docholligay:

The Third episode of that fine niche internet content, the Harumichi Balto AU, as sponsored by @rhiorhino ! 2,200 words. 

Nenana may have been heaven, for all the people in the town were anxious to hear of it. Day after day, the town gathered around the small wooden building where messages were taken in sharp morse code, each bright beep a mark of hope, a wish set on it like a star in the sky.

And for days, there was nothing. Some of this was to be expected, of course. It took days to get to Nenana, even using the very fastest dogs all of Alaska might have to offer, and yet it seemed as if no one in town, human, dog, or cat, could take a full breath until they heard from Nenana that the team had arrived.

When the team arrived in Nenana, those little stars of sound seemed to fulfill all of their wishes. Fine brandies were poured into cocoas and coffees, and there were smiles and laughter in the houses, even if the shadows still lurked around the corners, licked by the flames but not defeated, watching. Waiting.

And then as the winter days drug on and on, the shadows began to advance. The light still hung out on the end of town, looking to lead the team home, but there were no sounds of barking on the wind, the only thing that cried from the icy plains were the long, aching howls of the wind, whipping up from the storms that were said to cover the trail, now.

The days went on, and the shadows lingered, and the laughter died as faces grew dim, and dour, and there was more hammering and sawing in the carpenter’s workshop, the metronome to a song no one wanted to hear.

Michiru counted herself in that most of all.

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