Hokee continued to stare at Achak for quite a long time, before looking away to think harder. What should he do? Did they expect him to answer now? Achak probably wanted to be on his way, so poor Hokee felt pretty rushed. But he just didn't know what to do.

On one hand he had a family of wolves who went through so much to take care of him and accept him. He even started feeling like Achak's son for the first time...

On the other hand, he had his real father, someone he had been yearning to meet his entire life. Someone who would take care of him no matter what. He even had new friends here. And the humans would take care of him too...

But the pack helped him when he was sick. And he had old friends there who he loved very much. But he almost didn't last at that time... What could he do? What should he do?

Balto wanted to speak, but for now just watched, between glances at Achak, and the young Hokee who clearly looked unsure about answering. But who could blame the poor pup when his alpha was staring at him expectantly with sharp blue eyes. With a sympathetic sigh, the hybrid's maroon eyes glanced then to that of his blonde friend Kaltag beside him, who was surprisingly quiet, watching as well, but glanced back at Balto with a small smile at the look. But then suddenly the Chinook's head shot up, ears going erect, grinning.

"Hey, I just thought of a great idea! Its the greatest, the most stupendous--"

"Kaltag. We get it." The brown hybrid chuckled, snapping the dog out of his ranting.

"Right, right. So, how about Hokee stay a few days here in town and get to know things? That way, he can have the time to decide, and have some fun." The blonde, brown patched chinook glanced to Balto first, who thought about it briefly, before smiling.

"I think you've got a plan there. He'll be safe with all of us in town, the humans and all the dogs. I'm sure he'd make a lot of friends too. That way you and Hokee could get to know each other some more as well." Both then looked to Achak, followed by Hokee.

Hokee seemed to like the idea. That way he'd have more time to think things over himself. "Is that... okay, Achak?"

The wolf looked from Balto to Hokee when he spoke, gave a light sigh, and nodded. The pack would be wondering where he would be if he were a day or two late, but then again they did make good time getting to Nome in the first place. It was for the best.

Hokee smiled and felt he had to restrain himself from nuzzling Achak in thanks. Balto smiled as well at him.

"Well, that's that!" Kaltag replied, looking down at his son. "Are you ready for your first tour of the town, Hokee?" The pup wagged his tail and yipped in affirmation, and the two made their way down the plank and towards the town.

Achak watched the two go, with a rather emotionless face, then turned to Balto who was staring at him. They had a staring contest for a few moments before Balto offered to catch him some fish to eat.

At that the wolf snorted. "I can catch my own meal." he stated, turning then towards the water to do so. He'd caught fish plenty of times before. The alpha did not need another to feed him, and a hybrid at that.

~~~

Hokee was so excited, he didn't know what to do with himself as they made the walk to Nome, running around, through Kaltag's legs, seeming to be full of energy again. He'd never been in a town before! He wondered what he'd see there. Maybe he should ask?

"What's in a town? Are there other dogs?" all Hokee had known before this was the pack and wolves. Such a different life style than what he was about to be introduced to.

Kaltag gave Hokee a tour of the place like he said he would, giving every little detail about every dog and place, and Hokee grasped every word. This place was incredible, and all of the dogs seemed so friendly. There were even a few his own age.

"Hey, Kaltag!" called a rather nasally high-pitched voice. Hokee turned his head and saw a lanky grey dog with huge blue eyes. Coming up next to him was a pudgey brown dog.

"Hey Nikki, Star!" Kaltag said, smiling rather proudly next to Hokee.

"Who's this familiar looking kid?" Nikki asked, smirking. Just then from behind Nikki peeked a red and brown husky pup that caught Hokee's eye. He looked older than Hokee, but appeared just as friendly as the other dogs. The two boys wagged their tails.

"This is Hokee, guys. Believe it or not, he's my son!"

Star and Nikki looked at Kaltag in surprise, then to each other, and then to Hokee. They both seemed equally as happy as they were astonished at this coincidence.

Kaltag took a deep breath. This would definitely need some explaining, but now wouldn't be the best time. He'd tell Hokee about his mother when it was more appropriate. "Why don't we all go to the boiler room and I'll explain it there." Kaltag suggested.

Along the way, Hokee decided to make himself acquainted with the older pup. He wondered why they shouldn't be friends seeing as his own father and the pup's father were friends too.

"I'm Hokee!" he introduced as the adults walked behind them. "What's your name?"

"I'm Summer." the pup said, smiling. He unofficially took the role of leading everyone to the boiler room. Which was fine by everyone, Summer knew where he was going.

The five dogs were the only ones in the boiler room, thankfully. Kaltag spent most of the time explaining to Nikki what he had explained to Balto and Achak. Star was off playing with the pups and really didn't have the attention span for the whole story anyway.

"That's really somethin', pal." Nikki said.

"I know." Kaltag strugged. "So, Achak decided to give Hokee a few days to decide on what he wants to do."

The husky nodded and paused. "What are you going to do if he decides to go back?"

The chinook frowned as he watched his son play. Deep down, he didn't want to lose the son he'd always wanted. The son he just met and loved. He didn't ever want to give him up. "..I don't know." Being speechless was starting to become a bad habit for the poor dog

Once in the other room, Hokee padded up to Summer again, eager to ask questions. He had to know what it was like here in town with humans and dogs, and what they did and how they lived. It already looked so much different from what the pack did out in the wild.

"Hey, so whats it like living here anyway? What do you do for fun? I've never been near a town until now, I was living out in the forest with my pack.." saying 'his pack' was so common to the blonde pup, he didn't even notice it would probably seem odd and bring up questions for him from the older dog. Which really, he wouldn't mind answering anyway. Hokee loved the pack, everything about it. This place was pretty cool too, just different if anything. "Never been around any dogs either until now... Achak told me Kiona was half dog, but all wild..."

Mention of Kiona made the brown eye-patched hybrid to pause a moment, sighing a bit. It was still hard to remember she was gone...

Summer was pretty confused when Hokee started rambling. He noticed the pup's mood switch at the thought of someone who was obviously close to him, but he changed the subject back to Hokee's questions.

"Well, its nice here. There's lots to do! Me and my friends have fun just running around and playing with the human pups." Summer explained happily.

"Humans have pups?" Hokee asked, hopeful that they were just as fun as Nayeli, Tonrar, and Hinto. Just the same Hokee was starting to feel more at home already.

"Yeah! They're very tall, and like petting us. Whats it like living in a pack? Isn't it scary?"

"Nope! I play with all of the pack, even the adults, when they don't leave us to hunt. But then they bring back a big deer for us to eat. Its really tasty. Tho, it does get pretty cold outside... I got sick once, but I got better!" he assured him. As enthusiastic Hokee was about his life in the pack, it just didn't sound as glamorous as Summer's life in Nome.

To both of them, life as a dog here was very much made, but Hokee still enjoyed living in the wild. Summer said that many of the adult dogs here didn't like playing with pups their age, and that seemed very strange to Hokee. But at least there /were/ plenty of pups their age, and Hokee met a handful of them on the tour. But comparing them to Nayeli, Tonrar, and Hinto, it made him miss them already, even tho he'd only been gone for a couple days.


The remainder of the day was spent playing around town with the other younger dogs, until it was getting dark and they all had to make their ways to their respectable homes. Thankfully the other pups hadn't been too judgmental about his wolf side, only a bit unsure at first. It had been a lot of fun playing the games, some he knew, like hide and seek, to new ones. He could teach them to Hinto, Tonrar and Nayeli when he got back!
Hokee walked with Summer to his home's front door, where his mother was sitting in wait for her son to arrive. She smiled as they walked up.

"Who's your new friend? I don't remember seeing him around..." Summer turned from his parent to Hokee then, smiling.

"Hokee, he's new around here." Hokee smile as the older dog looked to him, his tail wagging a bit.

"Oh, well, welcome to Nome Hokee. I hope you like it so far and make friends." The blonde pup smiled more at that.

"Thanks, I'm already having tons of fun! I should probably be getting back though, someone's waiting for me... goodnight!" Turning, he bounded off down the street. Summer had given him a good tip about finding the boiler room from just about anywhere in town. Just look for the steam rising into the sky.