Over at an abandoned shipwreck near the town of Nome, Qimmia and Balto soon grew accustomed to their new home, and their new friends – Boris Goosenov the snow goose and two clumsy polar bears that Qimmia named "Muk" and "Luk", because they reminded her of mukluks, or Inupiat boots (their fur coats and silly personalities made Qimmia and Balto laugh).

Muk, the smaller polar bear, was quite verbal as he became accustomed to Qimmia's ability to communicate with animals via her jade necklace. Luk, the bigger polar bear, only communicated with mumbles and silly noises that his brother translated.

As for life on the abandoned boat, neither Qimmia nor Balto were used to coming close to structures made by white men. Qimmia studied all the different parts with curiosity, and Boris helped her with identifying them, as he was used to regularly flying through the town of Nome. "Remember, Qimmia," he said to her one day, "When in doubt, turn to the people of Nome. If you ever run out of food, there's a place called a store – where you can get food with something called money."

"Oh, like trading things?" the girl asked him. She remembered hearing stories from her father about traders who visited neighboring villages – these friendly white men traded some of their things for food or furs.

"Almost," Boris said to her, "But money is very hard to find if you don't have a job like the people in Nome – and it doesn't grow on trees or out of the ground!"

Qimmia chuckled and assured him, "It's okay, Boris. I can hunt for food, and with me around, I doubt that we'll ever go hungry!"

So, every day, Boris took care of Balto while the Inupiat girl went out to hunt for caribou, seals, and fish to eat; she also used the caribou and seal skins to make blankets and capes. Qimmia also would use seal's oil and blubber to make Inupiat lamps to burn in the dark. In the summer and autumn, Qimmia would venture out towards the tundra to find sweet and edible berries. When she did find some, the berries were a special treat for her and her friends.

Once in a while, Balto would look out from the deck of the abandoned ship, and he'd watch a sled or two being pulled by teams of husky dogs. He always focused on the dogs and wondered about the words his late mother told him of being half-husky. I wonder what it would be like to pull one of those sleds, he thought to himself whenever he saw the sleds go by on the tundra.

One day, in November of 1924, Qimmia came home to the ship without any fish, caribou, or seals. Balto, who was now a young adult wolf-dog, looked at Qimmia with a sympathetic look and asked, "What's wrong, Qimmia?"

"I'm sorry, Balto and Boris," Qimmia said to her two friends, "None of the fish in the water wanted to bite, the caribou have moved on, and all the seals appear to be hiding today. I'm afraid we'll have to go hungry tonight, and then tomorrow, I'll have to go to Nome and see if anyone will lend me some food."

"I don't know," Boris said with a sigh, "Not all the people in Nome like to associate with your kind."

"Oh?" Qimmia asked with a little gasp.

"Alaska, here, is a territory controlled by the United States now," Boris said to her, "I've heard it from my other fellow geese before I was left behind a few winters ago."

Qimmia frowned a little bit at what the goose told her. "I think I remember my family members and fellow villagers telling me about instances where the white men were ugly upon our people," she said, "Especially to the tribes in the southwest part of Alaska. I heard that the Aleut people were enslaved by white men to kill sea otters for fur." She grew a little bit angry over the thought, but then she shook her head. "Times have changed, I'm sure," she finished cautiously, "I'm going to Nome tomorrow, and I'll find any scraps of food on the ground if I have to."

"What about you?" Balto asked, "We animals are used to eating off the ground. I've never seen you eat off the ground."

Qimmia sighed and said, "Balto, you and Boris are the only companions I have left. Muk and Luk are, too. So, I must make sure I take good care of you. I'm not about to lose any more friends. She then looked to the western part of the sky and saw the sun slowly sinking towards the snow-covered hills. She sighed as she remembered all the loved ones she had lost over the years – her parents, her grandmother, and her secondary wolf-mother. Someday, I'll make all of you proud and fight a path that's right for me, she thought to herself.

The next day, Qimmia woke up bright and early before she grabbed her spear and began to leave the shipwreck. Balto, who was still sleeping under an old blanket, opened one eye and saw his human friend going away towards the town. As he opened his other eye, the wolf-dog looked closer at his friend going away and thought, I wonder if there are any other wolf-dogs like myself?

So, Balto looked at Boris, who was sleeping close by, and then looked back at the skyline of Nome as Qimmia disappeared. He smirked as he got an idea; carefully, without waking Boris up, Balto crept along the ship and then made his way off of the shipwreck to find his human friend.

Qimmia, meanwhile, arrived into Nome a few minutes later, and looked around to see the citizens – mostly white people – walking around, talking with each other, doing their jobs, and going on about their day. Qimmia, still nervous about meeting people in town, took a deep breath and said as she let her breath go, "Well, here goes. I can do this." Her expression became a bit braver as she stood up straight and began to walk onto Main Street. As she walked, people stopped and stared at the Inupiat girl carrying a spear; some men frowned at her.

Qimmia soon found the store, where a grocer was shoveling away some snow. She approached the man and asked him, "Excuse me, sir? My food supply is short, and I was wondering…"

"An Eskimo with a spear at my store?!" the man cried out with shock when he saw her, "Go home! Unless you want to hunt all our dogs in town, go home to where you belong!"

Qimmia also became shocked and angry. "How dare you?" she said with a glare, "I do NOT hunt other dogs! In fact, I respect all the animals I come across! All I want is some meat and berries, because the fish…"

Her sentence was cut off when she heard the sound of a woman screaming. Qimmia turned her head and saw a familiar gray wolf-dog running away from an alley as a woman with pale skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes (wearing a green dress with an apron and boots) chased him as she swung her broom at him. "Be gone, you beast!" the woman shouted.

Another person on the street looked down and saw Balto's footprints on the ground. "That's not just a dog!" he cried, "He has the feet of a wolf!"

"BALTO!" Qimmia cried desperately, "Balto, come over here!"

Balto turned and ran over to his human companion's side. Just then, a big man wearing a black coat, a fur hat, and big boots came over to them with a black and white husky at his side; the husky had blue eyes, a special collar around his neck, and a mean grimace at the wolf-dog.

"Is this half-breed YOUR dog, Native girl?" the husky's owner asked Qimmia.

Qimmia became dumbfounded; she never had a dog to call her own, but she didn't want her beloved Balto to get hurt. "Um, yes!" she stammered, "I-I was looking for him, and-and there he is!" She nervously smiled at the last bit.

"Well, next time, you'd best keep him on a leash," the man warned her, "Or else Steele, here, will handle him!"

Steele, the husky snarled at her. To most humans, he just sounded like a dog growling, but to Qimmia and Balto, he snarled, "Stay outta my way, wolf-pup!"

Qimmia glared at Steele, and then she looked at Balto with an unhappy look. "Come, Balto," she said calmly but firmly, "Let's go."

Balto lowered his head in shame, and then his human friend picked her spear up, and the two of them walked down the street to get out of Nome.

Balto and Qimmia arrived back at Boris's shipwreck several minutes later, and then Qimmia frowned at Balto as they walked up the board to go onto the main deck. "Balto, what were you thinking?" Qimmia asked her wolf-dog with anger, "You shouldn't have gone into town like that!"

"But, Qimmia!" Balto protested, "I've never seen a town, either! I-I just wanted…"

"Now, because of you, we have no food!" Qimmia continued ranting, "If only there were some stupid fish under the ice, and if only the caribou hadn't…"

Boris, having heard the commotion, arrived onto the scene and held his wings up. "Khorosho, time out!" he cried to Qimmia. He took a deep breath and said, "It wasn't entirely Balto's fault. Those humans in that town are ridiculous! I told you, Qimmia, going into that place meant you would be facing people who would hate your kind – and Balto's!" He then remembered that Balto still had some husky in his blood and corrected, "Eh, one kind of animal from Balto's… heritage."

Qimmia let go of her anger and sighed, "I'm sorry, Balto. I-I just wanted to help you and Boris. And Boris is right – I wasn't the only one being outcasted. Remember that man and his big husky?"

Balto frowned as he remembered Steele the husky. But little did he know that Steele wouldn't just stop at "handling him".

"But anyway," Qimmia continued as a small smile formed upon her face, "If the caribou don't pass by us again, or if the fish are still stubborn to sacrifice themselves to us, I'll see if I can find a way to get… money. And then, we'd have no troubles at all."

Balto looked up at Qimmia and sighed, "Qimmia, I'm sorry for… leaving the boat and wandering into Nome. It's just that… well, I'm an adult now, and I wanna go out and explore the world!" He made a hopeful smile at the last few words.

The girl smiled back him and assured, "Someday, Balto, we'll fight against hatred with our inner strength. My grandmother once told me that, when in doubt, to listen to the spirits within." She then looked up towards the sky and sang out loud as she thought about the town of Nome:

In some new place, on some new face

I've never seen

I might find where I belong someday

And there may even be

Another dream for me

Waiting there somewhere

Along the way

"Listen to the spirit within," the girl's voice echoed in her mind.

Who knows where I go from here?

So many voices

Only one thing's clear

There's nothing to lose

Nothing to fear

The past is gone

I must move on from here!

At that moment, Qimmia looked down and saw Muk and Luk approaching the fallen ship. She smiled and waved at them as Muk called out joyfully, "Qimmia!"

Luk followed his brother as he made some contented noises.

Author's Note: The song "Where Do I Go From Here? (reprise)" is from Pocahontas 2 ((c) Disney).