On a normal day in
"Hey Kodi, how come we haven’t gone to get the mail in so long?" asked Ralph. He had asked this plenty of times yet Kodi knew he probably wouldn’t stop if he didn’t answer.
"Because the weather has been so bad on our route, they won’t let us go until that storm is over." he replied.
"That’s weird, because it’s so nice here. Even the water is warm." said Dusty.
They all forgot about the route of the mail and went back to giggling and splashing. Balto and Jenna watched from a distance. Suddenly Aleu came up behind them.
"Hey dad, hey mom." she said. "Where’s Kodi? I need to talk to him."
"He’s over at the bay with the team." replied Jenna.
Aleu ran off the find her brother splashing Dusty.
"Hey, Kodi, come here!" she yelled at him. He came bounding on up to her asking what was wrong. "It's Dingo's owner. He wants to give away Dingo-- well I guess not give him away, but ship him all the way to the other side of Alaska!!" yelled Aleu. She was very uneasy about the idea.
Kodi stood there blank. The thought of his brother being shipped so far away made him shiver. "Why do they want to do that?" asked Kodi now uneasy too.
"I think they want to make him into a show dog. But why do that? Why Dingo? His pelt isn’t even in the right shape!" Aleu was now starting to yell at the top of her voice.
"That I wouldn’t know Aleu, but how are they going to ship him anyway? He gets sea sick....I think anyway."
"I don’t know Kodi; they can’t fly him by air..... Anyway there is a letter that his owner wants to send. It tells everything. We have to read it!" said Aleu. "no." replied Kodi. "None of that is our business. But do they want us to deliver it all they way on the other side of
"I don’t know. I guess so." replied Aleu.
Kodi's eyes got very big. "We have to tell the others on the team." said Kodi. "But why would they want to send off Dingo anyway? That’s so stupid!!" yelled Kodi. "I know it is... but that is what they want to do. And were no Dingo's owner...we can’t control what he wants to do." replied Aleu. She let of a sigh and walked away.
What was Kodi to do? He was able to accomplish being the lead dog, but he wasn’t ready for this, and his father was now too old to come with him this far...and then Dusty, what if she got hurt? She was the one of the only two dogs on the sled team. What if she got hurt?
He feared the time she almost fell over the cliff during the race against the plane. She was fortunate on that one.
He let out a long sigh and went to join the others. He tried to act like nothing was wrong.
Later on in the Day Kodi went home to the small ship he and his dad lived in. He was up all night thinking, wondering, what if they got lost? What if someone got hurt?
He tried to stop thinking but all he could do was toss and turn.
When the sun rose he had dark circles under his eyes....but he couldn’t tell… he had too much worry. When his mother noticed she got a little worried too, but about his rest, not the journey he might have to make. She made him go to sleep. Once he was finally able to he slept until mid-day.
"Where have you been Kodi?" asked Dusty. "I have been awake all night, that’s where I’ve been." he sighed. He knew he had to tell them the story.
Once he had completed telling them they were all in shock, of course, not about the journey ahead, but about Dingo. They were all such good pals with him; they couldn't seem to let him go so soon.
"What are you guys saying?" asked Kodi, "You shouldn't be afraid because of Dingo! You should be afraid of the journey we will have to accept! Someone could die you know!" he shouted. Everyone went blank.
Finally Dusty responded, "Kodi were upset about both, but you should be worried about your brother more. Have you even talked to him about it?" she asked. "Well....no." responded Kodi. Everyone looked at each other whispering.
Kodi tilted his head thinking,
Maybe I should have talked to him....I don’t even know if Aleu is telling the truth...no! No! I have to go see him! Now!
Without anything else said he ran off toward where Dingo lived. Once there he saw Dingo inside the house sleeping on his dog bed. Kodi grunted and started barking. Dingo lifted his head up so fast he hit his head on the top of the table the bed was under.
"Ow!" he shouted. "Kodi, What the-" He went out of his doggie door and met his brother. "What was that all about huh?" he asked. Then he knew that his brother knew everything.
"Is it true?" asked Kodi blank. "Well is it?" He asked tears now streaming from his eyes.
Dingo let out a long slow sigh and repeated the story Aleu had told. By the time he finished Kodi had calmed down, but wet spots still drenched his red fur. "Have you told pop?" He asked. Dingo acted like he didn’t know who pop was. "That means dad…" Kodi repeated to remind him. Finally Dingo knew what he was trying to say. He responded "No. I didn’t want to. What if he got all upset and tried to bite my owner like the wolf he is?" replied Dingo.
Kodi couldn't believe what his brother had just said. His father wasn't like that, just because he had wolf in him didn't mean he was stuck up or something!
"What you think because dads’ part wolf would do that? Aleus part wolf, do you think she would do that to your owner? Huh?" Kodi replied letting anger overflow him.
Dingo went blank.
By this time Kodi was running to Aleu to tell her what his brother had said about their father.
At the moment, Kodi didn't care if Dingo got shipped off so far away he would never be seen by Kodi again, all he cared was that he made sure his father, Aleu, and everyone else knew about it.
Once told to Aleu she was just as angry as Kodi. But they were able to go to sleep that night.
When sun high came a meeting was held for the sled dog team musher’s. All the sled dogs listened from underground. It was all true; Kodi's sled dog team WOULD be delivering the letter. And it would only be in 3 days. Now Kodi had his mind set on this again, he wasn't nervous though, he was only determined.
Determined to get the letter through.
***
3 days later everyone was standing in a crowd waiting for the long hard journey to start. All sled dogs were wrapped in their gear and attached to the sled.
They were ready.
The gun blew and the journey began. Sniffing the whole way Kodi was sure he would be able to recognize all the scents on the way back. They had no problems getting there; it was a piece of cake. No snow, no catch ups with bears or moose, no frozen over lakes. The only problem they had was that the snow was a little mushy, but no problem for the team.
Once they arrived they all took a break. Ralph muttered over how he got cramps, Kirby growled as he told how he had had yet another bad breakfast every day they had set out after rest. Everyone else chuckled and believed that it would be an easy way back, especially Kodi. He had thought this would be hard, now he was laughing over the entire thought.
A little water and some "doggie chow" and they were off.
A little ways up the road from where they had delivered the letter, came a bad blizzard. Dusty warned, "Kodi! We have to find shelter!" yelling at the top of her voice because wind was blocking off almost all sounds except itself.
But Kodi hesitated. He kept trudging. And to his surprise, the second problem they had was a frozen lake. The entire team stopped.
"How do we make it across this?" He asked. "I don’t think us can." replied Ralph.
"Sure we can.......me hope." came from the voice of Dusty.
"You’re lead dog!" came from a voice of one of the back dogs, Shorty. "Yeah, do something!" came from her brother Cliff.
"We'll figure something out." said Kodi. He started taking light steps over the thin ice. One by one each dog took baby steps, at least until the sled hit it.
A loud crack came from under their feet.
"Oh no!" yelled shorty. The ice started breaking, each dog tried to run, but it was almost hopeless with the weight of the sled.
Finally Kodi called out "Undo the sled!"
Shorty and Cliff reached back and snapped the cord with kept them together.
The musher held on and the sled balanced on a large chunk of ice and the dogs balanced on another.
"What do we do now?" asked Cliff.
Kodi looked around for something to maybe jump across to or hold onto. But there was nothing in sight. "Were going to have to swim for it." said Kodi. To his relief the snow had calmed and was now only letting down soft snowflakes.
Everyone started to yell in worry and dissaprove. But Kodi wasn't going to be stranded until the ice melted and they were all carried away.
"What about the musher?" asked Kirby. Kodi had forgotten about the musher. But the musher was a very good swimmer, besides, his ice was floating towards shore, and he could find a way around. "Don’t worry about the musher." replied Kodi. "He will be ok."
Once they had all gotten in the water Cliff refused to follow them. "I can’t swim!" he yelled angerly. Cliff and Shorty were only mid-aged pups. But Shorty was a fine swimmer. Cliff just never wanted to have to get out of his warm puppy sweater and train.
"I will go let him on my back." said Dusty. She swam back and balanced so that Cliff could hop on. He wasn't too heavy, in fact, no problem for the muscular female.
Once to shore every dog shook off. Shivering they all decided to find shelter. They all searched and then they came upon a cave. Inside it was warm, and the air was fresh. Not like many other caves.
"They found the best spot on a pile of wood, maybe from where musher’s had collected it for a pit stop during a trip once, and went to sleep.
After their nap they all started discussing how they would get back home. If any lakes, rivers, moose or bears came up during the trip they would be without protection.
But Kodi was ably to urge them on out of the cave. He was a little uneasy too, but not as uneasy as anyone else.
He was wrong about the scents though, he couldn’t recognize one! As soon as a two-way path came along he had no clue where to go.
"Uh..." he sputtered white trying desperately to pick up familiar memory.
"Well?" asked Kirby, "Which way?"
Now he had wished he hadn’t left the musher. What was he thinking? The musher had a map! And now they were also left without food!
Kodi guessed and chose the right side of the path. A ways up the road Kodi got an uneasy feeling of being watched. He stopped and Shorty bumped into his haunches.
"What is your problem?" She grunted. "Nothing....nothing." replied Kodi.
But something was wrong. Suddenly a low deep growl came from behind him, then a roar, then a scream. When he turned around and saw Dusty, she was backing away from a giant brown bear.
Kodi jumped in on its paw and bit it as possibly hard as he could. But it slung him off. He fell to the ground and looked up. Dusty was picked up by the creature. He saw her life flash before his eyes, and he was for sure, she was a goner.
Suddenly Cliff jumped in and bit the animal on the back of the neck. It let out a squeal of pain and released Dusty. But now Cliff had been thrown to the ground, and the creature had lost its balance by stumbling over a tree trunk, it landed on Cliff and snapped his back, a squeal of pain was muffled heard from underneath the bear. Everyone watched in horror, and hen the bear got up, it stumbled off away from the scene.
Everyone crowded around Cliff, and Shorty said in horror, "He's not dead is he? He can't be dead!!" Kodi examined the body and let out a long sorrow sigh.
"I'm sorry Shorty." He replied. She laid down her head on her brother’s lifeless body. Tears streamed down her face.
"You have to move on." said Dusty softly and comforting. Shorty nodded her head still letting tears run, and they started to move on
"Wait! We can't just leave him here!" yelled Shorty. "We have to bring him!"
Everyone looked at each other. Suddenly Dusty spotted a low ever-green tree branch, just the size of the body. She broke it and everyone helped put the limp body on it.
"Now, Kirby didn't bother to take off his halter, because he says he’s 'going to save it when he’s famous so it will go into his museum’." said Dusty. Everyone giggled while Kirby grunted.
Kirby took the back of the halter and tied to the branch.
Dusty giggled and said, "Now you can tell you’re story of how you pulled the branch with a dead dog on it!"
He let out another grunt.
***
They made their way through, yet they hadn't gone the wrong way and had to turn around about 100 times. Once they made it out of thick woods one of the harshest blizzards anyone on the team had ever seen started. Snow covered their pelts and they grunted just to take a step. Their heads were down to the ground.
"Were going to have to find shelter!" complained Dusty again. "Were going to keep going!" argued Kodi. Finally Shorty's small body was swept off its feet. Her body was slung over a cliff, and to their relief, she clung to dear life on a branch.
"Hold on Shorty!" yelled Kodi. "We'll get you out of there!"
Shorty couldn't reply otherwise her clinch would let out and she would fall.
They looked around furiously and then Kodi finally said, "Hold onto my tail Ralph!"
"Ok Kodi!" agreed Ralph. He grabbed his friend’s tail and lowered him down. He took shorty's paw and yelled, "Now Dusty you hold onto Ralph, And Kirby hold onto Dusty!" They all did as he said and they tugged, until finally, Kodi and Shorty were to safety.
"Thank you guys!" yelled Shorty. She was very thankful that her friends cared for her enough to risk their lives for hers. "Thank you." she repeated. "Thank you."
***
Half way through, but they didn’t know it. They couldn’t tell if they were a quarter, a half, or even a minute away from
No body could argue now, no one was laughing and giggling by the bay, they were in a death trap.
Kodi saw no hope for him or his friends. But he knew he had to do it, he knew he had to.
Then he though to himself,
Please! Please help us through! They need us! And if we don't return.....I don’t know what will happened to them....Aleu......Dad.....Mom.......Dingo.....They need me.
Suddenly he felt hope again. He lifted his head and went though the snow like he never knew he could. Then he ran, and the others knew that he had found hope again, they ran too, howling and howling, and now you could hear them. You really could.
***
They made it! The howling came to
"Aleu!" he called. "Aleu!!" he ran up to his sister and they barked and had fun. "You did it!" She yelled. "You did it!"
He looked up at the stars.
Yeah....I really did didn't I?
***
Well, Cliff was berried and Dingo was sent away, he became a show dog and had a good life, the team continued to deliver mail, but best of all, they all lived happily...forever.