Chapter 8.

This is the eight chapter. There will be a few differences to it. Hope you enjoy it.

The now sledge team was making cracking progress until they came to a point in the trail where there were two directs to go do (left and right). Balto stopped the sledge as he looked around for his marks, as he though had come this way earlier. However, what he saw when he looked around made his heart stop: dozens of trees down both ways were marked! They were all pretty much the same size, and looked very similar. With both ways marked, it was going to be harder than he thought to find the way back. "Which way, Balto? Which way? Which way?" Star asked besides him. Balto knew he had to made a decision quickly. "Uh… this way." Balto answered, before making the horses go down the way on the right. Time went by, and the team then realised they were approaching ground which seemed familiar, then moments later they saw the trail ahead divided in two ways, when Balto then stopped the horses. They were back where they started! "Balto, why are you taking us in circles?" Kaltag asked, with a hint of frustration in his voice. "I'm not! Maybe. I don't know. Steele's got to have something to do with this." Balto said back to the group. "Maybe we were better off without him." Nikki said to some of the others. Balto heard, however. Hesitating, he then made the horses go down the other trail to the left, making horses trot much faster this time. Time seemed to slow down for Balto as the sledge went by more and more marked trees. His worry this was making blocked our Stars plea for him to slow down. His emotions became so worried that he almost failed to notice the trees opening up ahead and revealing a small slope which went down into a cliff!

Coming back to his senses, mouth and eyes widening at the sight of the cliff, he pulled the reins as hard as he could, making all the horses stop instantly. However, the snow was too slippery and the sledge and horses both kept going down. As they came upon the cliff edge, the horses were building a mould of snow in front of them with their hooves. Just before they reached the cliff edge itself, the horses and the sledge came to a complete stop. The men all breathed a sigh of relief, letting the tension out of their bodies. The relief was short-lived however, as they all suddenly heard the sounds of rope breaking and saw that the medicine crates ropes had breaking and the medicine had just fallen off the sledge and was heading rapidly down the slope towards the cliff edge! His instincts going off, Balto instantly leaped off the sledge and grabbed one of the crates rope trails just before it went off the edge. Smiles came upon the crew after seeing this. "All right. Good catch, Balto!" Star said, who was among those smiling. But moments later, the ground around balto started to crack, and before he knew it, the ground around him had given away and he was falling down into the cliff with the medicine crate, screaming as he fell. The rest of the crew were left speechless after this.

Back in Nome…

With the snow falling around them, Boris, with Muk and Luk were looking through a glassless window hole in the ruined house (where many soldiers used to rest and keep warm by the fire), seeing Jenna (now better) talking to some other soldiers. She had told them what Balto was doing, but their reactions weren't exactly encouraging. "I don't get it. How can Balto hope to find Steele and his team? They were off the trail!" One of the soldiers said. "Well, he's tracking them." Jenna said back. "One man, tracking a winner led team, in a blizzard?!" Another soldier asked rhetorically, making him and several others laugh at him. This made Jenna put a crossed look on her face. The laughter suddenly stopped when a gust a wind suddenly blew into the house, as if indicating something. Standing in the entrance hole in the side of the house, was a dark figure, dressed in a German Army uniform which was covered in snowflakes. "Balto?" Jenna asked herself quietly, but her face suddenly became disappointed as the figure stepped forward and revealed itself to be an exhausted looking Steele. "Captain Steele!" "Sir!" You're back!" "Where have you been?" Are you ok?" The rest of the soldier started saying, one at a time as one of them passed Steele a bottle of beer, who took it and drank down several gulps in a flash. "Captain Steele, wh-where are the others?" The radio operator, who was among those assembled asked. "One by one, they fell. Frozen. Barely alive. The horses too. I tried to pull the men on the wagon myself. I pulled and I pulled, but… it was just too late. They were dead." Steele explained in a bit of a dramatic way, sitting by the fire and rubbing his hands together. Hearing this made some of the soldiers open their mouths and eyes wide. "What about the medicine?" The radio operator asked. "I abandoned the wagon, dragging the medicine alone. All alone. And then, that Englishman appeared, Balto. He demanded that I give the medicine to him. He just wanted so much to be a hero. He grabbed the crate from me and started to walk, but he wasn't looking where he was going. He failed to see the frozen lake in front of him. And across it, the cracks began… he didn't have a chance. He sawm back to shore, but the medicine sank. And then…" Steele explained again, before opening his wet tunic and too out the half of Jenna's bandanna he still had. "My bandanna..." Jenna said softly, as she saw it. "He made me promise to take care of you, Jenna." Steele said, as he placed the bandanna on the floor in front of her. A few moments of silence filled the house, before Jenna looked at Steele with an angry look. "You're lying." She said firmly, before slapping Steele in the face, shocking everyone present. "You're lying! Balto's alive. And he's coming back." She said to all of them before picking up the piece of bandanna and rushing out of the house. "She probably needs some time alone." Sad Steele, who was rubbing his face Where Jenna had slapped him, thinking his plan had worked.

And that's the eight chapter. Its quite short compared to some of the others, but that doesn't matter. Is Balto dead or alive? You'll find out in the next chapter, which will be out soon.