Dedicated to all the Balto Source members, my friends, and my family.

Aleu’s Destiny

Aleu finally got to St. Lawrence Island after many many miles across the Bering Sea. She woke up after her nights sleep only to find her pack arguing. She got up and asked, “What’s going on?” Everyone became silent. Someone then answered, “Will Nava ever find us here? Will he cross the ocean?” Everyone looked at Aleu waiting for a response. She then told about Nava’s never rejoining the pack.

“I would like to get to know all of you now that I am the leader of this pack.” There was a long moment of silence until a charcoal black wolf stepped forward. “I am Scylla. I used to help Nava lead hunts and watch over the pack.” “Great! Maybe you can teach and help me to be a good leader.” said Aleu.

Another one, almost all brown, introduced herself as Ginger. “I did not usually do much other than watching over the pups.”

The next wolf was a mixture of brown, white, and black. He refused to introduce himself and Aleu asked another wolf of the pack who he was. “His name is Shadow. He always refuses to do what anyone tells him.” Aleu knew already that she would have many problems over him.

The next wolf was completely white. She said her name was Molly. She walked with a slight limp, but didn’t seem to be hurt.

Then came the wolf that told Aleu about Shadow. “I am Max.” the black and white wolf said.

The next wolf, Misty, was brown and black. “I was always keeping Shadow and Slash out of mischief. Would you like me to still do that, Aleu?” “Sure! That would be great!”

Aleu saw a wolf slip into the bushes through the corner of her eye. She pointed her paw at that wolf. “You.”

She slunk back out of sight. Aleu chased her back to the rest of the pack. “Well?” “I… I… cannot tell you.” “Yeah right.” “I…” “Who are you?” Aleu demanded. The red and white wolf remained silent. She tried to escape again but Aleu was ready. Ginger said, “Her name is Slash. She always is getting herself into mischief.” Aleu groaned and rolled her eyes.

The last adult dog’s name was Jack.

The other three were pups. “This is Robert, the red one. The black one is Kali, and the white one is Kiba.” said Ginger.

“Ok. Now I know all of you.”

“Let’s hunt!” said Max “I’m starved!” Many others agreed with him. Aleu told Shadow, Jack, Max, and Molly to go on this mornings hunt. “Ginger, stay here and watch over the pups. The rest of you, follow me. We will go and find our territory boundaries.”

The group that went to find territory boundaries met up with three packs. All three said that the land Aleu’s pack was on had never been owned by any other pack. The leader of the first one said his name was Garret. The next, Thunder. And the last, Sam. Aleu was delighted that finding territory boundaries saw so easy. “Now to go back. The hunt is probably over.” Sure enough, the hunting group was just returning.

Aleu announced the boundaries and then ate her share of the breakfast. Then, the rest of the pack ate.

“Ok. So we’re going to be able to walk this land with our eyes closed, right? I suggest that we start memorizing it now.” said Aleu.

Many hours went by while the pack figured out how to get from anywhere on their territory to anywhere else on their territory without getting lost. Before they started, Aleu told the pack to split into groups of two. The remaining wolf went with her group.

Aleu’s pack went past a rock that reminded her of her mother, Jenna and her father, Balto. Still she pressed on. They also encountered a caribou and stalked it down. They stored it in a cave another group had found earlier.

Each group was memorizing the layout of the land and then, when everyone was done, they drew a map in the dirt, with their paw, the land that they explored. Now they had a map of the place.

Then, with no warning, Slash dashed towards the woods on Thunder’s pack’s territory. Misty tried to block her from leaving this territory but by the time she got there, Slash was already off Aleu’s pack’s territory. Thunder heard her and surprised her by jumping from what seemed to be nowhere. He asked, “Why are you here?” Slash was so surprised that she fell over. She hesitated to get up then started running back to the territory she belonged on.

Aleu was the one who apologized, not Slash. There was a long silence until Kali woofed. A few wolves giggled but then there was more silence after that. Slash knew she would be in huge trouble not just by Aleu, but by the whole pack and still, Thunder. She slunk back into the bushes and finally returned to the rest of the pack at dinnertime.

Aleu said, “I think we need this pack to be more organized. In order to do that we will need to know our neighboring packs more and know each other more.” A hum went up in the pack. All eight wolves were whispering to each other. One of the pups whimpered and Ginger went to take care of it. When ginger returned to the rest of the pack, the noise stopped. A caribou was standing right there out in the open.

Everyone lowered themselves into the long grass. The wolves farthest away from the animal crept forward. Then they all attacked in unison. Not one single order was told. They just somehow knew what the others were thinking. The caribou was so startled he fell over! This made it a lot more easer for the pack to kill it. They laid it down near the cave to be eaten.

Jack was still hungry after the caribou was gone so he went into the woods to find a rabbit to hunt down. When he came back, it was dark and everyone was asleep. He went over to a vacant spot, spun around three times, laid down, and went to sleep.

In the morning, Aleu was the first up. She trotted around the territory searching for a rabbit to eat before breakfast. She had no luck but did find a smooth and shiny stone. She pried it out of the dirt with her paw and carried it to where the rest of the pack was sleeping. She still had it in her mouth when Shadow woke up. Shadow asked “What’s that?” Aleu set it down, put her paw over it so he could not get it and said, “A stone. Why do you want to know?” Shadow gave no answer. Aleu asked again, “Why do you want to know?”

Ginger woke up next and walked sleepily over to Shadow and Aleu. “What are you two doing?” she asked only to find that neither one answered. Shadow went and woke up Slash. Ginger said, “Those two are kind of in their own little group.” Aleu rolled her eyes. Shadow and Slash were whispering to each other, and then both looked toward Aleu and Ginger. They went back to their whispering and Ginger and Aleu went back to their talking.

The next wolf to wake up was Scylla. She yawned and looked around. The rest of the eleven wolves started waking up one by one. Aleu noted that everyone woke up in the same order. Scylla told Aleu about this by explaining how most wolf packs are arranged. “There is the alpha male, the alpha female, beta male, four groups of puppies (oldest males, youngest males, oldest females, and youngest females) and the scapegoat. In this pack there is no alpha female, two groups of puppies (the youngest males and the youngest females), and two scapegoats.”

Aleu did not care about how most packs are, just how this pack was, but the extra bit of information was very helpful, so she accepted it.

The pack went on their hunt and had breakfast. Robert jumped onto Molly. She shook him off and trotted to the center of the group waiting for Aleu to say what she was going to say. “I think we should hunt more than just two caribou a day. That is pretty much the whole reason we came here to St. Lawrence Island. We followed the caribou. Why did we do that if were only going to eat two a day?”

Misty walked foreword. “Aleu has a perfect point. We should not run out of caribou anyways since they will reproduce.”

“Many of us are hungry after meals, too.” said Max.

“Also,” said Scylla, “We never have leftovers to store for the winter.”

Aleu asked if anyone had a reason why not to hunt more than two caribou a day. No one had an answer. “Ok then. If everyone wants more than two caribou a day, we will. That will only take about twenty to thirty minuets more of our day. We have many more three hundred sixty-five day years ahead of ourselves to hunt for Caribou, why don’t we start today?”

The rest of the day was very uneventful, but Aleu did do something. She went over to the rock that reminded her of her mother and father. “I didn’t even say by to my mom. What are they doing now? What happened to my brothers and sisters? Is everyone okay?” Her mind exploded with questions about her family.

Scylla went to Aleu. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine; it’s just that I miss my family”

Aleu went back with Scylla to announce the evening hunt. They came back with two adult caribou and on very young one. They ate and went to bed.

That night, Aleu had a dream about when she was younger. Somehow that dream drifted into the dream she had the night before she crossed the Bering Sea. That one woke her up in the morning. “How did I have that dream?” she asked herself.

She thought she saw Mauro, her spirit guide, standing next to her. Sure enough, he was she asked him about her dreams she had the last night. He said, “Only you can find the answer to that question.” “Does this mean another quest?” Aleu asked. Mauro explained to her that life is one quest itself. “The quest you went on to find out who you were was just one part of one big whole quest, Aleu”

Aleu exclaimed “Now I get it!” She watched as Mauro disappeared into the wind. “Now I get it.” She said almost in a whisper. The rest of the pack started waking up, one by one again, in the same order as before. This reminded her of how the pack was set up.

They were very successful in this mornings hunt, coming back in less than half an hour with three caribou. After they all ate, they stored the leftovers in the cave.

Aleu saw, through the corner of her eye, Slash crawling into the cave. Aleu dashed over to the cave with Slash inside. “What are you doing?” asked Aleu. “Nothing,” was the answer that came out of Slash’s mouth. Slash had this word already planned to say if anyone found her sneaking into the cave. What she did not have planned was what to do if anyone found her eating some of the meat inside the cave.

“Are you hungry?” asked Aleu.

“N-n-no.” “Then why are you entering the cave?” “I…”

Slash finally gave up and explained her plan to Aleu. “I admit that was pretty clever, but I know how much meat is in that cave and you would eventually be found out. You should have just caught a rabbit.”

“I know, but Caribou tastes better than rabbit.” “Does that matter?” “I…” “No. It does not matter. If you are hungry not at meal time, you catch a rabbit, not eat out of our storage cave. That food is for winter.”

Slash had to vow not to do it again to leave and go back to the pack. She did not want to go back to the pack, but she did want to leave so she did it anyway.

Back at the pack, everyone was still and quiet. “What’s going on?” Aleu asked as very quietly, though loud enough for the closest wolf to her could hear her. Jack was that wolf and he answered, “Shh! There’s a huge caribou a few of the pack members are hunting down.” Aleu counted the wolves that she could see. There were only six!

When the five wolves returned after about half an hour with the caribou. They laid it next to the cave to be eaten at dinnertime. “Wow!” exclaimed Ginger “That thing is humongous!” One of the five wolves that went hunting sat down, panting, and said, “Whew! That was exhausting!”

The next thing anyone knew, everyone was standing over the huge caribou. “How old do you think this is?” and “How much do you think it weighs?” was almost all the wolves said. It took four wolves just to move it from one place to another!

After dinner, everyone went to bed except Aleu. She went to the ocean, which is off her territory but was not anyone else’s territory either. She sat down on the beach thinking about the dreams she had the night before. “With all this excitement, I never had a chance to stop and think about these things. I got what Mauro meant, but not what my dreams meant.” After about two hours out on the beach Aleu went back to the territory. She still did not get what her dreams meant and decided they probably did not mean anything.

In the morning, nothing unusual happened so everyone was pretty much just resting. “I’m bored.” said Kali “I want to go play out on top of the cave.” The other pups agreed with him so Ginger took them over to the cave, which was their favorite place to play.

They heard a rustling in the grass. The pups froze, but Ginger was already frozen, resting and watching the pups. The rustling stopped. There was no movement by any living thing in that ten foot radius other than the grass blowing in the wind. “Must have been a rabbit going into its hole.” said Ginger.

As they walked back to the rest of the pack, there was another rustling in the grass. Ginger told the pups to stay still while she went to investigate. Ginger did not find anything so she went back to the pups and they went back to the rest of the pack. Ginger told Aleu about the noise and Aleu went over to try and figure out what it was that Ginger and the pups heard. Just as Ginger, she found nothing. “That’s strange.” said Aleu.

“I think we should go and hunt down one more caribou for dinner.” and they went out to hunt. They came back with the caribou and ate dinner. Aleu and Ginger told the pack about the whatever it was in the grass and it was forbidden to go there until what it was, was found out. The next few days were all the same until Molly found out what made the noise.

She got permission from Aleu and went to that spot. When he came back to the other wolves, he showed a bullet to them. A big gasp went up in the whole pack other than Jack and the pups, who did not know what was going on. Aleu, Molly, Max, and Jack went to the spot where Molly said she found the bullet. Garret heard about the situation and asked Aleu if he could help. “That would be great!” said Aleu.

After hours of investigating, they found nothing. Garret went back to his pack and Aleu, Max, Jack, and Molly went back to the rest of their pack. “We didn’t find anything. Though, we did pick up a scent. There was a human over there very recently.”

They did not see or hear the hunter anymore and there were no recent scents other than the one that was already found so the wolves were allowed over there, not that anyone did go there.

Two weeks later, Sam came to Aleu and asked her if he could investigate her territory. “Why do you want to do that?” “We had an incident with something.” “What something?” “Shadow.” “What did he do?” “Not he, she. I’m sure it was a she.” “Than it was Slash, not Shadow. Shadow is a boy, Slash is a girl.” “Ok, then it might be Slash, but it might be any other adult female wolf in your pack, including you.” Aleu didn’t know what to say so she just stood there. “So, am I allowed to search your territory for anything that might help me to find who it is?” “First tell me what she did.” “She stole meat from my pack.” “From where?” “Our storage holes.” “How much meat was stolen?” “About three pounds.” “Only three pounds!?! What does three pounds matter?” “Are you going to let me investigate or not?” “Sure.”

Sam found no evidence and told Aleu that he would go back. “How do you even know it was a wolf from my pack?” “Because it ran in this direction after it stole the meat.” “It might have trespassed onto two territories, not just one.” Just then Thunder came and told almost the same exact story as Sam. “That leaves only someone in Garret’s pack left.” “And there are only three females in his pack so that makes it easy.” “There are only three suspects.”

The three pack leaders met on Garret’s territory and explained the situation. They investigated the territory, no luck. They investigated the land around it, again, no luck. That’s odd.” said thunder, “I agree.” said Aleu, and Sam said this is very puzzling. Will we ever find out who did it?” “We only have searched this place once. Sam searched my territory once. We still have lots of land to search with as much time as we want to use.” said Aleu. “Good point.” said thunder.

The next few days were filled with searching but no one found a clue. The packs got curious about what the pack leaders were doing. The days still had the same routine Garret and the four packs, but not for the other three pack leaders. They got up earlier, went to bed later and almost did not rest at all in the day. “We need to pick up the pace.” said Sam.

One night, Aleu’s pack could not find any caribou. “I’ll bet this connects to the mystery of the stolen meat. We finally have a single clue!” exclaimed Aleu. She told Sam and Thunder about this. “Maybe, the hunter stole the meat and the wolf that came onto my territory is not guilty!” said Sam. “But why would he take all the caribou?” asked Thunder. Maybe, the hunter didn’t take any caribou, but did scare all of them off. Although, he could have taken a few.” “To take them all, there would have to be way more than just one or two hunters.” said Sam. “This is too puzzling to figure out tonight.” said thunder. “Who said we had to?” asked Aleu. “We might, if we can travel to the closest place humans live tonight.” said Sam “How will that help if other humans live closer than those hunters, if there were more than one?” asked Aleu. “It won’t, but if the hunters live closer to another forest, why would they come here?” asked Thunder. “Because that forest is already out of caribou!” exclaimed Sam.

When she got back, Aleu told her pack about what she and the other two pack leaders found out. “So this place does not have more abundance of caribou than the mainland did. Why did we come here then?” asked Misty. “Niju was right. Balto is a fraud!” said Max. “Do you know what Nava would do if he heard you say that?” asked Molly. No, and I don’t care what he would do. I have proof. BALTO IS A FRAUD!!!” “No, he is not. Do you think I am a good leader?” asked Aleu. “Not as good as Nava.” said Max. “But am I good enough?” “Yes.” said Max. “Do you know who brought me to you? Balto, my father, did. And he taught me part of how to be a good wolf pack leader, too.” “Who taught you the other part? Nava did. So you want Nava back, don’t you? Well to bad. Nava couldn’t have made the swim. If the ice flows line up again next winter, you can go back and try to find Nava and Niju.” “Are you saying you are better than Nava?” “No I am not. I am telling you Nava will not be able to come here and that my father is not a fraud. He, nor Nava, knew that there would be hunters here taking all the caribou.” “What about the caribou reproducing, Misty?” “Why don’t we all just shut up and drop the subject?” asked Molly. “So Max is joining Shadow and Slash, is he?” asked Ginger. “No, I am not! I am joining Niju’s side. I already said this, but maybe you didn’t hear me. BALTO IS A FRAUD!!!” Max yelled. “Ok, we get it, Max.” said Jack. “Let’s just BE QUIET!!!” said Aleu. “We get it, Aleu” said Max. “So why aren’t we doing it?”

Ginger was right. Max was joining Shadow and Slash. Max was right, too. He was also joining Niju. Aleu was another wolf that was correct. Neither Nava nor Balto knew that there would be hunters here taking all the caribou.

“I don’t know why we’re arguing about something when everyone is correct.” said Scylla. “Look. There’s a Caribou over there.” said Aleu. “Great. Do you know that there is only ONE!?!” asked Max. “Look.” said Jack pointing a paw towards the caribou as more and more caribou emerged from the trees. “I only see… eleven.” “One for each of us, including the pups. That’s plenty.” said Aleu. “What about when those run out?” asked Max. “I said this about a month ago, and Max still remembers it, the caribou will reproduce.” said Misty. “WHY ARE WE STILL ARGUING!?!” asked Scylla again.

This went on for hours until finally, Max gave up. Aleu was to powerful, not just with her brain, but with her strength, too. Have you noticed how her dream about the ice flows that she had was involved in this? It reminded her of what her father and Nava did which she told to Max. Soon, her other dream will kick in, also.

The mystery of the stolen meat had been solved and the living beings, plural, responsible for it were, you guessed it, the hunters. Not a single wolf was surprised. Now they had to come up with a plan to figure out how to keep those hunters away. “I’ve go it!” Aleu exclaimed. “We can just do what Boris, Muk, Luk, and my father did just as the human, who I thought was going to adopt me, attacked!” The wolves spread out around the territory, waiting for the humans. When one, or when all of them, came, they would do the exact same thing that Muk, Luk, Boris, and Balto did at the time just mentioned. Of course they weren’t there, but Aleu explained it to them. “It also works perfectly tat there are more humans and more of us.” The plan worked and no human ever went by there again for what seemed like forever.

The next few days were very uneventful other than another five hour argument with Max about the same topic as before.

One night, Robert claimed he saw a UFO. Ginger saw it, too, only it was just a meteor. She told that to Robert and he became very disappointed. Kiba and Kali were not there yet, and said they saw a UFO, too. Ginger told them, too, that it was just a meteor. They were disappointed, too, but not as much as Robert.

One day, Aleu woke up early in the morning with one though in her head. “Will I be able to stay the leader of this pack?” She thought about this until it was time to go on the morning hunt. They were very successful and everyone had enough to eat and they stored the leftovers in the cave. Aleu still had this thought in her head when she and the other wolves heard a loud roaring. “Fire!” someone yelled. The wolves were so startled; some of them stopped still looking at the flames that were not even a mile away. All four wolf packs fled in the opposite direction of the fire. When all forty-eight wolves were in safety, they watched as most of Garret’s and a small section of Thunder’s territory were burned to the ground.

They all went back to their territories except Garret and his pack. The ground was still too hot to walk on. While they were waiting for the ground to cool, they stayed at Thunder’s territory because it was the biggest. Soon, everything got back to normal. “That fire was the biggest I’ve ever seen a fire be!” exclaimed Scylla. “When do we eat? ‘Cause I’m starved!” asked Max It’s not even close to dinnertime! Go catch a rabbit or something.” said Aleu. Molly asked, “Will you ever learn to be patient, Max?” “I am not impatient, I’m just hungry.” “You sure seem impatient.” “That’s ‘cause I’m hungry!” “…and impatient.” Max’s face glowed red and steam flew out his ears. “Can we just have a little snack?” “You can, but no one else is hungry.” said Aleu. Max gazed at the pack in disbelief. Aleu sensed his disbelief and asked him, “What do not believe? Aren’t we allowed to not be hungry?” “Yes you are, but I just can’t believe you’re not hungry.” “Max, that’s because you’re always hungry.” “I am not always hungry! Ok, so I am, but that is not a reason to insult me!” “We weren’t insulting you! We were just trying to explain that we weren’t hungry.” “And you did that by insulting me!” “Tell us where we insulted you.” “You insulted me by saying I’m always hungry!” “That’s actually more of a compliment.” It is no-… it is?” “In a way, it means you exercise more, needing more energy, which comes from food.” “Ok, it is if you look at it that way…” “Ha! You admitted it! We’re not insulting you!” Max took in a loud, deep breath, but did not seem to let it out. It just escaped him somehow. “That’s over, but now it is dinnertime.” “So let’s eat!!!” “Yeah, what are we waiting for!?! It’s time to go on the hunt!”

After dinner, Max came to Aleu. “Sorry about all the trouble I am. I’m not trying to be like this, it’s just that that’s how I express how much I miss Nava. I know he’s not coming back, but…” A long moment of silence followed. “I just want him back.” He walked away. “That was weird.” Aleu thought.

The next morning was the same and almost everyone was bored. “I think this would be the perfect time for that meteor to turn into a UFO and land right here in front of our mussels.” mumbled Robert. “Oh, we’ll find something to do.” said Ginger. “Yeah, when that UFO lands here.” Robert said with a frown. “Don’t be that way, everything will turn into the most excitement you’ve ever had!” exclaimed Ginger. “When the UFO arrives.” said Robert, again. “It looks like its here!” said Ginger above the noise of an over passing bush plane with the words “Balto Flyer” on it. Aleu was the more interested than any of them, wondering if this Balto was the same Balto as her father.

It landed on the other side of where the fire had taken place as they were. Aleu chased it, trying to keep up with it. When she finally got to it, it was on the ground. She exclaimed, “That thing is louder than a wild eyed grizzly!” She heard a human, not the airplane pilot, after the pilot handed him a bag of mail, say, “Thank you Duke. Why don’t you deice your plane while I go get you some fuel?” Duke got another bag from inside the compartment from where the bag of mail came from. He took a tool from it and started to chip away the ice from the wings of his plane. Finally, the other man came out with a large canister of fuel. Aleu sniffed the airplane and was sure she smelled her father, Balto, and one of her brothers, Kodi! She was so surprised about this that she jumped in and started searching for one of them. A bag of mail was thrown on top of her and the hatch was closed and locked! She was trapped! She started to claw at the hatch and whimpered. It was no use! The deafening sound of the engine started up again. “Ughhh!” groaned Aleu. “I have no idea where this thing is going!”

After the exaggerating trip in the bush plane, the hatch was opened again and the bag of mail taken out. Aleu was unnoticed, so she climbed out. “How in the world did this happen!?! I’m back in Nome!!! I wonder where my parents are.” Aleu was so surprised, she felt dizzy. The first place she looked for her parents were, obviously, their houses, her mother’s first. “Aleu!?! Wait, you can’t be Aleu, she’s all the way across the Bering Sea!” “I was until I got a free ride on that bush plane,” Her mother literally jumped on her and hugged Aleu harder than she has ever hugged anyone before and Aleu’s eyes seemed to be popping out. “I was one hundred percent sure you would stay in Russia! This is a miracle!” “I never was in Russia, though. I was on an island just off of Russia called St. Lawrence Island.” “Wherever that is… But this is great!!!” “I will have to go back, you know. I am the leader of a wolf pack there.” “A wolf pack!?! Your father just said that you finally found a home, in Russia.” “He was wrong then.” “You’re not still upset with him, are you?” “No! Of course not! That was almost a year ago anyways.” “Well, come on then! Let’s go over there!” On the way over, Aleu told her mother she was sorry about not saying goodbye. “That’s okay, all that matters is that you’re here!”

When they got there, Jenna told Balto the whole story. “I can’t believe it’s you! I mean, come on, this almost never happens! Maybe it’s the first time it ever did happen, in the history of the world!” “You know I will have to go back to St. Lawrence Island, right?” “Yes, but does that mean tonight?” “No, but very soon.”

Back on St. Lawrence Island, the pack was too puzzled to talk. “What’ll we do now?” was the question in everyone’s mind. The temporary leader was chosen the next day. Votes told that Scylla was to be this leader. Aleu stayed longer than they wanted her to be, and longer than she wanted to be there, too. Ok, back to Nome.

Aleu and her parents had much fun together until the next flight to St. Lawrence Island, which was a little over a month after Aleu arrived. “By everyone!” said Aleu as jumped into the hatch. “I hope this will become an annual trip!” Aleu joked. It wasn’t going to be an annual trip, but it was going to happen again in a few years, but this time on purpose.

Aleu arrived back on St. Lawrence Island at night and the bush plane did not leave until the next day. “Hey guys!” said Aleu as she trotted back onto her territory. “Where were you?” asked Scylla. “Nome.” “What were you doing there and how did you get there? It’s not winter, so how did you cross the Bering Sea?” “By the loud flying thingy. Also known as a bush plane.” “Was it fun?” “No. It was exactly the opposite of fun. Loud, smelly, and I was being thrown around inside.” “How long did it take?” “A few hours.” “Really? ‘Cause that thing flies super fast.” “I know. But the thing is, is that I’m back now. Have you guys eaten yet?” “Yes.” “I haven’t, so I’m going into the woods to catch a rabbit. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Aleu found more food than she was going to eat but she did not store the leftovers in their cave, she dug a hole, placed them in the bottom of the hole, and filled it up.

In the morning, Aleu remembered about the way everyone got up in a certain order. Again, it was that same order as before. She couldn’t remember why, but she knew that it was not a problem, just something that happened naturally. The first one to do anything else was Max. He stomped right over to Aleu. Aleu asked, “What do you want?” “I want you… you better just leave me alone today…” Jack went to Scylla to ask what they were going to do first. Aleu wondered why Scylla was in charge of everything now. “Scylla, can I go to the beach “Sure, but be back when the hunting call goes off.” “Got it.”

When Aleu got to the beach, she sat down in the sand. “Maybe I was gone to long and Scylla was selected to be the temporary leader. But I’m back now, so why is she still the wolf in charge of this pack? She shouldn’t be...” After a few minuets of thinking, Aleu saw Mauro standing next to her. “Why is Scylla still taking charge of the pack? She was probably the temporary leader, but I’m back now!” “Only you can find the answer to that, Aleu. I am not a wolf, because of that I do not know much about wolf behavior.” “It just doesn’t make sense to me at all. Do you think that maybe the pack got used to her being in charge?” “It’s possible, but that goes to almost anything.” “Will I have to live with it, or not?” the answer applies here. Possibly.” Aleu heard the hunting call so she went back to the rest of the pack.

When they came back from the morning hunt and breakfast was over, Aleu asked Scylla, “Why are you still taking charge of the pack?” “Because it is too much of a hassle to get them used to you again. You were gone about a month.” “So how did they get used to you?” “It was a lot of stress. The pack had a hard time until the second week you were gone.” “So you’re going to be the permanent leader of this pack?” “It looks that way.”

Aleu finally agreed with this, knowing that she was going to go back to Nome in a few years anyway. Now she, too, had to get used to Scylla, though. Was this truly her destiny to lead a wolf pack across the Bering Sea, lead that pack for a year, and accidentally get on a plane that went right back to Nome, come back on the same plane to the same pack, and not be the leader any more? Was she going to be able to live like this with her being so used to the leader and suddenly lose her leadership? Would she get along with the other wolves?

When she woke up, for several days, she had the feeling of leading the pack, just as she saw Scylla wake up that reminded her that she was in charge now, not her. “How am I going to live like this?” she asked herself one morning. She thought about this and before she knew it, the morning hut was off. Aleu tried to get her leadership by being the most aggressive of the pack, but it was no use. The rest of the pack still looked up to Scylla. Eventually, she did, too. “Is it going to stay like this, or is it going to change? Or possibly it will… Wait! Possibly! Just like Mauro said! Was he talking about this, too?”

Aleu was right. Mauro was talking about anything that has more than one possibility in Aleu’s life here with the wolf pack. Her “How am I going to live like this?” question doesn’t have a complete answer, though.

It took quite a bit of weeks for Aleu to get used to Scylla being the leader, but she tried hard and it eventually happened. Now to find Scylla. “Scylla! Has anyone seen Scylla?” “No. uh, No!” “We’ve got to find her! She might be harmed!” “It better not be a hunter.” Aleu sniffed around to see if there was any scent of a hunter. There was a human, but not a gun. “Who, or what, could’ve been here?” “Maybe a human looking for a pet.” Who would want a wolf for a pet? Wait, let me rephrase that. What human would want a wolf for a pet? They think we’re vicious.” “Good point.” “Look everyone, we’ve got to find Scylla. Should we do it in groups, everyone to themselves, or all together?” Aleu raised her paw, “I think we should go in groups of two.” “Ok, buddy up and stick with your partner. Mush! I mean, move out!” said Max. “Stop making fun of my dad!” “I’m not, so how can I stop doing something that I’m not even doing?” “Who says Max is making fun of my dad?” All the wolves but three barked. I bet you’re guessing Shadow, Slash, and Max. If you did, you’re right. “Eight to three. You’re outvoted, Max.” “Are we leaving or not?”

After two and a half hours of searching, someone found Scylla’s scent. “I’ve got her scent! Follow me.” Her scent led them to a human house and right inside the door. “How in the world are we supposed to get in there?” “Do you think we could get in through there?” Ginger asked as she pointed her paw towards an open window. “It’s worth a try.” Jack was the first to jump in. The rest of the pack heard a human scream from inside. “What do you think that was?” “Well, it wasn’t Jack.” “Duh” Jack jumped out the window and ran in the other direction. The rest of the pack followed other than Aleu who was determined to get Scylla free. Just then, the door from the human house opened for the human who screamed to chase Jack away, but did not notice Aleu enter the house. “Whew! Now to find Scylla.” Aleu followed Scylla’s scent that led her right through the hose to the back door that was gratefully open enough for Aleu to push it more of the way open so she could get out. “Scylla! What happened to you?” “I’m fine, but I’d rather not be here.” “Let’s go, then!” They did not go through the house because the back door was closed. They just went through the gate to the front yard, because that was open. They then followed the scent of the rest of the wolf pack, not go back to the territory, because Aleu saw that they ran in a different direction.

Aleu and Scylla finally caught up with the pack, panting. “You found Scylla!” “Ok. Scylla is back so let’s go back to our territory.” “Good idea. And I am not going into a human house ever again! The way that human shrieked, MAN!” “So are we going or not?” “Yes after Scylla and I have caught our breath!” Back at the pack’s territory, Scylla thanked Aleu for coming and getting her. Aleu felt a tinge of leadership coming on, but it was shattered in less than a second when Scylla called on the night’s hunt. “I’ve just got to forget I ever was a leader.” Aleu thought during the hunt.

The next morning was the same. The pack got up in the same order, the hunt being successful, Aleu forgetting Scylla was the leader… “Ugh. When am I going to forget that I was leader at one time? I know it won’t happen overnight, but it doesn’t seem any better.” Aleu was thinking to herself again. “Are you thinking to yourself again and what are you thinking about, Aleu?” “Why do you have to care, Shadow?” “Are you giving me an order?” “No, I…” “Yes you were!” “No, I was just asking a question.” “Do I have to answer it? No.” “Then I don’t have to answer your question.” “No, you don’t. “Cause I already know the answer.” “Ok, what am I thinking about?” “I meant the other question. The answer to that question is yes.” Both your questions were in one question, so what am I thinking about?” “Aleu, one day you will never, NEVER, outwit me.” And when might that be?” “I don’t have to answer that.” “That’s because there won’t be a time.” “Yes there will be!” “Ok, when?” Shadow was so frustrated with Aleu that he just left with no response and is face red.

The hours in that day passed by quickly that it seemed only ten minuets when the nighttime hunt was off. “How often does a day go by like that?” asked Misty. “Not very.” The hunt went by fast, too. And dinner. So, before they knew it, it was time to go to bed. "Did this day go by fast, or what?" asked Aleu. "You got that right." said Scylla. "I'll bet tomorrow will be exactly the opposite." "Probably." "Although, it might not be for the

A N I M A L™!" They both laughed, having a hard time controlling themselves. (The

A N I M A L™ is a pretend company that a wolf named Jinkel (Weird name, huh?), made up to blame for not being on duty. They’re not being on duty was supposed to be responsible for his being captured by a human three times in one year. It was supposedly made up of humans and lots of other kinds of animals who wanted to protect all living beings.)

In the morning, no one wanted to get up, except the pups. Kiba was jumping all over Ginger and Robert and Kali were chasing each other. Aleu was asleep when Kiba got bored jumping on Ginger, so she went and tackled Aleu. That was too much for Aleu at this time in the morning. Aleu threw Kiba towards Robert and Kali, so Kiba decided to play with them. “Will they ever learn?” Aleu asked Ginger. “They’re only pups.” “That are almost a year old.” “Yeah, but they’re still pups.” “That are almost a year old!” “I know, but still.” “I get it, but I wish that they would not be like this, this early in the morning.” Aleu was right last night about this day being the exact opposite as that day. It really went by normal, but it seemed like it went by so slow compared to the day before.

“Can a day go by any slower? I sure hope that tomorrow goes by normal.” “It will.” “It should.” “The weather guy said it will.” Most of the pack giggled, but the pups were not paying attention and if they were, they would not get it. “So are we going to eat breakfast and have something done? We have all the three hundred twenty-two hours to do all we want.” All the pack except the pups giggled again because of the same reason. The morning hunt felt like eight hours and so did breakfast.

The day was mostly rest other than the pups, same as the morning. At night, during that hunt, jack spotted a hunter. “Stop!” he whispered. Everyone stopped and most of them noticed the hunter. In three seconds, everyone noticed the hunter. Aleu sniffed the air. “That’s the same person that took Scylla!” Aleu told herself. Scylla noticed that before Aleu, though. Misty noticed that the hunter did not have a gun, just the scent of one. The human, seeing the wolves standing in one place, backed away. “Do you think it’s safe now?” asked Molly. “Not yet.” Scylla replied. “Do you think that that human thinks you are the cause of something, Scylla?” “Probably. But what? What did I do?” “Good question.” “SHHHHH!” “We better go back to Ginger and the pups.” “Good idea. Duh!” The human followed them back part of the way, but did not get too close to the cave, which she thought was the alpha female’s den that might have pups in it. She was wrong in at least two ways. One, there was no alpha female (Even though Scylla was a female, she was still considered the alpha male.). And two, it was not a den. It was a storage cave. “Whew! She’s gone!” Scylla said in relief.

The next few weeks, not days, weeks did not go by fast or slow. They were just right. “I’m glad that those two days are over!” exclaimed Molly. “It looks like it’s going to snow.” announced Max. Max was right. It did snow that night and in the morning, everyone was buried by an inch of snow. “What a storm that was!” exclaimed Slash. “Slash, shut up. Only an inch fell last night.” “Why don't you shut up, Scylla?” “Don't you give me orders!” “Why not?” “Because I'm the leader of this pack.” “And what does that have to do with it?” “I order you, you don’t order me.” “Who put you in charge?” “The votes.” “But Aleu is back. She should be in charge.” “You know that would be too much of a hassle.” “How are the pups doing?” “I’m leaving.” Scylla said, and then walked away.

It was hot the next day and almost all of the snow melted. “Boy is it hot!” said Jack. “It sure works to heat us up after the snow!” “Not all of us hate snow.” “Not all of us like snow. We all have our own opinions.” “Yes I know, but I don’t like snow.” “I do.” “How come we always argue?” Scylla yelled “Will you guys stop it!?!” “No.” “Slash, why are you like this today too?” “Because I want to.” “Well knock it off!” “Make me.” Scylla had it and just started to ignore Slash, no matter what she did. “Now what?” asked Aleu. “Now, we catch a caribou.” said Max. “Why don’t you. No one else is hungry.” “Fine. I’ll catch the biggest caribou you’ve ever seen.” “Yeah right.”

Max came back with a rabbit. A rabbit that was small. “That’s some caribou!” Misty joked. “Yeah! You were right! That is the biggest caribou I’ve ever seen!” The pack roared with laughter. Max walked through the pack, growling the whole way. “Maybe it would be a good idea to get on that bush plane and get away from everyone.” Max thought. “Maybe, though, I could chase them all onto it. They would be crowded, since it is so small, they would not be able to come back so I would have all this territory to myself…” Max was apparently at least whispering it now because Aleu asked, “Then how did I get back on the bush plane?” “You never left.” “What!?! You didn’t notice I was gone for a month!?!” “Oh, then.” “Yeah right. You’re just jealous that I got to ride it and you didn’t.” “I am not jealous! Well, maybe a little…” “So you are jealous!” “I said ‘only a little’! “No, you said ‘I am not jealous! Well, maybe a little…’.” “I was trying to make it short!” “So now you are saying I’m dumb!?!” “No!” “Then why did you try to make it short?” “Um, uh, because, um… Oh yeah! To save time!” “You sure weren’t saving time trying to think of an excuse!” “I was not thinking! I was, uh, trying to remember. Here, too!” “Whatever.”

After a while, there was more snow. "I thought it was summer!" "It's late spring." "Then why doesn't it feel like it? It's even snowing!" "We're in Alaska, not Hawaii!" "So?" "Everyone knows Alaska is far north." "I guess not everyone." "I know that Alaska is far north!" "Then why are you surprised that it is snowing?" "It is late spring. Duh." "Late Spring can still have snow in Alaska." "I know." "Can we just drop the subject?" "Yes." "Then why aren't we doing it?" "Has anyone heard of Steele?" "That is not a good subject either." "Ok, what are we going to talk about?" "Anything." "What is 'anything'?" "Is anyone hungry?" "I know who is, not me, though." "Who?" "Max." "I am not hungry!" "Then why did you ask 'Is anyone hungry?'?" "I did not ask that!" "Yes you did." "Well, I didn't mean to." "Yeah right." "I didn't!" "I didn't mean to change the subject to this." "Then what did you mean to change the subject to?" "I don't know, hunting, maybe." "How will we talk about hunting without Max getting hungrier than he already is and starting to complain?" "Hey!" "We can't." "Knock it off!" "I'm trying to talk about something, other than what we are already talking about." "Maybe we can just stop talking." "Good idea, but then what are we going to do?" "Who wants to go to the beach?" Not to long ago, the four packs agreed to share the whole beach. In other words, everyone from the four packs was allowed on the beach. "That's fine with me." "Is everyone else ok with that?" The whole pack agreed, so they headed over there. "Now what?" "Who wants to go for a swim?" "Are you serious!?! It just snowed last night!" "I know. But we came here in winter when the water was cold and we had to swim part of the way." "Yeah, like five or six feet." "We swam more than that!" "Not really." "Uh... Oh, oh yeah. I guess you're right." "So you admit it!" "No, I did not!" "Why are you always like this? I mean, you always say no right after you admit something." "Well, you always have to say the same thing after I admit something."

"You admitted another thing!" "That! That's what I mean!" "Why do we always have to say the same thing over and over again?" "I don't know." "Then why don't we stop?" "I don't know. Maybe we just learned to do it without thinking about it." "Hey, yeah. You're probably right."

That night, everyone slept well, except Shadow. "Why does it have to be me that did not get enough sleep last night?" "Because you are always against the leader of the pack." "That is not why!" "Ok, then why is it?" "That's what I asked."

“I don't get why we have an argument every day. Why can't we just settle down and have a good life?" blurted Ginger. "We can." "Then why don't we?" "I... Yeah, you're right! Why don't we?" Aleu also hated how this went. Just then, she got an idea. "I wonder when that bush plane comes back?" she asked herself. "Why?" asked Jack. "Never mind." "Just tell me." "Tell you what?" "Why you're wondering when the bush plane comes back." "Can we change the subject, again?" Aleu wanted the bush plane to come back so she could go back to Nome to see her parents, Jenna and Balto. Possibly even live there for the rest of her life. "So what are we supposed to do with this information, then?" "You're not even supposed to have the information at all." "So?" "Do we have to talk about this?" "No." "Ok, then."

When it was time to go hunting, Misty was raring' to go. No one else was, though. "Are we going to go, or not?" she asked excitedly. "This is a big change. Misty never is ready, or wants to hunt." "Yeah. Why do you think she is like this?" "Mood swings." "I almost never have mood swings, so it probably isn't that. Anyway, are we going to hunt tonight?" "I guess we should get going. It's still light out, but that's because it's summer." "Plus, when it's light out, we can see well." "We don't need to see well." "It would help, though." "So, are we going, or not?" "Yes we are going." "So, let's go!" Aleu was thinking about her parents during the hunt that night. Would the bush plane ever come back? If not, or even if, would she see her parents again? "Why did I even run away? Was just tired of being with my parents, or was it something else?" Scylla sensed Aleu's unhappiness and went over to comfort her. "What's wrong?" "Oh, nothing." "Are you sure?" "Yeah, I'm fine. I just want to see my parents again." "I know how you feel. I lost my parents when I was only five months old. I never saw then since." "Do you have to make it seem that bad?" "No." "Then maybe you could leave out the 'I never saw them since.' part." "I was just trying to make you happier." Aleu sighed, "I guess it's not working." then she walked towards the rest of the pack.

That night, Aleu fell asleep almost the instant she laid down. All she dreamed about was her parents. When she woke up, she noticed Mauro standing next to her. "I might have already asked this but, will I ever see my parents again?" "Only you can find the answer to that." "That's exactly what I thought." "If you knew, why did you ask me?" "I was not all completely sure, it's just that's what I thought." "So, what were we talking about?" "I asked if I would ever say, I mean see, my parents again." "And I answered..." "Let's not go that way. You might not have an answer to this either. Will the bush plane ever come back? Don't start, let me guess. Only I can find the answer to that, right?" "That's exactly right." "I thought so." "That's kind of what you just said." "I know. That's my point." "Everyone should have a point." "And I did." "Can we change the subject?" "Didn't we just do that?" "I think so." "So we are going to change it again?" "I think so." "You just said the exact same thing as before." "I know." "I know you know." "Then why did you mention it?" "I don't know." "I think we have a little bit to learn." "Can we change the subject...? Wait, we did that like three times already, didn't we?" "I think so." "What were we talking about originally?" "I can't remember." "Why don't we just talk about something we didn't talk about already? And, don't you have a plane to catch?" "Oh, yeah! The one to Hawaii! Thanks for reminding me, Aleu! Aloha!" Aleu thought to herself, "Doesn't 'aloha' mean 'hello', nor does it also mean goodbye? And aren't spirit guides supposed to remember everything? Does life always have to change the subject every time it gets in a conversation?"

Scylla was the second one to say anything. "What a beautiful day!" she joked. It was a joke because it was windy, cold, and raining. "At least it's not snowing." said jack. "Yeah, but it is raining." "I know, I just said that it is not snowing." "Jack's right. It could be worse." "It could also be better than this for those who like snow." "But most of us don't." "But some of us do." "But some, and most, of us don't." "But some of us do." "Can we stop?" "No." "And why not?" ""Because some of us do like snow!" "Ok, now you're just being annoying." "But some of us like snow is what I'm saying." "What I'm saying is that we should just stop talking about this." "Another one of those times when we have to change the subject, not that I'm in the conversation, yet." Aleu thought to herself. "Why do we always have to change the subject?" Aleu yelled. The three wolves that were in the conversation turned and looked at Aleu. "I asked, 'Why do we always have to change the subject?' We should always talk about something peaceful." "Yeah, but to some of us hunting isn't peaceful and we have to talk about that twice a day." "That's not what I meant, and you know that." "So you're trying to tell them what to do are you?" asked Shadow. "No, as a matter of fact I am not." "It seems to me like you are." "So you're trying to call on a fight?" "Pretty much." "You made the wrong move." "No, you did. You're the one trying to tell them what to do." Scylla blurted out, "No, Aleu was pointing something out to us." Just then Shadow charged for Aleu's throat. Aleu saw this coming and dogged out of the way. Before Shadow could make another attempt to attack, Aleu was at his through. "You are the one who made the wrong move, as I said the first time." said Aleu through closed jaws. Shadow ripped free, only to find his right shoulder in Scylla's mouth. "It looks like it's two against one." she said after letting go of Shadow's shoulder. "But the two are females and the one male. Males are always stronger." "I think you might regret that after we're done." "Done because you lost, I don't think so." "Whatever." said Aleu then she darted for Shadow's throat again. Shadow was waiting for this so he could pull out of the way and let Aleu grab hold of Scylla's throat. Aleu was too quick to let that happen and charged, side by side with Scylla, chasing Shadow in circles. The circles were getting smaller and smaller, creating a spiral effect. When the circles were almost too small to run in, Aleu jumped at Shadow. She did not aim for his throat, but that was what she grabbed hold of. Shadow yelped, and then fell to the ground with Aleu. They were lying in the grass until Aleu got up. She had a limp, but was not injured from the fall other than that. Molly stepped forward and sniffed Shadow. When she announced that he was dead, Slash and Max growled and slowly steeped toward Aleu. Aleu sat down and stared at them, which caused them to back off. Scylla said, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed. Also, no more fights until we all eat and get some rest." "What was the 'No more monkeys jumping on the bed.' for?" "It was a joke." "Oh." “Duh.”

"I don't get it. Why was there a fight?" Robert asked Ginger. "You don't really need to know." "But I want to." "But you don't... Robert, why do you always ask so many questions?" "Because I like to know a lot of answers." "You don't need to know a lot of answers." "I know, but I like to know a lot of answers, and I'm hungry." "Yeah I am hungry too. Let me go ask Scylla when they're going to go hunt." Scylla's answer was surprising to Ginger. "We already went hunting." "Then where is the food?" "We didn't catch any." "You didn't!?!" "No." "The pups are starving though! Did you see any rabbits or anything like that?" "Yes, but not very many." "Where?" "Up north of here." "How far north? Can you be more specific, or take me there?" "Follow me." "You don't sound very happy. What's wrong?" "I'm just tired." It was quiet until they saw a rabbit.

Scylla pounced on the rabbit which did not even notice the two wolves. Then when Scylla and Ginger returned, the pups refused to eat it. "Were not pups anymore, so we won't eat like pups anymore." As Kiba was finished speaking, she whirled around into the bushes and attacked a grizzly bear no one noticed! "Kiba!?!" Ginger yelled and then chased after her. When Ginger finally caught up to Kiba, she stopped dead in her tracks, her jaw as wide open as wide as they would go. Kiba was hanging from the bear’s neck! "What on earth..." Just as Ginger started to back up, the bear fell straight on her! When she got out from under the bear, Ginger said, "That’s not the first time that has ever happened to me..." Aleu called from the distance. Everyone came to her instantly.

Before Aleu could speak, a white wolf attacked her! Aleu threw the white wolf off her back. "Who in the world are you?" asked Aleu. The wolf gave no response, but jumped at Aleu's neck. It was so loud, no one heard the gun shot. Aleu fell to the ground. Slash, who was now learning to actually obey Aleu, stared at the stranger. Silence. The gun shot again. This time, everyone broke out into a run in the opposite direction. Everyone except Aleu who lay on the ground, not moving. The hunter left, and a few minutes after that, the pack returned to where Aleu lay on the ground. Jack sniffed her, then turned towards the others, and shook his head with a frown.

Jack led the pack a mile or so along the border of their territory. Soon, they stopped and went to sleep. Everyone agreed with jack being the new alpha. Jack did not fall asleep with the rest of the pack. He waited until everyone was asleep, then he ran back towards Aleu and slept there. He was awakened by a scent. A bad scent coming from the direction of the white wolf that did not belong on this territory. He noticed this scent before, but just barely. Rabies. Not good. "If only Aleu wasn't dead and Balto was here. He would understand the problem and somehow, communicate with the humans here on St. Lawrence Island. This pack won’t survive without Aleu." One of Balto's talents is communicating with humans. Not like Muk and Luk trying to communicate with a toad a couple years ago, but the humans really understand him in a way. Even if they don't have a single clue who in the world he is. Jack sighed and decided to go back to the pack before they awoke. His goal for today was to figure out the name of this rabid stranger. He knew just asking probably wasn't going to work, so he decided to not waste his time on things that would not work. Catching her off guard, even staying awake all night to see if she talked to other wolves by howling over night when everyone else was sleeping. Something would have to work.

Days went by. Days turned into weeks, and the wolf still did not give her name. The wolf was now begging to be a pack member o this pack, but Jack was not so sure. Finally, a plan came to mind. He would not let her into the pack unless she gave her name. Then he remembered she had rabies. Jack knew that that disease could spread easily. He and his pack would have to be extremely careful with this wolf.

The plan worked. The wolf gave her name. Or what she wanted the pack to think her name was. Even I do not know if she is telling the truth. You can never trust a rabid animal. And that includes humans. Jack glanced at Thunder. They were both at the edge of their territory. Sam howled from the distance. So did Garret. All four packs went to a meeting spot that was there even before what used to be Nava's pack came from across the Bering Sea. Everyone except the white wolf, Monica, who was ordered by Jack to stay.

"I've noticed more than three or four rabid wolves around here..." "Yes, and one has entered my pack. Her name is Monica, but no one that I know of trusts her." "And one threatened my pack for revenge after I won a battle." Max groaned. It was enough crossing the Bering Sea once and he did not want to do it again. "If we cross the water again, we won't have anymore food unless there is possibly food in Russia, but we don't know if there is or not." "Yes, but it is either a fifty percent chance that we live, or a...good point." "A wolf usually knows how to avoid rabies. I, Max, say that this pack stays here." "Wait a minute, I'm the alpha male here, and I decide what the pack does. I also decide how I decide what the pack does, and I think that Sam, Thunder, Garret and I should discuss this by ourselves." "Ok, back to the rabid wolves. No more arguing, please. Who has done anything yet...?” A helicopter in the near distance interrupted the conversation.

"Let's land here. We can ski to the wolves." "You know that we will have to stop halfway there, though, right?" "Yes, but skiing at all might make it a little faster." The two men grabbed the inoculations for rabies, and the guns for shooting darts that would put the wolf it hit asleep, got on their skis, and headed out. The wolves were completely silent. Only the wind made a sound. The wind and the snow under the two human's skis that the wolves could easily hear. One of the guns went off and all of the wolves broke out into a run. A gun shot twice more, then a third time. A flock of eider ducks was about to fly overhead, but changed routs at the sound of gunshots. A flock of arctic terns flew up from the grass, partially covered with snow. Weasels darted as fast as they could toward their burros. Two wolves slowed down, then fell to the ground. The rest disappeared into the mist. The two men ran toward the wolves that were asleep on the ground, and gave them the rabies inoculations, then got back on their skis and went back to the chopper. Eventually, the inoculated wolves woke up, and went out in search of the rest of the pack.

"What were those hu--..." "I don't know. I think we should talk about what we were talking about another day. For now, I think we should all go home." "After we hunt." "No, Max. Not tonight. Not with those humans around." Ginger was already heading towards home at that very word. Home. She had had enough of today. "I agree. Max, it's either no food, or death. Which do you think is worse?" "Death, but it's only a forty, even thirty percent chance that we will die." "Forty or thirty percent chance that it will snow tonight. Sixty or seventy percent chance we will die." "You can go look for something, like a lemming, for yourself, but no one else is going." "He means no one." "Let's go." Jack led his pack back to their territory. "Enough of today."

A few days later, there was a strong scent of human in the air. "Not good. Not good at all." Slash appeared around a tree. "I can't find Aleu anywhere." "Yes. I believe the hunter brought her back to his house to make a parka, maybe boots, and maybe other stuff." said Jack, almost in tears, with a sigh. "Or... she went and found a shelter somewhere." said Max. "But there is no scent of her any where, Max." "Or, maybe..." "Enough! We don't need to argue over what happened to Aleu. Let's just hope it was something good. Notice I said 'hope', not argue." "And if it wasn't?" "Then we won't talk about it." "About the human scent, why aren't we doing anything about it." Silence. A rabbit hopped out of the grass. "Charge?" "At what?" "I don't know, at that rabbit, at the fact that humans are suddenly nearby, maybe?" "Yes, let's leave here. I don't want to be around humans." "Then we shall leave." Jack led the pack towards the Bering Sea. They heard a wolf yelp from Sam's pack. "Humans. Don't they understand that we are living things just like they are?" "Apparently not." "But I don't think that that wolf is dead. I didn't hear a gun shoot. Probably a trap. The wolf is probably bruised and that is it." "It doesn't matter. We should get some rest." "Yes. Sleep would be good." The pack lay down. Kiba chomped at a mosquito. Misty stared at the starry sky. Molly glanced around at various things. Kali glared at a lemming. Shadow watched a stream trickle towards a river that roared towards the Bering Sea. Jack sighed, thinking in his head, "Today went by fast. Yesterday took forever. Is it ever going to be a steady pace?" Ginger also noticed this. The days were getting weirder, and weirder. More and more humans, less and less caribou, it was even getting slightly hotter than it usually does. "Life is bizarre." said Ginger to herself.

The weeks went by, the snow melted away, the sun stayed up longer, and it warmed up to Alaska summer temperature. Misty darted between the legs of a running caribou, Jack hung from its neck, and Slash herded it towards the rest of the pack. The caribou saw its doom. "I hate being a caribou. We moved all the way here to St. Lawrence Island, and all for nothing." the caribou thought to itself. A gun shot and the caribou fell to the ground. Every wolf darted off towards the woods. "Man, I'm glad I'm not a caribou." "Har...har." "Well, Molly, you wouldn’t want to be one either, would you?" "No, but not a wolf, a lemming, a rabbit, a bear, a..." "Ok, ok. I didn't ask for three billion answers. In fact, I only wanted one answer. You said no. So why the 'Har, har.'?" "Anyone up to ..." "No. No one wants..." "I am." said Kali. Kiba rolled her eyes and Ginger said "Leaf hunting was out before even I was born." Robert's eyelids drooped as his eyes turned sharply to the left. Kali showed that she changed her mind.

The summer went by fast. The beginning of fall wasn't what a wolf would wish for. They had pushed their territory borders farther out, as well as Thunder's pack, but Garret and his pack didn't know that Sam's pack had disintegrated. It was both harder and easier to stay hidden from the alarming increase in the human population on the east side of St. Lawrence Island. Because it was fall, there were many leaves on the ground, which made it hard to walk quietly in the forest. But in the older part of their territory, there was little forest. The advantage of being in the forest is that there are more shadows to hide from humans. Still, it was dangerous everywhere. "Plane hunting", as the humans called it, was becoming more and more popular. The number of human houses was great, now, in the eastern half of Jack's pack. They wanted to keep their territory boundaries the same, unless widening them was possible, so that just in case they pick up Aleu’s scent in the new town, they could reach her. But her scent clearly wasn't anywhere in the eastern half of Jack's territory. It was in the western half.

Jack ordered Molly to keep the rest of the pack in order while he, Ginger, Misty, and Max go in to try to find Aleu and bring her back.

The "search party" was having good luck. Other than almost losing their lives with some old lady that was married to a guy with guns piled up in his living room. They guessed that she just couldn't put up with wolves being within a twenty foot radius of her clothes that were drying on a clothes line. Their luck was just high enough at that moment that the gunman forgot to load his gun before exploding out his front door with his face redder than ribbon on a Christmas wreath. He must've told his friend who was "owning" Aleu, because as they were following their noses, right towards the correct house, a human casually opened his door and sat down in a camping chair, smoking a pipe, next to his dog. Jack called the dog over. At first, the English Setter refused, but Jack knew how to deal with these kinds of dogs. Mainly because he had lived with Niju for so long. "I know you have someone in there. Where is she?" "Why do you care?" The human had apparently fallen asleep, because his pipe dropped out of his mouth and he started to snore. "She is the leader of my pack." said Jack, rolling his eyes. "Why should I let a wolf like you into my house?" "Because you let the wolf that is in there in there. How am I different?" Silence. For a moment. "I suggest you let me in and let me bring the wolf that is in there out." The English Setter just glared at Jack. Until Jack attacked him. "Living the life of a wolf is ... hard to describe, I guess." said Jack as the Setter slinked off with his tail between his legs.

Jack came out with Aleu by his side. In two milliseconds, all the tails went wild. As did the tails of the rest of the pack as the search and rescue party returned. Except Splash, a lone wolf who wanted a pack to live with, who watched from the distance. He had discovered the pack at the end of summer, and has been waiting for the right time to approach. He decided now was the best time that will ever be. Maybe. He had to make a quick decision. "Now, or never?" He chose now.

The pack saw Aleu staring off into the bushes. At the completely black Splash. "H-hello." he said. "Who are you, and what do you want?" asked Aleu. Splash looked down and off to the right. Almost behind him. "Never mind." he said and trotted briskly off. Later that night, Aleu went off to try and find him. "Sorry." "No, really. I mean, I can help. But first tell me your name." "My name is Splash. I have an interesting background, though." "How? And is that why you're here?" "No, that’s not why I'm here. But how my background is weird is that my dad and everyone on his side of the family are Portuguese Water dogs, my mom was a wolf/Soft Coated Wheaton Terrier mix, and so was my grandma. My grandpa is a purebred Wheaton. But somehow, there is quite a bit of wolf, not just from my mom. And I don't know where it came from." "Oh. And the reason you are here...?" "I'm a lone wolf looking for a pack to live with."

“Oh…” Aleu had never encountered this decision before. Was she supposed to let a lone wolf into a pack, or was she to turn him or her away? Turning a homeless wolf away sounded rude so… “OK.”

“I will not allow anyone to be at all rude or unkind to him. He was a lone wolf, but now we must accept him into our pack. Do you have anything to say, Splash?” Splash shook his head.

The weeks went by, weeks turned into months, and before anyone knew it, winter was upon them. Snow came, sometimes days or even weeks at a time. It was one of the worst winters they had ever faced, and they were running out of food. All the animals they ate had somehow disappeared and their cave had little leftovers. The other packs had moved away, so Aleu’s pack had no one to share with. They were growing skinny. They, too, might have to move away, thought Scylla. Many other wolves were thinking the same, but Aleu was determined that there was another way out of this winter. Aleu had one other wolf in the pack thinking the same as her. It was Jack.

“There can’t be any other way out.” “There has to be a way.” “How?” “Aleu?” “I’m with Jack. Now let me ask you a question. How can there not be a way out?” “Even Nava never found a way out of a winter like this. He moved us.” “Am I Nava?” “Aleu, come here.” Scylla led Aleu away from the rest of the pack. “Aleu, this is your big chance.” “My big chance for what?” “The pack doesn’t put all their trust in you. If you take this chance and we survive the winter without moving, you will earn their trust. But there is always the chance that we will not survive. If we move, they will most likely still distrust you. If we move, there is a ninety-five percent chance that they will still distrust you. The other five percent is that they do trust you for making the decision to move. If we stay, there is a fifty percent chance that we survive the winter and you earn their trust, the other fifty percent is that we die. You are the leader. You make the decision.” “Ninety-five is bigger than fifty, but fifty is bigger than five.” “Yes.” “Let’s go to sleep, and I’ll think about it.”

The next morning, Aleu announced her decision. “We stay.” The pack went into a loud murmur that lasted quite a long time. Someone asked Aleu “What will we do for food?” “There must be something to eat. And besides, today isn’t that bad, so we better get hunting. Everyone will hunt.” “What?” the pack asked in unison. “Everyone will hunt and we better get started. Now.” Again, the pack went into a loud murmur. “No, I mean right now.” “As a group?” “Yes. Everyone, let’s go!”

The pack broke out into a perfect formation, at a perfect speed. Fast enough that they will cover much ground, but slow enough to conserve energy for the rest of the day and in case they encounter any danger. It took a while, but they eventually found the scent of a nearby buffalo. With a group this big, they could easily take down a buffalo. On their way towards victory over the buffalo, them taking down the buffalo rather than it taking them down, they caught scent of a herd of elk. Three wolves, Robert, Slash, and Misty, took the buffalo back to their food storage cave, while the rest of the pack went out for elk.

“Couldn’t be having more fun than this!” said Ginger. “Good to hear. I told you we would make it. And we’re having fun in the process.” “I agree.” said Splash. “Same here.” said Amaroq, the newest member of the pack. “Couldn’t say different.” said Jessica, the second newest member of the pack.

Five hours later, they had three buffalo and eight elk. “I told you we could get enough food.” “Yes, but the storms are starting up again.” “And we’re done hunting.” “Good point.” “Done hunting for today at least. We’ll need all the food we can get if we are to survive this winter.” “Or we move.” “We will not move. We stay here and that is final.” “We can’t survive the winter unless we move.” “We’ve been through this and I say we stay.” “If you want us to stay, why did you move us across the great water?” “I did not make that decision. Nava made that decision.” “And you kept us going.” “I had no choice.”

By the end of the week, they had plenty of food to survive the rest of the winter. The only problem was that they couldn’t get to it. The food storage cave had caved in, and if it hadn’t, the snow surrounding it would have held them back. Over night, they had eight feet of snow and had to stay awake and keep moving to stay above it. They had no way of knowing where to dig for the cave, and if they did, it would take two days to finish. They had to get more, but keeping it safe would be a problem. “I guess being a human can be handy sometimes.” “How?” “You can hang your food in trees. Without the cave, how are we supposed to keep our food away from bears?” “We could have someone guarding it.” suggested Max. Aleu thought about this for a short while, and then agreed. “Max, Slash, Misty, and Shadow, you are to watch the food while the rest of us are out hunting. To get the food back, Robert, Kali, and Kiba will drag it back to where Max, Slash, Misty, and Shadow are guarding.” “Where will that be?” “Right over there.” Aleu pointed to a fairly large clearing in the trees.

They didn’t notice it, but by the time they were finished, the worst part of winter was over. “Great. Aleu made us do all this work for nothing.” “How was she supposed to know that winter was going to go by this fast?” “It would have been easier if we moved.” “How?” “This meat will go bad by next winter. Easily. And we did all this hunting and we can’t eat the meat.” “We could eat it and not go hunting anymore for a while.” “Why?” “You don’t think that it would be nice to take a break for a while?” “I don’t know. Well, OK, yeah. But that was fun.” “Then make a small little group and you can do that for us. We want to take a break, you want to hunt. Works just fine.” “How big or small would that group be?” “It depends on how many of us want to hunt.” “And if I’m the only one who wants to?” “Then you hunt and we don’t until all of this meat is gone.” “That might be a while. We have so much.” “And the meat in the cave is refrigerated by the snow. By the time the snow melts, we might be able to dig out the rocks from the cave and we would have even more meat.” “We don’t need more meat.” “Yes, but we’d better eat it while we have it. We don’t want to let any food go to waste. Remember, we crossed the Bering Sea just so we would have enough food. We wouldn’t want any of it to go to waste.” “And if any of it did?” “We’d be sorry.”

Well, they did get all the meat dug out from their cave. And eventually, all their meet was gone and they had to start hunting again. It was spring now, and there was plenty of prey. And it wasn’t long until they caught scent of another wolf pack coming from the west. A new pack. Aleu went out to find them and introduce herself to them and answer any questions that they had.

“You can stay here where Thunder’s pack used to live. There should be plenty of food and water. Thunder’s pack did well with survival, and I believe that it was because of this land.” “Where are the caribou located?” “I haven’t ever been on their land, so I’m not sure. A large stream runs through his territory and into ours, so I know there is fresh water to drink.” “Thanks.”

Again, the weeks came and went. Aleu’s pack got used to the new pack being near. “Where do you think everyone else went?” “Maybe there was another ice bridge and they crossed that over to Russia.” “It would be a little ways over to the other edge of St. Lawrence Island. And it was probably just as bad in Russia as it was here.” “This winter brought many chances to take. We took the “Stay Here” chance, and we survived the winter. They took the “Move Away” chance, and we can only hope that they survived.” “Why didn’t we take the “Move Away” chance?” “Does it really matter?” “Scylla has a point. It doesn’t really matter. We survived and we have plenty of food.” “Scylla is always the one with good points.” “So?” “Scylla can’t control her intelligence.” “She can control how she uses it, though.” “I’m trying my best to help the pack.”

The pack next door was happy with their territory. They came from Russia, but said that they didn’t see any other wolf packs. They saw a lone wolf, but not a wolf pack. There were only a few weeks left until summer, and Kiba thought it was time for a new leader. “No!” “Why not?” “What’s wrong with Aleu?” “You sound like Niju.”

“Someone mentioned my name?” said a low voice coming from the bushes. “Niju? What are you doing here?” “The question is what are you doing here? Why did you leave?” “Do you really care?” “Does it matter?” “I asked, WHY DID YOU LEAVE?” “You know why we left. Now answer our question. What brings you here?” “Yeah, and what about ‘You’ll all die!’? We’ve survived just fine.” “Never mind. I’ll see you soon.” Niju disappeared into the bushes again.

“What do you think he is here for?” “I don’t know. But we’d better be careful until we know he has left the island.”

The other pack moved westward, leaving the perfectly good ground unoccupied. Again. The reason why Thunder’s pack moved away wasn’t a mystery. The reason why the other pack did, was. Aleu’s pack had noticed that the caribou population was decreasing. As the weeks went by, it became more rapid. They, like over this winter, were running out of food. “It seems the spirits just don’t care about us anymore.” “We will survive,” said Aleu, and she quietly said “I hope.”

It was the time of year when caribou were greatly abundant. The young were born and grown, and the grass was plentiful for them to graze on. Yet, they were disappearing anyways. Perhaps the other pack had known this was coming, or maybe they were the cause of it. Niju wasn’t here anymore, and by scent, they had figured out that he went with that other pack. “You don’t think he joined them, became the leader, and is driving the caribou away so we are forced to go back to the mainland of Alaska, do you?” “I hope not, but it seems so.” “Why would he care about us being here?” “You don’t think that he changed and now he is trying to help us, do you?” “Not at all. You could tell by his voice that he was up to mischief.” “I do believe that we might have to go back to the mainland of Alaska, but, well, it doesn’t sound right that we are giving in to Niju’s plan.” “What if this isn’t part of his plan?” “Wait! I think I might have a plan to figure out what Niju’s plan is.” “What do you mean?” “I mean that Jessica, Amaroq, Scylla, and I will leave in the morning to go fallow Niju and that other pack.” “This is a little off subject, but, does “That Other Pack” have a name?” “Not that we know of.”

In the morning, just like planned, Aleu, Jessica, Amaroq, and Scylla left going west. And it wasn’t long until they were back. “Yes. He is trying to drive the caribou west away from us. If we leave soon, He might forget that we were here.” “You mean that he will come back here and forget why he was doing that?” “Exactly. So, what are we waiting for?” “But how are we supposed to get to the mainland?” “That.” Aleu gestured toward a giant boat with the words “The Traveling Alaskan Zoo.” “How do we know it is going to the Seward Peninsula?” “We ask any of the animals on board.”

Their luck was up. The boat was headed toward the Seward Peninsula. “Yes! Our way home!”

The trip back wasn’t good as they had hoped, but they got used to it. “I guess that with a life being on a giant boat, you get used to it.” “You got that right.” said a polar bear a few cages over. “Welcome home, guys!” yelled max from above. “Land ho! Home ho!” “Home ho?” asked Kali. “Max, you are weird, you know that?” asked Scylla. “Yes.” answered Max.

It was less than an hour until they had reached land and docked. It was nice to breathe the familiar air again. “Nava!” “Aleu, you mother has been hoping you would return.” “Are you sure you can lead the pack?” “You are a great leader, Aleu. I am sure you have taught them well the facts of life and being a pack. I believe that you should go home now.” “Are you positive?” “Yes.” Aleu looked of to her left for a few seconds and then said “Bye, Nava!” “Good-bye, Aleu.” The pack howled their good-bye and thanks to Aleu, and she was on her way.

“Aleu!” “Mother!” “Aleu? Jenna, you’re having more hallucinations.” “Am not! Come here!” “Papa!” “Aleu!” “Told you.” Aleu shook her head and smiled. “How’d you get here?” “Well, it wasn’t the Balto Flyer. A good name might be the Balto Floater, though.” “By boat?” “Yup.” “Who is leading the pack?” “Nava.” “He didn’t cross the Bering sea!” “No, he didn’t. but the pack did. Twice.” “Oh. Well I guess that makes sense.” “What do you plan to do with your life now?” “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe start a new pack right outside of Nome. Well, not right outside of Nome.” “I bet I could get Rosy to talk to the police.” “About what?” “Making it illegal to shoot wolves around this area.” “The police don’t make the laws.” “Okay, then she could get her parents to write a bill.” “Bills don’t always take effect.” “Yes but there is a fifty percent chance that they will. Worth a shot.”

The bill turned into a law almost immediately. Eighty-six percent of the voters said “Yes.” And the president didn’t even consider vetoing it. Aleu was able to start a pack, the Cold Water Pack, but she refused to be the alpha female of it. Amaroq and Jessica came with her from their original pack, and Aleu asked them to be the alphas. They accepted, and the pack went well after. One hunter tried to set a wolf trap, but it was found by a musher and reported. “It caught one of my dogs and created a huge mess. And I don’t know how to undo these things.” Another hunter was seen taking aim at one of the wolves in the new pack, and that was also reported. After that, no one ever dared to attack Aleu’s/Amaroq’s/Jessica’s pack. Including the other new wolf packs in the area.

Aleu introduced Amaroq and Jessica to her mother and father, and they became great friends. One thing that they later found out is that Amaroq is Balto’s brother! After that, Balto, too, became a member of the pack. And Jenna. The pack was not huge, and unlike on St. Lawrence Island they always had enough food, thanks to Rosy and her parents. The pack accepted them, too, as pack members because of this.

With a large, decent, content pack, Aleu, Amaroq, Jessica, Balto, and Aleu look foreword to next year’s adventures, and can’t wait to get it  started. “As I’ve always said, new friends, or pack in this case, means a new life. A new life means more adventures.” said Jessica. “I couldn’t disagree.” said Jenna. And Balto. And Amaroq.

Author’s Note

…Well, I’m not in the book but if I was, I would also agree with Jessica. … I enjoyed writing this book, and I hope you enjoy reading it. I started writing it quite a long time ago, I just didn’t find enough time to write it. I started writing it the summer after fourth grade, now I’m in fifth. I plan to write more books, but they probably will be based on this one, so I recommend reading this book before you read any other books.

About the Author

I have been into the Balto movies ever since I had ever watched one, which was when I was five years old. Now I’m not only into the movies, but the real Balto and the epidemic in Nome, Alaska in 1925. I plan to move to Alaska sometime, and as a hobby, mush dogs. I’ve read all I can about dog mushing and I believe that if you gave me a good team, a decent sled, and all the other gear used in dog mushing, I could drive the dogs.