docholligay:

Part 4 of @rhiorhino‘s Balto AU I hope you enjoy, I’m really enjoying writing it! 

There was not much to recommend about the Alaskan wilderness, Mina often thought, especially by foot. The way was long, and it was cold, and they could only go so quickly, the three of them, though Haruka doggedly pushed them as far as they could go, every single day. Of course she did. She had a purpose.

Mina had loved Haruka from the first time she had met the useless and gangly puppy who had turned into a more useful but still gangly dog, and from the first, Haruka had believed. She’d believed that if she just tried hard enough, if she just worked enough, if she just brushed her fur the right way or learned the right commands, she would be a good dog. She would work, and she would be loved. It was just a matter of working hard enough.

And no matter what had happened to her, every single time, no matter how many times she said she had accepted what her lot in life was to be, she kept trying. This was no different. She wanted to save the children, that was true, but it was also true that she wanted to save herself. She wanted someone to say something kind. Something she could believe.

Mina could not argue with her on this point, so she simply trudged her way through the Alaskan wilderness with a bear who couldn’t swim and a wolf-dog with no sense, off on a mission they could not possibly carry off successfully but also could not be ignored.

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