard she fell back to the snow.

Dusty laid there for a long time before she finally groaned and opened her eyes.

Ice covered her face, and she felt awful.

Though the temperature was far below zero, she was burning up.

“I should’ve listened to Dingo.” She thought. “I’m just going to freeze to death out here, and that’s not going to help Kodi at all.”

She struggled to her feet and took only a few steps before she fell again; that made ten times.

“I… I can’t make it.” She realized. “I’m going to die out here.”

She lifted her head and looked up to the next hill.

It looked impossibly huge to her.

She tried to stand up, but the wind blew her back down.

“I’ll just rest here for a minute,” Dusty thought, “then I’ll try again.”

Then her thought’s became jumbled and she couldn’t even remember her own name.

“What was it again?” She thought. “Dus…Duus…”

Her head sank slowly to the snow.

“No!” Her mind screamed at her, “you can’t go to sleep, not now!”

But she couldn’t resist, and slowly floated off to a warm dark place….

It was midnight when Balto pulled into Nome.

He pulled the sled down the road until he came to Main Street, then he turned right.

Four buildings down Main Street, right in front of the hospital, Balto stopped.

He shrugged off the rope harness and looked back at the human; Kodi was asleep in his lap.

Balto ran up the porch and started to scratch on the door.

No one came to answer it.

Balto saw an open window on the first floor, and jumped through it.

Soon the pilot saw a light come on upstairs, and heard Balto bark.

In a few minutes, the doctor appeared downstairs.

“Balto!” He said, “you’ve done it again.”

The doctor walked over to the pilot.

“How’re you doing sir?”

“Well,” the pilot responded, “I’d feel a whole lot better if it wasn’t for this darn leg.’

“Yeah,” the doctor said, “it looks broken.”

The doctor helped the man up, and the two of them started up the steps.

The pilot stopped and turned around.

“Wait,” he said, “we need to get the red one some help.”

The pilot looked at the ground.

“I kinda accidentally shot him.

“You shot Kodi?” The doc asked.

“I thought his friend, Balto was a wolf. I shot at him, but that one jumped in front of him.”

Well let’s see what I can do,” the doc