A bad first day

The morning wind carried with it tidings of the upcoming winter, snow had begun to fall on the remote city of Nome. Patches of ice had been formed along the coastline.

Five months had passed since Kodi and his team had started training, and the time had now come for them to be tested with a real sled, with real cargo. They were to transport mail and some minor supplies to a mining project about four hours north of Nome.

Kodi sat on the top of the mountain that overlooked the town. His parents had brought him and his siblings there many times before, and he had grown to enjoy the view. He sat there, taking in the sparse morning sun, deep in thought. Suddenly he heard someone closing in from behind.

"Enjoying the view?" A calm voice asked. Kodi snapped out of his thoughts and spun around, muscles tense. He relaxed when he saw it was his father.

"Oh, it's just you…" Kodi said, turning back towards the rising sun.

"Is that any way to greet your father" Balto asked, faking an insulted voice. Kodi chuckled at his father's tone.

"Good morning dad" He turned towards his father and gave him a half-heartedly smile.

"That's better" Balto replied. "Now, tell me what's bothering you"

"Huh? What makes you think something's bothering me?" Kodi asked quizzically.

"C`Mon, I'm your father, I can read you like a book. When you need to think, you always go somewhere remote, more than once you have gone up here, that's how I found you." Kodi sighed.

"I should have known better than trying to hide anything from you." He said with a sad smile. "But since your perceptive abilities are so great, what do you think is bothering me."

"Yes, I'm perceptive, but I'm no mind-reader." Balto sighed. "But if I had to guess…I'd say that you're worried about your first real assignment as a sled dog." A gleam in Balto's eyes told Kodi that his father had no problem guessing.

"I'm not scared!" Kodi exclaimed, with anger rising in his voice.

"I did not say that, neither did I expect it." Balto said with a calm voice, walking to Kodis side, watching the sunrise. "But I know that you are nervous." He let the statement linger in the air, almost expecting another protest. But none came.

"I guess…" Kodi looked down at the ground. But it's not only the assignment I'm worried about… He thought to himself.

"Then I guess the question is; why are you nervous about your job?" Kodi looked at his father.

"I-I don't know…" He stuttered. His father smiled.

"Then what is there to be worried about?" Balto turned to face his son. "As long as you give it your best, I will be proud. As long as you do what you love, I will be proud."

Kodi just stood there, speechless at the words of faith coming from his father. "Thank you dad." He finally managed to say."It helps, it really does." His eyes met his father and they both smiled. Kodi felt some of the weight on his shoulders had lifted. Balto felt that his son was not fully depressed anymore, but he knew that something entirely different was bothering him. He decided to play it safe, not wanting to ruin the father and son moment.

"So, is there anything else you want to talk about?" Balto asked, hoping to be able to lift his son's spirit a bit more.

Kodi realized that his father could still feel distress in him. He considered confessing his confused feelings about Dusty, but decided not to. He was not ready yet.

"No, I'm fine, thanks." He answered in a low and calm voice, as if to ward of any questions from his father.

"Well" Balto sighed. "Then I guess you better head back to town, it's almost time for you to leave with your team. "

"WHAT!" Kodi exclaimed loudly. "Is the sun that high already?" He spun around and jolted down the hill. "See you later Dad!" He yelled from over his shoulder.

Balto was left alone on the mountaintop, he watched his son run towards town. Good luck son. He thought to himself.

"He is growing up…" A voice stated from behind a boulder. Balto turned around and saw Jenna coming around the boulder.

"Yes he is…" Balto replied with a smile.

"And in more than one way." Jenna said with a chuckle.

"How did you…" Balto said with wonder in his eyes.

"You're not the only one with perceptive abilities you know." Jenna walked over to her mate and stood beside him, both contemplating the sun rising over the snow covered landscape.

////\\\\

Dusty was standing outside the mail-office with the rest of the team. The only one missing was Kodi.

"Have anyone seen Kodi?" She asked the others.

"Not since yesterday." Jason replied.

"Perhaps he ran away because me and Ralph got the lead positions" Kirby said with a smirk.

The day before, the musher had placed all the dogs in front of the sled in the positions they would be in for next day's run. Kodi was deeply disappointed when he realized that Kirby and Ralph got the lead. Dusty was next to him and Mike and Jason was at the back, but Kodi paid this no heed. Through the rest of the day and the evening he was in a rather sulky mood. Dusty and the others did what they could to cheer him up, but their words of comfort fell on deaf ears.

"Kodi`s not like that!" Dusty defended her absent friend. A touch of anger washed through her face.

"Hey, calm down girl, I was just kidding." Kirby said taking a few steps back. Mike came to his rescue.

"Look Dusty, I'm sure he is fine, he probably just lost track of time and is on his way right now."

As if to prove him right, an exhausted Kodi comes running around a nearby corner.

Mike saw Kodi in the corner of his eyes. He smiled. "Speak of the…" the rest of the sentence was lost. As Kodi tried to brake, he slipped on the snow and went crashing into the unsuspecting Husky.

"Sorry I'm late." Kodi panted.

"Where have you been? "Dusty asked sternly. "We are heading out in half an hour"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Mike muttered, stumbling up on his feet.

"What does it matter?" Kodi said happily, ignoring Mike's mutterings with ease. "I got here on time didn't I?"

Dusty was baffled by Kodis change of mood since the day before. "What happened to you this morning? Yesterday you were all gloomy and depressed, now you look like you just found a fresh bone."

"Well, I had some thinking to do." Kodi started explaining. "So I went up on the mountain that overlooks the town. I met my father there, we talked, and then I came here." He purposely left out the subject of conversation, and Dusty suspected that he was hiding something.

The group chatted about random things regarding their upcoming ordeal. Some thirty minutes later, the musher arrived with the sled from behind his house. The dogs went quiet, tense with excitement. They were strapped up to the sled; the supplies were loaded onto the sled. And suddenly the dogs ran off, heading towards their destination.

The mining camp was not too far away; the journey went without incidents, they arrived at noon and delivered the cargo to the awaiting foreman. The team got their bowls filled and they ate in silence. An hour or so later, after the dogs were rested, they headed back for home.

But half way there, the wind started to pick up. Not to the point where it was dangerous, but the visibility degraded so much that the dogs had to slow down.

"Why are we slowing down?" Kodi asked Kirby.

"We have no choice, unless you want to us to crash into a tree or a boulder, this is the speed we will maintain." Kirby answered with an annoyed tone.

"Oh, don be such a worry-wart" Kodi chuckled.

"Hey don't call me…" Kirby started, but was immediately cut off by Ralph.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" He yelled.

Kirby had been too concentrated on the conversation, and therefore he didn't see the tree in time. Ralph had tried to turn them away from it but he couldn't do it alone. Kodi saw that the tree was going to hit Dusty. Without thinking, he pushed her out of the way. They both avoided the tree, but instead of hitting a dog, the tree now caught the line connecting the dogs, and the sled stopped in an instant.

Dusty heard moans and grunts all around her. Slowly the team managed to get up, pretty shaken but unharmed. "Phew, that was a close one." She said with a sigh."Thanks for pushing me out of the way…Kodi?" She noticed that Kodi was not in his harness beside her. "KODI!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

What she didn't know, was that Kodi was in fact just a few meters away from her, knocked out from the impact. He had somehow slipped out of the harness when the sled came to its abrupt stop, and then hit the ground.

Dusty quickly got up and started looking for Kodi. It didn't take long before she saw her red friend laying the snow. She got up and ran the few steps over to him, fearing the worst. But just as she got to him, Kodi started to wake up.

"Ugh… Anyone got the number on that train?" He mumbled. Dusty let a smile cover her worried face.

"Glad to hear you're ok" She said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I'm just a little shaken that's all." Kodi assured her.

"Then why are we sitting here, let's get home before nightfall." Dusty said while walking back to the others. Kodi snickered and got up to follow her, but when he tried to get up, he fell back down screaming. His left side was searing with pain. Dusty heard him and jolted back to his side.

"I thought you said you were alright?" she berated him.

"I thought I was…" It was tough to speak between the seizures of pain. "Must`ve broken a rib or something."

"Then stay down, Il get the musher." Dusty spun off towards the sled. As she got to the sled, a concerned Jason wanted to know what was happening.

"What's going on over there? We heard Kodi scream like he got his leg chopped off."

"He got hurt while saving me from hitting that tree. I-I think his hurt pretty bad and he can't get up." Dustys eyes were close to tearing up as the shock from seeing her friend wounded on the ground warped into an unfathomable panic. She ignored Jason's dumbstruck expression and started barking at the musher, signaling him to follow her. He caught the message and followed her to the place behind the tree where Kodi was. By the time they arrived, some of the other dogs were standing around him, looking concerned. The musher got over there and examined the wincing husky. His hands soon found the location of the problem, as he touched Kodis left side, the dog let out a pained howl.

"Yup, looks like a fractured rib. I don't think it's completely broken, but he is in no shape to be moving around, let alone run." The musher carefully lifted his wounded dog and carried him back to the sled and put him where the cargo usually was, but seeing as they were on their return trip, it was mostly empty, save from some necessary supplies. Kodi was gently tucked in a blanket. The dogs were strapped back up in their harnesses and soon, Nome was coming into view.

When they arrived into town, it went straight to the vet's office. He released the dogs so they could head home before he carried Kodi inside the office. All the dogs went for the boiler room, all except one; Dusty remained, sitting outside the door to the vet, trying to hear how Kodi was doing. She didn't hear anything, and soon she laid down on the porch and waited. A tear fell from her eyes.

This is all my fault.