Saba, first person. The meeting.
Saba was confused, sure, but she couldn't exactly act it out, or was in no position to find out. Moving her mouth and tongue was like lifting a car. It required all of her energy to speak a single word.
"Who... Are you..." She said not louder than a whisper.
"My names Kanai! Are you lost?" Replied a tiny voice.
"I'm..Saba…And-"
Saba wanted to speak, but something stopped her... The pup placed a gentle paw over her muzzle, and Saba let him stop her midsentence.
"Shh, don't waste energy to talk lady. I will keep you warm and protect you!" Kanai said excitedly.
"Do I even deserve it..." Saba thought.
An entire night passed... Saba would resume her thawing out phase in the morning, as the warming days reached down into the snow and tickled her nose. The event causing her to sneeze, and woke her.
The two canines lay captive in the snow, heat building up in-between the two, thawing out the ice in her veins...
Eventually, she could move! She struggled to stand, and had to use her nose as a shovel to get her out. One paw... Two paws... Shot from beneath the white and pushed down hard to pull her up. Slowly, but surely, she found herself lying above the snow, but she didn't want to move. Being trapped there opened her mind for the first time in days. She had no home, no family, and no friends. Then her current problems, she had no food, shelter, or any marker of where she was. From where she was standing, she seemed to be out in the middle of a frozen ocean.
She was alone, right? No, there was something else... She remembered. Those two little black paws that dangled before her eyes as the rest of its form lie on top of her head. No doubt this thing... This... Animal to say the least, considering it had paws, was helping to warm her. But she didn't deserve it...
Mustering up the tiniest smile, and not at the situation before her, far from that. Her smile is a result of the fact that she proved to herself. She proved to Sam, that she could survive this storm. And stand tall she did, head held high into the air, she felt an incredible urge from deep within her conscious. It was the call of the wolf.
She lifted her head back, raising her right front paw from the ground, and howled out a long song. She did not care who was around to hear it, but it did surprise her that she got a reply...
About five feet from where she hibernated, another form slowly stirred up from the dusty snowfall. It was a wolf pup, and it let out a tiny howl to match hers.
Saba smirked slightly at the pup, not really wanting anything to do with it, and walked off. She was surprised that it didn't even bother her to leave this pup... She had her own problems to deal with... Then again, wasn't she being the very thing she swore Sam was wrong about? A worthless bitch... If she was called that for anything, it walks be for abandoning this pup even after he helped to save her. Had that event alone caused her to close up, and even go as far as leaving a helpless pup behind? She shook her head at the thought... Had she gone mad? How did it even cross her mind that she would leave this pup behind...
With a sigh, she looked back at the pup. It started wagging at tail and jumped out of the snow.
"Thanks for helping me young one, but I'd suggest you run along home now." Saba said rather coldly towards the pup.
"But where are you going?"
Saba slowed a bit, but didn't turn back... If anyone was as clueless to the answer of that question, it was her. She had no idea where she was going.
"I'm afraid I can't answer that little one..." She said as she lowered her head.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
Again, it was a question the she could not answer.
"I ... I'm fine."
"Nuh-uh!"
"Am too!" She replied like a pup herself.
"Then why are you going to whale waters?"
What? Surely this pup was out of its mind... 'Whale waters' was the term for being out 10 miles into the pack ice. Anything smaller than a polar bear had the risk of being ambushed from under the ice and devoured by the Killer Whales. If this pup wasn't crazy, it's mean that she had run 50 miles south, and 10 of that was on ice...
She looked back, and all around. The blizzard gone, finally allowing her to see, and nothing could be seen anywhere. As far beyond the white endless frozen see, was nothing but clouds from the sky.
"Hey... Kanai, is it?"
"Where are we?" She added.
"Norton Bay. And faaaar from land!" He replied.
"Why are you out here?" She asked.
"I don't know! Something told me to!"
"Well I'm going back towards land... I think you should get back home."
"But... I don't have a home."
"Nonsense. You go back to your mother your siblings... Your home."
The pup lowered his head and began to cry hysterically.
"I don't have a home! I don't know where my mother is!" He cried into Saba's chest.
"What do you mean you have no home? Don't you have a pack?"
"Our pack was taken over by humans and their fire sticks! I saw..." He stopped himself and stared into space with wide eyes.
He buried his face into Saba's chest again and cried more.
Saba felt a new need to protect this pup... She'd been hurt, that much is true. But she can't let her problems from home affect her now... She had a new life to take care of, a new trusting face to watch after. She had a pup to protect.
"Kanai... Do not worry about a thing. I'll protect you... You can trust me." Saba said.
She lowered down onto her belly and pulled the pup closer, snuggling with him in her warmth. Sam may have given up on her, but she was not going to give up on this pup. She let the pup cry out all of his sorrows for about ten minutes, then Saba noticed something. The sun was starting to set across the endless ice sea...
"Little one, night will soon be upon us. We should start heading back."
"C...can y..you carry me..." He asked.
"Of course Kanai."
She gently picked him up by the scruff on his neck and trotted off. She could barely see the outline of a green forest many miles in the distance. It had taken her a full day, and Kanai more than three hours to get this far... It'd take another three hours to get back.
Nome.
Balto and Siku slowly walked off towards the post office, and signaled Dusty. She had not left with the team on the run this time.
"Hey, why didn't you run?" Balto asked.
Dusty smiled and lifted her right paw. It was covered in white bandages.
"Oh you poor thing, what happened?" Siku asked and Balto nodded, suggesting he was about to say the same thing.
"Nothing really. Just a sprang."
Balto didn't remember her wearing a cast from earlier when she was assembling the pack, and figured he overlooked it because of what she was saying.
"Well Dusty, we've got to go. We're going to look for Saba." Balto added.
"Aww, I wish I could come…"
"You just do me a favor and tell Kodi and the others that I am bringing his sister back no matter what."
"Can do! Good luck you two!" Dusty said.
Balto nodded then walked off with Siku.
"Good luck you sexy wolf-" Dusty cut herself off with a shake of her head.
"What the hell is wrong with me, finding Balto attractive… Maybe I hit my head or something…" She shook her thoughts away and walked back down Main Street, back towards her home.
(Just a reference to an upcoming story I'm writing. This is already a spoiler enough LOL)
Balto and Siku soon got home, and after ignoring Jenna's refutes, they left… And ended with a third to travel with them.
Jenna smiled as she joined Balto and Siku, and soon they too disappeared beyond the forest line.
Saba and Kanai
Three hours and enough left over had passed, before Saba had reached a small inclination. It was the coastline, and it meant that soon, Saba and Kanai would be…
"Hey, Kanai. We're on land."
The little pup awoke with a slight shake of his head as Saba placed him down in the snow, then he looked around for a second.
"Now, where do you think we should start to look for your mother?"
Kanai perked up a bit and happily jumped up
"I don't know! Maybe back at my home!" Kanai seemed to sniff about, then looked at the trees high above him.
"I... I don't know where home is..." He said in a sad voice.
"Don't worry Kanai... I don't know where my home is either." Saba said with a smile to make him feel better.
"Maybe after you help me find my home, me and mommy can help you find yours!" Lanai said.
The innocence in his voice affected Saba to the point where she felt genuine sadness at the truth. She did not have a home to find.
"I don't think that's necessary, I'll find my way." She said.
"Now, which way to your den?" She added before Kanai could speak.
"This way!" He said excitedly and jumped around in the snow ahead of her.
Saba giggled as she followed the jumping wolf pup to his home. A moment of worry crossed her mind as they would soon travel into an unknown pack's territory. From what Balto taught her about wolf culture, only the pack alpha had puppies, so she hoped that bringing her pup home safely would keep her from being killed...
She also wondered what to do next... After all, she had no idea which way Nome was, and did she even want to return there? Nome was no longer home... But she couldn't live out in the wild, perhaps she would try and find another Human settlement, maybe one like Nome where she could fit in.
-Something in her mind caused her to stop… It was an awakening, she started to growl… Growl at the thought of humans. For the first time she saw them for what they really were.
"You can make a lot of money selling the husky pups from that bitch if yours..."
Not only was it Sam who thought only of money when I came to her... But so did the rest of the town. It was like a kick to the head as she thought about the most famous of them all, Steele. The entire towns economy came from the sled dogs, and to the humans, they were nothing but trophies, free labor, and money machines... Sam took her trust away, but he also opened her mind to how sinister the Humans were.
"Saba this is where I got lost!" Kanai said, knocking her out of a deep thought.
They've been walking for nearly an hour now, and to her left... Was an everlasting frozen ocean. They were simply walking along the frozen coastline.
"What do you mean?"
"This is where I was lost from my mama and a loud angel voice told me you were out in the blizzard! ." He explained.
"Loud angelic voice, huh?"
"Yeah! It told me where to find you, and glad I did because you would have been dead!" He said with happiness, regardless the topic.
Saba smiled at the pup, it reminded her of herself when she was younger. Not a care in the world, he could talk about anything and still have a smile on his face.
Because that is how a child thinks. He doesn't think about what is going to happen tomorrow, or what has happened in the past. All that matters was finding the best out of right now, the current situation. And maybe, just maybe, Saba could learn something from the pup.
"Well, in that case, I thank you little one." She said.
With a lot of hesitation, she leaned down and touched noses to the small pup. A sign of thanks, trust, and most of all caring. The pup leaned back into her leg and she felt happiness. For once in her life, she felt like she had a responsibility to uphold. She needed to find Kanai's mother… But the sad truth dawned on her.
What if his mother could not be found? Where would he go? Surely he'd stay with her… But then again, where would she go? Where would they go? And for that matter, neither of them knew how to hunt.
"I'm hungry…" Kanai said...