Dingo's Tale III: For the Love of Family
Chapter III – 4 Days Left
April 13, 1927 11:30 a.m.
Cantwell Caves, South Alaska
Balto and Dingo made their way further into the cave system, which progressively got darker the further they went into the cave, "Damn, can't see a thing down here! Dingo, you still behind me?" Balto asked, "Yeah dad, right here. Maybe we can check the vest for something?" Dingo suggested. "That'd be a good idea, but the only things we have in here is 3 bottles of water, some bandages and some leftovers from an MRE from the looks of it." Balto said. "Wait, don't Rations come with some emergency matches? Maybe we can use those if we can strike it without burning our mouth." Dingo said, "Good idea, let's see what we have here….yup, looks like you were right, there are 2 matches left, but I can't find the striker." Balto said, "Hey, maybe we can use the ground, it's made of rock, it's worth a shot." Dingo said, Balto agreed and slid the match across the ground, and not even a second later, the two could see each other's faces. "Whew, glad it's you, not that Ryo guy. Speaking of Ryo, where is he?" Balto asked, "I hope not anywhere near us, a fight in the dark would be suicide, especially with his strength. Plus we don't know if there's a hole or something that we can fall in while we're fighting." Dingo said. "True, we had better just stay quiet and keep the light to a minimum." Balto said. Dingo agreed and the two progressed further into the cave system, Balto came to a halt not even a full minute later, "Whoa whoa, there's a cliff straight ahead, we need to try going to the left or right." Balto said, "Good thing we were going slowly, otherwise we could have fallen in a hole or lake." Dingo said, Balto walked to the right and Dingo to the left, neither led anywhere. "Dingo, let me see that last match." Balto said, Dingo agreed and stuck the last match and gave it to Balto, who threw it across the unknown hole, the light trailed behind and revealed a lake, which led to what looked like an Exit, "Dingo, you up for more swimming?" Balto asked, "Uhh….I'd rather not, but if it's that only way then we're going to have to." Dingo said, "Alright, you ready for a swim?" Balto asked, "Yup, let's go." Dingo said, Balto nodded and jumped into the lake, Dingo following behind, "I can't see jack crap down here, *choke* time to head to the surface!" Dingo thought to himself, swimming towards the surface, both came up at the same time, "*cough* You good Dingo?" Balto asked, "I'm fine, but jeez this water is cold!" Dingo said. "Well, get used to it, we have a little bit left to go, look ahead, there's a little bit of light coming from the exit!" Balto said, "Oh yeah, follow the light I suppose?" Dingo asked, "Yup, and hurry, I have a bad feeling about what's up ahead." Balto said, "What do you mean?" Dingo asked, "I don't know, it's just one of those feelings ya know?" Balto said, "I guess that makes sense?" Dingo said.
The two swam towards the exit to the cave and climbed up to the ledge, "Ugh, I guess old age is catching up to me." Balto said, "Not to mention those shots in your leg, and the bruises from the fights with the Wolverines and Ryo." Dingo said, "Don't remind me, let's just go." Balto said. As the two made their way towards the exit to the cave, it was no exit, but something else. "This is no exit to the city, this is a meeting place! It looks like another wolf clan!" Dingo whispered, "No kidding, and guess who's leader, Ryo." Balto said. Dingo took another look and sure enough, Ryo was giving a speech to his clan, possibly about them. "As I have been in this town, we have a group of trespassers into our city! They have killed off Master Johnson and his mate Mistress Jane, they were our leaders and our information provisions. While they were not part of our clan, they were still our outside Allies, and we will not let this stand, twice now I have tasted bitter defeat, and I will not stand for it!" Ryo said, "Looks like we don't have to worry about him, but now that we know he has an Army, we can't do anything on our own, we need extra help." Balto said, "Agreed, but where can we get extra help? I for sure don't know anyone in this town, do you?" Dingo asked, "I think I might, we'll have to go back through town to get in touch though." Balto said, "Who is it?" Dingo asked, "His name is Blake, he's a good guy, he has two dogs, a Doberman named Diego and a pit bull named Farrah. Balto said. "Great, so where can we find him?" Dingo asked. "He's back in Cantwell, he lives in the outskirts of the town, we'll be able to find him pretty easily, he lives in a blue house with a black mailbox." Balto said. "Alright, let's head back to town and hopefully no one notices us." Dingo said, "Agreed, but first I want to listen in further into the speech." Balto said, Dingo shrugged and laid low. "…and with that, we will defeat them! Along with their entire family and friends!" Ryo said, the group howling and barking in excitement, one wolf however, caught sight of Dingo, "Hey! Who goes there?" the wolf shouted. "Crap! They saw us, quickly, crawl through before the see who we are!" Balto shout-whispered. Dingo and Balto crawled back to the lake and jumped back into the lake, "How do we get back up? It seems the only way back is through the speech room." Dingo said, "Damn, you're right, that was at least a 15 foot jump from that ledge into the water, there's got to be a secret way out somewhere!" Balto said, looking around. More light came into the lake, then three wolves with torches walked into the room and set them into the frames where just enough light shined to a tunnel leading to another room, "Quick, dad! Through that underwater tunnel!" Dingo said, "Good catch son, go underwater so they have a worse chance of seeing us, take a deep breath!" Balto said, taking a deep breath, they went underwater to the tunnel, though they were not fast enough and one of the wolves caught sight of them, "There they are! Sound the Alarm!" One of the wolves shouted, suddenly, an alarm raised, and lights turned on throughout the cave, and wolves came running from every section of the cave, "They spotted us Dingo! We need to get out of here before they catch up! They won't stop searching for at least another hour, be Cautious from here until the end of the cave!" Balto said, "Gotcha, we need to move quietly through here so they don't see us." Dingo whispered.
The two made their way through the maze until the exit, they noticed a wolf coming around the corner, Balto looked around and noticed two empty, open cardboard boxes, "Dingo! Look, some empty boxes, we may be able to fit inside them!" Balto said. "It's obvious, but it might help!" Dingo said, crawling under a box, "The flap is open, we can see out of it as well, we can walk around in them and just lay down when they're going to see us." Balto said, "Move, I'll look around the corner." Dingo said. Dingo peeked around the corner and noticed another wolf coming around, Dingo gave the down command and they both laid down, soon enough, the wolf walked by and the two snuck past him and continued down the path, making sure not to be seen by any of the wolves, Dingo spotted another wolf about to come around the corner and gave the down command, yet again, the wolf did not notice and the two walked by in the box. "Dad, I can see the light, just keep going, if anyone else comes around the corner, we're done for, so just hurry!" Dingo shout-whispered, no answer, Dingo took the silence for a yes, as he still heard Balto's footsteps. The two ran down the hallway and into a dark room with a long fleet of stairs. "Whew, we can finally ditch the boxes and just get out of here." Balto said. "I'm just glad we made it without them finding us, maybe we can fold these boxes up and put them in a pocket of our vest." Dingo suggested. "Speaking of the vest, where's our water?" Balto asked, Dingo checked his dad's vest, and sure enough, no water remained, and the remains of the food was gone too. "Dammit! What are we going to eat now?" Dingo asked angrily, "I'm sure Blake will have something for us to eat, we just have to be patient and find the way there first." Balto said, "You're right, let's go, we've got a long set of stairs to go up, so we're going to need some water soon." Dingo said, "Agreed, but hopefully it's not another hatch out to the surface." Balto said, Dingo agreed and ran up the stairs with Balto, eventually the two made it to the top, "A cargo elevator? This'll help a lot, let's see, do we want to go up or down?" Balto wondered. "Probably up since this is a cave system made into a cargo storage place." Dingo said, Balto agreed and jumped up to push the up button. The weight limit warning went off, and the elevator wouldn't move, "I think we need to head back, uh-oh, the elevator is arriving, we need to hide! Get in the box and get on that side! I'll go on the other, hurry!" Dingo said, hiding under the box, crawling to the other side, his father doing the same. Ryo and three other of his subordinates got off the elevator, "They pressed the button to get on, they have to be around here somewhere, FIND THEM!" Ryo shouted, walking away, he didn't notice Dingo and Balto run into the elevator and go to the top level. "Whew, we did it!" Dingo said, pulling the box off, waiting for the elevator to stop. The elevator opened and they walked out into the daylight, "Ahh, finally some daylight." Balto said, pulling his box off, "Now, we need to find the Blake you were talking about, where is his house, since it's on the outside of town, we can get there without anyone seeing us." Dingo said. "You know, these boxes may come in handy one more time." Balto said. "You're not suggesting that we hide in them until we get to the house and pretend that we're some kind of mail, are you?" Dingo asked, "Exactly what I was thinking." Balto said, "*sigh* Alright, let's go." Dingo said, getting under his box, Balto doing the same.
The two made their way to the outside of town, "Alright Dingo, I think I see Farrah and Diego." Balto said. "I see them too, let's go before they start barking up a storm
(Diego and Farrah's POV)
"*yawn* Hey Diego, is it just me or do you see two boxes walking this way?" Farrah asked, "*yawn* You know, I think you're right, I do see two boxes walking this way, I can smell them from here, the one on my right smells familiar." Diego said, "You know them? I can't smell much anyways." Farrah asked, "No surprise because of how much you snort and snore all day." Diego said, starting to laugh, "Well no dip Sherlock, look at me, I'm a Pitbull, of course I snort a lot!" Farrah shouted, "Oh hush, you know I'm only playing, say, they're getting closer, should we sound the alarm?" Diego asked. "Do it, these two seem pretty suspicious." Farrah said. Diego and Farrah started to bark up a storm, Blake eventually came out, "The hell is wrong with you dogs?" Blake asked. Diego looked in the direction of the two boxes, "Walking boxes? Have I been adding too much salsa or is this for real? I'm going to go inside and probably never…..wait, those grey paws, is that Balto?" Blake asked himself, "Yeah, that is Balto! Here, boy!" Blake called to Balto.
(Dingo and Balto's POV)
"Here, boy!" Blake shouted, "Dad, did he just call out to you?" Dingo asked. "Yup, he's seen us and now we can ditch these boxes and run to the house!" Balto said, ditching his box running towards the house, Dingo shrugged and did the same. "Hey boy! How have you been, and what's up with the Medical Unit Vest? I thought you retired in Nome, what are you doing as a Medical Dog?" Blake asked. Balto looked up at him and whispered, "Have you forgotten our secret?" Balto asked, "Nope, I haven't, who's the red dog?" Blake asked, "That's one of my sons, Dingo, I'll explain everything inside." Balto whispered. "Dingo, this is Blake, and the Doberman is Diego, and the Pitbull is Farrah." Balto said, introducing his son to his friends. "Dad, can these two talk?" Dingo asked. "Of course they can Dingo, they're dogs just like us." Balto said. "Hi, pleasure to meet you Mr. Dingo, I've heard a lot about you." Diego said, "Nice to meet you too Mister Diego." Dingo said, "I hear you've got kids and a mate already? You're only 18 right?" Diego asked. "Yeah, that's one of the reasons we're here to see you guys." Dingo said. "Man, I'm already 67 and I can't have kids either." Diego said. "You don't mean you were neu…." Diego cut him off, "Don't remind me, I couldn't eat for three days straight, I couldn't bear the fact that I couldn't have kids anymore." Diego said. Farrah butted in, "Anyway, let's get off that topic, how have you been Mr. Dingo, and what do we have to do with your kids and mate?" Farrah asked, "Well, see it really isn't your business, but we need help to fight off this guy who kidnapped my wife and kids, and is threatening to kill my children and my mate if I'm not there with my sister in 4 days." Dingo said. "They're holding Jenna and one of my other sons hostage as well, I have only a week and a half or so until they kill them off too." Balto said. "What sick person would do this? They'd kill a group of children for no explicable reason, why?" Farrah asked, "Probably because I took his ego and his dignity away by exposing him two years ago, during that sled run." Balto said, "He clearly deserved it, he tried to kill you to make an unhappy life with the person who liked you! Seems fair to me." Diego said, "I know, which is why we need your help, we also have this group of wolves on our tail, so it's going to be a long one." Dingo said. "Come inside, there's a warm fire and some food and water, you boys must be hungry after that long travel." Farrah said, leading them inside.
After a long explanation of what happened, Farrah and Diego came to an agreement, "Alright, we'll help you get this man, nobody messes with our friend without a fight, but first we need to get you two geared up." Diego said. "But with what? I don't think we can keep using the boxes like we had been doing originally." Dingo said. "Good point, we need less bark in our bite." Balto said, "We have some survival knives in Blake's bedroom, and some more food that we can bring along too." Diego said. "That'll be plenty, along with some water, we'll be fine." Dingo said, "Yeah, but we'll need those boxes sometime or another." Balto said, "You know, we might actually have some empty boxes from moving in the back if you want to go get them, they're small enough to fit inside of a pocket in your vest." Farrah said. "Well, that would be awesome, let's see what we can do, because for a cheap old box, they're very effective for getting around and sneaking." Balto said, "Right, I'll go get 4 of them" Farrah said, walking into the backroom. A few minutes passed and Farrah brought four boxes back, "They're a little smaller than our last ones, but these may work better than the others." Dingo said, getting into the box, "Perfect fit, now all we have to do it fold it back up and put it in the pocket!" Dingo said. "Right, so we begin the journey tomorrow right?" Diego asked. "Well, if we weren't limited on time, then we'd begin later in the day, but we need to get moving ASAP." Balto said, "Right, then we had better go to sleep and we'll go tomorrow morning as soon as I wake up." Balto said.
And be prepared, for this journey is not going to be as easy as we anticipated…..
To be continued…..
A/N Well guys, new chapter, new characters! Farrah and Diego are my actual dogs IRL, so I figured why not add them into the mix of the storyline? Also guys, we have a new partner to help me with this story! That person is Drewdog302, don't worry guys, Kodiwolf321 or Thomas is still going to help me with this story, I wrote this chapter on my own just to make the chapter division fair, Thomas will help me with Chapters 5,7, 9, and 10. Drew will help me with Chapters 4, 6, 8, and 10! Anyways guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter and see you in Chapter IV! Also, comment below if you knew the reference with the Cardboard Boxes! If you get it right, you get a shoutout in the next chapter!"