. . . Often Go Awry
"Come on, Uncle Boris! Let's play again!" Aleu exclaimed, wagging her tail happily.
Boris sat up slowly, covered in snow. "I think we've played 'Stalk the Goose' enough already. Why don't we just rest for a while?" He glanced up. "Oi! Why do I let myself get talked into these things?"
"But I'm bored, Uncle Boris," Aleu whined. "We've been waiting forever!"
"Not long enough for forever." Aleu gave him as pitiful of look as her bright blue eyes could muster. Boris sighed. "All right, all right. How about we play new game?"
"Sure!" Aleu agreed readily.
"Okay. Dis game is called 'Baby-sit.'"
Aleu frowned suspiciously. "I've never heard of that before. How do we play?"
"Simple. I say baby sit. You the baby, so you sit." He pushed her into a seated position under a pine tree before reclining against the trunk himself.
"Awww! But Uncle Boris!" Aleu flopped down, resting her head angrily on her forepaws. "Can't we just go find Papa and go home?"
"I don't think that is good idea. Your father wants us to wait right here."
"But I'm getting hungry and cold."
"I'm sure it won't be much longer," Boris said, patting her head.
Aleu lowered her head back to her paws before raising it again. She sniffed the air, and grew excited when she caught the savory aroma of cooking meet. "Hey! Food!" She jumped up and started to jog toward the source of the smell."
"Hey! Come back here!" Boris called. He waddled after her as fast as he could, but she was already running downhill. "Heel, Girl! What you think you are, Greyhound? Come back!" Aleu paid no attention to him and he shook his head. "Balto's going to kill me."
Balto shook his head as he eavesdropped on the humans' conversation. They were there to build all right, and from the sound of it, things weren't good at all. He'd overheard plans for a store as well as for lodging arrangements. It seemed as if Kemo was right after all. Unfortunately, he had no way to know for certain. If only he could find out what the finished project would be.
The man who was lodging with him bent down to study some papers. "I still don't think this is quite what we're looking for. What we had in mind was something smaller right here. Less intrusive."
One of the other men looked up from the paper. "What did you have in mind, Jim?"
Balto raised his ears to listen to every word. "We were more interested in . . ."
A group of startled shouts followed by a loud clang cut him off, and Balto looked irately behind him. He saw another human, obviously a cook, run to the table.
"What's the matter, Tommy?" he heard one of the men ask. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
One of the other men elbowed the cook jokingly. "Whatever he's fixing us probably sat up and shook his hand," he laughed.
The cook shook his head. "Tweren't no ghost, and tweren't your dinner. I just seen one o' them wolves the locals was ravin' about." Balto sat up sharply. If they were going after Kemo . . .
The first man reached for a rifle. "You're kidding. Where?"
"I got 'im pinned up in the potato bin. Just a littleun."
Balto made a mad dash for the kitchen tent. I wonder what a wolf pup would be doing in a human camp. Racing quickly located the metal box near the back of the tent. "Can you hear me?"
A tiny voice, slightly muffled by the metallic echoing, answered from inside. "Papa! Get me out of here! I'm scared!"
Balto's heart leapt to his throat. Aleu! "One second." He quickly studied the latch, and then used his nose to flip the catch. The door fell open, and he reached his head inside and picked up his daughter by the scruff of the neck and turned to leave just as four men, including Ramsey, rushed to the flap. Balto set his daughter down and crouched in front of her, ready to spring into action.
Two began to raise their weapons, but were stopped by a third. "Hold it. That's just Balto again."
"Are you sure?" one asked.
"Positive," the first declared.
Ramsey nodded his confirmation. "That's him all right. And the other's one of his pups. I'm staying with their owners. They must've followed me, though I can't fathom why. Or how."
Taking advantage of the lull in danger, Balto hastily carried his daughter out of the tent and didn't stop running until they were safely out of the human camp. Breathing heavily, he set her down and stood where he was, trying to catch his breath. "Are you all right?"
"I think so," she replied in a quavering voice.
Tricksy sprinted over to him. "Balto! What happened? I heard an awful racket down there." Then she saw Aleu trembling next to her father.
Composing himself, Balto looked up at his companion. "Aleu startled a few humans . . ."
Before Balto could continue, Boris came running up to them. "There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" He grabbed Aleu's face with his wings. "Don't scare me like that again!" He broke off when he saw Balto's expression.
His gaze hardened as he glared at his daughter. "What do you think you were doing back there?"
"Lighten up, Balto," Tricksy began. "Everyone's all right, so why don't you just . . ." She broke off too as Balto's eyes turned in her direction.
"Let's head for Nome. Now." He nudged Aleu forward, and Boris and Tricksy fell into step behind them. As she trudged along, Aleu knew that the journey home would not be pleasant.
The silence was ominous during the long walk home. Tricksy had long since run home, and Boris, after exchanging a few words with Balto, had flown toward Nome to "find some chow." Aleu had regretfully watched him go, knowing that her last potential ally had abandoned her. They continued to walk in silence, and while normally that wouldn't be a problem, it compounded Aleu's terror of arriving home. He had never struck her in anger, but she'd never before seen her father this angry, either. After today, I'm not sure I should push my luck.
The sky was lit only by the faint Northern Lights as they neared the outskirts of the town. Balto turned her on a new course toward the grounded boat where he had lived once upon a time. This was definitely not good. "Uh, Papa, why are we going there?" she asked hesitantly.
"We need privacy," her father answered shortly.
Privacy? She gulped. That couldn't be good. Personally she would've preferred a public, well-lit locale with several witnesses. She knew she was in for it; she could discern that much from her father's expression. To what extent, however, she had no idea, and as they approached the derelict trawler, a sense of impending doom washed over her. Her pace slackened until a bump of her father's nose nudged her into motion. Reluctantly, she crept up the gangplank. Entering the cabin, she edged her way to the far corner and cowered there, eyes lowered and tail tucked between her legs. She wished he would yell at her, hit her, or something, anything, to end the wait. Her father remained silent as he entered the cabin.
Balto knew his daughter was waiting for him to blow up, and this caused him to check his automatic reaction to do so. He sat down momentarily to compose himself, trying to separate fact from emotion. He was only partially successful as he fought hard to keep his voice calm. "One reason," he growled. "I'd like to hear one reason for what happened back there."
"Papa, I . . ."
"I'm not finished." Aleu's protests died unspoken. "I told you to stay with your Uncle Boris. I told you not to follow me and Tricksy. You could've been hurt!"
Aleu shuddered. Her father wasn't yelling, but his severe tone had the same effect. "I was cold and hungry and I smelled food and I . . ." She broke off, sobbing.
Balto hesitated, realizing that she wasn't the only one at fault here. He'd made the mistake in bringing her on a potentially dangerous mission, and he really shouldn't have left them waiting so long. He knew that she was almost as upset as himself, probably more, but after what almost happened . . . "Look, Aleu," he began in a calmer voice, "a surprised human can be very dangerous, especially when they think you're a . . . thief." Balto was thankful he'd not allowed himself to slip up and say wolf.
Aleu choked back another sob. "But I wasn't going to steal anything. I was just hoping they'd give me something like Rosie does."
"Not all humans are like Rosie."
"I'm sorry, Papa. I didn't think . . ."
"That's right. You didn't." Aleu lowered her head in shame. "Hopefully you'll learn something from what happened. Let's go home before you mother starts to worry. We'll discuss this more later." He turned abruptly and walked out of the cabin, and a downcast Aleu trailed after him.
They arrived back at the house quickly, and Aleu slunk past her mother and siblings and hurried to the back room. Confused, they turned to Balto for answers, but he was noncommittal and simply lay down in front of the fireplace. Jenna decided against asking him openly in front of their guests, and resolved to drag the information out of him later. The pups on the other hand, chose not to wait and instead followed Aleu back to the room.
Aleu was lying in bed with her face turned away from them, and they quickly rushed over to her. Entering last, Jenner nudged the door partly closed before joining his brothers and sister around Aleu. "So what gives?" he asked.
Kala nodded. "Yeah. We heard the human mention you and Papa."
"He said you got caught," Rush added.
"And that some people thought you were a wolf," Dingo chimed.
Aleu rolled over sharply. "Thought I was a what?"
"A wolf," Dingo repeated.
"That's ridiculous. A wolf's a wild animal. How could anyone think I was a wolf?"
Rush shrugged. "I don't know, I never saw one. That's just what he said."
"You know humans aren't very bright," Jenner said. "But I think it would be neat to be a wolf."
"Who cares about that?" Kala interjected. "What happened?"
Aleu lowered her head to her paws again. "Nothin'," she muttered.
"Oh, come on," Dingo protested.
"Yeah," Kodi agreed. "Papa's madder than a polar bear in summer, and you're in here cryin' your eyes out. Something must've happened."
Aleu sighed and sat up. "Okay. Something did happen, but it wasn't entirely my fault."
Kala rolled her eyes. "Why does that sound familiar?"
"Maybe 'cause we heard it yesterday for something else that wasn't her fault," Rush commented.
Aleu clinched her teeth. "I don't have to tell you guys anything, you know."
Kala held up a paw. "Okay, okay. Just go on."
Jenna finally found her chance to talk to her mate when the others were called by their human. She laid down beside him and watched the fire. "If you don't shake this bad mood, you're going to make one lousy host when we take Aurora and Dash's family to the Old Mill tonight."
Balto rolled to a half-seated position. "Oh, no." He closed his eyes. "Not tonight, Jen. I don't think I can handle any more excitement tonight."
"Something that happened earlier?" Jenna queried innocently.
"I suppose you're waiting for an explanation."
Jenna nodded. "It would be nice. I heard that human mention seeing you and Aleu."
"Aleu got caught by humans today. They thought she was a wolf."
"What?!" Jenna sat up sharply.
"Keep it down, Jenna. We don't want to upset everyone else. I left her with Boris while Tricksy and I went to observe the human camp Kemo told us about. Aleu apparently got tired of waiting and ran off to get something to eat. To make a long story short, she got caught by the cook and I had to get her out. We both would've been dead if that human hadn't recognized us."
"No wonder you're both upset."
"That's why I'm upset. I think she's upset because of a little talk we had on the way home."
"Then he said we needed some privacy and took me to his boat."
"Did he sock ya?" Jenner demanded.
Aleu shook her head. "No, but I thought he was going to."
Kala frowned. "Did he yell at you?"
"No," Aleu replied softly.
The others collectively heaved an exasperated sigh. "Then what happened?"
"He asked me why I did what I did, and then he said we're going to discuss it more later."
Jenner winced. "Uh oh. The dreaded words. Been nice knowin' ya, Aleu."
"Shut up, Jenner!" Kala ordered, shoving him aside. "This is serious. She may have done something incredibly stupid, but this isn't a laughing matter."
"Thanks a lot," Aleu growled, laying down again.
"I guess that didn't come out right," Kala replied with a grimace. "So what do you think'll happen?"
Her sister shrugged. "I don't know, and I don't really want to."
"What do you mean by that?" Kala asked suspiciously.
Aleu looked innocently at her. "Mean by what?"
Before Kala could reply, Jenna called from the livingroom. "Kala! Aleu! You and your brothers come out here. We're getting ready to go to the Old Mill!"
The pups' mood immediately brightened, and they rushed toward the door. Jenner glanced over his shoulder, and noticing that Aleu hadn't moved from the bed, stopped. "Aren't you coming?"
"No."
"What am I supposed to say if Mama or Papa ask why?"
Aleu shrugged, and turned away. Jenner sighed and walked out of the room.
The house was a hive of activity. Jenna was running back and forth, trying to get the pups groomed, the pups were excitedly running all over the place, playing and generally giving their mother fits, and their guests sitting back and watching it all.
Balto sat down facing Aurora and Dash. "Do things ever get this exciting down where you live?"
Aurora laughed lightly. "All the time, and our pup's almost full-grown."
"You seem to have done a good job with him." Balto sighed thoughtfully. "Kaltag and Tricksy make parenting seem so easy. There's times when I wonder if I'm doing everything right."
Dash shook his head. "You aren't." Seeing Balto considering an appropriate protest, Dash continued, "Everyone makes mistakes. There's no such thing as a perfect parent. Just let it come naturally."
Balto nodded toward the pups. "The last time someone gave me that advice, I ended up with more than I bargained for."
"I think everyone's ready," Jenna announced as she joined them.
"Come on, pups!" Balto called. The puppies dashed over and lined up. "Now I want you guys to be on your best behavior while we're out. That means be polite to everyone and tone down the roughhousing and . . ." Balto glanced over the group. "Where's Aleu?"
Jenner shrugged. "Last time I saw her, she was back in our room."
"Yeah," Kala added. "She didn't look happy."
"Are you making her stay here?" Jenna asked quietly.
Balto frowned. "No. I'll go get her."
When he looked into the room, he saw his daughter lying in bed. Taking a deep breath, he squeezed through the partially closed door, causing a hinge to squeak. Aleu looked toward the doorway, but upon seeing her father, quickly put her head back down, hoping he hadn't seen her move. Balto tried not to smile; she never was good at pretending. "Aleu, we're getting ready to leave."
"I'm not coming," she mumbled.
"Why not? Are you sick?" Aleu remained silent. "Is it because you're still mad at me?" When Aleu still failed to respond, he closed his eyes, and tried to keep his voice neutral. "Look, we don't have time for this. If you're still mad at me, we'll talk about it whenever we get back. Now do you want to come with us?"
Aleu shot her father an angry glance. "Yes."
"Well then you're going to have to get your fur groomed and cheer up before we leave. So are you coming or not?"
Aleu placed her head between her paws, again refusing to respond.
Balto growled in frustration. "I don't know why I bother. Suit yourself, but you can still change your mind. I hope you will." He walked away and stopped momentarily at the door, hoping that Aleu would join him. When she didn't he shook his head in disappointment and walked out.
"Where's Aleu?" Jenna asked when Balto reentered the room.
"She's sulking."
"What? She's wanted to go the Old Mill with the us for a long time."
"She said she's not coming."
"I'll go talk to her," Jenna replied firmly.
"Just let her be, Jenna."
Jenna looked toward the doorway. "Maybe I should stay here. Someone has to look after her."
Balto shook his head. "She's not alone. The humans are here to watch her."
Jenner hesitantly stepped forward. "Uh, Papa? I'm not feeling too good. Can I stay home this time?"
Balto forced a smile away from his face. Jenner was feeling fine; he just wanted to keep Aleu company. "Sure, Big Guy. We'll take you when you're feeling better." As Jenner trotted back to sit with Aleu, Balto turned to the others. "All right everyone. Let's mush."
