Kodi walked towards the two dogs, their words filling him with anger. He could hear his friends behind him, trying to get him to come back. He ignored all of them. Kodi had never really gotten defensive about his ancestry before, usually resorting to joking along with whomever it was that was saying it.

But these dogs were different. The dogs in Nome may have made fun of his family's wolven heritage, but it was always clear that they were just messing around. These dogs actually meant it, and what's more they revelled in the deaths of their own ancestors. It was this that made Kodi march over to the Labrador and his friends.

When Kodi got near to the two dogs they stopped talking and looked around at him.

'I noticed that you and your friends didn't toast,' said the Labrador.

Kodi growled. 'We don't toast murder where I'm from.'

'Oh that's right, you're from Nome, where mongrel half-breeds and wolves run the place. I'm surprised you're not part wolf yourself.'

Kodi growled as the Labrador began to circle him, chuckling as he did so.

'You know, your coat is a little…wolven,' he said. 'What do you think Bruce?'

The boxer nodded. 'Looks that way to me Mezzo. Maybe we should take him outside for a lesson in "dom-est-i-cation."'

A low growl stopped the two dogs in their tracks. 'You'll have to go through me first,' Steele said before smashing "Mezzo" in the side of the head. The dog landed on the ground with a thud that silenced everyone present. He looked up at Steele and slowly began to rise.

'You shouldn't have done that, friend,' the Labrador said as around 10 dogs began circling Steele and Kodi. The Boxer, Bruce, came forward.

'Yeah Steele, since when do you care about wolves?'

'I don't give a damn about wolves! But Kodi is a sled dog, and son of a dog that saved my life. Sled dogs stick together no matter what differences we have. You should know that... oh no wait, you're alljust pets.'

The boxer and the Labrador growled in unison, as did most of the other dogs that began closing in on the two huskies.

'You want to fight them, you've got to fight all of us!' shoutedRalph from behind the pack. Dusty,Kaltag, Nikkistood next toRalph and growled. Star, stood behind Kaltag, just snarled and waved apaw at the Labrador.

The other dogs in the Woodcutterslaughed.

'What are you going to do?' sneered a German shepherd. 'You're a bunch of mangy inbred hick dogs from hick town.'

The Nome dogs all snarled and hurled insults back.

'Who are you calling mangy? You…you stupid!' shouted Star. Next to him, Kaltag rolled his eyes and buried his face in his paw.

Kodi realised they were outnumbered quite quickly as they all circled one another with teeth showing and growling. He knew that if anything started, that they'd lose. He couldn't risk the others like that, especially Dusty. He could never forgive himself if she got hurt.

'Wait a minute!' he shouted. 'We're going to leave. We don't want any trouble.'

The Nome dogs looked at one another puzzled and slowly walked towards the door, the locals sneering and shouting abuse after them.

'I still think we would've kicked their tails!' said Ralph.

'No chance,' said Steele. 'Knowing when to run away is a key skill.'

Nikki looked over. 'Geez Steele, when did yous become so philosophical?'

Steele smiled. 'Knowing when to fight, and when to accept defeat is key to being a good leader. I forgot that once.'

Kodi was blown back. Had he gotten Steele wrong? Had the dog changed from his experience of almost three years ago? Steele looked over at Kodi.

'You made the right choice, kid. You'll make a good leader someday.'

'I'm leader of the mail sled team,' Kodi said.

Steele chuckled. 'That's why I said 'A good leader.'"

Kodi thought as they walked back to their sled to get ready for the early morning mail run. When Steele had been put in the postal-sled team, Kodi had been worried. When Kodi had told Balto, the wolf/dog couldn't believe it, but he knew that there was nothing they could do. The original mail musher of Nome had moved on to Fairbanks. Steele's owner had been put in charge of the postal sled and bought his dog with him. Kodi and Balto had wondered if Steele was to be made lead dog, but he wasn't. Soon after that, Kodi had heard Steele's owner talking to the blacksmith. He'd said that he wouldn't put Steele as a lead dog after what had happened on the diphtheria run, the run that Balto had saved.

Kodi was left as the lead dog, but he'd wondered if Steele would resent that. He hadn't ever seemed to. Sure, Steele made snide comments and remarks about him and the rest of the team, but he'd never criticised Kodi's position as lead-dog.

'Why'd he do that?' Kodi asked Kaltag. Kaltag was one of the few dogs that had actually kept talking to Steele after the diphtheria incident. As much as he'd hated Steele, Kaltag couldn't forget that he and Steele had grown up together and that they'd been on their first sled together. Whatever Steele had become, Kaltag knew he couldn't abandon him like the other dogs had tried to.

Kaltag looked at the back of the large black and white Husky as he walked a few feet ahead.

'When he first got back, after you're father returned the medicine, Steele was so depressed. He couldn't believe that he could be shown up by "a half-breed."'

Kodi stared at Kaltag, who noticed and added, 'his words of course,' then went on.

'But after a while, he stopped being angry. He'd realised that he'd frozen out there, that he'd let the team down and tried then tried to cover it up to save face. That hit Steele hard. He realised that he shouldn't hate Balto, he should thank him.'

Kodi butted in. 'He never did though; my dad wouldn't have been able to shut up about it if he had.'

'True, Steele's ego is still as large as it ever was, hence why most still see him as a womanising idiot. But he respects your father, and through you're father, he respects you.'

'I never knew,' Kodi said, looking at the Husky with new eyes.

'Yeah,' Kaltag laughed. 'He hides it well, doesn't he?'

The two laughed to themselves quietly. Star came bounding up. Thinking he'd missed out on a great joke, he began to laugh to make them think he'd been listening. Kaltag simply raised onepaw and smacked the small dog around the back of the head, making him dive face first into the snow.

'Dumbass,' Ralph said as he walked by the crumpled grey dog.