Balto’s
Past
By Denise Mol
The silence of the morning broke to pieces when a gray/brown pup came runing out of a snow-covered den, barking and jumping. Some of the elder wolves, who weren’t completly awake yet, opened an eye and growled. The pup was the only one of his litter and a half- half. His mother was Aniu, the snowwhite alfa-female, this had led to some complications because his father was an ( exept to Aniu) unknown husky. Greyfoot, the alfa-male who had first threatened to kill the pup, had seen the surviver in him. The gray/brown pup, which had been given the name Balto, thanked his life to this fact. Now, nine weeks after Balto’s brith, Greyfoot had fully excepted him and he even started to love the sauntering pup as if he were his own soon.
Suddenly a loud, sharp holw filled the air. Every member of the pack frose in horror: this wasn’t just a howl, it was the cry of a wolf in death agony! Greyfoot was the first one to explore what had happened. Cautiously he reached the place of disaster and he saw Ebony, a member of the pack, who was suffocated in the trap of a hunter. Her eyes that had shone as the moon were now lacklustre, blood- blood all around her neck and froth on her mouth. Greyfoot dropped his ears. Aniu appeared behind him with Balto close upon her. Aniu’s howl was dedicated to Ebony, a song full of sadness and loss. Meanwhile Balto watched Ebony and he didn’t understand: why didn’t she wake up, she always woke. The sight of all the blood from a familymember made him keck.
But he needed to pay attention to his mother, from the way she hold her taile he could conclude that she was abuot to teach him an important lesson. She made him snif the scent of humain; if he took a step forward she growled feriously, if he went back the growling stopped. Now he was able to concect humain scent to the growling of his mother and it made him back-up. Aniu could be pleased: her son would never die in a trap.
Normal life could be continued and cold days could be filled with games of tag and hide-and-seak. For a young pup there’s lots to learn. He could haved lived his life happily with his family for the rest of his life, but fate decided otherwise.
A peaceful, dark night…all of a sudden, footsteps, company that smelled like trouble. Soft voices, then all hell broke lose! Growls, yelps, howling full of anger, but worst of all gunshots. Inside the den Balto kept silent. Four snowwhite paws standing in front of him, his mother lifted him of the floor and rushed outside. Towards the bushes. The bullet caught up on them. The next moment she sank down, her breath was short and irregular when she whispered to her pup the last words he would ever hear from her: " Be brave, my little one… you have to live…for me." Balto started running, in his ears echoed her words and on the background he could hear the laughs of the men. The scum who were proud at thereselfs and praised each other, as if they were heros who had just won a couragious battle! Balto kept running until he collapsed of exhaustion. Warm tears were running down his face and he felt like he would die of sadness. When he finally fell asleep, his dreams were filled with dead, pain and hunters.
He woke up with the sun and wandered around with nowhere to go. He was hungry and since he would never survive on his own in the wildernis, he decided to go to the nearest town on a quest for food and a new home.
After a few houres he reached Nome, where his nose led his to the butcher. Balto looked nervously around: there was no one, but hesitated ‘cause the scent of men was everywhere. When he heared someone coming he didn’t stop to think, but simply grabbed the first slice of meat that was in his range and went off. After finishing a great meal in a dark alley the pup started to explore the town. While he walked around and began realise that he wouldn’t be excepted by the people, he also had to deal with another emotion that was overwelming him: guilt. He felt he was responsable for his mothers death ‘cause she had sacriefieced herself to save him. His thought were interupted because he felt someone starring at him. " Who are you?" he aked. The creature came out of the shadow, it was a Russian goose. " I’m Boris and I’m looking for a place to stay, you don’t know a place for me by any chance, do you kiddo?" " No," replied Balto, " I’m looking for a home myself." Boris looked happy with this answer " Good that way we can stick together, how about that?" " Fine." " Don’t worry little pup, I’ll look after you." And for the first time in days Balto smiled again " Yeah, I know."
Two days later they found theirselves a home on a broken boat that lay on the beach. After a while they met a couple of polarbears : Muk & Luk , who really liked Boris, although that feeling wasn’t very mutual. But with the help of his friends Balto maneged to stay alive and indure the teasing of the other dogs in town, knowing/hoping that one day he would be excepted and maybe even find love...