front cover picture copyright to jodi-lion

character on cover copyright to me

Snow flew from either side of Bailey. He ran through the snow lightning quick, leaving deep prints behind him. He rounded a corner, skidding a little, and stopped at a dead end. His breath came out in short puffs, little clouds gathering in front of his face before vanishing again. He sat down heavily in the snow, his harness loosening a little. His red fur looked like blood against his snow white muzzle and his eyes were pale yellow and brown.

'That stupid dog!' he growled, 'If it wasn't for Kenny then Candy would be alright!'

He was referring to the incident that had happened not long before.

Bailey was with Kenny and Candy, his two best friends. They were off towards the beach for some running practice when Kenny suggested going into the woods. A new pack had recently settled there and Kenny, being as curious as he was, wanted to go see them. Bailey had refused and the pair had started arguing. Candy stepped between them and suggested that they had a quick look and then went back to training. Kenny seemed satisfied, and Bailey, not wanting to argue further, reluctantly agreed.

They soon picked up the trail of the wolves and followed it for a while. When they had been going for a while and found nothing Bailey asked to go back.

'Chicken!' teased Kenny. He ran off along the trail. Bailey looked at Candy and sighed, walking off the way their friend had ran. Then they heard a high-pitched howl and alot of growling. Bailey and Candy pricked up their ears and ran in the direction of the noise. Lying against a tree was Kenny. Seven wolves stood nearby, a cub behind them was standing huddled against a worried looking female.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything!' Kenny was saying.

'Stay away from our cub!' growled the larger wolf, who seemed to be in charge, Or you know what will be coming for you!'

'Raven!' cried the female, 'I'm sure the boy meant no harm!'

'Stay out of it, Mimi!' snapped Raven, 'You know we can't trust anyone anymore!'

'Maybe you can't, but I know that not everyone is as heartless as you think!' replied the mother dog, now called Mimi. She ushered the little cub away, who was looking curiously at Kenny.

Raven turned back to Kenny and noticed Bailey and Candy standing nearby. He jumped at them and snarled.

'What do you want?!' he shouted.

'W-w-w-we, uh, well, y-you see... um...' Candy stammered.

'Well!' said Raven, impatiently.

'We were here with Kenny and he got seperated from us so we were trying to find him.' said Bailey, sounding a bit more confident than he felt.

He looked at Kenny who was staring fearfully at him.

'I guess you found him. Could we please go?'

'First I want to teach your little friend a lesson!' snapped Raven, turning back to Kenny. He raised a paw and smacked it down hard on Kenny's side. The dog yelped.

'Kenny!' cried Candy. Three more dogs were closing in ready to lunge at the frightened dog lying before them. The bent down ready to pounce.

'Kenny, NOOO!' screamed Candy, jumping in. The three wolves slashed her in the face and across her side. She howled with pain and landed with a thud on her side, breathing heavily.

Bailey saw his friend jump in, he saw the wolves slash at her and he just saw red. He lunged at the nearest wolf and bit into his leg. One of the other wolves  leapt at Bailey but the dog jumped out of the way and the wolf smacked into the other. Bailey ran over to his friend and quickly lifted her onto his back and ran. Kenny crouched against the tree for a moment before running after Bailey and Candy.

Soon the dogs were near Balto's boat. Bailey howled when he saw his father. He ran up to his dad and Balto instantly knew what had happened when he saw the deept scar across Candy's eye, the slash across her side and the trickle of blood falling from a wound in Bailey's front left leg. He got them onto his boat and Bailey explained what had happened. Kenny owned up but Bailey turned on him.

'How could you get us into so much trouble!' he snapped, standing up, 'If we hadn't of ran then we'd be dead. And look at what has happened to Candy. It's your fault she's like this!'

His eyes were welling up with tears so he turned away.

'Bailey.' said Balto, but Bailey wasn't listening. He just ran for it and didn't look back.

Bailey winced just thinking about it.

'I wish I could have done something!' he said, 'I'm such a failure!'

He stood up and walked back the way he came, his head low, his ears flattened against his head.

'Bailey!' called Emily, Bailey's owner, 'Come on boy, wake up!'

It was the next day and Bailey had hardly slept last night.

'Hurry, boy,' Emily said, impatiently, 'We gotta go to the vets to see how Candy's doing!'

Bailey's ears shot up. He remembered how hurt his 'sister' had looked when he had run away the day before.

Bailey was adopted by Emily just a few days before the family had adopted Candy as well. The two had grown up together for the past year and had the relationship of two very close siblings.

Bailey jumped up and ran off to get his harness. He wore a harness instead of a collar. He wasn't a racedog but he always wore his harness in the day because it was something Candy had found for him. Once Emily had put on his harness he bolted out of the door and up the road to the vets. Emily ran after him and opened the door when she got there. The husky ran through the door and waited while Emily asked to see Candy. Soon the vet came out for Emily and she followed him, Bailey close behind. They were led into a room where Candy was lying in a large cage. many other dogs were in other cages but most of them were asleep. Bailey ran up to Candy's cage. She looked at him and smiled.

'I thought you'd never come!' she said. She seemed pretty much the same as she always was but looked a bit weak. Her wounds looked better but she had a scar across her right eye. Three claw marks.

'I'm sorry for not being able to protect you.' sighed Bailey.

'That's ok, Bailey. You tried.'

Bailey looked at Candy's warm smile and sighed with relief. He licked her nose through the bars of the cage before saying goodbye.

Later, Bailey was on his way to the post office to meet his brother, Kodi. He walked round a corner, slowly. He wasn't concentrating, just thinking of Candy in that room, in that cage. He looked up and narrowly missed a bunch of barrels. He continued wondering how Candy was and turned another corner. He came nose to nose with another dog.

'Oh, I'm sorry!' cried Bailey.

'No, it was my fault!' replied the dog, 'I'm sorry.'

Bailey looked up at this dog. It was a female dog. She was smaller than him and was quite dainty with skinny legs but had the glossiest fur he'd ever seen. It was pale honey-coloured, with snow white underneath, she had chocolate coloured ears and a chocolate coloured patch starting halfway down her back all the way to the end of her tail. Her tail was curled up and she had the prettiest emerald green eyes.

'Err...' was all Bailey could say. He couldn't believe how beautiful this dog was. He shook his head.

'I'm Bailey!' he said, lifting his paw.

'And I'm Amber!' replied the dog. Amber smiled at him.

'I've got to go!' she said, 'See you later, Baliey!' She winked at him before running off. Bailey just stood there staring at her. He had a funny feeling inside of him. His tummy was all fluttery and he couldn't get the image of her out of his head. She winked at him too. Why? Bailey was disappointed that she had left but just shrugged and carried on the way his was going.

Two days later, Candy came home. She ran found the house sniffing everything.

'It's so good to be back!' she said. She stretched out on the rug and yawned.

'But I'm a bit tired!' she added.

'Just have a rest, Candy. It's good to have you back.'

Candy nodded and closed her eyes. Before long she was sound asleep. Bailey dragged a blanket over her and left to stretch his legs outside. He trotted along past the shops when he saw Amber across the road. He wanted to call out to her but suddenly felt too shy. He needn't have worried as Amber saw him.

'Hiya, Bailey!' she called, running over to him. She nuzzled his cheek making him flush red. He stepped back.

'What's wrong?' asked Amber.

'Well, it's just that-'

'I get it. Your not used to it. Sorry. It's just, you looked so cute standing there!' she giggled.

'Really?' said bailey, sounding a little eager.

'Why do ya want to know?' asked Amber, teasing him. Bailey flushed red again under his red fur.

'Err...'

'Never mind. Wanna meet me later?'

Bailey looked at her and nodded.

Speak to her you idiot! yelled a voice in his head.

'Sure.' he said.

'Meet me outisde the post office.' said Amber, walking off.

Before long, Amber had become part of Bailey's group. Wherever Bailey went, Amber went. Candy and Kenny were always there to play too.

The four of them sat watching the sunset.

'We'd better be getting home.' said Kenny.

'Yeah, your right!' said Amber. 'Bye guys!' She went up to Bailey and rubbed her cheek against his.

'Night, sugar.' she whispered to him.

When she left, Bailey was smiling goofily. Kenny blinked then left, saying goodbye to Candy.

Candy went and sat next to Bailey.

'Hello!' she said, waving a paw in front of his face. Bailey looked at her.

'Why do you let her get so close?' she hissed, 'Are you going out with her or something?'

'No! We're just friends!' cried Bailey.

'Answer my question then!'

'I don't know. She's just... I don't want to hurt her feelings or embarass her!'

'So you do like her then!'

'Do not!'

'Do too!'

'Do not!'

'Lay off it! It's kinda obvious!'

'Oh, alright. So I like her. That's not a crime is it?'

'No. I just wanted to know. But don't be hurt if she'd says no.' replied Candy and walked off.

No, thought Bailey, No to what?

It was early in the morning. Bailey was walking beside Amber on their way up the hill to see the sunrise. They made it up and sat waiting.

Suddenly, a streak of orange could be seen along the horizon.

'Wow!' breathed Amber. Her fur shone orange-gold in the light and Bailey just stared at her.

'Your. So. Beauti-Wahh!' he cried. He was speaking aloud.

'You're right.' smiled Amber, 'It is beautiful!'

Sh turned towards Bailey.

'Something the matter?' she asked.

'Well..' Bailey said, blushing. Amber looked a little concerned.

'Amber.. I-I... I really like you, Amber!' he said and turned away. Amber gasped.

'You, do?' she said. She saw Bailey nod slightly.

'Uh-huh.' he said.

He didn't expect what came next. But he knew Amber liked him.

He woke the next morning still on the hilltop cuddled up to Amber. His paw over her, her head pressed against his chest and their tails curled round each other. He remembered the sunset and everything that had happened only a few hours ago.

bailey, candy, kenny, raven, mimi, amber, emily are all copyright to me

balto is copyright to universal studios (i think that's the one)