Prologue
In the northern tip of the Alaskan
territory, lies a small isolated town called
The year is 1929 four years after
the epidemic and now
Second behind Kodi is Largo and as his name suggests he’s large, and fast and oddly enough kind of shy. This is not because of his size but because he is just naturally shy around other dogs. He was now in Kodi’s old position. Behind him is another rather large dog, but not near as big, Ralph. And behind him the only female dog on the team Dusty. Behind her are the last two dogs of the team Kai and Roy.
Chapter One:
The New Comers
The storm’s severity was increasing and the mail dogs were late. The leader a red and white husky named Kodi knew that they had to keep going ,but if they didn’t stop they probably wouldn’t be able to find their way anyway. Realizing this as well the handler had them pull over behind a ridge to keep the bitter wind from blowing on them. “Looks like we’ll have to wait this one out guys”, said Mr. Simpson, while letting the dogs off the reigns so that they could move around.
“This sucks” said Dusty. Shaking her white and grey fur to knock off all the collected snow, “we could have been back by now if someone hadn’t of slowed down”, looking at a large black and white husky.
“ME!” Ralph said shocked as his black and white fur stood up. “I had a broken nail and it was driving me crazy.”
“Oh not that one
again” said
“Hey guys just give it a break; instead of fighting you should be getting some rest. We still don’t know how far we have to go”, exclaimed Kodi.
They all anxiously complied and they all lied down to and fell to sleep. Though Kodi was one of the younger dogs in the group he was in charge and Largo even though they were about the same age respected him, Largo wasn’t sure if it was for Kodi’s leadership skills or because how everyone even the older dogs listened to what he had to say.
Several miles away at the sled dogs destination the storm was just as fierce. Both man and animal alike didn’t dare go out in this sort of weather. On the edge of town two hazy figures trudged towards the town. Inching their way through the deep snow their legs sinking in to the snow causing a blistering cold chills to run down their spine with every step. Although now they no longer felt the sharp protruding pain in their legs their whole bodies felt numb with a tingling sensation.
On the outer edges of town a boiler room was still burning strong. Most of the dogs in the winter would stay here because it was always warm no matter what the weather. All the dogs gathered together gossiping about how the mail team was doing. “They must’ve got lost out in weather like this”, one older husky said.
“Something horrible must’ve happened to them. Maybe an avalanche covered them up and their out their now slowly digging their way out of the cold, blistering snow”, another said in response. Not knowing how much more of this he could stand Kirby the former leader of the sled team laid down and placed his large tan paws over his ears to try to block all the sound of the others dogs nonsense. He knew Kodi was smart and wouldn’t try to continue in weather like this. But no matter what position he took or what he placed over his head Kirby couldn’t drown out the sounds of those ignorant dogs. Finally something in him snapped,
“HEY SHUT UP WILL YOU!” All the other dogs looked at him shocked. Most have never seen Kirby this angry but the ones that have, mostly dogs in his age range, knew to stay quiet and not say anything else. Though flustered and tense at first, he soon relaxed and spoke in a deep calming voice,
“Kodi knows what he is doing. If their late their late. There is nothing that we can do about it but wait”. Laying back down on his usual pillow Kirby curled up and appeared to be relaxed; however when his face wasn’t visible to their prying eyes he wore a worried look on his face deep in thought; praying that they would all come back safely, because he didn’t want to lose his friends.
Just when everyone was about to settle down for the night in the boiler room the door flew open letting the cold frost bitten wind in to nip at the dog’s warm ears. At the entrance to the boiler room two figures appeared both blanketed with snow covering both their faces and their bodies. One stumbled when he took a step on solid wooden floor obviously used to the constant shift of snow beneath his feet. And when he had the wooden floor totally beneath him floor he gasped “Finally!” in a raspy voice. Then he collapsed. His companion hurried to his friend’s side and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and dragged him farther into warm room. He was also used to the shifting of snow beneath his feet, and lost his own footing a couple of times. All the dogs looked stunned caused either from a couple of strange dogs who came in or the frigid wind that was coming in through the open door. When the strange dog had finally dragged his companion as far as his body would allow he collapsed under the strain of fatigue, and landed besides his friend closing his eyes and drifting for the first time in a long time into a deep sleep.
Calm, serene, and blissful was the dream that Balto envisioned. Flying that had been his one true passion and when he wasn’t in the air in real life he was in his dreams, but something seemed amiss. The skies he was soaring in became dark and cloudy storm clouds and there was no end to them on the horizon. Looking down he realized just how high he was off the ground and the wind was rushing from underneath him making his fur whip rapidly behind him. He was rolling around thrashing in the air, falling from thousands of feet in the air towards the ground. As he approached the ground he noticed that a dog he never saw before. The dog had grey coat on the upper half of his body and his belly had a tan color. He looked familiar as he stared at this dog the fact that he himself was plummeting to the ground. Those moments lasted to Balto for hours. The uncertainty he felt about this dog made him uneasy and restless. When he fell and became eye to eye with the dog he finally realized where he had seen this dog before. The dog seemed to not be phased by Balto falling in front of his eyes.
“BALTO!”, a voice said causing Balto to wake up from his slumber Balto was panting. “You were growling and tossing all night”, said Jenna. Balto looked in to her eye. This seemed to always calm him down when he was excited or anxious. She moved closer and moved he body against his. Balto took a deep breath and exhaled a long sigh to let her know he was alright.
“I just had a nightmare that’s all”, he said in a calm voice to keep her from getting worried.
“I’m glad that’s all it was”, she replied with a concerned voice not totally buying it. “Well it’s still storming outside so we’ll have to stay inside for a while yet. I hope Kodiak is alright”, She sighed. Balto knew that she only used Kodi’s full name only when she was either; surprised, angry, or worried and he didn’t need a hint as to which one it was. He had to admit he was also worried, what was that dream about and what did it mean?
“Quick shut those doors! Do you want us to freeze to death”, barked Kirby at the dogs that were closest to the gaping doors to the boiler room. Quickly complying two of the dogs nudged the doors shut. Kirby walked up to the two strange dogs. They both were still covered in a thick blanket of snow and he feared for the worst. He brushed his paw up and down the dogs’ back until all the snow had been removed. The dogs were soaked from all the snow and they weren’t even shivering. He was feared that they both had already entered the critical stages of hypothermia. “You help he move these two closer to the furnace”, he commanded to one of the younger dogs. Then he dragged the larger one by the scruff of his neck till he was mere feet from the furnace. The younger dog did the same.
“Who are they”, asked one dog.
“Haven’t seen them around town before”, replied one of the other dogs. Kirby hearing more gossip perked up his ears.
“What did I say about meaningless gossip”, barked Kirby. All the dogs became quiet once again. Sighing, “I guess we’ll have to just wait until they wake up before we know anything”.
“Who am
I? Where are those voices coming from? Where am I?” Slowly opening his eyes
the dog sat up. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts said, “Where am I.”
“You’re in
“
“You mean you don’t know who you are?” asked the tan dog curiously.
“Sorry but I don’t remember anything”.
"You were out for a day I was beginning to wonder if you'd pull through? The names Kirby and nice to meet you”, Kirby smiled and nodded his head, to greet the new dog. “We had a pretty serious storm last night but it’s died down so now we can actually go out side.”
“Maybe if I walk around I’ll remember something” said the dog. “Hey that sounds great; I’ve actually I’ve been cooped up in here myself so a walk would be a nice change of pace”.
“Alright let’s go” said the dog excited, “Why am I so anxious to get out of here?” The two walked out of the boiler room, Kirby took notice to the scar on the other dog’s muzzle, but he paid no mind to it see as it didn’t concern him and he didn’t want this dog with amnesia first recovered memories to be painful ones. Upon exiting the boiler room both dogs’ eyes had to adjust to the light that reflected off the snow; stumbling as they walked due to the snows constant shifting.
“Hey let me give you the tour of the town while we’re walking” said Kirby.
“Sure that’s sounds great”, answered the dog.
“We’ll start off over there…”
“Ahhhhh a bear!” people were shouting in the street as a large creature moved down the street.
“Come on lets get out of here” yelled Kirby. As he started to run he looked back to see the dog standing there not moving. “Hey what are you doing we need to move it’s not safe here” yelled Kirby back to the dog.
“But there’s a little kid out there!” the dog barked. A woman standing right next to the dogs was yelling, “MY BABY”. While two men were holding her back from rushing down the street towards the bear.
“There’s nothing we can do, all we can do is move to safety until the humans deal with it”. Said Kirby
“No I won’t accept that” and with that the dog was moving at full speed towards the child. Moving at a break neck pace the dog barley reached the child before the bear. Quickly grabbing the hood of the child’s coat he began to drag the child towards its mother. The bear got on all fours and was now chasing the dog. The bear quickly caught up with them and soon loomed over the pair preparing to swipe its gigantic paw at them. The dog wasn’t fast enough to avoid contact with the bear’s paw while holding onto the infant. Despite that he held fast and waited for the hundreds of pounds of pressure he would receive from the bear’s paw. The bear’s paw made contact sending both dog and child through the air. The dog did his best to land so that the infant didn’t feel the shock of the impact on the ground. Luckily for them there was plenty of fresh snow on the ground to soften their fall. But now they were trapped they sat in a foot of snow unable to get up. The bear was now directly over the pair and the dog fearing for the worst closed his eyes. A loud thunderous noise pierced his ears.
Perking his ears up
“No I don’t hear anything and still don’t why what do you think you heard?” answered Kodi.
“Well I guess I’m just hearing things then”, said Largo.
“Well it’s a good thing you did think you heard something,
look the weathers cleared up we finally get going again”, Kodi said. Largo
sometimes admired Kodi’s optimism and enthusiasm, but other times they annoyed
him for example right after arriving from a normal mail run, Kodi said ‘Let’s
go run a couple of laps around the town.’ Though the town wasn’t huge it was
growing more and more each day it seemed and
“Well looks like we can finally head out.” He said. Happily Kodi barked to wake the rest of the dogs up. Yawning Ralph said,
“Is it time to go already I only go a few hours of sleep”.
“Quite complaining Ralph” said Dusty, “We all only got a few hours of sleep, but its better then coming home dog tired”.
“Let’s get you all tied up so we can get home”, Said Mr. Simpson, securing the dogs to their respective lines.
“I can’t wait to get home”, said Ralph.
“Yeah know what you mean, I can’t wait to sleep in a nice
warm house”, replied Dusty. Although he was happy
“Ready guys, mush!” commanded Mr. Simpson. With that the dogs took off. Because of the rest they got last night they were running strong. Kodi was also preoccupied he also felt something was off like he had a sixth sense about it. Shaking his head to clear it he once again focused on the task at hand. But he couldn’t ignore the feeling so he stepped it up a little.
“Hey Kodi slow down will ya, I’ve got a sore paw” complained Ralph.
“Sorry Ralph, I’m just anxious to get home”, replied Kodi.
Laying there in the snow the dog didn’t know what just happened. Everything was quiet dark, “Am I dead?” he thought, “NO, I can’t die yet!” opening his eye he still couldn’t see anything. The thick black fur of the bear was lying right in on top of him. The dog tried to move but he was completely pinned to the ground and the constant pressure on his chest was becoming increasingly heavier. His breathing increased as he felt his self slip out of consciousness. His thoughts were becoming foggy. Why did I come to this town and why can’t I remember anything. Closing his eyes the dog could see a silhouette of a figure. Wait I know I’ve seen him somewhere before, but why does that matter. I guess I’ll never know now will I. A piercing cry was wailing in his ear, and then he remembered he still had that human infant with him and at least it wasn’t hurt. “Guess I accomplished one thing” he said. A small glimmer of light was blinding his eye from his right side. Maybe I can still get out of this alive. The dog nudged to the right being careful to not either harm the infant or cause more of the bear’s weight to collapse on them. Slowly but surely he was able to free his paws so he could start digging a wedge to let them to slip out from underneath the bear. Soon he felt the warmth of the sun on his nose as he poked it out from underneath the snow then he placed his muzzle underneath the infant nudging it up out of the hole first slowly following after. After he reached the surface he collapsed from exhaustion. Not only had he dug his way out but to be under the strain of a several hundred pound bear on him and holding it up so it didn’t crush him and the infant. The dog closed his eye and passed out right there in the middle of the street. The figure appeared in his thoughts again only this time the shape was more defined and this image gave him a collaboration of emotions ranging from anger to love confused, and disoriented the image faded and all turned black.
“Bear… can’t we sleep for a few more minutes”. More forceful his time Balto nudged the dog to wake up. “Fine I’m up I don’t see why we can’t sta….,” sitting up and then trailing off due to his inability to rationalize were he was. “Uh where am I and where is Bear?” the dog said. Balto bewildered responded
“Well I don’t know anybody named Bear, but you’re in
“Oh, thanks well my names Axel and Bear is my friend who I am traveling with, or was at the moment since don’t know where he is.”, the dog said.
“My name is Balto and you must be new in
“It’s alright I kind of expect that from everyone I meet, really”, said Axel with an embarrassed look on his face. Just before Balto could say anything, Kirby bolted in through the door out of breathe.
“Where’s Balto?” Kirby asked. “I’m right here where’s the fire”, asked Balto.
“Just follow me”, Kirby said and sprinted out the door towards the heart of the town. Balto Jenna and Axel followed behind. Upon they’re arrival Balto noticed Axel had followed them.
“Why did you follow us” Balto asked.
“I can smell Bear”, Axel replied. “Well you guessed right” said Kirby anxiously,
“Look”. Kirby pointed his paw towards a large mass on the ground.
“Wait that’s a grizzly why would it be here in town” asked Jenna now also nervous.
“It must have been attracted by the smell of meat”, Balto said.
“My friend is nearby
I can smell him”, said Axel, as he put his nose to the ground following the
scent of what he thought to be Bear.
“There”, he said, pointing to a heap of
fur on the other side of the bear’s body. “Bear wake up buddy”, Axel said,
while he nudged a brown and grey husky. “Oh dear, quickly lets get him inside”
said Jenna nervously. “I think we had better take him back to your place Jenna,
it’s a lot closer then the boiler room” said Balto. Both Balto and Axel were
propping the dog up so that they could carry him to Jenna’s house only a block
away.
“Finally we’re almost there” panted Ralph.
“Why do you always complain so much Ralph” asked Dusty
pausing to take a quick breathe between words.
“Hey guys lets all calm down and just get back into town and
then you can chew each other up all you want” teased
“Hey…how was the
trip?” Dingo said with a wide grin on his face knowing it wasn’t easy.
“Oh it was loads of fun” Kodi said sarcastically. Kodi was now shaking off all the snow that had accumulated on his fur, purposely making sure Dingo got the brunt of the snow in his face. The other dogs catching on to the idea began to shake furiously mimicking Kodi throwing snow in Dingo’s face.
“Thanks guys, I woke up this morning hoping to get snow in my face”. Dingo said spitting out the snow that made its way into his mouth. Dingo shook and knocked his newly acquired snow pelt off. Off in the distance Ralph noticed a familiar face running towards them. Squinting his eyes Ralph as able to identify the dog as Kirby. Kirby skidded to a stop in front of Kodi.
“Did you all hear about the bear attack”? Kirby panted out between breathes.
“What I didn’t even hear about it and I was in town Kirby”, Dingo said shocked that he hadn’t heard this very important news.
“Kodi, Dingo your parents want to see you both. So I suggest you hurry up and get over to your mom’s house quick.” Kirby said.
“Come on Dingo lets go now.” Kodi said slipping out of his harness, and taking off in the direction of their parents.
“How does he have so much energy left after hauling a sled several hundred miles?” Dingo signed; looking at Kodi’s teammates. They all shook their heads not knowing what kind of answer to give. Dingo let out a heavy sigh and began to take off after Kodi.