Chapter 4: An Unexpected, and Unwanted Reunion.
September 16, 1929.
When the next morning finally came around, Mr. Simpson loaded up his sled, while his sled dogs were busying conversing with two other town dogs, who had decided to stop by and say good-bye to their son.
"Now, you two make sure you're careful while you're away. You know how dangerous the wilderness can be", Jenna warned.
"Don't worry mom, this is just a routine run. We'll be gone and back before tomorrow", Kodi said.
"Don't bet on it kiddo", a fifth voice said.
Balto, Jenna, Kodi, and Dusty turned around to see a large, golden husky join them in the street. "Uncle Kaltag!", Kodi said, grinning. The old sled dog was a friend of the family. He had been one of Balto's best pals ever since the serum run, and Kodi had spent quite a few days with the dog, talking about the details of sled dog racing.
"According to the telegraph office, there's a storm heading straight for White Mountain. After you arrive, you won't be leaving until it passes", Kaltag warned.
"Big deal, we've been through storms before", Dusty scoffed.
"But this isn't your usual, everyday storm. This is a blizzard we're talking about. I've seen some of the oldest and most experienced dogs in Nome quake in fear of the mere mention of a snowstorm. Not to mention the fact there's been more and more wolf pack sightings outside of town. And this time of year, they tend to get hungry. Very hungry. So I'm sure they wouldn't mind munching on a half-wolf and his pregnant bride", Kaltag said, rambling on as usual.
"All right, all right. We'll be careful", Dusty promised, though Kaltag doubted the husky's words. The tan dog watched as his friends, Balto and Jenna said their last good-byes to Kodi and Dusty before walking away. Dusty took her place at the sled harness, and Kodi was about to join her, when Kaltag reached out and grabbed the young rookie by his shoulder. "Hey Kodi, can I speak to you for a moment?", the old champ asked.
"Sure", Kodi asked, curious as to what his father's friend had to say. What he heard next surprised him.
"I meant what I said back there. I want you and your wife to be extra careful when you're out on trail. And keep an eye on her so she doesn't do anything too risky. Way too many dogs lose their mates on the trail every year. And let me tell you something, you're a lucky dog Kodi. You've already found a mate of your own, and you're only four. Just like how your father was still young when he met Jenna, while an old pro like me is still single", Kaltag said, a hint of regret in the sled dog's warning.
Kodi looked at Kaltag sympathetically, and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry Kal, I'm sure you'll find the right guy eventually", he said. But though the boy's words were meant to be reassuring, they had had the complete opposite effect.
As soon as he realized what Kodi was saying, Kaltag's expression shifted from depressed to alarmed. "Whoa, whoa kid. If you're saying what I think you're saying, then you're barking up the wrong tree", he insisted.
Kodi rolled his eyes. Him and his father had suspected for years the reason why their middle-aged friend was still single, but had never called him out on it, since they figured he had his right to his own privacy. But Kodi couldn't stand to see his uncle so sad, so alone anymore.
"Come on Kal, do you really think me, the son of your best buddy, would care if you like guys? You don't have to lie to me", Kodi replied, putting on his softest expression to earn Kaltag's trust.
Kodi watched as the old dog hesitated for a few minutes, obviously torn between telling his nephew the truth and holding onto his old façade, before finally making up his mind. "Aaagh…alright, fine. I'm queer, you happy now?", Kaltag asked, his ears drooping slightly.
"Not really, not when my uncle's gonna spend the rest of his life alone", Kodi replied quietly.
Kaltag laughed, though Kodi could tell it was forced, and shook his head. "I'll be fine. It's not like I'm Dixie or some other prissy show dog who always wants what she can't have. I'm a sled dog. I'm tough, and I can soldier on", he said reassuringly.
"But aren't there other guys? Like you, I mean?", Kodi asked, still worried.
This time Kaltag laughed for real, and shook his head again. "If there are, they wouldn't dream of letting anyone know. They're still hiding for the reason I have for this long. Because they know all their friends, everyone they know, is waiting to string them up if they found out. Except, my act isn't as a solid as thought. If a kid like you saw through it that easily, I must really be slipping", Kaltag replied, thinking more to himself towards the end.
"Still, there was one guy I knew. The only guy I've ever met who was like me. I met him during my first year on the team, and like the fool I was, I let him know all about me. I followed his every move, shared all the same opinions as him. I even slept with him, and he rewarded me by letting me be his second-in-command. But at what cost? I let him control me so much that I almost lost sight of who I was. And it almost got me killed", Kaltag explained.
"And the worst part? He never even loved me. Turned out the guy was an even bigger hypocrite than I was. And a total jackass. He really liked sleeping with women, but he only kept dim-witted guys like me around whenever he got horny and couldn't mate with the nearest chick. No, the person he really he had his eyes on was anyone but me", Kaltag continued.
Kodi looked even more sympathetic now. It was obvious that this was something Kaltag had never told anyone before. And the only reason he was telling him now was because he was too sad to stop even if he wanted to. "Who was this dog?", Kodi asked, curious.
Kaltag sniffled, but didn't answer, only thinking to himself for a few moments. "It doesn't matter. The point is, those days are gone now. And I'm just enough of a pathetic loser to almost miss them. There's no place in Nome for an old queer like me anymore", Kaltag whispered, a small ghost of tear appearing under the husky's eyes.
But before Kodi could say anything else, Kaltag cut him off, not wanting to speak anymore on the subject. "So listen to what I'm telling you. You're still young Kodi. You've got the whole rest of your life ahead of you, with a beautiful, loving wife, and a healthy little bun in her oven. So enjoy life while it lasts", Kaltag said, this time putting his own paw on Kodi's shoulder.
Kodi hesitated, but after realizing that nothing he could say would make Kaltag bring up the subject again, nodded his head. "I will", he promised.
Kaltag grinned. "Good. Now don't just waste time standing here talking to me, go be with your wife", Kaltag said, before giving the younger husky a little push in the direction of his sled.
Kodi reluctantly walked towards teammates, before looking back at Kaltag one last time. "We'll talk about this later Uncle Kaltag", he said.
Kaltag nodded, though Kodi could tell he was just lying so he would leave. Well, whether Kaltag wanted to or not, they were going to talk about his problem when Kodi got home again. The boy was too much like his father to just stand by and watch Kaltag suffer for the rest of his life. The dog may not have always made the right decisions, but not even he deserved to be this sad.
In fact, the Kaltag he knew, the wise old sled dog that Kodi had befriended as a pup, had always been a kind and gentle soul. Which made him wonder, what was Kaltag like before the serum run? And who was that dog he had been talking about? The one who had used him so cruelly? These thoughts continued to plague Kodi's mind even after his team slid out of Front Street, and Nome disappeared behind them.
((()-()))
Miles and miles away, another sled dog, this one three years older than Kodi, laid around lazily in the morning snow. Blake had spent the entire night sleeping behind the White Mountain inn, the hotel where his owner Roger was staying, and he and his team was just waking up from their mid-morning naps. Sled dogs were lazy like that. Especially since the leader, Steele, wasn't around to bug them about how useless they were.
As usual, Blake had slept in a dog-made bed, and his body's natural heat kept him nice and toasty throughout the night. However, it wasn't just his own body heat that had kept his snow bed warm all night.
"Hey faggot, what are you doing in my bed?", someone asked angrily.
Blake's eyes snapped open, and the husky's heart pounded on overdrive, as he remembered the last time someone had told him those words.
"Get your gay ass off of me", the voice continued, obviously annoyed. However, Blake didn't move from where he was lying, only rolling his eyes as he remembered who the voice belonged to.
"I seem to remember that you're in my bed Griff. And you were the one who spent the entire night pounding my gay-", Blake mumbled, before he was cut off.
"All right, all right, I was just having a bit of fun with you. Seriously kid, you make it too easy", Griff said, chuckling.
Blake rolled his eyes again, but allowed a small laugh to escape from his lips. "Only because you're so intimidating. I still don't know why I let a goon share my bed with me", Blake said sarcastically.
Griff pretended to be hurt by the younger dog's words, and allowed his ears to droop a little. "Hey now, that's hardly fair. I let you soften me up, turn me into an average, ordinary sled dog when I could have just beat your tail into the snow the first time you kissed me", Griff reminded the husky.
"True", Blake admitted, before rolling over to grin at his beloved. "Maybe you're not a thug after all", the husky conceded.
"Would a thug allow himself to be curled up in the snow with another dog? Would he let that dog lie on his chest, and snuggle him on the neck just like a queer? No, my thug days were over the minute I let you seduce me", Griff asked sarcastically.
"Hey, it's not like I walked into the alley planning on seducing you. And you didn't have to let me kiss you the second time. Or the third time. Or the fourth", Blake replied.
Blake and Griff, unsurprisingly, had been a thing ever since the day Griff was forced to come out, even if they didn't want to admit it at first. After reining in Steele's nervous breakdown, Griff, with Blake's help, had came out officially to the other guys. Like Griff had predicted, there had been some light ribbing here and there, but it had all been good natured. And like Blake had predicted, since the other guys were really Griff's friends (jerky as he may be), nothing between them changed afterwards.
In fact, the team dynamic had actually improved once Griff stopped trying to pick fights with every dog he saw. And during the first awkward months, Blake was always by Griff's side, being the friend he had promised the dog he'd be. He talked to him on days Griff was feeling sad, and held the dog back to keep him from getting into fights. Now, over two and a half years later, Griff was hardly the same homophobic bully Blake had first met when he joined the team.
Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for their lead dog Steele. Because while everyone else on the team had been growing closer ever since they left Nome, Steele had been becoming more and more distant from his teammates. More detached and emotionless. Almost like the proud, boasting malamute was a ghost of his former self. Apparently, the dog really had loved Jenna, because losing a female had never hurt him this much before. And his teammates wondered if the former champ would ever be the same again.
Thinking about Steele made Blake raise his nose out of the snow, and sniff the air for any sign of Steele's scent. Unfortunately, he came up with nothing. "Where is out fearless leader today, anyway?", Blake asked, thinking out loud.
A sour look crossed his boyfriend's face, and Griff scoffed at Blake's question. "Who cares anyway? All he does everyday is just sit around and mope about that Jenna girl. It's been almost three years, and he's still acting like it just happened yesterday", Griff grumbled.
"I think he really did love Jenna. That's why it hurts him so much to see her with another man", Blake mused.
"Yeah? Well excuse me if I don't actually care about whether or not our leader is sad. Any sympathy I might have had for him vanished when he announced to the whole team I was a faggot", Griff growled. Although the husky had come a long way in his transformation from homophobe to a good-natured dog, he still held an obvious resentment towards Steele, for taking away such an important life-decision in the first place.
"Honestly Griff, are you two gonna be fighting forever? Holding grudges is what made Steele lose Jenna in the first place, and holding any more certainly won't help this team. Besides, I thought you said you were gonna stop using that word", Blake asked, before raising his paws and poking holes in the igloo that protected them.
Griff grumbled in reply, saying something about how it was a force of habit and it couldn't be helped, before he copied his boyfriend's actions. Once they broke through the snow, the two dogs were immediately met with a blast of cold, morning air. Even in the summer, the artic temperatures of Alaska never disappeared completely, so things got cold again quickly in the fall.
Blake looked around, to see the rest of the team getting up as well, several canine noses poking out through the snow. "Alright, Roger's not doing anything today, so let's head into town", Blake decided. "And maybe find out what Steele's up to", the husky thought to himself.
((()-()))
The malamute in question watched quietly, as team after team of sled dogs pulled into the main street. There was a reason why so many sled teams were stopping there. There was a blizzard coming, and all the nearby mushers had decided to take shelter in White Mountain rather than try to foolishly risk riding out the storm in the mountains. That was why Steele's team were here in White Mountain. Roger had been making his way east when he heard about the storm, and decided to bunker down in the nearest town before continuing onward.
They were on their way to deliver mail to the next town. After finding about Steele's fight while they were in Nome, Roger had decided the malamute was simply too dangerous to be allowed around other sled dogs. And for a moment, he thought about just getting rid of the troublesome dog, like the man before him had done. Until he remembered his promise to Gunnar. Eventually, he decided to just give up his racing career entirely, and he and his team took jobs as mail men. And that had been their careers for almost two years now.
Talk about a long fall from grace. Steele and his old cronies (Nikki, Kaltag, Star) used to laugh at mail teams, calling them pathetic excuse for sled dogs. But now he was he mail dog himself. Not that he gave a damn anyway. Ever since he lost Jenna, nothing mattered to him anymore, not even his pathetic new job.
Speaking of mail teams, Steele couldn't help but notice another one pulling into town. Normally, he would have paid them no attention, and just kept thinking to himself. Except, there was something different about this team. Something uncommon. Their lead dog, a young husky who looked to be about four years old, had red fur.
Now red alone was a pretty uncommon color for sled dogs. Most of them were black, or white, or gray or brown. But this dog's particular shade of red was even more strange. His fur was so bright, it almost resembled a flame of red and orange. The only husky Steele had ever seen with such unique fur was his long, lost beloved… "Jenna", the malamute thought, his heart leaping.
But before he could even begin to get his hopes up, and start dreaming about the impossible, he remembered that this dog was a male not a female. Besides, what would Jenna be doing in White Mountain? She wasn't even a sled dog.
But her son was. The dog who had saved that bush pilot the year before. The dog who had become worldwide news, just like his father. Who was no doubt the dog Steele was looking at right now.
After all, like he mentioned before, the dog looked to be about three or four years old, which would be the exact same Balto's son, Kodiak, would be. The little brat who had tried to fight him a long time ago, on the worse day of his life. It seemed the boy was all grown up now. And even though Kodi looked a lot like his mother, the only thing Steele saw in him was his father. Just looking at Kodi reminded him of Balto, that accursed half-wolf, and how he had corrupted the boy's mother, turning her against him. Kodi was living proof that life wasn't fair, and Steele couldn't just stand there looking at the boy anymore. He had to say something. He had to do what he should have done two years ago.
At that moment, the boy had just been untied from his sled, and he and another dog (she looked pregnant, maybe she was his mate? Steele didn't really care), had just finished talking, and were starting to walk in opposite directions. But while Dusty managed to make it around the next corner with her musher, Kodi didn't get very far before the angry malamute stepped in his way.
"Um, excuse me, but you're blocking my pa-", Kodi said, before he was suddenly, and harshly cut-off.
"You have a lot of nerve wolf-dog!", the malamute snarled, getting right in Kodi's face.
"Um, what?", the husky stuttered, taken by surprise. But once the shock wore off, Kodi frowned, annoyed that he was being yelled at by a total stranger. "What are you talking about?", he asked, confused.
"You and your freak of a father took everything from me. And now you have the nerve to show your face in my town, trying to steal this pathetic life from me too?!", the black and white dog continued.
"Look I don't know who you are, but my father would never steal anything from anyone, and I wouldn't either", Kodi growled defensively, starting to get fed up with the slanderous accusations the dog was throwing at him about his father.
However, his words only seemed to make the dog angrier, and Kodi took a little step backwards just to be on the safe side. The boy knew nothing about fighting, and this angry, delusional sled dog was twice his size. He knew that if the dog did decide to lash out at him, he wouldn't stand a chance.
"Listen lobo, you and your team had better clear out of here before the end of the day. Or the next time I see you, I'll do to you what I should have done to your father", Steele snarled, sending a chill right down Kodi's spine, before the mystery dog turned and walked away.
Kodi's heart was pounding through his chest, as he made his way back to the sled. He needed some time to think. What had just happened? Who was that dog, and how did he know his father? And most importantly, why did he hate the boy's family so much that he threatened his life?
So much for a routine sled run. He had only been in White Mountain for a few minutes, and he had already made a new enemy. His first enemy actually, in more ways than one.
The boy had no way of knowing the truth of what had just happened. He had been too young during their first encounter to recognize the dog during their second. Otherwise, he would have known that instead of making a new enemy, he had simply ran into an old one. He had no way of knowing that he was suffering for the sins of the father.