Wrathpup: Chapter 2: Nome-ward Bound

After some negotiation, time was indeed found for Mika to make a return trip to Nome, Alaska. As it was now the offseason for the NHL, he had a wide window in which to make time for the trip. He had already planned on taking his dog, Karelia, up with him, as that was his birthplace. But the challenge was finding a way for Mika's girlfriend, Rikko, to come along with them. Kevin, Mika and Rikko's roommate, was not able to come due to work-related schedule conflicts that he couldn't get out of, which went on for the whole summer. Fortunately, Rikko was able to squeeze in the vacation time to go up to Nome with her boyfriend, and was excited to go check out this town that Mika had told her so much about.
Mika's oldest brother, Mikko, had agreed to fly them up to Nome, and would be able to stay for a few days before having to fly back to Finland. He, too, had gotten intrigued about the place after hearing Mika's stories about his experiences in Nome, both good and bad. It would be mid-June when he would come over to take Mika, Rikko, and Karelia up to Nome. On the day of their departure, Kevin drove Mika, Rikko, and Karelia to the airport. Sure enough, Mikko was already there, waiting for them with his plane in the hanger.
"Welcome back to the states, bro!" said Mika excitedly after getting out of Kevin's Ford Model T.
"Good to see you again, too," Mikko said back. The brothers hugged upon meeting up by the plane. Mika then went to get his bags out of the trunk of the car. Rikko was already getting her suitcase out of there, as well.
"Hey, Kevin! Good to see you again!" Mikko exclaimed as he walked toward the car.
"Good to see you again, too, Mikko," Kevin responded. They shook hands upon meeting up near the car.
After getting his suitcase out and taking them over to the plane, Mika put them in the cargo area before going back for Karelia's things. Karelia himself was already getting lots of attention from Mikko.
"Seems like only yesterday I remember taking you down here to your new home," Mikko said as she scratched Karelia's ears, making his tail wag like crazy. Karelia had a huge toothy grin on his face the whole time. He was really looking forward to returning to his birthplace. Having been born in late October, Karelia got to experience winter in Nome for a short period of time and did quite well handling the cold. Because of that, he had no trouble adapting to winter in Detroit. Especially along the Detroit River whenever the wind blew briskly off the riverfront. Which, itself, had been undergoing some major changes with the construction of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which were completed in 1929 and 1930, respectively. With these two passages, travel by ferry wasn't the only way to travel between Detroit, Michigan, USA, and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Travel by automobile would become possible.
Eventually, everyone's bags were loaded onto Mikko's plane, and takeoff was imminent.
"Have a good time, you three," said Kevin.
"You take care, Kevin," Mika responded.
"It's gonna be so weird not having you two around," Kevin said to Mika and Rikko.
"Well it won't be the first time you've been alone, there," Mika noted in reference to the fact that Kevin had been in his apartment for almost a full year before getting his two current roommates.
"Yeah," said Kevin. "You're right."
Mika and Rikko then hugged their roommate before getting on board.
"Hey, Kevin!" Mikko hollered from out of the airplane door. "Move your car so I don't risk running into it.
Mikko then shut to the door to the plane while everyone else took their seats and strapped in. Mikko also strapped himself into his seat after sitting down. He then proceeded to start the engine, move the plane out of the hanger, and taxi to the runway. Soon afterward, the plane took off and was off to Nome. After witnessing takeoff, Kevin got in his car and headed for home.

After almost a full day of travel - including breaks for fuel, eats, and bathroom breaks - Mikko Kykalisko's plane had Nome within sight. It was nighttime by now, and most people were inside for the night, as most of the buildings had their inside lights on. The view was very awe-inspiring for everyone onboard the plane.
"Whoa! It's like a scaled-down Kokkola from the air," said Mikko, in reference to his hometown of Kokkola, Finland. The sight clearly took his breath away.
"It's so beautiful!" Rikko said excitedly.
"It sure is," Mika added. He was excited by the view, but since he'd seen Nome at night before, the sight was nothing new to him.
"Say Mikko, could you land near the outskirts?" Mika asked his brother. "I don't want to draw too much attention."
"Why?" Mikko asked back. "A little gun-shy about coming back?"
"No," Mika snapped back. "I just don't want to cause a scene."
Mika could hardly go anywhere in Detroit without drawing a crowd of some size. Even though if such a thing were to happen here, it would likely be a smaller crowd. Still, he didn't want to risk it.
At his brother's request, Mikko decided to land the plane at a reasonable distance from the town. It wasn't so far away that walking there would've been a chore, but it also wasn't close enough to where it would disturb anybody. It was, however, more on the closer-to-town side, because if Mikko needed to refuel the plane, he wouldn't have very far to go.
After landing the plane, Mikko shut the engine off and applied the brakes. Everyone then proceeded to take their share of the luggage out of the cargo area, but all that Karelia could carry was his food bowl. Mika carried his dog's separate water bowl.
"Feels good to be back in the high lattitudes," Mika said to himself.
Suddenly, he spotted a familiar figure up ahead walking towards them. He had to squint a little bit to see who it was, but once he did, he immediately recognized who it was. Who was it? None other than his younger brother, Kaj.
"Hey! Kaj!" Mika frantically shouted and waved in an attempt to signal to his brother. "We're over here! Guess who?!"
"Welcome back, big bro!" Kaj shouted back. He then broke into a run and within half a minute he was at the site where the oldest of his three brothers had landed his plane.
Immediately upon reaching the plane, Kaj went up to Mika and threw his his arms around his brother in a mighty hug. He then did the same to Mikko, stopped to pet Karelia, and then gave Rikko a hug.
"Oh, it's so good to see you all again!" Kaj exclaimed. "Especially you two," he said, pointing at Mikko and Rikko.
Mikko had made occasional trips to Alaska from across the Arctic, but it had been a while since his last one. And Kaj hadn't seen Rikko since he, Mika, and their parents left Finland for America. Leaving home was hard on him, but not nearly as hard as it had been on Mika. It was even harder on Kaj when Mika left Nome to start his professional hockey career. He was very much alone, having no brother to talk to at home. Sure, he had his friends in the band he played in, now named Arctic Thunder, but it just wasn't the same. Having them all back in one place felt so good for him.
"Come on, let's hit the town," said Mika.
"I'm all for that," Rikko added. "Especially after such a long flight. Even if it wasn't non-stop."
With that, the four Finns and malamute puppy headed into town.

Sure enough, the streets of Nome were empty when Kaj, Karelia, Mikko, Mika, and Rikko set foot in town. Kaj had offered to help carry some of their luggage and even led the way to where he lived. Across the street and a few houses down on the right was where Mika lived during his later days in Nome after getting enough money to afford a place of his own.
The lights were on at the Kykalisko residence, and sure enough, when Kaj knocked on the door, their parents, Toni and Erja, were right there in the doorway.
"Look who I found on the outskirts!" Kaj said enthusiastically.
"Welcome home, boys," said Toni as he welcome his sons inside.
"Hi dad, hi mom," Mikko replied. Mika followed suite.
"Remember these people, Karelia?" Mika asked his dog.
"Do I ever!" Karelia happily responded, front paws off the ground and tail wagging.
Toni, Erja, and Kaj had picked out Karelia from a litter when he was eight weeks old. Kaj suggested that Karelia would make a great pet for Mika, since his birthday was coming up and he could've used a new training partner, as Kevin and Rikko had previously admitted that they couldn't keep up with Mika when he went on his training runs. During his latter days in Nome, Mika often had Balto or one of Balto's children (usually Kodi or Dingo) accompany him on training runs, whether it was speed work on the beach or distance runs in the nearby mountains. But after moving to Detroit, Mika would admit that it was rather lonely for him having nobody out there with him. Enter Karelia into the picture. As he got older, Karelia joined his owner on shorter runs, as he didn't quite have the endurance to handle a longer run yet. But he was getting there.
"So, how was the plane ride?" asked Erja.
"Long," Rikko responded. "Almost too long!"
"Yeah, it was indeed long," Mika added. "But then again, it was also a long flight when Mikko first took me there."
"And you never complained," put in Mikko. To him, it almost sounded like Rikko was complaining about