what is your cargo, when you run I mean?”

Dusty laughed.

“You sure have a lot of questions. I’m on the mail team that delivers mail from White Mountain to Nome.”

“The mail team.” Kodi said.

“Yeah, listen, I’ve got to go get ready, we’re leaving soon, but it was nice talking to you, maybe we’ll see each other again sometime.”

“You can count on that.” Kodi thought.

“Yeah, well it was nice talking to you too.” Kodi responded.

“Bye,” Dusty said, as she turned and ran off.

“Bye…” Kodi said.

He watched her run away.

“Forget Hyler,” Kodi thought, “Dusty.”

Kodi resumed walking down the sidewalk.

“The mail team…..”

As Kodi finished this flashback, his eyes filled with tears.

“God I’m gonna miss you,” He thought.

Kodi’s mind flashed through all of the times they had spent together since he joined the team.

From that first meeting to the sled wreck, to… to….

“What did I say?” He thought.

Then it came to him.

“I don’t want to even see you when I get back.”

“Oh Dusty,” Kodi said aloud, “I didn’t mean it. I was just… stupid, wrong, among other things.”

Kodi walked past her empty bed, and to his own.

He laid down and closed his eyes.

He sat there for about five minutes, trying to get to sleep.

His eyes snapped open

“Who am I kidding,?” He thought, “I can’t just sit here.”

Kodi got up and walked out of the shed.

Dingo was on his way home, and decided to swing by the shed and see how his brother was doing.

He saw Kodi walk out of the shed and decided to go talk to him.

“Hey Kodi, you alright?”

Kodi didn’t say anything, just started to walk away.

“Kodi?” Dingo said, as he walked over to him.

Kodi stopped and turned to Dingo.

“I…. I’m going after her.”

“Kodi,” Dingo said, “I thought we talked about this, and that we decided that you’d stay.”

“If I do, she’ll die.” Kodi said.

“Kodi,” Dingo said.”

He looked at the ground.

“She probably is anyway.”

He looked back up at his brother.

“Please go back inside, look up.”

Kodi did.

“Those are clouds that are here to stay for a while. Kodi, you go out there, and you probably won’t find her, and… and you won’t make it back.”

Kodi looked back down at his brother.

“Dingo, probably isn’t a chance I’m willing to take.”

He started to walk away.

“Kodi, but… but the odds must be… must be at least a million to one.”

“That’s fine with me; she’s got a chance then doesn’t she?” Kodi said.

Dusty watched as Kodi picked up speed and ran away from him, headed for the edge of town.

Kodi was freezing.

It was so cold out here.

He struggled against the wind to climb the next hill.

“I hope Dingo is wrong.” He thought.

But in his heart he knew that his brother was right, Dusty couldn’t have survived long in this.

He tried not to think about it as he reached the top of the hill, and saw many, many more like it.

He stopped.

“This is going to kill me,” he thought.

He looked up at the clouds.

Dingo was right, they were here to stay.

The dark clouds were currently dumping torrents of snow on the frozen plains.

Kodi sighed.

If he was going to find her it’d have to be soon.

He started down the hill, grunting with the effort each step against the howling wind took, hoping desperately that Dingo was wrong.

Kodi struggled onward.

He’d almost reached the top of the hill he was climbing, it seemed like the thousandth one, but it was probably only the hundredth, either way Kodi was starting to wonder how long he was going to be able to keep doing this. It must be morning by now, but with all the clouds it was still dark outside. The snow hadn’t even slackened up, if anything it was snowing harder now.

Kodi found out the answer to his question as he reached the top of the hill.

He fell, and rolled head over tail down the hill.

Kodi slid a few feet before he stopped.

The wind blew and he shivered.

“I can’t keep going like this,” he thought.

He tried to stand and fell again.

“Maybe I can’t go at all.”

Kodi started to feel warm, and the edges of his vision got blurry.

He felt so tired.

“No,” he thought, “can’t go to sleep.”

He struggled to his feet, and fell twice more, before he finally made it to the base of the next hill.

“Gotta keep going,” he thought.

Chapter 14

Dusty was drifting in and out of consciousness.

She didn’t know how long she had been out here.

The first time she’d fallen, she thought she’d been out for a day or more, but she’d fallen and passed out many times since then, trying to get home.

Somehow she knew; she wouldn’t be getting up again.

This last fall had been her last, and she was through.

Her vision was all blurry, and she could barley make out the blowing snow right in front of her face, much less anything around her.

She could no longer hear the blowing wind, or anything for that matter.

She’d just begun to close her eyes for the last time, when she saw a red shape stumble out of the blowing snow in front of her.

Her thoughts were all jumbled, and didn’t make any sense.

“What was his name…” she thought, “Ko…. Ki… Kodi!”

Her eyes started to close.

“No,” she screamed at herself, “not now, that’s Kodi, and he’s here to…”

But she was unable to keep them open any longer, and her vision became a comforting blackness.

Kodi stumbled forward.

He’d fallen more times than he could count, or cared to, but each time, the thought of Dusty , alive out here somewhere, got him going again.

He peered through the snow in front of him, and saw a lump of snow… with gray ears!

“Dusty!” He thought.

He got up and half crawled, half ran to her side.

She wasn’t moving, and she was covered with snow.

All the tiredness left Kodi’s body then, and he knelt down and nudged her.

She still didn’t move.

He licked her muzzle, it was so cold.

Still… nothing.

“Oh no,” he thought “what if... what Dingo was right, what if she’s….”

He hung his head and turned away.

“I’m sorry Dusty,” he thought, “I’m too late, and… and this is all my fault.”

“I’ve got to head home,” he thought, but at the same time, he knew that he wouldn’t make it.

“I’ve got to try… I didn’t think I could make it here.”

He started to walk away, and then stopped and turned.

Was that…. a cough?

Dusty opened her eyes.

She was alive!

Kodi ran over to her, and fell, rolling past her. He crawled up beside her.

“Dusty?” He said.

She coughed again, and when she spoke, her words were slurred, and Kodi had to listen very carefully to make them out.

“Ko… Kodi? I feel…. so... hot, and… and tired…”

Then her head fell back to the snow, and she stopped speaking.

“It wasn’t much,” Kodi thought, “but she’s alive!”

He looked around, but all he saw was snow covered hills in all directions.

“Now if only I can keep both of us that way.”

He bit the collar around Dusty’s neck, and started to drag her up the hill.

Balto woke up and walked to the window.

He’d stayed at Jenna’s ever since Dingo had come and told them that Kodi had run off.

He was waiting for the snow to stop falling, so he could out and look for Kodi.

He smiled when he saw what was outside…. sunlight!

Then his smile faded.

It had been two weeks since Kodi and he had brought the pilot back.

“I… I wonder if Kodi is even… alive?” Balto asked himself.

Even knowing the great possibility that Kodi wasn’t… alive, he still had to go out and look.

“He’s my son,” Balto thought.

He walked over and woke up Jenna, who was sleeping by the wall.

“Good morning Jen,” Balto said.

She smiled and yawned.

“Good morning Balto,” Jenna said.

“Jenna,” Balto said, “I’ve got to go.”

Jenna stood up.

“What? Go where?”

“Jen, it’s… it’s stopped snowing, and I have to go to look for Kodi.”

Jenna sighed.

“Balto… it’s been so long, I…”

I know Jenna,” Balto said, “but the storm is over, and it is safe now. He’s…. he’s my son.”

Jenna smiled.

“And mine too. Okay Balto, but… be careful.”

She nuzzled him and then Balto turned and walked out the door.

Jenna followed him, but stopped once she got outside.

Balto turned and smiled at her, then started walking away, then he stopped.

“Is that…”

“Kodi?!” Jenna

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