Chapter One: Aleu 's Return
Inside the small town of Nome, Alaska, all was quiet. It was early morning, and as dogs got up and slowly began their morning routines, and their masters followed their own schedule, none could know that things would change for one of the family's that lived in their little town. While the town may have been calm, there is always a storm on the rise, and this upcoming storm was about to burst with the most grievous of thunder and lightning imaginable. For deep in the forest on the outskirts of the town called Nome, a fight had broken out, and odds were not looking good for the attacked. There within the trees, a brown female wolf screamed out her terrified orders as sh realized that her pack was more than likely doomed.
"Aika! Leave me! Help the clan! " Aleu screamed as her mate stood beside her.
"Never, I won t abandon you!"
Though he was not her mate but her guard and such insolence and disobedience could have gotten him in trouble, the pack leader growled and snapped at one of the attacking opponents, who were also wolves, and resigned that if she, in her expectant state, was not allowed to be in the heart of the fighting, she could still defend the small circle of pups that huddled behind and beside her. Winds whistled through the trees, though her ears. It sounded like bells at first, and amidst the chaos she did not recognize a voice on the wind, until a strong gust caught her attention as the soft voice had become steadier, thicker and less transparent on the rushing cool air around her.
Alphess, dear one, enough, call it off.
Aleu knew it could only have been Aniu, a great wolf very famous for reasons she still had not learned. In the last years she had had many visions from the White Wolf, and each time she listened it always benefited her clan, and at the moment, her job was to obey the unseen voice. Her voice crackled with fear and a slight wavering of hesitance as she called out her orders, so loud that none could pretend they had not heard her commands.
"STOP! Enough. Come back to me!" Her clan raced back to her. The others snarled, and the leader of the attackers held his head high. His blue eyes bore into her, and his newly torn er -the handiwork of one of her clanmates- bled freely as he circled her once, keeping his hackles raised.
"You have made a wise decision. Invaders are not taken well. If any of you want to live, come with us." Aleu hung her head, then motioned for her clan to follow. Ten minutes later, they came to a small opening in some bushes. The enemy clan of wolves growled and led the clan in. Large rock piles were everywhere, scattered throughout the clearing. Small dens peppered the rock piles, and the wolves who were obviously training paused and many of them migrated towards Aleu and her clan in curoiusity.
"Who is this, Agues?" A voice thundered. Aleu held her head high as a yellow wolfess came into sight. The female was indeed pretty, with lighter yellow markings around her mouth and toes, and the same color pattern masked her eyes, and on the left side the eye marking lengthened and traveled down to the female's shoulder blade, where it came to a point after a short zig zag shape.
"I am Aleuka, leader of the Navatin clan. I was assaulted by your clan while merely passing through."
" I didn t give you permission to speak! Be still." The female glared at Aleu and snarled, showing off her fine pearly teeth and tensing her muscles as she opened her mouth, and then stopped as a sharp voice thundered around and over the rocks.
"Now, then, Vatani, cool yourself and stand aside so I may see who it is that has entered. "
Aleu froze. The voice was kind and calming, the eyes so familiar as they seemed to search her very being, the smell of the animal filled her nose, and her ears twitched as they recognized the oh-so-familiar foot padding pattern. Three years had passed since she had been near this animal, and delight filled her voice, senses, and eyes. But what came out of her mouth was a question, not a statement. "Papa? What are you doing in a wolf clan? "
_Chapter 2: A Family Secret_
The rise of his eyebrows and subtle backtracking of his paws indicated that he was equally as startled, but remained calm. Instead of answering his daughter, his gaze dragged to the golden female who's expression had lost all its hostility and now held fear as she lowered her head to Balto as he spoke with a slight edge to his voice. " It seems you have made an error, Vatani. Please, apologize to my daughter. "
The she-wolf seemed only too eager to do as he requested, and closing her eyes, she whispered her apology. Balto' s tone took even more of an edge.
"I don t believe she HEARD you, sister. AGAIN. " Humiliated, Vatani blinked back tears.
"I beg Aleu for forgiveness. I will not make a mistake again."
" You are right, you won' t. Until further notice, you are demoted. Cave cleaner is your task. Let be be said, let it be done."
At his words, her eyes brightened with fury and she growled, shoving her nose up into his face. " HOW DARE YOU! I AM YOUR SISTER! You cannot-"
Balto huffed and threw back his head, aligning it with his shoulders and giving her a stern look of reproach. " Actually, I can do that, Tani. Need I remind you of the rules? NO attack may be lead without my say so. I don t care if they have an entire ARMY, you wait until I arrive. IS. ? " He accompanied this warning with a rippling of muscle and tendon, his eyes turning into slits as he tried to drill that into her. She nodded.
"Yes, brother. Yes. It will be as you say."
" Good. Now leave my sight." When his sister had gone, he looked at Aleu and smiled. "Daughter, what brings you here?" His eyes were soft and warm with adoration as he leapt from rock to rock, ending up in front of her. His eyes twinkled and he gave her a soft ear lick.
"Papa! Not in front of...oh, alright. I guess I'm still your baby." Aleu cleared her throat. "Our land has become inhabitable. A great earthquake shook, destroying most of our hunting grounds and leaving the territory sharp-edged enough to tear our paw pads. There was no cleaning it up. We had decided to leave, but couldn t decide which way to go. Aniu the Great White Wolf came to me in a dream, and told me I needed to head back home. She told of a kingdom called Altacap that would house us. She also gave me news to communicate to the leader Balcorra. Do you know where he reigns? " Her father closed his eyes.
"Yes, I know where he reigns. May I introduce to you ...Altacap Clan. And I, well, I go by Balcorra here. This is my homeland. My mother ruled before me, headed by my Precca - my father, Airekane. I left after they were killed, coming back once I ''d returned from my serum run, due to some, eh, some complications with an old member of my clan. I have rule over this region as well as three other domains, though they each have a sovereign to govern the smaller matters. What does the White One warn me of?"
"Wha...what?!" Aleu' s jaw had dropped. "Your rule? Then you are a KING! Why didn t you raise me as a royal? Don t I qualify as such by your daughter?"
He could not meet her gaze. "Yes and no. To be a title-worthy ruler- directly after me- you need a special mark on your right or left forepaw. See?" He lifted his foot, showing a small, off-white moon shape patch of fur, with a circular black part surrounding it on the inside ankle. "Only one royal pup can carry this mark. Sometimes, it takes several litters to gain a marked child. Your brother, Kodiac, had the mark . But when he chose to be a mail-dog; when I allowed him to follow his dream instead of his destiny, the mark faded and won t reappear until your mother conceives again. And it is possible it will not appear until your pups are born, or perhaps one of my siblings pups. It does stay within my bloodline, but it can differ which branch of my blood it chooses. Now, what does the goddess have to tell me this time?"
He sat down, willing to wait. Aleu blinked and tried to process what her father had just unloaded to her abut she shook her head and filed it away for later, deciding the message from Aniu was more important. "She ...uh she talked about something called Shadow Clan she told me to warn Balco- I mean, to warn you about their plan to attack. She told it would be brutal, and that they would go for the ones you are closest to first."
As she finished her message, she glanced up at her father and was a little frightened at his facial expression, which was one of pure hatred. " How dare they! " Balto snarled, swirling his head around, finding a thickly muscled wolf. "Thimbu! Take Pesa and Reld, and go to to him. Tell him we need to talk. TONIGHT. And make sure he understands those terms are not negotiable, under any circumstances. Go now! And hurry back." Off they scattered, when a light grey wolf stepped up.
" Brother, it might be best if some of us, the stronger wolves, take guard. If or when he attacks, the dark wolf will be quick. He is strong, you know that. And if it would please you, perhaps it might be beneficial to allow some of us to take to the woods, near the plain. We could get there quicker, fend the soldiers off. " He bowed low to the king, who stood frozen, his expression stony, yet his gaze far away as if he were in another time and place. "Brother? Balto? Does it please you? "
Balto grumbled and thenn paused, his ears pricking forward a little bit. " Shh. Auroura, I hear something." Slowly, Balto moved toward the southeast entrance. He sniffed the air, then loudly growled, jumping high into the air. Screams and yelps followed. Five minutes later, he dragged a nearly unconscious black wolfess into view.
Vesara. The name was echoed throughout the entire Clan. Balto dropped the female, rippling his muscles as she looked around. "Hello nephew. Pleasure to see you here today." He snorted, waited for her to stand and get her footing.
" Enough. I won t fall to your voice. Why are you here?" She grinned as she slowly shoved herself up, her brown eyes dull from age but at the same time, bright with excitement.
"You are harsh, Nephew. I am only here to give you a message...to give my dear departed sister s' son a message. Those wolves you sent our way? You won' t be seeing them again. Oh, don t worry- we let them live long enough to make their decision of turning. They refused. And Ohoura got your message- he said you will see each other sooner than nightfall. You will see me soon as well. " She grinned, looking over to Aleu.
" Great-niece Aleu. I have heard much about you. The headstrong daughter of the gret Balto, and the even better known Aniu. Pah! My sister wasn't worth much except when she ran her big mouth."
Aleu met the wolf with a frown and tossed her head towards the sky. " Funny, I have heard absolutely nothing about you. "
" My, my. Just as civil as your Precca. You need taught a lesson, young lady!" On that, Vesara shoved Balto into a tree, jumping for the quarter wolf. Balto hit the tree with his shoulder, wincing and getting up quickly, letting out a howl of alarm that had a bit of a snarl mixed in. His drive to protect his daughter caused his feet to move on their own accord, and he threw himself in front of his child.
"Vesara! No, not her!" Balto 's voice erupted, booming off the trees while he grabbed her leg and jerked it back, the motion causing her great pain as the bone splintered between his firm grip and she screamed, turning to look at her newly-broken leg.
"YOU. You've always ruined everything!" She spat, and her ears laid back as she tried to jerk the rest of her body minus her uncooperative leg, towards his throat, but Balto simply side-stepped her pathetic attack and copied her desire, but he grasped her throat with a gentle shake.
" Now, will you leave, or must I kill you?" Balto snapped. She lowered her head, finally admitting his dominance. She knew she could not fight, not in her condition. She probably could not get home with that leg, and once she did, if she did, she would be killed for her failure.
"Kill me. Or they will. Whether I die here or there, it matters not. You'll be evil scum of the earth whether you let me go or not."
Balto's orange eyes widened, clearly not expecting that. He turned to another wolf, the grey one whom had earlier proposed the guards, and quietly gave instruction. "Take her into our prison cells. Keep her there until I decide what to do. Cheyko, Bahbiti, go and search for Themba, Pesa, and Reld. Also, Auroura, both of your ideas are grand. Follow my brothers instructions!" Balto' s eyes slid to his daughter, who stood staring at him with a peculiar expression of halfway awe and halfway fear. He sighed and spoke to her, twitching his tail from left to right in a sign of anxiety. " And you- I had best get you settled down and explain the rest of my story. Come, Daughter."
She was silent, following him into a large cave. As Balto settled down, he looked away from her, actually anywhere but her, and spoke slowly, deliberately. "Alright. Vesara was Aniu' s little sister. When Aniu met the dog she would court and later marry, the entire pack believed it to be a phase and widely ignored it. When she announced that she wished to marry this dog, many were upset that she would muddy her fine blood with his. Though the princess was not the only one to have the opinion of wishing niu's beloved to an early death, she was the only one to act on her anger. Vesara attacked him, for it was against the law to talk to the domesticated race, and though Aniu had gotten that law changed since her and Airekane's courtship, the law to make wolf and dog mateship had not yet been passed through the Council, and so she felt justified, and could not be held fully accountable for her attempt at murder since legally, she was defending a pack law.
Aniu fended her sister off easily, but the anger which was there remained. When the Wolf married, Vesara took matters upon her paws- she tried to kill the King again, and after they were wed it became illegal to act against him in violent manner, no matter how just it might be. The princess was caught and set in a jury. They found her guilty. It grieved Aniu greatly, for she still loved her sister- but she was also afraid of her. Her parents were old, and she knew the loss of a pup would kill them.
So, she held conference, and under the tidings, she set a law upon stone, which could not be bypassed by any future children. She wrote the law, stating very dark or black wolves, of which never existed before, were to be sent out into exile to the Land of the Shadows. There, they would stay until death or their coat changed back into its original color. Magics were at use for this law. You have to know that magics can be at hand for extremely important laws. this law in enacted to this day. If a wolf's coat darkens, and then within a week turns black, it is a sign of some large law broken, mostly murder or treason. I can bypass this law once for each member of the clan, and have done so only once."
His story over, he leaned back against the rock and allowed her to think over all he had said. Aleu pondered this information for a minute.
"Vesara...so, she killed the three? And she is the threat? You seemed to defeat her easily enough, surely Aniu...uhm, I guess, surely Grandmother would not send me here for this!" The word she applied to the White Wolf tasted weird on her tongue, but the sign of respect was a must in the wolf society and Balto's smile of approval warmed her heart and then his long sigh and shake of the head caused her heart to drop.
" No. Since her banishment, her age has grown long. The rule of Shadow Clan- for indeed it is established as a kingdom of old- is led by another, one I fear and hate more the any of the rest. " Balto closed his eyes, unable to watch her face as he said his next words. "My brother, Ohoura. "
Aleu 's jaw dropped. Of all things she could have ever expected, this wan't on her list. Her father was a King? Okay. Someone is out to kill her father? Well, somebody better get to protecting the clan! His mother had used dark magic to outcast any murderous wolves in her land during a time when darkness ruled her father's clan? Alrighty. Her father's own brother doing something awful to make the most famous dog in Noma afraid of him? Unheard of, she couldn't cope with it. As she battled this information, her father went on speaking and she forced herself to pay attention.
" It s a royal secret, a shame to the family. We keep it hidden as well as we can. I let him go the first time, after he killed my first...my first family. I didn' t have the heart to turn him away. I loved him so, and I forgave him. For, mistakes can be made. But his next kill was no mistake. He killed our own dsister, just to weakenen the Clan in hopes he could take it over. I will never forgive him for that."
She opened her mouth to speak when a golden male wolf stuck his head in the cave. "Pardon me, brother. But Kodiac 's race begins in five minutes. You don 't want to miss it. "
Balto nodded and smiled as the wolf left. " Thank you, Varronk. I need to scoot, Aleu. Your aunt Rousen and uncle Kahdi will help you and yours get settled in. As soon as I can, I'll be back and explain everything else. God knows I have a lot to tell you." He turned to leave.
"Papa? How many siblings do you have? " He chuckled. "Oh, twelve, seventeen, fifty; something around those numbers. "
A darker brown wolf sporting a dark grey diamond between her brow snorted as she entered and gently shoved him. "Old fool! There are seven counting you and you know it!" Rousen, the female, chided lovingly. "Now go on and hustle your tail to the starting line, Sire. "
He laughed, tossing a look closely resembling one of a pup's to his daughter and gave her one last nuzzle before getting up and exiting the cave, his shout echoing off the walls as he headed towards Nome. " This is what I have to put up with!"
He faded out of sight and into the snow. Aleu watched him go and as she got up to tour her new home, all she could think about was the heavy feeling of dread in her stomach as her father got farther and farther away.
A/N: This is my official theory on Balto. It will cover as much as I can think of from his past, and to why he was so protective of Aleu, to his future. I hope you guys will grow to love this theory. See ya'll later! 3