The Masked Entrancer

   Lena walked down Nome's main street, the snow lighty dropped to the ground. A snow storm had swept through over the past few days, but it dissapated today, and she wanted to explore. She lifted her nose into the air to smell her surroundings, she's always loved the smell of newly fallen snow. There was just something dogs could smell about it that humans simply couldn't, however, this time she smelled a sweet aroma, like the fruit stands the humans set up during the spring. She began to think to herself, the humans couldn't possibly at this time of year. She followed the scent to it's source, a dark street, this one had very little lighting, and now, on top of the sweet aroma, loomed this foul scent.

"Oh, that's disgusting." She grimaced as she muttered to herself. A voice spoke from the street.

"What, you don't like my friends smell?" A brown dog emerged from the darkness, a scar in the shape of a question mark was etched around his face. He had a sinister smile plastered to his face. Lena slowly walked backwards, but almost immediately bumped into a tall figure, another dog. This one was over two feet taller than Lena, and had his tongue dangling from the side of his mouth. A look of fear overcame Lena. "My friend doesn't like being insulted." At this, both dogs started growling.

"Listen guys, I didn't mean any trouble. I didn't mean to upset you." Lena backed into a corner. She gasped, and looked back to see a six foot wall behind her, there was no way she could jump it before they got to her. She turned about to see the scarred dog staring her in the face.

"You don't want any trouble, but listen to me toots, you got it one way or another." The dog growled. Lena promptly spit in his face. The dog smirked and wiped his face. "I was hoping you'd do that." He smacked her across the face with his paw. Lena reeled back in pain, no one had ever hit her before, not like that anyways. She started thinking about her siblings, then her parents, tears came to her eyes. She turned to face the dogs just in time to see his paw collide with her face, then everything went black.

   Balto woke from his dream to find himself curled up in the pilothouse of his boat. He'd recently been having mystical dreams again, only this time, instead of concerning Aleu, they were focused around his youngest, Lena. What could she have that Aniu wants now? Balto thought to himself. He stretched his front legs out, as soon as he heard the crack, he rested his muscles. "Ahh, it's good to stretch."

"Ah, finally, you're awake!" Boris yelled out. "You wouldn't stop with the noises. It got on my nerves after about the first hour." Boris cocked a brow.

"Oh, it was going on for that long?" Balto asked. "It only seemed like a few minutes."

"Well, are you having those dreams again, like when Aleu left." Boris scratched his chin as he spoke.

"Yeah, only, now they center around Lena." A confused look came over Balto's face, "What could Aniu want with her, she's still only an adolescent."

"Yes yes, I know." Boris flapped a wing at him. "Is probably nothing. Come on, let's go into town."

"What, since when do you want to go into town?" Balto stepped towards Boris.

"Since I became a real uncle, and don't start that business with Muk and Luk again. I'm not their uncle!" Boris pointed matter-of-factly at Balto.

"Okay, I won't bring it up. Let's go." Balto motioned to the gang plank of the boat. The two of them walked towards Nome.

"So, is anything going on with Lena to make Aniu curious about her?" Boris stopped Balto mid stride.

"I thought you said it was nothing." Balto glared at Boris.

"I said maybe, it's best to know all of the facts." Boris spoke swiftly. "Besides, the phrase is curiosity killed the cat, not the goose."

"Well, everything seems normal to me." Balto shook his head, " She's very open when she has a problem. You and I both know if there was something going on, she'd tell us."

   At that very moment, Lena's eyes shot open to find herself lying in a cage in a dark room. Wh...where am I? She shivered as she thought to herself, it was very cold in the cage. She squinted to try to see anything in the room that she might recognize, but it was no use. "Hello, is anyone there?" Maybe someone else was there.

"Oh..." A voice spoke out from the darkness. Lena's mind suddenly flashed back to the dark street. "You're awake, good."

"Wh...what do you want from me?" Lena whimpered, she'd never been this scared before in her life. Her mind started racing, thinking about what this crazy hound might do to her.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough." A glowing pair of bright yellow eyes appeared in the darkness, followed by a sinister smile. Lena began to cry, hoping, just hoping that her father would help her. No matter how slim the chance.

 Balto entered Jenna's house, she was no where to bee seen. Except, on the floor, he found a letter, the writing was extremely sloppy, Jenna had probably used her mouth to hold the pen.

Balto,

Please come to the mill. It's extremely urgent, a town meeting has been called, and I want to tell you why when you get here, please hurry. Jenna.

Balto knew if a meeting had been called, that it was bad news. He bolted out the door and past Boris.

"Balto, where are you going?" Boris called out.

"The mill, it's urgent!" Balto called back.

   When Balto reached the mill, he was out of breath, he wasn't the dog he used to be. The entire town was inside. As soon as Balto entered, the entire room turned to look at him, they all had sad expressions on their faces. He noticed Jenna was sitting at the far end of the room, tears were streaming down her face. He ran to her. "Jen, what's wrong?"

Jenna spoke through sobs, "It...it's...L...Lena."

Balto's concern doubled, "What's wrong with Lena?"

Jenna couldn't answer, so Duke, the town mayor spoke up, "She's gone missing Balto, we have an eyewitness who said she's been kidnapped."

Balto's ears dropped, "Wh...what?"

"I'd like to introduce you to one of our finest detectives." As Duke spoke, a German shephard walked up. "Balto, this is Detective Holmes."

The shephard spoke up, he had an english accent of sorts, "Pleasure to meet you Mr. Balto. I've heard all about you, and I promise, I will do everything that my considerable years of experience has taught me to help find your daughter.

A dog from the back called out, "Yeah, we're all gonna help!"

Another spoke, "Yeah!" The room erupted into a commotion of unreadable chatter. Until Duke broke it up with a booming bark.

"Silence!" The room died down. "I will organize search parties, and would the dog who said they witnessed Lena's abduction please step forward." Balto was shocked to see who it was. A smaller, slender grey huskie walked forward.

"Star?" Balto asked stunned.

"Hi Balto." Star spoke guiltily, as though he'd done something wrong. Holmes walked up to Star.

"You say you saw Lena when she was abducted?" He dove right in to questioning.

"Yes." Star looked at the ground.

"Where did it happem?"

"Fourth street."

"That makes sense, the power was out on that street the night she was abuducted, perfect for someone not to be seen." Holmes looked at Balto as he answered. Jenna dug her head into Balto's shoulder when she heard this.

"When did it happen?" Holmes started questioning again.

"About midnight, the snow was barely falling. She looked like she was looking for something, she had her nose lifted, like she smelled something, and truth be told, I was following the smell too."

"What did it smell like?"

"It smelled like ripe strawberries, but, when the two kidnappers appeared, the scent turned to a rancid oder, it smelled terrible."

"You say it was two kidnappers eh, what did they look like?"

"Well, the first one was a huge dog, he was about two feet taller than Lena, and the other was brown, with a scar that looked like a question mark." Star barely lifted his head to speak. When Holmes heard this description, he froze.

He spoke to Balto coldly, "Your daughters as good as dead Mr. Balto." Jenna burst into tears and collapsed to the ground sobbing.

"How can you say that?" Balto bared his teeth at Holmes.

"I know who kidnapped Lena. He's known as the Masked Entrancer, his real name is unknown. He's kidnapped six abolescent females in the past two years, they've all turned up dead. Their bodies mamed and brutally tortured. We've only come close to catching him once, but he barely escaped. This dog does not kidnap for ransom, or to make a point, or because he's a stalker. He kidnaps because he loves to torture, and killing. He will show no mercy to your daughter. I'm sorry Mr. Balto, I was afraid it was him again, and I will do everything in my power to catch him before he kills your daughter, but the chances are slim."

Balto began to tear as well, "How slim."

"You know how I said we almost caught him once?" Holmes' gaze dropped to the floor. "We walked in on him ripping the poor girls throat out, we could still hear her screaming when we opened the door to the barn." Jenna was still in a heap on the floor, Balto hoped she didn't hear that. His gaze moved towards the door of the mill. Lena, if you can hear me, hold on pumpkin, I'm gonna find you.

   Lena hadn't had anything to eat for a while, and she was starting to get hungry. The room was still pitch black, except for a light that shined into the cage. Lena lay there, curled up and in tears. She wished her father was there right now, whenever she cried, he knew just what to say to make her feel better. She whimpered "Daddy..."

"Aww, daddy help me!" Came a mocking voice from the darkness. It was the other dog, the one without the scar. Lena knew just what to say to shut him up, but he was a full two feet taller than her, so she thought twice.

"Why are you doing this?" Lena begged.

"Because, master told me too." The big dog spoke slowly. Apparently he wasn't good with words.

"Do you always do what your master tells you?" Lena thought she could get the better of him.

"Uh...well..." The big dog fumbled with his words.

"Yes, he does!" The Masked Entrancer suddenly appeared beside the big dog.

The big dog began nodding, "Yup, you betcha."

"I believe we haven't had the proper introduction." The Masked Entrancer smirked devilishly. "I'm The Masked Entrancer, and this is Butch."

Butch waved, "Hi."

The Masked Entrancer smacked him, "Shut up you! We're not here to play nice." With that the Masked Entrancer opened Lena's cage, and began walking towards her.

"Wh...what do you want from me? If it's money, my father can give you that." Lena pleaded.

"Oh, money doesn't give to me, what I want from you." The Masked Entrancer's smirk grew wider as he got closer to Lena. The room echoed with Lena's screams, he didn't kill her, but she knew her life would never be the same after what he'd just done.

   Fifteen minutes later, the Masked Entrancer walked out of the room, stretched his legs out and began walking off. "Oh yeah, been a long time since it's been that good." Butch walked slowly behind him, but he turned back to look at Lena, she was lying in the now locked cage, beaten, bruised, battered, and now, possibly carrying the Masked Entrancer's pups. Her paws covered her eyes as she let the sobs come, she'd wanter her father to help her more now than ever. Butch lowered his ears, after the past two years, why was she different from the others. He'd done the research on her, she was the youngest of all the dogs, and was Balto's daughter. That wasn't it, he simply couldn't tell, so he walked off, closing the door behind him, leaving Lena to weep at her now lost innocence.

  Holmes sniffed up and down the street where Lena was abducted. "Now, you're sure it was here Star?"

"Yeah, Lena was standing there, the Masked Entrancer was there, and the big one was there." Star still kept his head down.

Balto spoke up, "Star, why are you looking down."

"Because..." He started to cry. "I'm no better than the dirt I'm standing on."

"Oh come on, don't be so hard on yourself." Boris walked up to him and draped his wing over his shoulder, "It's not your fault that Lena got kidnapped.

"I know, but I feel like such a coward. I stood there and did nothing while those two monster's abducted Lena, and now Holmes is saying all the others before her died, I can't take it."

"Hey," Balto forced Star to look up. "The entire town is out looking for Lena, and if you don't want to treat yourself like dirt for the rest of your life, then help me find my daughter."

"Balto, I don't know if I can help you." Star snorted through the tears.

"Star...I know you care for Lena, and I know you're a good friend to her, so please. Don't do it for me," Balto lowered his head now.  "Do it for Lena."

In an instant, Star stopped crying. He nodded to Balto, and paced back and forth across the street. His search led him into an alley that was blocked by a six foot fence. "This is where they took her exactly." He walked out of the alley, his nose still firmly pressed to the ground. He started leading them down street after street, left and right. Balto looked at Star, Hang on Lena, Daddy's comin'. Holmes got a worried look on his face.

"Oh, is that the time." The german shephard pretended to look at a watch. "I really must get going, carry on with the search if you must. Ta-ta." The shepherd ran off.

Boris and Balto exchanghed confused looks. "What was that about?" Boris shrugged.

"I don't know, he looked worried about something.

  Lena sat curled up in the cage, she'd stopped crying, but she was still in shock as to what just happened to her. Suddenly, the door flew open, and three dogs walked in. She recognized two of them, but the third one, a german shepherd, looked out of place, he was far too clean to be one of them.

"What do you mean they found our trail?" The Masked Entrancer yelled.

"They picked up your scent at the scene, are you sure you covered your tracks?" The dog asked with a wierd accent.

"I told you, the snow would cover our tracks." The Masked Entrancer looked enfuriated. "Do anything to stall them, lead them off the trail, kill their tracker if you must. Just do something! What's their trackers name?"

The shepherd spoke coldly, "Star." Lena gasped, a little too loudly. The Masked Entrancer shot his gaze towards Lena.

"You know him?" The Masked Entrancer walked towards her cage, he was growling loudly.

"Y...No." She corrected herself.

"Oh, really?" He suddenly smiled. "Butch, come over here." Lena's jaw dropped in horror as the huge dog walked up to the Masked Entrancer. "Why don't you get a straight answer out of the girl." Lena squeezed herself into a corner of the cage, but the Masked Entrancer pulled her out. "C'mon, do your worst, make her suffer."

"I...I...I'd rather not master." Butch lowered his ears. Lena couldn't believe it, but not as much as the Masked Entrancer couldn't.

"What, why not? You so easily did it to the others. What makes her so different?" He released Lena and smacked Butch across the face. "Huh, what makes her better than the others? Why the sudden compassion?" With every question, the Masked Entrancer hit Butch again. Lena suddenly realized why Butch hated to disobey the Masked Entrancer, she also realized that she had a clear shot for the door. Before she could even move an inch, the shepherd tackled her.

"Oh no you don't, you're not goin to see daddy any time soon." The dogs accent got thicker. Lena looked at the dog, He knows my dad? The shepherd pushed her back in the cage and locked it. The Masked Entrancer was still hitting Butch, his face was starting to bleed. Why doesn't he fight back? He could tear that puny mutt to pieces. After another minute or so, the Masked Entrancer and the shepherd left the room, leaving Butch sitting there next to Lena's cage, a lone tear forming in his eye.

"Butch?" Lena asked, she couldn't believe she sounded concerned for this monster of a dog. It was just her nature, she couldn't help herself.

"What?" Butch wiped his eyes.

"Why do you let him do that to you?" Lena walked to the bars of the cage.

"B...because, he's master." Butch shrugged.

"And who says he is?" Lena pircked her ears up, seeing her chance. "You, or him?" Butch's eyes widened, he'd been so concerned about making master happy, he'd never stopped to think why.

"H...he does." Butch walked closer to Lena.

"Exactly." Butch was close enough to Lena so that she could reach through the bar and put her paw on Butch's shoulder. "I know that deep down you're not like him. You don't want anything to do with him."

Butch looked at the ground. "I know."

Lena put the paw under Butch's chin and lifted his head to make eye contact. "Then help me. Please, I don't want to die. I want to see my father again, and I promise, if you help me, I'll make sure that you don't get banished, or worse." Lena heard footsteps, so she drew her paw back into the cage, Butch simply nodded to her. She cracked a quick smile before the Masked Entrancer walked into the room, the shepherd was gone.

   Back in town, Star was leading Balto and Boris along the scent trail, drawing ever so closer to Lena, and the Masked Entrancer. Star led the two into an open ended alley, his head suddenly shot up. "Lena?"

At the other end of the alley, Holmes shot into view. "Balto, you must stop following Star, he's leading you into a trap!"

Star's head shot up, "What?" Holmes ran up and tackled Star.

"You swine!" The shepherd yelled. "I knew it. It's the only possible explaination. You know Lena very well, in fact, she could even be considered your only friend now after your two buddies bit it. It would only make sense, seeing as she showed no physical interest in you, you figured you could have her all to yourself."

"What? No! That's not true." Star looked at Balto who only stared in astonishment, he could tell he was buying Holme's story. "I didn't, I wouldn't, I couldn't. Unless..." Star looked at Holmes. "You... it was you."

The shepherd's eyes darted back and forth. "No, you did it. What would I want with an adolescent huskie? You have no proof, and no motive to suggest something so rediculous."

"Oh really? Then what's this?" Star pulled a single red hair off of Holmes. "That's why I thought I smelled Lena." Holmes looked at Balto, who had an expression of rage on his face.

"Uh, I have to go." Holmes suddenly spun around and sped off.

"Follow him!" Balto shouted. The two dogs took off after him, with Boris trailing behind.

   Back in the room, the Masked Entrancer looked furious. "We're going to get caught! Because you forgot to cover out tracks!" He smacked Butch across the face, this time Butch simply let the tears stream down his face. Lena couldn't take it.

"Stop it!" She yelled at the Masked Entrancer. He froze, slowly turning his head. He didn't have his usual smirk, but rather a look of pure anger. He suddenly leapt at the cage, unlocked the lock and dragged Lena out. She cried in pain as his teeth dug into her as he pulled. He pulled her into the corner of the room.

"If I'm going to get caught, I'm not going to give you the pleasure of living. I've had my fun with you, and now you must die." The smirk returned. Lena closed her eyes tightly as the dog wrapped his jaws around her throat, and waited for him to tighten.

"No, you know what. I want you to die slowly." Her eyes shot open to see him tear at the flesh on her foreleg. She cried out in pain. He worked so quickly, she was soon covered in blood, bone and raw tissue were exposed across her body, no longer was she the beautiful female she looked to be, she more resembeled a zombie. "I feel that's adequate enough. So when your Father finds you, he'll know how much pain I've put you through, just as he was getting so close." He brought his jaws down around he neck again, and she waited for death. She closed her eyes, tears welled up.

"You let her go!" The Masked Entrancer turned to face Butch.

"You dare to speak to your master like that?" He looked shocked.

"You are not my master!" Butch leapt at the Masked Entrancer, knocking him away from Lena. They rolled, and the Masked Entrancer came out on top.

"If I must kill you too, the so be it!" The Masked Entrancer raised his head back. He was halfway to ripping Butch's throat out when he suddenly heard.

"Ramsey! Ramsey!" Holmes called out.

"What?" The Masked Entrancer called back.

"It's Balto! He's found us!" Holmes called.

"No, you led him right to me!" Ramsey retaliated. Holmes dashed through the door with Balto and Star right behind him. Star instinctively went for Holmes while Balto veered off and headed straight for Ramsey.

"You'll die for touching my daughter!" Balto had pure rage in his eyes.

"Oh, I've done worse that that." Ramsey motioned to the corner of the room, a dim light shone on Lena's mangled body.

"No!" Balto shot at Ramsey, but he rolled out of Balto's way and tripped him up.

"Come on Balto, you're too easy." Ramsey started laughing.

"No, you are!" Ramsey spun around in time to see Butch's collosal paw collide with his face and send him flying backwards.

By now, Holmes had already pinned Star to the ground. He looked up to see Ramsey smack into him, and send him flying off of Star. When they landed there was a loud crack, followed by a whimper. Balto walked over to see what happened. Ramsey was alive, but Holmes, well, his head wasn't facing the correct direction. Butch walked over and pinned Ramsey down, incase he came to.

   Balto looked over his daughter mangled form.

"Hi...d...daddy." She could barely speak.

"Hi pumpkin." Balto nuzzled his daughter, when he drew back his face was covered with blood. "Star! Go get help!" Star nodded and bolted out of the room. Balto started to cry. "It's okay honey, you're gonna be fine."

"Dad, t...tell mom that I..." Lena coughed.

"Honey, honey, listen, you're going to be fine, don't talk like that." Balto stroke his daughters neck.

"Tell her that I...love..." Lena collapsed in her pool of blood.

"No, no, please no. Aniu, please don't do this to my daughter!" Lena watched her father break down on the floor in front of her, her vision kept getting blurrier, she tried to call to him, but she couldn't. Suddenly, everything went black.

   There was a blinding flash of light as Lena shot her eyes open. She was strapped to a vet table with an EKG beeping away beside the table. She started looking around, at the far end of the room, she saw her father, sitting and weeping for her. "D...dad." He couldn't hear her. "D...daddy!" His head shot up.

"Lena!" He ran over to the table, and lifted himself up so he could see her. "I can't believe it, you're awake. I thought I'd have been lost without you." He gently nuzzled her. "Although, I think someone else would have been devastated without you." Jenna suddenly walked into the room.

"Lena!" She cried out as she ran over to the table, lifting herself up next to Balto.

"Hi mom." Lena choked out. Jenna was sobbing, she licked her all over her face. Balto sat and smiled, they were together again.

  One Month Later...

   Lena walked out to Balto's boat, happy. She'd made a full recovery from her injuries, and looked even better than before. Her fur had grown back brighter, and slikier. She'd known because she'd already recieved comments about her "new look". This did however, come with a negative, she was pregnant. With the Masked Entrancer's pups, and she planned on having them. After a testimony from Lena, and his own testimony, Butch was declared innocent on five counts of murder due to temporary insanity brought on by Ramsey's constant abuse, he was however guilty on one count of abduction, but after some sweet talking from Lena, the sentence was lowered to 1000 hours of community service. Ramsey on the other hand wasn't so lucky. Guilty of six counts of murder, and one count of forced impregnation. Ramsey was sentenced to death. Lena had since become friends with Butch, and grew much closer to Star, Balto has a good outlook for them. Star promised to help Lena raise the children, even if they weren't his.

   Lena stood next to Balto on the bow of his boat. He nuzzled her.

"Are you sure you want to have those pups?" Balto looked at Lena, she seemed very confident.

"Yes dad, I'm sure." Lena nodded.

"You know you did the right thing, with Butch." Balto leaned into her.

"Did I really?" She looked puzzled.

"Yes, he saved your life."

"I know, but, I don't really know if he didn't kill the other five or not. I don't want to believe it, but there's no way to be sure."

"Well it's too late now, he's already been declared innocent."

"I know, I just have this wierd feeling." Lena huddled against Balto.

"Honey, don't worry, I'll protect you."

"Beautiful sunset, don't you think." Lena motioned towards the sun, which had died the sky a mix of pink and orange.

"Yea, beautiful..."

End