it." said Kodi. To his relief the snow had calmed and was now only letting down soft snowflakes.

Everyone started to yell in worry and dissaprove. But Kodi wasn't going to be stranded until the ice melted and they were all carried away.

"What about the musher?" asked Kirby. Kodi had forgotten about the musher. But the musher was a very good swimmer, besides, his ice was floating towards shore, and he could find a way around. "Don’t worry about the musher." replied Kodi. "He will be ok."

Once they had all gotten in the water Cliff refused to follow them. "I can’t swim!" he yelled angerly. Cliff and Shorty were only mid-aged pups. But Shorty was a fine swimmer. Cliff just never wanted to have to get out of his warm puppy sweater and train.

"I will go let him on my back." said Dusty. She swam back and balanced so that Cliff could hop on. He wasn't too heavy, in fact, no problem for the muscular female.

Once to shore every dog shook off. Shivering they all decided to find shelter. They all searched and then they came upon a cave. Inside it was warm, and the air was fresh. Not like many other caves.

"They found the best spot on a pile of wood, maybe from where musher’s had collected it for a pit stop during a trip once, and went to sleep.

After their nap they all started discussing how they would get back home. If any lakes, rivers, moose or bears came up during the trip they would be without protection.

But Kodi was ably to urge them on out of the cave. He was a little uneasy too, but not as uneasy as anyone else.

He was wrong about the scents though, he couldn’t recognize one! As soon as a two-way path came along he had no clue where to go.

"Uh..." he sputtered white trying desperately to pick up familiar memory.

"Well?" asked Kirby, "Which way?"

Now he had wished he hadn’t left the musher. What was he thinking? The musher had a map! And now they were also left without food!

Kodi guessed and chose the right side of the path. A ways up the road Kodi got an uneasy feeling of being watched. He stopped and Shorty bumped into his haunches.

"What is your problem?" She grunted. "Nothing....nothing." replied Kodi.

But something was wrong. Suddenly a low deep growl came from behind him, then a roar, then a scream. When he turned around and saw Dusty, she was backing away from a giant brown bear.

Kodi jumped in on its paw and bit it as possibly hard as he could. But it slung him off. He fell to the ground and looked up. Dusty was picked up by the creature. He saw her life flash before his eyes, and he was for sure, she was a goner.

Suddenly Cliff jumped in and bit the animal on the back of the neck. It let out a squeal of pain and released Dusty. But now Cliff had been thrown to the ground, and the creature had lost its balance by stumbling over a tree trunk, it landed on Cliff and snapped his back, a squeal of pain was muffled heard from underneath the bear. Everyone watched in horror, and hen the bear got up, it stumbled off away from the scene.

Everyone crowded around Cliff, and Shorty said in horror, "He's not dead is he? He can't be dead!!" Kodi examined the body and let out a long sorrow sigh.

"I'm sorry Shorty." He replied. She laid down her head on her brother’s lifeless body. Tears streamed down her face.

"You have to move on." said Dusty softly and comforting. Shorty nodded her head still letting tears run, and they started to move on

"Wait! We can't just leave him here!" yelled Shorty. "We have to bring him!"

Everyone looked at each other. Suddenly Dusty spotted a low ever-green tree branch, just the size of the body. She broke it and everyone helped put the limp body on it.

"Now, Kirby didn't bother to take off his halter, because he says he’s 'going to save it when he’s famous so it will go into his museum’." said Dusty. Everyone giggled while Kirby grunted.

Kirby took the back of the halter and tied to the branch.

Dusty giggled and said, "Now you can tell you’re story of how you pulled the branch with a dead dog on it!"

He let out another grunt.

                                                            ***

They made their way through, yet they hadn't gone the wrong way and had to turn around about 100 times. Once they made it out of thick woods one of the harshest blizzards anyone on the team had ever seen started. Snow covered their pelts and they grunted just to take a step. Their heads were down to the ground.

"Were going to have to find shelter!" complained Dusty again. "Were going to keep going!" argued Kodi. Finally Shorty's small body was swept off its feet. Her body was slung over a cliff, and to their relief, she clung to dear life on a branch.

"Hold on Shorty!" yelled Kodi. "We'll get you out of there!"

Shorty couldn't reply otherwise her clinch would let out and she would fall.

They looked around furiously and then Kodi finally said, "Hold onto my tail Ralph!"

"Ok Kodi!" agreed Ralph. He grabbed his friend’s tail and lowered him down. He took shorty's paw and yelled, "Now Dusty you hold onto Ralph, And Kirby hold onto Dusty!" They all did as he said and they tugged, until finally, Kodi and Shorty were to safety.

"Thank you guys!" yelled Shorty. She was very thankful that her friends cared for her enough to risk their lives for hers. "Thank you." she repeated. "Thank you."

                                                                ***

Half way through, but they didn’t know it. They couldn’t tell if they were a quarter, a half, or even a minute away from Nome. The snow was too heavy. The blizzard hadn't gotten better, it had gotten much worse. It had gotten so strong they couldn’t hear their own voice, or see five feet ahead of them.

No body could argue now, no one was laughing and giggling by the bay, they were in a death trap.

Kodi saw no hope for him or his friends. But he knew he had to do it, he knew he had to.

Then he though to himself,

Please! Please help us through! They need us! And if we don't return.....I don’t know what will happened to them....Aleu......Dad.....Mom.......Dingo.....They need me.

Suddenly he felt hope again. He lifted his head and went though the snow like he never knew he could. Then he ran, and the others knew that he had found hope again, they ran too, howling and howling, and now you could hear them. You really could.

                                                     ***

They made it! The howling came to Nome Alaska 10 days later! Every dog ran up howling in excitement and happiness! Then he heard the familiar bark of Aleu!

"Aleu!" he called. "Aleu!!" he ran up to his sister and they barked and had fun. "You did it!" She yelled. "You did it!"

He looked up at the stars.

Yeah....I really did didn't I?

                                                             ***

Well, Cliff was berried and Dingo was sent away, he became a show dog and had a good life, the team continued to deliver mail, but best of all, they all lived happily...forever.