LUCKY CHAPTER 10~~~
God help me *does catholic cross motion* I have two exams on Thursday. It's fine though I'm so sorry for not updating in forever. And thanks to Wolfeather101 for getting me to write this story again! Also, by now, I've seen the opening race like 15 times but I still get shivers when Balto grabs Rosy's hat! :) If you guys have instagrams, you can follow me at superanimeartist , that way I can hopefully get to know you guys better (and be held accountable?)! ;D
Anyway, any time I'm taking an obscenely long time feel free to review/PM me because I'm a lazy a-hole. But really I love you guys, thanks so much for the support! (Because of worry about space, I only commented to the reviews with questions! Rest assured, I probably read each comment like 12 times and blushed about it in pure joy, whether or not its on this list. Also, you guys can call me Raven or Emily or buddy or whatever you guys want)
eltigre221: Whaa! At the risk of sounding conceited, I re-read all the chapters before posting each chapter! hehe
Mojotheomegawolf: Hey buddy! Its great to hear that you think my writing is still on the same level! It's always something I'm concerned about. I'm thinking about what else to throw in about Boris and Balto pre-canon. I'd love to throw ideas around with you sometime! ANNND in response to our PM from a while ago-Don't think! Write that darn novel and work with it until you love it! Then make the world love it. I mean I'll definitely buy it. It's tough to sit down and write for such a long time but if you try doing maybe 1-2k a day a couple times a week, you'll have a lot in no time!
Jackiejacka:Haha Baltimore-I'm gonna start calling him that.
Agent007.1: Hahah awesome you have an account! Yep I'm alive-again... ^_^' And I'm working on lengthening the chapters!
wolfartist117: Yes! I will eventually finish the story! I'm trying to make my chapters gradually longer! This one is about 3k.
Arco Jan Aguirre: Unfortunately, I didn't see the second movie bc I can't find it anywhere so i can't put those characters in... but i'll definitely consider having Jenna give Steele a slap across the face for you!
BBB: Don't worry you don't sound conceited at all! In fact, if you have an account, I'd like to talk to you about the possibility of seeing if you'd be willing to write sequels for the second and third movies? Also, yeah I really like Smash Bros and I'm not bad at it if I do say so myself. :)
Dogs.101: Wha! I love brother bear but oh boy that sounds like a big project idk...
D-rex102: Haha no I use a script and then write in the details although memorizing it would be quite impressive.
I was having a lot of trouble getting the movie online so I bit the bullet and bought it on amazon so thats $10 I'll never get back but anyway…here we go! :D
"Help! Help! We can't swim! Help! Help! We're drowning! We're drowning! Save us! Please!" Came Muk's voice, punctuated by splashing water.
Immediately, Balto and Boris hopped off the ship and skidded down to the shore to investigate, Boris grabbing onto Balto to stop himself from landing in the frigid water. Balto grinned when he saw them but Boris was less amused. The two polar bears were splashing in water that barely touched their stomachs.
Several huffs of laughter came from the group at the spectacle.
Steele wasn't one of them. "A lobo who doesn't howl, a goose that doesn't fly and polar bears that can't swim…" He growled in annoyance. How did any of these strange animals survive?
"Bears! Fellas! Idiot balls of fluff!" Boris called to them.
"Easy Boris, you know how they are." He reminded his long time friend. One wrong move and the two would be inconsolable. "Muk, Luk! Relax! Hey come on, you're okay. You're not drowning." He called gently.
Jenny nudged his snout praisingly. He was already a very patient dog.
"B-Balto, what did you mean by 'how we are'?" Muk blubbered, twiddling his claws fretfully.
"Ah, sorry Muk, I was just trying to reassure you and Boris. I didn't mean anything by it."
Muk's struggles gradually calmed down until he realized that he wasn't, in fact, descending down below the water's murky surface.
"He has point, bears. You are not drowning because if you will pause one moment, you will observe perhaps, tide is out!" Boris said, none to gently, splashing water in the bear's faces.
Luk mumbled something to his bear friend, causing Boris to prickle and turn towards the two.
"He said... what?"
"Do you understand him?" Stella whispered to her mate.
"…Well, I do, sometimes" Boris admitted, looking harassed.
"Oh, the shame of the polar bear who fears the water! No wonder we are shunned by our fellow bear. Woe is us!" Muk translated quietly but dramatically.
Aleu, Jenna, Kodi and Stella sat listening to the smaller polar bear's frankly adorable voice.
"Is what he said. Kinda pathetic, really." Muk finished.
"Is…is Luk…intelligent?" Kodi whispered to his sister.
He was rewarded with a hard blow to his snout, although he couldn't sworn she had the same wolfish grin on her face.
Boris and Balto were already heading back to the boat, as the sun was setting, typical for the Alaskan winter despite the fact it wasn't late. "What, more whimpering? Between you and Balto is like Dostoyevski novel around here. Lighten up!"
Later that night, Balto was perched on his crooked, decrepit boat,watching the town with a smile on his face. Boris made his way over to his friend, intrigued.
"And what is so interesting?"
"Jenna." Balto sighed.
"Is love." Boris said.
If Jenna's cheeks didn't flush at Balto's words, she was bright red at Boris's. "B-Balto!" She chided.
"Dad!" Kodi and Aleu exclaimed, flushing, although inwardly, they both thought it was cute. Unfortunately, it was also unbelievably sappy.
"So go make move! When the angels' balalaika's strum the sweet song of love? Mambo!" The goose, performed yet another dance.
"I'm sorry—was that in Russian, turkey-leg?" Steele grumbled, not having understood anything of the goose's words.
Star had to hold himself back from backing Steele up, just out of habit, much to his own guilt. No one but Balto and Stella had understood what the goose had said.
"Nah. . .she's not my type." Balto said.
Jenna, who was reaching over to give her mate a lick nipped him sharply instead. Stella whacked him over the head and Kodi gave a low wince at his father's words.
"O-owww…" Balto moaned, pawing what would be a bump on the top of his head. He was still aching from his recent fights with Steele, although the dog seemed to have mellowed out considerably since then—a small blessing. "I ruined the moment, didn't I?"
Jenna's eyes took on their humorous glow again as she nodded. "Big time, lover-boy."
"And why not? This wolf business again? And what's wrong with being half and half I like to know! Sometimes, I wish like crazy I was half eagle!" Boris said, knowing his friend well enough to know his true feelings.
"Why?" Balto asked, smiling slightly at his friend trying to cheer him up.
"Better profile, for one thing." Boris said, referring to his big beak, "And no one eats you for another!"
Luk wailed in fear of Boris being eaten and Muk pat his back, reassuring him that no such thing would happen.
The scene changed again, this time to a cold street of Nome, Jenna anxiously waiting outside a window. Rosy was inside, coughing, surrounded by many other sick children. Weary doctors and nurses did their best to tend to them. Jenna shifted her feet in the snow, before growing impatient and worried. Finally, weighing her concern over training, she started to bark.
"It's only the kids..." Kodi observed sadly. "This is awful..."
On the other side of the room, Luk bawled and pulled Muk into a bone-crushing hug. Boris moved over to him to knock some sense into the bigger bear before he killed his smaller 'nephew'.
"Jenna? Jenna! Jenna! Hi girl!" Rosy said, running out the door to greet her dog. Almost immediately, she starting coughing harshly. Jenna nudged her master worriedly but the girl's father came outside, wrapping a jacket around the pale girl.
Stella's face softened and she touched her wings together in pity. "The poor dear..."
Even Aleu, who never had a good connection with any human hated to see this, especially with such a young sweet girl.
"Rosy! Rosy, come on. You're gonna catch your death out here."
"Okay, Dad."
"Come on, honey, the doctor's waiting." He said as the door shut behind them.
"They wouldn't let you come in?" Aleu asked with irritation.
"It was hard to be away from her at the time but the humans are very careful when it comes to dirt and other things, especially around the sick or old. What's important is that Rosy got better."
More concerned and confused than ever, Jenna looked from one frosty window to another until she found one she could see the doctor examine Rosy in. Her face dropped as Rosy's parents exchanged a worried glance.
Balto saw Jenna, first making sure to checks himself out in a puddle, and tried unsuccessfully to stop the fur on his head sticking up, much to his annoyance.
Boris and Kodi held back remarks about this—the mood was still too somber for jokes.
Balto winced inwardly at his own past shame of being part wolf. He had completely believed it was something to be ashamed of and to hide. Admittedly, it had taken years for him to come to terms with his but now, as a four year-old (although neither he nor Boris has quite sure of his exact age), he had found a comfortable, if not a little bit shaky identity for himself as both a wolf and a dog, a mate, a friend, a father and a sled dog.
"Jenna?" Balto's voice was a higher pitch than hers. He cringed, clearing his throat. "Uh... Jenna." He said, several octaves deeper.
"PFFFT!" Aleu was unable to help herself. Next to her, Kodi and Stella cackled gleefully. Even Steele had opened up his jaws for a unprecedented loud laughing roar, though it was more intended to embarrass Balto than from the actual humor of it.
Balto blushed for a few moments but smiled too. He really had been extremely self-conscious—unhealthily so. He had Jenna and Boris to thank for pulling him out of it. And even though Steele was still going to lengths to try to humiliate him, none of them had been outwardly aggressive, which was a relief.
"Balto. Hi." She said, preoccupied, before turning back to the window.
"Hi. Look, uh, it's just a shot in the dark, but I was wondering if ah, I dunno, maybe you'd like to go. . .chase a few sticks by moonlight? A heh heh!" He hopeful look vanished as he noticed her sad face.
"Jenna?" He asked, instantly concerned.
"Rosy's in there." Jenna said and Balto jumped up to join her.
"In a hospital? Why?"
"She feels warm. . .she has a terrible cough. Balto, what's wrong with her?" The little girl looked as if her cough was causing her pain and the doctor's apprehensive face did nothing to calm the worry in the red dog's heart. Dogs were, after all, evolving side by side with humans for millennia. It was all too easy for Jenna to sense something wrong simply by the man's flickering eyes, stressed gait and fear-scent.
Balto didn't answer for a moment. "I'm not sure, but I know how to find out. Come on." Jenna followed his lead unhesitatingly.
Balto gave her a worried smile before gesturing to a wooden door. "I have the keys to the city." He pulled the pins out of the hinges and opened the door with one nail extended. It looked almost human.
Everyone lost it again and the room was enveloped in gufaws and chortles.
"I'm pretty sure—no I'm certain that dogs should not be able to do that." Kodi remarked.
"That was pretty…unnatural, weird, impossible…" Kaltag had to agree.
Balto gestured for her to go inside first. "After you."
Stella nodded. "A gentleman. Kodi, take notes."
As Jenna walked in, she noticed Balto's large paws. "Balto," she said, in quiet surprise.
Balto gave a sheepish, self-deprecating laugh before his tone grew a bit darker. "A heh, big paws kinda run in my family. At least, ahhh... one side of my family." He said, walking in before Jenna, so she couldn't see his embarrassment.
Jenna's ears lowered slightly, now knowing that had been the wrong thing to say to the wolf-dog.
Jenna hurried to follow him through the boiler room and into a tunnel, coming up at his side. Balto pulled back in surprise before relaxing again and taking the lead. "Stay close."
"Heh! No problem there. It's so gloomy down here. . .not that I'm scared or anything." She said, following his bushy gray tail around a tight corner.
She almost ran into a large spider web, which Balto swiped away with his tail.
Steele's ears twitched. Was this Balto's sappy, lovey-dovey sense of romance? It was a little gross.
"Gloomy? You kiddin'? It's the most beautiful spot in the world! Dogs travel for years just to be right here." He said, holding a curtain open for her with his tail and lifting a cloth off her nose with his large paw.
"Here? I can't see why." Jenna said, still trying to stay open-minded.
"That's 'cause you're looking at the bowl half empty." Balto whispered playfully, pushing broken bottles in front
of the light, shining down on the tunnel. "You see this? It's the polar icecaps."
"No, they really aren't." Kodi said.
"Quiet, you." Aleu returned. Their parents had taken them down there plenty of times that they both knew what Balto was going to show her.
"Balto, those are broken bottles. And they're not half empty, they're all empty." Jenna told him carefully, wondering if this handsome hybrid was, in fact, crazy.
Balto motioned towards a light and smiled. "The sun. . ."
"Okay, he's insane!" Star announced in exasperation, completely lost. Neither him nor the other two sled dogs had seen this.
"Balto!" Jenna exclaimed, caught between exasperation and amusement.
Balto moved away from the bottles. "And to the North. . ." Balto moved out of the way and the reflection of the bottle caps became a shimmering curtain of light on the gray brick wall. "The Northern Lights!" Jenna gasped in surprise. "Oh! Balto, you're right. It's beautiful."
Balto looked at Jenna, staring at wonder at the lights, admiring how to color danced across her own, bright eyes. She was beautiful. He sighed. "Yeah…beautiful." Jenna slowly looked at him, catching his meaning. For a moment, they lean in to touch noses but are interrupted by the disappearance of the light in Rosy's room above them. They both looked over in surprise-
"Uh...sorry guys. I have to go..." Nikki said. The other animals in the room looked over at the bulky dog in confusion. Most of them still wanted to leave but it had already been established they couldn't. "Do my business..." He clarified.
Before any of the other animals could think how much of a problem that could be, a portion of the wall opened up, revealing the expanse of scraggly grass and slowly melting snow. No one delayed in filtering out.
"Finally! We're out of here!" Aleu sighed in relief, picking up her pace to a run. Seeing her father treated the way he had been had been a strain on her emotions as well as his. She reached the trees, running past a startled squirrel who scuttled up a tree. The sooner her family could be away from the insane malamute, the better. Finally, this whole thing was over. She heard her brother at her heels. "Hey, race-"
Aleu hit something, bringing her to a complete stop. Kodi stopped suddenly beside her as she shook herself off and looked around in utter confusion. It would be more accurate to say she hit nothing. Reaching out a paw, she felt her confusion redouble as her paw made contact with an invisible barrier. She backed up and barked in frustration before following her brother back to her parents.
Jenna was leading Balto out, his shoulder wouldn't be in running shape for a couple weeks. They slowly padded out to meet their pups, who looked guilty about running ahead.
"Somethings keeping us in!" She complained.
"I think we're meant to finish the movie." Balto said grimly, sitting down. "This whole situation is crazy, but I think we're at least getting a break."
Nikki huffed in relief as he ran off towards the cover of the trees. Jenna looked around. "I think I'm going to see if I can catch anything, I'll be back soon, Balto." As she ran off, joined by Aleu and Kodi, Balto became aware that besides Muk and Luk who were a little ways off tussling in the snow, everyone has a distance away for now. Everyone but Steele, who was resting against the side of the building, nursing his injured paw. He looked up as soon as he noticed Balto's yellow eyes trained on him. After several moments of silence, Balto didn't think he would say anything.
"As soon as this paw heals, I'm going to give you a race to remember." He said finally.
"That's the only kind there is." Balto smirked. After a moment, he could have sworn the bigger dog was huffing with laughter.
I apologize, there was really no good place to stop, so I just stopped here, were there was a subject change. Anyway, we are now 23:30 minutes into the movie with just under 55 minutes left!
*A/N: When Jenna is thinking how she can understand what humans feel, this is true. According to one experiment in Hungary, dog's brains react very similarly to humans in response to human voices and emotionally charged sounds like laughing and crying. Most dogs will also pay attention to their closest human's eyes, to gauge their feelings. They needed to have this trait in order to evolve by us without sharing a common language.
What do you feel about Steele's characterization?
Which characterization did I portray well, which one to I need to improve on?
Do you want to read more about lil' Balto and Boris like the last chapter? I'm thinking about writing about his first time in town.
Please let me know!