Even though the stars were gradually beginning to relight themselves in the trail of the passing clouds, the nightly evergreen forest not farther from Nome than the boat itself was still an eerie, nerve-bending maze of nothing but the trunks of half-buried cone trees and the occasional shoots of severed branches sticking up like gravestones.

I had never been in the forest by myself, or at all for that matter aside from visiting Lanbur's old home in the broadest daylight no dimmer than noon. It was everything Boris ever said it was… and even less; not ten seconds after I sprinted full throttle into the woodland trying to find the source of the husky dog scent I knew I was familiar with, I found myself unable to even see my own paws pounding the snow and the occasional snapped twig nearly smacking me in the face. At first the surreal streak of dust and stars were but completely absent from the cloudy sky, rendering my eyeshine nothing more than an empty, fraudulent afterthought. For a moment I stopped to look around. Every which way I tried pointing my nose, I saw nothing more, nothing less, nothing emptier than absolutely nothing like I had my eyes closed but was trying to see anyway. When I tried to touch my snout with my paw to make sure I could still see it, I ended up nearly poking my eye out instead. Despite the brief shock of pain, I went ahead and kept running, narrowly avoiding several head-on collisions with the abundant tree trunks obscuring any and all direct paths I could've used to continue following the faint scent Syzek left behind in his wake, one that continued growing weaker and weaker with every stride I took deeper into the pitch-black wilderness.

By now, though, most of the stars had reappeared save for a spot of shadow casted by the new moon onto the colossal streak of bright yet bleak color, enough for me to see two sets of footprints on the ground directly ahead weaving between two trees and a third.

One of them spoke to me like prints of webbed feet, a subtle wave of relief pushing my panic out of my head.

At least for now.

The other, however, told me something vastly different: something I completely neglected to consider when I dashed into the heart of the woods with no plan whatsoever.

Aroooooooooo!

A rousing howl pierced straight through the rustling needles' ambience, sending the same panic boiling back up into my mind as my blood froze beyond solid. It was only a matter of a severely limited time before one — just one of the wolves who prowled these woods stumbled across Syzek running through their territory with a gigantic bioluminescent target growing out of the back of his head.

I took my pace and yanked it up higher than the tip of the tallest tree in the woodland. As I leaned into a sprint full throttle ahead, Syzek's scent began to grow increasingly potent.

That husky had to be somewhere close.

Sure enough, a shadowy canine figure began to materialize in my binocular field of night vision not a second later; the figure had rather rounded ears, a concerningly thin build, and a curled tail wobbling every which way as the silhouette continued running ahead, seemingly knowing exactly where to go.

I glanced down, just to cement what I thought I was seeing.

As I expected, a distinctly fresh set of paw-prints not unlike one of the two sets I saw a dozen breaths prior filed into the snowy pathway ahead of me.

Aroooooooooo!

The second howl stood my fur on end, my eyes anxiously darting left and right for any sign of a wolf who might've spotted Syzek before I did. Scents unknown to me were beginning to encroach on my ability to track Syzek; I was running out of time, and a lot faster than I'd like to.

Keeping the husky's shape in my view, I veered to the left, running parallel to the dog, who had still not slowed down in the slightest for some reason only he would know.

I kept running, snaking through trees until I could see Syzek's red eyeshine passing slowly in my right periphery.

This was my chance.

With the cold air battering my eyes, I cut hard to the right and leapt out into the clearing at the husky.

It was only then that I realized Syzek knew I… or someone was pursuing him, and had readied a defensive stance as soon as I sprung towards him; he crouched down on his front paws with a growl as I sailed through the air with my eyes widened…

Because while Syzek was prepared to some degree, I wasn't.

Instead of pinning the husky down immediately like I had hoped, I instead fell into the dog snout first, sending the two of us tumbling over each other through the hardened snow serving as the ground. After seeing the night's stars fly up through my vision once as I rolled, I came to an abrupt, painful stop when my back slammed into the bark of a dying evergreen. A brief wave of sharp pain surged through my nerves as I fell flat on the ground next to Syzek.

Wasting no time at all, I pushed myself off the ground as soon as the soreness partly subsided. As I stood up, Syzek had begun doing the same, having already sluggishly lifted himself off the ground while glaring at me.

Syzek must've thought I was one of the territorial wolves.

He then turned his head away.

I reacted faster than I ever had before, springing onto Syzek's back and shoving him back down flat on the snow and pinning him there right before he ran, where the only sounds either of us heard were the distant, yet still unsettling howls of the pack wolves fusing with those of the wind.

Even though there was no chance Syzek could escape my grasp, he continued writhing around trying anyway. "GET OFF ME YOU FILTHY-"

"Syzek, it's me…"

The struggling stopped even quicker than it had started. The dog cocked his head back and gave me a sniff, still stuck under my paws.

"Balto…? How did you even find me out here?" Syzek asked from under me.

"I can recognize your footprints from a mile away… and also you smell like fish." My jawline curved into a sheepish grin, despite the darkness we were shrouded in making it impossible for anyone to see it.

"...Figured," came the defeated, slightly annoyed response.

I pressed down, bending down low enough for Syzek to see me in the darkness. "You know full well there's wolves all over this place, and I doubt any of them would appreciate us trampling their snow." I whispered into his ear.

Syzek snorted. "Said like Boris never tried to brand that into my brain already."

"Then what were you doing running off like that…?"

I watched as the husky's chin laid itself flat on the ground.

"I… I need to find Kavval." Syzek then tried once more to break free, still to no avail. "He knows something about that dog-" wheeze "...what happened to him," he said before coughing uncontrollably as his voice began to leave him. "Balto… I need… air… dammit…"

…Right. I shouldn't be pressing down on Syzek like I do with Lanbur.

Taking note of that, I released my pin slightly, though still more than enough to feel the husky's lungs inflate with a giant breath of frostbitten forest air.

"Which dog? And why… Kavval specifically?" I asked right before realizing what the answer was going to be.

"Rihju… really not sure who else you had in mind," Syzek informed me from below, before his voice turned sour as his ears drooped. "Apparently the situation with him two weeks ago was never as simple as any of the dredge goers thought it was," he continued. "This one dog… Kaltag… he seemed devastated to even be talking about his sled lead back there."

I really, really didn't like where this was going. "And what of it…?"

"Rihju left with no warning… and no one at the dredge could think of why," Syzek told me, blatantly trying to spin Rihju's death into a euphemism of some kind.

Yet as much as I hate to admit it, it kind of worked on me. "If... if no one knows what happened, what's Kavval got to do with this?" I asked blankly, right before it hit me. "Oh… he knew Rihju before he became the lead dog of the winning sled team," I answered myself.

"Not just that. Apparently for a short while they practically lived together as strays." Syzek paused. "Just like us," he continued in a quieter voice. "Kavval knows the most about Rihju out of anyone alive; that wolf can help me find out who killed Rihju even if he's not the most trustworthy. I need to find him for Kaltag's sake."

'Who killed Rihju.'

I shuddered, my grip on Syzek slowly surrendering itself as I mulled over everything the husky just told me. My skepticism of Kavval's word had just been torn in thirds; I was unsure as to how Syzek even knew all this about a wolf he never met, as he almost never left my side for more than a few minutes, especially after I found him stuck nose first in a trash can with several people's heads slowing down and flicking his way. Maybe someone at the dredge told him, but that would take asking him to know.

Aroooooooooo!

And this wasn't exactly the greatest place to grill Syzek with burning questions.

My ears shot upward as soon as the howl sounded out like a warning bell toll, much louder, clearer, and stronger than the last two I heard on my way here. I immediately got off Syzek's back and began trying to help him stand up as fast as possible. I noticed his ears had now been propped up as well.

Syzek shook off the myriad of ice particles pressed into the white fur lining his underside, a blurry spray of snow flying out every which way in the depressingly little my eyeshine allowed me to see.

"Syzek, c'mon we gotta get out of here!" I barked, starting back the way we came along Syzek's paw-prints.

"But I need to-"

"SHUT UP AND FOLLOW ME!" I forcefully yelled.

Grrrrrrrrr…

My eyes went wide as I glanced behind me to the sound of the low growl. Two sets of white eyes hovered mere strides behind Syzek's red eyeshine, which had only begun wavering up and down as the husky trotted after me. Wolves, two of them, and I didn't recognize the weak scent of either of them.

One of the two pairs of eyes lowered to the ground…

…like the wolf they belong to had primed themselves for an ambush attack.

"SYZEK, BEHIND YOU!" I yelled in panic, watching as the husky shot a deft glance behind his shoulder, right as the silhouette of a wolf leapt out of the shadows with jaws pried wide and claws extended.

Without thinking, I sprinted back for Syzek. I punched my back feet into the snow in a hefty leap, sailing through the air to intercept the wolf as they closed in on Syzek, who had casually stepped out of the way to the confusion of whatever was left of my brain that hadn't been plunged into a rush of adrenaline.

I tucked my head down and rammed head first into the wolf's underside. A brief pained whimper sounded out moments before the two of us fell back down in a heap. My snout landed first, followed by the rest of my body landing directly on top of the wolf I intercepted, sending out another wave of strained noises. With a breath, I hopped off the wild wolf and looked behind me, where a pair of bright red eyes hovered in the darkness, the eyeshine to me relief seemingly glowing off of the measly light of the stars.

However, just as quickly as I had gotten off them, the wolf I tackled to the ground got back on their paws.

"Syzek, get. OUT OF HERE," I whispered fiercely to the husky behind me.

The eyes of the wolf I was facing suddenly tilted to one side. "Riiv, what are you-" The voice momentarily cut off abruptly as they sniffed audibly. "Ohhh wait… you're not Riiv."

"Yeah nice observation, genius," a second voice chimed in from behind. "It's almost like I suggested not attacking yet."

"I know but-"

"No 'but's, Dyke, that was a horrible time to attack; you never checked your target was without company when you just jumped out with no follow-up plan," Riiv sternly informed the former as his silhouette stepped out of the shadows, seemingly paying no attention to me. "And besides, we don't have any good reason to hunt right now; we just brought in an elk large enough to feed us all twice over," he added in a friendlier tone.

Dyke begrudgingly shifted his focus away from me. "I thought my father wanted me to practice hunting with you…" he tried arguing.

"He did, yes, but not on other… wolves" — Riiv tried to shoot a furtive glance towards me, but his eyeshine made it rather obvious — "You're not old enough to be picking fights willy nilly… you know that right?"

I glanced over my shoulder as I backed up away from the two wolves.

Syzek hadn't even bothered moving; his scarlet eyeshine still hovered in the exact same spot, the only difference being he was now sitting there as well, watching on with absolutely no regard for the certain possibility that the forest housed more than just two wild wolves.

Sometimes I find myself considering the idea that Syzek has some sort of dog mental illness.

I turned and ran to the husky, who was still gawking at the wolves conversing behind me. "Syzek, what are you doing!? We have to get out of here!" I whispered loudly in the dog's ear.

The husky still didn't budge.

I smacked him on the side of his snout.

"Ow!" he yelped softly. "Your claws are sharp, you know that?"

By then the glowing eyes of the wolves had disappeared along with their scents.

I nervously turned back towards the path Syzek took. "I know… kind of. Now c'mon we have to get out of here as soon as we can," I told him, nudging him forward towards the mouth of the dark woods. "Kavval can wait until Lanbur recovers enough to come with us."

"Fine."

The forest became no more welcoming than it ever had been during the lengthy night hours at this time of year. I wasn't sure what was worse: the rustling of wind-blown needles obstructing what I needed to hear, or total silence save for the rhythmic steps of eight paws trekking over frozen foliage and sometimes a fallen, lichen-infested branch.

Every time I so much as thought I heard something else, my ears would instinctively shoot up, my paws stopping in place as I scanned the surroundings.

Rustle…

After three iterations of this, Syzek began getting noticeably irritated.

"Ugh…" he groaned behind my fourth stop at the leaving edge of an empty glade after hearing the sound of a snapped twig ring out from somewhere decently close. "I keep telling you there is absolutely nothing out here we actually need to be worried about…"

I gave him an unapproving frown. "Maybe for you, but I happen to have spent a little more time with wolves who actually wanted to have my head," I whispered to him condescendingly. "I'd believe Lanbur when he says it's not exactly an easy life out here."

"Nothing about that says we have to stop every five seconds to look at the visual equivalent of being deaf, does it?"

"Ehh… well… not really, no," I admitted. "But Boris said you can't be too safe when you're stepping all over known wolf territory," I countered.

Snap.

I let out a tiny gasp as my eyes darted all over the surrounding trees and the clearing behind us. I shuddered, my breathing accelerating and becoming shallow; the sound seemed to come from ahead of us. The likelihood that we were alone was next to nothing, yet I still flinched at every movement I thought I saw. Oddly enough, Syzek seemed to be perfectly fine, like encountering wolves was a regular occurrence where he's from.

Crunch. Crunch… Crunch.

Paw-steps. Semi-arrhythmic. Concerningly close.

My snout immediately pointed toward where I thought the sound resonated from: straight ahead along the path back to Nome, slightly to the left.

Crunch… Crunch. Crunch.

I bent down on my forelegs on high alert, preparing a defensive stance as the sounds gradually amplified in volume. The trace, nearly undetectable scent of wolves entered my nose as I gave the air a brief sniff.

Syzek hadn't bothered moving in any sense. "Syzek!" I whispered, my focus still glued to the woods ahead. "Syzek, get down!"

To my surprise, the husky laid down behind me…

…only to begin licking his paws.

"Right there, right there. They've gotta be hunkering in the glade; give it a look," an exceedingly familiar voice said from somewhere out in the endless sea of trees around us. The words were quiet; they weren't close by but also not nearly far enough for there to be a chance they were talking about some other ambiguous forest clearing two dogs wandered into.

"Alright, alright, you win… we'll take a detour for a bit," replied an impatient second voice, one I didn't remember hearing before at all.

There was no chance I was getting Syzek's dysfunctional head to flee with me quick enough without some serious bargaining he would end up questioning the credibility of anyhow. Reluctantly, I stayed put, prepared to fight and protect the dog however stubborn and seemingly careless he could be at essentially every single inopportune time possible.

Before long, one pair of white eyeshine appeared out of thin shadow, followed by a second hobbling not far behind.

"Syzek, stay behind me," I whispered. "I'll deal with this."

Watching the eyes closely, I waited for the wolves to make their next move. Something about the second pair struck me as odd, periodically dipping down before being raised back up like the wolf they belonged to was injured somehow.

My narrowed eyes loosened when I realized that explained why that voice was so familiar…

"Told you they'd be here," Lanbur's voice affirmed to his acquaintance from the darkness.

"Lanbur? I thought you said you weren't coming with me," I said, standing back up. I checked behind me to make sure Syzek had not yet wandered off, to which he hadn't, now scratching himself comfortably as Lanbur hobbled up to us; the wolf he was with followed closely behind.

"Yeah, I wasn't," the injured wolf replied, his gaze shifting to a bitter scowl at the husky dog long enough for me to notice. "I'm out here for something else," he continued. "And by the way, meet the wolf who threatened to have you killed because his pack is more worthless than I am at gathering food," Lanbur added, so smoothly and casually that I didn't even grasp what he was talking about until Syzek did. I caught sight of the wolf's widened eyes wheeling on Lanbur from beside.

The husky sprung up and gave the wolf a sniff. "Aji, what are you doing with Lanbur?"

"Uhhh…" was all Aji could get out of his hung-slack jaw.

And just like that, all the resentment and frustration I had stored in the deepest pits of my mind just for when I saw Aji's dirty mug all suddenly bubbled back into my face. My eyes narrowed with fumes of anger as a threatening growl escaped through the gaps between my gritted teeth. I like to think it was because Aji threatened Lanbur, but I would never be sure if it really was, or just some vengeful instinct kicking in somewhere inside me.

Because without thinking, I lunged for Aji's eyes with my teeth and claws bared in their absolute fullest.

"Ahh!" the wolf yelped, backing up as quickly as they could.

Except before I could even get off the ground, the blunt teeth of a dog's jaws snapped over my tail, causing me to fall flat in the snow. While Aji backed away cowardly, Lanbur stayed calmly rooted in place, as if he had already planned for all of this.

I turned and tried to pull my tail out of Syzek's mouth. "Syzek, let- go of me- I need to- kill that- stupid-"

"Please settle down, Balto, this isn't a great time… I said I'd trust Aji," Lanbur spoke, before turning to the wolf beside him with contempt. "For now."

Syzek released his grip on my tail.

"Ugh… fine. I'll go along with this," I conceded, turning to face the wolf I just tried to sink my claws into. "But Aji, if Lanbur gets so much as a scratch from anyone, you can say goodbye to both of your ears."

The second pair of eyes stepped forward again, this time much more cautiously. "Duly noted," Aji replied. "I guess it's a… pleasure to meet you…?"

"Not at all on my end." I continued glaring at Aji from the ground where Syzek dropped me. No matter how much I wanted to screw up his shady face right at the second, I trusted Lanbur's judgment more. I took a deep breath to calm myself.

Aji shuddered, prying his gaze off me to turn to Lanbur. "I know I'm the one asking you a favor here, but we never agreed to you throwing me into danger like that…"

Lanbur shrugged, lifting his still non-functioning leg off the ground. "Said like I didn't know that," he retorted. "Plus, might as well get this shit over with beforehand while it's still convenient."

"Convenient? Convenient?!" Aji repeated incredulously. "And how is having your crazy friend almost rip my nose off convenient in any sane way!?"

I didn't know how to reply to that.

And Lanbur didn't either, so instead of answering, Lanbur's eyeshine turned to me with an nonreassuring look of strangely spotless confidence. "Balto, you and the husky head back to town," he told us orderly, completely ignoring Aji's frustration in the process. "The closest exit from the woods is but a short jog straight south from here. I'll be back by dawn if everything goes to plan with Aji."

One of my brows raised curiously, though the other stayed narrowed as could be. "And what exactly are you doing?" I asked accusingly.

"Paying a visit to the rocky pass up north. Not much else… yet," Lanbur replied. I watched as he bumped Aji's shoulder. "C'mon. Less time we waste the faster I'll get you what you need," he finished, nudging Aji some more before beginning to hobble his way up the same path Syzek took, now barely lit up by the stars alone.

A few seconds sneak by as I gaped at the two shadowed canine figures rapidly disappearing into the rest of the visual void surrounding us. I took no notice of Syzek rubbing his face on the side of my neck.

I still didn't trust that Lanbur's three legs could manage himself.

"Lanbur, wait," I said loudly into the darkness.

Their four bright dots reappeared not far off, stopping in their tracks. I watched as the hazy outlines of the two wolves reappeared out of the thin, frozen air in front of me; Syzek's red eyes watched on comfortably from beside me. The pair of eyes to my right had a distinct limp to them. I wasn't convinced they could get around in foreign wolf territory practically alone.

If anything, Syzek and I were going to accompany him even if it's the last thing we do.

"Lanbur what are you doing we don't have time for this!...?"Aji spoke hurriedly, his eyes locked on the wolf to his left.

"Shh!" Lanbur hissed, flicking his eyes at Aji for a split second before his usual neutral look returned. The silhouette of the wolf's head materialized in front of me once more. "You said something, Balto?"

"...I'm coming with you this time," I told them, having already made my final decision. My tone softened significantly, thinking back to those first few days after meeting Syzek. "After what happened that day…" — my gaze shifted to Lanbur's broken leg in a pause — "I don't like the idea of you going out there with only a sketchy wolf as company."

Aji recoiled like I had snapped my jaws mere hairs away from his eyes. "Uh- I- How about you don't…?"

I could tell Lanbur was thinking, considering it.

"I'm on board with it," he finally responded, to which Aji's muzzle sunk down in defeat. Lanbur shrugged again. "More claws the safer."

I smiled. Now all that was left was to convince Syzek to-

"If Balto goes then I will as well."

Nevermind then.

Aji looked at the dog, trying to hide his shock. "Perhaps you should go back to Nome and stay with some other dogs where it's… safer…?" Aji reasoned with the husky, his tone almost that of pleading.

Syzek shot a withering glare at Aji coupled with a short growl so haunting that it sent long shivers down my spine even when it was intended for the wolf in front of me. I already had a taste of this behavior weeks back, and yet its reappearance still caught me by surprise. Aji began to say something but immediately backed down when Syzek took an aggressive step toward him.

Lanbur shook his head in an off-putting agreement with Aji. "We're heading into the heart of wolf territory to see someone. Anyone sees you and you'll be picked off first for being a dog; your eyes shining brighter than Rudolph's allergenic nose aren't exactly inconspicuous, you understand?"

"No," Syzek replied braindeadly.

"It'll be dangerous for you to be venturing out here with us!" Lanbur hissed, though he might as well have been speaking to an ice sculpture.

Syzek chuckled emptily. "I could honestly not care less. I already spent half my life locked up in a metal box and you two want to shut me up again?" The husky pressed up on my side defiantly, refusing to take no for an answer from understandably Lanbur but surprisingly Aji as well. "As far as any of you are concerned, I am a part of this pack and no other."

I embarrassingly averted my wide eyes at the word 'pack.' I remembered the moment Syzek proposed the idea to Lanbur; three canines forming an operational pack of wolves… except exactly half of them were dogs. It was a purely novelty idea that I honestly never expected Syzek to dig back up, no less at a time when there are clearly more wolves than dogs present.

The two dots of eyeshine belonging to Lanbur disappeared as he let out a long, audible sigh. "I can't say I didn't try," he conceded. "Aji, lead the way. Balto? Syzek? If you're joining us then get going because we've wasted enough time as is."

Saying nothing more, Aji turned and started down the path away from the glade. Lanbur limped behind with more finesse than before, having become more adept at hobbling along on with three paws.

I nudged Syzek, gesturing for us to follow the wolves after a small gap opened between us and them. Something in my head clicked into place.

As we began catching up to Lanbur and Aji, I eyed the husky's red eyeshine from the side. "So what's the real reason you're coming with us? You seemed insistent even though Lanbur doesn't seem to respect you a whole lot…" I asked.

"Sticking with my friends. Nothing less, nothing more than that," he replied casually, to which I gave him a doubtful look.

Though I could barely even see his snout, I could tell he smiled as we continued following wherever Lanbur and Aji slowly took us to.

Lanbur seems to have gotten a lot more adept at hobbling compared to this morning. Even so, we trekked at a speed so slow we may as well have been moving backwards with Lanbur leading us all.

Sluggishly, the blackened outline of the far-distanced mountains crept closer and closer, obstructing more and more of what slivers of starlight reached the forest floor to allow us to see what nothingness but snow and wood columns was directly in front of us. With time, the new moon had drifted far past the night sky's blazing streak of dusty lights and what appeared to be stars that shone unwavering colors outside the realm of simple eyeshine and flames. Aji eventually led us uphill where what seemed to be the same evergreen trees followed, though they grew noticeably thinner in numbers the higher we traveled. Every so often along the trip, I'd swivel my head around counting how many tails were swaying in the darkness just to make absolute certainty that no one was missing. Counting to three held me over for a few minutes before anxiety settled back in and I needlessly started back all over again.

It must've been several hours since my last glimpse of Nome's vibrant, warm lamp flares before my vision became plagued by the same sight of pitch-black cone trees casting flawlessly sharp shadows over a glittering night sky. I hadn't even noticed the ground quickly turning to hard, jagged rock as the trees that had followed closely beside us died. After long enough, even bare branches passing by were a seldom occurrence.

Aji suddenly stopped at what appeared to be nothing but the same rocky pass we had been trudging through for most of the past half hour.

Two pairs of white dots materialized approached from a short distance; I expected several more to follow. "Hey! What do you all think you're doing on our territory?" one of them called out forcefully as the other began to growl ferociously. Lanbur pressed up against me, shuddering, while Syzek and Aji appeared to be calm.

"Stand down, Zayu, it's just me," Aji called back.

The growling stopped instantly. "...Aji? Welcome back!" asked the same voice, now ecstatic. "You've been gone for quite the long time today if I'm gonna be honest…" they said in a much friendlier tone than I'd normally imagine. "Come along and have a treat; there's still plenty of elk meat left to go around." The wolves had approached close enough for me to make out the rest of their bodies.

There really were only two of them.

Aji nodded. "I'll be fine without, but thank you anyway."

"Who're they?"

Now I tensed up as well. Lanbur and I glanced at each other for a brief moment, our ears pressed down as far as they'd go. Syzek's red eyes were staring at us with a look that spelled disappointment.

Thankfully, Aji spoke up for us. "They're with me," he told the other wolves. They seemed to believe him, which was a relief.

"Ah, that makes sense," Zayu replied, his companion simply nodding. Zayu turned to us three behind Aji. "Just don't do anything stupid and no one'll notice a'ight?"

Lanbur and I nodded dutifully while Syzek just shrugged. I watched as the two pairs of eyes shifted outward to either side of the path, clearing the pathway forward, which still looked like nothing but shadowed rock formations.

"Follow me," Aji whispered to us, though he stayed put for the time being. "Fei, how's Xendov?" he asked the wolf on the left.

The canine jumped slightly like they weren't expecting to be called for anything. "Oh! Uh…yeah, I'm not sure right now," Fei replied jumpily. "Last time I saw him he was helping tend to the young ones. Still said no to hunting, though," he continued.

"I'll check up on him. He's in his cave at the moment, yes?" Aji inquired.

Fei looked uneasy for some reason. "Uh… yes! Yes, he should be, though I'm betting he's asleep at the moment like most of the others. Quite the late hour for your return," the wolf replied.

Aji nodded again. "I understand."

A profuse yawn sounded out. After a quick glance, I realized Zayu had made his leave as the quiet clicks of claws meeting rock groggily trudged away.

"You should be getting to sleep too, Fei. Morning doesn't wait for you to get enough rest," Aji told the remaining wolf.

"Got it…" came a tired reply. The second pair of white eyeshine facing us disappeared as Fei turned away, stepping back into the same void his shape appeared out of not a few minutes ago.

Aji turned back to us. "Follow me. Lanbur, I'll take you to Xendov first thing tomorrow morning."

And so we did after Lanbur nodded in understanding.

The dull-silver wolf silently led us through what still looked like a slightly slanted plane of nothing to me, the place reeking of what I initially doubted to be wolf urine. However dark it was, Aji seemed to know where to go. He would periodically glance back at us as we walked. I made sure to keep my ears down. Aji eventually stopped at a relatively small cave entrance, whose opening was almost invisible to me but smelled a lot like ice and wet rock.

"There's not as much space as you three do in that boat of yours, but try to make yourself comfortable anyhow, I guess," Aji told us, before stepping inside. Lanbur and Syzek followed him inside without saying anything.

I hesitated in the middle of taking a single step towards the entrance, pulling my paw back to where it was rooted on dusty rock and ice.

Syzek's lack of any reaction still baffled me; that husky almost never followed anyone's words unless he actually wanted to… which meant there was something he wanted from Aji, or at the very least something that caught his interest here. In my thinking, the husky's mention of wanting to talk to Kavval popped back up in my head, causing me to pull back right as I began lifting my paw to take a step forward again. Kavval mentioned living in a pack somewhere up north, but with how far we traveled across snow and stone, the chances that Kavval was referring to a different pack of wolves was likely and possibly even more so than I thought, as several things tended to be.

Though someplace in the back of my mind, I knew it was because Kavval was here, somewhere inside the boundaries of the pass.

Lanbur's spontaneous acquaintance with Aji probably confused me even more than Syzek's behavior. For as long as I could remember, Lanbur always referred to him with either a bitter tone or outright infuriation. After all, Aji was the one he blamed for his broken leg… right? I couldn't place a paw on why he trusts him all of a sudden.

What did Syzek and Lanbur see in Aji that I-

"Balto! You look like you've already frozen to death; get inside!" Lanbur's voice echoed out from within the cave.

I swallowed my thoughts down for later, finally heading into the cave to the sounds of ambient snoring elsewhere. Under the rock formation's overhead, the eyes of the other three canids were dim and weak; four white and two red, yet still barely a dent could be made in the darkness. Two by two, the eyes disappeared completely. They turned away, lowering to the ground before vanishing.

Boris… he must be worried sick…

My head rested on cold, rough rock along the far inner wall of the cave, my drowsy eyes deciding now wasn't the best time to be thinking about the goose. Slowly, my eyelids slid closed as the final pair of dimmed eyeshine dots drifted away to sleep.

That's how it should've happened anyway.

Of everyone inside the cavern, I was the only one I knew was rolling around on the floor in vainly attempts to get proper rest. Dust and ice particles attached themselves all over my fur as I squirmed, but I didn't care. My focus was already preoccupied. I finally flopped onto my stomach, feeling something warm with rather short and hard fur grazing my shoulder as I uncomfortably rolled into place. Groggily, my eyes reopened, ears raised, as I gave up trying to force myself to sleep. Apparently I had managed to roll myself up to the cave entrance. I lifted my dusty snout off the ground and stared out the wide opening.

The northern lights had made their return tonight, though they were scarce and brittle looking. Even so, the sight of the distinct, iridescent green flares dancing among the stars was as beautiful as the last time I saw them with Syzek leaning on my shoulder.

One of the shadows outlining the cave entrance twitched in my periphery.

My awestruck eyes immediately darted to where I thought I saw the sudden movement. I could make out a portion of the wall that didn't quite look like the jagged, erosion-torn edges lining everywhere else. Two blurry outlines seemed to meet up at a single point, forming… an ear?

I stood up, taking care not to disturb Syzek's sleep. My face tensed up when he sniffed softly right as I moved my paw out of the way. As quietly as possible, I inched up next to the figure and sat there, gazing upwards again.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

The voice startled me even when I already knew someone was awake. When I peered to the side, I was greeted with Aji's eyes, followed by the rest of his muzzle, all tinted with an opaque green barely bright enough for me to see. I narrowed my eyes threateningly again, trying to pull out the bitter anger that prompted me to lash out back in the forest.

Only, the feeling was nowhere to be found. Of course a good fill of me still wanted to tear the wolf into skin and bones for what he did to Lanbur, but this time, it wasn't an easy, straightforward find, let alone even a hassle. The feeling just wasn't even there anymore, and I couldn't figure out why.

I dropped my glare to gaze back at the northern lights instead.

"Yeah," I replied truthfully, watching the small auroras pulse like heartbeats.

For the next minute, neither of us said a word as we each pointed our noses to the sky, watching stars flicker behind small, living smears of fluorescent color hovering peacefully over the mountainside.

The wolf next to me released a foggy breath. "Lives of the past… I like to think they all join the stars there in the sky," Aji finally said without moving, hesitant and quiet; now that I thought about it Aji sounded nothing like how I imagined he would from how Lanbur regarded him. "They light up the night under the moon's guidance, playing, hunting, howling like they all used to before they moved on." Aji's nose shifted left and right almost an unnoticeable amount. "Now all the way up there, their souls continue to live" — Aji turned to me — "as wind by day and lanterns by night," he finished.

I didn't respond immediately to the pensive thoughts; the northern lights wavered and shifted around in shape, appearing to slide past and around one another like a hallucination playing in and out of true vision.

"So what awakes you tonight, Balto?" Aji asked quietly as he turned back to the sky, his voice emanating a surprising amount of care for someone who followed through with something horrible only half a season earlier.

"Thinking about my friends," I replied in a truthful monotone equally as soft. "They seem to put a lot of trust in you and I frankly can't see why."

The wolf's white eyes gave me a sullen look. "I wouldn't blame you for that, but… I talked to both of them earlier today."

I wheeled on Aji. "When?" I asked before I could stop myself. "And why?"

The wolf looked like he just swallowed a rock. "Look, I needed help and they- they happen to know the ins and outs of that town… I went to them when I knew they were alone," he confessed. "It took a bit of bargaining to get them on board, but it happened and I brought Lanbur… and consequently you and the dog here."

My eyes narrowed, not wanting to take Aji's words at face value even with the tender, soft tone he spoke in. "I know the town better than my own paw-print as well, sam as them" I informed the wolf accusingly, just in time to remember Lanbur's reaction that morning. "How come you didn't just come out and talk to all three of us at the same time? If you really wanted something, why stalk us like a creep?"

"I want you to take a guess."

My gaze slowly fell to the half-lighted rock beside me. I tried considering other possibilities, but one kept forcing itself back into my head. "...Am I- am I really that frightening?"

Aji didn't respond immediately.

I looked back upwards toward the ribbons of light with a lingering sense of guilt. A weak breeze blew through my fur as my tail beat the ground in rhythmic intervals, feeling a stream of subtle frustration slowly seep in and break me like ice effortlessly prying a boulder into halves. One disappointed, while the other held a contagious bitterness. I shut my eyes, holding it all down to bask in the neon light.

"It's not your fault, it's just that…"

My ears flung outward.

"...after all, the independent, careless nature of a dog's heart stitched inside of the strong, capable body of a wolf — you've bound to have seen how a quilt like that comes with its own caveats," Aji said to me.

I reopened my eyes and lowered my gaze back down to the dark, rugged surfaces in front of me. "And I wish I didn't have to witness them firsthand…" I muttered, my head full of the horrid sight of Lanbur's mutilated thigh, all because I couldn't keep myself under control. "Now both of them are hiding things from me." I peered behind me for a moment, where no eyes were staring back, only the soft breathing of a sleeping wolf and a snoring dog.

"It won't matter in the end," Aji responded. "Even from the little I saw, I could tell: together, the three of you are inseparable and always will be, even after some… hardship…" he concluded.

"Aji?"

The wolf swung his snout to face mine with a look of sympathy.

"You deserve to have those scars in Lanbur's neck," I told him in a quiet monotone with my claws raised, to which Aji's eyes widened and tensed up. Out of the corner of my eye I watched him slowly stand up and back away fearfully with his head and ears lowered.

I ignored him and closed my eyes. "And yet…" I set my paw back down. "...I can't bring myself to give them to you," I told him as he relaxed slightly. "Because I trust my friends more than I want to see you gone, and if they want to help you…

I will too."

Chapter 15 is currently a planning draft.

Aaaand we're back to introducing more stuff to the plot!

Jokes aside this chapter was a lot of fun to describe, though trying to create decently convincing lines of dialogue proved to be a challenge due to me trying to balance between including too much or too little underlying bitterness in Balto's words. I need him to be on board with the other two (because plot) but I also want it to feel more or less reasonable and not any more forced than it is already xD.

Fun fact: Balto and Syzek visiting the rocky pass with Lanbur was originally going to be far earlier in the story in the first (somehow even more cringe) version of the story I had planned, but I decided to expand Lanbur's introduction to be a lot longer than it was originally.

Shoot me a PM if you have any questions about anything related to this fanfic.

Reviews are much appreciated! (Because as a novice writer I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing!)