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Well, this is one topic that I opened to publish my first Balto fanfic. It's titled "The Chronicles of Pakak" and speaks about my original character Pakak. If you like Balto fanfics with original ideas, I think you'll like this one.

But beware, this fanfic has some controversial themes, so if you're a sensitive person, I suggest you to read it carefully.

For last, I know that some things on my fanfic referring to historical characters (like Gunnar Kaasen) may be unreal, so if some descendant of any historical character reads this fanfic, I hope he or she doesn't sue me. Now that it's over, read the prologue of my fanfic, and review it, please.

Prologue

The snowflakes were falling from the sky, like it was usual on that time of the year, the hardest of all seasons, called winter. One of those icy particules passed through the solidd bars of a cage, and landed right on the nose of a sleeping feline. The gigantic cat had pale-orange fur with black stripes, except on his muzzle, belly, and two small spots above the eyes, where it was white. The feline was a male Siberian Tiger, a member of the biggest specie of felines existing, and his name was Pakak.
However, he didn’t was a sleeping feline for much longer, because after the snowflake hit his nose, the feline sneezed loudly, being forced to wake up. For him, probably he would never wake up, because on that moment he was having a wonderful dream, where he managed to break the iron bars of his prision, and come out of it. But, as his eyes opened, the dream instantly broke. Pakak just couldn’t help but to groan of irritation. But now the moment had disappeared, and, because he was not sleepy at the moment, it wouldn’t return for a long time. There was nothing the tiger could do for it, except to get up.
After standing on his four paws, the first thing he did was to look around his cage, trying, in vain, to discover a way out. But it was in vain. The only new things that existed in the small space and weren’t there when he fell asleep were some snowflakes. The huge beast groaned, and began wiping them off with his paw, in a vain attempt to get distracted.
Pakak couldn’t exactly complain about his way of life – after all, he had never known anything different.
Being born in the Baranov Circus - like it had been called by its original owner, many years ago – and not recalling his mother at all, the only routine that Pakak knew was to live in a cage, looking to the outside world through bars, and, once he became old enough, train for the circus shows, and distract the audience.
During his five years old life, he had passed through various places, and currently the circus had arrived to Anchorage, on Alaska. To Pakak, that mattered the least, because wherever he was, his cage was always the same in the inside look, and also on the outside look, except when the paint of it began cracking and it was necessary to mend the mistake.
The main differences that existed for him were mainly of temperature. And on that time, it was cold. The layer of snow was about a yard thick, and the temperature itself was -40º Fahrenheit. Not that the cold disturbed Pakak in a special way, because his fur coat was adapted to very low temperatures, but in that boredom, changes were usually welcome.
And currently, he noticed something that he hadn’t noticed on the previous evening – maybe because it had been done during night. There were many things decorating some of the caravans were decorated with branches of a plant that the humans called “European holly” and one (who Pakak remembered to be from Frederic the fire breather) even had on it’s door the small figure of a fat man wearing red and white clothes, who the humans called “Santa Claus”.
“I should have remembered.” thought Pakak, lying down again. “It’s again the time that the humans call <Christmas>. On that time, they celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, let him to be born on their hearts, and deliver presents. Well, I don’t complain… but it seems that Jesus doesn’t give too much importance to animals. After all, according to that book called “Bible” that the people read at Sundays, as much as I heard, God created man at his own image… and he prepared this world for man. Does he still care about us?”
But Pakak’s attention was distracted by a man that was currently entering the circus. The tiger had never seen him before, but he noticed something. He was accompanied by eight animals that the humans called “dogs” that were following him obediently.
“At least, those are free.” thought Pakak. “I wonder if I were like those dogs, I could be free.”
But for the moment, the feline could just watch as the man carefully approached one of the caravans – the one of Ivan, the animal tamer, who had tamed all the animals of the circus, including Pakak himself. The whole circus began with Ivan’s grandfather, or at least that was what the tiger recalled.
The visitor seemed hesitant, as if he was being sure that the place was exactly the one that he looked for, while the dogs waited patiently at his side. But, after some seconds, he knocked the door three times. Shortly after, a tall man with brown hair and a moustache of the same color appeared at the door. The two were still for some time, but after that, they hugged each other cordially.
“Ivan!” said the visitor.
“Gunnar!” added Ivan.
The two stopped the hug, until Ivan said: “What a surprise… what are you doing here?”
“Well… I came to Anchorage visiting a relative, and then I heard that you had your circus here, so I decided to pass for a short visit.” said Gunnar. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t.” said Ivan. “What a surprise indeed… it’s been at least ten years since our last meeting, right?”
“Yes, I assume.” nodded Gunnar.
Only then, Ivan noticed the eight dogs that were sitting close to his friend, and asked: “Who are they? Your sled team?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“What are their names?” asked Ivan with curious voice.
“Let’s see…” began Gunnar. “This one is Steele, one of the candidates to leader of the team…” he indicated a black and white male Alaskan Malamute “…this one is Dark, the other candidate to leader…” he indicated a male husky with black fur, except on his front paws, where it was white “…this one is Kamir…” he indicated another male husky with pale-grey fur… “…and this one is Alexander.” concluded Gunnar, indicating the last male husky, which had brown fur.
“And now to the girls.” kept the musher. “Let’s see… this one is Ahnah…” he indicated the females with pale-brown fur “this one is Kirima…” he indicated the female with brown fur, except on the muzzle and belly, where it was white “this one is Ginger…” he indicated the female with grey fur “… and last, but not least, this one is Diana.” and he indicated the female with yellowish-brown fur.
“They seem great dogs.” said Ivan. “Now… let’s go inside, because it is cold…”
“Alright.” said Gunnar, as he and Ivan entered the caravan. “Just wait… can they come in?” he added as he pointed to the dogs.
“I assume there isn’t any problem.” said Ivan. “Except the caravan is a little bit small… maybe they’d stay better outside.”
So, Gunnar turned to the dogs, and gave them an order for not to go away, before entering the caravan.
“Oh… those dogs are free.” thought Pakak sadly. “While I… well, I don’t know what I would to if I was ever offered the chance to get free. I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to try to use it.”
Suddenly, Alexander noticed Pakak’s cage, and whispered something to Kamir. The other dog smiled naughtily, and then the two walked to Pakak’s cage. All the females followed them shortly after. Only Steele and Dark stayed close to the caravan, not exactly because they were scared. They simply were being obedient.
“What should we do?” asked Steele to Dark. “They might get into trouble.”
“On what trouble they might get?” asked Dark. “That giant cat is trapped inside the cage.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” said the malamute, worried. “That beast seems able of breaking the cage, if he wants to.”
“I’m sure the humans have him there for not to come out.” said the husky indifferently.
“But I still think that we should check that out.” said Steele.
It normally happened like that. Ever since they had met, Steele and Dark were good friends, but they were also rivals. One of their biggest aims was to see who would come to leader of the pack, but their rivalry was a friendly one.
Meanwhile, Alexander and Kamir, followed by the girls, had come close to Pakak’s cage. In the beginning they were a little bit scared – they had never seen such a big animal before – but the mysterious creature didn’t move at all for a long time.
Until he asked: “What do you want from me?”
“Tell me one thing, please.” said Kamir.
“One thing, please.” said Pakak mockingly.
The dog seemed to get bored, until he asked, with mocking voice: “How does such a big animal like you is controled by the humans?”
Pakak barely cared about the question, but then he thought about the main thing. Why he had always allowed himself to be controled by humans? He simply liked them? He did all those things according to his free will? Or were the humans mean to him? Pakak just couldn’t decide that. Ever since he was small, the humans had been kind with him, but sometimes, when he was too lazy, they were rough on him. And Pakak just asked himself: “Why never to do anything about that?”
That was the thing that haunted him. And suddenly, without knowing why, the tiger just felt a huge feeling of shame. To avoid the dogs, he just lied down, turning to the wall, and said: “Leave me alone.”
“I tell you why!” said Kamir teasingfully. “Because you’re a scaredy cat!”
“Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat!” said all the dogs mockingly.
“I don’t see how we ever came to fear him!” said Diana. “If he simply turns away when we face him!”
“He’s afraid of us!” said Ginger.
Those words made another thing that Pakak rarely felt take over him. Rage. He barely knew that emotion existed, but now… those dogs were making fun of him. They were making fun of his lack of freedom.
But suddenly, one thing, even worst, happened. Alexander introduced his muzzle through the space between the bars, and bit Pakak’s tail. Picked by surprise, the tiger yelped in pain, and Alexander backed away.
“This is going too far.” said Steele. “We should go to stop that. They have no right of making fun of that animal.”
“Maybe you’re right.” added Dark, although he felt a little bit annoyed for not having been him the first to decide that. “Let’s stop them.”
Meanwhile, the other dogs were still giving the worst possible insults on Pakak. The tiger, furious, was trying to hit them, but he couldn’t pass through the bars of the cage, what angered him even more. And the dogs were using that to enrage him.
“Stop!” said Steele forcefully. “Leave him alone!”
“Why?” asked Ahnah mockingly. “We have fun with all cats, let’s have with this one! He’s just bigger than the others, nothing more!”
“I told you to leave him alone!” insisted Steele.
“Didn’t you hear him?” added Dark. “Leave that animal alone!”
“Sorry.” said Kirima mockingly. “But as far as I know, neither of you is the boss still! We can do whatever we want of him!”
And she spat on Pakak through the bars of the cage.
On that moment, the tiger’s rage reached all the impossible and unimaginable limits. An ear-piercing roar sounded all over the place, as the tiger tried to drain out his anger. It didn’t work – the only thing that would totally make him feel at peace was to kill all those dogs, one by one. But at least, a good outcome appeared, because, attracted by the roar, Gunnar and Ivan appeared, and the musher, helped by Steele and Dark, managed to silence the other dogs.
To avoid further problems, Gunnar delivered a small Christmas present to Ivan. Even though Ivan celebrated the Christmas 14 days later than Gunnar – because Ivan followed the Julian calendar, while Gunnar followed the Gregorian calendar – the present was still welcome. Then, Gunnar went away with his dogs. But most of them – except for Steele and Dark – still turned to Pakak and sticked their tongues out at the tiger, who struggled to catch up his breath.
“Someday…” swore Pakak to himself. “Someday… I’ll get you all for this!”

First I was a bit skeptical about idea of tiger in baltoish story, but the opener looks promising. I know, I know – I always write that story looks promising if there is Steele, but knowing Author’s skills from TLK fanfic, I assume this one might be very good as well.

Well, to Taka_PL, thanks for the comment.

To any other who might be reading this... well, I'd ask you to review, if you don't mind. But, so far, we are advancing to chapter 1.

Chapter 1 – The Broken Cage

The visit of Gunnar and the sled-team and his dogs could have been short, but it dramatically changed life of the Baranov Circus. At least, when it came to Pakak. Ever since that day, the Siberian tiger was always walking around the cage, in the typical attitude of a feline un-used to be trapped, and desperately wanting to find a way out of his prision. But not only that was different about him. Ever since the visit of the dogs, the amber-coloured eyes of the feline always seemed to burn with rage.
Ivan had to cut Pakak out of the shows, and even had to feed him in a different way, because he was sure that if he ever tried to open the door of the cage, the result would be an angry tiger jumping to the newly open way out, and then, the whole Alaska – if not the whole America – could be in serious trouble. Pakak was born in captivity, and if he somehow got back to the wild, probably the result would be his starvation to death, or many people dying to feed him – because a captive-born feline doesn’t have enough practice on hunt.
At least, that was what they thought. Eventually, about five days after the visit of the dog pack – curiously, that day was the Christmas day on the Gregorian calendar, not the one following on the circus when it came to religious moments like Christmas – Pakak decided to change his plans. He had to calm down. Or at least, he had to look calmed down. If the humans would never open the door of his cage again, the surest chance would be that he would never escape.
Curiously, on that same day, Gunnar returned to the circus for another visit, but this time without his dogs. Pakak just couldn’t help but to make a relief sigh. The simple sight of those animals was too unbearable for him.
“Gunnar!” exclaimed Ivan happily when he saw his friend coming to the circus.
The two gave a handshake, and then the animal tamer asked: “So… why are you here?”
“Well… I would come to wish you a Merry Christmas, but because we follow different calendars, I don’t do it. Whatever, tomorrow I go back to Nome, and I thought to come saying goodbye to you, before I go away. I don’t know when we’ll see each other again.”
Normally, the distance between Pakak’s cage and Ivan’s caravan would be too big for a human to hear the talking of the two men, but the tiger, whose senses were much more sensitive, heard it perfectly.
“Good…” thought Pakak. “Nome… that’s where I will have to go once I am free. But there is one small problem… I don’t know where it is. I don’t even know if I can get out of this cage!”
That was the thing that bothered him the most. Not finding any way out of his prision, seemingly built to be impossible to escape from. But he had to be patient. Meanwhile, the conversation between Gunnar and Ivan continued.
“Well, if you are going away, maybe I can show you the circus before that.” said Ivan.
Gunnar accepted, and followed his friend in a walk around the circus. Eventually, they arrived to Pakak’s cage. The tiger gave a look to the two men, but it wasn’t exactly angry. However, Gunnar just couldn’t help but to step back a little bit – the tiger’s look reminded him that humans aren’t always the top-predators of the food chain.
“This is Pakak, the biggest star of the Baranov Circus.” said Ivan.
He added sarcastically: “You probably already know him; your dogs were picking on him when you came here the last time.”
“I’m not proud of that.” explained Gunnar quickly, with an ashamed voice.
“Probably that is why he has been so nervous on the last days.” said Ivan. “But even so… he seems calmer already. Maybe we can even see him more closely.”
“I’m feeling rather comfortable where I am.” said Gunnar. “The tiger seems… dangerous.”
“He’s not that dangerous.” said Ivan. “And besides, if you work as a musher, I thought you were braver. I mean… from what I heard, it’s necessary to face bears and mooses during travels like that.”
“But it’s different.” said Gunnar.
“To start that it is much easier to escape from them.” added Gunnar in mind. “I don’t know if it would be as easy to escape from a tiger.”
“Well… I won’t force you.” said Ivan. “Now… let’s see the rest of the circus.”
Ivan gave some steps, but Gunnar gave one last look at the tiger before following him. Once again, that gave him a strong impression of how powerful the feline looked. Gunnar almost shivered, thinking of what the feline could do if he ever found himself free.
But that didn’t last for long, as Gunnar followed his friend through the circus. As for Pakak, he just shook his head in an attempt to rid off a bad thought.

***

On that night, Ivan entered Pakak’s cage, like it had been usual before the tiger’s anger. But, since he was calm now, Ivan decided to assume that he could do it again without danger. As usual, he was holding a piece of meat on his hands, to give the feline as a supper. During the period of Pakak’s rage, the piece of meat used to be introduced through the space between the bars, but now it could once again be delivered in the normal way.
Pakak wasn’t exactly willing to see his tamer, but in his mind he had already done a decision: he would try to escape. Maybe he would fail at the first time, but he wouldn’t give up. He would eventually manage to get free. It was just to discover the right break on the cage.
Ivan placed his piece of meat on the ground, and stroked Pakak’s head affectionately, before going away. No matter how tamed a tiger or any kind of feline can be, it’s dangerous to be close to him during his meal. So, Ivan carefully closed the door, and went away. Finally, things seemed to be returning back to normal. Hopefully, on the next morning, he would already be able to use the tiger for the shows again, because, during the feline’s days of absence, the complains from the public for “Pakak the Powerful” (name under which the tiger was announced on the shows) not appearing had been more than many. But now that things were going back to normal, it would hopefully stay like that.
“I can’t risk losing Pakak.” thought Ivan. “He is… I’m not sure… very special to me. If I could, I would make him free, but he would die from hunger, or become a danger to people and be killed. Keeping him trapped is the only way of keeping him alive. Sorry, boy.”
Little did Ivan know that Pakak already had a plan to escape.

***

Pakak had to wait until everyone on the circus went to sleep. He couldn’t risk trying to escape with someone woken up, because that meant much bigger chances of failure. He had to keep a cool mind. That was also why he decided to eat the meat that had been given to him. He needed all the possible strength to escape.
So, late at night, when Pakak was the surest possible that everyone on the circus was asleep, he decided trying to escape.
The process in itself was rather simple. He came closer to the door of the cage, and looked for the less solid area of it. Then, he did a move to which he had been trained by Ivan many times – standing on his back paws. It was one of the parts that the audience used to applaud the most. But here, the principle of it was different. He would fall with his full weight on the door, hoping that it would be enough to break it. But, as he tried it, the technique failed. The door stayed in its place, seemingly completely untouched. A door made of wood probably would not have stood the attack, but this one was made of iron, and it stayed on place.
“So, this door is a tough one, eh?” thought Pakak. “Well then, I’m not sure if it will resist a second push.”
So, Pakak once again stood on his back paws, but this time he fell on the door with his full weight, much more insistently. But it was useless – the door once again stayed standing, solid. The feline was getting more and more desperate by the second. It the door was resisting his attack, he wouldn’t have any chance to get free, and getting his revenge for what those dogs had done to him.
But that wasn’t exactly what worried him the most. Somehow, Pakak felt that someone else wanted him to get free. As if it was the last wish of any of his relatives – probably of his mother. Pakak didn’t recall his mother, but from what he heard of Ivan and other people of the circus, she had died giving birth to him.
And then, suddenly, the siberian tiger understood something: if his mother had died to give him life, it shouldn’t have been for him to serve as a pet to humans, making them to have a good time. It shouldn’t have been for him to spend his whole life in a cage.
“My mother died for me to live.” thought Pakak, as he felt his muscles burning. “I can’t let her death to have been in vain. I can’t stand the fact of her having died for me to have this life. Mom… I will be free… I will make you proud…”
All the thoughts rushed through the feline’s head in not more than a fraction of second. His mother dying for his life. The whole life that he spent on a prision. And what burned his mind the most – the dogs that had made fun of him. All of those things passing through the feline’s mind gave him more energy. That was the only encouragement that he needed to get out of his cage. And then, the tiger decided to make one last attempt. Gathering all the strength that he had on his back paws, Pakak just sprang on the door with his full weight, hoping that it would be enough. And then, it happened. With a loud sound, the door separated from the cage, and fell on the groud, pushed by the incredible might of the huge beast. Normally, the iron falling on the ground would have been rather noisy, but because the thick layer of snow smoothed the fall of the door, the only sound heard was the one of the hinges separating from the main cage. Still, it was loud, and Pakak stayed silent for a while, trying to figure out if someone had been alarmed by the sound of it.
After a moment, and because he saw no movements on any of the caravans, the tiger decided that it would be safe to finally step outside the cage. He gave a few confident steps to its opening, and then he went down the stairs. But then, the problem came. As hard as it could be to admit – he had never been wild before – life inside the circus was the only thing that he had ever met. Stepping outside meant the unknown world, facing dangers, and most likely the death risk. Pakak was afraid. And, for some moments, he even considered trying to put the door standing upright again on it’s place, and then pretend that nothing had happened. But now that he had broke it, nothing could be done to change it.
“I must be brave.” thought Pakak. “I must be brave. I… MUST… BE… BRAVE!”
He would actually have roared those words, but if he did it, humans would be alerted, and he didn’t want that. So, Pakak carefully stepped on the snow, as if he was afraid that something happened when he placed his paw on it. But nothing happened. No lighting crashed from the sky to burn him, no wind began freezing him, no humans came to hit him. Nothing happened. The only thing new was the soft sound of snow being stepped by the huge feline’s paw. Something ordinary.
But that single gesture had changed everything. Now, Pakak was free. He was on the way to be truly Pakak the Powerful, and not Pakak the Human Toy, like he sometimes added mockingly in mind after being introduced in the show.
“Talk about getting Christmas presents.” thought the tiger ironically. “On the day when Ivan celebrates the Christmas on past years, my only presents were pieces of meat bigger than usual. This year, on the day when that friend of Ivan, Gunnar, celebrates Christmas, I got the biggest present that I could get. Freedom. That is the best present in the world. Wilderness, here I come!”
There was still one problem though – Pakak was out of the cage – but not out of the circus. That would be another of the important steps. But he was ready to take the risk.

***

Several hours later – Pakak couldn’t tell exactly how much time had passed – he was finally on a place where he hoped not to be found by the circus people, or by anyone else. The only thing he knew was that after leaving the surroundings of Anchorage – somehow managing to escape unnoticed – he had entered a forest.
Pakak had never seen anything like that before – on the circus the things looking the most like it were isolated trees, but he never thought that such a group of trees could exist, and even more, being so big. But, after some deductive reason – and probably also after some instinct – he assumed that on the middle of such a group of giant plants that could hide the vision it would be hard for someone to find him.
But it was also being hard for him to find something. Because, ever since his entry in the forest, he hadn’t seen even a single creature, except of himself. As if the group of trees was totally unhabited. That was surely a big problem. Suddenly, in spite of being big, Pakak felt completely tiny and helpless in the middle of the giant forest, and was almost considering turning back to the circus, lie quietly on his cage, just lie down there, and forget about the whole thing – in fact, he wasn’t even sure if the escaping idea had been the best. But, always that some particularly bad thought came to his mind, the picture of his dead mother appeared in front of his eyes. He could just imagine how his mother looked like, but the whole thought gave him courage to take more decisive steps towards the unknown.
“I will succeed.” thought Pakak, as he walked through the bush. “I won’t fail you mother. I want to make you proud. I won’t give up!”
Eventually, somewhere in the middle of the forest, Pakak got tired of walking, so he just decided to lie down, and then to wait for something new that could come to that mysterious place. But then, a cold breeze began blowing on the sky, and some strange sounds could be heard on the place where he was. Like if it was a noise made by a strange and giant creature, that walked through the wood. He was scared. After all, as much as he knew, he surely wasn’t the only creature living on that group of plants, and he wasn’t sure of how many could appear, and of how dangerous they could be. On the unknown, it is easy for someone to be scared, and imagine many weird things, normally from which not even a tenth is real.
The poor feline spent a good part of the night imagining scary scenes that involved bloodthirsty monsters chasing him until he was trapped, and then tearing him apart, and then laughter… crazy laughter… looking very much like the one of the dogs that had made fun of him. And from time to time, the strange sound returned. If Pakak wasn’t so scared, probably he would already have realized a long time ago that the sound was just the wind blowing through the trees, mainly because it was made only when the breeze appeared. But, being his first night on the wild, it was easy for him to imagine scary things.
Fortunately, the tiger had a good nocturnal vision, otherwise the pictures on his mind could have been even worst, if he mistaked the trees blown at the wind by giant creatures that came closer to him ready to tear him to shreds.
But fear of the unknown wasn’t the only thing that was hauting Pakak. On that place, the ground was cold, which indirectly gave a suggestion to quivering. Normally, it would be from cold, but because Pakak was prepared for low temperatures, it couldn’t be. But the cold snow ended up making the Siberian tiger to quiver with fear.
And there was another problem. That snow was something totally new to him – way different from the solid ground of the cage, where he normally slept. The feline just couldn’t find a comfortable position on that place – assuming that he somehow would manage to forget the fear of the imagined scary creatures that haunted him.
“This is going to be a very long night.” thought the scared Siberian Tiger. “Oh… I wonder what will happen… if I will survive…”
Suddenly, he felt as some snow landed on his muzzle. Pakak looked up, trying to figure out from where it had come from, but he saw just a bird taking off a tree branch. It was a snowy owl, one of the nocturnal birds living in the forest. The tiger almost felt an urge of calling her to make him company, but he couldn’t. That was ridiculous. But still… the way how the owl managed to fly was scary. Pakak could see it for a rather long time, but he couldn’t hear her flying not even for a single moment. Otherwise, the snow falling on his muzzle wouldn’t have startled him that much.
“I need to see if I calm myself down, somehow.” thought Pakak, as he placed his head on his paws, in another attempt of getting a comfortable position. “I’m a tiger, my instinct should simply drive in, and make me to calm down. This morning I was Pakak the Human Toy, now it seems I’m on the way to become Pakak the Scaredy Cat! No, I can’t let that happen… tigers are wild animals! If we had been made to be under care of humans, we simply would be by nature. And I’m back to the place where I rightfully belong – the wild. I just need to remind myself of the lessons that I still have somehow. Of my instinct. Instinct can’t be taught… but I’m sure that, when it needs to be driven in, it will be. I’m perfectly confident of that.”
But still, always that the tiger dropped his various thoughts about the world around him, and what he had to do, the scary images of monsters returned to his mind.
“This is going to be a long night.” repeated Pakak hopelessly. “Oh, looks like I have some lack of imagination. I’m becoming repetitive.”
Whatever, it was indeed a long night, because the tiger spent much more time with all of his senses completely alert from fear, and quivering always that an unusual sound was detected. Fortunately, he hadn’t even began imagining the harder difficulties of living in the wild, because probably if he did, the chances of him returning straight to the cage on the circus were more than many.
Eventually, the tiredness of the whole day and escape manged to prevail the fear, and the Siberian Tiger just fell asleep as deeply as if a lullaby had been sang to him. Currently, the forest was extending in front of him. This was his place of origin, the place where tigers truly belonged – the wilderness. Pakak was born in captivity, but he wasn’t less a Siberian Tiger because of that. He had escaped from the circus, and that already was a good signal that he was ready to conquer the wild. He would make his mother proud, where ever she was.

Well, I must admit that every chapter without Steele is a bit worse, but...
*
All right, let’s serious. I like this story, as for the setting. Tiger there is a bit weird stuff , but that a sharp fang of the ffic. Anyway it’s fun to see seemingly invincible creature fighting for life in new environment. That bit of clumsiness give Pakak much more likeability;)
Anyway – waiting for continuation.

Well... sorry for making another chapter to go without Steele, but...
Whatever, Pakak is trying to deal with his clumsiness. Let's take a look on how he manages to live in the wild.

On the next morning, chaos seemed to explode on the Baranov Circus. The first thing noticed as Ivan went out of his caravan was Pakak’s broken cage, with a hole on the place of the door, while the last one was on the ground. Obviously, the first thing that he did was to wake up everyone on the circus, and then they would decide what to do.
“We must capture him!” insisted Frederic, the fire breather. “If he gets to a city, there will be chaos.”
“But we have no idea of how to capture him!” said Elena, Ivan’s sister. “I mean… he escaped, and because it snowed a little bit last night, his tracks disappeared! We have no idea where to look for.”
“Yet, we must try!” said Mauricio, the Spanish knife-thrower. “If we don’t capture him back, he will kill many people! He is captive, he will be forced to hunt… but what can we do?”
Basicaly, all of the circus artists began throwing around their opinions about what to do to capture the fugitive tiger, while Ivan just sat calmly there. Not that he wasn’t worried about Pakak, but he knew that there were little chances of capturing him. They had no clue of where to find him, and even if they did, it was risky for the circus to drop the duty. At least when it came to the financial part. Surely, the tiger was the biggest attraction of the circus, but people also came to see many other things. If the circus stopped it’s duty, there would be a great loss of money.
There was surely the possibility of calling the police, they would almost certainly catch the tiger, but would they bring him back alive? Besides, there was no guarantee that the tiger could ever be found – they had no clue at all, without tracks of the animal.
Ivan had already decided. He knew it would be hard to accept it, but he said: “Quiet, please.”
Everyone looked at him, and Ivan said: “I already decided. I know this may not be the best decision, but… there’s nothing we can do. Look, if the police is warned, we will just cause panic. And we can’t catch him now. Alaska is big, we have no chance of seeing him again. Besides… he’s a captive tiger, he will die from hunger soon.”
All the circus artists seemed confused, but Ivan said: “It’s sad… but our only choice.”
But then, another thought came up to him. Many people devoured by his tiger… just because he hadn’t warned the police… he wasn’t sure if he could take the shame.
So, he inhaled deeply, and said: “Changed my mind. We must warn the police. But if they don’t find him for a month… I think we will assume that Pakak is dead.”
The circus artists nodded, much more satisfied with the newer decision.

***

Meanwhile, Pakak got up, with his head covered in snow. For some moments, he just looked around confused, as if he thought that he could still be inside the cage, on the circus. But then, he recalled all the events from the previous night – the broken cage, his escape towards the forest, and the scary nocturnal sounds. But nothing had happened – Pakak didn’t even have nightmares, what was something new, considering his night in the wood. Now, he could consider a wild tiger…
But then, just as he thought that, his stomach gurgled loudly. That reminded Pakak of a crucial detail – he had to get his own food. But there was the problem – how to get it? On the circus, he always had a good piece of meat delivered to him, at a right time, but on the forest, it was different. As far as Pakak knew – and he wasn’t wrong – meat doesn’t grow up on trees. At least not literally.
But Pakak knew something. Maybe it was just from some scenes that he had occasionally seen, but living animals held a lot of fresh meat inside their skin. The only problem was that Pakak had no experience on hunting, and, as far as he knew, no animal would just stand firm, waiting to be killed. Living animals had to be caught.
But to be caught, they first had to be discovered. That would be another hard part of the task.
“Maybe I should just go on hunting, rather than staying here thinking about it.” thought Pakak. “I’m a tiger, I have wild blood, my instincts will awaken when it is necessary to hunt!”
But, as Pakak came to discover later, instincts that had been sleeping during his five years old life wouldn’t wake up in mere minutes. He had some unusual luck for his first attempt – he managed to see a hare. It was almost invisible, because it had white fur, and only the tips of its ears were black, but, once spotted, it was easy enough to see. But a hare wouldn’t make a good enough meal for a tiger. Yet, he needed something to practice hunt.
“Come on…” thought Pakak. “It can’t be that hard…”
So, Pakak just ducked, and began sneaking on the hare. He walked to it as closely as he could, but, just on the moment when he jumped out of his cover, the rodent simply began jumping away, while the tiger desperately followed it.
“Come here!” roared the tiger, trying to get to his prey.
But the hare easily escaped the danger. Pakak just collapsed into the snow, hitting it with his paw. He had failed… if this kept like that, he would die of hunger…
“No!” insisted the tiger in mind. “I won’t die from hunger! I won’t die! I won’t give that satisfaction to those dogs… oh… if they only knew how much I want to get them… but I failed this time… I can try again! I won’t give up now, mom!”
Once again, the thought about his mother gave him some encouragement to continue, and trying to hunt.
Probably, the thoughts about his mother were the main thing that made him to keep trying for the next few hours, because the failures in hunting just kept happening after each other, after he had tried out with an arctic fox, and a raven. It was so frustrating, that Pakak was almost ready to give up and return to the circus. He had been lucky enough to find the dead body of a strange creature that he was unable to identify, so he decided to eat it. Currently, any piece of meat that he could get was welcome.
But, fortunately, each failure thought Pakak some new lessons about how to hunt. He had to sneak for a long time, and be as patient as possible. Surely his stomach was urging him to get the meat as quickly as possible, but if he got impatient, probably the meal would be delayed even more.
Eventually, less than some hours after running away from the Circus, Pakak managed to get his first prey – a ptarmigan. The small pieces of the white bird fell on his empty stomach like rocks, and could barely fill in a hole, but it was a victory. At least, he had finally managed to sneak to a prey, and even had managed to grab it in mid air when the bird took off the groud. Obviously, the result had been that the bird got crushed under Pakak’s paw, but at least, it was a prey. Now, it was only necessary to learn the hunting of bigger animals.
For the whole day, Pakak kept trying to hunt small animals. At least, after some more attempts, he could already hunt those properly. Not that he had found too much, but more or less half of the animals that he saw were caught. Now, he wasn’t in so much danger of starving to death as he had been before. Even though those snacks just filled in small holes of the tiger’s giant stomach, at least the small holes were enough for him to survive the next moments.
Eventually, Pakak also came to discover that his eyes were not the only sense that he could use for his hunt. If he trusted on all of his senses, it would be much easier to discover preys from a longer distance, which would give him much more time to plan the whole hunting. The instinct that was triggering in the feline was a great help, but he would still need a little bit of more experience.

***

But there was one thing for which the whole day hadn’t prepared him – and Pakak came to understood that almost too late for him. On that night, after his first day in the wild, the tiger went to his bed rather confident that it had gone well. He was alive, and his hunting skills were improving rather quickly. So, things could only improve from now on. But there was yet another danger that the siberian tiger had to surpass, before he could actually consider himself as ready to live in the wild. That danger was perhaps bigger than any kind of creature.
Pakak had tranquilly lied down with his head rested on his paws, when he felt a chill of cold on his ears. He didn’t care about it, until the chill of cold transformed on a terrible blizzard blowing from north. It’s not exactly common for the wind to blow from north, but always that it happens, the blizzards are the coldest.
And, on such a kind of conditions, even a creature as large as a siberian tiger was in very serious danger. The cold snow brought by the wind could literally freeze the feline to it’s death. The tiger just wondered how he had been so stupid. During the whole day, he had felt a certain kind of chill on his whiskers – the kind of chill that he already felt on the circus when it went to cold cities and blizzards came. Why he had ignored it?
“Oh, my…” thought Pakak, as he felt the snow flakes involving him. “If I ever get out of this mess alive… I will begin paying more attention to feelings. But… how to find a shelter on this snow storm?”
He knew it would be hard for such a big animal to find shelter so quickly, but Pakak still had one last attempt. He hoped it would work out.
Trying to lie down in a special way – curled into himself basically – the tiger hoped to be more protected of the cold. At least, he would keep the heat of his body better on that way.
“I just hope I manage to survive.” thought Pakak.

***

The night was very long and hard, but Pakak managed to get to the end of the blizzard alive. Fortunately, this had been a short one – sometimes it could last for many days. But the tiger decided that probably the biggest danger would be caught by the storm immoblite and unprepared, so he decided to keep his self-taught hunting lessons.
His attempts with larger preys, like deers, had so far always failed, but each one made him to improve even more, and the tiger was confident that one day he would get his first prey.
After about a week of hard life on the wild, Pakak considered himself as ready for his first hunt. He had survived the whole period almost miraculously, by hunting small preys and finding some dead bodies. But now, he was ready for his first serious attempt at hunting.
He had already found his preys – a group of deers. Of course, he wouldn’t get them all, but he had to at least get one of them, if he wanted to get a real meal. He had followed them mainly by hearing, since tigers rarely hunt using their sense of smell. But now, he could see the deers, and it was only a matter of time. If he was patient.
“Be patient.” repeated some unknown voice in Pakak’s head. “You can’t afford to lose your prey. Just walk very carefully, until you have arrived close enough…”
Pakak was using the trees as a cover, hoping to get close enough to the herbivores. Fortunately, the herbivores were distracted, as they were trying to feed of some leafs. It would allow Pakak to come closer, but, if he was noticed, everything would just go away.
“Just one step further…” thought Pakak. “Not a sound… try to breath as low as possible… wait until they have their attentions turned away from you… now!”
It was the right moment. The deers were already suspecting that something was there, and if they decided to run, the tiger would simply lose them for good. It was now or never. The tiger sprang out of his cover, running directly into the target that he picked. If he selected the prey on the last moment, it would be much harder than if he already had a pre-established target. But he had it. It was a male deer, the biggest of the herd. Pakak ran right into him. He knew he had to pick it up fast, before he got away.
But the chance came. Giving a jump with more than ten yards of total length, the huge tiger fell directly on the back of his prey. It wasn’t necessary more. The spine of the deer simply broke under the massive feline’s weight.
As the rest of the herd escaped, Pakak stood there, watching his fallen prey. He had succeeded. Finally, he had managed to kill a prey. Now, he was a wild siberian tiger, and not Pakak the human toy. But, as he watched the dead eyes of the fallen deer, the feline just couldn’t help but to feel some sort of pity. After all, the deer had been a living creature, like him. He had surely loved his friends and family, and had been loved back by them. And, when the tiger came, he destroyed everything.
The tiger wasn’t feeling remorse – killing was just one way of living, and that was something the tiger knew very well ever since he returned to the wild and stopped eating food given by human hands.
Pakak carefully approached his huge paw over the head of the deer, and closed his dead eyes for the last time.
“Well…” said the tiger hesitantly, trying to make a small eulogy. “Thank you for giving your life for me to live.”
After that short moment, the tiger just began feeding on his newfound prey. But this one had a strange new taste – the taste of success. But there was another thing that haunted the tiger. Why had he shown some… pity, for his prey? Would he go far if he had pity of the animals that he killed? Probably it would still take him some time to fully understand everything that was behind the killing.

***

Now that Pakak had managed to learn to hunt, there was another thing that missed. He would have to find those dogs from the circus, and teach them to not to mess up with him. It would be a very painful lesson – probably the most possible one. He would kill all those dogs. Not that he killed them for pleasure… but what those animals had done to him was somehow worst than death. It was humiliating. Somehow, the tiger felt that nothing would be able to remove that humiliation from him, except remove those who had caused it.
But he still had a problem. He had from little to no clue about where to find those blasted canines. The only clue that he had was that the man called Gunnar, lived – or at least worked – with those dogs in Nome. Pakak assumed that Nome was probably a city, like many others where he had already been, but without knowing the way, it was unlikely that he managed to find the dogs.
So, he just needed to get some creature who could tell him where that city was.
“But where to find one?” asked Pakak to himself, as he licked the deer’s blood from his paws. “I mean… I will have to find a creature, and nicely ask her or him to help me… but nobody will believe me. So… what can I do?”
Ignoring the problem, Pakak just went slightly further from his prey, preparing to make a nap. He wouldn’t go far, so if someone who wanted to steal his prey appeared, the tiger’s sharp senses would inform him, like it happens with all felines. They can be alert even when in deep sleep.
But Pakak wasn’t in deep sleep for long. After about ten minutes, the tiger was woken up with the sound of someone biting the meat of his prey. He raised his head as silently as he could, but he could see nothing unusual. The trees were still the same… the deer was still there… there was a furry mound of snow close to the body…
“A furry mound of snow?” thought Pakak. “Am I simply getting crazy with all that wild stuff?”
But eventually, Pakak realised that the furry mound of snow was indeed an Arctic Fox, who had arrived to eat something from his kill. Initially, Pakak prepared to scare it off, but then, a better idea came to his mind.
“If I manage to catch that fox alive…” thought the tiger, as he sneaked on the canine. “… maybe I’ll be able to know where that <Nome> is! I’m so smart…”
Meanwhile, the fox was simply enjoying the fresh meat. Literally, because on such a temperature in the end of January it’s hard for something to keep warm for long. Normally, the white animal wouldn’t be so focused on her meal that she wouldn’t pay attention to the world around her, but this fox was still rather unexperienced, less than a year old. And soon… she regretted her mistake. At first, when a shadow covered her, she simply assumed that some clouds had covered the sun again, but shortly after a giant paw grabbed her and pinned her to the snow.
As the fox was turned with her belly up, she saw a gigantic animal of the kind she had never seen before, but she knew one thing for sure. It was a carnivore. She wasn’t hurt – it seemed that the animal had been cautious enough to leave her as unharmed as possible – but her heart was beating in a way that the fox would probably die from scare if she didn’t calm down.
“Still!” growled Pakak to the scared creature. “Do not resist and I’ll let you live!”
It sounded rather strange – the small fox had as much chances of resisting to the giant tiger as a fly would have against her. Besides, the fox was so immobile from scare that she couldn’t move, or even speak.
“Oops, sorry.” said the tiger, relaxing his grip on the fox. “Now… the main point is, I need an information, and some help. Maybe you can give me both.”
The fox was still very scared, but now, some curiosity had begun to overcome fear. What would the tiger want from her? Why would such a powerful and big animal want something from her? But now, she could at least talk. She asked fearfully: “What do you need?”
“I need…” began Pakak, but then he changed the business temporarially. “By the way, my name is Pakak. What is yours, by the way?”
“Talja, sir.” replied the fox.
“Sir?” asked the tiger, confused. “You may call me <Pakak>. I mean… we should consider allies, at least temporarially.”
“What do you need from me?” asked Talja fearfully.
She was rather afraid of what the tiger would ask from her, but maybe the best would be to help him. The tiger soon explained himself.
“Look, Talja… does the word <Nome> mean anything to you?” asked Pakak hopefully.
“Nome…” said the fox as she thought about the business. “Nome… yes, Nome is a human town, about some hundreds of miles west from here… but I don’t know about it more than that. Now… may I go?”
“You may not.” said Pakak. “I will need your help on further business.”
The fox just shivered. She wasn’t sure of what further business could be, and, even worst, if she would be able to fulfill them. But then, some kind of instinct drove the fox to ask: “And what will I earn from that?”
Pakak snorted.
“So here on the wild they can’t just help for the sake of it? They always need some profit? But alright, I guess I can give her some of my meat. That fox has a small mouth, it won’t be a big difference.”
He said: “Well… you may eat part of the food that I hunt… just like you were doing now… and enjoy my protection. I guess it’s just the normal things that come from a friendship. Unless here in the wild friendship is limited by difference between the size of friends.”
“Friends?” thought Talja confused. “We’ve barely met for some minutes, and this… monster… thinks of me as his friend? He’s too naïve for his own good… or not, I bet nobody would mess up with an animal this large. If he is actually willing to protect me… I’ll never fear predators again!”
“I accept.” said the fox.
“Good.” smiled the tiger. “I knew that you would act reasonably. Now....”
The tiger yawned, and said: “Good night. Or good day… or let’s just have a nap, OK?”
“Nap?” asked Talja, confused. “You think living on the wild is as relaxing?”
“In fact I’m not sure.” said Pakak. “I’ve not been living on the wild for more than a month. Maybe you could also give me some sort of orientation in that. For now… I don’t know. Sleep as well… or just eat, like you were doing.”
Before he completed the sentence, Pakak just laid down, with his head resting on his paws, and fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Talja just sat there, finishing her meal. She was surely confused about the tiger, and had many questions in her head. But she noticed one unusual thing. He had offered to be her friend. Since many time nobody had ever tried to be her friend… ever since… that dreadful day. Talja just finished her meal, hoping that she would be able to at least keep this new friend.

A sidekick fox… somehow it looks familiar;)
But still it doesn’t look bad – it there could be tiger on Alaska, why not with just a aide?
Nice chapter in general, still waiting for Steele, but main action wrapped me up too (a bit )

Well, I'm sorry to inform my readers about that... but The Chronicles of Pakak will be put to ice temporarially. It's just because I'm not having full-heart to write that story... and if I write it, I want it to be well-written. So, the story is going to be put to ice, until I gain full heart to it. In the mean time, you could check out my fanfic gallery on The Lion King source, because I'm going to write another fanfic there. Just for you to see, the link is:

http://baltosource.timduru.org/roilions ... a/294.html

Well, so, I will see you once I am fully motivated to return to The Chronicles of Pakak.

Just take your time. I will surely read the story when it’s ready, but inspiration should not to be hurry up;)
And needless to say – I’m very curious to see your TLK story. Balto won’t run, we will catch him later;)