"Come on Ilena, mush!" Rosie was practising her mushing with Ilena. They were known all over town for their speed and stamina. The Junior Sled Race was only a month away and not only did Rosie have to gather a team of dogs, but train them too! Ilena ran with the sled tied to her back. With another dog or two it would be like there was no sled at all!

The two champions slowed down and Rosie went inside the store to collect some shopping. "Hey, Ilena, how 'ya doin!" It was Marsha, a Shiba Inu who used to play with Ilena as a pup. "I'm fine thanks. Hey, Marsha, do you know anyone who can run fast?"

"Sure I do, honey! Listen. Go to the boiler room at six o'clock tonight, there's plenty of selection!" Marsh whispered. Then Rosie came out of the store and Ilena said bye to her friend.

Rosie went home to drop off the shopping and untied Ilena from the sled. "See you later, girl." she smiled as she patted the head of her canine. Rosie walked to a house on the other side of town. When she knocked, a woman answered the door.

"Yes please. Is Donny in?" Rosie replied politely. Soon they were walking together down the street. Rosie told Donny how excited she was about the race. The two of them went to the beach with all the other kids.

At six, Ilena quietly left the house and went to the boiler room. There was every single dog in town there. The talking finished as a big St bernard held up his paw for silence.

"Now then," he projected "It is poster night. Does anyone want to advertise something?" Nobody spoke. The a voice said. "Yes, I do." Ilena went up to the front of the group.

"I'm sure you know of the race that is being held. Well, my musher needs dogs. Is there anyone who is not in the race that wishes to be?" About eleven dogs barked. "In that case, at half past eight tomorrow morning, come to my house." The evening continued. Ilena hoped that she would be able to get enough dogs for Rosie.

Rosie was woken up by a great noise. Dogs? she thought as she climbed out of bed. As she opened the door, an amazing sight apeared. Twenty dogs, including Ilena, were sat outside of her house. Later that day Rosie took them all out to the beach. She timed each dog individually and picked out the best six. A team was born.

Rosie asked the owners if thay wouldn't mind her using them in the race. Everyone knew Rosey was kind to animals and so they said yes. A black female named Mifa knew Ilena and thay were at the front, with Ilena leading. The two wheel dogs, Joopa and Hale, were brother and sister. Both of them were white with a patch of brown over each eye. Neo and Sanca were grey-white, and finally, Jai was a brown and creme spotted male. Ilena liked him. He was nice to her and he was talented in his sled racing. Jai ran in fourth postition, so thay never really got time to talk.

"Dad, are you home? I've got news!" Ilena called through the cold and quiet house. No-one answered, so instead, she went back out the door to try the boiler room. "There you are! hey, guess what? Rosie's made a team and I'm running in it! So is Mifa and Jai!"

"Great!" Balto smiled. He always liked hearing that Ilena was in a race. Just then, Kodi walked in. Balto and Ilena told him about everything."That's fabulous! I'd run in the race but I've got a job to do. What's the track?" Ilena said that the track was around Nome once, then a lap around the lake and then to go through the woodland, following the flags that marked the route, then to arive through the finish in Nome. "Sheesh, a bit long." Kodi blinked.

"Well if Rosie wins then she'll be able to mush anywhere. Now then, I'm meeting up with Jenna to go and visit Muk and luk. I want you two back home by six. Okay?"

"Yep." Kodi and Ilena smiled at the same time. Ilena knew Kodi was actually her uncle, but she didn't care. She had always thought of him as a brother, even after Balto told her that she was his grandaughter.

Ilena made her way home and curled up in front of the fire. She had dreams of a race and holding a trophy with Rosie. She woke up early and went to find Mifa. They had arranged to meet up at the beach the previous day. The wind was freezing and the ground was hard. Ilena wished it was summer. Then she heard a bark. Following it, she made her way through the light mist. Mifa was there, prancing around on the sand. Ilena yapped to signal she was there. The two dogs ran up and down the beach together, then they came across Steele. Not many dogs knew Steele now, for his title had been taken when Balto saved the town. He had lied about Balto and the team dying and so no-one ever listened to or trusted him.

"Well, it isn't your beach," Mifa began. Steele cuffed her and she yelpped. Ilena growled. NO-ONE hurts MY friend! she thought, standing her ground. Steele turned to her. He smiled in a way that seemed like a 'Nice try' face. Ilena growled again.

Steele was about to taunt her more, when Ilena swipped her paw across his face, claws ready. Steele jumped back, but he still received a scratch. A bead of blood appeared on his face. He turned and ran. Ilena helped up Mifa who was still crying from her blow. They turned back to home and the mist cleared, the dew on the grass disappeared, and birds began twittering.

"Ohhhha! Steady!" Rosie called. Ilena slowed to a halt. The team was practising the run around the lake. She was the only one that wasn't tired, and they weren't even half way yet! Rosie unhooked the dogs from the sled and let them have a sniff about. Twice a dog went astray into the woods and she had to call them back. Jai, Ilena and mifa talked to each other about the route. Jai thought it was quite long, but Mifa stuck with Ilena, saying:

The sun went over the sky a bit more and they continued the run. The flags weren't up yet in the woods, so they had to take the long way around. The sun disappeared and clouds towered in the sky. Snow was on it's way.

The dogs battled their way through the deep slush. Their paws were wet and cold. Only the bare fur on their backs kept them from freezing to death. The icey wind stung their faces like the bitting of teeth, sharp and britttle. They chattered like icicles themselves, their jaws shaking in the cold. The view ahead was almost invisable. The hope in being rescued was small, as they all believed they would die in the deep freeze.

A long, deep note ehoed through the air. A white wolf flickered in and out of visability. It watched the animals struggle, even with the guidence of the wolf dog. Ilena looked up to see the white figure. She only caught a glimse of it before the snow mixed it back into the breeze. The howl was heard again. Jai and the other dogs cringed. Ilena called back. The sled dogs were horrified with the sudden outbreak of Ilena. But she led them on until a dark cave flickered in the distance.

The cave was wet and cold. But it was shelter. Rosie huddled down with the dogs to keep warm. The night wore on and a search was planned. But the helicopters couldn't come out because of the storm. They were on their own. The wind whistled through the cave and blew out the lamp. They had no more matches, and no more light

Early the next day, a helicopter was sent out to look for them. Rosie couldn't get the sled inside the caave the previous night and so left it out in the open. This was a vital sign for the rescue team and they landed on the soft snow. Rosie woke with the humming of the blades. Ilena was already at the cave entrance, seeing who was there. A member of the team held a shot gun to her.

The dogs and Rosie were air-lifted to safety. The sled hung by straps to the bottom of the copter. She spent the next few days in bed. Her parents brought her mugs of soup and some bread. Ilena slept in the living room near the fire. While sleeping, she remembered the white wolf on the hill. Well, she remembered the eyes, as the fur couldn't be seen, as it was a white as the snow. It seemed calm, and unaffected by the storm. It knew her. But how? Ilena settled her head down again.

The fire spat and Ilena started awake. The room was empty. Outside it was dry and crisp, no snow was blowing and the sun was out. Perfect weather. She got up shakily. Her energy had returned, and Ilena felt she could run a million miles. The town was almost deserted. A dog or two greeted her and a man who was going to buy a paper gave her a pat on the head. Ilena made her way to the boiler room and Balto was there. She sat down next to him and told him the story of the wolf, when it guided her to the cave. He was taken back. Was it the same spirit that helped him?

"Um, well, I can't. Sorry." he said, closing the door. Rosie was just going to ask why not, when he completely shut it! She didn't understand. He was supposed to be her friend. Had he decided he didn't like her anymore.

"But mum! You don't understand! He would usually do anything to go to the beach. And he told me that he doesn't have anything to do or anywhere to go on Saturdays!"

"Now Rosie. You can't expect everyone to hop to it every time you want to do something. Besides, you might get sick of each other and fall out. It's good to have a break sometimes." her mother said, stirring the sugar into her tea. Rosie knew she had to drop the convosation.

The dogs needed to run of their energy. The cold air made them rather active, and so it was more than they could ever dream to be led out into the open beach. But it was hard to keep them under control. Luckily, they tired themselves out quite quickly and Rosie was able to direct them easily. They were running inbetween some sand banks, when Jai suddenly stopped and sniffed around.

"Come on Jai!" Rosie shouted. She had had enough of this stopping continuously. She grabbed Jai and accedently un clipped him. He didn't run off, but sniffed all the way up one of the sand banks and stood on top. He barked. Rosie stumbled up to catch him, and she saw something that pulled on her heart.

It was Donny. He wasn't with aother girl, he was with a group of several dogs and he sat on a sled. He was trying to train for the race and beat her. Rosie sank back down the slope and ran over in her mind what was going on.

All these thoughts whirled around and around in her head until she suddenly burst out crying. Ilena knew that humans cried when something was wrong or they were upset. She paddd over to her musher and licked her. Rosie looked up. She saw her friend and hugged her. Then, once she had gathered her emotions together, she clipped Jai back up and turned back to Nome. She avoided the clearing where she saw Donny. She was still thinking.

Rosie's sadness turned into anger. But she didn't let it get to her. First she'd tell her mum. Why did life have to be so complicated?! Ilena also had something to tell her parents. The lead dog on that team was Steele.

"And what's worse, Steele knows that you're related to me and will do anything to provent you from winning. And your musher is Rosie! So what will happen to her if he tries to savatage the team?"

"I'm NOT shouting" Balto yelled. It went quiet. He sighed. He knew he shouldn't be taking it out on them. He calmed down and mutterd "I'm sorry. I'm just worried that something will happen to you and Rosie." Balto sat down and thought about the race, that was only in a weeks time. He was no doubt nervous, but he knew that Ilena would keep Rosie safe. In his heart he was more worried about Ilena. He had expirenced what Steele could do, and didn't want it happening to her. Ilena left the house and went to sleep in the boiler room. Mifa and Marsha were there.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Ilena seemed glum. Usually she was energetic and bright, but she looked, heavy. Ilean made an effort to smile but couldn't hide away the truth. She was scared. She hadn't told anyone in her life how frightened Steele made her feel whan he was around. Now dogs can't cry, but they whine. Ilena whined and sniffed.

"I don't even like standing across the road from Steele, let alone next to him in a race. He scares me, he's got this madness in his eyes. He's evil!" She started whining again. Marsha was always cheery, no-one had ever seen her without a smile on her face since she was born. But now, all that changed. She was concerned for her friend and so dropped her smile, and nuzzled her.

The three dogs lay there until they were tired and went to sleep. However, in the night, the door swung open, leaving the wind and snow to whip around the room. Steele walked in. He put his mouth close to Ilena's ear and whispered:

Thousands of him were around her. She ran in every direction but he just closed her off from the rest of the world. Suddenly she tripped, and fell, she fell a million miles down a hole she had never known.

She was more scared than ever in her life. She suddenly realised that she wasn't breathing. She tried to take a huge gasp of air but choked. She spluttered and coughed. But she couldn't breath. Her air grew short. The voice filled her body again.

The hole disappeared and she was in a box. The box was made of glass and the top was sealed. Below her, the world lay, many hundreds of feet down. Then water started to fill the box. Ilena cried for help, but no sound came out of her mouth. The voice spoke a final time.

Ilena shot up from her sleep, gasping for air. The other dogs had left and she was alone and cold. She felt exhausted, worse than when they nearly died in the cave. Ilena sank back to the floor. Steele strolled in. But Ilena was too tired to care. Even now she was still trying to breath. Steele walked around her, looking down on her."Feeling okay?" he chuckled. He turned around towards the door suddenly. Ilena tried to get up, but her legs wouldn't help her. She heard a familiar voice. At first she thought it was Balto, but it was Jai.

"Steele," he growled "Get out of here. Now." He kept his ears pressed back and his shoulders high, like a cat ready to pounce on a rat. He held his tail errect, though, to show that he was the alpha. Steele strolled over to him. He pretened to leave, but without any warning, he shot around and bit Jai on the leg. Jai yowled. The marks left by Steele's teeth bled. He turned and jumped on him. The two dogs rolled over and over in the snow. Ilena ran to them. The snow had turned from white to red in a matter of seconds.

"Steele! Leave him! Jai, get up! Let him go, Jai! He's not worth it!" she cried in dispare. Suddenly Steele ran off and whined. Jai stood there, claws still stuck out, his mouth foaming. Jai fell to the floor. Ilena had no idea what to do. Should she go and get help, or stay with him? Jai had a scratch or two on his face, and the bite on his leg wasn't much trouble, but his sides had been clawed quite badly. Ilena had noticed that Steele's tail had been ripped of the fur at the end and his white chest had been scratched rather ferociously and the hair had been turned to pink. What had Jai got himself into?

"I will not own a dangerous dog!" The father of Jai's owner had decided. Jai was thrown out of the house to live on the streets. Steele, however, was cleaned up and fed a high-energy food to help him recover. Life wasn't fair. Ilena refused to leave Jai on the streets alone, though, and so they walked around town together. She was still very worried about the race. Jai was a fully grown, strong, male dog. If Steele could reduce him to shreds, then what would happen to her?

Balto was walking down the road when he saw Ilena and her friend. "What happened?" he exclaimed. Ilena explained everything that had happened. Balto led them to Rosie's house. Rosie immeadiatly saw them and was horrified at the state of Jai. She called out her dad and grabbed a lead and a blanket.

"The Cane family." he replied. The vet walked over to a filing cabinet and looked in A,B,C and pulled out Cane. He rang up the number and waited for and answer. Rosie lightly cleaned the cuts with a warm, wet towel. The vet came back into the room and told the news.

"But they can't!" Rosie shouted. She was very upset at the thought of someone abandoning a dog for something that couldn't helped. But her father pointed out that they couldn't possibly take in another dog, but they could feed him sometimes and keep an eye out.

When they were walking home, Ilena and Jai stopped. Steele was walking on the other side of the street. They growled at him. Rosie also stopped and looked in their direction. Unexpectedly, Steele was called over to a boy. It was Donny. Rosie strolled over the road. She knew now that Steele had attacked Jai, causing him to be diagnosed dangerous and kicked out of his home. And by the sight of Donny hugging him and chasing him, shouting "Mush Steele!" he was deffinitly using him in the race. There was going to be trouble...

"Wimp! You lied to me! Call yourself a friend?!" she cried. Donny and Steele ran off. No doubt Rosie would be punished, but it was worth it, just to see him shrink with fear. And her parents did punish her. She had to go to bed at seven all week.

Jai made an excellent recovery. Even his lame leg was fit for a race. Speaking of which, it was only two days away. Rosie put all her time into doing curcuit practising, this time with the flags in the forest. Her fastest time for a lap was 30min and 22sec. Ilena was always careful about where she was going. At the same time as doing a curcuit, she decided where, if she had to, she would overtake Steele. This was tricky as everyone knew that he'd do anything to keep in the lead. But she dug a hole in the bank where ever she would take control.

It was the day of the race. Rosie had been more excited than at christmas and she had been awake since four o'clock. She crept downstairs, careful not to stir her parents, and made Ilena and herself breckfast. Then Rosie slipped on a coat and clipped a lead to Ilena's collar. The town was deserted. The snow was dry and powdery. The moon reflected everything on the ground that was covered in white. A wolf howled in the distance and Ilena turned around. A quick wisp of wind blew up some snow and it seemed to form the shape of a wolf. Rosie didn't see it. The wolf moved closer. It howled. ilena touched it's nose and the snow fell apart. The sun rose and the first few dogs appeared. They all greeted Ilena and Rosie. Obviously they had everyone on their side. Suddenly Jai appeared from around a corner.

"Better?" Ilena asked. Jai nodded. Mifa padded out of the house and joined them. Once everyone had been gathered, Rosie headed back home to get the dogs something to eat while she sorted out the sled. They were all munching away when Steele trotted past. Ilena had had her brekfast and was on guard. She saw him and growled. The dog ran away with it's tail between it's legs. That'll show him! Ilena thought as Rosie clipped her in place. Then they set off down the street to the starting line. Donny was there.

Rosie took the other side of the road to avoid him. Soon, all the children were in place, and a gun fired. Ilena shot forwards and ran at a steady pace. They were in the lead. Steele was level with her, though, and she could see Balto watching with horror at the side lines. Coming around the turn, she short crossed Steele. He skidded to a halt. She hadn't pushed him, so it wasn't against the rules.

"Go Ilena!" Balto was shouting. She fastened her pace. The air was crisp and she could smell anything up to a mile away. Steele was panting heavily and sprinted to catch up to her.

"For this!" Donny yanked on the rope so that it turned sharply to the right. Ilena saw this and stopped. The team slipped down a slope onto the frozen lake. They started moving again. Steele shakily stood up. Then his legs splayed out and he fell again.

They were running around the lake when Steele caught up again. He had that mad look in his eye which made Ilena startle. He shoved her across, trying to push her into the water. But Ilena wanted to get away from him and bolted into the trees. Steele couldn't stop himself and the whole sled and the dogs fell into the water. It was freezing. They shook their paws from the icy slush and watched the other sleds go by. Steele growled and barked more than ever before.

Mifa nearly ran straight into a tree branch. The exit of the woods was near. Through the trees, Ilena could see another team, running around the woods. A black and white malamute was in lead.

"Not so good now, are you, wolf!" Steele taunted with an evil laugh. But this laugh soon turned to a diturbed face, as a wolf howled. He stoipped dead. Ilena had to swerve to avoid him. It was her howling. Donny was fed up.

"MOVE STEELE! RACE LIKE A PROPER DOG! STOP TRYING TO CHEAT!" He strolled over to Steele and hit him. Steele whined and spun around. He bit him. Donny fell over in the snow and the dogs ran off. Steele was too angry to care bout the bruise.

Ilena saw the gorge. it was only a quater of a mile to Nome. If she was going to win, then they would have to get through here first. She doubled her speed. Steele ran up the side of her.

Steele growled again. He jumped at her. Ilena was so scared that she ran faster than anything she had accomplished before. Steele landed on the ropes between her and Mifa. Mifa yelped. Steele was trown off in a split second. He landed on the snow, and his team ran over him, the sled following.

The thought left her head as she jumped forwards through the finishing line. Balto, Jenna, Borris, and Muk and Luk were ecstatic. Rosie was was cheering with the crowd. The whole experience was wonderful. But all the noise left her mind, as Ilena looked back from where they had just ran from. A howl blew and echoed in the wind. It wasn't a wolf, and it was a howl of pain.

Steele stood up. He was covered in gashes and bruises. He was going to get his revenge on that wolf, no matter what. He staggered towards town, pulling his right hind leg behind him.

Ilena yawned and put her head in her paws. What a day! Rosie was polishing her trophy and she was curled up infront of the fire. He mind switched back to Steele as she looked out the window. "Oh my goodness...."

It was Steele. He hadn't been killed. Was this good or bad? Either way, Ilena slept more peacefully that night, and to was added the pride in making a little girl's dream come true.