Up on the hill, Balto had ran over to find his mother and siblings waiting for him. Aniu gave him a stern look before she put him face-down on the ground with her paw. "Balto!" she reprimanded, "Good hunters always follow orders from their fellow pack members. I expected you to be present with your siblings, but now I have to show you what happens to the omega wolves who don't follow orders!"

"Mama, please!" the runt whined, "I'm sorry! I just wanted to see what Qimmia was up to!"

Qimmia, who had heard Balto's cries, rushed over and said, "Aniu, he's right. The fault is mine – I caused a distraction for him when he saw me adjusting my spear."

Aniu looked at the girl sternly for a few moments, but then her expression softened a bit. "Qimmia," the wolf mother said, "None of my pups should ever forget the advantages of their heritage of the wolf. Dogs are strong enough, but wolves have what it takes for tough choices and survival."

"Yes, Aniu," said Qimmia with an understanding nod.

The mother wolf then led her pups away to a small clearing, and Qimmia followed them; she was careful not to be too close to them, as this was the pups' first hunting lesson.

When everyone arrived at the clearing, Qimmia turned her head to the sound of dogs barking. "What is it, Qimmia?" Balto asked with curiosity.

Qimmia said nothing; she turned to her left, and then looked to see a team of husky dogs pulling a sled that was guided by a human. Balto also turned to see the sled team going their own way, and then he asked the human girl, "What are those?"

"That's a man with some of his dogs," Qimmia replied; she remembered the method her people and the white-skinned settlers used with dogs when wintertime came. "In the times when snow is heavy on the ground," Qimmia continued, "Humans train these animals to pull sleds as part of teams – that's almost like a pack, but not quite – in order to haul goods. That's as far as I know with my people, but I've heard stories of white men using dogs and sleds for recreation."

"Balto! Qimmia!" Aniu called to the two, "Remember what I said earlier!"

"Sorry, Mama," Balto said with a slightly guilty expression.

"I apologize… Mother," Qimmia said before putting her hand over her mouth. She had never called Aniu a mother before, but for all these past weeks, the white wolf was almost like a second mother to the orphaned girl. "I'm sorry," she corrected herself nervously to the mother wolf, "I-I-I, well… it's just that… all these weeks, you've felt like a second mother to me."

Aniu turned to Qimmia and softly smiled. "Qimmia," the white wolf said, "You may call me your mother if you wish… I've trusted you ever since you saved me from injury."

Qimmia smiled, knelt down, and hugged the white wolf. Then, all the pups, especially Balto, cheered and licked Qimmia's fingers in affection before it was time for hunting lessons.

For the next six weeks, the wolf-dog pups grew stronger and started becoming less and less dependent on their mother for food. All the pups, that is, except for Balto, the runt of the litter. One day, while his siblings were off hunting small animals, Balto was walking with Aniu and Qimmia down a barren path, following the other pups' scents. "Qimmia? Mama?" The wolf-dog pup asked his mother and friend, "Why can't we be around 'dogs' and 'men'?"

Aniu turned to her pup and said plainly, "Dogs and men are not as strong as wolves are." Then she looked towards the path ahead and said, "I do recall one time when I was once naïve to go near a dog, but…" She stopped herself to heave a sigh and finished, "Consequences followed me."

Balto looked at Qimmia with confusion and asked her, "Concert-quenches?"

"Consequences," Qimmia corrected him, "They're almost like discipline. If you commit a wrong, you have to learn from it and remember to never do it again. When your mother met that dog – who happens to be the father of you and your brothers and sisters – they fell in love, and…" She stopped herself by putting her hand over her lips in embarrassment. "We'll tell you that part when you're ready," The dark-haired girl said nervously before getting straight again, "But anyway, after meeting your father, the other wolves in your mother's pack saw her as a traitor, and they left her with no one else to turn to. Sometime later, I found your mother, and I helped her after she fell down a steep slope. Then, you and your siblings came into the world, and I helped your mother watch over you."

"Qimmia, have you ever faced any conse-quences?" Balto asked with curiosity.

Qimmia rubbed her chin in thought and said, "Hmmm… I can remember one time when I was five years old…"

Her sentence was cut off when Balto's siblings came running towards their mother and friend in fear.

Aniu saw the pups running and tried asking them with alarm, "Pups! What is going on?"

The pups didn't answer; they ran past their mother, their runty sibling, and the human girl. "Whatever could've gone wrong?" Qimmia asked Aniu with shock, "I thought wolves were strong and fearless…"

"We are!" Aniu answered, "But my pups, you see, are still young at eight weeks…"

BOOM!

The sound of a gun echoed throughout the landscape! "White men!" Qimmia gasped with shock; she recognized that sound from the memories of white men passing by her village back home. Sometimes they meant no harm, and sometimes they wanted something else.

"Qimmia! Balto!" Aniu said as she turned to run away and follow her pups, "Quickly! Back to the den!"

Qimmia and Balto turned and dashed away, following Aniu. As she ran, Qimmia's head stirred up a pot full of dilemmas; should she keep running with the wolves, or should she stop and face the hunters like a human being? Would the hunter spare those wolf-dog hybrids? Would he kill them all, and even kill Qimmia? Ultimately, Qimmia stopped dead in her tracks, and turned to face the perpetrator.

Running down the path came a white man in his forties, carrying a shotgun. The man saw Qimmia standing in his way, and then ordered her with a glare, "Out of my way, native girl!"

Qimmia refused to move as she returned her own glare and asked the man, "What right do you have with hurting this wolf family? All the pups have husky's blood in them, too!"

"I don't care if those rotten wolves have poodle's blood!" the Hunter growled back at her, "They're all gonna be stuffed whether you like it or not? And what about you? Shouldn't you be a hunter like all your people, too?"

Qimmia clenched her teeth and shot back, "My people may hunt animals like you do, but we don't do it for sport! Animals give us gifts and needs, and we need to respect that! I wonder what other animals you've captured or killed for your own pleasure?"

The man frowned and said gruffly, "If you would call it 'pleasure', I've got a snow goose in a cage, and I'm gonna gut it alive and then stuff it up so I can use it as bait for my future hunts! And you can't stop me!"

Qimmia snarled and then ran past the man, going down the path in order to find the caged goose.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING, NATE?!" the Hunter roared. He then loaded his gun with shells, and the sound of the barrel cocking made the Inupiat girl cringe as she ran.

Luckily, there was a slope along the path that Qimmia slid down, avoiding the shooting gun. She ran for several minutes in a zigzag direction to avoid getting shot, and eventually, she found a little cage where a snow goose was trapped. "Oy, mama!" the goose gasped with shock in a Russian accent as he saw Qimmia running toward him; he thought she was going to hurt him, so he let out a scream!

"Don't worry, poor bird!" Qimmia breathed as she came to a halt and knelt down to open the cage, "I'm here to free you!"

As Qimmia picked up a sharp rock lying on the ground and hastily used it to pound upon the cage's opening, the goose asked her with shock, "Do you really know what I am saying? Are you an evil spirit?"

"No time to explain," Qimmia breathed as she managed to get the cage door open with a big blow from her rock, "It has to do with the necklace I wear around my neck, and my grandmother, and…"

"AH-HA!" a familiar male voice called out as the girl was freeing the goose. Qimmia turned around and gasped when she saw the Hunter looking down at her from the slope!

As the evil man loaded his gun, Qimmia helped the Russian goose out of the cage and breathed, "Go on, snow goose! Fly away! Be free!"

The goose ran off and began flapping his wings to take flight just as the Hunter came closer and closer to Qimmia. He then pointed the barrel of his gun to the girl and smirked evilly, "I've got you now!"

Qimmia just glared as she took her sharp rock, and then used it to slash the Hunter in the thigh. As the man screamed in pain, the Alaskan Native girl ran off as fast as she could to find Aniu and her pups.

The Hunter, meanwhile, threw his gun down in defeat and anger, giving a growl as his held onto his injured leg and watched Qimmia run off. He called out to her with a glare, "Alright, native girl! Run away all you want! I'll be back, and when I do come back, your little wolf family will be my trophies!"