Nenana
The train pulled into the station at Nenana, and awoke Nicole with a loud, screeching whistle. She jumped, forgetting where she was, and barked loudly. A man had come to unload the antitoxin from the train and heard the barking inside. He pried open the door and, to his surprise, found what looked like a border collie in the car.
Nicole looked up at the man in shock, eyes widened, ankles shaking, with her tail between her legs.
"Hey! What're you doing in here, mutt!" the man shouted at her. Nicole bolted out of the train car as fast as she could into the unfamiliar town of Nenana. The man at the train station ran after her through the blinding snowstorm, but soon lost track of her in the narrow alleyways. He shook his head as he turned around and began to walk back to the train station.
Nicole ran desperately through the winding, narrow alleyways of Nenana until she finally ran out of breath. She came to an abrupt halt and, exhausted, bent over and panted heavily. When she finally caught her breath, she hesitatingly looked over her shoulder, expecting to see the man from the station closing in on her. To her delight, she saw only a bleak, desolate alleyway, and snow blowing every which way. She sighed in relief. "Not quite a warm welcome," she said to herself with a shiver, "in any sense of the word." She looked around, seeing no kind of shelter she could take, and sighed again. She raised her nose into the frigid air and began to sniff for food; for the three days she spent on the train, she had neither eaten nor drank anything, and her stomach felt tight and empty. She caught the scent of meat, but she knew she would have to get into a butcher's shop to get that. There was a faint hint of kibble, the kind fed to sled dogs. She followed the scent to a place where a team of sled dogs was resting as their musher waited for the package they were to deliver. At the sight of these unfamiliar faces, Nicole lowered her ears and walked towards the food with her tail just barely between her legs, crouching lower to the ground. Just as she was about to take a bite of the kibble that seemed to be calling her name, one of the dogs woke up, and interrupted her.
"Hey, I wouldn't do that if I were you," the dog warned her as he shook the snow out of his fur. "I may not live here, but I know this town doesn't take too kindly to strays."
"I'm not a . . ." Nicole began. She put a paw up to where her collar would have been, but it was gone, lost in the fight with the bear. Then it finally sunk in: she no longer had a home; she was, in fact, a stray. "Oh, I guess I am then," she corrected herself. She looked back up at the dog and began to explain herself. "I wasn't a stray three days ago," she started, "but something terrible happened, and I ran away from my home in Anchorage, got into a train car for shelter, and ended up here. I haven't eaten since I left home. Please, can I just have some food?"
The dog looked at her sympathetically, then put his head up and scanned the area. "I can't let something as pretty as you are starve to death," he admitted. She couldn't help blushing a little at his comment, but the sled dog noticed the beautiful stray look away from him, thinking of someone else . . . a lost love? Quickly, he changed the subject. "Hurry, before the musher comes back. He'll call the pound for sure."
"Thank you," Nicole sighed in gratitude. Before the dog could blink, Nicole started ravenously wolfing down the food, awakening her stomach from what felt like death; she had never gone this long without eating. She looked up at the dog, who chuckled when she met his gaze with her mouth full of food. She swallowed, and blushed. "I'm sorry," she said, her cheeks turning red, "I never introduced myself. I'm Nicole."
"I'm . . ." Before he could tell her his name, the dog was cut off by the shouting of his musher.
"Get out of here, mutt!" he called, kicking snow at her. She ran off, looking back at the tan husky that had been so helpful, and then ducking into a dark alley. The musher alerted a man from the pound, and as he finished preparing his team for the long journey ahead of them, the man went after Nicole. She stayed hidden until nightfall, when the snow had begun to fall hard again, swirling through the night air: a blizzard.
She shivered. Nenana wasn't what she had expected at all. She sighed; she would never belong here. Her thoughts wandered back to three nights ago, and tears came to her eyes when Jack's face came to her memory. She lifted her head towards the heavens, into the blinding snow and wind, and closed her eyes. "What should I do, Jack?" she silently asked him. The wind ceased to sting as it blew snow into her face, and she felt an invisible force lovingly nuzzle her. "Jack . . ." She opened her eyes, and fresh tears streamed onto her frozen cheeks as she forced a weak grin, wrought with both despair and joy.
Before her stood Jack's spirit walking, floating towards her. She ran to him and passionately nuzzled his ghostly form, tears still streaming down her face. "I'm so lost without you, Jack . . . I don't know what to do anymore" she whispered. The ghost pulled away from her, and silently looked out into the blizzard. She moved closer to him and followed his gaze with her own. He walked forward, creating a path through the blinding storm. She followed, confused, as he led her back towards the train station. He stopped, and gestured towards the team leaving with the package from the train. Jack's ghost leaned over to Nicole and nuzzled her gently. With a gust of wind and snow, he passed through her, carried over the trail westward, following the team. "Wait! Don't go!" she called after him, running out into the storm, stopping when she realized her attempts were in vain. "I need you . . ." she whispered, staring off into the cloudy night sky where he had disappeared. She sighed and gazed after the receding form of the sled team, making their way through the forest. "He wants me to follow them," she thought, and ran off into the horizon after the team.
On the trail
Steele's team was leaving Nenana, with wind and snow blowing in their faces as they headed toward Nome. All Steele could think about was how he was going to make Balto pay for stealing Jenna's heart from him. As his large, muscular paws rhythmically pounded the snow, his eyes narrowed over the trail. All he could see was the destination: Nome, Jenna, and Balto's demise; he couldn't tell that his jet black coat was becoming white from the blinding snow, or that the rest of his team was close to being frostbitten. All he cared about was revenge. He sped on, ignoring the complaints from his teammates and the shouts of his musher to slow down.
"Steele!" Nikki shouted at the top of his lungs over Star and Kaltag's heads in front of him. "The team can't go no farther if we keep up this pace, boss!" Steele simply looked over his shoulder and cast a furious glance at Nikki as he kept on running. He turned and faced forward again, putting the whole of his weight and strength into the harness.
"Easy now, Steele!" called the musher from behind the sled, trying to slow the team by taking his foot off the runners and placing it on the snow speeding under him. The team was going too fast, and the musher stumbled forward, doubling over the handlebars of the sled. He grunted, and pulled himself back up onto the runners.
Kaltag happened to turn around then, and saw the musher fall over the sled. He turned to face forward again, and shouted as loud as he could over the swirling, deafening blizzard winds around them. "Steele!" he yelled, "We'll never make it to Nome in one long run! It's physically impossible! We've got to stop and rest before the whole team falls over from exhaustion and hypothermia, not to mention frostbite!" he said, panting. Steele shot an angry glance back at Kaltag, and thought he saw a black and white female jogging after the team he shook his head and she disappeared in the blizzard. He shrugged and turned back to the trail.
"They're right, Steele!" the other dogs began to shout. "We've got to stop and rest or we'll all die!"
The musher heard the barking amongst the team, and yelled out to Steele once more. "Easy, boy! We'll never get to Nome like this!" Steele refused to slow his pace, and sped on. The musher concluded that something must be wrong with Steele, his usually fast-tempered, but always reliable lead dog. "Whoa!" he shouted as he threw the snow hook out behind him. It caught the trail and sunk in, bringing the team to a sudden halt. He jumped off the sled and ran up to the front of the team. "That's it, Steele," he said soothingly, approaching Steele. "Just take a break. We all need it," he continued, out of breath. He moved his hand toward Steele's head to pet him, but Steele lashed out, snarling, and clamped his massive jaws down on the musher's hand. "AHHHH!" he groaned, clutching his injured left hand as he backed away quickly from Steele, who was still growling at him. Nikki, Kaltag, and Star immediately jumped out of their harnesses and put themselves in between the musher and Steele. True, Steele was their leader, and they had to follow him, but this time he'd gone too far.
Star turned and nuzzled the musher's hand, looking up at him with concern, as Nikki and Kaltag began to bark furiously at Steele. The musher smiled a little and unhooked Star from the gang line with his good hand, letting him follow him back to the sled, where he kept the first-aid supplies. He picked up the bag, but couldn't open the zipper with one hand. Star bit one end of the bag and held it steady as the musher pulled down the zipper. "Thanks, boy," he said softly, and patted Star's head. He bandaged his injured hand, with considerable effort, shivering from the exposure both his hands got while doing so. He slid his warm gloves back on, and cautiously detached the rest of the team from the gang line, putting distance between them and Steele. He fed the team and tossed some food to Steele, who glanced at it and turned away. He would leave the troubled leader alone for the night to teach him his lesson, and hopefully find his reliable dog back in the morning. The dogs moved in close to their musher and kept him warm as they slept, having never felt this tired in their lives.