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Dusty looked to Kirby wondering what his deal was. "Kirby, after all Mr. Simpson has done for us, do you honestly think he'd ever replace us at all?" she asked, giving him a raised eyebrow. "Remember last winter when you broke your paw? Do you know how many other mushers would've retired you and got another dog instead of spending weeks getting you back to good health?" she asked, seriously.

"Kirby, Mr. Simpson loves us," said Dusty. "The reason he hasn't gotten us any new dogs is because we never got along with any of the ones he tried, remember?" she asked, though truth be told, it'd been mainly Kirby who'd acted up. "Fang is our friend, we've already got chemestry with him, so it's different. I know you're kind of worried he'll replace you, but the fact is, if he was going to replace you, he'd have done it when you broke your paw, not now when you're at full health!"

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Sakak nodded, listening closely. He then heard his owners calling him and looked back to Kodi. "My owners are calling me...Thank you for everything, Mr. Kodi," he said, smiling wide and wagging his tail. "I'll see you soon, right?" he asked with big, bright eyes.

Sable looked to Kodi. "I'll keep watch over him like he's my own pup, promise," she said, giving a smile and a tail wag. "I won't let the little fellow get in trouble, I promise.

Kirby stepped, one paw at a time, into his harness. He stood tall and looked rigidly forward. He didn’t say a word to Dusty. Some might say it was stoic, others would say it was obstinately. It was completely silent, except for the exciting yipping from the small sled-dog-to-be as he bounced away with his owners. Then, that too faded away. Mr. Simpson uttered a surprised “Oh!” and quickly made his way to the back door of the post office.

Ralph hated watching his team seem so divided. It didn’t happen very much, but when it did, Kirby was usually at the root of it. He only got this way after Kodi had joined up, and whenever a new dog was prospected to join them. Dusty was right about Mr. Simpson; he cared too much about them to simply leave them. Kirby’s broken paw was a prime example. So why was he acting this way?

“Kodi, come on! Let’s go home!” Ralph called out, to both break the silence, and to hopefully jump start the trip. Maybe a good run would help alleviate some tension. Of course, with that monster lurking about, Ralph suspected it wouldn’t do much.

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

“You will, I promise. It might be a little while, because of the holidays, but I promise, I’ll be back.” Kodi told Sakak reassuringly. At the same time Sakak’s owners had called him, Mr. Simpson issued Kodi and his team their summons. “Ah! That’s my cue. See you around!”

Kodi watched with a grin as the puppy bounded towards his owners with a noticeable perkiness in his step. He then looked back to Sable to have one more word with her.

“Thanks again, Sable. It’s really great that someone wants to help.” Unable to keep the derision from his voice, he glanced behind him again at his team as their musher vanished to the back door of the post office. “Listen, could you find Sakak for us next time we come through? It’ll probably be in two or three weeks, I’m not completely sure.” He told her, trying to give her a rough estimate of when she could be expecting them. “We won’t be staying out here for too long per trip, so I want to make sure I don’t waste any time.” He explained to her.

“Kodi, come on! Let’s go home!” Ralph called out to him.

“Coming!” Kodi jerked behind him as he answered, than thought of the boot that Ralph was wearing. “One more thing, Sable” he said. “I know you are skilled with your plants and stuff, but PLEASE don’t hurt yourself working with Sakak, alright? I don’t want you to get injured on my account.”

“Thanks, Sable!” Kodi expressed exuberantly.

Breaking the strong, silent act for a moment, Kirby replied to Dusty haughtily, loud enough for Kodi to hear. “Thanks for the concern, Dust, but I’ll be just fine. I’m going to do my job, same as I always do.”

Ralph sighed frustratingly. Besides the fact that his friend was in an awful mood, and not telling them why, he was being incredibly obtuse about how he was handling it. It was painful to listen to the shades of arrogance that Kirby was exuding. It didn’t seem like arrogance, but… there was something awfully self-serving in the way he said it.

Kodi quietly listened to Kirby as he slipped into the harness in front of him. He wasn’t about to speak up about whether or not Kirby had gotten over whatever it was that had taken hold of him. Kodi felt as though it was his fault, but Kirby didn’t seem to be in the mood for answering to his friend’s concern. Instead of quietly welcoming the fast-devolving somber tone of the trip home, Kodi tried to offer some words of encouragement.

“One last trip, guys! One last trip, and we’ll be back in Nome. Everyone ready?” He asked, trying to inspire motivation.

Ralph answered in the affirmative with a definitive “UH-HUH!” However, the same restraint and caution that Kodi had exercised in speaking to Kirby was all but non-existent for Kirby’s reply.

“Yeah, yeah. We’re ready. Just make sure that YOU do YOUR job, and don’t steer us in the wrong direction again, alright?”

Kodi was already sick of this attitude, but bit his tongue. Talking back wasn’t going to help anything. When they got going, Kirby would hopefully be less of a bear.

The back door of the post office slammed shut, and Mr. Simpson hurriedly rushed outside. “Sorry for that, I needed to put the cabin key up. We good to go?” A chorus of barking met his ears that he was not expecting. “Heh, looks like I’m not the only one who wants to get back to home sweet home. Mush!”

With a burst of speed almost too strong for their own team to handle, the sled lunged forward and quickly increased it’s momentum. Kodi was able to issue only a small nod to Sable as he and the others rushed past her. In not too long, the team wove back through town, and into the woods.

Dusty felt the same way as Kodi and decided not to bring it up to Kirby again on this trip. However, she looked up to Kodi. "Kodi...I think what you did for that pup was very kind of you," she said simply. "It was sweet."

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Fang was physically exshausted and sore from the previous day's events. For one not at all used to that kind of training, what was a normal work out for Balto was something that completely and utterly exshausting. Fang was still sleeping on the boat, had been all morning.

"Poor boy," said Sally, looking at her foster child. "Wore himself ragged training, but that's just part of the life," she continued, looking to Balto. "Anything worth having is worth working your tail off to get, isn't it? You know that better than anyone else," she said, before looking out at the tundra. "I think that's something you and Fang have in common, in addition to the other simularities between you two."

Sally gave it some deep thought before continuing. "I don't think Fang will ever give up on the dream he has now, not now, not ever. No matter how hard this gets, I don't think ANYTHING is going to stop him from reaching the top of the mountain in the end," she continued, looking back to Balto. "You know how that feels, don't you?"

The wind rushed past Kodi’s face, the icy squall stinging his eyes. The uneven amounts of snow and ice chunks they were crossing over were much trickier to navigate this side of the trip. The sled bounced and landed at irregular intervals. Throughout all of the crunching and crashing, Kodi heard a soft female voice behind him. It was indistinguishable above the din.

“Dusty?” Kodi looked behind him for just a second to see her reaction, as it was far more effective than trying to listen to it. “Did you say something?” Despite the exact thing happening on the trip there, Kodi hadn’t quite grasped that it was a bad idea to look away from where you were running, especially given the breakneck speed they were going. He felt himself steering to the right, the same direction his head was over the shoulder. Immediately, he regained his facing and corrected the sled’s course. It was almost too late; in shifting his paws over to the left again, it snagged ever so slightly on an ice tipped drift. Kodi struggled to regain his balance, teetering precariously on the edge of tipping over and bringing the hastened run to a screeching halt. He pushed forward instead of shifting his weight to the left or right. Luckily, it worked, and they kept right on slicing through the snow. It didn’t go unnoticed by his team.

“You alright, Kodi? Do you mind if we slow it down a bit? I can barely keep up at this pace, and you almost wiped out!” Ralph cried out to the (mostly) husky.

“Slow down?” Kodi shouted behind him. “I can feel a slack on the harness behind me, Kirby’s right on my heels! I thought I was already going too slow for you guys?”

Looking in front of him this time, to see if it was safe, Kodi surveyed the path in front of him. Upon a snap judgment, he decided it was safe, and peeked behind him. Kirby was very, very close to him. Behind him, rather comically, Kirby was dragging Ralph along. Ralph caught Kodi’s gaze and pleaded with his eyes. “It’s not us! Ugh-WAH!” He jerked forward at Kirby’s whim. “Kirby! Ease up, will ya?”

No response from the brown dog. Just the same expression of determination he wore when they were leaving.

Kodi turned around to look forward, shifting early to avoid a large leafless tree. “Kirby! Slow it down! It’s not a race!” He shouted to the air in front of him, hoping it would fall upon his friend’s ears. “We have to move as a team, or someone is going to get hurt!”

There was naught but silence, aside from the crashing of paws and the brutish cutting of the sled’s rails through the snow. “Kirby?” Kodi stole a glance behind him again. Kirby knelt lower, and picked up the pace further, despite the flurry of powder flying at his face from Kodi’s backdraft.

“Oh for goodness-” Kodi matched Kirby’s stride, to try and prevent the leather straps from getting too slack and risking getting caught on their paws. “What a fun road trip this will be.” He muttered under his breath.

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



Balto was still lying where he slept, adjusting himself so that he could see out of the wheelhouse and look at Sally as they spoke, the doll that Rosy made tucked underneath his curled forelegs. Truth be told, it had been sometime since Balto had participated in an exercise so vigorous. Coupled with the lack of sleep the night before, Balto was probably only slightly less tired than Fang was. He wasn’t sure how sore Fang was, but Balto was willing to bet from his own aching muscles that he was in contention.

“You know, Sally. It’s kind of funny how that worked out for me.” Balto said to her. “I trained and emulated other sled dogs for so long, desperately wanting to join them someday. Then, because of that horrible outbreak, I finally get a chance to not only run in a team, but to lead it. It was like a dream come true.”

He paused momentarily. “You know, I never ran consistently after that. Once in a while, Kodi and his team will have me run with or for them if the situation demands it, but that’s the extent of it. Kind of strange how I’m apparently so…” he braced himself for the next word. “So… famous for dogsledding, when I’ve only done it a couple of times.”

“Still, it was worth it. Me and Jenna would probably never gotten together if I hadn’t come back, and I wouldn’t have made it back if I hadn’t worked as much as I did beforehand.” Balto felt as though he was being a bit of a braggart with how he was describing his struggles, felt as though he was making himself seem to have overcome the direst of circumstances to achieve the level of success he apparently did.

He stood up, and stretched his furry legs across the sun-bathed wood. “I hope Fang isn’t too hurt. I think we can both agree that maybe yesterday, we bit off a bit more than we could chew. I forgot what it was like to ache like this!” He laughed. “I’m sure Fang will do wonderfully as a full time sled dog.” He told Sally. He still had some doubts about what would become of Fang once he was ready to go, but he didn’t want to say anything. Especially with Fang sleeping so close by, the last thing he wanted to do was to deter his hopes with a slip of the tongue.

Dusty gave a sharp yelp as Kirby sped up, but kept pace, though her harness was digging into her from the difference in speeds they had. "Kirby! You're going to fast! You're hurting us back here!" she called, unsure about Ralph, but knowing that her harness was pulled far more taunt than it needed to be. "I get it, you're mad! But that's absolutely no reason to endanger us all!"

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

Sally nodded, looking back at her tired, sleeping foster pup. "He's a strong willed boy, regardless of what anyone says, he's got to be to make it with the hand he's gotten in life. Part wolf is a hard enough burden, one you know very well. But it's worse when the dog part belongs to one of the most infamous and hated dogs in Alaska," she continued, thinking about it.

"Steele did something so horrific his son is paying for it, worse, Steele doesn't try to stand up for him at all," said Sally, thinking back to the few times Steele had actually talked to his son. "I won't say Steele seems proud for the things he's done, but he's most certainly unrepentant of them...Balto, you've got a hero's legacy, I'm certain you'll never be forgotten as a hero, people will remember what you've done good. But with Steele...He's got a villain's legacy, and will never be forgotten for the bad he's done...unless he does enough good to make up for it somehow."

The group pleading with Kirby seemed to have no impact on slowing him down. Kodi struggled to avoid being overrun, and Ralph and Dusty both struggled to keep up. Despite the thunderous crashing through the hardened snow as they blazed their trail, Dusty’s cry pierced the air. That alone had convinced Kodi that enough was enough.

“What did I say? What did I say? You keep this up, and someone is going to get hurt!” He shouted to the air in front of him. “You can play ignorant all you want about the rest of us, but I won’t! We’re shutting this down, right now! Everyone, we’re stopping!”

As their leader, Kodi had a responsibility to keep his team safe. Stopping the sled in the middle of their run was risky, but it was much safer than allowing Kirby’s one-dog wrecking team to continue. Kodi slowed himself down, and like he had predicted, Kirby didn’t follow suit. He cried out as Kirby’s large paw stepped on his heel, his claws raking against Kodi’s hind leg.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kirby shouted, breaking his speech embargo.
“I’m doing MY job, because you aren’t doing yours!” Kodi retaliated.

By this time, with Kirby having overtaken Kodi and on the verge of tripping over the ropes stretched to the side in front of him, Simpson had finally decreed to take action. He could tell from their unusually quick pace that something was off, especially when the dogs behind Kirby and Kodi were yelping and struggling. “Whoa!” He shouted. It was his code word for telling his team to stop.

As if a switch were flicked, Kirby ceased his speeding almost immediately at his musher’s objection. Ralph offered a sigh of relief as the sled slowly pulled to a halt. Even though he followed his owner’s command, Kirby expressed his displeasure at the disruption.

“Look what you’ve done now, Kodi. Having us stop out in the middle of nowhere, with that monster on the prowl-”

“Oh, no.” Kodi shook his head firmly, now able to look at his team without running the risk of running them off the trail. Ralph and Dusty were both panting profusely. Ralph turned his head from side to side, trying to shake off the pressure wrought from the harness tugging against him so tightly. “No, this has nothing to do with me. Look at what YOU’VE done to the rest of your team!” Kodi gestured to the dogs behind Kirby.

Without even glancing, as though he already knew how they were holding up, Kirby simply stated “It’s not my fault. I’m not going to slow myself down just because they refuse to try harder.”

“Try harder? For what? This isn’t a race Kirby, we’re supposed to get the mail to Nome safely.”
“For the dog always complaining about us being late, I thought you’d be happy that someone finally listened to you and stepped it up!”
“Not if it means jeopardizing our safety, and you know that. Don’t even try to twist that excu-”
“What in the blazes is going on?” Mr. Simpson asked angrily as he made his way past the sled to the front of the team. “Kodi, Kirby, you two need to slow down, you’re choking the rest of your team!”

Kodi whined at his undeserved chastising, and Kirby appeared, as was the standard today, indifferent. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but- Kodi? What’s wrong?”

Kodi didn’t know what he was talking about. “How did that happen?” Mr. Simpson knelt down beside him, and ran his hand against Kodi’s right hind leg. Kodi yelped at the stinging sensation. It appeared that Kirby’s claws had done more damage than he had noticed during the heated exchange. Mr. Simpson pulled a towel from one of his many pockets, and wiped Kodi’s leg clean of the minute amount of blood from the scratches. If Mr. Simpson hadn’t discovered it, Kodi wouldn’t have even felt it.

“I think I know what’s going on here.” He pet Kodi on the head, and focused on Kirby. He dropped the slightly angry tone. He always felt that dogs (or anyone for that matter) reacted much more readily to compassion rather than anger. “Kirby, I know you want to get back to Nome quickly; we all do.” He ran his ungloved hand against Kirby’s cheek in a comforting manner. “I appreciate that, I really do. But you were lead dog before, you ought to know better than to run faster than the rest of your comrades can handle.”

Kirby’s ears folded, his tail lying motionless on the ground, indicating to Mr. Simpson that he had understood the gist of the message. Mr. Simpson looked at Kodi’s leg again. “It looks like it was just a surface scratch, so you should be okay until we get home.” He told him. “I’m going to check the others, make sure they are alright. Then we can get out of here, okay? I don’t like the idea of staying out in the open without moving for too long…”

He went on to examine the shoulders of Ralph and Dusty. Kodi stared at Kirby intently, Kirby doing everything possible to avoid returning his gaze.

“What’s wrong, Kirby?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“OK.”

Kodi didn’t press the issue further. If Kirby wanted to, he would have said something already. Kirby wasn’t one to hold his tongue back unless he had a good reason.

“You look to be in working order, Ralph!” Mr. Simpson joked as the large dog licked his hand. “Your paw still good?” A positive bark. “Wonderful.”

Mr. Simpson meandered to Dusty. “How are you holding up, girl?”

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

Balto watched Fang breath in and out as he slept. He wondered if Fang knew exactly how his circumstances were stacked. He wondered how Fang had reacted to other’s reactions to him at first. Was he confused? Angry? Sad? Whatever happened, it didn’t appear to leave him jaded, as it would most other dogs.

“It’s going to take an awful lot to make up for what Steele did.” Balto reiterated. “His fall from grace was really something. Revered one day, reviled the next. And then, he was just gone.” Balto was still dealing with his newfound acceptance at the time, and didn’t think to wonder what had become of Steele. Then, he and Jenna… and the pups… he was so busy, he didn’t think to wonder what had happened to Steele at all after that. If it was anyone else, Balto might have thought he was being insensitive. Considering who he was dealing with, Balto was sure that Steele didn’t care about what Balto thought about him.

“Unfortunately, I’ve never known Steele to change his attitude about anything. I don’t know where he is, or what he’s doing, but I doubt he’s trying very hard.” Balto said rather callously. “It’s all up to Fang to make his own mark. Here’s to hoping that others can look past the resemblances and see him for who he is.”

Dusty gave a soft whimper, tugging at her harness, which had gotten pulled far too tight by the drag and was causing her a rather large amount of discomfort. She looked at her owner and gave a soft whine, not able to loosen the harness herself. She looked to Kirby, wondering what in the world had gotten into him to make him act that way. It wasn't like him at all, and she'd known him for quite some time, but he'd never acted like this.

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

Sally nodded, looking to him. "True...but remember, even if it didn't last, Fang's mother did find some good in Steele when they were together. There has to be some there..." she said, noting Balto's attitude towards Steele.

Sally then looked out at the tundra and saw Rosie walking towards the boat. "Whose that?" she asked, getting in a slightly defensive posture, as she didn't know Rosie at all. Her child was on the boat as it was.

“Let me see that.” Simpson hastened his resolve at her vocal response. Upon noticing the severe tautness against Dusty’s shoulders, he immediately began to thread loose the straps. “Oh, wow. Hold still, I know it hurts.” He said comfortingly to her. The gloves he had just put on after finishing with Ralph soon found their way to the snowy ground again, disturbed by the fresh boot prints that Simpson had placed. More easily able to handle the slick leather, the harness stifling Dusty was rendered flaccid. It would only be temporary, however.

“Is that better? Sorry about that, girl. Kirby just wants to get home. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it.” He looked over at Kirby, who didn’t appear to have moved from his defeated stance since he had been given his talking to. “Yeah, I think he’s settled down. Poor guy.” Simpson’s voice tinged with sympathy at what he perceived in Kirby’s like-minded objective. He sat next to Dusty, gently massaging the back of her neck for another minute.


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

“Do you think she’s alright? He’s spending an awful lot of time with her.” Kirby asked quietly.

Kodi was already looking back at her, straining his neck in how long he had been doing so. He wanted to go to her himself, but decided against it in case they needed to move at Mr. Simpson’s beck and call. “I think so. Her harness must have been yanked really tight, he’s just letting it breathe now.” Kodi answered coolly.

“Oh… I’m sorry.” Kirby said mournfully.

“Thanks, but it’s not me you need to apologize to. Although…” Kodi looked at his hind leg, ever so slightly smudged a light hue of red. “I accept. Do you want to tell us what all that was about?” He pressed again, while Kirby appeared to be in an open state, more likely to answer.

“You-you’d just laugh at me. I know it.” Kirby whined.

“I won’t, I promise!” Kodi answered eagerly. A bit too eagerly, as Kirby appeared to have picked up on.

“With how much grief we all give to Ralph, I doubt it.” Kirby replied.

Kodi noted that almost all of the ribbing directed to Ralph was started from Kirby, and occasionally from Dusty. Kodi tried to avoid making fun of his team, for he thought it improper of a leader to do so. Of course, he had also been told to lighten up by his peers. Still, it was a slow process. “It’s not YOUR toenail, is it?” Kodi joked, hoping to lighten the mood. It didn’t work.

“No. Just… never mind, alright? I’ll be fine.” Kirby answered somberly. It was maddening to Kodi how Kirby appeared to want to tell them so badly with his dropped hints, but he refused to.

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

“I think it’s about that time.” Mr. Simpson said as he stood up next to Dusty. “I’m going to tighten this up, just a little bit. I don’t want you to start chafing by leaving it too loose.” He cautioned. Slowly, he pulled the strap towards him, tightening the harness around Dusty’s body. Taking extra care not to pull too hard, he gave a gentle tug, and locked the belts into place. “That better?” He asked the husky.

Noticing the activity behind him, Kodi faced forward, and spoke to Kirby behind him. “Looks like we’re ready to get going again. You sure you’re ok?”

Kirby stood up from his backside, and shook the excess snow off that had been sprayed onto him from when he had charged into Kodi’s backdraft. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Just making sure.” Kodi said. “But Kirby, I gotta say… you were moving pretty quick there.” He complimented his friend using the silver lining of the cloud that stopped them in the first place.

“Yeah, I was, wasn’t I?” Kirby said, uplifted at the remark. “Someone’s got to show these youngsters how it’s done.”

Kodi simply nodded in agreement, pondering the strange comment until the order to move was issued.

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

“Hmm?” Balto stood up, and quickly made his way to the edge of the boat next to Sally. He looked off across the tundra, scanning the ground between the boat and the town until he noticed the blazing red hair bouncing along towards them. It was Rosy. Balto thought it odd that she was walking to the boat by herself given the state of emergency the town was in, unless Jenna was behind her and he couldn’t see her.

“Easy, Sally.” He told the skunk, looking poised to do whatever it took to defend her kin. “That’s Rosy, Jenna’s owner.” He explained. “She was one of the only people before the serum run who would tolerate me, so she won’t cause any problems for Fang.” Balto knew that Rosy was gifted with either extreme naivety, or a powerful acceptance of all types of creatures without snap judgments. Still…

“I’m not really sure how she would react to a skunk…” he admitted. “I mean, I don’t think it will be a problem but…” he said uneasily. He didn’t know how to tell Sally to hide without seeming insensitive about the very issue they had just talked about. He would leave it to her discretion. “It’s up to you.”

Dusty nodded, feeling a lot better now that her harness wasn't cutting into her. She gave Mr. Simpson a lick on the face to show him she appreciated the help. She knew Kirby probably didn't MEAN to hurt her, but that didn't change the fact he was being reckless and rather stupid, endangering the team like that. "This is exactly why we need more dogs, having more dogs would mean we'd be able to move faster because they'd take some of the strain of pulling the sled and mean they could all run faster."

What Kirby didn't realize is the weight, when everybody was running right, was distrubted between the team. When Kirby ran too fast, it actually made MORE work for them by making Kodi's harness slack so he wasn't pulling any weight. And her and Ralph were at the back, where the strong wheel dogs were meant to be. But Dusty wasn't BUILT to be a wheel dog, she was built to be a swing dog or a team dog. And truth be told, she would rather be closer to Kodi, which was a part of it. She had no intention of stiring up the pot right now, but she knew Kirby didn't want to be demoted again, but what he'd just done showed he was more than strong enough to be a good wheel dog with Ralph, possibly Fang. No part of a sled team was more or less important than any other, even lead dog, despite being the best position with the most authority, it still was every bit as important as the other positions. There was no "Omega" on a sled dog team.

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

Sally nodded, getting up. "It's fine, you don't have to tell me, Balto," she said, giving a small smile. "Better safe than sorry, but we should probably wake Fang before she gets here, just to be safe, you know?" she asked, looking out at the girl. "Let him know what's up, you know?"

“That’s the ticket.” Mr. Simpson said to Dusty’s show of affection. Again, he found himself in awe of how well his dogs could communicate with him with just physical gestures and expressions. There was no disguising how they felt, a wonderfully refreshing trait.

He made his way to the back of the sled, and affixed his gloves once again. He took a deep breath, steeling himself for what was to come. He hoped that whatever bur had lodged itself in Kirby’s attitude had been quelled. “On my mark… mush!”

Lacking the noticeable zest of their initial departure, the sled and the dogs pulling it began a slow and steady acceleration. Kodi ran forward with an air of caution, his paced matched expertly by Kirby. Deciding it was safe to pick up the pace from the trial run, and he commenced the quickening. It was not the rigorous double-timing they had been going with Kirby taking charge, but it was a comfortable one that handily mixed speed with control. Homeward bound, the sled skated across the frozen plains.

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

Balto nodded to Sally, and told her as apologetically as he could “Thanks. Sorry about that, but… it’s like you said, better safe than sorry.” He scanned around the boat as he slowly made his way towards Fang, searching for a place that would conceal Sally. Pickings were on the slim side, unfortunately.

At any rate, he found himself standing above Fang. Aside from the slow and steady pulsing of the tattered blanket laid over him, Fang was completely motionless. It seemed a pity to wake him from such a deep sleep, but at his mother’s behest, Balto did so.

He pressed his paw softly against Fang’s shoulder, prodding Fang as gently as he could. “Fang?” He whispered. “Fang?” It was a little louder this time, easing him from his restful state. Fang’s body started to shift in reaction to Balto’s prompts. Balto pushed just a little more firmly. “Fang? It’s time to wake up.” He said, whispering no longer.