at him and walked off. I hung back because I thought he’d be depressed, but he wasn’t, he was mad.”

She tried to whistle, but collapsed into a fit of coughing.

“Man he was steamed. He was disappointed that everyone else, especially Duke, our lead, took their job so lightly, that they wouldn’t want to improve.”

Balto laughed.

“That sounds like Kodi alright.”

Dusty coughed and nodded.

“Well, I thought that Kodi seemed like a nice guy, and I didn’t want him to think that no one on the team cared, so I told him I’d meet him there in the morning.”

“Well how’d it go?” Balto asked.

Dusty coughed again and smiled.

“It was one of the best weekends I’ve ever spent. Without the team there, we couldn’t really practice, we did, we practiced starting and stopping, because as you probably know Balto, a lot of time can be lost doing those badly.”

Balto nodded.

Dusty continued.

“We also ran the route, from here to White Mountain, and he even found a faster way through some woods we always went around, thinking it was too dense, but mostly we just talked, we talked a lot, and I found that I liked him, I liked him a lot.”

Balto smiled.

“He’s a good guy.”

Dusty smiled back at him.

“Yes he is. He told me then that he wanted to be lead, and somehow, I knew he would be someday. When I asked him why, he didn’t give the response I thought he would. I thought he would, from his actions, answer that he wanted to improve the team, and he does, but he said it was because he wanted to live up to the reputation you had. He feels that he’s constantly under pressure because people and dogs look at him, but they see you.”

“Well he does a good job,” Balto said. “He’s a good kid, now when he was a pup, whew, that’s a different story entirely.”

“Oh come on,” Dusty said, “you’re not going to tell me that Kodi was a bad pup are you?”

Balto smiled.

“Bad, no, mischievous, vindictive, yes.”

“Kodi?” Dusty asked.

Balto laughed.

“It doesn’t show now, thank goodness, but there for a while, I was worried about him.”

Balto sighed, remembering the time when his pups had been around.

“It seemed like Jenna was always bringing him and one of his siblings to the boat, to talk to me, because they had gotten in a fight, and it was usually Kodi’s fault. Aleu he didn’t mess with, she’d kick his tail, and he knew it, as did all the others, she was special. She inherited more of me than her mother.”

Dusty interrupted him.

“Aleu… now she’s the one that heads up a wolf pack up north, right?”

Balto nodded and continued. “But everyone else Kodi picked on, especially Dingo.”

“Dingo?” Dusty asked.

She coughed again.

“I wouldn’t have guessed that. They seem to be pretty close.”

Balto nodded.

“They are now, but when they were little… see Dingo is nice, maybe too nice, he seems to let people walk all over him.”

“Yeah, I met him once, he came in here looking for Kodi. He seemed like a sweet, gentle kind of guy to me.”

“He is,” Balto said, “but thanks to Kodi, he can roll with the best of them.”

“Kodi seems a little dangerous to me.” Dusty said.

“And why is that?” Balto asked.

“He’s so into everything, sometimes I think that if I ever tried to do anything that would hurt the team that he’d hurt me, even as good a friends as we are, he’s still got a bit of that… mean streak you were talking about in him.”

Balto nodded.

“At first glance, it may seem that he’s obsessed, but he’s harmless. He’s just really into everything he does, I don’t think he’d hurt anyone, unless they attacked him, it’d surprise me anyway.”

Dusty started to say something, but hesitated.

She coughed and looked around uneasily for a moment.

“Can I ask you something Balto?”

“Sure, go ahead.” Balto asked.

“I haven’t pursued a relationship with Kodi because I felt that I’d have to compete with the mail team, and I don’t want to have to do that. I’ve been in a bad relationship before, and I don’t want to go there again, it’s no good for anyone involved, do you think…”

Her voice trailed off.

“I don’t think that would be a problem,” Balto said, “you said that Kodi was semi-obsessive about things, well he’s that way about everything he’s into.”

Balto smiled.

“Kodi was involved in a relationship once, but that was a while ago, and it was more of a puppy love thing too, but he was ready to move in with her. One day she ended it, went with another guy, didn’t even tell him personally, but told me and asked me to pass it on to Kodi.”

Dusty coughed again.

“Wow, that ‘s not very good.”

Balto shook his head.

“No, but I didn’t think it’d be a big problem, as you found out, puppy love often ends that way, I was lucky enough to stay with Jenna, but that rarely happens. Well, when I told him, you’d have thought I’d just told him that his mom died or something. For a while there I seriously thought he might try to kill himself. That’s when he discovered the mail team, and started training for it.”

Balto smiled.

“I ran with him for eight hours everyday, we ran down at the beach by the boat because he thought the sand would get him stronger, something I’d never thought of, and he was right, it did. Just before he tried out, he pulled an entire sled ten miles by himself.”

“By himself?” Dusty asked.

Balto smiled and nodded.

“When we started he said he would before he tried out for your team, and I should have known that he would, he’s extremely good on his word, but I’d never seen anyone that was able to do that before. It nearly killed him, but he did it anyway, and wouldn’t stop. I asked him to, in fact pleaded with him to stop, but he just kept going. When we finally got back to the boat and unhooked him, he could barely walk. It was the happiest I’ve ever seen him. I had to help him walk up the ramp to the boat. He wasn’t happy about that, but he kept falling. He went to sleep, and the next day he tried out for and made your team.”

“Wow,” Dusty said, “I knew he was dedicated, but I never thought he’d do something like that.”

“Well,” Balto said, “let me tell you something about Kodi. Anything, and I mean anything that he tells you or anyone else that he will do, he will do, or die trying.”

Dusty coughed a few times, looked down at the ground, and then back up at Balto.

She smiled.

“He’s a great guy.”

Balto nodded.

“Yes he is.”

Balto looked out the window behind Dusty.

“Well Dusty, it’s getting late, so I’m going to get out of here and let you get some rest, that’s probably the best way to get rid of whatever bug you have picked up.”

“Probably,” Dusty said, “though the Doc has me on some medicines that taste just awful.”

She laughed.

Balto laughed with her.

“Well, keep taking them, the team is going to need you when they get back.”

“I know,” Dusty said.

Balto looked at her for a moment, and a serious look came over his face.

“Kodi will need you when they get back. I have to tell you, that it would surprise me… well that flying machine is just too fast. I mean, I want them to win, but… but we don’t always get what we want.”

Dusty nodded.

Balto smiled.

“Hey, when they get back, you need any help setting something up with Kodi, a good word, a hint?”

Dusty laughed.

“I think I can take care of it Balto,” she said.

Balto laughed also.

“Take care of yourself Dusty,” he said, as he turned and walked out of the shed.

“You too,” Dusty said.

After Balto had left, Dusty realized that she was very tired. She laid down, and soon was asleep.

Chapter 6

Kodi struggled to the top of the next hill.

It had started to snow, and snow hard yesterday afternoon, about five hours after they had left. The team hadn’t stopped running since.

He was tired, but happy.

They were making much better time than they ever had, and the team was giving it’s all.

“Kodi, we’ve got to stop.” A female named Light, the one who had replaced Dusty, said.

Kodi turned around to her as he was running. “No, White Mountain is just over that hill, we’re almost there, there’s no way I’m stopping now.”

The team came up over the hill, and Kodi could barely make out the town of White Mountain down below, through the snow.

Soon the team pulled onto Main Street, and pulled up to a stop in front of the post office.

The postman came out with the bag mail that they were to deliver to Nome.

“I’m kinda surprised that you guys got here.” The postman said. “I figured you’d set up a shelter and wait out the storm.”

Mr. Harrme shook his head.

“Can’t do that, I’ve got to beat that plane, sleddings the only thing I know how to do.”

“You better get moving if