A Twist in Time


Prologue

"I knew there was something wrong with me," words of anger can be heard for quite a distance away from the wrecked boat lying there on the beach. Standing there on the deck were two figures of canines. "Aleu, there's nothing wrong with you. You have a proud heritage," the most robust one spoke, this one also seemed upset, but it was more of a frustration.

"Oh! Sure," the female snapped. "A proud heritage, yeah, right. It almost killed me," she thought to herself, as she recalled that she was almost shot dead just that noon. Earlier in the day, Aleu was enjoying her routine of playing with the orphaned polar bear cubs; that was when a hunter mistook her for a wolf and aimed her with his deadly rifle. Not having seen such a weapon before, she ran toward the human, wishing that he would adopt her as a pet. If it wasn't for her father's rescue, she wouldn't be standing here by now.

Normally, Aleu should be thankful, but not this time, not after everything that has happened. Furthermore, to mention 'the proud heritage' did only hurt her feeling more.

With one quick gaze, the two looked really like wolves, only a few traits of dogs could be seen in the male, and almost none in the one named Aleu. Anyone can tell that they were father and daughter.

Before the incident, Aleu was indeed very proud of her appearance. She was proud because it gave her swiftness, and elegance. She was proud because its colouring suited her so well. But more than anything else, she was proud of it because it had made her the only one in the whole litter that resembled her father in many ways. She had so many reasons to love her father, not only for he was the great Balto who saved Nome, but the fact was that he was the one looking after her all the time, since she wasn't adopted as a pup, and that created an unbreakable bond between them. What had happened forced her to question this look of herself, was it worth all the pride she had had toward them for so long?

"Your mother is a purebred husky...," Balto tried to say something but ended up choking upon the next words about to leave his mouth.

Seeing him trailed off like that, Aleu pushed him harder for the other side of the truth, "Then, what are you?"

By now, Balto himself had run headfirst into a deadend. He, now, found no way other than to reveal the truth; "Being different might hurt, but it can hurt more if I keep this any longer," he quietly thought. Balto, then, faced his daughter, mentally gritted his teeth, and said, "I am the one who is part wolf."

The fact rocked Aleu to the core. If this was true, why had her father she loved so much been hiding this from her for so long? Pondering over this question, the only thing that Aleu could stammer was, "How could this happen?"

Stepping closer to his daughter, the father made another attempt to explain, "Look, Aleu, my dad was a husky who had pups with a wolf..."

"Great! My grandmother was a wild animal! Did the wolf teach you how to know when a human wants to kill you?" Aleu didn't give him enough time to finish, all the frustration and anger prevented her from doing so.

As for Balto himself, only mentioning his long gone mother lightened him a little, but enough for a slight smile to show; he further said, "I was accidentally separated from her when I was young, so..." The hero paused for a moment as he was recollecting his bitter past, "I never spent much time with... the wolf. But I remember that she was as white as snow. And she had this warm voice that made me feel safe." After another break, Balto continued to when Boris the goose took him in.

"So why didn't you tell me this before?" Aleu asked, in a softer tone as she somehow felt for her father.

Even not knowing if Aleu would understand his point or not, Balto didn't want to risk lying anymore, he expressed the words from his very heart, "Because, I wanted to protect you."

"Protect me? From what, from the fact that no human will ever want me because I'm part wild animal?" Aleu asked and turned away toward the door. She had always been a brave young canine, and this time, despite her sorrow, she still didn't want her father to see her tears. Without turning back, she questioned again, "And what about my brothers and sister? They've got wolf in them too. Why did humans want them?" Since the day of adoption, Aleu had always believed that it was all due to her luck; but, then, everything fell that its reason was really her wild look. This provoked her anger more and more as she thought about it. She was blindly angry at the one who gave her the appearance, her father, indeed.

"Because they don't look it," Balto let out a sigh, "and you do," he continued, with a faked smile he was forced to make.

However, Aleu didn't take this so well; after thinking all the matters back and forth, she yelled, "It's not fair. I hate you!". And with that, she jumped off the boat, then she ran away... bound for Nome. Even when Balto tried to call her back, all he could hear was, "Leave me alone!"

Aleu ran and ran into the streets of Nome, making her way to her mother, who she can cry it all out; the truth that she'd heard didn't break her heart as deep and painful as the truth that her father had been lying to her for age.