Chapter 7: Down Memory Lane

Balto was taken aback by the offer. He'd barely gotten a chance to explain everything, but Mias was already offering his help. 'Then again, if I don't know this wolf, then I can't know for sure what he can know. He could be an expert on these sorts of things, like Maska is.'

"So, what do you say?" Mias asked. "Do you want my help or not?"

"I do want help, but I'm not sure if you can help," Balto mused, shaking his head. "You'd probably think I'm mad."

"Try me," Mias urged. "You'd be surprised at the things I can take seriously."

"It's not just that; this is something that's very... personal."

"Is that why you want to hide it from me?" Mias asked. "Just like how you're hiding it from your own mate… and wondering if you should hide it from your pups as well?"

Balto was quite perturbed by this. He hadn't mentioned Jenna or his pups at all and yet Mias knew not only about them, but the things he'd been keeping from them. There was no way that he could have known, and the fact that he did was scaring him.

"How in the world would you know about that?" he demanded.

Mias looked at him for a moment, before calmly replying, "I may not know all the details, but... it's just the look you have… it's a look that's all to familiar to me. It's a look that I myself wore… long ago."

"That doesn't answer my question. How do you know about my family?"

"A little birdy told me… a little, black birdy," he replied cheekily. Balto paused as it dawned on him that this wolf definitely knew more than he was letting on. "Now, are you sure you don't want my help? After all, you came out here for guidance."

"But I don't know you."

"You don't know the raven either and yet you're chasing it down like your life depended on it," Mias retorted. "Let me ask you this: If you wanted advice, who would you rather talk to? Some spirit thing you don't fully believe in, or someone real, someone tangible… someone who won't pull you along on a crazy chase."

While Balto was more willing to trust the more natural Mias over the supernatural raven, he still hesitated. This was something that he really didn't want to get out if he could avoid it, and there was still the fact that he didn't know Mias all that well. As if reading his mind again, Mias added, "C'mon, it's just you, me and the rocks. This won't get out if you don't want it to. I'm no stranger to keeping secrets myself."

Thinking for a moment, Balto realized that he'd already shared his concerns about his pups with most of his own friends, all of whom were sympathetic. His dreams on the other hand were something that he had only shared with a few, and he would keep it that way as long as he could. 'Then again, Mias seems to know quite a bit about that raven. He knows something he's not telling me… but if I'm going to get answers from him, I'd better offer him something in return.' "Okay, I'll bite. There is something I'm wondering if I should tell my pups about," he started, explaining his struggle over whether or not to tell his pups about their true heritage. He told Mias about how he didn't want to bring his pups into the world of pain and anger that he'd gone through…

"Get out of here wolfdog. Why don't you run back to your pack?"

"That's right, run away you mutt! Run away and never come back!"

"You're too wolfy for a dog town, but you're too doggy for a wolf pack. You don't belong anywhere half-breed!"

"I don't want that to happen to my pups," Balto summed up. "I know that most of Nome has come around because of my great deed, but my pups might not get same benefit. To someone else, they won't be the part-wolf who saved the town, they'll just be part wolf and they might ridicule them for that. I don't want them to go through what I had to. It led to me doing some… things I'm not proud of," he finished, remembering a time where he'd almost killed Steele in a fit of rage, something he always saw as one of his greatest moral failures.

Mias had listened quietly to his story, sitting down and taking everything in. "Well, the good news is that you can't be accused of being a weak liar," Mias started. "It's perfectly understandable to want to protect your pups from something that caused you so much pain. You don't want to burden them with something that they can only appreciate when they're much older and have a greater understanding of the world. This could be another one of those things you don't tell your young ones before they're ready for it, like... where puppies come from."

"Yeah, that's true," Balto replied, before a new revelation came to him. "Hang on, are you saying that I can just wait for the time to tell them?"

"Well, maybe not in those exact words... but it does sound like a good compromise, doesn't it?"

"Yeah... but it might also delay the problem," Balto added. "What if they still feel different because I tell them?"

"Then you might have to take that risk because it's better than the alternative," Mias urged. "With something like this you can't hide it from them forever. It's who they are and they deserve to know the truth. You shouldn't keep that from them because if they find out too late, they might feel betrayed that you kept it from them for so long… or they might find out in the worst way possible," Mias said, his expression becoming more depressed. "It's best if they hear it from you because you definitely don't want to be caught in a lie. That's what happened to me… and I'll never be able to go back because of it."

"What happened?" Balto asked, hoping to get some more insight into who Mias was.

"Well I-" Mias started, but paused, as if contemplating something, before a smile formed on his muzzle. "Actually, instead of just telling you, how about I show you?"

This caught Balto by surprise, but before he could ask further, the wolf's eyes started to glow a bright yellow. He gasped when he saw that the glow was the same glow as the wolves from his dreams, but before he could react, it felt as though all the energy was being drained from him. It was like he'd run a race for sixteen hours straight, causing his legs to wobble underneath him. His eyes started to droop, and all he wanted to do was lie down and rest. Whatever Mias did affected him so quickly that he was out before he felt himself hit the ground.


"I tried talking to Sami about it, but I think she figured out what I was really getting on to," Mias told him.

"Hm, sorry what?" Balto said. It felt like his mind had wandered off, so he'd missed some of what Mias was trying to tell him. 'I probably should have paid more attention. It feels like I missed most of the conversation.''

"You know, the whole thing with Mayak?" Mias replied. "I've been telling her stories about our past to try to impress her for my brother, but she's already caught on to what I was doing."

"Oh yes, that. Well, she always was a sharp one," Balto replied as his memory was jogged. Somehow, he was able to instantly understand what Mias was talking about, as though he'd been with him for as long as he could remember. Mayak was the alpha male of the pack, while Sami was alpha female. Those positions meant that it was expected for them to become mates, but Sami was hesitant, leading Mias to play matchmaker for them. As far as Balto knew, he was a part of this pack, and knew Mias quite well. He quickly forgot his earlier confusion and continued the conversation as if it had been going on for hours. "So how did she take it when she found out your ulterior motive?" he asked. "'Cause you know how females can get when they find out you're fibbing to them."

Mias chuckled a little. "Yeah, but she wasn't upset. She was actually impressed that I was trying to do something so nice for my little brother… but she's still not interested in him."

"Why?"

"Various reasons: she doesn't like his attitude, and she's still mad at him for ousting the previous alpha of the pack. He was the one she was really sweet on and it doesn't help that Mayak isn't the most outgoing."

"That's true," he agreed.

"Don't take this the wrong way; I love my brother more than anyone else and in spite of his faults I still want to help him… but even I'm starting to feel like this endeavor is doomed to fail," he said, his ears falling a little. "They're so different from each other and I don't want to push Sami into something she doesn't want to be a part of. She deserves someone who can appreciate her spirit, her kind smile… her gentle laugh…"

"Is there anything else about her you appreciate?" Balto teased, chuckling a little.

Mias stopped dead in his tracks, and his reserved posture made him look like someone being interrogated. "It's not like that… we're just friends, nothing more."

"Uh huh, sure," Balto said flatly, making it evident he didn't believe Mias. "That's how it always starts."

They paused for a moment, with Mias trying to avoid his knowing gaze, before admitting, "She does seem to like my storytelling quite a bit…"


"Well, I tried my best, but in the end it was Sami's decision," Mias told him. Once again Balto's mind was a little fuzzy on the details, as if part of the story was missing.

"Hm, sorry?" Balto asked. 'Darnit, there I go not paying attention again. Why is it so easy for me to lose focus today?'

"Don't you remember what I told you a week ago?"

"Um, you were trying to help Mayak and Sami get together, but she caught on to your plan," Balto replied, saying the first thing that came to his mind. The past week seemed to have gone by so quickly that everything between that last talk and the present barely registered in his mind.

"Yes, but now I don't have to worry about it anymore because she finally turned him down. Case closed."

"Huh, you actually sound relieved about it," Balto mused.

"Well, when you think about it, they might not have been that great together. Like I said earlier, he's more introverted while she's more of a free spirit. Those differences might cause trouble down the road," Mias explained. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm meeting with her tonight and I don't need you being a fifth leg around here."

"Ah, of course… you want to be alone on your date," Balto teased again. While Mias shot him a nasty look for the remark, he still let a small grin form at the corners of his mouth. He didn't want to admit it, but he couldn't deny there was some truth in that. Balto started to depart while a female wolf passed him, heading towards Mias. He surmised that this was Sami, and when he saw her, he felt a peculiar desire to listen in on them. Normally he would leave himself out of other's personal lives, but this time he felt compelled to learn more about what was going on. He silently backtracked, tuning his sensitive ears to pick up what they were saying while hiding behind a nearby bush.

"Hey there handsome, how are you?" he heard her greet. He risked a glance over the bush and saw her gently nuzzling his chin with her nose. His eyes were shut from the feeling of bliss her touch brought him, and he sighed while his tail wagged back and forth.

"I was okay until you showed up," he replied, feigning annoyance. "But now I'm feeling really great," he finished with a smile.

"Oh you," she muttered, rolling her eyes at his humor. "So, where are we going tonight?"

"I was thinking we'd go out by the river," he replied. "It's a full moon tonight, and I've heard that the ice can sparkle on nights like this."

"I'd love that. Plus it'd give us some privacy from… you know who. We wouldn't want him stumbling in on us, now would we?" Balto ducked back behind the bush and it didn't take him long to infer that she was referring to Mayak.

"Actually, there's something about that I want to talk to you about," Mias put in. "I can understand wanting to keep this from Mayak while he was trying to court you, but we can't hide this forever."

"What are you saying?" Sami asked, sounding a little hurt.

"I'm saying that I don't want us to be looking over our shoulders forever," he explained. "I want us to be together with no strings attached. Above all, I want to be honest with everyone… including my brother."

"But if Mayak finds out I really left him just to be with you… he could see it as a betrayal and come after us. I don't want him to hurt you."

"I know he's upset, but it could be even worse if we do nothing and he finds out anyways," he stated. "Finding out that we were keeping something like this could break all of the trust he has in me. Lying would be even worse than telling him the hard truth."

"Then we won't let him know the hard truth," she said. "We won't let anyone know about this. It'll be just us."

There was a pause, before Mias added, "Sami, be honest; is that what you really want to do? Live a lie?"

There was another pause, before Sami quietly replied, "No. Truth be told, this whole thing is starting to get to me already. I want to be able to shout about how much I love you to the land and the sky, not keep it bottled up forever."

"Neither do I," Mias replied. "I want to howl out how beautiful you are, and what a spirited wolf you are… and that means we'd have to be honest with everyone."

"Do you think they'd accept us… the pack I mean," she asked.

"You know, I've talked with so many of them, and I think they would," he replied. "They would know that we are together out of love, and if there's anything that can warm a wolf's heart, it's a good old love story between two unlikely mates."

She giggled. "Yes… kind of like that story you told about the two wolves from warring packs who were sent to kill each other, but fell in love instead, ending the conflict."

"And they all lived happily ever after," Mias finished. "That one's actually one of my favorites… but life doesn't always end like a story. Things can go wrong."

"So what should we do? Do we tell the truth or keep this our secret?" she asked.

"I – I really don't know," Mias replied. "Mayak's not one to take rejection very well-" There was a small whimper from Sami, so Mias reassured her, "But I know my brother and he would never do anything rash, especially if it involves me." There was another lengthy pause, and Balto took another peek to see that she was pressed up against his chest, while he nuzzled her with his chin. "Look, we'll figure something out, don't worry. We don't have to tell them now. Maybe we could wait until things cool off and then we can come clean, okay?" she nodded, earning him a smile. "Now, I don't want this to ruin our evening together, so why don't we go off and forget our worries?" They broke off and took a moment to gaze at each other, with him tapping his nose to hers to cheer her up. They started to walk away from the clearing, side by side, two wolves in love and hoping to have much ahead of them.

"Well, if all else fails, we could always go out on the land like you used to, just the two of us with a fresh start," she suggested, her voice growing fainter as they moved away.

"We could, but I'd like to avoid that if possible," Mias replied. "I just got here, and this place is starting to grow on me…"


Balto was now with a large group of wolves, some muttering to each other while others just watched silently. Once again time seemed to fly by, but this time he was more aware of the sudden time skip. He could have sworn the last thing he saw was Mias and Sami leaving on their date. Now he was behind a crowd in a completely different spot in the woods. However, he wouldn't have much time to dwell on it because the crowd hushed as Mias and Sami walked over together, but with troubled expressions.

"I'm sure that you're all expecting me to tell you the usual stories, but tonight we have something much more important to tell you," Mias started. A few groaned, while others muttered as they guessed what Mias had to say.

"As some of you might know, it is time for an alpha like myself to choose a mate," Sami continued, confidently, but with a slight waver that showed she was nervous. "And after some very careful consideration, I have chosen… Mias."

There was a stunned pause, followed quickly by more muttering. To his left, Balto saw some movement and turned to see a jet-black wolf that greatly resembled Mias staring at the couple intensely. He barely noticed as Balto approached, focusing more on Mias as the rest of the pack came over to him and Sami. Some gave him words of congratulations, while others simply expressed their surprise, but the lone wolf didn't budge, leering at the happy couple.

"An alpha and a beta as mates - what could this mean for our pack?" one wondered.

"This is wonderful Mias. Does your brother know yet?" another asked him.

"Yeah… he kind of caught us first," Mias replied sheepishly. "It's actually more embarrassing than anything."

"Don't try to be so cute about it. You can enthrall the crowd with your words, but I know what I saw. I caught you and Sami in the lie that you'd been giving to the entire pack… and to your own brother," the lone wolf growled to himself. Balto surmised that this was Mayak, the one they had been concerned about. "I won't forget this, brother… and I won't ever let you take my rightful place from me," he finished, before turning away. As he did he briefly locked eyes with Balto, and that caused a very curious sensation in him. He didn't know why, but he immediately felt an impending sense of danger, far stronger than anything he had felt with Steele. The feeling lasted only a moment and passed when Mayak walked away from the celebration, but it still left Balto mystified. It was like Mayak wanted to hurt him, even though they'd never met before.


Balto found himself in yet another stretch of woods, but only now did he really realize that things were jumping around. 'Hang on, wasn't I just with Mias and the pack a minute ago?' he thought. 'Wait, the pack? What pack? I'm not a part of any pack in Nome… where is Nome?' He tried to recall how he got here, but he could only go as far back as when Mias first confided in him his feelings for Sami. 'That had been so long ago… but it feels like I jumped forward in minutes. Wait, why would Mias confide in me? Do I know him that well? It feels like I've just met him.' As Balto tried to sort everything out, he heard raised voices nearby. He recognized them as Mayak and Mias, and peeked around a nearby tree to find the two brothers arguing.

"I never wanted to take your authority!" Mias barked. "I don't care what the others say; you're the alpha and I don't want to take what you worked so hard for away from you… which is why I'm leaving." This caught Mayak and Balto by surprise, but Mias was sincere in his claim. "I talked with Sami, and we agreed that's it's best for you and everyone else if we weren't around."

"Mias, I never thought you'd… wait, what do you mean 'we'?" Mayak asked, tilting his head slightly.

"I mean Sami and I," Mias replied. "It's obvious that having us around is causing you a lot of grief, so we're gong to leave and find our own way. You can lead your pack and find a new mate. We won't bother you any longer."

While at first everything before was obscured by a mental haze, things started to come back to Balto. 'Hang on, I think I have met Mias before this. We were talking about… something. But he was alone; why was he alone? Did he take me to meet his pack? I don't remember anything like that. It feels like so much time has passed, but at the same time it hasn't. Ugh, my senses are so screwed up today. What's going on with my head?'

There was a brief silence as Mias' words sunk into Mayak, while Balto tried to make sense of what was going on. "I know it's a lot to take in, but it's probably for the best," Mias continued, unaware of the real reason for Mayak's silence. "I do care about you brother, and I hate seeing you in such pain."

'We were talking about something important… he was trying to tell me something… something that happened to him… and then-' As he recalled talking with Mias in the ravine, everything clicked in. 'We were talking about my pups and he wanted me to be honest. He said something happened to him before, but instead of telling me… he said he would show me.' The image of Mias staring at him with glowing yellow eyes surfaced, closing the gap in his memory. 'His eyes… they were just like the wolves in my dreams. I saw them, and then I felt so tired, and-' The realization came at him like a wave, causing him to freeze up in shock. 'This isn't real. This is a dream. That explains the time skips… but why does this dream feel different. There was something else. He said he would show me what happened before… which means this is more than a dream. This is a memory – Mias' memory. He wanted to show me this. But how could he do this? Just what is going on with Mias?' The answers only came with more questions, but when Balto tried to shout out to Mias, something was wrong. No matter what, his voice produced no sound. It was as though he'd become invisible, nothing more than a spectator. He tried to run over, but his legs were rooted to the spot. He was paralyzed and forced to watch the scene unfold before him.

He looked to Mias for any answer, but the two brothers had finished their conversation. Mias took a step back, and that's when the most horrifying thing happened. When the paw hit the ground, a metal trap sprang shut. First was the sickening sound of metal crunching through flesh and bone, soon followed by the bloodcurdling scream Mias gave out when the trap snapped shut on his leg. He collapsed in pain and saw the trap he was in, while Balto was still rooted to the sidelines. "No, not this, anything but this," he cried as he tried to pull free, but the trap dug painfully into his flesh. "Brother, please help me," he pleaded with desperate eyes.

Mayak looked at him for a moment, and then said the last thing Balto thought any brother would say, "I won't let you take her away from me."

"Mayak?" Mias asked, but the alpha turned away from him. Balto's heart raced as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. Mayak was going to leave his own brother behind in a trap just to take Sami for himself. All this, and Balto was still unable to jump in and help Mias himself. "NO! Don't do this Mayak! Help me! I'm your brother!" he cried out, but Mayak continued walking. He kept on walking when Mias' wails became pleas for help from anyone, but Balto was unable to come and help.

'No, this can't be happening. If I'm asleep then this can't be real,' Balto thought as he tried to shut out Mias' cries for help. 'C'mon, I can get out of it if I just wake up. I have to wake up!'

"No… no!" Mias cried and started trying his best to pull away from the trap, but the heavy chain was fixed to the frozen ground. Balto soon saw the cause of Mias' newfound distress – a human was approaching, hunting knife in hand and ready to finish him off.

'I have to help him!' Balto thought, but the paralysis remained, keeping him on the spot. Mias tried to snap at the human, but he was quick to grab him by the muzzle, pushing him to the ground to hold him still. Mias was still crying for help through his closed muzzle, and all Balto could do was watch in horror as the human readied the knife. He shut his eyes, still hearing Mias' pained cries until they were silenced by the unmistakable sound of the metal slicing through his neck. Balto opened his eyes and trembled in terror at the horror of the scene. Mias lay dead on the ground, left by his own brother to die, all because of something he'd kept from him.

"NO!" he cried out, finding his voice had suddenly returned. Unfortunately, this caught the attention of the human, and he shouted out his companion who was just coming over the hill. The companion had a rifle in hand, and when he saw his friend pointing, he raised it and took aim Balto. Without a second thought, Balto sprang away, his legs released from their hold. He raced away from the hunters, but with the crack of the rifle, everything went black.