Chapter 4

We're still on the dunes over five minutes without saying a word. Being out run by town's hero is never good record keeping to put on a bucket list. Balto just sighed as I was still silent without saying word. He started to turn away and about to walked.

"How did you become a hero anyway?" I finally spoke and asked. He stopped turned around. "I'm sure being a part wolf is never easy... for me that is."

Balto came back and sat down. "I didn't thought being tilted hero is nothing, but helping others in danger matters."

"I listen to your conversation at the alley." I added. "You thought you didn't felt like being a hero this time."

He became silent with no words. His ears were down and his mood changes. "I didn't have enough time to save him."

"What happened?" I asked.

"It started with a man who was freezing cold in the middle of the night. I was out for a nightly walk, when I saw him... he seemed to have no life in him." I began to realize it was me. "I took him in for the night and kept him warm from freezing. The next day I managed to meet with the man as I was with my son Kodi. He seemed to have a problem, but I couldn't be able to figure out. He seems homeless and I kept him for the night. Later that night, I heard a scream. I went to investigate until I saw the same man, who was still on the ground. When I got to him, he was motionlessly still and he wasn't breathing."

My ears dropped with no words to describe the ordeal. "So what happened?"

"I went to get helped and the doctor announced the man dead when he was taken." Balto finished the story.

"I'm sorry you have to go through with it." I apologized.

"What's your story?" Balto asked. I knew that I would have to tell the truth, but I couldn't be able to tell him what my origins where. I just remained silent without telling him anything.

"Rough life before coming here?" he asked.

"Yes... but I rather not go into detail yet." I answered. "However, there's one question I needed to ask?"

"What is it?" he asked.

"Do part-wolves always stir trouble by accidents?" I asked.

Balto knew this experience when he first encountered Nome, when he was a pup. He told me his story when he came to Nome with a goose named Boris. He even told that the goose raised him, after being found. Balto's mother was with partially when he was little until one day she was gone.

My stomach began to growl again. "I guess we should stop with the stories and find food." Balto said.

I agreed and we left the dunes.

As we're heading towards the woods, a choir of voices were singing that led me to follow until it grew louder. I found myself being outside of St. Joseph's Church and I raised one of my ears to hear the churchgoers singing a psalm or a hymn. They sang like they're in joy. So afterwards, I just decided to continue on with Balto to the woods.

"What were you doing in front of the church?" he asked.

"I don't know... I just heard people singing, something I used to do." I answered.

"Really? You must be a performer." he said.

"Sort of... at times I just sing to myself usually." I added. "What are we going to eat?"

"Some fish could do." Balto answered.

Feeling a little anxious, because when I went fishing for the butcher, I nearly drowned. We followed a stream that led to a open river. The skies were clear and some snow began to melt because of spring's arrival. When we got towards the water, some fish were swimming by.

"I suppose we'll fish here so we don't ourselves too wet." Balto joked.

"I prefer not to getting myself too wet because falling into a lake." I said.

Balto managed to catch a few fish one at a time. I was lost because I only fished with a pole, I tried to do exactly like he does, except I just keep missing the baits. He watched me as I failed in every catch.

"You never caught a fish before?" he asked.

"Not really." I answered.

"I'll show you." He came over and taught me how to catch a fish. "You'll just have to watch the fish's movement and quickly use your jaws to bite the fish." He even gave me a demonstration and caught a fish quicker than a whip.

"You try." He smiled.

I kept a look out for a fish until I spotted a prey, it was swimming and I was glancing at while moving slowly. I leaped into the water and managed to catch a fish.

Later, we're sitting not far from the river, we started to eat our fishes.

"It never gets old." Balto complemented the taste of fish.

"Raw, but still tastes good." I added.

As I was eating, I kept thinking about what had happened last night and thought I should try to tell the truth.

"Balto... there's something I should try to tell you."

"What is it?" he asked.

I began to feel my heartbeat beat faster like I was going to be in trouble when admitting the truth to a parent. "When you mentioned about the man you tried to save."

"I still do." he still remembers.

"Well... the man you tried to save... you're with him." I said in a depressive emotion. He stopped eating and stared at me that I was making it all up.

"Don't play any tricks, you're just a half wolf." he said.

"No... I was turned into one... I realized it was my punishment from killing myself... I'm sorry for not getting out too soon." I said.

Balto became stern and came close only to smell and looked into my eyes. His mood changed when he realized.

"It's you... from the eyes you had!" Balto said in shock. I closed my eyes in shame with my head down.

"Why did you lie to me?!" he asked.

I was silent.

"I didn't know how you would react and I was just hiding the guilt that I had to face most of all." I explained. "I wish I could have told you about this sooner."

Balto in shock finally took a deep breathe and a sigh. "At least you're alive."

"Not my human form." I added. "I just wish I could remove the damages I caused you and myself."

"You didn't hurt me or cause damage on me." he comforted me. "I just hope you found the error of your ways."

"I feel like I did..."

Balto knew that I had gone through enough didn't let his emotions take hold. "We'll just head back and we'll try to fix this."


We started to head back to the woods. The sun was started to have a early setting. Balto was leading the way back to Nome, however we're not even speaking to each other. I felt hurt on my fault for not telling the truth sooner. I stopped and sat down without making any sound of attention.

"What's wrong?" Balto noticed that I stopped and asked.

My eyes were closed as my head and ears were down in solitude of guilt.

"Are you okay? Do we need to stop?" Balto continues to ask.

"No... I was thinking about when I told you the truth. I'm sorry I put you through the ordeal." I apologized.

Balto came over and laid a paw on my paw. "Don't worry about it... you just have to move forward into the future."

I started to lightly smile as he smiled back.

I looked around and the skies were faded to black and stars were out. "I suggest we should hurry home."

Balto agreed. We resume heading for home until howls came through the night. "I always like the sounds of howls in the night."

"I'm sure you'll hear them around here." Balto added.

"I have been hearing them all my life." I told him.

Another howl came, Balto tries to listen to the howling. "We should try to keep moving."

He started to become cautious when he heard the lone howl. I could only think that the howl could be of finding prey.

"We need to move! Now!" Balto said as we started to run through the woods, until a pack of wolves started to chase after us. I was running very quickly without knowing that my front legs tumbled from a small rock. The bump injured my right paw that I couldn't be able to move. The wolves started to encircle around me.

God... Please forgive me from forsaking you and taking anger out of you. I talked in a whisper.

One of the wolves was ready to pounce, I closed my eyes to prepare the inevitable. As the wolf leaped towards me, I didn't feel the impact that I was the prey. Balto pounced on the wolf and growled at it. The pack started to attack him as he was defending himself. The bites and scratches he endured still kept him on guard as he clawed some wolves. The wolves became frightened that they would no longer attack and ran off.

Balto howled at the night sky and moon. He started to move like he was dizzy and fell to his side of the snow. I didn't know what to do next, my paw made a quick recovery that I could move in all fours. I was about to leave him and save myself. Unexpectedly, a hard, howling wind blew to my right side and went in front of my muzzle. I could only see the town wasn't far from here. I stared at the dim small light of Nome. I turned back to see Balto was still unconscious. In a unprecedented matter, I hurried to his side and nuzzled him to wake him up.

Weakly, he opened his eyes as he groans in pain. He looked up to see it was me.

"You have to help me... you need to try to stand." I pleaded for his partial help. As he was trying to get up, I grabbed a small stick fill with bushes and moved it towards close so Balto could walk. As he stood, he walked until he collapsed on the branch and I bite the wood and started to pull him back into town.