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A new moon darkened every corner of Nome as Balto walked its
alleyways, waiting for Jenna to meet him. He did not know why he had suddenly thought of the choice he had made,
but she deserved to know, too. After
all, Shadow was her son as well as his. Balto was still comprehending his thoughts when the crunch of snow
behind him broke the night's silence. Jenna slowly walked around the corner, her golden eyes almost shining in
the darkness.
"Hi, Balto," Jenna said in her gentle voice. "What was it you wanted to talk about,
and why at night?" Balto replied:
"I wanted to come at this time because Shadow's always asleep by now, and
I didn't want him to know about this. I'm going to tell him soon anyway, but I
wanted you to know first." The
curious look in Jenna's eyes spoke for her instead of her voice, and Balto
continued: "I think we need to send Shadow away from Nome for now. For his own good." "How is that for his own good, if he's
so happy here? I mean, he knows how to take care of himself," Jenna inquired. "Actually, that's the exact reason I
think he needs to go for now," Balto replied; "He only knows what to
do here because we tell him what to do. I think he needs to learn to fend for himself." There was a short silence, penetrated only
by Jenna moving her paws in the snow.
"You know how Shadow is probably going to take this, right?” said
Jenna. "Yes, I've thought the
whole thing through: if he can't protect himself, he’s free to come back here. I don't like the fact that he's so dependent
on us, but I don't want him to die learning how to act on his own,"
Balto replied. "And who knows,
maybe he'll be fine by himself." "I guess you're right," said
Jenna; "It's just a bit odd; I mean, when Aleu left, you went out to
rescue her. Now you want your son to do
the same thing, to run away?" "Yeah, pretty much. I guess
we'll tell him tomorrow, and see how it goes," Balto responded. "Come on, I'll walk you home; let's not
let Rosie worry about you too much."
The next morning, Jenna stood in the same alleyway, her son Kodi sitting by her
side. "It seems like it's been
hours, huh?” asked Kodi; "I wonder what's taking them?" A few more minutes passed before Balto
rounded the corner before looking behind him. "Come on, Shadow," he said in an encouraging tone; "If
Sylvie and Dixie haven't seen you yet, they're probably nowhere near
us." Jenna and Kodi chuckled to
themselves; Sylvie and Dixie always fell head over heels for Shadow, along with
many of the other females who had been previously in love with Steele. If those two had seen him, they would be all
over him. Seconds later, Jenna's other
son emerged behind his father, the falling snow leaving white spots all over his
blood-red and charcoal-gray fur. Even
though she had seen him so many times, Jenna was still amazed at Shadow's size;
he was about twice as large as Kodi and Balto, and his long tail was dragging
on the ground behind him for nearly three feet. "Hi Mom," he said sleepily; "Hey Kodi." Kodi
nodded happily at his brother.
"So, what's going on?" inquired Shadow, shaking the snow off of
him. Kodi looked uncomfortably at his
mother, who in turn looked at Balto in an awkward silence. "Well..."
Balto paused, thinking of how he should tell Shadow. He knew Shadow was staring down at him, and had the feeling that
his son knew what was going on. "We think you need to learn how to live life by yourself, like your
sister, so I think you need to leave Nome for awhile." He looked up, and saw Shadow indeed staring
down at him, his golden eyes reflecting the sunlight. Oddly enough, although Shadow had the same eyes that gave Jenna
such a gentle appearance, they made him look very intimidating. Balto was definitely intimidated right now,
temporarily forgetting what he was going to say next: "If you don't think
you can live by yourself, you're welcome to come back, but I want you to at
least try," he continued. Another
uncomfortable silence passed. Jenna
seemed to be in a trance, watching Shadow inadvertently stare Balto down. She glanced over at Kodi, who was staring
sadly at the ground; Jenna had never thought about how Kodi would react when he
would learn that his brother, the only sibling of his that had not gone off to
lead another life, would have to leave.
"Okay, I guess I'll try," Shadow said; "I probably will end up
coming back, though." "That's fine, just try to see how you do for at
least a few days," said Balto, looking down again so that no one could see
the guilt in his eyes. He closed them,
and listened to see what would happen next. However, he could not believe what he heard at first: Shadow's heavy
footsteps were slowly dying away behind Balto, until all he could hear was the
sound of Jenna and Kodi walking towards him. Balto turned around and opened his eyes, and saw Shadow leaving the
alleyway towards the large stretch of land leading towards Nome's
outskirts. The three remaining members
of the family slowly followed until they reached the edge of the city. "Do you think he'll be okay?” asked
Jenna. "I hope so, he's strong enough. He just needs to keep a cool head,"
replied Balto. Kodi lay down in the
snow beside his parents. "Bro,
please come back someday," he muttered as they watched Shadow's large
figure disappear into the distance.
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