It was cold morning, in Nome, Alaska. But the sky was blue and clear. I, Kodi, was lying down in the boat, hiding, ducking down. I whined to myself, and I was scared about going and joining the mail.
I was hiding from my dad, Balto, and he sniffed around for me, and he then he yelled to Jenna from the boat,
“Don’t worry, he’ll do fine!”
“I hope so!” She yelled in the distance.
Dad smelled around, and he got my scent and started to walk toward me. I backed up a little, ears laid back, and my tail between my legs.
But when I backed up, I bumped into wooden planks that banged, and crashed on my paw.
“Kodi?” Dad said and ran over to me.
“Ow,” I said to myself.
“Kodi, we will be late. And your owner is waiting for you.” Dad said and helped me out. I shook the dust out of my fur.
“But dad, what if I fail? What if I will make everyone mad?”
“Trust me, I know how you feel.” He said to me and smiled.
“No you don’t.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised.”
I hesitated, and then, I said,
“Ok, dad. I’ll do it. Just for you.” I nuzzled his chest. As I started to walk away, my mom, Jenna, yelled,
“Wait! I have something for you.”
She ran onto the boat, to me.
She slipped off her bandana, and put it on me.
“For luck,” She said and smiled. There had been a lot of memories through it.
“Mom, you don’t have to—“I began to say.
“Take it. Oh, Balto, he looks just like you.” Jenna smiled.
“Ok dad! I won’t let you down! I promise!” I ran off the boat, toward the town of Nome.
My person, the musher of the mail team, saw me.
I ran over to the sled.
“Hey Kodi, where were you? We are about to begin.” He pets me, and I saw three new dogs. One of them was light gray, and was very big. The other was tan, and looked like he was mean or something. The other one I looked over at. And I saw an angel.
She was gray, had beautiful sparkly eyes, and she had the silkiest fur I have ever seen. She looked over at me, and smiled.
I started to stammer.
“Hi, I mail dog.” I said and did a dumb smile.
She laughed.
“I’m Dusty.” She said.
The musher put the harness on me, and I started to shake and whine.
“Don’t worry, boy, I know you’ll do good.”
I was beside the mean looking dog, which was leader. I was in front of Dusty, and dusty was beside the big gray dog.
“Hey,” The mean dog said and looked over at me. “What’s the bandana for, keeping warm, Puppy?” He laughed, and so did the big dog. I started to whine again, not so sure about the mail run.
“Hey!” Dusty yelled. “He’s new, give him a break!”
I liked the feeling of dusty protecting me.
“By the way,” Dusty said. “We never got to know names.” She pointed at the mean dog. “This is Kirby.” Then she looked over at the big dog. “And this is Ralph. What’s your name?”
“Um…uh…Kodi.” I said.
“That’s a nice name.” She said.
“Hey, we’re about to start!” Ralph said.
My person got on the sled, and he put the bag of mail on the sled.
“Ok, mush!” He yelled, and I felt a little vibration on my harness.
When the team started to run, I didn’t ever know what “Mush” Meant, so I didn’t run. But the other dogs did, they barked, and started to run, and yanked me, encouraging me to walk.
“Mush means go, dummy!” Kirby yelled at me.
I widened my eyes, and started to run.
I ran faster, and faster.
“Kodi, you’re fast!” Dusty said as we were running.
I was fast, I was running even faster than Kirby, and I started pulling on them.
“Slow down!” Ralph said.
I didn’t listen to them, I just wanted to get this over with and go home, so I ran even faster.
“Whoa!” The musher said.
I didn’t even know what that meant, but I kept running.
“Kodi, you have to slow down!” Dusty said.
“No, I hate this mail run, I hate this harness, and I hate these dogs!” I yelled at Dusty, and I didn’t mean to say it, it just slipped out.
Dusty looked at me, and gasped.
She had tears in her eyes.
But we just kept running.
Just then, I got to the point where I was going as fast as I possibly could, dragging the whole team behind me.
Then, I saw the huge log in front of us.
“Oh, no!” I yelled.
I tried to stop, but the ice was slippery, and I was going to fast. We were going to crash!
My only hope was to jump. I jumped, but the rest of them were slipping, and didn’t make it.
They yelled,
“No!”
They howled, and the sled and the team crashed, and the end of my harness ripped, and I jumped over the log.
I looked over and the sled team was knocked out, the sled was a pile of wood, and the mail bag was ripped, and mail letters were scattered everywhere.
I then shook, and slipped out of my broken harness.
“Oh, yes! I’m out of the team! Freedom!” I yelled and howled.
I jumped over the log and team, and started running back to Nome.
I smiled, and laughed.
“What dummies,” I said to myself.
Then something stopped me in my tracks. I then looked behind me, at the sled team, and then I looked back at Nome. Which should I choose?
The sky suddenly started to get dark, and it suddenly started snowing.
I shivered, as the temperature dropped.
“I would be safe and warm back at Nome. But the team would freeze to death…” I thought, and I looked, and the team was covered in snow.
I sighed, and then I looked over at them again, and then chose my path.
“They need me, and I need them. So I guess I’ll have to do.”
It was snowing very hard now. I struggled against the snow, trying to get to the team.
The wind then knocked me down to the ground. I tried to get up but it was useless.
I tried, and couldn’t. I shivered and started to cry. But then I saw something that looked like a white wolf, standing in front of me.
I looked up at it, as it towered above me. I gasped, and it looked down at me.
It howled, and looked up at the sky.
Then it perked up its ears to hear me howl. I didn’t have time to howl, so the wolf walked away.
“Huh?” I said. I looked at the wolf, and thought,
“My dad did this. I should do it too.”
So I stood up, and then inhaled, and let out the loudest howl ever. I kept howling, and the wolf came back, and howled with me, and we kept howling, until I got the courage to have what it takes to be a wolf.
The wolf smiled, and walked off.
So I got up, and started walking over to the sled, and the team. Finally I got there.
I then looked over at them, and thought,
“How am I going to get them home?”
Then I heard Dusty moan.
“Dusty!” I said. I walked over to her.
“Kodi?” She said. “What are you doing here? We must have crashed. Go ahead and get your father.”
“Dusty, I’m coming to save you. Don’t worry.”
She smiled, and then fell back down with a moan.
“Oh, wake up Dusty,” I said and nudged her. She wouldn’t get up at all.
Then I had an idea. There were still pieces of the sled, so I jumped over the log, and put my harness back on.
A big part of the sled was still attached to the team.
Only one thing to do. I Put Dusty, Ralph, musher, and Kirby all on the sled.
I used my front teeth to tie my harness back on the sled.
Then, I thought to my self,
“Mash, Kodi! Or was it mush? Oh, well.” Anyway, I started to walk, pulling the team behind me. They were really heavy, but I kept going. I slowly inched to Nome, the blizzard blowing on me.
We were going across a thin frozen lake. I whimpered, but I kept going, and Then as I went to the middle of the lake, it started to crack, under my paws, and I gasped.
“Mush!” I said, and tried to run, but I couldn’t run because of the heavy load!
The ice cracked more, and then it broke, plunging us into the icy water.
The team fell out of the sled, and the sled was weighing me down, threatening to pull me under and make me drown.
“Help!” I yelled. “Help me!” I screamed, and it was no use.
Then I inhaled deeply and howled, hoping that someone would hear me.
Then I went down underwater, holding my breath. But I couldn’t hold it for long.
I started to gasp up air, as it rushed through my nose and lungs.
But I sank and sank. But then I felt teeth grab my back, and pull me back up.
We went up to the surface; I coughed and spat out water.
I looked behind me, to see who saved me. My dad!
“Dad?” I said.
He smiled.
Jenna was there too.
He pulled me back to the surface and the sled.
Jenna leaped in the water to get the team.
She got them and we both pulled them onto the sled.
“Dad, you saved my life.” I said.
“What else am I here for, son?”
I smiled and nuzzled him and mother.
“We have a team to save, dad! Come on!”
So Balto and Jenna started to help pull the team back.
After what seemed like hours, we finally got to the beginning of the town of Nome.
The storm had stopped, and we got in to the town of Nome, and that’s when everyone began to wake up.
We walked over to the doctors, and Balto scratched on the door and barked.
The doctor walked out and saw Balto, and me, and the team.
“Oh!” He said and ran over to the team.
The team woke up, and the doctor asked,
“Are you ok?”
“Well, we crashed, and the last thing I saw was Kodi saving us.” Musher said.
“Well, we better get you in.”
The doc took musher in, and I walked over to Dusty.
“Oh, Dusty, I’m so sorry for everything. This was my entire fault.”
“Don’t be,” She said and licked my cheek. “You saved us.”
I smiled and we nuzzled.
A couple weeks later, the team was all better, and we were at the town hall getting a medal.
“So,” Musher said. “Kodi and Balto saved the sled, as well as our lives.”
“I see,” The mayor said. He got two medals, and put them on my dad and me.
Dusty was outside, and she said,
“Hey, Kodi, we don’t want to be late for mail run.”
I smiled, and I went outside, and slipped into the harness for another journey…
The end.