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Shadow
walked through the forest, which was silent except for the snow crunching under
his heavy paws. He did not know how
long it had been since he had left Nome, but he knew that he was very far from
his family now. Why did his father
think he needed to learn to fend for himself? After all, he had proved that he was more than capable of dealing with a
foe in the form of Steele, had he not? What was it that Balto believed he lacked? So many questions rushed through Shadow's head, and he stopped in
his tracks; he had to regain his composure, otherwise he was bound to get
himself into some sort of trouble.
It seemed so much colder in this forest than in Nome. "That's odd", Shadow said quietly to himself;
"there's almost no wind blowing, so why's it so cold here?" Then it hit him; some extremely bad weather
must be heading his way. He sat there
for a moment, pondering where he could go for shelter, when he heard noises
somewhere in the forest, slowly growing louder. He could not tell what sort of animals were coming his way, but
there were probably lots of them. Despite his size, strength, and surprising agility, Shadow knew that
whatever they were, these creatures could easily outnumber and overwhelm him. He also had the feeling that they might be predators. A disturbing thought came to Shadow: What if
he was their prey?
Shadow bolted away from the wind; he was sure that these animals were coming
from that direction. However, the
thought that he was being hunted terrified him, and he lost all sense of where
he was going. Voices seemed to be
coming from everywhere, but they sounded as confused as he was. Nevertheless, Shadow continued to run; he
didn't want to run across the source of the voices, whatever they were.
Shadow had been running for what seemed like ages when he heard footsteps that
were not his. And they were only a few
feet in front of him, behind a row of trees. He could not see what was there, so he tried to stop himself. He skidded those last few feet through the
snow, but he didn't end up looking at a huge creature waiting to strike him
down. He was looking right into the
eyes of a beautiful wolf-dog; he had nearly fallen from slipping on the snow,
so he was level with her as he half-sat, half-laid on the ground. They were
nearly nose-to-nose, and she let out a small gasp as he nearly slid into her.
The hybrid had a coat somewhat lighter than Shadow's. The only spot on her face that was not red was her whole snout,
which was a cream color. She was
roughly the same size as Kodi. For some
reason, she looked so familiar to Shadow. All of a sudden, Shadow had a flashback to when he was a pup. He had been sitting on the boat with his
mother, watching his father play with the rest of the pups. Two of the pups in particular had caught his
eye: His sister, Aleu, and a pup that looked nothing like either of their
parents, dark red with a cream snout. "Hey, watch where you're going, pup! " the hybrid said,
jerking Shadow back to the present; she was baring her teeth at him; "you'll back
off if you know what's good for you," she snarled. "Sorry," Shadow stammered; he had not expected her to be so
aggressive; "it was just an accident." The wolf-dog gave him a cold stare; "well, just make sure you don't do
it again, or you'll be more sorry than you could ever imagine," she said,
turning to leave. She had gone about
twenty feet before Shadow mustered up the courage to speak again after her
threat; "Hey, hang on a second!" Shadow called. The wolf-dog ignored him, continuing on her
way before Shadow remembered her name; Balto and Jenna had told him the names
of all his siblings. "Kiona,
wait!" he called. She stopped
where she stood, and walked quickly back to him; she had a confused expression
on her face, but her hackles were twitching again; "How do you know my
name?" Kiona asked. Shadow paused
for a moment, somewhat flustered under Kiona's stare, which was every bit as
intimidating as his own. "Because
I'm your brother," he replied.
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Kiona was not sure whether or not she should believe what she had just heard; she had spent the first few months of her life in a box with the rest of her siblings, waiting for a new life among humans. She remembered every one of her brothers and sisters, but she could not seem to remember this dog that now stood before her. Whoever he was, he knew her somehow; perhaps he had seen her in the streets back when she lived with humans in Nome? It was a very bold claim to say that he was her brother, but he did know her name somehow, and she was quite sure that only the members of her family knew that. She was not sure what to believe, but something about what he had said began to make her angry.
Shadow was a bit skeptical about his sister's reaction; she was baring her teeth at him again, and he didn't want to risk angering her. "What do you mean, you’re my brother? I've never seen you before in my life," she said. Shadow found himself unable to respond; although she was smaller than him, she was very intimidating. "Answer me!!!” she yelled, leaping at his throat, her jaws wide open. Shadow didn’t see this coming, and was barely able to jump back in time; he felt Kiona's fangs glide through the fur on his chest. However, his hesitation caused him to trip over his long tail as he staggered backwards, and he fell onto his back. He quickly rolled onto his stomach; he saw Kiona rushing at him again, and he didn't want to give her another chance to go for his throat. He closed his eyes, knowing that he was still at the mercy of his sister. He felt her jump across the middle of his back, and then felt a sharp pain as she bit down hard on the scruff of his neck; it worsened when she used her front paw to force his head down to the ground, stretching his skin, and he let out a yelp of pain.
"Answer me, now," Kiona snarled through Shadow's fur; she bit down harder on the scruff of his neck, causing him to snarl in pain. "All right, all right!" he yelped, "our parents' names are Balto and Jenna, you were one of six pups that was being given away, and you all always played with our father on the beach, now please let me go!" he said quickly. Kiona gave a mean sort of chuckle; "hmm, that's almost good enough," she said, releasing Shadow's neck and turning to walk a short distance away. She walked slowly, analyzing how large he was; considering he was about twice her size, she found it funny in a way that she had manhandled him so easily. Perhaps his most outstanding feature was a very long tail, which was about as long as Kiona was in her entirety.
"Well then," she said, turning to face Shadow, who was still cowering on the ground, "if you really are my brother, then you ought to be able to tell me the names of my siblings. And while you're at it, maybe you know why we so rarely saw our mother; something tells me you may have been behind that." Shadow didn't respond; he was apparently still shaken from Kiona's attack. "Oh, we're not going to have to go through this again, are we?" she said in a teasing tone. She pondered ways to make him talk again before getting an idea; she stomped down hard on Shadow's tail with her back leg, prompting another yelp. "Well, are you going to talk?" she asked, pressing down on his tail even harder. "Fine, I’ll tell you, just stop doing that; I've already been hurt there once before!" Shadow cried; "Our siblings' names were Aleu, Kodi, Dingo, and Saba; I was never told the name of the last one. And our mother spent a lot of time taking care of me on the old boat while our father played with everyone else, that’s why you rarely saw her."
Suddenly, Kiona's memories began to rush through her like a flood. She did remember how she and her siblings used to play with their father during the spring. However, her mother was never to be found during that time. Even now, she could vaguely picture this huge dog as a pup, watching over the rest of his family, with Jenna caring for him. And how did he know
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