Chapter 6:

"Guarding the Borders"

Balto and Jenna were up early this morning. There was something special going to happen today. This was the day that they would go out and guard the borders for the first time.

Caleb and the other alpha's were waiting for them to arrive at the edge of the den-site where they were going to start their trip towards the borders of the packs territory.

When Balto and Jenna were done getting ready the started to make their way over to the spot where they would meet the alpha's.

"You nervous?" Balto asked Jenna.

"Yeah kind of..." Jenna said with a unsure voice.

Balto nuzzled her and said reassuringly: "It's all going to be fine! Were together aren't we?". Jenna smiled and nuzzled him back.

When they arrived at the edge of the den-site they walked over to their mom who was sitting next to Caleb. She was scared if something was going to happen but Caleb had assured her that everything was going to be fine because he had trained Balto the best of all his students! And they were together so she had nothing to worry about. Balto and Jenna looked at their mom and saw the concern that she had in her eyes. They both gave her a big hug and let her know that they would come back as soon as their duty was over.

Caleb stood up and turned to Balto and Jenna and gave them instructions for the trip ahead.

"Balto, Jenna you two are going to stay together no matter what you understand? Don't leave the other behind even when he says you to do so! And one more thing there were two messengers from a other pack this morning that brought us a declaration of war. They are after our territory because of the fact that we have plenty of food here. So watch out and if it comes to a conflict, Balto you know what to do!"

Balto and Jenna agreed with this terms and understood the instructions.

They walked towards the edge of the forest and looked back for one last time.

"All right let's go!" Balto said to Jenna. They bolted of into the forest leaving the comfort of the den-site behind. Balto and Jenna were running for half an hour now and they were nearing the border.

"We need to find a shelter where we can stay for the next few weeks." Balto said looking at Jenna who could need a break after running non-stop for so long.

"Yeah...and maybe...we could take...a little...break?" Jenna said panting.

Balto chuckled and agreed to have a break when they find a shelter.

They looked around and saw a stone cliff with a crevice in it. They walked over to the crevice and Balto fitted through the gap and walked into a fairly big cave.

"This will do, right?" Balto asked Jenna

"Yeah it's just the two of us so, this will do just fine!" Jenna said with a warm voice.

Balto smiled and asked if she was ready to start their duty of guarding.

"Yeah sure". Balto stood up and walked outside Jenna close behind him.

They looked around so they could remember the place where their temporary den was and they saw a small waterfall. "Okay the den is close to this waterfall so fresh water is no problem" Balto thought. Balto and Jenna walked over to the little stream that came out of the waterfall and drank some water before making their way towards the border.

They were walking around the border for about an hour now when Balto interrupted his conversation with Jenna because he heard something. As they started to look around them Balto saw something nearing their borders and pushed Jenna in some bushes.

When Balto took a better look he saw some wolves walk towards their borders. But it looked like these wolves were out for war. Balto didn't want to judge their intensions till he had spoken with them. As Balto stood up to walk towards the wolves Jenna looked at him with a confused look and asked: "What are you going to do?"

"You remember what Caleb said there were wolves out to get our territory through war". "Yeah, so you think that these wolves are the ones where Caleb was talking about?" "Yes, but you stay here if it comes to a conflict I can't have you get hurt. You know I can handle this. So please stay here okay?" Jenna agreed but she wasn't happy about the thought of Balto going toward those wolves alone.

Balto walked out of the bushes and walked towards the other wolves. "Hello you over there why are you trying to get into our territory?" "Don't interfere with our plans to take your lands with force young one!" One of the wolves said with a growl under his breath.

Balto looked at them with a mischievous smile and said: "Oh I will interfere with your plans you see I'm the guard of our lands!" To that the wolves started to laugh and said with a mocking tone: "Oh I'm so scared!"

Balto still having the mischievous smile on his face said: "Oh you should be!"

After saying this he cleared his mind and straightened his thoughts and started to glow brighter than the sun. The wolves were getting frightened of what was happening. After the glow faded there was a big male lion standing there.

The wolves couldn't believe their eyes. They had been witness of a teenage white wolf transforming into a male lion! Balto looked at them and started running towards them roaring like crazy. As the wolves saw Balto running towards them they didn't act like Balto had thought. The wolves took a fighting stance baring their teeth.

Balto didn't see the ambush that was ready for him. He was jumped from behind and getting wounded while fighting of al those wolves. Jenna was getting really concerned about Balto because she saw it all happen from the bush where she still was hiding. She saw that Balto was losing quite a bit of blood from his wounds and hoped that he would make it. "I'm not going to make it as a lion, but I have an idea that maybe could give me the advantage".

Balto started to clear his mind again and straighten his thoughts. Then he began to glow again and when it faded the wolves didn't have a lion to fight but a full grown male elephant! Balto started trumpeting and the sight of their new enemy made the wolves scared out of their wits! They knew that they couldn't handle a male elephant even with their numbers. So they ran back towards their own territory. When Balto was sure that they were gone he changed back into his own form and collapsed to the ground exhausted from the fight and the pain from his wounds.

Jenna saw that the wolves were gone and ran over towards Balto seeing him lying on the ground his usually white fur colored crimson with his blood. Jenna was shocked of this sight and tried to get him back to their den at the waterfall.

When Jenna got him to the den and laid him down inside the cave she got some water and washed his blood out of his fur and started to lick his wounds trying to stop the bleeding, that had already stopped quite a bit.

When Jenna had stopped the bleeding she thought of something Caleb had learned her when she had a wound from training. He had put snow on it to sanitize it!

Jenna got some snow and whispered to Balto: "This is going to sting a lot but it will sanitize your wounds". Balto didn't respond because he was to weak to say something. Jenna put the snow on his wounds and Balto yelled and growled in pain. Jenna hadn't expected this to happen. With the wound she had it stinged a lot but she didn't have this much pain from it.

When the wounds were sanitized by the snow Balto fell asleep trying to regain some energy. Jenna curled up against him like she always does and laid her head on top of his neck to warm him up. She did this because of the blood loss. Because of this his body temperature had fell a lot.

When she felt that Balto had calmed down she started to cry softly not knowing what to do. He couldn't make the trip back home, and she knew that it would be more than two weeks for Balto to recover. She just hoped that a miracle would happen that Aniu would see that her son was in a terrible condition and that she was going to help in some way.

Jenna cried herself to sleep not knowing how to make Balto survive the night. And if he did how to survive the next day.

Jenna didn't know that a black timber wolf was standing on a cliff side half a mile away who could still she them miraculously. The wolf turned around and disappeared in the shadows not leaving a trace behind.

Authors Note:

"Hey you guys! Here's another chapter of this series! Please let me know what you think R&R and leave a Review! I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible!"

Mighty-Atlantian