Ania looked at her liitle sister, daring Luna to chase her. Ania was almost an adult, now, but both of them were unusually thin. There was a famine, and it was very difficult to find food. The pack was suffering. Many wolves were dying. But, as in all times of loss, life went on. Ania and Luna played, as usual. Aniu, their sister led the pack with wisdom, compassion,  and courage. At that moment, Luna ran at Ania. Ania wisked around, and began to run. After a few minutes, she stopped. She couldn't run any more. Luna ran up to her. "You 'kay?" Luna asked. Ania knew why Luna didn't say more. After running, no one in the pack had much energy to spare because of lack of food. Ania nodded. Suddenly, they heard their sister calling them. "Come on, you two!" said the rather low voice of Aniu. She had had a mate. He had been a husky, but he had left her. She had two pups. One was unknown, one was a pup named Tundra. Tundra, however, Aniu had had with a wolf, so the unknown pup, Balto, was a hybrid, and she was a pure wolf. They walked over to Aniu. She was the same age as Ania. Luna looked exactly like them, though, all white The rest of the pack that could run was with Aniu. Aniu had no coice but to leave the weak, or the rest of the pack would suffer. Aniu had left the strongest of the weak in charge. She had told him that they might never see her agian, but to keep strong and everything would be okay.They began to run. Ania felt like she would collapse. Before she did, they found food. A herd of Caribou were grazing in a field. They attacked. The pack caught only a young straggler. It was not enough, but at least it was something. They ate. After eating, what remained of the pack rested. Night came. Ania dropped off to sleep. She woke early, at dawn. Aniu and a few other wolves were awake, too. Aniu was standing alone, thinking. Ania walked up to her. "What is it?" she asked. Aniu was silent, then she said "What will become of the pack? There is almost no food. Icker died." Ania gulped back tears. Icker was a wolf whom Luna was friends with. "Luna will be upset." Ania said to Aniu.  Aniu nodded. Luna was upset. When Aniu told her,  tears glistened in her eyes. Ania could tell that Luna wanted to say something, but all she managed to choke out was, "Oh." Aniu then called the pack to her. "We are going to hunt. We are going to run until we find food." Aniu said this with something in between determination and fear. Ania suddenly felt more tired and weak than she ever had before. The pack began to run. They ran and ran.  They ran for hours, but they found no food. Ania felt so weak. She began to lag behind. They came to a place in the woods they were traveling in where the woods grew thinner, and finally stopped. Ania found herself looking into a big grassy field with a big, lone bush about a quarter of a mile away in it. She almost fell, but managed to keep standing. No one spoke. No one had the energy to. The wolves began to run Aniu was leading, and Luna was right behind her. Ania managed to run a few steps, and then fell. She couldn't run any more. She closed her eyes, not caring what happend to her. She heard the  pack stop. They all ran back to her. She heard Luna's voice saying, "Ania, can you get up?" Ania slowly shook her head. She heard Aniu's voice saying, " A-Ania, we'll have to leave you here." Aniu was almost crying. "I love you, Ania." Ania felt her sister's teeth dragging her away. ''We'll leave you in this bush.''

Luna cried while running. It was so sad that they had left Ania in that bush. One of Luna's friends, Tundra, caught up with her. "Hey, I'm so sorry we had to leave your sister in that bush. It must be so sad for you. And Icker died, too." Luna nodded, and nuzzled her friend. Tundra was crying as well. The pack stopped to rest. Luna and Tundra were sitting on a log, when Aniu came up to them. "You two okay?" Aniu asked. She looked unusually grave. "You're hiding something from us." Luna said suspiciously Aniu sighed."How did you know?" "You look too grave to not be." Aniu sighed again. ''All right,'' she said, "Do you know the source of this famine?" They shook their heads. "It is hunters." Aniu said scathingly. ''They are taking all the food for themselves. There must be a famine in the human world, too, or they would not be doing this.'' Luna and Tundra did not say anything. "Well, I guess we'd better get going.'' Aniu said, walking away. The pack began to run again. Tundra ran beside Luna. The pack ran for a long time before they found anything. The wolves were ravenously hungry, so it did not take them long to kill a caribou. It was big, and everyone got enough, something that hadn't happened for a long time. Contented with their meals, the wolves, one by one, dropped off to sleep.

Nearly three months had gone by, and Luna and Tundra were growing rapidly. Luna had become a proud wolf known for trickery and cunning. However, through all of that shined love and faithfulness to the pack. Tundra had become a vicious, pround yet loving young wolf. She would be a great leader, Luna knew. Luna also knew that she herself would never be a good leader. She wasn't demanding enough. Luna wasn't as quite fast as Tundra, but she was trickier and slightly smarter. All of these qualities put together made them a great team. Aniu still lead the pack. Luna and Tundra were almost adults, but neither of them had found mates. This, however, was for different reasons. Luna had not found a mate because of her trickery to get other pack member's food, sleeping places, and even their places in the pack. Tundra's reason was quite different. She was very fast and strong, so a lot of not-so-strong and fast male wolves of her age were jealous. Luna was not jealous. She couldn't be. As neither of them were well-liked by most wolves, they had to stick together. As of this minute, they were less liked than usual. Luna had snuck up on a wolf named Launer, who was eating, and stole his food. Then she had tossed it to Tundra, who ran and hid with it Luna came running up to a cave. Tundra was hiding in it. "I've got it." she said. They grinned. Tundra broke the bone in half. They gnawed on it, still grinning. Then, they heard Aniu calling them. "Com'n, you two.'' Aniu stood at the mouth of the cave. At the guilty look on their faces she rolled her eyes. "Have you two been stealing again?" Without waiting for an answer she walked away. Tundra and Luna walked out of the cave. The pack was assembled a few feet away. They walked toward it. Launer shot them a look of pure hatred. They smirked. The pack ran. They were a big pack, of about twenty. They ran for a long time. Then they heard gunshots and dogs barking. A bullet whizzed overhead. Luna and Tundra looked at each other, fear in their eyes. Then, Luna felt pain in her leg. It had gotten shot. Tundra was stumbling. A bullet had barely hit her chest, and she could not walk very well. She was falling behind. Luna slowed down. Then, a big, snakelike thing soared overhead. Luna ducked. The snaky-thing fell right around Tundra's neck. Tundra said to Luna, "I think these humans are going to have us be sled dogs, and I am coming with them." They heard Aniu's voice, "Launer, keep the pack together and keep them running!" The snaky-thing was jerked back. Aniu was beside them. Tundra said to Aniu the same thing she had said to Luna. Then the snaky thing flew in the air again. This time Luna didn't want to escape it. She wanted to go with Tundra. The snaky-thing caught around her neck and she did not resist. Then, she saw a dogsled with about five dogs harnessed to it sled up. Aniu snarled, but Luna said, "Don't," To their surprise, another one drove up. This one had about twenty dogs harnessed to it. The man in the first sled pointed a gun a them.  Then Luna began to be  jerked. Before they could be jerked any more, they began to walk in the sled's direction. Then, Luna felt hands on her. She wanted to run beside the sled, not be a prisonor on it. She bit, but her teeth closed on thin air. Then ropes were being tied around her. She thrashed, but of no avail. She was tied down. She still thrashed, and then she saw the man take out a big, heavy thing. He raised it above his head....Tundra was sitting patiently on the sled...pain clouded Luna's vision........she saw Aniu backing away.......everything went black.

Aniu backed away from the humans. Luna was tied up to one of their sleds and unconcious. Tundra, Aniu's daughter, was tied beside Luna and sitting serenely. The humans surprised Aniu. They were taking wolves to pull sleds.l Aniu trotted away, her head down, tears filling her eyes, sad that she let herself lose two more wolves that she grew close to. She had lost both of her sisters, her daughter, her son and the pack.......the pack? Aniu suddenly realized that she had told Launer to keep the pack running. They would be miles away by now. Aniu was packless and hopeless. She trotted on, then broke into a run. She wanted to run, run until she found something, anything, that would ease her misery. She ran for a long time. It was dusk by the time she stopped. She had found nothing worth looking at or playing with. Aniu was by then so blinded by greif and misery that she began to feel as if nothing mattered. She stumbled beneath a tree instead of somewhere safer. Aniu managed to fall asleep, in spite of her great sadness.

Aniu was running, running faster than she thought was ever possible. She didn't know why, but she thought she had run like this before, somewhere......sometime.... Aniu felt something was missing, that something should have happened, but she couldn't remember what. Aniu suddenly realized why she was running. She was running to escape something, but.......what? Aniu looked around her. She had no idea where she was. She decided to keep on running from whatever she was running from. Aniu somehow knew it was horrible and powerful. Then, Aniu thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. There was her mate, standing a little way ahead. He had gone off somewhere and never come back. Aniu tried to stop, but found that she couldn't. "No! Come back!" she shouted when the dog faded away as she kept running. Aniu started to cry. She then turned her attention to the land ahead. For the first time, she noticed it was rocky, barren and deserted. All of that lifeless rock stretching away before her sent a shiver down her spine. Then she saw that there was something alive ahead. It was gray, and as she got close to it she realized it was a puppy. A small puppy, and very familiar. It was her son! She had lost him to a big storm, just before the famine. Aniu tried with all her strength to stop, but she couldn't." As he,  too, began to fade away, she cried out, ''Balto! No! Wait......!'' Aniu began to cry harder. She ran a long time. Then, another wolf came into sight. She was all white, just like Aniu. Ania! Aniu didn't even bother trying to stop. She just shouted, "Ania! Are you okay?'' as Ania began to fade away. Almost immediately, Aniu saw a lot of wolves in a clump. It was her pack! She howled to them, and they responded. Then, not surprisingly, they faded away as well, their howls still ringing in the air. Suddenly, two more wolves appeared ahead. Luna and Tundra! As Aniu rushed passed them, Luna said, "You're running from greif, Aniu." Her voice echoed ominously. Then everything dissolved into blackness.

Aniu woke up, shaking. She realized that she had been crying in her sleep. She stood up. Aniu thought she might be able to catch something to eat if she could find it. She began to walk slowly northward. As she walked, she refleceted on the dream. What Luna had said was true. Aniu had been running from grief all her life, but in a different way than she had been running in the dream. When she lost her mate, when he disappeared, she had been so sad, so lonely, that she had not thought of him, ever, until now. Aniu realized that with all she had lost, she had never thought about any of that greif, that terrible misery. Aniu looked ahead. She realized that she had been so preoccupied in her thoughts that she had failed to look where she was going. Aniu had no idea where she was. She stopped and smelled the air. She smelled salt. Aniu realized she must be near the ocean. Aniu began to run. She suddenly stopped. She smelled goose. Aniu creeped along slowly. She came to a clearing, and in it was the goose. Aniu leaped on the goose. It screamed. "Aughhhhhhh! Don't kill me, please.'' the goose begged in a Russian accent. ''I've got to look after a puppy! He's out playing! My name's Boris! I beg of you, don't eat me!" Aniu let curiosity take over. She let Boris go and said, "You're looking after a puppy? Where are its parents?" Boris sighed. "Dead," he replied, "Dead, or gone away, or searching for him." Aniu thought of Balto, her own lost pup, and said "Well, I hope you find his mother." Aniu walked away from the goose, looked over her shoulder, and said, "Goodbye, and I'm sorry I almost attacked you." Boris smiled, and replied, "Don't worry! After all, if I hadn't been looking after that pup you would've eaten me!" Aniu smiled back, and broke into a run. She had run for only a minute when she met someone else: two polar bears. One seemed incapable of talking, and it seemed the other one did his talking for him. "Hi!" the smaller one said. Aniu was taken aback at their bravery. "Umm, Hello,'' she replied, stunned. The polar bear who had spoken to her before said, "I'm hungry, and he says he is, too, so we'd better go. 'Bye!" They ran off. Aniu smiled to herself. She had a feeling that she was going to have an interesting day. She walked out into the open, and saw two puppies. One was black, and one was reddish. The black one was bullying the red one pretty badly, so Aniu walked out and said, " Why are you bullying her?" She said this almost in a growl. The black pup took no notice until Aniu snarled. He took one look at her and raced into town. The red pup sat up and said, "Thanks. That pup's name is Steele, and my name is Jenna. He can be very mean." Aniu smiled. She was again surprised. She had expected Jenna to run after Steele. "My name is Aniu. I have been wondering: what is the name of the town that we are near." Jenna looked up at Aniu, and said, "We are near Nome. You must not be from around here." Then, Aniu heard a man yelling, "Jenna! Come on, girl!" Jenna ran off, and said without turning her head, "'Bye! Thanks!" She raced into town. Aniu began to run. She ran for a very long time. It became dark, and she still didn't stop. Aniu ran until dawn, and then finally stopped. She curled up under a overhanging rock, and fell asleep.

The next morning Aniu woke up starving. She hadn't eaten since the-day-before-yesterday! Aniu got up, stretched, and walked into a forest that she had seen the day before. She knew prey was plentiful, and it did not take her long to catch a rabbit. She scarfed it down and knawed on the bones for a few minutes. Then, she walked further in to the forest. It was very dark and wet. Aniu did not like it. She was going to walk out, when she heard a stick crack behind her. Aniu froze and slowly looked behind her. She saw something shiny and round. A barrel of a gun! Aniu jumped and ran. She heard gunshots behind her, and a bullet whizzed overhead. A second later, she the whizz of a bullet beside her. Aniu ran faster. The man wouldn't be able to keep up with her. But then a well shot bullet hit Aniu in her side. She fell. The man walked up to her. She growled, but felt pain shooting through her body. She dragged herself to her feet, and before the man could do any thing, she lunged. A second later, his coat was torn and his arm bleeding badly. The man picked up his gun. He wasn't going to give up easily, either. Aniu tried to run away, but she was too weak. The man got his gun ready and  shot. The bullet barely missed Aniu. She new that if she couldn't run, she would be history. Then, the man shot again. This time, the bullet hit. Aniu fell a second time. This time, she didn't get up. She felt the pain course through her all over again, but this time it was worse than she thought possible. Aniu bit the man's leg. She bit harder than she had ever bit before. She saw the man fall. Blood gushed out of his leg. Aniu guessed (correctly) that she had hit an artery. As Aniu died, she knew she had been a true wolf, fighting for her life until the end.