In the morning, Steele returned to the cave where he'd met the spirits. Only Sesi was there now.
"Back so soon?" she said, raising her head.
"Yeah," Steele said, giving his best friendly smile. "I think I made a bad impression last night. At least, your friends didn't seem to like me too much."
Sesi sat up and smoothed the fur on the sides of her face with one dainty black paw.
"Nuti liked you," she said. "He loves having strangers come visit. We just don't want to help someone do any damage."
"I wouldn't,' Steele said. "I really just want to have as normal an existence as I can."
The fox smiled and approached Steele.
"Do you know what most animals say about us foxes?" she asked.
Beyond being harmless, Steele didn't know much about foxes. He shook his head.
"We're known as tricksters," Sesi said. "It's not true of all foxes, of course, but I've been around a long time."
Sesi was inched from Steele's nose, smiling up at him.
"What I'm trying to say is don't try to fool someone who's been fooling people much longer than you have," she said.
Steele tried to look hurt.
"I wasn't trying to fool you!" he said.
"Please, big guy, leave the deception to us foxes," Sesi said.
Steele's face fell.
"Look," he said. "I do want to get back at those dogs, but they killed me!"
"And you nearly killed them," Sesi said. "And at least with them it was an accident."
Steele growled and lowered his head to Sesi's level. He wondered if since he could feel the spirits, he could hurt them.
"Now I'm not saying what they did was right," Sesi said. "They should have known what would happen once you were out on that cliff. But if you stay focused on revenge and don't acknowledge what you did, then you'll be stuck like this forever."
Steele wanted to shout at the fox, to tell her that she was wrong. But he was realizing how right she was.
He stared at Sesi, anger and sadness and defeat showing on his face. He turned and ran out of the cave.
Sesi rolled her eye.
"Drama queen," she muttered.
Steele sat on a ledge not far from the cave. He was angry that the spirits would not help him, but he was angry at himself, too.
He hated to admit it, but the fox was right. His team had every right to be that angry with him.
Guilt was not something Steele was used to and he hated it.
Besides that, Steele couldn't stand the thought of being alone forever and he was too frightened to move on as Aniu had suggested.
Steele let out a howl of frustration and misery.
"Steele," a soft voice said right behind him.
Steele jumped and spun around. Aniu stood there.
"Oh, it's you," Steele said, sounding more down than angry.
"Do you want to come back with me?" she asked.
Steele looked down. He wasn't angry at Aniu anymore, though he was angry that she had been right.
"I…" Steele said. "I can't take existing like this anymore. And…"
He growled, hating he had to admit he'd been wrong.
"You were right about me," he said slowly. "I would have terrorized my old teammates. But I want to be better. I…I'm not sure I know how."
Aniu smiled.
"I believe you this time," she said. "Come with me."
Back at the cave, Steele sat in front of the three spirits. He didn't like all three sets of luminous eyes being focused on him.
"So, do you agree that we should teach him?" Aniu asked the other two.
"Sure," Nuti said cheerfully.
"I think we can handle it if he tries to do any harm," Sesi said.
"Very well," Aniu said.
Relief washed over Steele.
"Thank you," he said, really meaning it.
"We will teach you on one condition," Aniu said. "Don't return to Nome. You may go anywhere else, but the dogs of Nome already know you're dead. Seeing a ghost would be a little much for them."
Aniu leaned forward slightly.
"And most of all," she said. "Stay away from Balto. He doesn't need you disrupting his new life."
Steele nodded.
"All right," Aniu said, sitting back. "The first thing you should learn is how to go from place to place without walking. You must focus all your mind on the place you want to go. Think 'ledge outside the cave' as hard as you can."
Steele closed his eyes and focused. Nothing happened. He opened his eyes.
"It's all right," Aniu said. "It takes some time to master."
Steele practiced for the rest of the day, finally getting the hang of it.
That night, the spirits agreed to let Steele spend the night in their cave.
Steele didn't say much at first, as he was still a little uncomfortable around the spirits.
"Well," Sesi said with a little smirk. "I guess the get Nuti a puppy thing has finally come to be. Happy, Nuti?"
Nuti chuckled.
"Now, I haven't asked for a puppy for almost a century!" he said.
Steele didn't like being called Nuti's puppy, but he didn't say anything.
"Nuti used to beg us for a puppy when he was a cub!" Sesi said to Steele.
The spirits talked about Nuti's cub days. Steele couldn't help but smile. Apparently, Nuti had been a very curious cub and was always getting into things.
The next day came and all three spirits started out.
Steele kept practicing disappearing and appearing.
Steele felt less miserable now that he could do something.
That night, only Sesi and Nuti returned to the cave. Steele asked where Aniu was.
"She's out talking to one of her descendants," Nuti said.
Steele raised an eyebrow.
"I thought she only had two pups," he said.
"That was from her second litter," Nuti said. "She had a mate before she was a spirit. Some of her descendants are still around."
"I think you've told him enough for now," Sesi said.
"There's no harm in me telling him that," Nuti said. "I didn't tell him where they were."
"I'm not going to cause any trouble," Steele said.
"You're right," Sesi said. "We won't let you."
"So…" Steele said, trying to change the subject. "Are these descendants half dog, too?"
"No," Nuti said, shaking his shaggy head. "They're all wolf."
"Does Balto know about Aniu being a spirit?" Steele asked.
"Not yet," Nuti said. "She wants to let him settle into his new life before she introduces herself."
Sesi frowned and shook her head.
"That's enough, Nuti," she said.
"OK, OK," Nuti said.
He looked a little annoyed but he went quiet. Then he smiled.
"So, Steele," he said. "You've been asking a lot about us, but I'm kind of curious about you. Do you have any family?"
"Not really," Steele said. "I came from a breeder in anchorage. My musher bought me when I was five months old. I did have siblings, but I have no idea what happened to them."
"That's too bad," Nuti said.
Steele shrugged.
"That's common for a lot of dogs," he said. "I got a good job and a decent home. Well, it was decent for me. Once I started winning races, my musher would treat me well and even let me come in the house sometimes. And once I started getting so many fans, I had job security. Which was good, considering what happened to old Rusty…"
Steele broke off and looked uncomfortable.
"Who's Rusty?" Nuti asked.
"He was a dog who ran with the team when I first started," Steele said. "I'd only been with the team for two months when the old guy's arthritis got too bad to run. I heard my musher saying that to another musher. I hoped that would mean he'd retire and stop slowing the team down. That's not what happened."
Now Steele looked down at his paws.
"One day my musher took Rusty and a rifle into the wilderness," Steele said. "Pup that I was, I thought there was a wolf or bear coming into town and that they were going to get rid of it. I never saw Rusty again and a dog named Sye sat me down and told me what happened. I was shocked and scared. I did all I could to prove I was valuable to the team. I had always dreamed of being a championship dog, but after that, I knew I had to be."
Steele looked up. Nuti looked horrified and Sesi was frowning but didn't look surprised.
"Well, I did become the lead dog, got fans and when I was older and wiser, I realized I couldn't just disappear," Steele said. "There'd be too many questions. My musher was greedy as he was competitive, so he'd probably sell me to a breeder. What musher wouldn't want a dog with my blood in it?"
Steele looked proud for a minute, but then frowned again.
"I never thought Balto was good enough to join the team," he said. "I know I was wrong now…but maybe Balto was lucky. When he gets too old, he'll have Jenna and his friends to take care of him. My old teammates…not so much."
"Maybe we could help them," Nuti said.
Steele felt surprisingly relieved at these words. Since he had become a ghost, he had come to regret nearly leading to his team's deaths. Now he didn't like the idea of the musher cold-bloodedly killing his teammates. He still couldn't feel sorry for the trio who had chased him over the cliff, but he felt bad for the others, especially Sye. Sye had helped train him and had been there for the other dogs—certainly more than Steele had.
"Thank you," Steele said. "It wouldn't happen to all of them. Nikki, Kaltag and Tillie will probably be sold to breeders. But Sye, probably not. He was never the best dog on the team."
"How would we know when a dog was about to die?" Sesi asked, sounding unconvinced.
"I could keep an eye on the team," Steele said.
"Nice try," Sesi said. "That would mean going back to Nome and you know it."
"Well, it wouldn't be for a while," Steele said. "Most of the dogs are still healthy and in good shape. Maybe by the time they're that old, you'll all trust me enough to return."
"I wouldn't count on it," Sesi said.
Just then, Aniu entered the cave.
"How's the pack?" Nuti asked.
"Fine," Aniu said.
She looked over at Steele.
"How did your practicing go?" she asked.
"I think I finally got the hang of it," Steele said.
Nuti then explained what Steele had told them.
Aniu looked sad but not shocked.
"I'm not surprised," she said. "Too many humans view dogs as property and nothing else."
"What do we do?" Nuti asked.
Aniu looked from Nuti's looking like he wanted to cry to Sesi's attempt to look indifferent to Steele's worried expression.
"You're really worried, aren't you?" she said to Steele.
He nodded.
She smiled.
"I think I have an idea…"