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Kodi thought about the creature the night before. He had little doubt that this supposed creature was what had pursued him the other night. The scratch on his muzzle, almost fully healed, served to remind him how powerless he had felt against it, despite having barely catching a glance of it. He shuddered, both at his own reminiscing and the thought of the townsfolk being murdered by it.

Before he could resume his thinking, a small gray dog skidded to a halt in front of them, a frantic tone in his voice, huffing and puffing.

"Th-Th... Thank goodness I found you guys..."

Mel's voice trailed as he struggled to catch his breath. Kodi looked intently at the small dog, eager to catch as many details regarding the coming changes as possible. Kirby noticed this, and gave Kodi an intrigued glance.

Having regained what small posture he had, Mel continued

"I'm not sure if you knew or not, but you all have another run scheduled for today! It was pushed up from tomorrow!"

Kodi nodded curtly. "We've heard." Me motioned to the long eared Dipsy, using her tongue to pick out a sliver of jerky that had lodged itself in her teeth.

"You knew?" He had a look of stunned disbelief on his face "And you're still going?"

Kodi appeared miffed at the suggestion.

"Why wouldn't we? We still have our jobs to do, some cat thing isn't going to-"

Mel interrupted, frazzled that Kodi seemed to fail in grasping the gravity of the situation.

"Some cat thing? Kodi, I know you've got a chip on your shoulder about the whole duty thing, but you have got to realize; This thing is KILLING people! Armed people, with guns!"

Mel leapt into the air, pirouetting before landing on his back, front paws curled to his chest, as if he were performing the "playing dead" trick for his owner, Mr. Connor.

"Maybe YOU don't mind putting yourself in harm's way, but what of the rest of your team?"

Kodi looked indignantly at the small dog. Normally, he didn't mind Mel's constant badgering and worrywarting, but this particular instance was especially irritating.

He stole a glance at Ralph and Kirby to his left, and was disappointed to see that they didn't appear to share the same enthusiasm he did. On the contrary, Kirby was watching Mel raptly now, avidly supporting the prophecies spilling forth.

Perhaps, Kodi thought, this particular instance was especially irritating, because what Mel was saying was actually true.

Kodi wanted to deliver the mail, to do his job, etcetera, etcetera. He had seen the look on recipients faces when they recieved a package from a loved one, and their gratitude to his team for their efforts. However, Kodi also felt a twinge of intense curiosity.

If this creature was the same one that had attacked him two nights ago, he wanted to see it. Wanted to know what had left him hiding in the snow for hours, what had terrified him to such extremes.

"Listen," he said, a minute amount of desperation sounding through, "If we stick together, work together, that thing won't stand a chance against us!"

Ralph stepped out, mouth agape.

"Stand a chance against us? You don't seriously want to meet this killer cat, much less fight it?"

Kodi folded his ears back a little bit.

"Well... I-I uh..."

He didn't want to admit it, but maybe Ralph was on to something.

What was it? A chance for revenge? Maybe. A chance to be a hero? Kodi could only imagine how at ease the town would be if this thing menacing them would suddenly disappear. He thought (a bit selfishly, he might add) of how Dusty would look at him if he had dealt with this creature. Regardless, Kodi wanted to confront it.

Of course, he knew that nothing like that would ever happen. All of the times he had been ravaged by Saber, he didn't stand a ghost of a chance against whatever "it" was. This wasn't the first time he had dreamed so illogically of rising to glory through some impossible feat, but it was the first he had done so with something so real.

Kodi shook his head, as if snapping from a trance.

"Of course I didn't mean it like that."

Mel sighed a huge breath of relief. One could only imagine how he would react if they HAD actually fought against it.

"At last you've got some sense! So, what did you guys want to do today? I've heard that poker is pretty-"

Now, Kodi was the one interrupting.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up, I didn't say we weren't going!"

Kodi thought he could actually feel Mel's blood pressure rising.

"Kodi, pleeease! Listen to the voice of reason!"

"I hope you aren't talking about yourself." Kodi shot back, getting irritated again.

"Think of the danger! Think of your team! Why would anyone risk such a-a CATASTROPHE? No one on your team even wants to go!"

Kodi looked balefully at his team again. The expressions on Ralph and Kirby's face were glum, in agreement with what Mel was saying, staring intensely at the ground in front of them. He didn't want to look at Dusty, lest he be disappointed by her reaction too.

"Well," he said quietly, joining Ralph and Kirby in gazing at the snow at his feet. "Who wants to go?"

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Disaster. Balto silently thought this to himself when he saw Fang’s posture. Fang was resting all of his weight on his front legs. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, Fang was also leaning forward, front legs positioned parallel together, hind legs stretched as far as they could without leaving the ground. The instant Fang would start running forward, he would plow into the ground, nose first.

“Alright… hold on.” Balto called to Fang, as he recovered from his own bracing.
“Maybe we should start from square one?” he suggested, as chipper a tone as he could muster. Fang hadn’t been kidding when he said he didn’t have any experience.

Balto straightened himself, and stood tall. “First things first, let’s get the basic posture down. Watch what I do, and follow it as best you can, alright?”

Balto stepped forward, leaning forward just slightly. “OK... put your dominant paw forward, but keep your other paw back a ways. This way, you’ve got a good brace, but your balance isn’t compromised…”

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“Isn’t that something?” Boris said, commenting both Balto and Fang in the distance, and Sally’s story. “I remember when we found Balto. He was just a pup too, couldn’t have been more than a year old.” Boris remembered when he, Muk, and Luk had discovered Balto. A most unusual set of circumstances, but he didn’t talk much of it. He was surprised no one had asked before about how a goose had come to foster a wolfdog, but he didn’t really care to indulge in conversations outside of his close friends who already knew the story.

“I hadn’t had these two bears following me for more than two months. I could still tolerate them then!” He added jokingly. “We were moving up the river out that way (he gestured out to the east), looking for some fish in the river.”
He looked around, to be sure that neither Muk nor Luk were present, before leaning to Sally’s ear.

“These bears cannot swim you see, so they were trying to catch the fish close to the shore, to avoid going into the water.”
He pulled his head back, and resumed at a normal volume. Despite his cantankerous behavior at times, Boris knew that their unwillingness to swim was a sensitive subject to Muk and Luk, and avoided mentioning it around them if he could avoid it.

“Suddenly, a gray mass of fur splashed in front of us, and started floating downriver!” Boris waved his wings as if to make an eruption gesture. “When they saw it was a dog, they both slooshed out to bring him to shore. Luckily for young Balto, it was shallow, or they wouldn’t have gone in!”

Boris thought back to that day, the mass confusion that poor Balto had underwent.
“I don’t know where he came from, it was as if he fell from the sky. He didn’t know what had happened either, said he had felt the winds, and then the water. No trees, no mountains, no nothing around us!” Boris shook his head in disbelief, despite the event occurring many a time in his head.

“When he asked for his mother, we didn’t know what to do. But of course, Muk and Luk… they said they always wanted a puppy, so we just took him in.”

He looked back out to the two in the distance. “I don’t know that he ever did find her, or that she ever found him, but he’s turned out alright anyways!”

Dusty sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. "We walked on a long treck through the wilderness and nearly fell off a cliff to save Balto and Duke and you two are afraid of a cat?" she asked, glaring at them. "Our route has been changed to be out of this things' habitate. Plus, hunters walk through the woods, we'll be running through the woods at high speeds with all of us pulling together, on a set path."

Dusty looked around, looking at Mel for a second, not letting him interject. "Think about it. There's thousands of miles of Alaskan wilderness, we're not going to be hanging around in the woods waiting for this thing to attack. We've been running the same path through this things territory for awhile, the killings have happened over about a month, we've been running through its turf for that long and not even seen the thing, now we're out of it's territory."

Dusty set down next to Kodi, a firm look on her face. "We're safer than we've been the entire time this thing has been here and now you're scared? The only difference is you know it's here now and we're safer!"

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Fang blushed under his fear, getting embarrassed he'd messed up already. "Sorry..." he said, looking Balto's posture over quickly. He slowly got into position, watching Balto's movements carefully and managing to come kind of close. "Like this?" he asked, though he had his head up too high, which would throw him off a bit.

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

Sally nodded, giving a light smile. "I understand..." she said, watching them. "I can't imagine Balto suffered the same abandonment as Fang has," she replied. "It sounds to me he wondered off and got mixed up as to where he was...still, it's sad it happened that way."

Sally then smiled again. "On the otherhand, it feels good to be an adopted child's guardian, a bit better than your biological ones," she explained. "It feels like you're their guardian angel. Like you've saved them from harm...I've had to protect Fang all his life really...he's not a fighter, he's a peaceful sort honestly..."

Sally smirked and looked back to Boris. "I used to paint a white stripe down his back so predators would think he's a skunk, worked when he was a puppy, but that was about it. And even then, I had to stink up a few stubborn headed ones, like that Saber who was bullying him before."

Gratefully, Kodi looked to Dusty. Her support made the whole affair seem so obvious. After all, of all the miles stretched between them and White Mountain (Kodi suspected this is where they would be headed, though he wasn't 100 percent sure), what are the odds that the monster would be at the exact same place they would be, at the exact same time?

"Thanks, Dusty. Guess Mel was right, we should listen to the voice of reason." He glanced from Kirby and Ralph, who were nodding their heads in strained agreement, to the small dog out of the corner of his left eye.

"So..." Kodi switched his tone from the rather sharp tongued one to a more on-the-level one, imbued with a trace of sympathy. He could understand why Kirby and Ralph (even Dusty for that matter) wouldn't want to go. After all, putting yourself in harm's way for the sake others wasn't easy to do. However, he knew deep down that the duo would know the right thing to do.

"You guys in?"

With a stoic and heartfelt voice Kodi didn't expect, Ralph replied.

"Of course. Anywhere you go, you can count on us to be with you one hundred percent of the way."

Kirby chimed in. "Yeah! After all, what's the worst that could happen?"

Mel snorted quietly, but the others chose to write it off.

"That's excellent! I knew I could count on you guys!" Kodi exclaimed. Despite knowing that they would, with a little motivation, pull through, he felt an exorbitant amount of relief when they had pledged their allegiance.

Mel had to admit, he hadn't thought of the reasoning behind Dusty's explanation. He didn't like it, but he knew that Kodi had a stubborn streak a mile wide, accompanied by a sometimes unwieldy sense of duty. The common sense approach that Dusty had taken would only strengthen his resolve.

"Just... please just be careful. If I have to hear that we need a new mail team, I'll-"

"We'll be just fine!" Kodi interrupted before Mel gave himself another reason to worry, and another headache on Kodi's behalf.
"Besides, once we are finished with this run, we'll have more time on the weekend to jump start Fang's training."
Mel's morbid topic about a new mail team reminded Kodi about the crisis with Fang. Regardless of current mail team rosters, he hoped that Fang being added wouldn't be by the rather ghastly means to an end that Mel spoke of.

Kodi looked around, his team quickly catching on to what he was doing, and why. Where WAS Fang? Kodi hadn't seem him all morning, though he admitted he didn't think to look very hard. An idea sprang to mind. Not much happened happened in Nome without passing the watchful eyes and vigilant ears of a certain Basset Hound.

"Say Dipsy, did you by chance happen to see Fang around town?"

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"Alright, you're doing good!"

It was amazing what a slight change in posture could do for one's appearance. Just one slight issue hampered Fang's otherwise identical pose to Balto.

"Lower your head, just a little bit. You'll want to have a generally straight line from your head to your back, it lowers your wind resistance a good ways. Helps to maintain your balance too." he added, in case Fang didn't quite grasp the term "wind resistance".

Balto was surprised that what came relatively naturally to him had so much subtlety to it. He didn't think that teaching it would be a feasible task, but Fang was a quick study. However, the actual "running" aspect to running, he suspected, would be a lot more difficult to replicate for Fang. It wasn't simply about matching poses at that point, but maintaining a posture and pace that he himself would be comfortable with.

"When you are running, TRY to hold yourself like that. But don't be afraid to try something different, especially if you aren't comfortable with it." He remembered when Kodi had followed his advice, possibly too close to the letter, and wound up with an unruly lunging as his first practice running style. Here's hoping it would be more successful this time about, he thought.



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Boris laughed aloud at the thought of Fang scampering about with a white stripe painted down his back.
He would rather focus on the more jubilant aspects of Fang's childhood as opposed to his abandonment. Admittedly, despite Balto having an unusual set of circumstances for how he came into Boris' care, falling from the sky wasn't really comparable to being left to the wolves (Boris thought about the rather ironic application of the phrase, given Fang's mixed parentage) by your own flesh and blood.

"You can't go wrong with a good camouflage technique, you really can't." he spoke quickly, nervously. "In fact, I've thought often of how useful it would be to disguise myself as a bald eagle! It didn't work out so well though..."

Desperate to further change the subject from something so unfortunate, he focused on the subject at hand; Fang's training with Balto.

"So, it looks to be going well out there, yes?" Despite his age, his eyesight was sharp enough that he could see Fang's imitation of Balto's starting position, one that he had seen many a time before. "Look at that, eh? He'll be a champion runner in no time!"

Dusty shook her head. "No, but I heard from Dixie he was heading for your dad's place, probably to train," she stated, not mentioning what happened last night, as she didn't want to tarnish Balto's name. She knew he was just frustraited and didn't truly know what he was saying at the time.

Dusty looked around. "No sign of Saber and his gang though, that's good," she said, a hint of venom in her voice. "Those bullies are awful, they deserved what Sally gave them."

"Now what happened to Saber?" asked Dipsy, chewing up another piece of jerky. "I haven't heard any talk about that...come to think about it, I don't know much about Fang either..."

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

Fang nodded, listening intently. He adjusted his posture accordingly. "Alright...thanks Balto..." he said, smiling, his tail wagging a little bit. "It feels really good for someone to actually teach me...mom tried, but you know, she's a skunk and running isn't her strong suit," he explained, thinking. "That's probably why skunks have that nasty smell of theirs, they're not strong or fast, but they can send a bear running," he continued. "I like mom and her species, actually...maybe being raised by her is why I'm nothing like dad. I don't like fighting if I can help it, neither does mom. That's why they've got the stripes and that warning thing they do."

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

Sally nodded. "Yeah, I think so," she said, watching closely with a motherly smile. "Balto sure is a good teacher, but then again, he did teach Kodi to run as well..." she continued. "At least that's what I heard from some of the other dogs around town. Some are nice and talk to me," she explained, remembering. "I talked with Jenna too, nice female. It's funny, of all the people Steele talked bad about, he never talked bad about Jenna...I wonder why..."

"Oh... well... I guess that makes sense."

It's not that Kodi was surprised, because he wasn't. He simply figured that Fang would have asked him for help first, considering how close in proximity they were. He felt a slight pang of jealousy at the thought. But that couldn't be right, could it? After all, considering Fang had traveled so far to see Balto, not him!
Besides, what good would it have done for Fang to have asked him; they had to run mail that day. He couldn't have helped him to train regardless. Kodi pushed the emotion from his mind as best he could, and continued.

"I'm not sure what's going on with Saber, but good riddance." Kodi's disdain for Saber was apparent, as was the satisfaction that he was likely still recovering from his skunking. "If Fang is with Balto, then I don't doubt that Sally is close by. If they're smart, Saber and his gang will back off if they're up and in public." Among the many things Saber was, smart wasn't one of them, Kodi thought.

"Yeah! If they know what's good for them, they'll ba-"

Ralph stopped, at the sound that had pierced the air. He hadn't been the only one, the rest of group had also snapped to attention at the telltale tone of the postmaster's bell. "I guess we're up?" He directed his question to Kodi.

Kodi nodded in affirmation. The postmaster's bell. It was their summoning call, whenever Mr. Simpson wanted them. Despite Dusty's reassuring observations, Kodi (and he was sure that everyone else) had an unease about answering it today.

Remembering that he was supposed to be leading his team, both on sled and by example, Kodi jolted to a start and exclaimed "Everyone ready?" He hoped he didn't sound too falsely enthusiastic, but it seemed to work with the rest of his team. As he started down the road, Ralph and Kirby followed, with a grumbling Mel following suit.

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"It's no problem, really." Balto said with a bit of embarrassment. It was one thing when Kodi said it, as his own son. But coming from Fang? Entirely different. It was almost more satisfying hearing it come from gratitude, as opposed to obligation. Not that he thought Kodi felt obligated, but it felt different anyways.

"Truthfully, I've never seen a skunk run. They stand their ground pretty well." His nostrils flared again. The attack on Saber gave him a new appreciation for the power of the musk, but the scent memory still was still resonating with his own personal run-in's.

Ding Ding

Balto perked his head up. The postmaster's bell! As if instinctively, Balto started walking towards it, in his typical ritual to see his son going off for his mail run. Forgetting who he was with, he stopped quickly, and turned to Fang to explain what was going on.

"That's the postmaster's bell. Whenever he wants to get the team together, he gives it a ring." Hoping to bolster some form of confidence, he added "That'll be for you someday."

Partially motivated by his own desire to see his son again before he left, Balto asked, rather sheepishly "Would you mind if we went to see them off? It's kind of a... a tradition."

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Boris nodded his head. "Mmhm..."

One might have thought he was just feigning paying attention, but truthfully, Boris was deep in thought.

Come to think of it, Jenna had always been treated well- scratch that, he wouldn't have said that she was necessarily treated well, but Steele generally was much more civil to Jenna than he was to the other dogs around town. Boris suspected that Steele and Balto had competed for Jenna's affection, with Balto winning out obviously in the end. Jenna was likely smart enough to see through Steele's conniving personality as well, when none of the other female dogs seemed to.

"I am thinking that maybe Steele felt something for Jenna?" A style of reply Boris loved. Answer a question, with a statement, emphasized as a question. A way for him to get the info out without stating anything as fact, leaving just enough doubt that he could avoid the fallout should he be wrong, but being genuine enough that he could be credited as correct if he were.

"But, Balto won out in the end. Good thing too, beautiful puppies." The mentioning of Steele's romantic interests brought about another question.

"So, Fang's mother... What did you all know about her? Anything?"

Dusty looked to the two boys, then gladly walked ahead and got next to Kodi. "Come on boys, dont' be chickens," she stated, looking back. "Yeah, it's a scary thing out there, but we'll be safe. Like I said, we've been running through this thing's turf for weeks and never saw it once."

Jenna set next to the post office, waiting for her son. She loved Kodi, she never missed seeing him off. It's something important to see your son succeed in his dreams, it made her so happy. She then saw Kodi. "Kodi!" she called, smiling and wagging her tail. "Goodmorning," she said, walking up to him. "Did you sleep well?" she asked, giving him a nuzzle.

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

Fang nodded without a second thought. "Yeah, I'd love to," he said, wagging his tail. "After all, they're my friends, it's the least I can do, right?" he asked, clearly happy. "They took me in and gave me the best place I've stayed at since I was a pup, I owe them that much," he continued, looking towards that direction. "Let's go!"

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

Sally sighed. "Her name was Sable, she was a hybred, just like Balto," she continued. "Well, she took a lot more after the dog than wolf, to the point that Steele didn't know she was a wolfdog when they met," she explained, giving a sigh. "From what I've heard from Fang, the time they were together was the only time he'd ever seen his father truly happy..."

Sally then gave a sad sight, shaking her head. "Then, no matter what she did to hide it, Steele eventually found out her and Fang's ancestory...their relationship ended just like that, and he chased her off, then chased Fang off in another direction...poor Fang hasn't seen his mother since he was a little baby...but from what he's told me, she was a beautiful and kindhearted wolfdog. She knew a lot about herbs too, a healer he said...I wish I could find her...I do my best for Fang...but it hurts to know that his mother loved him and thinks she'll never see her baby again," she said, giving a frown sadly.

"Psh... easy for you to say." Kirby replied to Dusty's chicken remark. However, upon glancing at the food bowl branded with his name, filled with delicious kibble, an animosity he had had all but vanished.

"Mom!" Kodi returned the nuzzle affectionately. He had, in the turmoil regarding Balto's outburst, almost forgotten that he did indeed have a parent he could turn to. He was glad she had shown up, despite the shifted schedule. He was expecting to just leave quietly, but having someone to cheer him on for the trip there and back was a lot more motivating than he would have though.

"I slept... really well actually." He turned back to look at his team and Dusty, eating their food. He should probably join them, as he hadn't eaten yet.

Jenna didn't let on upon greeting Kodi that she had known anything about what Balto had said, or that he and Dusty had gotten together. As desperate as he was to avoid mentioning the former, he was incredibly anxious to reveal the latter. Again, it was a mutual decision that he and Dusty had to make together. What with the seemingly inescapable drama everywhere they went recently, their personal relationship simply didn't get the exposure they probably should have given it.
Kodi had hoped to discuss it with her while on the run, but being the lead dog, he had to pay extra special attention to Mr. Simpson mushing their new directions. Still, he felt hopeful.

*ding*. The post office door opened, with Mr. Simpson loading another satchel of mail on their sled. There was quite a number of them on there already. Kodi suspected, and probably rightly so, that they were filled with letters, postcards, and care packages to the neighboring communities to make sure that Nome's distant loved ones were still holding steady in light of the recent attacks.

He broke the nuzzle with his mother, and although he knew he wasn't there, Kodi looked up and around for a sign of his father. Now Kodi had a choice to make- either keep up the guise to his mother that Balto and him were still on good terms, to keep her from worrying too much (not that she wouldn't be already worried stiff with them running a route with a man-eating cat on the loose), or tell her the truth about what had happened. As much as he wanted to do what he knew was right, he felt that it would cause more harm than good. If what Dusty said was true about Balto being sorry about his choice of words, then having Jenna pursue the issue further wouldn't help the manner at all. Just more time spent explaining what was hopefully a breach in temper, a misunderstanding?"

So, with the guise he went.

"Is...uh... is Dad going to be here this morning?" He hoped it sounded genuine, because a certain part of him, a part of him that felt nothing but warmth and comfort about his father still wanted nothing more than for Balto to arrive to see him off on what was sure to be his most willfully dangerous mail run yet.

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"Excellent!" Despite the rather strange day and timing for the post run, Balto was still excited to see his son go and take off.
"Follow the bell, or follow me." He said to Fang. The two took off at a moderate clip towards the town. Balto glanced behind him. Fang was admirably keeping the pose that Balto had taught him, but his running style was still mighty uncouth. Whenever Fang lifted his hind legs to propel himself forward, they kicked outward as opposed to behind him, and were in the air for far too long. As a result, a good portion of the time Fang spent running was on his two front legs. Ironically, Fang's malnutrition was working in his favor; if Fang was the size and weight he was supposed to be, Balto feared that his current style would lead to injury in his front legs.

It's the first day, he thought as he slowed down just a bit to enter an alleyway running parallel to the main street.

Past the garbage can that's always turned over, yet never has things added to it.

Past the house that smelled of fresh wood all of the time. Balto wondered why that house in particular never lost it's fresh scent throughout all of the months he had passed it, yet other newer houses gravitating to the standard wet-wood smell in a manner of weeks.

This left corner right up here...But Wait!

Balto skidded to a halt, hopping swiftly to the right in case Fang was following too close. Sudden, Balto had a revelation about seeing Kodi this morning. Immediately, the reason Kodi had approached, then stopped this morning was transparent. Kodi was doing exactly what he was doing; going to see him, but not following through. The reason he suspected was that Kodi simply wasn't ready to talk to him yet. And when he thought of it, Balto wasn't quite ready to clear the air just yet. He needed time to get his thoughts together, and he knew that Kodi felt the same way.

Although Fang was immediately behind him, Balto whispered quietly, not to Fang, but to himself, "Not yet. Not just yet."

He peered around the corner, careful not to expose himself. The team was almost ready to go, with the sled looking much heavier than usual. Jenna was there, talking with Kodi. She still looked in good spirits, so was it possible that Kodi didn't tell her about what he'd done? Balto looked from the left to the right, as if the possibilities were visualizing themselves in front of him. He peered out again, almost completely unaware that he wasn't the only one in that alley that wanted to see his son and friends off.

Jenna looked around, confused. "I don't know...I haven't seen him this morning..." she admitted, a little worried. "This isn't like him...he's never missed seeing you off..." she replied, concern now feeling her face. She loved Balto with all her heart, she had attacked a Grizzily in his defense, anytime he did something that wasn't like him, it worried her.

"I hope this doesn't upset you too much," said Jenna to Kodi. "I'm sure he's got a good reason...I'm still worried though..."

Dusty looked at Kirby and rolled her eyes, then eating her own food. She was often the "balance" of the team, which was good. She wasn't stubborn and didn't fight with the group. She wasn't perfect, but for this group, she was normally the one who went in between the others and helped talk to the others. She normally set on her bed, listening to everyone. She knew the group, that's why she always knew what to say, she simply paid attention.

"Alright," said Dusty, looking at the other two. "We'll be careful, just don't mess up and do anything that might make us stop, we keep going until we get to a safe rest station and we'll be just fine," she advised. "Ok?"

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"Look out!" yelled Fang, crashing into Balto. "Oops...sorry, Balto..." he said, getting up and shaking off, then blushing. "I...uh...didn't know how to stop when running like that...I just kind of slid out of control..." he explained, the alleyway telling the story with overturned trashcans and generally looking a mess.

"I'm really sorry," said Fang, as if expecting to be admonished. After all, the only paternal experiences he'd ever had in his life were being told he sucked at everything, by Steele. So he expected something bad to happen for messing up, reguardless of Balto's character. To Fang, it was just how male dogs acted to their kids.

"That is... most unfortunate" Boris said with uncertainty. Boris didn't quite know what to say; he hadn't ever dealt with such a grim case of abandonment before, and was unprepared for what he was supposed to say or do.

From the sounds of it, Sable was still looking for Fang, and at the very least, wanted to be with him. Boris didn't know from where she had been cast aside by Steele, or where she was forsaken to. As far as Boris could tell, she could be anywhere.

Given what he had learned from her descriptor, it didn't sound like she would have any trouble finding a sensible pack or home that would take her in. Still wondering how in the world someone apparantly as good as Sable wound up with Steele, Boris tried to brighten the mood.

"I'm sure that she'll find him! Or he'll find her... or she'll find... Bah." He started off strong, but quickly fizzled out. The situation seemed hopeless.

"Well, at least your boy can learn to run here, wherever he...got...off...to?"

Boris looked back out to where Fang and Balto were training, and both of them had vanished.

"Did we miss something?" He asked, bewildered.

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

"Yeah, so no pulling to the right, Kirby" Ralph chided.

"Should I even tell you what not to do? We'd be here for days!" Kirby shot back.

Despite being a fine mediator, there were some things not even Dusty could do anything to resolve.

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"Mmph!"

Fang's impact against Balto was much more momentous than Balto had anticipated. In his excitement, Balto must have run farther ahead of his trainee than he thought he had.

The force of the blow pushed Balto forwards, exposing himself in the street for only a moment before he quickly ducked back behind the corner in the alley. In the blur that he saw of the group, it didn't appear that anyone had noticed him.

Balto looked back at the wreckage left in the wake of Fang's first attempted halt from a run. Admittedly, he thought it looked like there was a concious effort in knocking over as many things as possible, but with the amount of force that Fang had struck him with, it was clear that there was simply too much momentum built up to come to a clean stop.

"Don't- Don't worry about it. Our species aren't known for their graceful stops."

He shook off the snow that had sprayed onto him from Fang's slide. "Especially" he added with emphasis, "when there's slick snow involved". He saw Fang's embarassment, clearly bothered by such a simple mistake, and told him as comfortingly as he could Really! It's no big deal! I can't tell you how many times I've come to a stop in rougher shape than this! Everyone makes mistakes, even the great 'Balto'" he remarked with playful sarcasm. "So, don't get hung up on it, alright?"

Balto continued surveilling the team, trying to think of what he would tell Fang when the question as to "Why are we stopping?" inevitably arose. He wasn't sure he'd have an answer.

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

Kodi nodded in agreement. "It's fine. Yeah, it's a bit strange. But I'm sure-"

A flash from the corner of his eye. Kodi focused on it for what seemed like less than half a second, but could make it out. It was Balto!

So he did make it, Kodi thought. The verbal barrage the night before notwithstanding, Kodi felt genuinely happy that his father was still there for him. However, it was only a glimpse. Balto had disappeared, likely into the alleyway that he was seen next to. Kodi didn't mind; that he had still came to see him off, even from a concealed position, lifted Kodi's spirits just as much as when he saw Jenna waiting for him.

"-But I'm sure he had a good reason" Kodi finished slowly. "I've heard he's helping to train Fang, so that would explain why they couldn't make it."

*ding*. The door opened, then promptly closed again.

"...This the last of it? Thank goodness! Wish me luck Mr. Connor!"

It was almost time.

Kodi quickly stepped to his food, conspicuously full alongside his team's empty dishes, and started eating. When he was about halfway done, he stopped, and returned to his mother.

"The rest of that is for Fang, okay? He's going to need it with Dad as his trainer!" He added lightheartedly.

"Kodi! C'mere boy!" Mr Simpson was ready to strap Kodi in, the rest of the team already adorning their leather belts.

Kodi turned around from his mother, and was in the process of having his harness pulled over him when he added "Give them my regards." For Jenna's sake, he tried, though he knew it would do no good to quell his mother's worry, to reassure her. "We'll come back safely, promise."

Though the road ahead was uncertain, Kodi and his team were ready to take it at their owner's command.
The crack of a whip. That curious phrase, "Mush!".

They were off.

Sally sighed, looking out. "Yeah, they left," she said with a small bit of envy. "You know, being a skunk is nice, I'm more than able to protect myself, but sometimes I wish I didn't have such short legs," she explained, looking at her rather small legs. They were quite short, but skunks weren't known for being fast. "Couldn't keep Fang in my view when he was a little kid since I couldn't keep up. I'm betting you don't have those troubles with Balto, must be great to be able to fly," she said, giving a sigh, unaware that Boris had Acrophobia and rarely flew.

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

Fang smiled slightly. "Thank you...it's just, the only male adult I know is my dad...you can imagine what it's like doing ANYTHING wrong around him..." he continued, a little upset. "I honestly wasn't expecting you to be so nice in response to me messing up..."

OOC: Can't think of much to do with Dusty, since she's a few dogs behind Kodi and they can't talk in privite, so I'm hoping Ralph and Kirby will start a conversation.

Boris chuckled "Flying? It's a... it's a bit overrated." He remembered the last time he had brought the rather embarrassing fear of heights to attention. "I much prefer staying close to the ground. Makes it easier for everyone else to talk to me, you know?"

Boris peered out to the town, scanning it for his friend. Instead, he saw a sled rolling towards the exit, and towards the boat simultaneously.

"Is that? It is! There's a mail run today, look, look!"

Boris flew atop the roof of the boat (about as comfortable as he liked to go above the ground, in flight or no), so he could get a better look.

"You see, Sally? Fang is going to be there one day! Haha, you just wait!"

As the team turned further and further away from the boat, and towards the snow-tipped forest, he sat down and told her, yet again, "You just wait..."

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

"Really?" Balto replied with astonishment. Getting used to that kind of treatment... not anymore. Not if Balto had anything to say about it.

"Well, get used to it! Should be nice for a change, right?"

The sounds of a cracking whip pierced Balto's ears, and he returned his attention to his son's team, who were now moving. The direction they were moving looked to be down the street towards the exit leading to his boat; and also the way they just came from.

Balto wasn't ready to see his son go just this minute. Only a couple more seconds would be all he needed, he told himself.

"C'mon, back. Back!" He exclaimed to Fang, and took off backwards, caught up in seeing his son again, and leaving Fang to catch up. He didn't like it, but this was important. As Balto dashed through the alley (dodging the newly placed obstacles from Fang's wake), he glanced to the right at each opening, hoping to see the team again each time.

He cleared the alley, and was out in the open tundra, where he caught the one glimpse he was looking for. His son was proudly leading them on their route, like he always did.

"Best of luck, Kodi." he said quietly. When they traveled over a hill, out of sight, he turned around to go back to meet the likely exhausted and confused Fang, and resume training.

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

Mr Simpson hadn't said anything yet. To Kodi, this meant that the route, at least the one immediately out of town, was the same as normal. The weather was overall very compliant with the team today; snow was a bit slippery, but it was nothing his team couldn't handle.

"So far, so good, right?" Kodi called enthusiastically behind him.

Kirby, immediately to Kodi's right flank, replied "Yup!" Then, he grumbled something that Kodi couldn't hear.

Sensing a conversation commencing, Ralph joined in, extra loud so that his voice could carry to Kodi from his position behind Kirby..

"So Kodi... Anything you wanted to tell us?"

"Tell you? About what?" Kodi asked quizzically.

"WHAT?" Ralph shouted back.

Kodi turned his head around so that his voice would project more clearly. Immediately, he regretted doing so; The legs will go where the eyes wander was indeed a true sentiment. He whipped his head around, and straightened the sled out, at the pleas from the rest of his team. He shook his head and carried on with poise.. Everyone makes mistakes, he told himself.

He shouted, much louder than normal into the winds howling in front of him "I SAID, ABOUT WHAT?!"


Ralph yelled up to Kodi "ABOUT A CERTAIN TWO DOGS?"

Fresh on his mind, Kodi replied "You mean Dad and Fang? They're busy-"

"WHAT?"

Annoyed, Kodi mustered his voice yet again. "I SAID, DAD AND FANG ARE BUSY TRAINING"

"What?" Ralph asked yet again, only this time, it was in genuine confusion. He was expecting Kodi to talk about how his and Dusty's relationship had evolved so rapidly, not about Fang and Balto.

Now Kodi couldn't hear what Ralph had said. "WHAT?" He cried backwards.

"ENOUGH!" This time, it was Kirby who had screamed out loud. "I AM SICK OF YOU TWO SHOUTING ACROSS FROM ME!"

Ralph apologized to Kirby, Kodi following suit.

"Not a problem. Interference always was a problem out here." he said jokingly, in reference to the trees looking to be zipping past the team. "I can pass your words along, if you like. Just please," he winced his face for emphasis, even though no one was looking at it, "please stop shouting, okay?"

"Sounds good to me. Anyways, about Fang's team status-"

"Huh? Fang? What team is this?" Kirby said. He wasn't doing so handy a job at passing the word along.

Kodi tried his best to include confusion in his voice, while still maintaining a degree of volume. "You mean, Dusty didn't tell you guys? About Fang... joining our... no?"

The team was going around a sharp corner, and were slow enough so that both Kirby and Ralph could hear Kodi's jibberish. They did however, make out just enough that they were both convinced to shout simultaneously "DUSTY!"

Ralph, who was closest (position wise, on the sled) to Dusty questioned her. "I heard we were training Fang, but what's this about joining our team? Our full team?"

Sally nodded, watching the dogs heading out and smiling. "I know...it's his dream," she said, happily. "My own mother always said that dreams are like water," she continued, looking out at the horizon.

"Like water, dreams can twist and turn, even take on another form," said Sally, watching the sled team disappear into the distence as she thought of Fang, of his dreams, of how hard he wanted to be with that sled team one day. Any sled team after anyway. He always wanted that...he always wanted to succeed and do what his father had cheated himself, and Fang, out of. "But it's always a dream. And like water, everyone needs one, rather they want to admit it or not."

"But like water, it can become corrupted and polluted," she explained, giving a frown. "A corrupted dream is like a destructive flood, it destroys everything that person holds closest too them. A corrupted dream knows no mercy and it consumes the person..." she continued, then gave a sigh. "...That's what happened to steal. His dream to be the best sled dog became an all consuming desire until himself was all he could think of and by the time he'd managed to filter some of that desire, he'd been polluted with hate, which ruined the best shot at happyness he'd ever had...you know, I honestly pity Steele sometimes..."

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

When Balto found Fang, he'd somehow got himself tangled up in a bunch of ropes and was hanging up upside down. "...How did this even happen?" he asked, looking around bewildered. "I was just running and tripped...and ended up like this...somehow..."

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

Dusty blushed under her fur. "Well we didn't say anything about that, but we're his best bet, you know?" she asked, keeping a level run, pacing herself, watching herself so not to trip. "Well think about it, we're the only team to run the entire winter, but I guess a sled dog racer is another possibility," she pointed out, giving a sigh. It was a bombshell, but she knew what they'd BEEN talking about, something neither she nore Kodi were ashamed of acourse. "But it's his choice, plus having a reserve dog for the team will make sure we are never caught a dog short and it might let them rotate us and give some of us a rest on occasion," she explained, trying to show how it could benefit them. "I'm sure Ralph's toenail could use the rest," she said, sarcasum in her voice, the toenail thing really annoyed her because Ralph just wouldn't SHUT UP about it!

Boris was silent. He didn't know what to say. He hadn't liked Steele, not at all, but Sally somehow made him seem more... pitiful. A tragic, broken sort of of pitiful.

However, Steele was his own undoing. Boris wouldn't misunderstand that. His absolute and illogical hatred of creatures not pure of geneology led him to being driven from town (indirectly, but it amongst the stems for Steele's treachery on the eve of the serum run), and his unremitting intolerance continued to double-edge himself outside of Nome, with Sable and Fang.

The waves lapping on the ocean was the only noise for an excruciating set of minutes, save for the faint bustling of townsfolk far away. Boris looked to the town, for a sign of Balto and Fang's presence. At this point, Boris would settle for anything- ANYTHING to cease this increasingly awkward streak of silence.

Balto and Fang, there's a start. Where were they? Boris assumed they were off to see the sled team, but the team had left a good while ago, and neither had returned since.

Although Boris knew that Sally was likely just as knowledgable of Fang and Balto's whereabouts, Boris asked her anyways.

"So uh.... Where do you think those two got off to?"

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

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... how did you? There weren't even this many- how did those get up there?"

All legitimate (and unfinished) questions, but none of which Balto would likely get an answer to. Dwelling on how it happened wouldn't help to set this mess right, but Balto was curious how Fang was able to trip more vertically than other dogs could jump.

"OK, stay calm. We'll get you down." Fang appeared to be more confused than anything, not in panicked hysterics. That would make this a lot harder, and judging from the serpentine tangling of the ropes, this wasn't going to be very easy to begin with.

"So this rope goes here... knots here... I'll have to undo this one first...but then I'll have to undo THIS one first..."
Balto was thinking out loud, so that Fang could have some sort of insight as to what was happening. The more Balto tried to decode the rope puzzle, the more complicated it became. Fang should be proud; it would take human hunters years of experience to craft a net-like trap this effective, and it took Fang all of one posture lesson to do it.

From what Balto could tell, the topmost section of rope was a laundry line hanging from an awning two floors up, with several of the ropes hanging off it. Balto wasn't sure why the owners of said line thought it would be a good idea to designate a laundry line for ropes, but Balto didn't understand humans very much anyways.

The smart play here was to work his way backwards, starting from the knots closest to Fang, and undoing just enough so that
he could get out of it. A trying task for a dog elevated as high as Fang was. Balto needed to get him on the ground first, and it looked like undoing the laundry line was his best bet.

Balto scanned the alley for some sort of padding to lay down below Fang, to soften the blow. Thankfully, several sacks were nearby against the building on his right, filled with winter coats and the like. The words "marked for donation" were written on the sides of the white sacks. Balto hopped over, and started to drag one at a time underneath the dangling Fang.

"Mm gonna gmm mew dmm, mm - PAH!" Balto spit out as he released the coats from his mouth. "I said, I'm gonna get you down, but I'm getting some padding first. One more bag ought to do it!" Balto dragged the second sack across the snow covered ground. This one was lighter than the first, but it wasn't by much. He set them up next to each other, took a step back to make sure it was in order, and began deliberating how best to get up to the laundry line.

A wooden door connected to a wooden fence by two rusty hinges running perpendicular to the building seemed his best choice. Balto leapt atop the door, and struggled to maintain his balance as it wobbled dangerously. From there, he spotted a ladder and a set of stairs leading from floor to floor, all the way up to the roof. A fire escape was mighty convenient, although Balto wondered why this building of all buildings would have one. He quickly stepped up to the roof, and saw on the topmost window a sign "Emergency Exit - Raleigh's Ropesmith".

"That explains all of the rope" Balto said to himself as he approached the wheel holding the laundry line in place. Like the hinges on the door, it was a bit rusted over. The rope was taut in the groove atop the wheel. Having a dog inadvertently pulling down via a rope snare would tend to do that.

He looked down in the alley to see Fang's backside skyward, still upside down.
"OK Fang, we're almost done!" He called reassuringly. "Just uh... aim for those white bags when you're falling, OK? You'll be fine!"

He extended his head past the wheel, and gripped the rope sideways with his teeth. With as much strength he could muster, Balto lifted upwards with his head. Surprisingly, the rope lifted out of it's groove, without as much resistance as he would have thought. Seizing the opportunity, he yanked the rope to his right, enough so that it wouldn't inset back to the wheel. His jaw sore, he let it go and cried "Be careful!" as Fang and his rope cage crashed down onto the winter coat cushions.

Balto quickly turned and started rushing down the fire escape the same way he came, concernedly calling out to Fang "Are you hurt? Is everything alright? Fang? Fang?!?"

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

Kodi listened attentively. Since Dusty was facing forward, her assertive voice reached his ears.

As the team took yet another left, Kodi yelled back to a bickering Kirby and Ralph from across his body.
"Nothing's set in stone yet, understood?" He said. "I-we just want you to prepare in case he DOES end up with us."

Kodi remembered when he was the new dog. Aside from some harmless (yet he remembered highly irritating) teasing, the team was welcoming to him. Kirby had a bit of a superiority complex, but Kodi couldn't tell if he was faking that or not. Either way, he got over it.

Speaking of, Kirby replied. "I guess we'll deal with that when we get there. But Kodi, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot!" Kodi said, relieved that he had more time to prepare both Fang for the team, and the team for Fang.

"We're on a new route right?"

"We're supposed to be, yeah." Kodi was uncertain that their route was new. This section of wood looked familiar, and they had turned in a left circle for what seemed a while now. "I'm not sure what's going on with Mr. Simpson. I'm only following what I'm told, Kirby."

"Oh... okay." Kirby told him solemnly. Kodi wasn't the only one who was frustrated by the growing sense of deja vu surrounding the left turns, it seemed.

"Alright Kodi, slow it on down!" Mr Simpson barked to him.

Kodi's feet left the ground temporarily as he increased his stride, but steadily reduced his pace. "We're slowing down, guys. Hold up!" The time his feet spent in the air were now spent back on the ground equivocally, with the rest of his team's reduced speed making it easier.

With the wind no longer shrieking past them, Ralph shouted up to Kodi "Why are we slowing down? I don't like this!"

Kodi shook his head "I don't know, Ralph, but hopefully it means we'll get out of this loop!"

Another order from the sled. "Bring it in, bring it in!" It was Mr. Simpson's code word for "Stop the sled!".

"We're stopping?" Ralph and Kirby exclaimed simultaneously.

Kodi didn't like it one bit. Of all the times to stop, not when they were on a highly dangerous and untravelled route, he thought. Still, if his team saw him fretting about it, how would they handle it? He kept calm and relayed the order back on his team with bravado.

"You heard him! In this clearing right here, bring it in!" With hesitation, the sled slowly decreased it's pace and came to a halt in the clearing. When the motion stopped, the woods around them, foreign to Kodi at least, were eerily quiet.

Ralph looked back to Dusty, then up to Kodi, and his eyes widened, as if he'd remembered something hugely important. "Is there anything ELSE you wanted to tell us, Kodi? About a certain two dogs"

Exasperated, Kodi replied "About what? This isn't really the best-"

"Fine!" Ralph snapped. He turned sharply to face Dusty, almost tangling his straps in the process. "Dusty! What's the deal with you and Kodi?"

Kodi looked surprised "Oh! That! Well, you see-"

This time, it was Kirby who stepped in. "Not the best time, right Kodi?"

Kodi looked to Dusty, and he smiled.

Sally shrugged. "I think I heard Balto say something about a totem pole," she replied, looking around the thundra. "So Boris...you're Russian, aren't you?" she asked, realizing Steele was an akward topic. "The town me and Fang stayed in once had some Russian immagrents there, very nice people, hard workers," she stated, thinking back to that town.

She looked at the ocean nearby. "Do you ever miss where you came from?" she asked, thinking. "I think I would personally. If I lived that far from home, I'd be pretty homesick."

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

Fang screamed as he fell and hit the pile of clothes. He poked his head out. "I'm alright!" he called, squirming back to the surface but still pretty tied up. "I have no idea how this was physically possible..." he said, still very confused and embarrased, he really had no idea how this happened.

"Uh...what happened here?" asked Jenna, watching the two, cocking her head in confusion. "Uh...I thought you were just training...did that training involve being tied up like being captured by hunters?" she asked, completely confused. She sighed, knowing her family always got into trouble, but that was to be expected with THIS family.

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

Dusty blushed a little under her fur. "Well, I don't see any reason to be ashamed of it," she said, smiling. "We had to tell them sometime," she continued, looking around the clearing. She didn't hear or see anything out of the oridinary, so she looked back. She smiled at Kodi, but since they were just topped, she didn't want to mess up the alignment of the dogs. "How did you guys find out?" she asked, looking to Kirby and Ralph, thinking. She couldn't really figure out how they'd figured out, they'd not mentioned it. Though she'd fallen asleep with Kodi last night, so they may have seen it. "I mean not that it really matters, but I'd like to know to be honest."

Kira gave a low growl, watching the group from the distence. Oh, she'd like to scare them, that's for sure, give them a little jump. But she needed them, for now. So she just slowly watched, keeping downwind.

Boris looked out to the ocean with Sally, deep in thought, almost wistful. His next statement would claim otherwise.

"The motherland? Nah!" He shook his wings off, as if to stave off unpleasant memories that had been brought about. Boris remembered Balto asking him a similar question about three years ago, not too long before the medicine run.

"It's much nicer here. The animals, I mean. So many birds back home had such grudges, I don't know why! Those nice immigrants... I think that all of the nice folk get out of Mother Russia as soon as they can. Maybe it's the air up there, but you've got some real cold folk there. Oh, and the weather is better here too."

After spending time with Boris, and seeing his reactions with Muk and Luk, one would wonder why in the world Boris simply didn't send them packing. Truth is, Boris shared something in common with them, aside from a general color.

Muk and Luk (mostly Muk, Luk didn't speak too much) had sometimes mentioned that they were shamed by other polar bears because they couldn't swim. This quirk struck a chord with Boris, who's fear of heights rendered him a grounded bird. Back in Russia, the other geese wouldn't let him live it down.

So Boris left to Alaska. It attracted him for a number of reasons, one of which was the climate. It was cold and snowy much of the year, just like home. Another reason, the one that he didn't talk about, was that it was a melting pot of cultures, people, and any other sort of trait you could theoretically melt. Denizens here wouldn't judge a bird that didn't like flying, and to Boris, that acceptance (or tolerance, he didn't particularily care) was everything he ever wanted.

"I couldn't leave, even if I wanted to! Muk and Luk would be hopeless without me. Balto..." he shuddered as he said his name. "Balto would just be lost. So, I watch over them as best I can. Doesn't afford a lot of time for vacations, eh?"

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

Balto's eyes widened at the question.

"J-Jenna!" he cleared his throat, which had suddenly gone dry. He hadn't expected her to find them here; the whole reason he had stayed in the alleyway was to avoid detection. It was mainly from Kodi he was keeping a distance, but if Kodi told Jenna of Balto's harsh words (Balto wasn't sure on this, and he wasn't going to ask such an obvious question)... well, he'd find out regardless.

"We were -ahem- we were going to see Kodi off, from our training. But we umm.. we took a scenic route and Fang well..."

Balto motioned up and down the alley, garbage and other objects strewn about in complete and utter disarray.

"Well, Fang tripped."

In hindsight, Balto wasn't completely surprised that Jenna tracked them. She did have a sense of smell, and if she had ANY sense of hearing, there was no way she could have missed the racket they had made.

As much as he loved Jenna, Balto felt responsible for getting Fang into this predicament, and wanted to make sure he was alright instead of his daily greeting ritual with Jenna. After all, if Balto hadn't been such a wallflower about seeing his son off, they wouldn't have needed to traverse this unwittingly trap laden alley. Balto moved over to Fang, and helped pull a rope snared around his ankle away.

"You sure you're okay?" He raised his head to observe where Fang had been hanging moments ago, and deduced that it was pretty high up. "That was quite a fall, so take it easy, alright?"

Balto felt, and maybe it was just him, a nervous tension in the air. He regretted not telling Kodi how he felt before he left, because he could already tell that holding it in from himself and those around him would eat him alive until the matter was resolved.

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

Kodi lifted his head, and looked around, much like he observed Dusty doing just moments ago. He felt an eerie sensation, yet a familiar one. It was as though he was being watched, the same sensation engulfing him like it had when he had been accosted three nights ago. Not a good feeling to have, given that they were most absolutely immobile at the time.

As quickly as it had come however, it faded. Kodi carefully pulled his gaze back in on the group. He looked at Dusty, and smiled again. Now that it had been brought up, they WERE together. Perhaps the timing and structure wasn't the most ideal for it, but Kodi was glad that it had been officially recognized by the group.


"How did we find out, Ralph?"
"We'll tell her how, won't we, Kirby?"
"We most certainly will, Ralph."
"Because Dusty, let us tell you. We're sharp!"
"Razor sharp!"
"And we see things."

Kirby drew in close to the group, oblivious to the straps that were dangerously close to tangling. He whispered, "We see... EVERYTHING". He made sure each syllable was emphasized in the word.

"And imagine what we thought when we came back home last night!" continued Ralph. "We saw Kodi, with a Dusty shaped blanket."
"We saw Kodi with a -what?" Kirby exclaimed at the awkward analogy.
"Well, it fits, don't it?"
"I suppose, but really?"
"MOVING ON! So yeah, we saw you and him awfully close." Ralph continued, slightly annoyed.
"Bugs... in a rug".
"That was our confirmation. Because, with our observational skills, we had seen signs before."
"Small things, that normal dogs would never think to notice!"
"Things like..." Ralph started, nodding at Kirby.
"Kodi's face." Kirby finished solemnly.
"Kodi's face." Ralph echoed.
"That was a big - Look! He's doing it now!"

Kodi rattled his head back and forth, his expression changing from a lost dreamy one to a confused and somewhat embarrassed one. "What? My face? What's wrong with it?"


Both Ralph and Kirby were quick to jump in on this, reassuring Kodi that there was in fact, nothing wrong with his face.

"There's nothing wrong with it!" Cried Kirby.
"Well, nothing really WRONG... you've got a small scar there, and your nose is-"
"-Zip it Ralph!" Kirby stopped Ralph before he blundered too much. "Point is Kodi, you just got this expression. A puppy love kind of expression, am I right? Hahahaha!" Kirby laughed at his pun.

Kodi sat down, looked to his feet, and mumbled quietly, still embarrassed.

Kirby kept going, only too eager to answer Dusty's question with as much detail as possible.

"That wasn't the only thing though. You always treated Dusty differently than you treated us."


Kodi snapped upright, eager to defend himself. "Hey! I've always tried my best to treat everyone on this team equally!"


Ralph stepped in this time "Whoa there, calm down Kodi. Not like that."

Kirby threw his two cents in too "Yeah, not like that. You've always been good about telling us of our progress when it came to the team. It's just that with Dusty... I don't know. You always were more... fragile with her."


Kodi raised his eyebrow and cocked his head. "Fragile?" he asked.


Ralph, for better or worse, tried to explain what Kirby meant. "It's like you were more careful not to say hurtful things to her, and stuff along those lines."

In having questions' answered, Kodi was getting more confused. "Wait, do I say hurtful things to you two? I don't mean to, really, I don't!"

Now Kirby was getting frustrated. "Ugh, Kodi! You're missing the point here! It's not about how you treat US-"
"-it kind of is though." Ralph chimed in.
"Maybe by comparison to how he treats her, it is, but it's really indirectly connected, if at all. But that's not the point either! Really Kodi, you had a different air about you when you were with Dusty. I think EVERYONE saw it, except for probably you two!" Kirby finished with relish, having finally revealed to his friend what he had claimed to have seen all along in Kodi and Dusty's blossoming relationship.

This information for Kodi was a bit tough to swallow. He liked to think he knew the signals he was relaying to others, communicating without speaking, but all of this talk was foreign to him. "I don't understand. I didn't really act- Did I? Was it that obvious?"

Kodi appeared shamed that his fondness for Dusty was , and had been, so transparent. He looked to Dusty, and asked "Did you know? Could you tell that I... you know... liked you?"

Kodi thought it strange that not 16 hours ago, he had proudly told Dusty that he loved her, but asking about how they felt prior to confession was still so very, very awkward.