A flash of light enveloped the world around him.  Star began to feel nauseous as he felt himself being stretched like a rubber band as he saw many wondrous spheres of light pass him by in a green tunnel of cold light.  In the spheres, he could see events in far-off lands.  One caught his eye: It depicted a man standing on a platform in a picture.  It was a picture on a newspaper that was written in a strange and foreign language.  A symbol was on a flag behind the man and a crowd of people was cheering in front of him while they saluted.  Star then saw another sphere with thousands of monstrous metal contraptions advancing across a snow-covered field towards similar contraptions bearing the symbol he saw earlier.  Looking ahead, he saw a peculiar-looking cloud that engulfed the city it was towering over.  Faster and faster he went.  He saw flying contraptions like planes he had seen before, but they had no propellers.  It was becoming harder to see the spheres as they passed by.  He caught a glimpse of a man standing in front of a monstrous metal contraption also similar to the ones he had seen earlier, but this tank was not advancing across a field, but instead it was a street.  Now, the tunnel turned pitch black around him as a portal of light opened up in front of him.  The light got bigger and bigger until he was surrounded by light.  Suddenly, time froze, and the silhouette of a dog approached him.  It greeted him warmly: "Hello. I'm sure that you're a bit... confused right now.  I'm not at liberty to explain what is happening at the moment but you'll... soon figure it all out." The figure looked behind itself as if it had been followed. "I'm sorry, but I must cut our conversation short.  This is where... I get off..."

     "Wait! What's-" Star was interrupted as the figure began to shrink and disappear.  This enigmatic stranger had left him with many questions, but now was not the time to think.  Star began to fall into the bright abyss around him until everything went pitch black again.  Closing his eyes tightly and whimpering, he began to feel frigid air rushing around him.  He opened his eyes and discovered that he was no longer falling into an abyss, but something worse.  He was falling towards solid ground.  He squeezed his eyes shut and braced for impact, but fell unconscious before he could let out a cry for help.

     Star was now on solid ground.  He was unhurt, and partially conscious.  He was being dragged along the ground by two other creatures, but he had no strength to open his eyes all the way.  He was slowly gathering his strength until he could open his eyes.  He found that he was in a familiar, yet completely unfamiliar location.  Ravens flew overhead, letting out harsh cries.  Pine trees surrounded him, but they weren't like the ones he had seen before.  These pine trees were dark as dark could be.  Their needles were brown and their branches were becoming brittle and bare.  The ground was just as bare except for piles of dead pine needles and black pine cones that lay beneath the trees.  Star almost could look to see what was dragging him, but he slipped back into a state of unconsciousness.  Later, he awoke again to find an empty street.  He was being dragged through a white and powdery substance now, but it was not the snow he was used to.  Around him he saw emaciated animals of various species walking along the barren, desolate wasteland around him.  He saw what remained of a bank.  It was dilapidated and in an obvious state of disrepair.  The decaying exterior had long since been stripped bare of its paint and had been broken in many places.  Its windows were dusty, cracked, broken, and even missing.  The front door was off its hinges and sitting in the dust.  Some letters above the doorframe had gone missing, but the letters still conveyed their message: FIRST NATIONAL BANK, they seemed to say.  Some numbers were above the message: 416.  Star recalled a bank with the same letters and numbers above its door in Nome, but he was thoroughly convinced that this wasn't Nome.  Where were the people, the dogs on leashes, the street lamps, the wooden sidewalks and sleds?  To his horror, Star saw something that did tell him this was Nome.  It was undeniable proof that took the form of a battered old sign.  As he passed it, he saw two words that made his heart sink lower than it had ever sunk before: NOME, ALASKA.

     Now, Star was being dragged into a new location.  He passed a rusty old fence that had mostly been ripped to pieces.  He began to feel the presence of other life forms surrounding him.  The two creatures that had dragged him for what seemed like an eternity across a barren wasteland suddenly let go of him and dropped him in the dust.  The powdery white substance from the streets rose in a cloud around his eyes.  He coughed, and he heard the two creatures respond with hacking and wheezing.

     "What th... Is it... Is that thing alive?" asked the creature, still in a coughing fit.

     "I think it is alive!  Hey, can youse.... hear me?" wheezed the second creature.  Star recognized the voices.  Only two dogs he knew could talk the way these two creatures did:  Nikki and Kaltag.  Star was now comfortable enough to slip back into unconsciousness again, and he was now more than sure that he was safe from harm.

     "...I know it's him!  It's gotta' be him!" interjected Kaltag.

     "Youse must be gettin' crazy from all that ash out dere.  Star's been gone for weeks and youse knows it!  Ain't no way he's still alive, I tells ya'!  No way!" retorted Nikki.

     "Stop yelling like that!  I'm getting a headache from all the bad grammar!  Make it stop!  Make the bad grammar go away, mommy!  Make it stop!  Make it stoooooop!!!" yelled a now conscious Star.  As Nikki and Kaltag approached him, Star looked around.  He was inside what looked like his musher's house.  The wood floors were covered in layers of dust and the wallpaper had faded away.  It was even torn off in some places.  The fireplace had been neglected as well.  Some faded black and white pictures stood on the mantle.  A pile of ash stood in the blackened hearth.  The rug below him was tattered and torn in many places, but miraculously had kept its color.  A pile of wooden beams crowded the stairs, making it an impossibility to climb them.  The front door was locked, and the curtains that once covered the nearby window had fallen with the curtain rod.  There wouldn't be any need for them, anyway, as the window had been covered in a fine layer of dust that was so fine, it seemed as though if the dust was intentionally allowed to accumulate there so that the window would look like it had never been there.  Before Star could look around the living room some more, Kaltag and Nikki loomed over him.  Nikki had grown bulkier, but instead of fat, the bulk was now genuine muscle.  Star turned his head to Kaltag, who had grown quite a bit, and was now looking more like the leader of a country populated by dogs instead of the leader of a trio of villainous sidekicks in a movie.  "Mommy, is that yooouuuu?" asked a speechless Star.

     "Star?  It is you!!!  Nikki, I knew it all along!" exclaimed Kaltag.

     Star was elated.  He now knew it was okay to express his feelings without having to worry about getting made fun of.  "I'm so happy to see you-"

     "Yeah.  Whatever.  Us, too.  Shut up- we're busy right now.  Where was I... Oh, yes!  You owe me five bones, Nikki! Ha!!!" interrupted an ecstatic Kaltag.  Star was a little upset about Kaltag's lack of enthusiasm about his safe return, but he was comforted- Kaltag's personality hadn't changed a bit.  Nikki, however, was less enthusiastic.  He walked to spot on the floor, ripped off a floorboard, and sent three bones to Kaltag from the stash.

     "I'll give youse the other two next week.", Nikki responded flatly.  Now, Kaltag exchanged the satisfied look on his face for a disappointed look as he turned to Star.

     "Star, what were you thinking?!  We've been worried sick!  But, seriously, we weren't really at all that worried.  We were when we found you, though.  You know very well that wandering outside of city limits is highly inadvisable, and that nobody's gonna' go out of their way just to find a missing dog.  Not only that, but you chose to pass out in the forest!  Everybody knows that the wolves'll come looking for live meat there!" complained Kaltag.

     "'Passed out?'  'Had a coma' was more like it!  Youse was covered in ash when we found youse!" corrected Nikki.

     "Don't you dare correct me!" yelled Kaltag as he proceeded to bash Nikki over the head with his paw.

     Nikki was angry now.  "Why you little son of a-"

     "Oh, you're gonna' get it now!", declared an enraged Kaltag.  They were both engaged in combat, now.  Kaltag and Nikki gripped each other at the shoulders, unwilling to let go.  Both tried biting the other, but they were too busy trying to keep the other from biting to even try it yet.  Star had never seen this before.  Most arguments within the trio were settled with a threat from from Steele or a blow to the head, but never a fight.

     "STOOOOOP!!!" Star's cry rang out.  Nikki and Kaltag both stared at Star in amazement.  How could such a weak and shy being demand something from two tougher and outgoing beings?  It was a rare event, indeed, and Star savored it.  For once in his life, he had gotten two of the toughest dogs he knew to obey him.

     "Who are you and what have you done with Star?!" queried a dumbstruck Kaltag.  Star blushed at this statement.  Never before had he received such praise from Kaltag.  Star quickly switched back to being stern.

     "You guys never fight like this?  What happened?" demanded Star.

     "Either your memory is going or you got hit on the head very hard." stated Kaltag.  "You don't remember?  Some volcano in Russia... Avachinsky, I believe, erupted.  The explosion was so huge that the entire volcano turned into a crater in a matter of seconds.  The ash cloud covered the earth so quickly that there was little time to prepare for it.  Every single human within an... um... two thousand mile radius died instantly.  I don't know how it happened, but most of us survived.  We've been waiting for the rescue parties for three years, now and we've been surviving on human food, corpses, and what's left of the wildlife in the area.  So far, it's been great! We've had six cargo ships this month wash ashore.  We're still, ya' know, hopeful.  We're confident that things'll all work out in the end... yeah..." Kaltag’s voice began to soften until it trailed off.  Kaltag was obviously lying.  The situation was grim, no one was confident that everything would be okay in the end, and certainly no one in their right minds could be hopeful about the current situation.  Star was now uncomfortable again.  Kaltag was never this unsure of himself before and never was this depressed.  Star began to think of a plan for the first time in his life.  The situation was bleak, nobody was going to return to Nome, and the food was not going to last forever.  This sort of situation called for someone who was confident, bold, and strong.  This called for a hero.  They needed that one dog that could do it all.  They needed Balto.

     "What about Balto?  Can't he help us out?" asked Star.

     "No, Star, we can't call Balto for help.  Balto has been dead ever since the eruption.  Steele has been the de facto leader of Nome since the eruption, but he'll be of no help.  All he does is somehow magically make anyone who poses the question of sending for help change his or her mind and then they never ask again." answered Kaltag.  With that option out of the question, it was time for Star to take matters into his own hands:  They would have to do it by themselves.

     "Why don't we go for help ourselves?" asked Star.

     Kaltag gave Star a surprised look.  "Do you know how crazy you are?  Steele has his goons all around the town, just waiting for somebody to escape.  Then, they take the so-called 'trouble-makers' and bring them to the furnace in the mill at the edge of town and you never hear from them again! It's risky, hazardous, unnecessary, pointless, hopeless-"

     "Shut it!" commanded Star, who was again surprised by himself.  Instead of wondering about his sudden personality change, he decided to focus on the matter at hand.  "Look, we'll go at night when they can't see us."

     "What about food?" wondered Nikki.

     "We'll tie it onto our backs in bundles." it was a simple answer.  Star had yet again surprised himself.  Why was he so heroic all of the sudden?  Was it the time travel, the pressure, the author?

     That afternoon was spent gathering food for the trek.  Star, Nikki, and Kaltag searched the entire town for food, and left it in a pile on the living room rug.  They gathered everything from bones to old meat, being careful to check for signs of spoiling.  After gathering all the food they could get, they took as many burlap sacks from the stores around town as necessary, and stuffed the food into the sacks.  Now, they took the sacks and tied them shut using twine.  It was hard without opposable thumbs, but they did their best.  Now that the sacks were tied, they had to carry them, but a problem soon became evident:  The sacks were too large and heavy to carry.

     "Okay, I'm stumped.  How are we going to carry these things?" asked Kaltag.

     "What about the sled?" questioned Nikki.

     "Excellent idea," exclaimed Star.  "Where is it?"  Nikki left momentarily as Kaltag and Star waited patiently.  It wasn't too long before he came back with a sled.  It was dusty, rusted, and obviously coming to the end of its time as a useful mode of transport.  The harnesses were still attached and decaying rapidly.  It looked just about ready to fall apart, but it was sturdy enough for at least one more trip.  It was then that another problem became evident:  How were they going to make contact with a rescue party that would be willing to rescue dogs?

     "Umm, not to be the bearer of bad news, but there's no way that we're going to last long enough to find anyone willing to save a bunch of dogs." said Kaltag.

     Once again, Star experienced a flash of genius.  "Isn't there a telegraph in Council?"

     "Yeah, but does it work?" asked Nikki.

     "There's no other way we can do this fast enough to save the town." stated Star.  There were no more questions about it.  It was Council or death.  Not wasting time, as soon as the last rays of sunlight disappeared and the last moments of vesper's hour were upon them, they hooked up to the sled with Star in the lead and slipped into the night.  They left Nome without a hitch, and were far enough from Nome when they finally encountered yet another problem:  Their fastest way to Council was blocked by a pile of snow, boulders, fallen trees, and ash.  They would have to go another way.  Luckily, the mountain path was clear, and they made their journey slowly up the mountain.  As time passed, it began to get darker, and the visibility was poor.  They would have to stop and rest for the night.  They unhooked and fumbled around in the ash a bit before finding good spots to sleep on, and they all fell asleep almost instantly.

     It was dawn again.  Ravens croaked as they soared overhead.  Star woke up, feeling that someone was watching him.  He looked up the trail to find that it was dangerously narrow.  He decided to check his surroundings before looking around for danger.  They were in a short stretch of the path that widened a bit before narrowing again.  He looked down the side of the mountain.  It was a steep drop covered in pine tree saplings that grew amidst a sea of fallen timber.  The ash had apparently caused an avalanche.  Looking up the mountain, Star saw some bushes and a few tufts of grass here and there.  There was a tall cliff towering over them.  Skeletons of Dall's sheep were scattered about at the base of the cliff, probably the remains of the avalanche's victims.  The cliff face was bare, but at the very top, Star saw something for a moment.  It looked remotely familiar, but there was too much backlighting to see what it was.  The figure then turned around and vanished.  It was definitely a canine.  It wasn't a wolf or a dog, but somewhere in between.  Star looked back at Kaltag and Nikki, who emerged from the ash like zombies in old horror movies.  Star took one last look at where the figure had stood, and then opened up one of the sacks.

     They immediately helped themselves to some old steak from one of the sacks and ate like they had been starving, and they were.  Without a word, they finished eating, tied up the sack, and put on their harnesses again.  They left the campsite without thinking twice, and continued up the mountain trail.  Up and down they went, following the trail closely and carefully so as not to fall off the mountain.  Eventually, the trail descended into the valley below where Council stood.  As they descended, the forests became denser, and more broadleaf trees began to appear. Council was not so badly hit by the ash.  Finally arriving at a stream, Star stopped.  "Do you smell that, guys?"

     "Yeah, wolves have been here.  We're definitely enterin' wolf territory now." answered Nikki.

     "Well, it's either this or we go back." said Kaltag.  There was no question about it:  They would be going straight through wolf territory.  They took the overgrown path through the shallow stream and onto the other side.  As they ventured deeper into the forest, they saw signs of recent wolf activity:  carcasses of marmots, sheep, and goats were strewn about the forest floor.  The scent of wolves was fresh in the air.  They became more and more afraid until they noticed something:  In all their fear, they had not noticed the absence of one sack that was on the sled.  It could not have fallen off.  The sacks were securely fastened.  Someone or something had taken the sack off the sled.  Their suspicions were confirmed:  A couple of yards behind them laid wolf tracks and signs of a large object being dragged along the ground.  They had been followed, and hadn't even noticed.  They quickened their pace and raced along the forest path, hoping to never encounter any wolves, but they were only delaying the inevitable.  They knew that sooner or later, they would be intercepted.  Unfortunately, they were right about that.  Six wolves closed in behind them from some series of shrubs, hoping to get either the sacks or a live meal.  Not wanting to stop and contemplate the situation, the trio forged ahead, but they were too slow.  Two of the wolves caught up to them and nipped at the harnesses.  The fragile link to the sled was already close to snapping and easily broke.  They had lost a lot of their food.  Not wanting to press their luck with the wolves, they ran even faster to Council, and raced to the telegraph office without even stopping to look at their surroundings.  Still frightened, they all started to scratch at the door and only stopped once they finally got in.  Looking around, they found little else besides telegraph equipment, a Morse code reference poster, a burnt-out light bulb, and a table.

     "Does anyone know how to use a telegraph?" asked Star.  It was a pointless question.  None of them knew how to use a telegraph, but Star's recent streak of genius saved them again.  He found looked at the Morse code reference sheet and scratched at the table the telegraph was sitting on so it would be easier for him to send a message.  Once he scratched his message into the table, he immediately started working the telegraph, hoping that what he was doing was going to save Nome.  The telegraph furiously beeped, and the message was sent flawlessly, but was it being sent to the right location?  Star could only hope.  "I'm pretty sure that I sent the message.", claimed Star.  It was good enough for the three of them.  They were sick of the adventure they had, so they left the office quickly and hoped that trouble would not find them.  They had wasted too much energy, though, and decided to rest.

     "Which way do we go?" asked Kaltag as they stopped to take a breather at the edge of town.

     "We ain't goin' back dere!" said Nikki, looking at the wolves' forest.

     "Let's try the blocked route, then." suggested Star.  They departed immediately.  When they arrived at the blockage, they found that their journey to Nome across the debris would be an easy one.  The avalanche had left plenty of boulders on their side of the debris pile to climb on.  Being careful of where they stepped, the crossing of the debris pile went without a hitch.  Nome was within sight, and the cover of darkness would soon be there.

     As they slinked back towards the old house, they noticed something strange.  There were some silhouettes of dogs moving towards the house.  Star started moving faster, but noticed something else:  Nikki and Kaltag were nowhere to be found.  Star decided that waiting inside the safety of the house instead of looking for them, and proceeded to turn towards the house, but found that Nikki and Kaltag were in front of him.  Star tried to move in between them, but was blocked.  He tried moving around them to the left, but they again blocked Star.  He was frustrated, now.  Just as he was about to talk, he looked at both of their eyes.  He saw that their eyes were not focused on him, but staring blankly into space.  Star again looked behind him and saw nothing of interest.  He then decided it was necessary to get their attention.  "What are you guys doing?  I thought we were going to go back to the house and wait for help!" inquired Star.

     "Sorry, but we can't let youse do that." answered Nikki, still looking like he was in a trance.

     "The leader requests your presence at his throne immediately." added Kaltag, who also looked like he was not all there.

     "If we can go back home after this, then I'll go." decided Star, who was now wondering what was going on.  Nikki stepped behind Star and Kaltag led the way into town.  Star could not believe his eyes as he walked through the empty streets.  He saw ice-statues of Steele all along the way, idols of Steele in what seemed to be altars, Steele's face scratched into the sidewalks, his image etched into windows, and a monument to him made of various discarded items topped with a tile of ice with his faced carved into it.  By the time they had turned the corner, Star was completely sure that something was wrong.  He saw two rows of ice-statues facing each other.  They were all statues of Steele.  As he went farther, he could see the abandoned mill.  Dogs started to appear on both sides of the street, forming neat columns and rows.  They were all staring blankly, too.  Star was now wanting to run away, but knew that he had no chance to escape.  They soon arrived at the door.  The trio walked through a makeshift dog-door and Star was now horrified and disgusted at what he saw:  Dogs frozen in ice.  Dogs trapped in ice lined the shelves of the building.  All of them had terrified looks on their faces and looked as if ready to burst out of their icy prisons and head for the hills.  Then, Star heard a voice he had hoped to never hear again.

     "How have you been, Star?  Have you been taking in the sights of my wonderful new kingdom?  Did you like the "art gallery" I set up just for your arrival?" inquired the voice of Steele.

     "What did you do to my friends?!" demanded Star.

     "Don't be so hot-headed, Star.  Keep your cool." answered Steele nonchalantly.  With that Star found his paws instantly frozen stuck to the floor.  He almost made the mistake of licking the ice off of his paws when he remembered what had happened last year when he tried to lick an icy bone.  "Since you're not going anywhere, let's have a little chat.  I've been wanting to add you to my list of royal subjects ever since I began ruling, but you disappeared.  After my royal subjects became unwilling to follow my orders, I made them obey with this collar I found at a curio shop.  It's nice, isn't it?" said Steele, craning his neck in order to show Star his gaudy dark blue collar that broke so many fashion laws, it would have been illegal to wear it if any humans were around.  "Anyway, this collar made me so powerful that I was able to control the thoughts of every dog in town.  When I saw you fall from the sky, I ordered your two closest friends to recover your body.  Somehow, their emotions got in the way of their work and they disobeyed direct orders.  Luckily, I was able to regain control after they came back.  In a cruel twist of fate for you, I failed to control your mind when you came back, so I ordered your friends to help me dispose of you." continued Steele.

     "So why did you freeze all these dogs and how?" inquired Star.

     "Isn't it obvious?  They were the dogs who disobeyed me and tried to overthrow me.  Of course, mind control wasn't the only power that the collar gave me..." responded Steele, who was now grinning.  Star looked down in amazement as ice crawled up his haunches and onto his back.  His limbs were now completely frozen.

     "Wait a second!  Why are you freezing me when you can mind control me?" wondered Star.

      "I don't know why your mind can't be controlled, Star, but I don't want to waste time figuring out how to solve the problem, so I'll just freeze you and make you an example for all of those who dare to even think about being disloyal to me!" it was an answer that made Star panic.  Star began to squirm around in order to free himself, but to no avail.  "It's no use, Star!  You might as well give up and make it easy on yourself!" continued Steele.

     Star looked around frantically for anything that could help, but formulated his most ingenious life-saving and risky plan yet:  Call for help.  He began to smile at his best plan yet.  Though it relied entirely on luck, Star was certain that it would work.  He began to smile as he finished formulating his plan.  "Smiling at one's death?  I respect that in a dog!" claimed Steele.

     "Oh, I'm smiling, but it's not my death I'm smiling at. No, it's my freedom.  NIKKI!!!  KALTAG!!!  HELP ME!!!  STEELE IS CONTROLLING YOUR MINDS!!!" Star screamed at the top of his lungs.  Star continued to yell their names, but his plan seemed to be failing.  Just as Steele was starting to freeze Star's neck, Star let out his loudest call for help yet, and immediately, Kaltag and Nikki pounced on Steele, ripping the collar off of him.  The other dogs outside came rushing in to help and started to swarm around Steele.  As the crowd engulfed the evil canine, Kaltag and Nikki came up to Star and congratulated him.

     "I can't believe that you did it, Star!  You actually saved us all from Steele's reign of terror!  You're the bravest, the strongest, the most courageous-est..."

     "Youse did it, Star!", interrupted Nikki.  As they proceeded to scratch away at the ice that imprisoned Star, the sounds of mushers and their dog sled teams arrived, and Star knew that things had turned out for the best.  He began to cry tears of joy when everything began to stop.  It was as if time had been frozen.  Suddenly, a familiar shadowy figure emerged from the crowd.

     "I'm... sorry that I have to end this here and now but I... do believe that you've passed the test with flying colors.  I believe... you have a question for me." stated the figure.

     "What's going on, here?  Who are you?  Will I ever go back to the normal world again?" asked Star as quickly as could.

     "You are going... through some tests.  You are to become the newest medicine... 'wolf' of our pack.  You are of the Sitka wolves, you see, and we need someone to help us cure our... problem.  You may not know it, but you're a little under half of a percent... wolf.  As for my identity, well that will all become clear quite... soon.  And, yes, you will be back in your... home dimension." replied the figure.  Before Star could ask another question, everything went black, and for a moment, Star could swear that Dauntless was the figure.

     Suddenly, Star awoke at the paws of his friends, Nikki and Kaltag, and was back home.  He was back home and had passed the test, but was certain that this test would not be his last, for he noticed that as he arrived, Kaltag was fading out of sight.  Either it was Kaltag's turn for a test, or Star's turn to take another.  Only the next fanfic could answer that question...

-TO BE CONTINUED-