Balto: Pain of the Past

Chapter Two

Healing All Types of Wounds

[Five days later | January 16, 1921]

Throughout the last several days, Aniu has spent day and night with Ryder, giving him all of the treatment and care that she keeps telling him he deserves. With each passing day, his condition severely improved. It took him a little while to walk normally again, and even longer to run; it was only just yesterday when he finally did. Of course, he was very excited to finally achieve this, and Aniu shared that excitement. What's more, that excitement wasn't the only experience Ryder and Aniu shared. Throughout all of their time together, Aniu and Ryder developed a special bond neither of them really understood. They shared stories, told jokes, messed with and pranked each other from time to time, whatever they could do to pass the time and enjoy themselves. But the way they were able to relate to each other and talk about random things so easily — especially having only met once before when they were very little — is something truly spectacular and rare. But most importantly, there seems to be an unspoken thing between the two of them, some sort of binding force. It's as if they were always meant to find each other from the moment of their birth.

As usual, Ryder and Aniu are currently inside the cave, but there is something else on Ryder's mind, something regarding the very one who enabled him to run again. The storm is still raging outside, and it is currently dusk. As Ryder stares out into the storm, he says, "Aniu, I cannot express enough how thankful I am for everything you've done for me, and I don't just mean my body and injuries. I know it must have been hard, but now that I can move on my own, I don't have or want to be a burden to your survival any more than I already have been." Aniu gives Ryder a look of surprise. "A burden? Ryder, you're no burden! I enjoyed our time together, and I thought you did, too," she says back to him. "Of course I enjoyed it, more than anything in my life, in fact. But now that I'm healed, I can make my way on my own, and you don't have to worry about anyone other than yourself," Ryder responds back to her. "Nonsense. You do so much good and have been through so much bad, the least you deserve is a companion to get you back home," Aniu rebuts. Ryder lets loose a small smile, but it disappears as he says, "Perhaps, but you've already repaid me by healing me. So now you should be repaid by being able to survive without any distractions. I just want what's best for you," Ryder tells her persistently. Finally, Aniu has lost her patience. "RYDER, STOP WORRYING ABOUT OTHERS SO YOU CAN HELP YOURSELF!" she yells.

Ryder backs up slightly, caught off guard and unsure how to feel. Aniu has never even been angry at him before, so the fact that she literally yelled at him leaves him speechless. Seeing his reaction, Aniu sighs heavily. "I'm sorry, but you have to understand. You do plenty for others, now it's time you do some things for yourself," she says. Ryder looks down at the ground, and after a second, he defeatedly says, "Okay, you win." Despite his words, however, his thoughts begin to race. "It's not right that Aniu has to support the both of us, yet she seems very set on doing so. Should I listen to her, or should I take the matter into my own paws? Why is she so determined to take care of me, anyway? She keeps saying I 'deserve' it, but I doubt that," he thinks. Aniu breaks Ryder out of his thoughts when she says, "If we're going to leave tomorrow, we should go ahead and get some sleep. It's always good to leave early so we can cover more ground." "Yeah," Ryder says with a nod. He and Aniu both lie down, set their heads on their paws in front of them, and close their eyes. They are on either side of the cave, rather than lying against each other, since Ryder is healed and no longer needs Aniu's extra warmth. Later that night, the mix of nighttime and the snowstorm's thickness results in a thick blanket of darkness engulfing the entire area. Ryder is lying awake, unable to sleep. He looks over at Aniu, who unlike him, is sound asleep. "She is even beautiful when she sleeps," he thinks, "but she's even more beautiful on the inside, which is why she doesn't deserve having to deal with me. I'm sorry, Aniu, but I have to do this." With his decision in mind, Ryder stands up, and runs out of the cave into the dark storm.

[The next day | January 17, 1921]

It is early in the morning, just around sunrise. But for the first time in quite a while, it is easy to tell that. This is because the snowstorm has significantly weakened, finally allowing the area to clear up better and let much more light in. In the cave, Aniu wakes up with a yawn. After doing a stretch, she says, "Ryder, it's time to ..." but she cuts herself off as she realizes Ryder is not in the cave. "Ryder?" she asks, receiving no answer. She walks outside, and calls again, yet she still receives no answer. After thinking for a second, she sniffs the air a few times, then again the ground. After moving around a little while still sniffing the ground, her eyes go wide. She lifts her head back up, sighs regretfully, then angrily says, "Ryder, you idiot!" Making haste, Aniu runs into the distance, heading the same direction Ryder did the night before.

Several hours later, elsewhere in the wilderness, Ryder is walking slowly. He is completely exhausted; he walked throughout the entire night without sleeping or resting, all just to ensure that Aniu does not find him. As he slouch-walks on, his eyes continue to drop, only to pop back open shortly after. In his drowsiness, he hardly pays attention to where he is going. He ends up walking out onto a frozen lake, and he doesn't even realize until he slips and falls flat on his face. He groans, and picks himself back up, but then he hears a terrible sound he does not want to hear: cracking. He looks below himself to see that the ice is cracking below him, and the cracking is spreading. He takes a careful step, only for the ice below to crack even more. All of a sudden, the ice starts breaking apart behind and around him, so he breaks into a run. He continues to run, but the ice keeps breaking behind him, and his heavy paw steps only make it worse. At the edge of the lake behind Ryder, Aniu emerges from the treeline. When she sees him running while avoiding the breaking ice, she yells his name, but he does not hear her. She breaks into a sprint, desperate to catch up to him before things take a drastic turn.

As Ryder continues to run, he starts to get ahead of the breaking ice. Things are looking pretty good for him, then he hears his name get called. He looks over to his side, and sees Aniu running alongside him on the shore, a worried expression clear on her face even from all the way over there. Completely baffled by her actually being there, Ryder is no longer paying attention to where he is going. He has almost made it to the shore when his left forepaw lands on an already-cracked spot, immediately breaking through the ice. As soon as this happens, another faint crack can be heard as Ryder yells in pain and falls onto the ice. However, the faint crack did not come from the ice. "Ryder!" Aniu screams, changing direction and running across the ice and over toward Ryder. Ryder groans in pain, and pulls at his paw to try and get it out, but it is stuck. Upon pulling his paw, he groans louder due to the pain he just worsened. He pulls again despite the pain, but is successful in nothing but groaning once more in pain. As Ryder continues to do the same routine, both he and Aniu panic as the breaking ice is about to reach him. Aniu sprints harder, terrified of what is about to happen.

As Ryder watches the breaking ice draw near him, he calls out, "Ani-!" but does not get to finish as he plunges into the freezing water. "NO!" Aniu screams. As she gets to the area where Ryder fell in, without hesitation, she dives into the freezing water after him. After both of them are underwater for at least ten seconds, Aniu finally emerges at the shore, holding Ryder by the scruff. They're both lucky there wasn't much ice in that spot. Aniu drags Ryder ashore, and sets him down once they are out of reach of the water. She shakes the water off of her fur before lying down, herself. Both of them are shivering, Ryder quite more intensely since he is still wet, was under the water longer, and does not have as warm of fur. "My paw!" Ryder exclaims, looking at his left forepaw. It appears to be slightly mangled, and is bleeding a little where the ice punctured it. "You okay?" Aniu asks Ryder. Ryder quickly stands up on his three good paws, shakes the water off of his fur, then shouts, "What the hell are you doing here?" Aniu's jaw drops. "Are you serious? I just saved your life, a thank you would be nice! Besides, what the hell are you doing here?" she shouts back. "I told you yesterday, you deserve to survive while I make my way home on my own!" Ryder exclaims.

"You must be either deaf or stupid, because I clearly told you that YOU deserve a companion to help you get home!" Aniu shouts. "You're not listening to me! You deserve something good and I DON'T!" Ryder yells. Realizing what he said, Ryder winces, because now Aniu is going to give him a life-long lecture. After Ryder winces, Aniu sighs regretfully. "Ryder, you are a better creature than you will ever know. When are you going to look at yourself the same way I do?" Aniu says calmly. Ryder looks away, a couple tears falling from his eyes. "Aniu," he says sadly, "why do you care so much?" "Like I said before, why not?" Aniu answers. Ryder quickly looks back at Aniu, and says, "No! That's not good enough for me! Why do you care so much about me? Do you pity me, is it just your personality, just give me some kind of reason why someone as perfect as you could possibly care so much about me!" Ryder is not crying and his voice is not breaking, but tears are still flowing from his eyes.

Aniu smiles warmly. "It is both of those, yes, but also," she starts. She and Ryder lock eyes like they did at the very beginning, when Ryder was begging for help. Staring into his eyes now, Aniu is getting that same vibe of helplessness from him. She can see his pain and confusion, and how badly he wants to know her answer. As for Ryder, all he sees is how much Aniu cares, something he is only now beginning to understand. "Also," Aniu says again, before she finally does it. Closing her eyes, she leans closer to Ryder, and gives him a strong, passionate kiss on his muzzle. Ryder's eyes pop like a balloon, and his heart starts to race. But after a second, he leans into it, closes his eyes, and returns the favor to Aniu. As soon as he does so, a small breeze circles the two of them a single time. Once it leaves, both of them are completely dry, and all of Ryder's injuries are completely healed as if they never existed. The two canines stay like that for a full ten seconds until finally pulling apart, hearts in their eyes and tails wagging happily. "Wow, I ... it never occurred to me," Ryder says, at a complete loss for words. Aniu chuckles. "What, that you're very handsome and I love you," she says. "No, the first part everyone knows," Ryder says, earning a laugh from Aniu. "But yeah, I never thought you could ever love me," he tells her.

"What isn't there to love about you?" Aniu asks. "You're selfless, funny, energetic, handsome, and in my opinion, a little bit innocent. I would ..." "Innocent?" Ryder asks with surprise, cutting Aniu off. "Yeah, you sometimes have a hint of innocence to you, it's kind of cute. You act cute, is all I'm saying," she says, finishing with a small laugh. "Whatever you say, I guess," Ryder says. "So as I was saying, I would gladly spend the rest of my life with you," Aniu tells him. Ryder's entire figure goes blank. "You ... would?" he manages to say. Aniu giggles. "You see what I mean, you act kind of cute. As for your question ... OF COURSE I WOULD! I just explained what I love about you, and when lovers love each other enough, they mate," she explains. Ryder's eyes go wide again. "You want to ... do that?" he asks, a blush appearing on his face. "Oh, goodness, no! I meant that they become mates," Aniu says, laughing humorously after. "Oh," Ryder says, blushing deeper. However, as Ryder takes what Aniu is saying into deep consideration, his blush quickly disappears as his typical, joyful energy returns to him all at once. "If that's the case, then ... Aniu, would you be my mate?" he asks, strong confidence clear in his voice as much as his fun energy is.

Aniu, despite what she had told Ryder just a second ago, is genuinely surprised. Her heart starts to race, her mouth drapes a little, and her eyes go wide. "W ... what, wait, you ..." she stutters, at a complete loss for words. The roles have been completely reversed, now. Ryder is pumping with energy and confidence, and Aniu is being more submissive and shy. Or as the two of them have called it, she is acting 'cute.' Ryder laughs humorously. "Who's acting cute now?" he teases. Aniu gives him a playful look, then mirroring Ryder's confidence, she says, "Yes, I would like to be your mate." Overjoyed and relieved to hear that answer, Ryder suddenly latches onto Aniu in a deep hug, Aniu immediately returning the favor. They remain that way for a small while, eyes closed and tails wagging a mile a minute, until they both bounce up and laugh excitedly. After they calm down, and they are just sitting in front of each other, Aniu reaches back in and hugs Ryder again. They remain like that for a small while once again, until finally, they finish up. They let go of each other, and just stare into the other's eyes, their love clear as day. Everything that has happened between them ever since they met, it cannot just be a game of chance. It is as if it was something always meant to be.