Healing Wounds
Nome, Alaska, 6 am;
Balto set on the porch. Jenna and Tina were asleep, he'd had trouble sleeping because of his injuries and something on his mind. "How can we stop it?" he asked himself. He remembered the fight, the only thing that had any effect was hitting it with something, he couldn't bite through its skin. "Alright so we need to pound away at it but how can that destroy it?" he asked himself. He wished some of his other friend were in town, he needed all the help he could get, he'd even settle for Dixie. He got up with a groan and walked a little bit, thinking. "It's a living thing, it has to be able to be killed." he said to himself before coughing some from his injured ribs. "Oh man, how am I going to fight that thing again in this condition?" Suddenly something grabbed his hind leg and swung him around into an ally. He slid across the icy ground and banged his head on a trash can. He got up to find Steele standing in front of me.
"Then half-breed, I guess you won't be able to be me ether." he said. Balto took a snap at the bigger dog but Steele avoided it and struck Balto in the head with his paw. Balto yelped, his head still hurt from the concussion he'd gotten from the Outsider. Steele saw this and grabbed his leg and threw him head first into a trash can again. Balto yelped harder, he tried to stand but felt dizzy again and fell, he'd gotten another concussion. Steele laughed at Balto's pain. "I don't care about this monster or whatever it is half-breed, this town hates me so I could care less what happens to it." he said. He bit down on the bandages wrapping Balto's bruised ribs and tore them off.
"Please, stop." said Balto weakly, he was disorientated by his concussion and felt so weak.
"Now why would I do that?" asked Steele. Steele reared up on his hind legs and brought his full body weight down on Balto's ribs. Balto yelped loud in pain and coughed hard. Steele did this again, with the same reaction. Steele did this repeatedly while laughing rather psychotically until there was a rather loud snap. Balto and Steele both knew one of Balto's ribs had broken. Balto coughed harder, some blood coming up. Steele reared up to do it again.
"No!" yelled Tina as her and Jenna slammed hard into Steele's side, knocking him on his side. The two females put themselves between him and Balto, snarling and baring their teeth. "Leave him alone!"
Steele looked at the sight before him, he was still hurt from his previous fight. "This is over." he said and ran off, with another psychotic laugh.
"Thank you." wheezed Balto, he tried to stand up but couldn't even get part way off the ground before falling back down with a groan of agony. "If I can't even beat Steele, how am I supposed to stop that monster?"
Jenna was crying at seeing her mate this badly hurt. Her and Tina picked him up carefully and took him back to Rosy's house and got him taped up again. Balto rested in the living room. Tina and Jenna went outside. "What are we going to do? How can he stop that thing when he's too hurt to even stand up?" asked Jenna, disheartened.
Tina thought for a few minutes. "I know a way but its very dangerous…" she said.
"What is it?"
"The Outsider has great healing powers, it can heal almost any wound. If I can get a piece of it, I can make something that will heal Balto."
"How are you going to get a piece of that monster?"
"Well when it heals, it sheds its old skin, its shed skin will do. Don't worry it won't make Balto shed his skin, it only does that because it's a reptile. I think Balto hurt it in there fight, which is why it didn't follow us to finish him off last night."
"I'm coming with you."
"No, Balto needs someone here incase Steele comes back, I'll make it back, I promise." said Tina, she ran off out of town.
It took Tina awhile to reach the Outsider's lair. It was still sleeping so she snuck into to the cave. Despite not reacting earlier, the stench in the beast lair really made her almost throw up, she just knew how to hide it. She looked around for the shed skin, she saw it, right behind the monster. She got a little mad at her rotten luck. She snuck around. She carefully stepped into the warm waters, trying not to make much noise. She snuck behind it. As she reached for its shed skin, the creature's tail smacked the surface of the water. She froze. The monster was still sleeping, it must of just moved in its sleep. She bit down on the skin, it tasted revolting and increased her urge to throw up. The monster's tail smacked down again, this time hitting Tina's back. She wanted to yelp but managed not to despite the welt forming on her back. She snuck out of the lair, dragging the shed skin. As soon as she got out of its lair, she dropped it and threw up.
A few hours later, Tina and Jenna had Balto on his boat so no one would see what was about to happen. Tina had 'barrowed' a bowl of water from Rosy's house and tore a piece of the shed skin and dissolved it in the water, which turned bright green. She let out a sigh. "Alright, this can heal all your wounds but there's something that I didn't tell you before, the normal body is not designed to heal this quickly and as such, it will hurt, it will hurt worse than anything you've ever felt. It last take one hour to finish, in that time you will be in absolute agony, the stress could kill you." said Tina, the scientists had tested this on a US marine and it had been too much for him. "So if you want to get your family and flee Nome, I'll stay here and fight the Outsider alone." she said.
Jenna looked at Balto, she didn't want him to endure that much pain but they had to stop this monster. She nodded. "I don't want him to be in pain but that thing is going to wipe the town out if we don't stop it so I don't think we have a choice." she said.
Balto thought about it and nodded. "Same here, bring it." he said, managing to smile. Tina nodded and allowed Balto to drink the medicine. He gagged but managed not to throw up. "Oh, it tastes disgusting."
"I know, it will take a few minutes to take effect." said Tina, pinning her ears, feeling guilty she was going to put him through so much pain. Tina turned to Jenna. "This is probably going to be hard for you to watch, you don't have to stay."
Jenna looked at Balto then at Tina. She laid down next to Balto. "I'm not leaving him." she said.
It took a few minutes and Balto thought that it wasn't working until it kicked in. He grit his teeth, his muscles tightened, it took all of his willpower not to scream in pain and the only reason he didn't do that was for Jenna's sake. It felt like his ribs were being torn from his body and his skin was burning, tears of pain ran from his clinched eyes.
Jenna felt like crying herself, she wanted it to stop, she hated seeing her beloved in so much pain but knew it had to be like this. She put a paw on his back to comfort him. "Just hold on Balto, I'll be here the whole time." she said softly.
Tina on the other hand couldn't bare watching it at all. "I'll go keep a look out for Steele." she said and left. She felt ashamed for acting this way but it just hurt her so much to know she was putting her hero through unimaginable pain. "I a wimp." she said as she set in front of Balto's boat. "I should be up there, encouraging him through this but I can't." she looked down and some tears ran from her eyes. She felt someone in front of her. She looked up.
In front of her was what she first that was Aniu but then she realized it was a wolf dog, about her age, and male. "Hello sister, long time no see." said the dog.
"A-alex? Is that really you? But how?"
"In the flesh, well not exactly since I'm kind of a spirit." said Alex. "I'm your spirit guide, I'm supposed to help you. I followed you back." he said, his voice comforting. "I wish I could nuzzle you but I'm not solid at the moment."
"I missed you so much, I'm so sorry I caused your death." said Tina, crying a little.
"It wasn't your fault, I was just doing what any big brother would of done."
"Yeah, I guess. I've been beating myself up all these years and if I hadn't, then I might not be in this mess and nether would Balto and Jenna."
"Fate is harder to change than that, well you know, except when time travel is involved." he said, smiling warmly. "You need to go be with Balto, he needs you to be strong for him."
"I don't know if I can…"
"You have to be, you're a descendent of Balto, he never quit when someone he loved needed him, even if he needed someone to remind him."
"I guess your right. Thanks brother." said Tina with a smile.
"Welcome." said Alex, he let out a howl and vanished.
Tina went back up to Balto. "Come on Balto, you can do this, you have to do this." she said.
When the hour was over, the pain stopped quickly. Balto relaxed, breathing heavily from the effort it took to withstand the pain. Jenna licked his nose and nuzzled him. "Did it work?" she asked.
Balto waited till he got his energy back , which didn't take as long as he expected, before standing up, he felt as good as new, maybe even better. "Yeah, I feel a lot better, that stuff works good." he said, ripping off his bandages. "If only it didn't hurt so much."
"Yeah, that's a nasty side effect." said Tina. "Well only one thing to do now."
"Take the Outsider down."
"Right, I've got a plan, we lure it into the ice cave and use some dynamite I found in the shed outside the boiler room, the humans use it to open paths blocked by avalanches and rockslides, to trigger a cave in to trap it." said Tina.
"But what about its regeneration?" asked Jenna.
"I can use something from its shed skin to have the opposite effect, we just got to get it into its system."
"How do we do that?" asked Balto.
"I'll handle that, you just go home to Rosy and spend the time till nightfall with her. Tonight the monster will attack, the temporal storm accelerated the blizzard so it will hit tonight instead of tomorrow, we have to stop it before its too late" said Tina…
Well there you go, Balto is as good as new and ready to take the Outsider down. Only two chapters left, probably. The final battle is fast aproching!