Vengeance will Descend

"Hi Dad" Kodi said as his father walked toward him as he prepared to run a race, one that would establish the new lead dog on the reserve mail team, which took the job back from the plane in weather the plane could not fly in. "I thought for a moment you wouldn't show."

Balto laughed and nudged his son, grinning widely. "What, me not show at this race? Don't I always come? You gotta be kidding... I hope you-" Then Balto paused and sniffed the air. Something wasn't right, but he couldn't tell what was wrong. Then he saw it. A large lumpy shape that was not a snow covered rock. Or, if it was a rock, it was the furriest rock he had ever seen. Then, the rock moved with white teeth gleaming. And it's trajectory would place Kodi at the receiving end of those pearly whites. Acting purely on fatherly instinct, Balto shoved his son aside as the large black male wolf's lunge ended on soft, soft snow, and as the black paws grasped for traction, he snarled at Kodi, baring very large teeth at him. Balto growled angrily, effectively challenging the wolf, However, instead of truly accepting Balto's fighting inviatation, he tried to go around and lunge for Kodi.

Balto intercepted the lunge and ducked, letting the wolf go almost over him until its loose neck fur, which marked the coal black being as young, soared above Balto's mouth, and he yanked it to the ground with a furious snarl. The second it touched the ground, Balto began shouting at it in words no dog could define, not even Gertrude, the librarian's dog. "Havak intea deftlh yokel! Onctaylah dshes Kodicayah Deon Juste! Tevatal la condiend Hiouh Prindeh oof Snowcapelin Clandi! WHOELN CABINAD DELA YOUI PERSINRM TOEN GOOCIK DELIN KODICAYAH DEON JUSTE?!" As he shouts, Balto and the black wolf keep fighting viciously.

"D…D…Dad? What… What are you… you saying?" Kodiac whimpered as he watched his father fight and shout.

The wolf snarled and grabbed Balto's snout, teeth sinking in. Balto let out a loose howl as he backed out of the advance and shook his snout, which was bleeding freely. This time, his golden eyes lit with a fire that could not be doused, and he( launched his own offensive attack for the first time, planting his front paws firmly on the other wolf's windpipe. He hissed out words of fury, his breath coming in huffs and his words were in the language of dog this time, his eyes slits of ice. "How dare you wolf! Attack royalty! Kodicayah the Just! My eldest son! High Prince of Altacap Clan. Who sent you, murderous killer, harming great Kodicayah the Just?"

Balto looked at his son for a second, than back at the wolf who only grinned and didn't even attempt to move. "ANSWER ME, or I will do something fulhurkey...foolhardy. And that, I suspect, won't go well for you, will it?" The wolf furrowed his brow and spoke slowly as if he felt Balto had a slow mind.

"Ist meikash minsonna."

Balto just stared. "Your...your mission? This was your mission? Te Heckus with your mission! To hell with it! How dare you come into my territurnia and say it's your mission! This is MY territory! How dare you! You dare to try and harm my son?" The wolf whimpered and showed his face- now bloodstained as withevery word, Balto had slashed the wolf with one of his large paws. Then he spoke in broken dog, and it was obvious he was trying to make himself understood.

"Fathers tellings – from ma. I don't not do. She say Balcorra is to be grounded, only not so nicely. She… shadow lead. I Hiershal."

Balto's head jerked back, his anger felt through the air like an electric storm. "What do you mean, your father told you after your mother told him? I can understand you not wanting to get in trouble I suppose, but...why is she set against me? Why does she want me dead? What have I done to her?! Wait...you said she's the...the Shadow Clan Leader...oh damn. If you're Hiershal, then your mother...you are...Ohoura's grandson! Next in line to Shadow Clan, correct? As your mother was Ohoura's only living pup, he bypassed having a female and chose you."

At the wolf's swift nod, Balto growled and the young thing quivered beneath Balto, his eyes closing as he was certain Balto would kill him. Balto was very quiet, looking back at Kodi and then hardening his gaze as it returned to terrified Hiershal. "Your mother! Princess Uvia? She tried to…"Balto's ears went back as a snarl rumbled in his throat and shook his head. "She named you well...Hieshal...Hurt All...you could have killed my son! You're so young, and already mixed up in this stupid hate game your grandfather plays. One day I know it will be one of my children to deal with this ongoing war...it isn't right. Destroying good hearts for petty revenge, when if anyone should have a right to vengence, it is I against your grandfather. He took everything that was important to me years ago. Oh, what a tangled web we weave..." Balto seemed shaken himself, and he slowly got up off his opponent and jerked his head towards the woods, his eyes boring into the preteen and then snarling as if to make his message clear.

"I have the right to kill you. EVERY RIGHT. However… I will let you off with a warning. You have five seconds to get OUT of my sight before I rip you apart. Now… GO." The wolf looked like he would flee, but then, as Balto said 'three' he launched at Balto, grabbing him by the neck. Unsuspecting this move, Balto was thrown over into the snow and began to push up on the wolf in vain. The black wolf clenched his teeth even harder around the wolfdog's throat, and as balto's world began to go black, Hiershal was shoved aside by a grey wolf, who helped nose Balto into standing and allowed the brown and tan wolfdog to lean on him for a few seconds. Looking over the damage as Hiershal tried to fight all the wolves at once, and then as three black wolves entered the scene and took up the slack and evened the odds a little bit, Balto groaned and his mind went to his family, who were standing far back in fear. "Dad!" Kodi screamed and several dogs echoing "BALTO!"" As the wolf-dog tensed, ready for a fight alongside his brother, a large tan-dark gold wolfess jumped beside him, as well as four others. "Sisters, Brothers; Go protect my family, never mind me!" His siblings all looked at him in horror then three raced away, placing themselves in front of Kodiac, Jenna, and Dusty. One fighter per dog, and Auroura stayed beside Balto with a dark brownish red male standing over the grey two other wolfdogs.

"Kahdi! Protect my son; your namesake! Go to it, now! My son must be protected!" Balto's voice was strained, the paranoia of losing his son causing him to fight even harder than before as a few more black wolves added to the messy fight and began focusing on the biggest threat, the king they technically served under even though they lived in a different division and land. Balto was yelling for his family to run, flee without return, when the fighting came to an abrupt halt, as a large black wolf slowly walked into their midst.

It was as if someone had frozen time, for all came to an instant stand-still, as the lean black female came into the small fight, her eyes sharp with criticism of her fellow black was when black wolves came from everywhere. Princess Uvia pranced up, a glorious black female with bright white eye patches and dark brown eyes, eyes that could freeze you right where you stood. As she sat and gave the command of resume', the skirmish resumed to full force, and Balto was again throwing blackness left and right. For he could see what others could not -that her goal was to get to his brother, and to get to his son. Kahdi was faring well throwing off the wolves but as they continued to come en masse, Balto knew that sooner or later his son would be hurt. Before he could get to his boy, though, he saw something change in his child's eyes, and his son got up from where he had been cowering behind his uncles and stalked towards the sooty-colored female.

As he neared the princess, his mouth ripped free of it's usually gentle nature and loosed a loud, horrific snarl. "Kodi! No, dammit! Kadiciyah, after him!" Balto growled.

"Got it, Balcorra!" As the royal brother raced after his nephew, Balto also headed over, slamming away wolves as he went. But Kodi's voice, even among the heat and noise of the battle, and it was laced with a fury even Balto had yet to match.

"YOU! WHOEVER YOU ARE, GET THOSE WOLVES OFF MY DAD!"

Her pretty eyes flashed with anger that a dog would dare approach her and give orders. "Why should I? He stole from me- took away the crown and placed it on your head, when it should have gone to me. Then, when you decided to run the mail of this stupid little hole in the ground, instead of follow your destiny that your father didn't even tell you about...all so the kingdom could be thrown into disaster when you, as the law sees it, turned your back on our society because of your father's stupidity. Now, child, prepare to die."

"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" Balto snarled as he grabbed the royal wolfess by the neck and tossed her into the air. "Just because Ohoura is of the royal line and is your father, doesn't mean you should be crowned. Ohoura was the last born, his bloodline will be the last to get it- meaning that after my line has served, and after the other lines are lessened, then, ONLY then, would the Shadow Clan have had rule- but, since you pulled this little stunt, NONE of the Shadow Clan line of royalty shall become crown King. Be gone, and take your breed with you."

Her laugh was cold, humorless, and with it flashed her teeth, all deadly. Behind Balto, Kodi gulped and seemed to regret his decision to challenge her. "Or what? You're gonna throw your pup at me? Oh, I'm SO scared."

Balto's brow furrowed, and he snarled, his blood-covered teeth baring to the elements and increasing the unspoken threat. "Uvia, take leave. Let there be no more further bloodshed. Please, Uvia. I don't want to hurt family."

"YOU KILL US OFF EVERYDAY, YOU WRETCH! Sentencing black wolves to the Shadow Clan! Most of us DIE." Balto was quiet for a few minutes, then looked up and whispered his reply to the heinous accusation.

"I have nothing else to say to you, Princess. Except your father and I are going to have a long talk later."

"I'm winning, Stupid. Why would I just up and quit?"She snarled, and then Balto gave her a long silent stare and then motioned a sharp over the shoulder jerk of his tail, and Varronk and Vatani pushed forward with Hiershal in tow.

"Do it. She won't stop otherwise."

Balto wouldn't break his gaze into the princess' eyes as the pleading began, and sharp squeals and gurgling bombarded his ears as the princess looked on in horror. Her scream was shrill as the body formerly restrained by Varronk and Vatani no longer needed restrained, and the blood covered snout of Vatani whispered the words that Balto hated to hear, but knew were necessary.

"It is done, Brota. Brother."

As she got up, a sharp breath was sucked in from Kahdi and both Balto and Uvia looked to see the black coloring fade, turning to a pale rendittion of Balto, except the face mask was full and heart-shaped. Dark tan ears and a lighter ginger coat with white muzzle markings took place of the singular black color. Vatani brushed gently up onto her eldest brother's side and spoke quietly, for only him to hear.

"He resutus elk Anyiyu Grunts. He rests in Aniu's grounds. His sult was gudst. If his soul had not been good, she wouldn't have accepted him, you know that. And his colors would have been black until the end of days."

Balto didn't answer, he just stayed staring at Princess Uvia, whose eyes no longer had Balto in their sights but her son who lay unmoving on the ground. Tears poured from her muzzle and she stepped backwards, and then forward past Balto and to the side of her son. She stepped back, or tried to, but her front paws gave out and she sunk to the ground sobbing. Her moans and pitiful pleas for Hiershal to regain life caught attention of the wolves who were still fighting, and out of respect the black ones stilled, and as they did, so did the Altacap Clan wolves. Tears still streaking her muzzle, Uvia lifted her head to Balto and her voice, wrecked with a overwhelming despair and a hint of guilt, broke as she rasped out her next words.

"It is not over. Not by a long shot. But today there has been enough blood spilled. Everybody, gather the dead and injured, and journey back with me to the Shadow Clan. She tried to give out a howwl as her mark that this battlee was their surrounder, but halfway through her voice caught and she choked on the signal, her face lowering into her son once more. Letting out even more cries of woe, she finally tried again and gave a long howl, and her people reluctantly obeyed, following the leader back to the lands they came from.

After they left, Balto turned around and hugged his son. "I thought I was going to lose you." Then the wolf dog sighed and shook his head. "So much loss, and for what? Wasted lives...and Hiershal, oh Gods forgive me. But I knew something had to be done or we'd all die, we were outnumbered. I suppose it's in the past now. Aroura, I am glad you called for those guards on the edge of the forests, keep them well stocked. By the time Altacap would have ggotten word of this attack, all would have been lost. Keep it up. Now, speak up, is anyone hurt?" The wolves were quickly checked for injuries, then sent back to the woods. After all the commotion, Balto had almost forgotten about the race he had gone there to attend until the humans began coming out of the diner and calling for each dog to get leashed up. Turning to his son, who wore a rather nauseated look about his face, Balto gave a small smile and rubbed his tail under his son's neck. "Chin up, son. Forget what you have seen, and forget what was said. I will take great measure that it does not repeat itself. Now, my good boy, have a good race. I have some unfinished business to attend to."

"Wait Dad! Please wait! I don't care about the race, I need some answers."

Balto turned to his son and sadly shook his head. "If I had them I would give them. But right now I've got more questions than answers myself, and I need to go have a talk with somebody you can't go with me to see. I'll answer some questions later, son. Just give me time. I love you."

As Balto disappeared, Kodi glanced to his mother and mate. "Well, Im not gonna follow his directions. If you wanna come with then you can."

A/N: Well? How'd you like it?