The Ember’s Flame
Written by 3DGWolf
Warning: This story contains mild blood and violence, so make sure you can handle these things before reading my fic.
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Prologue
It was the beginning of winter when it happened. The dark heart of Man had struck once more upon the wildlife of
Around fifty miles from the small village of Nome, Alaska, a young wolf, around the age of three years, was running for his life; from the freezing cold heart and senseless mind of the arch enemy of the forest. One of their metal spheres had cut deeply within one of his pure brown legs, and this made the task of sprinting through the deep snow near impossible, yet he trudged on with a heart of steel.
They were not far behind at all; likely within hearing distance from the lupine. Their piercing shrieks of metal were continuously shooting mere inches from his body.
“When will it end?” thought the wolf as he weaved in and out of the trees. “These accursed humans will never leave us alone! Well, if they won’t stop on their own…I’ll make them!”
He was about to turn to face his pursuers, but something caught his eye that made him think differently. A small hill leading down to a cave lie to his left. It was the safest place to go for the injured creature.
He turned towards it, and he was nearly at the hill when a searing pain shot through his already injured front leg. He had felt this pain before; it was the heat of Man’s weapons. The wolf tumbled down the seemingly endless hill, and just before reaching the bottom, his skull was cracked by the trunk of a tree.
The wolf remained conscious, yet unmoving. His world was spinning with thoughts and emotions he had not felt before. In his mind, death was imminent, for Man had paid a visit to his home, and had gotten what he wanted.
Just before all went dark, he could faintly hear one hunter mumble something to the other.
Then…..nothing.
Chapter 1
A small truck drove toward the small town of
In the back was a male, brown coated wolf entrapped within the confines of a steel cage. His hind left leg was matted with his own blood, and two small metal objects protruded from the leg, and was likely the cause of all the bleeding. Luckily for his captors, he had remained unconscious throughout the ride to
On the other side of town, four canines stood atop an old, wrecked trawler on the outskirts of
They looked on towards the truck and saw a metal cage within the truck, and they all saw a brown form lying within its confines. Although they could not see the form well, their sense of smell told them that it was without a doubt a wolf, and that he was still alive. With this realization, all five turned away in disgust.
“They’ve done it again,” said Riko. “One more wolf is in those two’s hands. I won’t be surprised if they kill it.”
Turu turned towards his brother and said, “That makes two of us.”
“Someone has to do something about those two. They’ve already killed ten wolves this week!” exclaimed their sister, Ember.
Jenna was about to speak, when her attention was turned to Balto, who looked as if he was going to break down any second. “Balto, what’s wrong?” she asked.
Balto turned to his mate, and she saw hurt and rage in his eyes. “Sorry Jenna. It’s just that those two have killed more wolves in such a short time than any other humans have. It’s just…despicable.”
Jenna knew that this was tough for not only Balto, but for the rest of the couple’s family. Each of them had wolf blood, and to see so many of their kind aimlessly wiped away was too much for them all. Just the previous day, the hunters pulled in with two kills, and Balto immediately recognized one. He remembered having a short glimpse of the same wolf while he was accompanying his daughter, Aleu, on the journey that made her the alpha female of the pack that Nava once led.
“This needs to stop!” growled Balto. “If those two kill another wolf-“
“You won’t hurt them!” interrupted Jenna. “If you do, the humans would surely kill you.”
There was a long silence as the five canines wondered about what they could do to stop the hunters’ brutal executions. This silence continued for mere seconds until Ember finally spoke up.
“Well, we know that the last wolf they brought in is still alive, so maybe we should try to find him and release him before they decide to kill him.”
Her parents and brothers looked at each other and nodded in agreement.
Balto turned to his young daughter with a smile and said, “You go do that Ember. Maybe you can find some way to get him out.”
Ember nodded her head with approval and walked off the boat towards
************
The caged wolf began to stir within the confines of his metal prison. He winced in pain as every bone in his body ached as if he had aged within the short hours that he was unconscious. He turned to look at his injured leg, and saw that it was lightly bandaged, yet a small amount of blood continued to seep from its sides. Only when he tried to remember the events that brought him to his prison had he begun to panic.
The only memory that came to his mind was when he was lying in the snow at two humans’ mercy. Everything else was blank. He could not remember any other part of his past; not even his own name.
The more he tried to remember the more his head pounded in frustration and pain, and it seemed that it would burst at any given moment.
As he turned in all possible directions for clues to his lost memories, the sound of footsteps in the snow came to his ears. Not far from the cage, a canine approached the torn wolf. A quick sniff of the air revealed that it was a female, but he could not distinguish whether she was a wolf or a dog.
She padded towards him until she was mere inches from the cage and looked upon the wolf. She noticed the wrapped wound on his leg and pity swept her mind. There was silence between the two before she finally spoke to him somewhat hesitantly, “Hello. I saw-“
“Who are you, what are you, and what do you want?” interrupted the wolf. The hybrid thought of leaving the wolf to die there but her intuition told her otherwise and to go along with the wolf.
She replied sternly, “My name is Ember, and I thought you might have wanted help. Also, what do you mean by ‘What am I’?”
“I can’t tell whether or not you’re a wolf or dog. I smell both on you.”
“If you really need to know, I’m a wolf-dog, and so is my father. My mother is a husky.”
The wolf studied her for a few moments before asking, “Who is your father?”
As if on cue, Balto padded towards them from an alley and looked down on the wolf. “I am. My name is Balto.” He half expected the wolf’s face to light up at the sound of that famous name, but the wolf’s expression did not change.
“What are you doing here?” said Ember as she looked up at her father. “I thought you’d be asleep by now.”
“So did I,” replied Balto, “but I just couldn’t, so I decided to check up on you. Anyway,” he turned to face the wlf again, “Who are you?”
The wolf closed his eyes and tried to gather up any sort of memory that would give him a clue, but nothing came to him. He finally admitted, “To tell you the truth, I have no idea who I am, where I’m from, what I’m doing here, or anything else for that matter.”
Balto and his daughter looked at each other in bewilderment. Their faces seemed to read, How does he not even know who he is?
Balto started to say something, but then held his words in, not knowing exactly how to reply to that. The two wolf-dogs just stared at the imprisoned lupine hardly able to speak.
Finally Ember stepped closer and asked, “Really? You don’t know?”
The wolf looked down on his paws trying to come up with his own answer and whispered, “I can’t remember anything. I’m just so…confused. The only thing I do remember is lying in the snow looking up at two humans. Nothing else.”
“Those two must have been the hunters we saw bring you into town,” said Ember as she walked around the cage. When she saw the back of the wolf’s head, she grimaced at the sight. “I think I know why you don’t remember anything. Dad, come take a look at this.”
Balto padded over to his daughter to observe the wolf, and what he saw answered every question he had about him. On the back of the wolf’s head was a large gash and several bruises. Balto knew that the wolf’s head must have been hit by something extremely hard at a very large speed. Balto then returned to the wolf’s front and said to him, “It looks like your head hit something hard before the hunters took you.”
The wolf reached back to feel his head, then whimpered and almost collapsed from the immense pain. He opened his eyes to see Ember and Balto looking at him in concern. All he did was nod his head and say, “I guess that explains it.”
The wolf again tried to dig into the depths of his mind but alas he failed again and again. With these failures came bits of frustration, and with each morsel of this frustration, his anger grew to the point where he lashed out at the cage with his injured leg and almost screamed in agony. He looked up at the two wolf-dogs and whispered, “I need to get out of here.”
Chapter 2
The sun rose in
During the night, however, the two talked about more than just escape. When Balto left, Ember began to tell the tale of her father’s heroic deeds only a few years ago, before she was born. She also told of her mother, Jenna, her two brothers, Riko and Turu, and her other brothers and sisters from Balto and Jenna’s first litter. She told the tale of her older sister Aleu, and how she came to lead a wolf pack after her father kept her wolf heritage a secret from her. She also told the story of how her brother Kodi was able to keep his job as a mail dog after winning a race with his companions against a human-made flying machine.
The wolf however had no stories to tell. He knew nothing of his mother nor his father, if he had any siblings, nor if he even belonged to a pack. He was given hope, though, when he thought that if he was a pack member, other wolves may have been out looking for him.
As Ember remembered the events that took place in the previous night, she finally stood up and padded over to the front door to check up on how the wolf was doing. However, she was bewildered to see a crowd of people standing around the cage, and they all seemed to be listening to a man shouting out to them.
As she got closer to the humans, she saw that the man speaking to them was none other than one of the hunters who stole the wolf from his home in the forest. His voice rang out, “As you know, me and my partner have been tracking down and killing several wolves around the area. These animals need to be taken care of in order for us as humans to live more comfortable lives. They are vicious and kill whatever, whenever, and however they want to. To make my point clear, we’ve brought in one live one to show what we are trying to eradicate.”
With that, he took a piece of raw meat from a bag and walked over to the cage. The wolf tried to ignore it, but the smell of meat combined with his hunger made his instincts take him over. His captor held the piece of meat inches from the wolf’s muzzle and waved it around in the air to get the wolf to make an attempt at grabbing the food.
He couldn’t take it any more. The wolf lunged out at the hunter’s bait and crashed against the cage as a soft whimper came from his throat as the pain in his leg pulsed like his own heartbeat. As the whimper subsided, a slow growl took its place. He could not hold it back, and the townspeople were beginning to talk amongst themselves; most of which were in agreement with the hunter.
When the wolf realized what he had done against himself, he immediately shut himself up and slid into the far corner of his prison. The humans now hated him for what he was, and he knew that there would be consequences. Although, nothing prepared him for what his tormentor said next.
“We are going to kill him in three days. Until then, he will be on display right here for you to observe. If you want, torture him as much as you please.”
Ember’s eyes grew wide in horror at his words. Now there was a time limit, and neither knew how to get him out. As she thought about her next action for the wolf’s benefit, the mob began to pick up various items and began to throw them at the caged wolf. Rocks, sticks, trash, anything on the streets was used against him. Only some of these actually made their way through the cage, but the loud clanging against the metal was deafening for the wolf.
Ember ran toward her friend, desperate to help him in some way. When she was close enough to see the wolf’s golden brown eyes, his gaze locked with hers, and his eyes said, “Don’t try to help me; you’ll just get yourself hurt.” Reluctantly, she swung left and away from the crowd of humans and ran toward the old boat outside of town. Perhaps her father would know what to do.
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“Cruel.”
Balto could say nothing more after his daughter had explained what had happened. He could only imagine the hurt that the wolf must have felt emotionally and physically. His daughter’s quick story left a lasting impression in his mind. “Everyone in
“It’s ridiculous, I know,” Ember replied shaking her head, “What has he ever done to them?” From the boat, Ember heard the cries of the humans calm down until all was silent. “I think they stopped now. We should check up on him. I’m worried about him, Dad.”
Balto nodded in agreement and the two jumped off the boat and ran towards
They turned a final corner before they came to the cage once again. Before them in the cage was no wolf, but a torn, ragged lump of fur at the floor of the metal bars. His tail was curled between his legs and his head was not visible under his paws, or whatever parts of those paws that remained intact. His ears slowly pointed towards the oncoming wolf dogs and a shallow sigh escaped his throat. “I’m glad you’re here,” he whispered in a now raspy and hurtful tone. “I thought I was going to…well, I guess I am anyways.”
“No you won’t!” shouted Ember. “Don’t give up yet! We still have three days to get you out. We’ll get you out, just wait and see!”
The wolf lifted his head to speak, but closed his mouth tight. He was in no mood to argue, so instead of doing so, he licked his stinging wounds.
“Well, I’ll see what help I can be right now,” said Balto as he once again looked at the cage and the surrounding area for any possible way to free the unnamed wolf. As he trotted around, he came upon a piece of lumber most likely torn off from a fence. He then looked at the lock on the front of the cage and said, “I have an idea. Ember, help me get this piece of wood over to the lock.”
Ember padded over to her father and proceeded to lift the piece of wood onto her and her father’s backs. They then carried it over to the front lock and stood it up a few feet away from the cage. Balto aimed the wood steadily and carefully, and pushed it down onto the padlock.
It came down with a crash loud enough to make one’s heart skip a beat if not weary, yet the lock stood firm and the threesome’s hopes sank low. Balto shrugged in frustration and lifted the wood back up again. Once more, he pushed it down and hit his target, but the metal would not snap or break in any way.
As the second attempt failed miserably, the wolf began to ponder another way to escape, but was soon interrupted by an angry voice coming from inside the hunter’s den. Both came out and looked upon the two canines outside the cage with flaming eyes.
One shouted, “Listen ‘ere you two! Don’t come anywhere near this wolf! If it gets out that beast will likely rip your bones clean, so get! C’mon, shoo!”
Hesitantly, Ember and Balto ran away from the two angry men and went into a small alley not far from the cage. They peeked around the corner just in time to see the other hunter curse the wolf and kick the cage, throwing their friend around inside and reopening his wounds with a sickening rip. He lay there motionless until he looked up again and saw Balto frowning upon the hunters’ acts, and Ember nearly brought to tears by their cruelty.
The wolf began, “Just come back tomorrow. I’ll be okay until then.”
“But we can’t just leave you like that!” protested a distraught Ember. If they come back again-“
“I said I’ll be okay until the next time you come back,” the wolf interrupted. “I might think of something by then. Just…go.” With that the wolf turned his back to them and lied down to try to get some sleep.
Ember looked at her father for any other ways to allow them to stay, but he just shook his head. “He’s right. The guy needs his rest for now. Tomorrow, we’ll come back…with some more help.”
Chapter 3
Ember walked towards the open door of the boiler room, where she had told her two brothers to meet her at around
The two noticed their sister’s arrival and quickly stored their winnings for later. As she came up, Riko said, “Okay, we’re here. What’s up?”
“Do you remember that wolf that we saw a few days ago up on Dad’s boat? It’s about him.”
Riko and Turu looked at each other for a moment, and immediately wiped off their game faces and became serious. The bones didn’t matter anymore; a life was at risk.
“So you met him?” asked Turu. When Ember nodded, he asked, “So, what’s going on with him?”
Ember squatted down and, to her siblings’ surprise, looked sad. The only time she was ever sad was every so often when the three were punished as pups. It took something extremely harsh to get someone like her to be sad; this was one of those situations.
“Well,” she began, “I met up with him later that day….and at first…we started off on the wrong note. It must have been because he was so confused. I saw that he was lightly bandaged on one of his paws, and I think he was shot around there. Not long after, Dad showed up and asked what his name was, but he didn’t know.”
“Wha—wait a second there Ember,” said Riko. “What do you mean he didn’t know?”
“Well he…he just didn’t know. I was as surprised as you guys, but when I went behind him, I saw the back of his head was bloody and…just sick. He must have hit it on something or the hunters hit him. We think that’s the reason why he’s lost his memory.”
The two listeners pondered this new information for a few seconds, then Ember began again, “We tried to get him out, but we haven’t been able to make many attempts on anything so far. Plus, we’re on a time limit.” She did not wait for her brothers to reply, and continued. “The hunters are putting him on public display for a few days, to be ridiculed and beaten, then…they’re going to kill him.”
Riko and Turu seemed to be frozen in time, but the message was clear: they needed to help the wolf out.
“Do you have any ideas on how to get him out?” asked Turu.
“Not yet but….wait…” Ember looked a little bit closer at Turu, and saw something. “Stay right there for a second, Turu.” She backed up a ways until she was almost at the door, then she said, “You know, you look almost exactly like him from a distance. The only difference is your eyes.”
Turu looked over his brown fur, trying to think of what his sister was conjuring in her mind. Then he realized it. “Are you saying you want to use me as bait?” When Ember nodded, he nearly fainted. The thought of being chased around
“Please, Turu? Do this for him. All you have to do is get them a little ways away from the cage, let them catch you, and once they realize that you’re not him, they’ll let you go. By that time, it will have given me and some others enough time to get his cage somewhere else, like Dad’s boat. What do you say?”
He pondered for a minute, but then asked, “Who will help you with the cage?”
“Well, I’m sure Mom and Dad will help, and will you help me Riko?” He nodded his head eagerly, and Ember continued, “All we need now is you. Please Turu?”
He stared at the ceiling weighing his pros and cons: risking his life for a wolf he didn’t even know, but doing the right thing, or letting him die and living a long life.
He knew his answer.
“Alright then, I’ll do it! When are we going to execute our plan?”
“How about tonight? He doesn’t have all the time in the world, so sooner is much better than later.”
The three all agreed to it, and Riko and Turu ran off to find their parents, while Ember went to see to the captured wolf.
*************
The wolf woke once again from another painful rest, while still searching for the lost remnants of his past. “Still nothing,” he said to himself. He had two priorities; escape and regaining his memory, and the combination of the two made his head pound. One without the other was hard enough to concentrate on.
He paused for a second to wake up completely and prepare for what would most likely be another beating sometime soon. In the few days that he had been trapped, the torture from the humans became almost routine. It made him sick to think that one creature can be so harsh to another for no reason. And for what? Although he had no memory, he knew that the humans did not eat wolves.
Out of his hate for them, he began to rant out loud yet softly, “Once I get out of this cage, I’ll knock some sense into those abusive, selfish, dirty pigs and—“
“Look at that guy! He’s already loosing it!”
The wolf turned his focus ahead of him towards two dogs in the street, only a few steps away from him. One had a white coat and green eyes, and the other had a black coat with yellow eyes; like night and day. The Malamutes stared down at him with half-grins showing, and snickering all the while.
The white one, who had spoken before, said, “You’re talking to yourself! This whole ‘death-in-three-days’ has to be messing with your mind!”
“Actually, now he’s only got two! Best be sayin’ your prayers, pal!” exclaimed the black one.
“What do you want from me? I’ve got enough pressure on my paws right now, and I don’t need two babbling idiots getting in my way!” said the wolf.
“And you’re going to do what exactly? You’re a caged beast! I doubt you’ll be messing with us any time soon,” said the white one.
The wolf’s voice suddenly became low and threatening as he said, “Oh, I’ll get out soon enough. When that time comes, your fur will be off your skin in seconds.” He smiled as the two showed a small hint of fear in their eyes, but it quickly faded back to their original evil stares.
“You need to be tau—“
“Kilo! Mitch! What do you think you guys are doing?!”
All three looked farther down the street and saw a single canine. The taunting pair’ jaws dropped, and the wolf just sat and smiled; it was Ember.
“Hellooo? Did you hear me?” she growled.
When the black one finally came back down to Earth, he turned to his comrade and said, “Lookie here, Kilo! We have a guest, and she’s a beauty!”
“Hey, babe,” said Kilo dreamily, completely forgetting the wolf behind them. “My, aren’t you looking precious today?”
“Lay off you pig! I want to know what you’re doing here with that wolf. Knowing you two, I bet it’s not just an average chat.” She padded forward until she was inches from Kilo and Mitch. Her scent wafted into their noses and the two nearly fainted. Ember snorted in disgust and continued, “I don’t want to see either of you near him ever again. Get it?”
“Oh, come on Ember. Just forget about him,” said Mitch. “We can ditch this guy and go over to my place for a bit, huh?”
Kilo butted in, “No, not with him Ember, come on over to my place. I’ve got the biggest stash of bones you’ll see in your life!”
“Hey, lay off, man. She’s going to go with me!”
“Not a chance!”
In all the commotion, the wolf had just been sitting and waiting for the two to depart, but they seemed to be glued to the ground. The two were bickering over who Ember liked more, while the canine in question attempted to get them quiet and back to the point.
“This’ll be a while….unless…” The wolf reached his paws out of the cage until they were just above the dogs’ tails.
Kilo and Mitch were still at it, when out of nowhere, something behind them yanked their tails backward. They crashed into the metal cage, and were met with a snapping, snarling mouth of a wolf right in their faces. They jumped up in horror and scampered away whimpering for mercy. Ember watched as they turned a corner and disappeared from view, and when she turned back to the wolf, she saw something that she thought she’d never see from him.
Inside the freezing bars of the cage, the wolf was on his back, rolling, and laughing. He seemed to have forgotten all about regaining his memories and escaping the cage and the hunters, and before Ember new it, she began to laugh along with him. They laughed on for some time, and by the time they had stopped, the two were nearly out of breath.
When Ember could finally breathe again, she said, “Thanks for getting those two off me. They seem to do that whenever they cross by me.”
“It’s nothing. Besides, they were getting pretty annoying after a while.”
Ember let out another small giggle before she straightened out and looked sternly at the wolf before her. She said, “I think we might have a plan to get you out……tonight.” The wolf’s head perked up a bit at this and almost hit the top of the cage. Before he could speak, Ember continued, “My brothers and I thought that since Turu looks almost exactly like you, we can trick the hunters into thinking that you had escaped, and they might chase him while me, Riko, and my parents can try to get the cage out of town to a place where they won’t find you. From there we can try to break open the cage much more easily.”
The wolf’s excited face gradually dimmed at the thought of putting Ember’s own brother at risk, for his own life. “Are you sure that you want Turu to do this? For all we know, the hunters might shoot him…..”
“He agreed to do this; he knows the risks involved, and he’s willing to do it.” Still with a grim face, the wolf nodded in approval.
He said, “Tonight then?”
“Tonight. We’ll try our best.” With that, Ember turned away and padded away to find Riko and Turu. The cool wind blew her fur and she shivered. Thinking of the cold, she turned to look at the wolf, who was also shaking in the freezing temperature, but the look on his face seemed to say to her, “Don’t worry about it; you have better things to think about. Go on.”
End of part one of what will hopefully be a two part story. The nature of the title will be revealed in the second part. The next half will most likely be sent in some time in the summer. I hope you liked it!
All characters from Balto 1, Balto 2, and Balto 3 are the property of Universal Pictures.
The unnamed wolf, Riko, Turu, Mitch, and Kilo are my characters, please do not use them without my permission.