Animation Source Forums

Saber chuckled. "Oh, the great Balto and his family, am I supposed to be impressed?" he asked. "You know, I do appreciate you saving my owner's life and all, but I don't honestly see what the big deal with you is. You don't seem so tough," he growled. "Just a bunch of sorry wolfdogs, and as for those mutts, they only saved their jobs because of a fluke, none of you are worth the fur on your skin," he said, an arragont, thickheaded purebred. "You're weak."

Jenna growled. "You're the weak one," she growled, baring her teeth. "You're a self obcessed glory hound, I've dealt with your kind before, you'll do yourself in one day."

Sally strauted up and stood in front of the assembled dogs protecting her child. "You'd better listen to them, or I swear I'll be the one sending you running."

At this, Saber and his gang burst out laughing. "What? A little cat? You think you can send us running?!" he laughed, clearly never having seen a skunk before, none of them had. Any dog in their right mind who'd tangled with a skunk would be running away now.

Sally hissed, scratching the ground in front of her and arching her back, tail raised high in the air and promently displaying her white stripes, a skunks last warning. "I don't think, I know," she boasted.

Dusty looked to Jenna. "Should we warn them?" she whispered.

Jenna took her head. "No," she said. "Saber needs to be taught a lession about harrassing others," she whispered, tired of Saber always getting away with everything. She looked around at her group, giving them all a shush, telling them to keep quiet. She was tempted to cover her own nose to prepare for what was about to happen, but didn't want to give Saber any hints he was about to get skunked. The whole family knew Jenna was one sly female when she needed to be, now was one of those times.

Balto had been surprised when the number of fighters on their side had jumped up another; he had expected Sally to stay put on the sidelines.
He had also, like the Saber and his companions, vastly underestimated Sally as a combatant. When he saw her raise her tail, memories stirred in his thoughts of his youth, and the scent memory lingered in his nostrils.
Balto made a mental note to never do it again. He would guess that, in the upcoming seconds, Saber and his gang would feel much the same way.

Boris didn't yet know it, but he would probably be glad he DIDN'T come along. Or maybe he would have been sorry to miss this.

Ralph and Kirby, pending Kodi's tactic, had moved to the left of the Saber's goons. Balto walked slowly to them during the standoff, and ushered them silently to move further out the way.

They questioned without speaking, a shrug, but when Kodi saw what his father was doing, he nodded in approval. They slowly follwed Balto's lead.

Kodi knew that Jenna would normally side with his dad on resolving things peacefully, but also remembered Dusty's remark earlier about skunks. He had heared stories from his mother about how Steele had often played into Jenna's paws when she seemingly played into his. This looked like just such an occasion, and inched backwards very slowly as to not attract any attention from the antagonists opposite him, Dusty and Jenna.

Balto had been sprayed before, and wanted to ensure that no one other than the intended targets. Not that he didn't trust Sally's aim, but he loved the adage "better safe than sorry".
It didn't smell any better if you were hit accidentally or not.

"Oh yeah, you do?" asked Saber, laughing with his thugs. "Well come on, I want to see this."

"Alright," said Sally. "And by the way, I'm not a cat, I'm a skunk," she said, some of Saber's goons who at least had heard of that before suddenly looked very scared, but before anyone could do anything, Sally swung her hind end around and gave each bully a face full of musk. And just as she'd promised, they all went running, gagging and coughing with tears running down their faces. "And if you ever mess with Fang again, expect more of that!"

Jenna gagged, quickly covering her nose with her paw. "Oh my, I forgot how awful that smell was," she said, coughing midsentence from the horrid odor, finding her eyes tearing up. Aleu, wild spirit she was, had ended up skunked more than once as a puppy, and it was never a pleasent thing. But Jenna had never been at 'ground zero' of it. Still, terrible stench aside, she smirked as she watched Saber and his posse run for the hills, yelpping like little pups that had just been scolded. Hopefully stinking to high heavens would teach them some manners.

"Peeyew!" cried Dusty, putting her paw over her nose as Sally's...aroma filled the air. She looked to Kirby and Ralph, keeping her paw over her nose as tightly as she could manage. "And that is why you never tick off a skunk," she said, gagging midsentence. If there was a worse smell on earth than getting skunked, she never wanted to get a whiff of it. "But be glad you're learning it this way instead of like Saber and his goons," she said, eyes watering from the nasty smell but a smile on her face. She couldn't help finding joy in watching a bully like Saber getting some well deserved humble pie. "And not only that, they've got a nice tomato juice bath waiting for them at home," she said, she, like most dogs, hated baths.

Balto listened intently to Fang's tale about his parents. Balto was no stranger to a portion of it. He was disappointed, yet not completely surprised, that Steele had tried to bolster himself by telling lies about Balto. Maybe they weren't lies, but truths twisted in such a way. Balto considered asking Fang what Steele could have told him, but decided against it. The past was past, and there's no sense in dragging it out, especially if it wasn't true.

Balto was especially disappointed in Kodi's reaction. He agreed wholeheartedly with Jenna about having a chat later. He felt partially responsible; because of Balto's somewhat overbearing morality, often with Steele acting as a crux of what not to do, Balto had essentially created a mythical figure in Kodi's eyes. One akin to a phantom or a legendary beast, always with a negative connotation, always feared. He didn't necessarily regret it on the whole, because he was very proud of how regimentally kind and morally fibrous that Kodi had become. This was an unfortunate setback, but it wasn't irreversible.

Even Balto had started to fall into this sort of mindset, and as a result he had immense curiosity about Sable. If she was able to change Steele's personality to such a degree... she must have been special. Balto was probably just as fascinated with Fang as Fang no doubt was with him.

Fang's situation at the moment drew many striking parallels to his own. Balto too, had been separated from his parents (he never knew, but hopefully under more pleasant circumstances), and had ended up under the care of a loving adoptive parent, with whom species was no concern. Perhaps the most panging similarity was that Fang had undergone such a degree of constant battering about his heritage that he considered reactions like Kodi's "normal".

Balto snapped out of his thoughts, despite wanting deeply to explore them further. There would be time for that later, and Balto would probably be able to ask Fang directly, as opposed to his own conjecture.

"It's certainly good to meet you." he returned Fang's greeting at last. "So... why exactly did you come all of this way to come seek ME out?"


------------------------------------

Kodi wandered the streets of Nome aimlessly, but aggressively enough to seem like he had a purpose. Whenever he had been upset, he was always able to return to the boiler room that served as his living quarters. With that being the place he was trying desperately to get away from, he didn't know where to go.

He could always tell Dusty and the others about his troubles. But this was different. They didn't know Steele like he did, they wouldn't understand. His thoughts settled back on Dusty, she probably thought he was just as bad as Saber was. He needed to explain himself to her, later. As he knew all too well, words could be just as piercing and destructive as a powerful strike. He slowed his pace gradually, recalling his vicious verbal assault, and felt a pang of regret. Then he thought of Steele, the wicked Steele. The murderous, glory-bogarting, loathsome Steele. Anger replaced the sobering regret. He bolted into a frenzied run, and continued down the street, kicking snow in his wake.

A mix of pity and admiration overtook Balto. Jenna was right; wanting to reconnect with his father, specifically Fang's father, was certainly a sign of strong character.

Unfortunately, Balto couldn't quite see how much he could help here, however much he wanted to. At the moment, he thought that delivering medicine to Nome in the very same conditions three years ago seemed a more feasible task than getting Steele to reconcile with a son he clearly had no love for. Balto had learned that mediation and reconciliation were most easily fulfilled when both parties wished to attain a similar outcome. His focus shifted to that of a wolf clan he and Aleu had stumbled upon a little under two years ago, who needed help in deciding what to do in light of their food shortage.

As simple of a solution as that was (to follow the food source), one of the main opposers in the negotiations could not be convinced. Niju, a wolf whom in many ways, bore similarities to Steele, was simply too deep seated in his belief to be convinced to leave his home. When Balto had tried to help Steele and his team with the medicine roughly a year or so prior, Steele made it clear he would rather freeze to death than accept aid from a wolfdog such as himself.

Balto was on the whole, a fairly modest character. He felt a tinge of embarassment hearing Fang's overwhelming praise about what he had done, and thusly wondered if he wasn't crushing Fang's unfathomably high hopes by what he was about to say.

"I'll be honest with you, I-I- I umm.." he stammered, "At first, I wanted to join the race to uhh... impress Jenna." He looked sheepishly at the husky. He continued, hoping to try and come out of this with at least some sort of poise "I wasn't allowed in the race at first, and I had given up.". Balto's eyes were staring at the floor. Not one of his prouder moments by a long shot was that span of days where he had moped and felt sorry for himself. He didn't want to look at Fang.

"But then I saw the children, all of the sick children. And the town that was going to accept their fate. The adults around Nome had warned their children about me, but this one girl, Rosy, she was always good to me."

He recalled spying on Jenna sadly laying on top of her girl's frail and sickly figure in the window.

"That's when I realized that this... this was bigger than me. This was bigger than Steele. There were lives at stake that had no reason to be. So I set out to try and help."

Balto had slowly been building to his confrontation with Steele, with a very deliberate pacing. He was trying to portray the situation in such a way that he didn't come across as destroying Fang's faith. When Balto had reached the dogsled team, his first concern was the rest of the team was OK, so they could all get the medicine back as quickly as possible. At this point, when Steele had refused Balto's plea to/for help, Steele had become an obstacle. Balto would have loved nothing more than to help Steele find his way back.

Steele clearly wanted nothing of the whole situation, and when the opening presented itself, Balto had rallied to get the medicine as quickly as possible before Steele could interfere further.

Balto's decision to help Steele's team actually had very little to do with Steele himself, but he didn't want to admit it Fang. Abruptly, Balto told the captive audience.

"Steele didn't want my help when I found them, so we had to get the medicine back without him. I had tried a number of times to get Steele to come with us, to help save HIM, but he refused."

Never one to dwell on the past, glories or failures, Balto shifted the conversation to something he could actually help with.

"As for your problem with your father, have you been able to talk with him since you left? At all? Just the window of opportunity is all you'll need, then you can show him how much you really want to be with him."

He thought of his son Kodi. Kodi's idea to establish a connection with him was to try and be as much like his father as possible (This wasn't necessary, Balto had told him on several occasions that he would be proud of Kodi, as long as he always tried his hardest).

Steele on the other hand, would probably react strongly to idolization and emulation. Even if for the wrong reasons, being that it would feed his ego further, it could act as a start to allow for something more poignant to happen. Balto strongly considered suggesting this (he wondered if Fang hadn't already thought of this, give how Sally had mentioned his desire to join a sled team), but decided to see Fang had gotten a start in establishing communication further.

----------------
The orange setting sun glared across the tundra, practically blinding Kodi. He was quite a ways from from Nome; his running had carried him further than he expected. At the rate the sun was setting, he would need to start back very soon to make his way to the small town in the distance before the only light was the moon, and the city lights to guide him.

But Kodi didn't want to go back. Not yet. He didn't want to find his friends and family hurt because they trusted Fang, and that he had turned on them just like Fang's father had done. Kodi knew that no good would come of it.

Kodi felt a tingling sensation, and peered around quickly. He had recognized the sensation, he felt like he was being watched. Kodi didn't see anyone, or anything, moving. It struck him as just a bit unnerving, how still and silent it was out there. His shadow grew longer behind him, but still the feeling of being watched didn't cease, and he was becoming increasingly convinced that he wasn't alone. The fact that his watcher was concealing themselves, either deliberately or not, did nothing to strengthen his resolve.

The crimson of the setting sun colored the landscape a deep red. He slowly started to make his way back to town, citing to himself that "I can till help them, if Fang hasn't done anything" as a cover up for an uneasy fear that was slowly spreading through him. Unable to shake the feeling that he was being stalked by forces unknown, Kodi pace quickened.

Fang seem glued on Balto's words. "...You don't have to cover for my dad," he said, first off, noticing Balto skipped the fight. "I know what he did, how he tried to kill you..." he said. He then changed his tune. "Yeah, a few times we've talked, he's lightened up just a little bit, still never calls me son, only Fang, if I'm lucky," he continued. "It's like talking to ice with him...though he did say I might make a good sled dog, that felt good...but the way he said it wasn't sincere," he continued. "Thanks anyway, I just was hoping more you'd understand how I feel than an actual solution," he replied. He then looked at Balto again. "I was also hoping you'd help me learn to be a sled dog," he admitted, somewhat embarrassed to ask. "Steele never wanted to teach me, if I'd ask, he's just shoot me down..." he continued. "That and he's not exactly knowledgable about running with these," he said, showing his wolfish paws.

-----------------------

Kira stalked through the wilderness, her white fur hiding her. She saw the little wolfdog in the distence, oh she had plans for him, well her partner did anyway. However, why not have a little fun and scare the fur off the mutt? She'd and her partner when she told him, would sure have a good laugh if she made the young wolfdog wet himself in blind terror. Moving silently, hiding herself in trees and snow, she got nearly upon Kodi and reared up on her hind legs, using the folage to make only her eyeshine, a good 8 or 9 feet up visible and let out a roar that would rattle Kodi's bones from how loud it was.

Steele's idea of cruelty had at least become a bit more mental than physical in the years since he left Nome. Telling his own son that he might make a good sled dog, only to completely dissolve himself of responsibility for actually allowing it to happen.

It would be like if a miscreant pup had a great toy, and told others "I'd bet you'd have a lot of fun with this!" before carrying on their way, with no intention of sharing.

He wasn't sure where Steele had relocated, but if Fang had come all of this way for help, he must have had very little in the way of choices.

Fang was right to assume Balto would understand him. Balto had been in his place before, and after years of being resented for something that wasn't his fault, Balto had grown bitter. He had lived around Nome almost his whole life with Boris, and before he had the chance to prove himself, he felt cast out and purposeless. There was a glimmer of hope in Fang's eyes, and Balto resolved to ensure that no more time would be wasted in giving Fang that very same chance, to stave off the bitterness before it could start robbing precious time.

Balto smiled, a genuine smile that carried with it a deep compassion. "I would be glad to help. In fact..." he turned to look at the silent members of the mail team "I bet we all would, right?"

He wasn't able to gauge Dusty's reaction, but it clear from the glum expression that Kirby and Ralph were more conflicted, and didn't seem to share in Balto's eagerness.

"Well, Balto it's just that..." Ralph started
"Don't strain yourself, Ralph. Balto, it's Kodi" Kirby finished.

Balto raised his eyes at the two "What about Kodi?"

"C'mon Balto, you saw how Kodi reacted to him - no offense!" Ralph added quickly, trying to disassociate Kodi's feelings from his own as to not offend Fang further (or incur his mother's wrath).

"You've never had to deal with it," Kirby stepped in "but running when with Kodi when he's in a bad way. It uhh... it's not fun!"

Ralph shook his head in agreement "I ain't seen Kodi so upset before, I don't know if he'd like us being around Fang, much less teaching him our jobs!"

Balto shook his head profusely. "Kodi mght be your lead dog on the mail team, but he has no right to dictate what you choose to do in your free time!"
He paused briefly, mixedly proud that his son inpired others to value his thoughts so much, yet disheartened that Ralph and Kirby had become so critical of it.

"It's not as if Fang would be on your team anyways!" Balto stopped, realizing how insensitive he sounded. He and Boris had acknowledged that sled teams around Nome, when races had finished, were very difficult to come by. The US Mail team was one of the few whose presence was constanly felt. He stammered an effort of a recovery, in case Fang's only option here was to join the US Mail. Balto knew that, even though Kodi couldn't control his team out of the harness, it was a whole different story when they were running together.

"Er uh, maybe not yet anways.... Kodi-Kodi will come around! I know him, he can get over this!" Balto wasn't so sure. He had seen Kodi sad, disappointed, and even mildly upset (mostly at himself for not achieving his own personal goals), but he had never seen Kodi so frighteningly angry.

Ralph and Kirby fidgeted, Balto could tell they weren't convinced.
Perhaps Dusty would be less swayed. Balto switched his

"Well, what do YOU think, Dusty?"


---------------------

The feelings of insecurity that had been slowly simmering within him exploded. Kodi whipped his head around at the roar that pierced the air, frantically searching for it's source. It had sounded so close and so loudly, he couldn't tell the direction, his ears still ringing. Now shifting directions by jumping in place a hop just enough to swivel quickly, Kodi saw something.

A sillhouette against the sun, obscured by foliage and brush. Higher still, he saw but one glint. In the microsecond he had seen it, Kodi's brain had come to the conclusion that whatever it was that was stalking him, was not friendly.

"Gaaahhh-UGH!" His legs were scuttling faster than the environment allowed, and didn't quite have the grip that his father's did. He tripped and fell into crimson tinted snow, leaping with surprising grace and litheness into a running start back to Nome. Kodi didn't know if the thing was following him, and he didn't want to shift any focus from his mad panicky dash to direct his head to look behind him. He had never run faster, and he had never been more terrified.

"Yeah, you two," said Dusty, often finding herself acting as the group's moral compass. "Kodi's the lead, but he's wrong this time. Don't forget who made him lead to began with," she stated. She looked to Fang. "I'm helpping him," she said, going to his side. "...Because I know exactly what it feels like to have your father walk out on you..." she said, sorrowfully, this was something none of the group would've ever heard before.

Jenna gasped. "Dusty...your father..." she said, shocked, getting a sad nod from the young husky.

------------------------

Kira smirked, smiling. She reared back and let out another loud roar, this time adding a more angry tone to it to terrify him more. She actually chased him a distence through the woods, though still towards Nome. After Kodi finally made it out of the woods, she fell back and vanished into the woods, never allowing the wolfdog a look at her. But before he got out of range, she kicked a small rock with her hind leg, launching it and hitting Kodi right in the groin, hard enough to really hurt but not enough to permently hurt him. But she knew that would be very painful and startle him, let him know something really had chased him. "That's enough fun for now," she said, slinking back into the woods unseen. She did that for two reasons, one, it was fun, and two, it'd help get her partner's trust.

Kodi laid still, winded. A sharp earing pain pulsed from the rather sensitive area his attacker's stone had impacted. Glistening moisture trickled forth from Kodi's closed eyes. Not from the pain, but from the pure terror coursing through him. Whoever his pursuer was, they had him right where they wanted him. With a single stone hewn through the air so preciesly, it was clear that they meant him harm. Even as Kodi had given his all into his running, this predator was clearly faster, and such speed was often accompanied by a survival instinct necessitating it. A hunter who needed to outspeed their prey, an increased lethality. Kodi lay in wait, not moving a muscle aside from his uncontrollable quivering. Kodi could feel the air cool around him as the sun sank behind the horizon.

After what seemed many silent hours with nothing but the faint sound of leaves rattling in the wind, Kodi stirred. He was still alive, and his attacker appeared to have left him be. His muscles ached from their overexertion, it hurt for Kodi to sway his neck. He felt lucky to still be breathing, although deep down he knew that it had nothing to do with any choices he'd made - he had been spared on a whim of mercy.

He felt utterly hopeless as he thought of where to go. His entrance at home would likely be met with questions and judgments from his teammates, neither of which he wanted to deal with at the moment. His father's boat would likely be occupied by Sally, another alternative he didn't want to chance. He didn't know where to go, he just wanted to go back to town, where dark figures and loud roars were less likely to be.

Kodi slowly emerged, drained of all energy, from the black woods behind him. The comforting glow of the many houses and lamps lay but a twenty minute gait away. Kodi didn't want to run; he was worn out from the days events, and if something else were to give chase, Kodi would simply think "So be it".

--------------------

In that town, but hours earlier, Balto was graced with some assurance of assistance from Kodi's teammate Dusty. Not without her own personal reasons, of course. Balto, and especially Ralph and Kirby listened intently to Dusty as she explained her own parental issues.

Dusty sighed. "My dad was a sled dog, so was mom, same team," she said. "We always seemed to be a happy family...on the surface," she continued. "They fought...a lot, almost nightly, but waited for me to be safely in bed before it, out of curtisy to me I guess, but I heard it a lot of times," she explained, looking saddened. "One night...they got in a terrible fight, so much that they didn't stop when I came in. Dad hit mom...said he didn't care about her or...or me. He went out and I never saw him again...I was left sitting at the entrence to the room, sobbing my eyes out, mom trying hard to comfort me...so yeah, I know what its like to have a father who doesn't care for you..." she said, now crying.

Jenna gave a soft whine and went over, letting the young husky rest her head on her shoulder to cry. "I know how hard that must've been for you, Dusty," she reassured, motherly instinct kicking in, even if Dusty wasn't her daughter, she was close enough to family.

------------------------

Kira slinked through the woods, back towards her cave, giving a chuckle. She'd seen Kodi go down with a yelp when that rock hit his...sensitive spot. She'd used that trick to catch bucks sometimes, a well placed rock to the groin was rather dibilitating to most anything. It was a low move, yes, but had to have alternitive stradagies in a non-native climate, no matter how dirty a move it was. "Now that was fun."