Introducing… MORE OC's! YAY, but uh, yeah. Nehalem = leader.
Drago, Mason, Drakken = friends/supporters of Nehalem. Mason is related to someone we know. Who knows who it is? Whoever it is, we will also learn the heritage of that certain someone. HA, now you have to read to find out
Nehalem.
Nehalem was starting to be pissed off. His comrades, Mason and Drago were still nowhere to be found.
"God damnit, go find them!" He barked at Drakken.
Nehalem angrily ripped a tree branch off and tossed it aside, as he returned to his den. He sat and stared out into the dark forest that surrounded him, all of his followers were sleeping below. He had sent Drago and Mason on a job 4 hours earlier and they have yet to return.
He was a large wolf, quite larger than Balto, and matched nearly with height of the legendary Kavik ((c) baltoluver63). All of his body except for his belly was the color of darkness; his chest only shaded a bit lighter gray color. He had multiple scars from previous fights; after all, he did take over the pack by force. He was the alpha, and he forced the members to follow him, they were willing, given the consequences that would ensue if they didn't. It wasn't enough for some members, they tried to stop him from carrying out his evil deeds, some refused to do what he said, but anyone who disobeyed him vanished that night, not a single trace of them the next morning. Nehalem did not follow Aniu's teachings that every wolf received at a young age. He chose to follow a more powerful leader; he chose the word of Amarok the Great. A perfect deity that accepted Nehalem's evil deeds, he was fulfilling Amarok's wishes to clean the earth of the human scum and anyone that supported the humans. Eventually Nehalem interpreted Amarok's teachings to claim that the Domesticated Dogs were the biggest abomination the humans have ever brought to wolf kind. And with that, Nehalem vowed to kill any Human, or Dog he saw, and by extension, everyone in his pack agreed to do so. Many of them were loyal thanks to Amarok's "tweaking" added a little bit of brainwashing, and Nehalem had a perfect army of Human/dog hating fighting machines.
He closed his eyes as his plan would soon come to fruition. The pack traveled all around northern and western Alaska, they were alone responsible for over 100 deaths in the upper northwest territory of Alaska. By using the blizzards and erasing evidence, they usually got away with it, and the FBI would consider them a "Mysterious Disappearance". A flag that rarely ever got looked into. Now the pack was stationed dangerously close to Nome, in-between White Mountain and the town. Nome would be by far the largest settlement they would attempt to overtake. But they didn't travel hundreds of miles towards the ocean to visit Nome without reason. News of Balto's rescue spread to the pack quickly, he was granted the title "Most wanted" by the pack. He was what Nehalem would hate the most, a cross breed of pure wolf blood, and contamination of the abomination known as dogs. Plus, it was also no surprise that Amarok wanted the spawn of Aniu dead.
Nehalem's eyes opened quickly as he turned his head to see Mason and Drago.
"It's about god damn time, what news do you bring?" Nehalem snarled.
"it's wonderful boss, a good number of threats are no longer in town, they seem to be out on a mail run and got caught up in a little blizzard, and they're currently stuck in White Mountain. Without them, there are little less than 2 Dozen dogs, and an excess of 600 Humans." Drago proudly explained.
"Ahaha! Then let our plan commence!" Nehalem nodded to Mason and Drago as they left. He walked to the edge of his den; it was about 10 feet above the ground the others rested on.
"Listen up; I've gotten word that the town of Nome is a bit, well, unprotected. Now is the time, we need to make our presence known. The abomination known as dogs will be eliminated, and with them, we could take our time killing off the entire town of Nome in a single summer!" He announced, he seemed happy at the thought, and the others reflected his happiness. Cheers filled the forest as they were finally going to make their presence known on the town. There were 30 wolves in all; they knew taking out a couple dozen spoiled dogs would be no problem, and the humans? It was all matters of stealth; Nehalem planned that each night they would break into houses and kill them in their sleep. He smiled at this devious thought.
"For now, I will man the first part of the plan, only me and Drago will enter town in stealth, for there is a little girl we've got our eyes on that will put the entire town on alert" He smiled as he walked off, preparing to turn the town upside-down.
White Mountain.
Siku woke up in a hurry, she was freaking out a little bit too much, and she stood up and looked around at everyone who was fast asleep. Without a better plan, she simply barked loud and howled to wake everyone up. She howled louder and jumped on a few of them. Some were asking what her problem was, some just ignored it and went back to sleep.
"Siku, what the hell is going on?" Balto asked, as he stretched.
"Yeah, I was having a great dream, I was-"Kodi was cut off by Siku.
"Shut up! Uh, I mean, I had a dream too, Kodi… Rosy is going to be killed soon! Everyone.. We have to go! NOW!" She calmed a bit as she finished her sentence.
"W-what?" Balto asked.
"Oh god, we need to go, we need to protect her!" Siku yelled frantically as she ran around the room.
"No… It can't be… Siku, you killed her right? I mean, not you, but the demons who controlled you… I was there" Balto said.
"I…" Siku couldn't hold back anymore, she cried into Balto's neck again, the dream scarred her mentally.
"I just met her today… She's so nice. I can't believe I had to kill her, even if it was just a dream" She said crying.
The others were a bit confused about this, even though they knew Siku's story, and how her dreams were often a sign.
"Well we can't just leave out in a blizzard due to a dream." Balto refused to believe these nightmares would come true, he wouldn't believe the possibility that so many of his close loved ones and friends would be killed.
"Damnit Balto, don't you get it! These dreams mean something! It's Aniu's way of warning us!" She said as she shook Balto's muzzle, and yelled it in his face. Balto took a step back, he was staring ahead at nothing. He knew Siku was right, but he didn't want to believe it.
"Alright… okay, what do we do? We can't just leave Mr. Simpson here." Balto finally said.
"He'll be fine, we'll come back before the sun even rises." Kirby said.
"No, we don't all have to go, I'll go alone." Balto offered.
"Ha! Like that's going to happen." Saba said.
"Yeah, I'm going too." Kodi added.
Several of the others also offered to go.
"Balto, if mine, and your dreams are correct, there might be a whole pack invading Nome. We'd need everyone's help." Siku said gravely.
"I know… My dreams have already predicted Dusty's disappearance." Balto said in a low voice, then he looked over to Kodi.
"It's my fault, isn't it?" Kodi said, seemingly to Kirby.
"It's nobody's fault, Dusty wanted to be alone, I'm sure she's safe and sound somewhere…" Balto said before Kirby could answer, he knew that the dogs checked everywhere in town for her, but secretly guessed that she was on the roof of a building somewhere hidden from sight and scent. Balto felt bad for her, she was probably crying up there alone for the night, he promised to go check if she was actually up there when they got back to Nome. Then his terrible train of thought led down another path, what if Dusty was indeed murdered, and soon to follow would probably be Jenna or Rosy. He accepted the thoughts, be it true or not, he'd have to find out himself.
*Sigh* "We… I have to leave now, I don't care who comes, I need to make sure Jenna and Rosy are safe." Balto said as he turned and walked towards the door of the garage. He looked back and smiled when it became apparent that everyone else was also going with him. He pulled the door open and an entire layer of snow blanketed the garage almost immediately. He shook his head and left whatever warmth the garage offered and started running towards the forest.
"Guys! We will have to stick to the forest the entire way, the blizzard is too strong, and the winds are against us, it'd literally blow us back. We'll have to keep close together otherwise one of us might get lost." He yelled at the top of his lungs, looking to the faces of each dog to make sure they understood him. The dogs all knew Balto had experience navigating in a blizzard, they trusted him completely. After a second they were off, Balto ran ahead of them, followed by Kodi, Siku and the rest. It was a force of habit that they happened to try to run in sled dog formation, but they were happy to keep it that way, it'd make the run easier on all of them. Their speed was sluggish in comparison to how fast they ran to get here, the wind was with them then, and now a whole Blizzard was against them. "We won't make it in time…" Balto thought, and with it, he ran faster, not caring if the others were able to keep up. Using tricks he taught himself, he ran low to the ground, lowered his head and ears, and ran behind trees, using them as cover. It wasn't until they got into the denser forest that the blizzard failed to slow them, and all that stood in-between them and Nome was the top speed of their running. The tall trees formed a protective barrier over them, shielding them from snowfall, and the thousands of tree trunks worked well to slow the wind. The blizzard was now above them, and their only obstacle was avoiding collisions with the trees.
They were running for two hours now and Balto was surprised he even knew where they were.
"Guys, a mile to the right is the half-way point from earlier, we're almost home." Balto yelled back. He heard their collective sounds of complaint, but ignored it, for the run was taking a toll on him as well. He started feeling sick, as if his stomach were to explode, was it the cold? Was he pushing himself too hard? Or was it a pure worrisome feeling that was building up and was now getting to him. He ignored it still, and pushed on. Eventually they got to the river, it was no longer frozen over, and the blizzard contributed to its volume as it rose to the banks and overflowed the valley.
"You have got to be kidding me…" Balto yelled angrily, only when he came to a stop did he realize that he was exhausted. He was sure his legs wouldn't start up again if he so much as stopped to look around, so he paced back and forth along the flowing river. "Why the hell isn't it frozen over?"
"We're in the middle of a blizzard, Balto, but to the East where this river started, it's still spring there." Siku answered. Balto was surprised how wise this young wolf was, but remembered that she was raised in part by his own mother. He looked to the others, they were also exhausted, but they weren't panting, the sub-zero temperatures worked well to freeze their bodies, down to the bone… Balto knew they couldn't stand this blizzard much longer, and they were only about half way home. Balto looked around, panicking a bit, he knew they needed to rest and warm up, but where? Through the blizzard he saw a cave on the far side of the valley, it was their only hope.
"We need to get out of this storm for a bit." He yelled over to the rest. "There's a cave on the other side of this river, we need to find a way across." Balto said, he knew there wasn't going to be an easy way to get across without swimming it. He looked upriver and saw a huge ice flow breaking apart. A single large slab at least 30 feet across came from it, and it would have made a good enough temporary bridge.
"Come on everyone, we're going to jump on that ice slab!" He said as he pointed his nose towards the approaching ice.
Kodi had to squint his eyes to see through the ripping blizzard. He observed the Ice flow and figured that it was indeed the only way across, but logic took it's turn to talk.
"Are you crazy? We'd be lucky to make it on the ice, let alone be able to run across it. The wind would throw us off easily!" Kodi yelled back.
"It's our only hope Kodi." Balto replied softly. He knew it was a risky move, but started running towards it, and the others followed.
They met the ice in time to jump on it as it scraped the edges of the river. It was running aground slightly, so it began to rotate slowly.
"Run towards the left! Counter the rotation!" Balto screamed to the rest. One by one they jumped on the ice and slid across it, none of them were able to stop, and the way they were sliding led straight to the front of the iceflow. Balto panicked and bit Saba's neck, combining their masses to cause them to stop. The others crashed into them and he yelled at them to do the same. The dogs all bit another's' neck, and the event created one single mass of dogs that caused them all to slow to a stop, all except for Siku and Kodi, Ralph had missed his snap at him. Kodi was holding onto Siku, all the way until the two came to a stop on the edge of the ice. Siku slipped off and was being held by Kodi, frozen waters and risk of being sucked under the ice flow just feet below her. She let out a high pitched whimper as she looked at the death under her. Kodi held onto her tight but couldn't pull her up. There just wasn't good enough traction on the ice for him to be able to pull her back. All of the dogs successfully made it across the ice flow and jumped to the bank across. Balto was the last to jump off, but before he could, he heard Siku's whimpering, and turned to see Kodi struggling to keep her from falling. Instantly he ran over to help, but froze for a second as the ice flow broke free and began drifting down river yet again. He ran carefully to avoid slipping off the edge himself, but to no avail, he lost his footing, slipped, and slid towards Kodi. He would crash into him and all three of them would plunge into the freezing waters. He acted quickly and in order to save his son and Siku, he jumped over them to avoid a collision. For a split second, he saw as both Kodi and Siku fell into the water anyway. He closed his eyes preparing for the stinging cold water that could kill in less than 30 seconds.
Instead of this, he collided with the ground in a shallow splash. The river was only a few inches deep at this point. He sighed as he got up, thankful that he didn't have to swim for his life, but quickly realized Kodi and Siku didn't get the same privilege. Both of them were in deeper waters in the middle of the river. He looked behind the ice flow and saw water shooting out from under it. The choppy water caused it to shift about and drove it to crash into the shallow ground. Kodi and Siku were in a dangerous place, if they didn't get out of the water soon, they'd be either crushed, or sucked under the ice flow and become trapped there. Balto looked around for a second and saw a large branch. He ran over to get it, dragged it over to the side of the river, and lowered it, Siku and Kodi bit down hard on it and Balto pulled them up slowly. The Ice crashed into the bank just as Siku's tail escaped being caught. All three stayed lying down and panting for a while, both Kodi and Siku happy to have escaped with their lives as they watched the ice flow break apart soon after in the river and continued out of sight.
"I told you it was a bad idea!" Kodi said between panting. "But thanks." And smiled over to Balto. Then he got up and checked on Siku, she was shivering like crazy and covered her face with her paws. He looked back at Balto for a second as if asking something, Balto just nodded to him. Kodi turned back and looked at her for a second more, then lay down on top of Siku to warm her. She was freezing, her tiny body began to freeze from the outside-in much faster than Kodi or Balto would have. Balto saw this and came to lie down on the side of them, offering his body heat as well. Siku's shivering finally subsided a few minutes later and she moved her paws from her eyes.
"T-thanks g-g-guys." Her jaw still shaking as she spoke, making her stutter a bit.
"Of course Siku." Kodi answered as he looked over to Balto, who returned a smile. The water in their fur froze, but the cold didn't bother Kodi or Balto much at all, they were laying in a somewhat lower area hidden from the wind by the snow on one side, and the river bank on the other. The other dogs finally found them, and helped to warm the three.
"That was some quick thinking back there Balto." Kirby offered. "And Kodi, man if I haven't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed how hard you were trying to keep Siku from falling."
Kodi and Balto ignored him for the most part, Siku was still in trouble, even her skin was starting to feel cold. Balto knew she'd be alright though, wolves didn't get sick as easily as dogs did. It was silent for a while until Balto stood and looked to the cave. It could not be seen through the blizzard, but he knew what direction it was in, it was obviously along the river, back upstream. How far, he didn't know.
"The sun isn't going to show for at least 7 more hours… We need to leave soon." Balto said. "Kodi, you and someone else take Siku back to the cave, you guys keep her warm and-" Siku cut him off as she slipped from under Kodi. Balto smiled as he observed her endurance. Nothing could stop this wolf.
"I'm fine Balto, the run will warm me up." Siku said.
"Are you sure? You might get sick if you don't warm up and rest." Balto said with a concerned voice.
"If I get sick, I'll deal with it. If Rosy dies because of my weakness, I won't be able to deal with that." Siku said, Balto was amazed by her selflessness, it reminded him of himself. "Maybe it runs in wolf genetics." Balto thought with a smile.
"If you're sure you can continue, then I can't deny that we need to leave now." Balto said.
"Let's go." Kirby said out of nowhere, he was ready to run. In fact, all of the dogs seemed to be unaffected by the blizzard, they were ready to get home and save Rosy.
"Let's hope this is worth your dream, Balto." Kirby said as he passed Balto. Balto was hoping too. He almost lost his son and Siku just based off a vague warning. Nevertheless, he carried on, if his dreams did mean something, he would be wasting time just standing here. Then he ran off to follow him, and the rest did the same, all heading into the dense forest that would shelter them all the way to Nome.
Nehalem and Drago, House Invasion.
Nehalem and Drago were nearing the forest edge, the town was still dead, and not a single dog or Human walked the streets. It was good that way, because Nehalem and Drago would most likely kill them, or at least tried to. They walked over to the side of a building and slipped into an alleyway. It would be a piece of cake, they'd just slip in through the doggy door that the humans stupidly left without any kind of lock.
"These Humans make it too easy for us; they make doors for their spoiled pets to enter. We'd only have to endure such atrocities for a second and use it to our advantage." Nehalem said to Drago.
"So what's the plan for when we get inside?" Drago asked.
"Simple, kill the dog, nice and quiet, then walk upstairs and make noise so that the girl opens the door to check, then you jump her and rip her throat out." Nehalem explained.
"Aw, boss, you're letting me kill this time? It's an honor."
"Well, think of it as your Christmas present, you need training anyway." Nehalem joked, Drago nodded and couldn't hide a wicked smile.
"So what of this dog?" Drago asked.
"Ah, she's a hot little piece of Husky, just an ordinary spoiled dog, should be a snap to end such a miserable life." Nehalem answered, though he was ruthless in everything else, he would not rape any of his victims, nor did he allow any of his followers to do such a deed. It was not in Amarok's favor to gain pleasure at the expense of others. Drago often joked that a major plot hole in Amarok's teachings allowed for the rape of victims after you killed them. Nehalem never laughed at the necrophiliac joke, and his reply was always along the lines of, "Go ahead and rape a dead body, see if it makes you proud about yourself." To which Drago would admit it was just a joke.
As they neared Rosy and Jenna's house, their smile widened as they saw the lights were off inside. Drago walked over to the doggy door and tested it by pushing a paw into it. He smiled to Nehalem as he lowered his head in to investigate. Nehalem looked around and saw that no-one was inside, and the furnace was still lit. He continued on inside and Drago soon followed. Nehalem growled softly as he examined his surroundings. He looked around and saw a doggy bed, a bowl with food, and various dog toys. "Disgusting." Nehalem snarled under his breath. Drago nodded in agreement, and they walked up stairs. Nehalem stopped to let Drago continue, it was his turn to do the killing. As Drago reached the top of the stairs, the two froze as they heard footsteps from the room next to them. It was Rosy's mother, she turned and screamed as she saw two huge wolves in her home. Drago growled and jumped at her, attempting to kill this loud abomination. But this woman wasn't as defenseless as she looked. She fended off Drago's attack with a rolling pin, and quickly reached for her .22 Revolver on the counter. Drago's eyes widened as he caught sight of the gun that was pointed directly at him, he jumped off back through the doorway and down the hall. Both wolves jumped as they heard a loud gunshot. This woke up Rosy's Father, who jumped out of his room and began to kick Drago to death, Drago growled and tried to bite the mans foot, but he was wearing tough leather working boots, so it did nothing. Rosy and Jenna awoke and came to investigate the noise. Nehalem stopped attacking and yelled at Drago to ignore the parents and kill Rosy. Drago let go of the man's boot and ran after Rosy. Reacting quickly, Rosy slammed her bedroom door shut, and it knocked Drago backwards.
"God damnit break through Drago, I'll handle the humans!" Nehalem yelled back. Drago nodded and began throwing himself at the door. Jenna got in front of Rosy, ready to fight, she growled at the door and waited for it to be broken through, she was going to protect Rosy with her life if it came to it. Rosy on the other hand, wasn't interested in fighting, she opened the latch to the window above her bed and crawled out of it. She yelled for Jenna to follow, she obeyed and jumped though. Rosy shut the window just as Drago smashed through. Nehalem soon followed with blood pouring out of his mouth. Luckly Rosy didn't see it, Nehalem had stopped her parents once and for all…
Rosy and Jenna climbed over the window and got onto the roof. Rosy easily climbed down on the ground, but Jenna wasn't so lucky. She slipped and fell off the two story roof and hit her head hard on the cold ground. She got up right away, but was disoriented. She tried to walk, but couldn't, she was losing focus now, and finally collapsed, unconscious. "Rosy…" she let out before closing her eyes. Rosy ran to her side and tried to wake her, but it didn't work, and Jenna was too heavy to carry. She looked around and saw a box, and placed Jenna inside of it and dragged her as she walked. She was alone outside, in the dead of night wearing full pajamas. She walked around the building to her front door and started knocking. She figured her parents would soon open the door, but her parents never answered. Rosy had apparently forgotten there was a doggy-door. So she just sat down in front of her door and pet her unconscious dog.
"I hope mom and dad are alright…" She said to Jenna. "I hope you're alright…"
Balto slowed down a bit, the blizzard was all but gone, they had literally run out of it. They were just a few miles from home now, and the group of them was relieved. Balto froze to a full stop now as he looked around.
"What is it dad?" Kodi asked.
"Something is happening right now, I heard a sound… A gunshot." Balto said mysteriously.
"Maybe it's just hunters" Kodi offered.
"No, it came from Nome… It came from a Revolver." Balto knew gunshots all too well, having been shot at a few times himself. Kodi knew the wisdom in his father's words, he knew that nobody would be hunting using a revolver, and only a few people in Nome owned one, Rosy's family had one.
"We need to go… NOW!" Balto said, ignoring his own words, he ran full speed towards the town. New smells ripped by, he identified them as wolves, but paid no attention, they were long gone, and to Balto this was a bad sign. Finally, the forest ended and the path to Nome was clear. He looked up and saw that there wasn't a single cloud, it was a clear star filled sky, that surrounded a bright full moon. He focused on Jenna's house on the corner, there was defiantly something happening, he could hear screams. He looked to the roof just in time to see Rosy and Jenna climb out. He smiled a bit as he saw the two.
Balto was now well ahead of the others, Kodi and Siku were next in line, but were at least 200 meters behind him. Balto himself was less than a km from his destination. He watched Rosy climb down, but then his heart sank as he saw Jenna fall off the roof. He gasped at the sight, and again, pushed himself to run faster. He pushed a little bit too hard, lost his footing and tripped. This caused Balto to flip at least 3 full times before stopping. He was shaken up a bit and looked down to see blood, from what, he did not know, he didn't care. He started running again, but stopped in pain as he finally realized he'd cut open his left fore paw. He cried in pain but pressed on. A simple injury wasn't going to stop him from saving Rosy and Jenna. As he neared the town, just 300 meters away now, two huge wolves emerged from the side of Jenna's house. His heart sank; he knew why they were here.
Nehalem.
Nehalem angrily tore into Rosy's pillow, and caused feathers to fly everywhere, Drago was trying to jump at the window, but it was useless, the window was closed and he had no way of getting high enough.
"Stop trying to get out the window, the little girl has already returned to ground level." Nehalem said wisely. Drago stopped growling and nodded, then the two walked out the room.
"Great job on these two, Nehalem" Drago complimented, as he looked over the two lifeless bodies of Rosy's parents.
"They were starting to annoy me a bit." Nehalem replied. Drago just chuckled softly.
Drago and Nehalem walked down stairs and over to the doggy door. Nehalem smiled as he nudged for Drago to proceed him. Drago nodded and walked over to the door, he also smiled as he caught the scent of Rosy, who was sitting down just outside the door.
"This will be too easy." He thought.
Drago walked out of the doggy door, followed by Nehalem. Rosy screamed and ran off down the road. Drago just laughed evilly and walked after her, she wasn't going anywhere. Rosy screamed louder and got the attention of many sleeping families, who would be running outside soon.
"Now! Do it now! Drago, before the whole town wakes up!" Nehalem yelled.
Drago obeyed, he ran after Rosy and prepared to jump on her. Just in time for Balto to turn the corner and saw what was happening. He ignored the screams of Balto behind him as he jumped to Rosy. She turned just in time to see Balto and saw that Jenna woke up, but was knocked over by Drago. He snapped just one time at her neck, ripping into it.
And with that, Rosy was dead.
Balto.
Balto finally reached the light of the town, and he turned the corner quick. He looked over to Jenna, and, without a better plan, simply ran into the box she was in, hoping to wake her. He stopped after knocking her out of the box and licked her muzzle to wake her. She opened her eyes, and immediately began panicking.
"Balto! Rosy!" She said.
"No… NO!" Balto said over Jenna as he looked down the road, and bolted off after Drago.
It was too late. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Jenna and Balto watched Drago jump Rosy, and rip her neck apart.
"Rosy…" Jenna said softly, then she fainted yet again.
"NO! You bastard!" Balto yelled, but was at a loss for words as he jumped on the wolf. Drago easily pushed Balto away, and snapped back. Drago was a much better fighter, but was at the mercy of Balto. Seemingly given super powers from rage, Balto grabbed Drago's neck and threw him 4 feet away. Balto ran back to him before he could get up and bit down hard on his leg and threw him again, Drago yelled in pain to Nehalem, but he wasn't going to help. He just shook his head and walked off towards the forest. Drago caught Balto's ear and pulled him down, then he stomped Balto's head repeatedly into the snow and hard ground below them. He smiled as Balto's eyes closed, he thought he was about to kill him, but it didn't bother Balto in the slightest. With a growl, Balto jumped up and snapped at his leg again, missed, But tried again, this time Balto ripped into Drago's side and tore his chest open, blood shot out, but Drago still wouldn't go down. Balto took another charge at him and knocked him hard against the wall, then ripped into his head, tearing his ear completely off. Balto had no idea what he was trying to do, but to another observer, it would appear that Balto was trying to literally rip his brains out. Balto took advantage of Drago's screams and tore into his neck, severing arteries, of which shot out blood. Drago closed his eyes and knew he'd never open them again. Balto wasn't going to let it happen, he continued ripping into Drago's body long after he died, tearing his organs out in blind rage, stepping on the body and pulling with his teeth to dislodge rib bones, then he ripped flesh off of his back and ate it. Finally Balto stopped, and threw up the remains, that was where he drew the line, cannibalism. He stood over the pile of flesh that used to be called Drago, and was breathing heavily, he was still growling, and was still furious. Even though he literally tore apart Rosy's killer, it wasn't enough. He'd kill this wolf multiple times if given the chance.
He turned to Jenna, who was lying in the snow in front of her house. She hit her head hard and would need at least the night to sleep it off. Balto then turned to Rosy's body… Before he could walk over to it, voices came from around him. There were people standing outside their doors, and they watched the whole thing. A few men ran up to the scene, one of them ran up to examine Rosy, it was Dr. Welch, he knelt over Rosy's lifeless form and shook his head. Dr. Welch closed her eyes manually and covered her body with a blanket, and instructed his intern to bring a body bag from the hospital.
Everything started to move in slow motion again as Balto turned his head to the left and saw 2 men running up to him. They looked angry; surely they didn't think that Balto killed Rosy? He turned his head to the right and saw a man that was standing over Rosy point at him. Balto stood up to run, but his legs didn't carry him, his vision faded and he fell to the ground. His body couldn't handle it anymore, he'd ran it crazy for the past 4 hours, and suffered from head trauma. Apparently, Drago did cause damage to him earlier when he stomped his head in. His vision faded while looking towards Jenna's direction, and saw the other dogs starting with Siku finally catch up. Then he looked to his left and saw men approaching him from that side too. With the last of his vision fading, he looked over to the vet's office and saw two dogs running out. Kaltag and… Steele?
He closed his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep. He had failed at saving Rosy, and blamed himself for it, he didn't want to wake up.
Steele.
(The following is an excerpt that I removed, I didn't want to include it. Steele recovers and now has supernatural powers… Yeah, that happens.)
"Doctor, he won't wake in his current state… Give him more time!" Said the intern.
"If he wakes up, good, if he doesn't, well we won't be lying if we said that we really did try everything. This dog is lucky to have lived this long with his injuries. To keep him alive any longer just wouldn't be right." Dr. Osnik replied grimly.
"I guess you're right."
Dr. Osnik sighed, He had charged Steele's owner with only a quarter of the actual cost it took to save this dog, but he never gave up on Steele. He had fixed his broken bones, 12 in all… He repaired his punctured lung, and pieced together his fractured skull. And his body was nearly completely covered in bandages. Steele has been put in an induced coma 2 and a half days ago, throughout the duration, Dr. Osnik and his intern rarely slept, Steele was the only patient in the hospital for the majority of this time, and it meant that Dr. Osnik had no trouble making Steele his top priority.
Steele was being kept alive by the drugs in his system, Propofol and Fentanyl kept his brain silent if it woke up, it'd send out the "kill" message to his organs, and they would shortly shut down. Dr. Osnik would soon awaken Steele's brain. He carefully removed Steele's IV, and the breathing tube. Steele was on his own now, No Oxygen was artificially pumped to his lungs, he was no longer fed nutrients through a tube in his arm, his heart was no longer artificially controlled, and his brain was no longer sedated. Dr. Osnik took a step back, the machines were turned off and the room quickly got silent. Steele was, by clinical definition, dead, for a full minute now. Dr. Osnik sighed and shook his head, he hoped so much that Steele would recover, but he couldn't deny the fact that Steele was lucky to have even come this far. He walked over to a counter and began to fill a syringe with a serum… The Serum of death. His Intern just looked down and walked out of the room, he was just as broken as the doctor was. Dr. Osnik walked up to Steele and pet his fur for a bit.
"I'm sorry boy, I really did do everything in my power." Dr. Osnik said, full of sorrow, the needle of the syringe was just inches away before Dr. Osnik froze. Steele was not going to die tonight; Dr. Osnik stepped back and called his intern in, happily. Steele began filling his own lungs with Oxygen, he began pumping blood through his veins himself, he twitched his nose, ears, even moved his tail, and eventually, his eyes shot open.
"Yeah! There we go!" Dr. Osnik happily cheered, he shook hands with his intern, who wasn't saying words, more, was jumping around the room cheering with happiness.
Steele was still heavily sedated, but he turned his head to look around, he was no longer laying in blood soaked snow, and the bear was nowhere to be found. He was lying on a table in the vets' office. Instantly he knew who had brought him here…
Steele turned his head to look at his saviors, Dr. Osnik and his intern, who quickly ran outside into the waiting room to tell the others of Steele's awakening.
He smiled a bit as Nikki, Kaltag, followed by their owners and a few other humans walked in. Then he saw his own two humans walk in with tears of joy as they thanked the Doctor for his hard work. This was new to Steele, everyone seemed to actually care that he was alive, but he knew that he didn't deserve this, that he should have been left for dead by the way he's been acting all these years. He vowed to a certain spirit that he would right his wrong ways, and it would start now. Almost with super-dog strength, given the amount of muscle suppressors flowing through his body, he turned on his belly and slowly began to try and move into the sitting position. Everyone in the room silenced as they watched this dog struggle to sit up. It was an amazing sight, especially the doctors, who knew that at least 10% of Steele's body fluids were drugs meant to keep him from doing exactly this, Move.
Steele was still in pain regardless of the massive amounts of suppressants in his system, but he forced himself to sit up. It felt like he weighed a ton, but eventually he rested on his one good front leg, and looked to the small crowd that gathered in the O.R.
"Hey, guys…" Steele said, it was very quiet, but Kaltag and Nikki picked it up and walked over to him. To the Humans this was a shallow whimper.
"That's a good sign, yes?" Dr. Osnik asked rhetorically to the others.
"I can't believe you're actually alive, Steele, you look like a mummy." Kaltag said.
"Yeah, youse really gave us a scare dere." Nikki added.
"It's nothing, *ack, just a slight cringe in my neck that's bothering me." Steele replied, seemingly noticed that his voice was quiet, so he used more energy to talk louder.
"Where's… Balto?" Steele asked. He didn't get a reply for a few seconds.
"Steele… do you really think Balto would be here? You've treated him like shit your entire life, and he still saved it, when nobody would have questioned him if he left you out there to die." Kaltag replied showing a hint of anger. Kaltag has grown to be a very loyal friend of Balto, but he still wanted Steele to be part of the group.
"I know, I know, I wanted to tell him I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you guys… I'm sorry." He said in the most sincere voice. He wanted desperately to change his ways and hoped that everyone would accept it. Kaltag wouldn't at this point, not yet.
"Wow, you're really drugged up aren't you? You've never once apologized for anything in your life… Why start now?" Kaltag replied coldly. But he saw the sincerity in Steele's eyes, and chose to at least listen to what he has to say.
"You two have always been my closest friends, yet I treated you so badly… And Balto… He has such a kind heart, I regret ever disrespecting him. He should have left me to die in that forest, but yet he dragged me all the way home. The kind dog even took the time to lick my wounds clean so that I didn't have infections to add on top of all of this." Steele said, a single tear rolled down his cheek.
"Alright, fine, I'll believe you, Balto and the others left for a mail run, he was replacing my daughter, she's… disappeared since yesterday." Kaltag said slowly, he didn't want to tell Steele that, but he did it anyway. "A blizzard rolled up in-between here and White Mountain, so I'm guessing they're waiting it out."
"Kaltag, I hope your daughter is safe. I hope Balto and the others are too, I need a chance to make up for my pathetic past life, and start anew, I need your help." Steele said genuinely.
"Hah, you care for once, man I can't wait until you snap out of it when the drugs ware off." Kaltag said, he was joking, deep down he wanted to believe Steele has changed, but why?
"Why exactly did you decide to change your ways?" Kaltag questioned.
"It's a long story, Aniu, she's such a kind spirit, she gave me a second chance. The only catch was that I had to help Balto, but I knew Balto would never trust me. She said I'd find a way, and that she would try and talk to Balto, but then joked that Balto's head was too thick to get much through to him." Steele explained. Then he got up on all fours. He looked up and down his body and examined his legs. Somehow, someway, they were keeping him up! He looked down to the ground, a full 4 feet drop, and whimpered slightly. He wasn't going to risk this.
"Whoa there boy, you've already broken records with the amount you recovered, but let's not get crazy here." Dr. Osnik said, typical patients that come out of an induced coma can't walk or do much of anything for at least a full day, yet here Steele was, sitting up, talking, even attempting to walk and jump off of a high table. He carefully picked up Steele and placed him on the ground. The heavy dog felt stable, and his bones kept together nicely. Dr. Osnik was again completely baffled at how fast this dog was recovering. Then he walked out to talk to the others outside. Nikki's owners picked him up and took him away, he was refusing to leave, but his owners carried him off anyway. Only Kaltag and Steele remained.
"Look, Aniu saved my life, and her kind-hearted son helped. I'm not going to spoil it by continuing the pathetic existence I used to. I don't know if I can change, but I will try my hardest to do so." Steele explained, his words were full of confidence.
"Well in that case, I will help. If you're going to be my friend, you're going to have to be Balto's." Kaltag added.
"I will be, regardless if Balto accepts me." Steele replied.
The two talked for a while, Kaltag talked about his children for 10 minutes, it was mostly a test for Steele, and the entire time Steele seemed genuinely interested. And Steele really was interested, his best friend had 4 beautiful children, and he never once asked about them.
"Dusty seems like a good fighter." Steele added as Kaltag was recounting the events of Dusty and her brothers play fighting.
"She's something alright." Kaltag replied.
"Why is she missing anyway?" Steele asked.
*Sigh* "Her heart was broken. I don't blame Kodi though; I know how stubborn my daughter can be when it came to listening to explanations of any kind, she gets it from her mother. It was all a misunderstanding, but now she's ran off somewhere and nobody can track her down." Kaltag explained, They continued talking about other things for a while, then it got down to Balto and the new Wolf in town.
"Siku…" Steele added before Kaltag even said her name.
"You know her?" Kaltag asked.
"I know of her. Aniu told me about this wolf that came to town to warn… Kaltag, when is the last time you saw Rosy or Jenna?" Steele asked worried.
"I don't know, I saw her daughter yesterday, Saba, she was looking for the others. Why?"
"Kaltag… I think Aniu was trying to warn me of something. Rosy might be in trouble soon…" Steele got up again, the pain was gone… His bones were almost completely healed. It was remarkable. Aniu had given him a helping hand in recovering. She repaired his bones and healed scars over in mere hours, which would have taken weeks.
"Kaltag… we have to go now, there isn't much time. It was only fate that I happened to wake up in time… Rosy needs my help." Steele replied, and then ran out the door. Everyone in the waiting room gasped at the sight, the dog was dead just 15 minutes ago, yet here he was, running full speed and colliding with the door to knock it open... He failed, but tried again. He sat and shook his head as a few of his looser blood soaked bandages fell off. He may have hit it a bit hard, but it didn't matter to him. A human finally got up and opened the door for him, trying to hide the laughter at the sight of the dog running full speed into a closed door. Steele didn't take the time to thank him, but bolted out in the direction of Jenna's house.
"Steele, what the… Wait up! How the hell are you running this fast already? This is bullshit." Kaltag was a bit annoyed, but he couldn't hide his amazement. Steele really was incredible. Steele rounded the corner and bolted down the alleyway, desperate to find Rosy and save her. He froze at the sight in front of him… Balto was tearing apart another wolf, he looked furious. Steele looked to his left and saw Jenna lying in the snow, what had happened to her? He hoped she was alright. Then he turned to the right and the scene made his heart drop, he was too late, before him he caught the body of Rosy, before she was covered in a blanket.
"No… I have failed, Aniu." Steele said, then dropped down and covered his face.
"You have not failed me, Steele; Balto still needs your help, go to him." A voice replied to him. It seemed unreal, he only ever communicated with the spirits in his dreams, this time it seemed like Aniu was behind him giving him advice.
"Right." Steele straightened up and walked over to Balto, he watched as the wolf-dog turned and fell. He sped up and ran to Balto's aid and saw the light slip from Balto's eyes.
"Balto, you're going to be okay, you don't even look injured man! You have to get up." Steele said desperately, if Balto died, he wouldn't be able to live with himself. He looked around at the humans, who were closing in on the two, they seemed mad. "They think Balto killed her… No… It isn't true… I won't let them touch Balto!" He thought.
He growled and stood over Balto's unconscious form and snapped at a human who tried to reach down.
"Whoa there boy, we just want to help Balto. The amazing dog tried to save Rosy, and he even killed her killer for us." The man replied, he faced the other men, who all nodded in agreement. Steele softened up as he realized nobody was going to hurt Balto, and then he let the man pick up Balto. He walked over to Rosy's house and placed him at Jenna's side.
"Steele, you stay here and watch the two, good boy." The man replied. Him and the town sheriff busted down the door and proceeded inside, followed by two other men. Another man rolled out police tape across the road, preventing people from entering near the house.
Steele watched as a few humans cried out when the event unfolded in front of them. The doctor was first to leave the house, he had a terrible sad face as he took his gloves off and shook his head. His intern returned to his side and seemed to ask, "Is there anything we can do for them?" To which the doctor just shook his head.
They pulled 2 stretchers out of the doorway, and on top of it were bodies covered in full black plastic bags. Steele knew what this meant. He looked around at the other dogs that came to surround them, and noted out Siku as she cried in Kodi's shoulder. Steele lowered his head and closed his eyes then lay down next to Balto, and once again blamed himself for all of this.
Kodi and Siku.
"Dad wait!" Kodi yelled out to his father, but he could not hear him. They were closing the gap between the two and Nome. He watched his father trip and fall and laughed softly at the sight of the wolfdog doing at least 3 complete flips before stopping. Siku was running full speed next to him. He looked down at her and caught himself staring again, she moved so elegantly and peacefully as she sped by, like a machine built for running, her powerful muscles moved her tiny legs much faster than Kodi, or any other dog for that matter, had to. He began to think how life could be if the two of them were to spend the rest of it together, all that came up was pure happiness. Kodi was in love with a wolf, but he didn't care, Siku was beautiful, and her personality matched it as well as her voice did.
"Kodi, you can stare at me later, right now focus on running." Siku yelled back. She seemed to even talk in a calm voice ignoring the fact that the two were running very fast. Kodi turned his head down and scolded himself for staring again, and then he looked ahead and saw Balto turn the building. He couldn't make out anything else, but he saw a few other humans run around the building to see what happened. They were closing the gap and would be there in less than a minute. It was too late, they rounded the corner and took in the scene in front of them… They got there just in time to see Balto faint and they joined the humans who were flooding to the scene. He stopped at the sight of his mother and tried to wake her, but it didn't work. Then he ran over and saw Rosy's body being carried off by the doctor… He couldn't believe it, Siku and Balto's dream was correct, and if it was, he would be the next one to die. He ignored the thoughts, he wasn't worried. If he died, it wouldn't matter, what would matter is how broken down Siku, Balto and the others would be, he'd fight for his life even harder because of that.
"Dad!" He yelled out as he saw Steele protecting him and a few humans gathered around them. He stopped as he saw them pick Balto up and walk him over to Jenna, so he followed. A man was unrolling police tape, but lifted it just for Kodi and Siku, then sighed as he had to lift it several times again for the rest of the dogs whom finally caught up to the scene. He stopped, sat down and stared at his sleeping mother and Father, and Steele, who was beating himself up on the inside. Kodi never resented Steele, but due to the respect of his father, he had to hate Steele, but now was not the time to express it. Siku one again buried her face into his chest and started crying. Kodi just moved his head down and licked her ears to comfort her. Siku knew all too well that her dreams might be coming true, and she knew that soon the rest of the pack would be invading the town of Nome.
I cut it here, again, the chapter was huge, and I didn't want to post a 30,000 word long chapter just yet. I have Chapter 6 completed but I'm going to upload it tomorrow, for, uh, Revising, yeah that. (mwaha ha ha... ha...wut)