Chapter 3
The sun was shining through the broken windowless wheelhouse. I woke up from the sunlight and I started to get everything in gear. I looked at the box before I head out and thought about what Balto said.
"Little things could become a larger, creative, natural beauty of nature." I thought what Balto had told me.
When I got out of the boat, I found some dirt that was on ground. I scoop some up dirt and snow. As I mixed them together, they became snow mud. With no apparent reason why I did it, but I thought it'll be something important.
I head into town to see if Balto was around. When I found him, he's with Jenna and Kodi near the post office. I walked over to see that Kodi is in a sled dog team.
"Good morning everyone." They turned to see I was coming close.
"Good morning." they greeted back.
"It's nice to see you two again." I said to Jenna and Kodi as they smiled back.
"I guess you see me in a sled dog team." Kodi told me.
"For what? What do your team do?" I asked.
"We get the mail to another town and bring another mail back to Nome." he answered.
"Hopefully your team make it back safely." I said as I petted Kodi.
"And the both of you as well." both Jenna and Kodi said separately.
"Balto… I'm sure you going to need this." Jenna said to him as she was taking off her orange bandanna and put it on Balto.
"Jenna are you sure you don't need it to keep you warm?" he asked in concerned.
"You need it more than I do for now. More importantly it is for you to know that I'm with you." she answered in content. They both muzzled and licked each other once before we departed.
"Just come home safe." she instructed Balto to come home in one piece.
"Jenna… before we go, I need you to have something important." I said to her, as I'm taking off my white colored scarf and lay it on the ground. I opened up and poured some of the snow mud onto the scarf.
"Balto can you come over for a second?" I asked. Balto didn't know why I called him over. I placed his paw onto the mud to mark his paw on the scarf. It wasn't perfect, but the paw print was visible on the scarf. I wrapped it around Jenna where she had her bandana was and had the paw print shown.
"Eli that's your scarf." she said.
"I have another one, but more importantly you need someone to think while he's away." I stated.
She looked at Balto and he grinned.
"Now you have something to think of me while I'm gone." he added. Jenna quickly muzzled Balto the second time and longer. I smiled back and overfilled with cheeriness.
"Thank you, you two." Jenna thanked the both of us.
"Little things could become a larger, creative, natural beauty of love." I quoted. Balto looked back at me.
"I believe that you got that from me." he said. I blinked one of my eyes.
"Now you two be safe." Jenna warned us. Balto and I nodded.
"You two also be safe as well. Kodi make sure you look after your mother." Balto told Jenna and instructed Kodi. Kodi nodded yes. The musher came out and started to get on the sled. The dog sled team headed out to deliver mail.
"I guess we should head out as well and not lose the day." I said.
Balto made his last goodbye to Jenna and headed outside of town back to the wrecked fishing boat to see Boris. We then see Boris by the beach with two polar bears.
"I'll try to keep my mouth quiet to not spook the polar bears." I told Balto as he chuckled.
"Don't worry… I'm sure they'll be surprised." he assured me.
We headed out to the beach to see them. Boris was being splashed all over by the polar bears and I get the impression that he wasn't enjoying from his facial expression. The two polar bears saw Balto and they started to run towards him. They started hugging him like playful crazy. I even chuckled too like these bears are little kids.
"How are you two doing?" Balto asked them.
One of the polar bears, who was taller than the other one, was mumbling like it couldn't speak. At first I thought that it was probably my necklace.
"Luk says that we're doing well and we're visiting Uncle Boris." the smaller polar bear.
"Yeah and you bears are just driving me crazy like a fish!" Boris said to the polar bears.
Balto and myself laughed over it.
The two polar bears gasped and stared at me. I guess I couldn't keep my shut.
"Guys I wanted you to meet Eli… Eli this Luk and Muk." Balto introduced me to the polar bears.
"Hi nice to meet you." I greeted and offered a handshake. The two polar bears just look at each other and screamed out of fear and ran all over the place in circles.
"I guess I must of spook them like Boris." I told Balto as I scratched my head. The bears ran and bonked each other's heads and landed on the water.
Balto just laughed came over to the two polar bears. "You guys relax, he's not going to hurt." Muk and Luk were both frightened, so I just waved a "hello" and they waved back.
"Balto you're wearing Jenna's bandanna, what's the occasion?" Boris asked Balto.
"Me and Eli are going to out for hopefully it won't be long it would take a few days. If something happens and we don't come back in a few days, you could search for us." Balto replied as they agreed.
"What are you going to do?" Boris asked.
"We needed to find a sled dog team and the musher, who tried to rescue me, but we got separated from a snowstorm." I answered. Boris started to grow concern with Balto. However, Balto was confident and he wanted to assure Boris to watch out for Jenna and Kodi.
"You be careful too Balto." he warned as Balto chuckled. They started to say good-bye for safe travels and I came over to Boris.
"Don't worry, I'll look after him and have come home safe." I assured Boris. He sighed and he grabbed my right arm and unrolled my sleeve to see the markings on my arm.
"When did you have this?" he asked.
"It was not that long very since I met you and Balto." I answered. He enrolled my sleeve closed.
"Let me tell you something alike what I told Balto, 'A human could not just make this journey just with a wolf-dog.'" He started to waddle away from me slowly. "However, if you look into your heart… someone you may know can." I could only do think about it, but I haven't even thought whole heartedly and thanked him for the advice.
"That's all I could do for you." he joked lightly as he waddled back to Muk and Luk.
We waved goodbye and I told Balto that I'll be back that I needed to grab something. I head over to the church in Nome to see that the sanctuary is empty like no one is there. I walked over to the church pews to see a small copy of a Bible. I managed to find a small Gideon Bible and took it as I head out to regroup with Balto. As I packed a Gideon Bible in my coat pocket we headed out towards the forest.
In one day, we had passed the town Council from walking through the snowy winds without stopping, we finally got a sled that Balto could pull me.
"Are you nervous riding a sled?" he asked me.
"A little, but I'm not the one who sits down this town strapped up." I joked. He laughed.
"But you'll have to hang on tight."
"Why?" I asked.
However, Balto just bolt joint race ahead of the storm. I started to struggle to maintain balance to hold on to the handlebar and my feet onto the runners.
"Hold on!" Balto yelled. The sled was going fast like a lighting bolt in a storm. I was starting to handle sled better than the take we had a minute ago.
"Are you doing okay up there?" I asked. Balto didn't respond because he was paying attention to the environment surroundings and the dangers that might be ahead of him.
In fifteen minutes, we arrived at a small river that leads to Norton Bay. Balto started to slow down and decided to stop. I got off the sled and walked over towards Balto, whose panting like he ran the marathon.
"I got to tell you, you sure run like the wind Balto." I complimented him as I petted him.
He chuckled and he was still breathing like he might have hard time breathing that concerned me.
"Are you really okay Balto, do you need to lay down and have water." I asked.
"I'm alright… don't worry, it's just me getting old." Balto told me.
"You're never too old to do anything." I joked as I was giving him his bowl of water. He started to drink nearly the entire bowl. I rubbed his back for his efforts pulling me on the sled.
I sat down near the river to see that the water is frozen. I found a heavy rock and carried it to throw it over a frozen spot of the water. The rock broke it a bit and I carefully went back to pick up the rock and toss it again to the same spot where the mark was and it successfully smashed the ice. I found a long thin stick and attached it rob a string of thread and put a worm from a worm can. Finally I started fishing to catch a fish.
"I guess you also fish too." Balto showed up and told me.
"It's almost a therapeutic way to find food." I said.
"I'm afraid in a river like this; you won't be able to catch one in time and not in a bay like this." he said.
"Well I might have start somewhere." I added. Balto just nodded in disapprove while smiling and left.
It was over twelve minutes and I haven't even caught one yet. I pulled my hand made fishing pole back and see that no fish was biting. Balto came back with a caught fish in his mouth and dropped it in the snow. I was surprised on how did he caught it quickly.
"You're missing a good spot." Balto joked. I looked at the bay and my pole that tells me I won't get much fish. I got up and head towards where Balto was at. I then see a river path that has fish coming in few minutes at a time. I started to sit back and resume fishing. He just gave me a smirk with a laugh.
"Are you always going to just use a handmade pole to fish?" he asked.
I just shrugged my shoulders and smirked. Balto saw a fish jumping out of the river-stream. He then saw a fish coming upstream and he caught with one bite. I was turned into a scorekeeper and clapped in applause. He tossed a fish into a snow pile.
"I suppose I need to come up another way to catch a fish." I suggested.
"Maybe you should try to catch them with your hands." Balto offered a challenge to me.
I made a shrug for attempting a new method to catch the fish. I took off my snow gloves and warm my hands up to test the challenge. My knees were bent as if I was going to do a mile race. I see a fish moving upstream and my hands are ready to make a grab. Unfortunately, my hands went into the water and the fish swam fast enough that it made me slip and fall into the river path's water.
Balto burst out laughing as I stumbled into the water. I started to laugh too as I stood up and got out of the water to lightly dry myself.
"Maybe you should block the path with your hands and then catch it." he instructed me.
This time, my hands were underwater and blocked a small river path with a net and rocks. I saw a fish that went between my legs into the bait. I blocked the entrance with my legs and made two attempts and they swim off to the net. Balto was trying to motivate and cheer me on, until my try, I caught the fish with my bare hands. Of course the fish was slippery that it started to slip from my hands. I kept trying to catch it in the air twice and the fish kept slipping from my hands until it landed on the snow. The fish was trying jump until it gave in. I finally got out of the water and grabbed the fish.
"You did it!" Balto cheered.
"I never wanted to try catching fish in the water with my hands again." I proclaimed.
"Well you got one fish and that's what counts." he cheered me up.
"I have a can food in my bag and I could cook both of them in the fire." I decided.
"Never tried it by a fire before." he added.
"We'll head back to camp near the bay and start a fire to prep dinner." I informed Balto as he nodded for agreement. We started head back to camp.
When we got back we set fishes on the side in a pile, found some wood to start a fire. I set up camp with blankets around the fire to be warm at night. I prepped dinner by cooking canned food and fish by the fire. Balto came back and laid by the fire. He went scouting to find a better path to go by sled.
"Find a better path?" I asked Balto as he was getting comfortable by the fire.
"There's one short cut we have to take." Balto answered.
"Where?" I asked again.
Balto looked over the bay, "We'll have to cross it."
I was surprised despite it has a high risk chance of falling into a thin ice field.
"I couldn't be able to find a better path, except going North, but it'll take days and they may not make by the time we arrived." he stated.
"Is there a longer way around?" I asked as I opened up a map that I got from the general store in Nome.
"There is, but we'll have to go around the bay and cross three rivers that is flowing with water." Balto warned.
"How about if we take our chance in the ice field and go back on land at Ungalik River and then we could just cross Shaktoolik River where I was before I was on the waters that got me to Nome." I offered a suggestion.
"If you want to take this chance, we may fall into thin ice." he warned me again.
"I know… but more importantly if you can travel through there, I'm worried that you fall into a thin ice as well." I said with concern and worry.
"There's one way to find out in the morning." he claimed.
The fish was cooked and the canned food is about done. I dished up our dinner and enjoyed the campfire.
"Fishes good?" I asked Balto as he was enjoying it.
"They're great! Thank you!" he answered in delight of the fish's taste.
"First time having fish cooked by fire?" I asked.
"Yes, I don't even know how it tasted differently than raw fish." he answered.
"I used to go fishing when I was four with my father and got in habit to fish before I learned how to hunt. I could've just make a living by working for fishing company and catch fish for life." I said in wishful thinking.
"There's not that many choices in life since they end up being limited." Balto added.
I finished my fish and started eating the canned food. "You're right. I had a need to look after my family after my father's disappearance."
"How did your father disappeared?" Balto asked.
"I cannot recall how he disappeared. The last time I saw him was the day of his disappearance. He was about to go out hunting and I was seven at home with my mother. Then something happened and I can't remember or know how it all happened." I told him. Balto was fully into the story like a child listening to a bedtime story.
"I'm sorry to hear about your father." Balto gave me a condolence.
"I never got to tell him how much I loved him before he disappeared." I grievingly stated as Balto's ears were lowered because of my sadness.
"How did your father disappeared?" I asked Balto, as he raised his ears.
"I don't fully know either because I was only a pup." he said.
I thought at that we had a very few things we have in common. Our fathers had disappeared when we're in our youths. Our mothers as well died when we're young. More importantly now is that we know each other as a friend to a friend: a hunter and a hero, and a man and a wolf-dog.
Later that night near the campfire, Balto was asleep from his exhausted mushing. I was up for a little bit reading a small Gideon Bible from a church back in Nome. I could only think back when I was little, my parents would read me a chapters from The Bible before I went bed. As I was reading, I could only wish that my parents were by my side to help me understand The Bible little more. After my family passed away, I struggled spiritually: losing faith, doubting, and questioning 'Why did this happened to me?' I never got a full answer why. As I was facing the fire, I could only picture how my life could have been different then it is now. The wind was blowing on the fire hard to make the fire burn out. The snow came down lightly and the cold is fibering all over my head and going down to my heart.
I felt tired and I got myself covered with blankets and furs and fell asleep in minutes. Minutes later, I my eyes were opened and I couldn't close them. The campfire embers started to form a unknown creature. I also couldn't move my body and I felt I was strapped in or someone or thing was holding me down. The creature roars and goes up to my face and I woke up in the middle of the forest. I wandered around until I see a log cabin. My mind quickly remembers that it was my home. I walked towards the front door and opened it. I could see what was once my living room home.
"Mommy and Daddy wake up it's morning!" a child shouted from upstairs. More voices came and I started to hear footsteps descending downstairs. The child was me! What follows my past self was my parents. My father was getting ready to do a morning hunting to bring home breakfast.
"What are bringing home this time?" the younger me asked Father in excitement.
"Eli… mind your manners please. Your younger brother and sister are sleeping." Mother told me.
"Sorry Mother, I just can't wait to go another hunting trip with Father in the afternoon." the younger quickly apologizes to Mother.
"Yes… we're going to hunt in the afternoon as I promised. More importantly is that you need to listen to your mother and be the man of the house until I get home." Father instructed my younger self.
"Yes dad." I listened.
"Remember…. 'The wolf changes his coat, but not his disposition'." he told the younger me.
"Yes Father, more importantly however is 'Hear, my son, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching.'" my younger self quoted Proverbs 1:8.
My parents smiled proudly. "You're understanding and knowing your Bible verses well." Mother said.
"We need to have a family Bible Study during breakfast." Father added. My father was all geared up and heads out towards the door and closes it.
Time fast forwards to ten minutes later. I was still in the same watching my younger youth and my mother prepping for breakfast. Suddenly without warning my father entered the cabin in an urgent matter.
"My wife… take Eli upstairs and protect our children!" Father instructed Mother.
Without question, my mother took the younger Eli upstairs. I saw that my father ripped his sleeve out to show a wolf marking with a crucifixion cross like I had in my other dream. All the sudden, five dark beings broken in and my father started battling with them. He managed to defeat them and three more appear with a man in a blackish robe.
"How dare you enter my humble home!" my father shouted as he started to battle with the hooded figure. They battled for five minutes until they morphed into certain animals: my father as a brown-tanned wolf and the hooded figure into a black grizzly bear. They battled until the bear overpowered my father morphed wolf and he was severely injured. The bear turned back into the hooded figure and commanded the dark creatures to take the injured wolf outside.
"My darling and my beloved children… I love you! Eli look after your family for my sake!" That was father's last words I heard until the door closes. The hooded figure started searching until I realized it was searching for me and my family.
I ran upstairs to find my mother and myself were guarding two other children, who are younger siblings. My mother prayed forgiveness as she took her necklace off and my necklace, as she told me not to bring this up, no matter what happens to us. I nodded my head in agreement. She started a quickly lightened fire in the fireplace and destroyed the necklaces. As the necklaces were burning, my mother started to become ill. The younger Eli held onto Mother. I ran downstairs and followed the figure outside to see my father was still in his wolf form and held captive by these dark beings.
I hid behind the trees and saw the hooded figure demanded my father where is the rest of my family. My father refused to say anything and remain silent. The hooded figure grabbed out a knife that looked like a sacrificial or some sort. My heart was beating fast to realized my father was about to be murdered.
"I'll never tell you where my family is and my son one day will stop!" my father exclaimed at the hooded figure.
It laughed and then… "Your family will be no more when I'm done with you." The hooded figure stabbed my father repeatedly as I was shouting for my father. My morphed father's last words was a howl to the sky. "Dear Lord, forgive me and please watch over my family when I come to see You and your Son." My father collapsed and expired from his wounds. The hooded figure demanded the dark creatures to search for the family. As they disappeared, the hooded figure turned towards and I begin to become frightened with fear.
"I now found you! All need is to know where you are and who are you with." the hooded being laughed as one of the beings grabbed my arm as I saw a familiar paw that looked like Balto's. I looked again to the hooded figure was face to face with.