I, Balto, was doing my evening walk out in the alleyways of Nome into the coldness. The wind was pushing against my back, and snow fell on my nose. Just then, I heard shouting in the distance. I perked up my ears in alert. Was It Kodi?
“Dad!” Kodi yelled. “Hurry, dad!”
"I'm coming, son!" I yelled, and started to run toward him and jumped over a trashcan.
When I got to Kodi, his ears were folded, and his eyes were very worried looking. Kirby, Dusty, and Ralph were there, too. They were panicking, and running around in circles. When they yelled one at a time, it hurt my ears.
"Quiet!" I said. They couldn’t hear me, because they were yelling so loud. Then I breathed in, and howled as loud as I could. All of the dogs whined, and lined up quickly in front of me.
"Now, what is the problem?" I said.
"It's Christmas!” Kirby said.
"Ok, so what's wrong with that?" I tilted my head.
“Ok, you know Santa’s reindeer?” Dusty said. “We are reindeer! We have to deliver presents for everyone in Nome, before midnight!”
“Yeah!” Ralph said.
"Hmm," I said. "I have an idea. How about that I help you? We could get the job done easier."
"That's a good idea, dad!" Kodi said. Just then, Jenna came out of the darkness, her face was sleepy.
She yawned.
"What is all the racket? You woke up me and my girl." Jenna said. Me, and Kodi glanced at each other.
"It's Christmas," I said.
“Christmas?” She said. “Well, don’t get to excited about that, you’ll wake up everyone.”
“We have to deliver presents before midnight.” Kodi said, and ran to Jenna.
“What?!” She said. “That long? But it’s 7:00!” She started to panic and run around. I sighed in an annoyed tone.
I heard the musher calling for us. I perked up my ears, and Kodi, Dusty, and Ralph started to run toward him.
“You coming dad?” Kodi said, and turned around.
“Yes,” I said. “You go on ahead!”
Kodi ran off, and I nuzzled Jenna and licked her muzzle.
“I guess I’ll see you soon,” I said.
“Be careful,” She said.
“You too.”
I ran with Kodi to the sled, and the musher put on our harnesses, and they put me in lead. Kodi was behind me on the right, Dusty beside Kodi, Ralph behind Dusty, and Kirby behind Kodi.
We howled, and barked, when the bag of presents was loaded on. The musher said,
“Hyah! Hey!”
We all started to run and bark.
“We can do this!” I said. We ran to houses, and left presents in every doorstep. We went to fancy ones, old ones, and smelly ones. Just then, we stopped at a house with Kaltag, Nikki, and Star.
“Balto! No time long see!” Nikki said.
“Um, Nikki, I think it’s long time no see.” Star said.
“Oh.”
“No time for chat, I’m giving a present to your owner.” I said.
The musher put the present down on the porch, and Kaltag said,
“You are the most nicest, the most kindest, the most friendliest—“
“You are nice!” Star said. Kaltag growled and bonked star on the head.
Kodi laughed.
“Come on dad!” He said. We got back in line and we started to run.
Next stop, Jenna’s house. But then something happened on the way. Rosie was on the path, and didn’t see us running breakneck speed.
“Oh, no!” I yelled. We all tried to stop, but the snow was slippery.
When Rosie turned around, she saw Balto and the team right in front of her, and she screamed. Just then, a red blur pushed Rosie right out of the way. I couldn’t see what happened, but we kept going.
“What just happened?” Kirby said.
“I don’t really know! All I could see was Rosie!” I said. We finally got to her house, and left her a present. By that time, it was 11:45. Just one more house to go. The pilot Duke. We ran over to his house, and we left him a new light for his plane.
Then we were starting to go back home. When we stopped, and the musher took the harnesses off us, I saw something big, and fat and red. He was ringing a bell. I growled at the intruder.
I barked, and bolted toward him. He saw me, and started to run.
He ran as fast as he could, but I was faster. I tried to jump on him but missed. I grabbed his pants, and had to drag him down to the ground. He fell face first, and I held him down by my strong jaws on his teeth, growling.
“Help!” He cried. “Help me!”
I gasped and I looked at him. It was The Santa himself!
I started to lick him, and he said,
“Ok, ok!” He laughed and got up. He pulled out pillows out of his suit, and I smelled him, He smelled so familiar. When he took all the pillows off, and the red suit, and the hat and beard, I gasped. His real suit was brown, with black gloves, and blonde hair with blue eyes. The pilot?!
“Sorry I gave you quite a scare, Balto. I see you can get vicious.”
He had no scratch on him, which was good.
“I just wanted to give you a treat, too, for saving my life. Would you like a ride in the plane?”
I barked and wagged my tail happily.
“Ok, let me get my goggles.”
He dug in his plane. Just then, Jenna ran to me.
“Balto! Balto! Something just happened to Rosie!” She said.
“What?!” I said worried.
“She almost got hit by a sled. But I pushed her and saved her. I just wanted to let you know.” She said.
“I was the lead dog of the sled. Sorry about that.” I said.
“It’s ok. Oh, hey, I have to meet my girl now. I’ll see you later, Balto.” She licked me and ran off. Just then, Duke was sitting in the plane, with a space for me to sit in.
“Well, come on!” He said. I wagged my tail and jumped in the plane. He started it, and he had the new light on there. We took off, and we were in the midnight air, flying.
“You know, sometimes in my dreams,” The pilot said. “I’m soaring above the clouds, free.”
I licked him, and we went off into the night.
THE END