Chapter 2: Shadow Ranger
The dreams of Steele's were passing through as he was sheltered in the humble cave in Alaskan wastelands. None of the dreams he was having had any meaning at all. They only served to make his time pass on. Even Steele himself in the sleep seemed bored of having such pointless dreams.
"We're going, come on!" The shouting pierced from the distance and started echoing in the caves, causing some snow from the bush branches to descend into the cave and splat down just few feet away from Steele's head. Despite that snow hitting the ground was pretty silent, Steele was awaken by it. He just looked at the snow on the cave ground until he had finally heard the echoes.
"Is Shira... leaving?" Steele thought to himself, because the voice could only belong to an adult female dog and no one else actually. Curious by Shira's echoes, Steele got on his fours, a bit harder as the headache was still piercing through, albeit it had ceased a bit during the night. Taking an each step carefully to get outside to see what was happening, he could have heard Shira's voice, saying: "For crying out loud, Tayer, don't make this any harder!"
Upon hearing that voice, Steele rushed to get out of the cave and he scrapped himself a bit while ascending from the tight entrance. Much to his delight, none of the wounds sustained from the fall got opened, allowing Steele to move on. As he was now on surface, he could have spotted Shira and the four puppies from the distance, prompting Steele to take cover in the nearest bush to make sure Shira would not spot him, since she believed Steele was actually dead.
Peeking through the bush, he could see Shira looking at Tayer angrily, who was standing in front of her whereas the other three puppies, Tayer's siblings Taiga, Rodney and Sarah, were behind Shira's paws. Since he couldn't hear what Tayer said as Steele was getting out of the cave, he could notice Taiga getting close to Tayer and actually growling at him, eventually pinning the youngest one on his back. The way Taiga did that wasn't a kiddish way, but genuinely menacing as he could have spotted fear in Tayer's eyes when Taiga had subdued him. Then, he just nodded, possibly responding to Shira's question before Taiga got off her younger brother.
"You have showed your brother why opposing your father is not a good idea." Shira said to Taiga, who headed back to her and earned a stroke on her head for literally frightening her youngest brother. She nodded with her head to move on as they were going to search for a better shelter or something, as this one didn't deem too safe. Steele, who watched all that happening, smiled in approval and pleasure as Shira made sure his name kept getting honored. After a few minutes, when it was made clearly sure they were gone, Steele followed then, slowly, but steadily.
Their search for the another shelter wasn't just a walk in the park, but a rather good way to exercise the walk in the wild. None of the puppies nor Shira knew that they were being followed by someone they considered as deceased. The only one who didn't seem pained by Steele's demise was Tayer in fact. However, he couldn't have shown his joy for so or the consequences would be terrible for a two-month old husky/malamute hybrid. Then, after an hour, which seemed like the entire day, they have found a larger vacant cave where to shelter themselves for some time.
"Alright, now that your father is no more... the one who claimed his life, the dirty mutt named Balto... who feasts on the undeserving praise, caused by the fear he oozes, is the one we are going to retaliate at. But of course, you can't do it as puppies." Shira said to her puppies, who despite being just two months old, didn't seem to be shocked, except for Tayer of course, that they were actually going to retaliate on someone when they were going to be old enough. Taiga, Rodney and Sarah actually deemed to be ready to avenge their father, but they lacked the fighting skills.
"Mama, is this training going to be hard for us?" The younger daughter, Sarah, asked her mother. The tone of hers, despite sounding pretty innocent at first, was hiding the desire for a vengeance considering the fact that they considered Steele deceased and that the mutt called Balto was enjoying the glory just like that.
"No, sweetie, as long as you listen to my instructions, all of you..." Shira continued talking to her puppies, darting Tayer with her look, who deemed pretty frightened by her look. Even his siblings darted him with their menacing looks. He couldn't do anything but to obey what his mother was saying. "...the training is going to be smooth as silk."
At that moment, Steele got to realize that Shira had taken the matters in her own paws completely and that she was going to make sure her pups were going to be fierce like a fight dogs, only that they didn't have to rely on humans, but on themselves. Thus, in his honor, the enemy of his was going to be taken down for his good and his glory was going to spread all across the generations on his own desire. Before taking a rest to the nearest den, Steele grinned with a fierce-lusting joy, muttering: "Your days are numbered soon, lobo. Sooner than you'd really expect."
As Shira kept her words to be true in the terms of training her pups, she did. Over the course of the next few months, her pups were growing up with an astonishing rate due to their fathers' malamute blood, even Tayer. However, he was the weakest of the four and due to his refusal to avenge his father, he was the victim of his family abusing, only helping his siblings to gain on strength, even Shira.
Steele watched the training Shira had been giving to them and was more than satisfied that their pups were really good at the training, except for Tayer. Bearing no feelings towards his youngest son, nor did anyone else in the family, Steele didn't feel a thing that his youngest son was frequently abused, but was rather satisfied by it. Speaking of Steele, his wounds were recovering and no longer he had to suffer the headache or backache. He was recovering slowly and steadily, enabling him to run again, though he wasn't as fast as he used to be years ago. Not to mention that he was skinnier than usual, with his skin and fur hanging off his belly, as if he was suffering from some kind of illness.
Then, it was around the spring of 1930, with Steele's pups being around nine months old. As they were husky/malamute hybrids, they were as tall as the regular huskies and of course, shorter than regular Alaskan malamutes. Their fur was thick for a malamute, so were their heads. On the other paw, their bodies were built for huskies and even their tails weren't curling up to the bodies, but lowered down, just like Shira's.
Then, the decisive morning came to be, with Steele listening to them nearby...
"This is it, this is the day we are going to avenge your father." Shira talked to them, marching as if she was some kind of the general of some army. Taiga, Rodney, Sarah and Tayer were standing in line next to her. The older three ones all had cold and determined looks, whereas Tayer looked pretty nervous in this kind of the environment. He couldn't do a thing to oppose them, being the weakest. "And remember, if someone attacks you, you strike back!"
"Understood, mother!" Rodney said in the same of his siblings, with Taiga and Sarah nodding in approval, whereas Tayer nodded out of fear. Rodney seemed to be the most muscular out of all four of them and was a pretty tough dog to fight against. "The mutt called Balto is finally regret for taking the life of our great father!"
"Good, very good. Now let's go at once!" Shira commanded to them. The oldest three nodded in an approval, following their mother, even Tayer did. However, his looks were saying: "What have I done to do such an atrocity to someone who supposedly saved my family?!" Shira had to slow down to let Tayer go in front so she could make sure her youngest son wasn't trying to escape. None of the family members felt any kind of compassion towards their "enemy". When they were far enough, Steele had finally used his chance to make a run for it and follow his family to his birthplace - Nome.
As they left in dawn, the purplish-green sky was shifting colors to orange, yellow and as the sun started peeking behind the mountains on the east, the sky was shifting to blue. As Shira and her company stopped several times, so had Steele, making sure his family would do a dirty work for him in the most blatant way possible. Soon enough, when they went through the pine forest, from where they could hear the water in the distance, Steele knew where they were - that forest was the forest that led to the town of Nome.
But, considering the fact that Shira believed Steele was dead, he could have presumed that the word in the town spread about Steele's supposed demise. He decided to spy from the distance, by taking the shelter in the bush that had a very good view on the sole town. From there, he could have seen his mate and the pups entering Nome. Before they disappeared behind the buildings, Steele could have noticed Tayer making a run for it in the town by going into the another alley.
"You really think that your escape in the town is going to work, prick?!" Steele insulted his son as quietly as possible, not wanting to attract the unnecessary attention in the forest, considering the fact that any kind of animal was here and even humans could be hunting in there. But, as he went silent, there was some kind of voice in the distance, behind him. At first, he thought it could have been a moose, challenging a rival for a fight, so that didn't concern him too much.
"Is someone in there? I ask again!" The voice was heard again. That definitely couldn't have belonged to the moose because the voice... as if it belonged to the teenage canine, male one considerably. To make sure he wouldn't attract any more of unnecessary attraction, Steele, with his stealth skills, slowly turned his head behind, to see who was saying that. No one was there... or at least it seemed so. When Steele thought that he could move freely again, he spotted the young gray wolf coming.
The wolf... it couldn't have been one year old... but it was around the same age as his pups. His fur was gray, like a rainy cloud on a pretty wet day. His underbelly was apricot-like, looking smooth and it even felt like as if it was smooth on touch. His eyes were green as they freshly dug-out emeralds in the mountain mines. What was bothering Steele at the moment was that the young male wolf was approaching the place he was hiding and even the wolf didn't notice who was there.
Keeping his breath to make sure the young wolf was going to leave, the time slowed down drastically, as if the seconds were as long as the years. Just few feet away, the wolf stopped and started searching the area, wondering who could have been there. But then, much to Steele's delight, the another wolf ran into the clearing. That one was older than the gray one, old enough to be the gray wolf's father. His fur was as brown as the core of the pine trees. His underbelly matched the same color as his son's fur. Even more surprising - they both had the similar eyes. But what was the most surprising thing regarding the wolf was that... Steele knew who that brown wolf was.
"Denahi, that goodness you're here." The brown wolf said, exhausting in relief, causing Steele to exhaust some of the air he exhaled earlier, without any of the two wolves noticing someone was in the bush. The older wolf seemed rather panicked and rushed, whereas the younger one was quite confused and surprised by his sudden appearance. "We have a trouble in the town - a female dog named Shira, along with her four pups, are the family of the dog who had kidnapped you when you were younger. Your grandfather Balto might be in danger."
"Hold on, dad... how's that possible?!" Denahi, the younger gray wolf, asked his father in an utter shock. However, his father's looks let him know that there was no more time to explain to him how and why it all happened. He knew what he had to do this instant - gather his siblings and get to the crisis spot to make sure no further tensions would escalate. "I shall be right back!"
"Hurry!" His father said, with the mixture of shock and rush. Knowing that his pups could get closer to Nome, as they were growing up in the old boat on the beach till they moved to the forest just three months ago, the wolf returned to the outskirts to the town, wondering what could have happened at that moment. Standing still in the bush, he connected the dots in his head to realize who that wolf was - Kenai, the mate of Balto's eldest pup Aleu, who had sandy-gray fur and tan underbelly, inherited from both of her parents at the same time, having ocean blue eyes and wearing a blue bandanna, a gift from both of Kenai and Aleu's mother - Jenna, the purebred Siberian husky with scarlet red fur, amber brown eyes and orange bandanna around her neck.
As the minutes went on, Steele heard some more movement behind him. Taking a short peek to make sure he remained unseen from the others, he spotted the group of four young wolves running towards the beach. One of them was as sandy gray as Aleu, the other one was as brown as Kenai, then there was Denahi, the gray one. At first, he couldn't have spotted the fourth wolf, but once the fourth wolf was seen running with the beach in the background, he winced in awe when he found out that wolf was white! For a moment, he didn't actually know if that wolf was there or not, as all three or four of them were gone on the beach, near the town.
The minutes prolonged, deeming like weeks. More Steele was waiting in the bush, noticing some kind of the heated argument in the distance, he was questioning himself if there was going to be any kind of face-off between Shira and Balto, as he spotted his archenemy arguing heatedly with Shira. Then, both of them stopped, just stopped. Steele raised his head in the anticipation that the fight was going to ensue. But the fight... didn't happen.
It just didn't... the other dogs that were seen by Balto's side started returning to the town of Nome, whereas Shira and her four pups, were heading back to the forest. Tayer didn't know if what just had happened was a good thing or a bad thing. The others... seemed quite disappointed that no fight was even taking place. But at the same time, their looks showed as if they were trying to say: "This isn't over yet!"
"That mutt had too many on his side, and we're only four of them!" Taiga, the older daughter of Steele and Shira, hissed in anger as they were passing near the spot where Steele was hiding from the others. Steele calculated in his head what was Taiga saying - the fight was going to happen, but that was the thing for the other time instead. He realized that Balto had too many dogs on his side against Shira and the pups. But as they were about to be gone of his sight, he could hear Taiga saying: "And have you seen Tayer? He must have fallen in love with that mutt's granddaughter!"
Following these words, the laughter echoed in the forest and Taiga, Rodney and Sarah were the ones who were laughing actually. As Steele had finally got out of his spiky cover, he silently and stealthily followed them for the next hour or two. Did he hear it right? His son Tayer being in love with Balto's granddaughter?! The thought of his descendant being in love with the member of family from his archenemy utterly disgusted him. And what were the chances he was going to be with her again? "Not a chance that he shall be with someone who's lobo's member of family." He growled.
Over the course of the next few weeks, Shira didn't end with training her pups, hoping that if they were going to face off against their "enemy", they had to make sure that Balto was going to be alone or with a very minimal protection. Steele supervised their training and kept hoping that the day his archenemy was going to be finished off for his good. But, the trainings were getting impossible to do because Tayer was rebelling. He refused to participate into that kind of mission, knowing that Steele's story couldn't have been right. For his rebellion, he was suffering some more abuse.
Then, it just happened... just when it seemed that the training was going to pay off well... Tayer made a run for it. Even Steele could have noticed that, as he was hiding nearby. Tayer couldn't stand it anymore, the abuse, the suppression and so... it just made him run for it. While running for it, he yelled back to his family, who were surprised by his running: "I am not going to do that kind of dirty business for hatred!"
Steele had heard every single word of it. Now he could have heard how much his own son detested him and even worse... he was going to ruin his mission! He should do something, immediately, to make sure his son wouldn't blow something. But before he could run for it, he heard a stampede. Taking a quick look, he saw Taiga, Rodney and Sarah running after him, with Shira staying behind. He heard Taiga commanding to his younger siblings saying: "Once we catch him, he's gonna be in our clutches permanently!"
That gave Steele enough chance to make a run after his other pups when Shira wasn't looking or even paying attention. The run was as fast as flash, done in merely few minutes. With his pups in distance, he saw that they were still after Tayer. Then, his pups just stopped, all three of them. What were they thinking? Their youngest sibling was making a run for it and they let him go? Hiding to the nearest cover behind the bushes, Steele sneaked pretty slowly to the spot where his other three pups were standing. There, he could see his daughter Taiga's face turning from angry to evilly satisfying. There he heard his pups saying:
"Are you sure we just let him go?! Mom is going to be so angry at us, Taiga!"
"But think about it, he is nowhere else welcome, Sarah. Sooner or later, he shall return to us and accept the mission."
"And what if he runs to his girlfriend... what's her name?"
"Galena is the name of his girlfriend, Rodney. But what if her parents don't accept him?"
"Sooooo... that's what Tayer has in mind, love..." Steele thought to himself, being disgusted by that thought. But at the same time, Steele realized what that could have meant. If by any means necessary Tayer would get accepted to the town... then THAT would be the way how Steele's family could get to Balto and avenge him. His face turned slowly from disgusted to evilly satisfying look. Then, he heard three of his pups returning to Shira. Even that he hated the idea of his son being with his enemy's granddaughter, their relationship would make the entire mission better.
Later on, Shira found out what had happened and while he was angry that they let Tayer escape, she did consider that Tayer was going to return, with the change of mind that he would dearly participate in this mission. For now, they had one other assignment to do - have the team trapped in the avalanche and let Balto come to the rescue, thus the ambush would prove itself successful. They just needed to know what sled team was going to be there. The entire plan, as diabolical as it sounded, was just making Steele behaving more lustful, that the day couldn't get any better.
But... the day just went downhill just like that, for them. How could the perfect plan like that go wrong? Going back sometime ago... Taiga, Rodney and Sarah were in the position, with Shira looking from behind and Steele looking from the distance. The three young dogs were observing from the top what team was going to run down on their way to Nome. The team was led by Dingo, Balto's middle son with plum red fur and solid blue eyes, along with his mate Dana, the red-brown female husky with bright blue eyes. When one of the sled-dogs, Yukon, Dingo's older brother, the dark red husky with hazel-brown eyes, tripped on the rock peeking from the snow, his harness just snapped in two pieces, sending the husky down the shallow ravine.
To make sure his fall was the trigger for the avalanche, the three siblings on the top of the cliff found the nearest boulder and with their strength, pushed it down the ravine on the other side. Without any problems, the boulder went down the ravine and caused several banging sounds, loud enough to trigger the ground shaking and snow rapidly descending down the sled-trail. Yukon remained behind as Dingo and the others made a run for it. But they couldn't make it in time... the cruelty of the mother nature was faster than the group of the sled dogs, thus snowing them under.
Balto could have showed there, rescuing his sons. However, Yukon managed to avoid being snowed under and cried desperately for the help. Did he really think that standing just there and crying for help would work, all he had is to call his father to the rescue and unintentionally lead his father to demise. But that didn't happen. It just didn't. As Yukon was making a run for it... Tayer showed up out of nowhere on the trail, with the next thing he was doing was... rescuing Dingo, Dana and the others from the team! Steele watched in rage how his own son was rescuing the members of "lobo"'s family. To add more salt to the wound, Tayer was later assisted by Galena, the plum red husky with blue collar, along with the brown-red male husky and the brownish gray husky. Could these be Dingo's pups? In the matter of the tens of minutes, the rescue came and much to Steele's shock and surprise - he followed the rescuers to Nome!
"I don't think that Shira is going to love this..." Steele said to himself, searching for the cliff where his other three pups were. He spotted them talking to each other, but since he was too far, he couldn't know what they were speaking to each other. Then they left, but he could have sworn that he saw one of the lustful looks on his pups' faces. Were they thinking what Steele was thinking. That prompted him to think: "...but if Tayer does live in Nome now, that means one thing - Shira is going to finish his mission quicker than expected."
Over the course of the next few months, Steele could have seen that his son was now more than welcome in town. Making his short trips to look at the town of Nome, his thoughts of Tayer being with Galena turned out to be entirely true - they were dating each other! Not only that he was dating "lobo"'s granddaughter, but he also made it into Dingo's team and the sled team he was in was not just any. It was his former's team - because he could recognize the musher, the same one Steele lived with before being exiled to the wild. His son was wearing a brown collar, which was as brown as the collar he used to wear. But there was one thing that mattered to Steele - Shira's mission was turning more and more successful as the time went on.
Then, that day had come, after a several months since the last avalanche incident... the event that'd trigger the chain reaction. And it all started with the another avalanche, trapping Kodi's team, Balto's youngest son with dark red fur with brown eyes, similar to his own father, in the cave. The word had spread as fast as light all the way to Nome thanks to Aleu's younger son Denahi who had seen everything. Much to Steele's delight, Balto was going to the rescue!
"Shira, wherever you are, I wish you could see this... he's yours!" Steele whispered to himself, full of evil joy and malice, seeing his enemy going to the rescue, as if it was too good to be true. He did have some of the company with himself, such as Tayer, Dingo and his family, Aleu and her family and some others. Observing their physique, Steele calculated in his own head that most of his companions weren't skilled in fighting. This could be the greatest day of his life!
Except... it wasn't...
The rescuers were digging out the trapped sled team as fast as they could, with Steele watching in pure malice how Balto's time was coming to the end in his perspective. While the rescuers were having pawful of business, Steele could have spotted four black canines peeking out of the forest, only to stand in the middle of the sled trail. No doubts, it was none other else than Steele's family, awaiting for "lobo" to turn around and meet his demise. And Balto did turn around, the same moment when the team was ready to move on back to Nome.
Instead of his enemy's demise, something went quite downhill... as Shira and her daughters were getting dangerously close to Balto and some of his aides, Rodney attacked them first, attacking the black dog who couldn't have been Tayer, as the dog Rodney had attacked had gray underbelly. Tayer noticed that Rodney was attacking the innocent companion and just out of blue, Tayer attacked his older brother. Shira, Taiga, Sarah and the others just watched in shock, as well as Steele did, but the anger started brewing inside him.
"GET OFF MY SON, YOU PRICK!" Steele hissed in the utter rage as Rodney was trying to swing Tayer off him. But due to his uncontrollable swinging and the strength, that caused both of them to slip and Rodney hit something in the snow with his head. Upon the impact, Tayer was still on his paws. But Rodney wasn't. He stopped moving and kept laying on his side. Shira rushed to her son, shaking him to see if he was alive. And then, in the next moment, she furiously hissed at Tayer, who watched the entire scenario in a pure shock and horror. Just a second or two later, Tayer made a run for it in the wild, without anyone following him. Shira growled at Balto before he and his companions, along with Kodi's team, went by all the way back to Nome.
"Rodney... my son..." Steele panted in a very furious fashion, looking at Shira and her daughters as they were desperately trying to bring Rodney to his senses. Much to their surprise, Steele spotted Rodney stirring in the distance and even the females gasped as if the miracle happened out of nowhere. Rodney, shaking himself off, got carefully on all of his fours and was carefully embraced by the ones who surrounded him, before all four of them returned to the forest. Steele exhaled a lot in relief as his older son was alright. But the anger inside him was brewing as Tayer was on the run again. Turning around, back to the dense forest, Steele said to himself once again: "When I find Tayer, he's going to wish he was never born!"
Bearing his claws and observing how sharp they were, Steele watched in rage how could that little prick, who was his younger son, attack his older brother. Knowing that he might possibly destroy the entire operation, Steele started running as fast as he could, wanting to know where his younger son is... and make him pay for what he had done. When he got in the little clearing in the forest, he looked around to see where Tayer could have been. It took him a few minutes to spot a black blur running in the distance, deeper into the forest.
Scoffing furiously, Steele got down easily, despite him being healed fully. Some of his wounds were at the risk of opening again if the pressure was applied too much. Minutes have gone through and Steele was back in the forest again. But as the forest trail in here was thick, he needed to use his head to find a more cleaner spot, where Tayer could have run very likely before.
Making his way through, he noticed that the night was falling, with the blue sky changing through the dark blue till the pitch black, without any stars. It was snowing, as he had spotted numerous snowflakes descending to the ground. Despite that, Steele made his way to the clearing, spotting how the snowflakes were covering Tayer's trails. However, that didn't prevent his father to use his nose to sniff the scent of his. It wasn't the freshest scent to catch, but it was a relatively fresh to Steele. "You may run, but once I get you, you won't have anywhere else to go!"
Running and following the scent at the same time, Steele could have felt what amount of malice was getting inside him. He enjoyed it, every bit of it. But as he was going to make it to the east, where Tayer's scent was going, he heard someone running from the west. Not wanting to engage into any kind of fight, Steele took a cover behind the tree and the bush to see who that was. Peeking to see it better, he saw Galena, as he recognized her by her plum red fur and blue collar. He also managed to see the tears streaming down her cheeks out of desperation. When she was gone, in search of her boyfriend, Steele grinned in an utter cruelty, saying: "Go ahead, find that prick of my son, you'll both freeze to death!"
"GALENA! GALENA!" Two additional voices were heard, prompting Steele to back up to his cover. These voices didn't seem much familiar to him, but as soon as he saw who were the ones yelling her name, he could have spotted two young male huskies, one being red-brown and the other one being brownish-gray. Suddenly, like a flash, the memory came to Steele and he realized that these two were wtih Galena and Tayer, who was rescuing Dingo from the avalanche. Furthermore, Steele kept saying: "How cute, two of your brothers searching for you, only to find her frozen with her love, as well as you two are going to be!"
Still, he couldn't get out of his cover. Someone else was coming, as Steele could have heard someone running in the distance. Not wanting to risk anything, he was hidden once again behind the tree. This time, Steele spotted Dingo running to the east. Knowing that was Balto's son, Steele's evil joy just raised inside him, knowing that if Dingo would freeze in the wild, that would have been the penultimate tragedy to Balto. To make sure no one was going to come, Steele ran silently behind Dingo, who kept saying: "What have I done?! WHAT HAVE I DONE!?"
"Destroyed by the guilt, lobo's son?" Steele thought to himself. He desperately wanted to telepathically say that to Dingo, so that Dingo's troubles would increase and eventually, he'd meet his demise to get to his father. But he didn't say anything, because no one knew he was alive, absolutely no one. He decided to let Dingo bolt ahead and ditch his mission to punish Tayer, letting them to freeze to death instead. Instead, he was going to look how Shira was going to finish Balto off once and for all. Question was... when it was going to happen? And where could it take place?
With that thinking, more voices were coming and Steele could have sworn that he had never heard these before. Trying to stay hidden, Steele spotted a small cave nearby and as it seemed quite empty, he took a cover there. He needed it, as the snow out there was getting stronger and stronger, turning into the blizzard. From there, he spotted two wolves, being dark gray and both of them looked quite messy, yet they were both snickering about something. Did these two see him?!
"Looks like we couldn't catch the little girl... Gale is her name?" One of the wolves asked the another, knowing that the blizzard prevented them from following her. The other scratched himself behind the ear and muttered: "I'd say Lena. But say... this gives me the idea!"
"What idea?!" The first wolf asked, with this tongue hanging out of his mouth. It looked like as if he actually knew what he meant, but decided to remain silent just as long as the surprise seemed relatively fresh.
"Here's the thing. Since Shira wants that mutt to be brought to her so she can finish him off, we tell her that she fakes Gale... or Lena's kidnapping and the mutt will come to his sweet granddaughter, only to find out it was a trap!" The second wolf explained to his companion relatively shortly, with the both laughing diabolically and the first wolf nodded, finding the ideas as awesome as possible, before both returned from they had come.
"That is a great idea! Lobo is not going to make it out this time!" Steele thought to himself very diabolically, knowing that if Balto was going to claim Galena, he was going to be done for once and for all. So he had a new goal: Watch Shira finishing Balto off in any way possible and if she was going to throw him to his death, Steele was going to show up to him in the last moments of his life, re-claiming his glory! These diabolical things in his mind kept circulating as Steele was preparing himself for the sleep.
The plan of the two wolves worked... Balto decided to go to Shira and to reclaim Galena, risking his life in the process... but he was not going there alone... all the dogs of Nome was going to go with him, but Nikki, Kaltag and Star, for some reasons...
Just two days after Tayer's escape to the wild, Shira, who managed to make a short pact with the wolves, the same ones Steele had seen while hiding in the cave, only with more of them this time, was awaiting, along with Taiga, Rodney and Sarah, for Balto to show up. That was the moment for the wretched joy of his family. Once Balto was going to show up and to realize Galena was not there, he was going to be no more from then on. Steele, who was below the cliffs of that pack, noticed the stalagmites peeking from the snowy ground. That made him think the following - if Shira was going to toss Balto to his death, his life was going to officially end on these spiked stalagmites, further expanding Steele's murderlusting joy.
"Shira!" The yelling was heard from above and Steele perked his ears above. It was "lobo", arriving to Shira's den with the wolves, to claim his granddaughter back. Steele started laughing in himself as the trap was going to happen and as soon as he heard the evil laugh from above, Steele fell on the ground and he himself started laughing in pure evilly joy. THIS was going to be the moment of his life, the sole peak he'd been awaiting for a long time!
Then, the hissing and the growing was heard above, following with some yelping. That meant one thing - the great fight was taking place above and all that mattered to him was when Balto was going to be thrown to his death and that'd be Steele's biggest joy of the life. Just then, out of sudden, Balto was on the edge of the cliff and much to Steele's pleasure, he was hanging on the edge, making the malamute below to widen his eyes out of the cruelty. That moment was finally coming and now no one could save the "lobo", not even after spotting the black female husky, his mate, Shira, bearing her claws out.
"Come on, come on, Shira! You can do this! End the life of that mutt once and FOR ALL!" Steele almost yelled that out loud. His archenemy being close to the gates of the death made Steele pant out of the murderlusting joy and malice. But before Shira was about to claw Balto's paws to cause his fall...
"MOM! NO!" The yelling was heard in the distance and that sound ended Steele's cruel panting. Just as he was going to have the biggest victory of his life, it all stopped. From the malice, Steele's face turned into furious as he knew whose voice that was - Tayer's! Hoping that Shira was going to repel him as usual, Steele just said: "What are you waiting for?! Finish him!"
But Shira didn't do what Steele was hoping for. Hearing more voices in the distance, he watched how Shira's furious look was turning into a nervous and emotional one. Instead of focusing on her mission, Shira suddenly got the emotional breakdown and the tears were streaming down her face. Looking with her teary eyes towards Balto, she looked behind few times before... grabbing Balto by his neck scruff and pulling him to the safety!
"NOOOOOO! SHIRA!" Steele yelled out of the rage, not believing that this entire moment he had been anticipating for a very long time... did not happen, just as if the plan was going to work! He could not believe it, he just could not. Long he had been awaiting to send his archenemy to his death and after being presumed dead, he believed that his family was going to finish what he could not. Slamming into the tree with the utter rage, he just could not believe that Shira helped Steele's archenemy.
After Steele was exhaling and inhaling the cold winter air out of the rage, he heard the stampede of the wolves in the distance. Leveling his head up to find where could that stampede be coming from, he saw the wolves running from the cliff above, with the fear in their eyes. These were the wolves who helped Shira and there were two of them whom he saw two days, or better to say, nights ago. Wanting to know what was happening, Steele rushed through the trees and bushes to find out.
Jumping out of the bushes, he managed to pin one of the wolves on his back after ramming him by his side. The wolf, despite looking fierce, was much, much weaker in comparison to Steele himself. He realized that pushing Steele's paws off him to run after his packmates was not going to work, he had the another paw put on his throat by Steele, who looked at the wolf with the utter disgust. He just asked this:
"What happened up there and why did Shira help the "lobo"?!"
"Who are you to ask me?!"
"WHO IS ASKING THE QUESTIONS?! ME OR YOU!? SPEAK NOW!"
"Shira has double-crossed the entire pack of ours, telling us that if we help her in finishing the mutt called Bolto... or Balto... I don't know! That she is going to reward us! She had him and as she was going to throw he mutt off the cliff, her little pup Tayer came in the last moment!"
"WHAT DID HE WANT?!" Steele yelled at the wolf in the rage that was at the peak of the boiling. His youngest son being alive despite his hopes for him to freeze to death... He should have found him and punished him instead.
"He came with some of the companions, mostly red and gray. There were three others, one small and purple, one fat and brown, one skinny and yellow! Tayer, Teyer... I don't really know his name! He said something to Shira, about the story of the medicine and saving humans with the help of these three others! Suddenly, she started crying and saved that mutt, then she turned on us and more of our enemies attacked, so that's why we are running away!"
"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Steele hissed and spat on the wolf's face as he was released from Steele's tight grip, following the scent of his packmates. Looking at the cliff where Shira was, Steele was now panting as the rage inside him was boiling out of the control. He couldn't have taken it anymore, he just growled loudly as it echoed for miles and miles. The enite mission to have his archenemy killed... failed. But it wasn't Balto whom he had in mind, but...
"Wait till that bugger Tayer sees me! I AM GOING TO MAKE HIM PAY FOR THIS!" Steele yelled in the anger, seeing how his youngest pup destroyed everything. Now his entire family was on Balto's side. As Steele sat on the spot for like it seemed for hours, Steele's eyes were getting reddish as he had one thing in mind - finish Tayer off first! But for now... he needed some break... and decided to move on with his current goal later on...
