Chapter 6

(As always, hope y'all enjoy this, and thanks for the reviews/favorites. It makes me feel good that people want to read it, and a big thanks goes out to everyone! R&R please!)

Balto couldn't feel see anything, feel anything, or smell anything. He quickly found out why he couldn't see, as his eyes were closed, but why he couldn't feel or smell anything was beyond him. Last thing he remembered was being beaten, and then someone had come to his rescue… maybe he was dead?

When he looked up that assumption was quickly reinforced, as the soft furred red and white female staring down at him was extremely beautiful, and combined with the blurry light behind her, she looked like some sort of majestic angel.

"I must be dead…" Balto thought, unaware that he'd said that out loud.

The female in front of him laughed a little.

"Quite to the contrary, you're still very much alive."

"How? There's no way something as pretty as you couldn't possibly be alive!"

She frowned at this, but quickly put this strange canines words down as the craziness the doctors had said would happen. They'd had to give him a lot of pain killers to help, and they'd warned, she'd heard the doctor say to her owner, 'He might be a little delusional when he wakes up."

Balto quickly realized what he'd said as his vision became clearer, and the once majestic white light behind the female quickly became nothing more than a burning lamp.

"Oh… I am still alive. Sorry." Balto whispered sheepishly.

"You're fine, the doctors warned us that would happen."

"The doctors?" Balto looked around and found himself in a human house, lying on human blankets, with a human cloth thing wrapped around his front left leg. "Who are they? How'd I get here, who are you?" Balto exclaimed, panicking.

"Settle down," the husky said, placing a paw on Balto's shoulder, "you're safe here."

"But… how? I thought for sure I was dead…"

"I don't know what happened either, not fully. Someone brought you to our door, and asked if we could help… my little girl, Rosy convinced her parents to help you. They took you to the doctors, who treated you as best they could. You've been out for almost two days now."

Balto nodded, taking everything in.
"Who brought me here?"

"He never told us his name… he was a grey husky, blue eyes… I don't know where he went, even though he didn't say… I could tell that he didn't want to leave you here; it hurt him a lot to do so. I don't know where he is now."

"Okay… may I ask, what is your name? I'm Balto."

She took a breath to reply, when a young girl, no older than maybe seven bounded into the room, jumping up and pointing at Balto.

"Mommy, he's waking up!"

Balto shrunk away from her, human hands had only ever given him pain, and he wasn't any more trusting of them now.

"It's okay boy, no one's gonna hurt you." The little girl bent down and put a hand gently between Balto's ears. She rubbed the back of his neck, and he let out a loud 'hmmm' and allowed himself to relax. The girl kept petting him, and Balto gradually warmed up to her. Of course as soon as he was enjoying it, the little girl's father pulled her away from him.

"Rosy! I thought I told you to stay away from him!" The girl's mother said, coming into the room as well and pointing a vehement finger at her daughter.

"But mama, he's not gonna hurt anyone!"

"We don't know that sweetie." The father replied gently.

"But look at him… he doesn't look like he could hurt anything..."

"The doctors said he bit a man's dog, Rosy, we don't want the same thing to happen to you. He may be nice and loving now, but he could change at any instant… he's a wolf dog, they're very dangerous." The father said. "We're taking enough of a chance letting him stay here now."

"But everyone's so mean to him! He couldn't survive out there with a hurt leg. I bet that mean dog Steele did it."

"He was allowed to stay in here until he woke up. We're going to move him out to the shed now, and you're not to go near it. Do you hear me?"

Rosy hung her had in disappointment. "Yes sir, I won't go near him."

"Good, now it's past your bedtime isn't it?"

At this, the little girl hurried off to go do whatever it was she needed to get ready for bed. The man then extended his hands toward Balto. He shrunk away but didn't show any signs of hostility. Maybe this wolf dog wasn't so bad. He took Balto outside to a small shack. There wasn't much inside of it, except for a soft and comfortable looking bed upon which Balto was placed. After that he closed the door as much as was possible, and then went back inside, leaving Balto alone with his thoughts.

Balto sat and thought for a while, trying to remember if he'd ever met any grey huskies. Just like always though, his mind drew a blank. So he went on to think about the people that were kind enough to take care of him. Maybe I can get these people to trust me, Balto thought, it would be tough to as he was already facing down a load of mistrust. They'd heard about his attacking Steele, which had been nothing to the abuse said malamute had put Balto through.

"My name is Jenna."

Balto looked up and saw the red husky standing in the doorway. He hadn't heard her and wondered how long she'd been standing there.

"Oh, nice name."

"Thanks… yours is nice too."

"You really think so?" Balto asked, his voice full of hope.

"Yes I really think so." Jenna replied, stepping further into the shed so she could sit beside Balto.

"Do they know you're out here?"

"Nah, they're asleep. Besides this is where I usually would sleep anyway…"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Balto said, and tried to pull himself off of the bed he was on.

"Don't worry about it. We just came to this town, and we're still trying to get ourselves set up."

Balto nodded, having just received some important information, albeit not directly. If they were new to this town, and had already heard about him that meant he was pretty far down in most of the townsfolk's eyes.
"For what it's worth, I think they're wrong about you. You have a good heart Balto, it's a shame to see them hurting you so much."

"Ah, I'm used to it by now." Balto replied, feeling a little bit uncomfortable with the topic, "You probably better stay away from me… I wouldn't want them to hurt you too just for feeling bad for me. You don't deserve the punishment."

"And you do?"

Balto though for a moment, "More than you do."

Jenna's disappointment was evident, even though she tried to keep it hidden, "Well… I suppose I should be getting back inside now. Sleep well Balto."

She waited a few moments for the wolf dog to reply, but nothing came. With a disappointed sigh she turned and went back towards the house. Balto felt bad for brushing her off like that, he wanted another canine friend more than anything else in the world! What he had said was true though. If she was new here she still had a chance to become popular and make friends. She couldn't do that if she was seen with him though.

Balto pushed the feelings away and simply sat for a while, thinking about these new people and the chance he had with them. If there was any way he was going to gain trust, it would have to be through them. He resolved then and there to do his best to be friendly, not that it would be hard for him, he far preferred kindness to torment any day. He looked outside and up into the night sky, thanking whatever was up there for the new chance he'd been given.

…

Balto took it easy for the next week, as all he could really do without being in considerable pain was eat, drink, and sleep. It was some sort of not-so-pleasant tasting dry crunchy stuff, but Balto was thankful that he was even getting food. His usual activity would be to simply sit in the shed alone. Rosy or Jenna would sneak out occasionally to see him, but their visits were few and far between. All in all it was the longest week of the young wolf dog's life, and he was grateful on the ninth morning when there was a wonderful change of pace.

It started off like all other mornings. Balto would wake up; stretch himself out as best he could, then eat his food. But where the food bowl usually was, this time sat Jenna, her eyes focused on him, but she didn't really seem to be seeing him as she hadn't said anything yet.

"G'Morning." Balto said to get her attention.

"Oh," Jenna muttered, shaking her head, "Morning. Sorry, I was daydreaming…"

"About what?" Balto asked curiously.

Jenna looked away as she answered, "Oh it was nothing, nothing that matters anyway…"

Balto, not having much experience with canine to canine contact, other than his brutal treatment let it go at that.

"So, where's my food?"

"Outside."

"Why's it there?"

"Because, you do nothing but sit in here each day waiting to be catered to. Today you're going to walk for your food."

Balto was pleasantly surprised and agreed to the idea, wanting very much to get up and stretch out.

"I'll be here if you need help now, don't be afraid to tell me."

Balto nodded, and tried to lift himself up. He wobbled a little and Jenna hurried to his side, allowing him to lean his left shoulder on her. He rose unsurely, slightly off balance on only three legs. Jenna slowly removed her support and Balto managed to stay up, his injured left leg a few inches off the ground. With Jenna's help when he needed, Balto was able to limp out the door, through the grassy yard, up the steps to the back porch where his food and water bowls were.

Jenna sat on the back porch enjoying the sun. Summer had already given way to autumn and the warm days were becoming limited. Balto wished that he could be spending them without an injury, but he didn't have any real complaints. He had made two new friends in Jenna and Rosy, and even their parents were slowly coming around. After eating, Balto practiced walking around the yard some more, Jenna helping him when he needed. It felt really good to be up and moving, and he was itching to go for a run.

The days following this one were quite similar, with Balto gradually becoming better and better at walking, to the point where he could move in an awkward jog like limping thing. By week three of his treatment, Rosy's parents trusted Balto enough to allow her to play with Balto, but only under their supervision. She had a red rubber ball which she would throw and let the two canines chase it. They took turns in doing so, but Jenna let Balto chase it more, he needed the exercise.

By week four Balto was due in for a checkup at the doctor. He was slightly nervous about it, but Jenna told him there was nothing to worry about. Rosy's father, whose name Balto had later learned to be William, escorted Balto, Jenna, and Rosy to the doctor. Apparently the husky needed to go in too, so William had just decided to take them both in at the same time.

The whole family received some funny and threatening stares, and it was all Balto could do to keep himself from running.

"Ignore them." Jenna whispered in his ear.

Steele and his gang walked by going the opposite way. Balto and Steele locked gazes, but the malamute didn't say anything. Although he hadn't seen the grey husky since that night, and there hadn't been a trace of him since, his mind still feared some sort of rebuke if he were to attack the wolf dog, so he simply continued on his way.

The doctor wasn't busy at all and was glad to check on both Balto and Jenna. The female was healthy as could be, and was quite happy to be as such. But when the doctor took Balto back into a small room, alone, he got a little bit apprehensive. The doctor placed Balto down on a metal table, taking some equipment out of the cupboards and drawers and placing it out on the table beside Balto.

He took a long needle in his hand, causing Balto to immediately shrink away.

"It's alright buddy, this won't hurt but a bit." The doctor assured him gently. He stuck the needle into Balto, and its effect was almost instantaneous. The wolf dog felt himself get drowsy, but he didn't go to sleep. He watched with fascination as the doctor removed the cast from around his leg, throwing the material into a trash bucket. It was significantly smaller than his other leg, due to the lack of use. It didn't smell quite right either, but that was fixed by the doctors gentle cleaning of his leg. It was healing nicely, and in another few weeks he'd be free to go. As the new cast was put on his leg, Balto thought about what he'd do next. He knew that he was only allowed to stay in his current home because of his injury, so what would happen after that?

Would his life go back to what it had once been, everyone tormenting him, hating him, hurting him? Or was it possible that he would be allowed to stay with Jenna and Rosy? He so enjoyed being with them, two beings who didn't care what he was, but liked him because of who he was. So it was slightly annoying to him, although he didn't know why, when on the way home another young dog attempted to flirt with Jenna. She'd pushed him away easily, suggesting she knew quite well what she was doing.

"I get that all of the time, don't worry about it. I get a lot from that jerk, Steele he's nothing but an egomaniac, he and his friends."

Unbeknownst to both of them, the malamute was watching them from an invisible location. It angered him to see a wolf dog taking all of the attention that could've been directed at him, or at very least someone more worthy than Balto, and he was tempted then and there to go finish the task he'd started about four weeks earlier. Balto would likely be protected by both Rosey and her dad though, and even Steele wouldn't go against a human. Besides, that grey husky might still be around… a shiver went down Steele's spine as he thought of that dog.

He wondered if the husky was really Balto's father, or was just some crazy dog who'd said that because he was crazy. It was the fact the dog had taken him down in less than ten seconds and that he was so impossibly strong. That kind of strength was something that one often became capable of when one saw someone they cared about being hurt, so it was quite possible that actually had been Balto's father. If that was so though, why had he left? Steele knew the answer was probably because the dog couldn't help his son heal fully, so he'd left him with someone who could. But when he'd returned to the same place with his friends a day later, there was no trace the dog had ever been there, no scent, no fur, nothing.

So it was probably safe to continue his torment of Balto, but he'd refrain at least until the dog was better. Maybe he wouldn't kill Balto. The wolf dog could be more useful to him alive, especially if he could be used to gain what Steele really wanted, Jenna. She was a pretty young female, and in a year or so would have males of all ages over her. Steele hoped to be the subject of her attention, and to do that he needed a pawn. Who better to use than Balto? Steele smiled and got up, the four having disappeared from his sight. He headed off to his friends, ready to make up some sort of plan to destroy Balto, this time for good.