General

Name: Reiner (pronounced "RAY-nər")
Breed: Siberian Husky
Sex: Male
Orientation: Heterosexual
Birth: 1925, White Mountain, Alaska
Allegiance: Wheel Dog in competitive sled team with Dingo, Kenan, and Rune

Characteristics

Personality: Vain, proud, competitive, and driven. He's not the brighest of bulbs, but he still shines. Reiner is known to be a bully, but he's not really one for psychological manipulation. He's more of the teasing and pushing you around the schoolyard bully. He is loyal and capable in the tasks he is given by others.
Talents/ Abilities: Possibly the strongest dog in Nome.
Weaknesses: Like I said, not the brightest bulb, be he still shines. He can be tricked, but it takes some effort and trust.
Dreams: To meet/get to know his father, to keep his title and popularity
Fears: Reitrement, uselessness, not being popular, and blindness (learns to overcome his fear of being blind with Rune's support)

Design

Colors: Dark dusted grey with lighter markings
Pupils: Black (left), dark green (right)
Iris: Green
Schlera: Off-white
Paw Pads: Brownish pink
Inner Ears: Grey
Reference Sheet: None Yet

Liniage

Parents: Slater (Stark X Indy) x ??? (??? X ???)
Siblings: Ralph
Mate: Rune
Pups: With Alicyn - Vav and Lei
         With Rune  -  Yang, Jaune, Carla, ???, and ??? 

History

Reiner was born into a litter with his brother Ralph and four other siblings in the town of White Mountain, Alaska, in the Spring of 1925 (weeks after Nome's serum run). Both he and his brother Ralph were sold to a musher based in Nome. In Nome they were trained to be sled dogs. Reiner was intended to be a mail dog alongside his brother, but he proved to be strong enough that he landed a job as the wheel dog on Nome's #1 professional team in 1927. For three years he held the title of being the strongest dog on the team.

During those three years, Reiner became good friends with his fellow teammate, Keno. The two were the brute strength of the team, and were often admired (along with the rest of the team) by all the dogs in the town. After all, the team was composed of the fastest, smartest, and strongest dogs of Nome (minus the sleddogs from the serum run), and included Balto's son, Dingo, and Steele's son, Kenan. Reiner began to become concieted with his image and title, letting it all go to his head like a glory hound.

Reiner eventually turned sour, becoming so vain that he insulted his own brother, Ralph, criticising that his brother had let his image go (implying that Ralph was fat and thus unattractive). Reiner also became a bully, with Keno his passive sidekick.

Then Rune joined the team in 1930. She was the youngest of the team and the only girl, making her a real rookie. When she joined, Reiner saw her as a threat to his position on the team, since he was five and much older than her. Since Reiner saw Rune as a threat to his position on the team, he bullied her and pushed her around. When they were running, Reiner would nip at Rune's tail, often complaining that Rune was annoying, slow, and weak. When the dogs were put to bed in their master's barn, Reiner would kick Rune out of the dog pile, and she's spend her nights cold and alone.

Reiner also threatened Rune that if she told on her, she'd be labeled a snitch and not trusted by anyone else on the team. So Reiner gained her silence and continued to torment her for quite some time. Rune had finally had enough during a race when Reiner bit at her tail. She kicked him in the muzzel, causing him to trip. The sled crashed into him, and the whole team was brought to a halt. Rune attacked Reiner and when their musher had finally broken the fight, Reiner was blind in his left eye and Rune was missing half her tail.

Rune and Reiner were tied up at opposite sides of the barn for a few weeks. Kaltag came to visit Rune while she was recovering from her injuries, and told Rune that she shouldn't have joined a team with Steele's son (implying that Kenan had done Rune wrong). When hearing this, Reiner was suspicious that Steele was his father, since he had never met his father and admits that he shares a similar appearance. Rune told her uncle that Kenan had never hurt her intentionally, and told Kaltag that Reiner had taken her tail. Kaltag saw that Reiner was chained up on the other side of the barn, and decided that Reiner should face civil justice for his wrong doings. 

That night when the team returned, Doc held a town meeting for the dogs where they cleared the air between Reiner and Rune. Rune was found to have done wrong by not telling her teammates what was wrong, her teammates were found wrong for having not noticed Reiner's tormenting and not having a healthy work environment, Reiner's fellow wheel dog, Keno, who knew about the situation was kicked off the team, and Reiner was allowed to stay to make it up to Rune.

Reiner refused to apologize, not seeing that he had doen anything wrong. Kenan - acting as lead dog - apologized on behalf of the team to Rune and told her that no grudges would be held against her if she wanted to quit the team. Rune decided that she'd stay on the team, and her position was changed to be closer to the lead pair: Kenan and Dingo, since Kenan promised to Kaltag to keep Rune under his watch from then on. However, Rune never got the one thing she truly needed, an apology from Reiner. Nor did Reiner see that it was his responsability to apologize to her, since she did blind him in one eye.

With Keno off the team, tryouts were given to any dogs that wanted to take Keno's place as a wheel dog and Reiner's partner. A dog named Aero was picked, and even though he was adequte for the team, he couldn't work well with Reiner since Reiner was losing sight in his good eye, so he had no sense of direction and was basically pulling the wrong direction. Reiner's position on the team was in serious jeopardy.

One night, Rune saw Reiner slip on ice, and asked Reiner why he didn't walk around it. Rune realizes that Reiner honestly can't make out much with his diminising eyesight, and Rune decides to help him by working with him at night while the others rest. Reiner is reluctant to recieve her help, worrying that he might attack her again, but dismisses it from his own thoughts. 

Rune is able to help Reiner understand key directions and pace with slight nudges against her body when they run alongside eachother. Unbeknownst to them, Steele watches them on the beach at night and notes that the team could make its way back to its former glory.

One night, Kenan wakes up and sees that Rune and Reiner are not in the barn. Kenan decides to go look for her and sees a figure on the beach at night and goes to investiage. Kenan runs into his father, Steele, and although he's not necessairly happy to see him, Kenan listens to Steele's limited words on Rune and Reiner working together. "Those two might make it to Nenana and back." (These words have a significance to Kenan, as he realizes his father acknowledges that the next generation of sled dogs are superior to the last generation. This also marks a significant transition for Steele, as his fall from grace has lead him to become more humble and observant of other dogs.) Steele leaves Kenan to watch Reiner recieve Rune's help.

The next day, Kenan makes his musher switch Rune and Aero's positions on the team. Rune and Reiner's success as wheel dogs prevents Reiner's early retirement, and Rune is officially Reiner's partner as a wheel dog on the team. Reiner thanks Rune for her help, and asks her how she came up with the clever idea to use body language. Rune admits that when Reiner had nipped at her tail, she spent so much time focusing on trying to avoid his bites that she never could keep track of pace on her own, so she'd rely on her partner by brushing up against them. Reiner feels a bit of guilt at this statement, but he doesn't recognize the feeling and dismisses it.

Eventually, Reiner's actions towards Rune become kinder and gentler, and everyone on the team notices it except Rune and Reiner. Keno meets up with Reiner at one point and asks Reiner why he's being nice to the rookie, to which Reiner denies any feelings of attraction to Rune. Keno knows it's a lie and is skeptical of his best friend.

Drama stirs when Reiner's team (including Rune, Kenan, Dingo, Aero, and nine others) goes to a beach party with the rest of the sled dogs in Nome such as Steele's supply team, (including Steele, Keno, and Ia), the mail team (Kodi, Ralph, Kirby, and Dusty), retired sleddogs like Nikki, Kaltag, and Star, and house dogs like Meekah, Saba, and Alicyn. At the party Dingo and Rune are put on by the spot by Alicyn, Meekah, and Saba, and annouce that they are an official couple. Reiner's primary reaction? Envy. And Keno is the first one to notice it.

Reiner becomes a cold shoulder to Rune, often being curt and anti-social towards her. He even starts to not lean against her for directions or pace while they work, which puts the whole sled team in a funk. Reiner also becomes passive aggressive towards Dingo, and his moody behaviour is difficult to notice.

Meanwhile, Alicyn loses hope of gaining Dingo's affections after learning an interesting secret from Keno, so she redirects her efforts towards Tristan (Kenan's older brother). Since Tristan is already involved with a wolf named Ava, Alicyn plots to get Tristan to break up with Ava by pretending to be pregnant with his pups. She does this by tricking Reiner (who has a similar coat color to Tristan) Tristan under Keno's advice, since Keno wants nothing more than for his best friend to get over Rune and get back to his normal self. Alicyn tries to kill two birds with one stone, by using Reiner to hurt Rune, and taking Tristan from Ava. Tristan breaks up with Ava from hearing that Alicyn is pregnant with Tristan's pups (even though they are Reiner's, which were intended to be Keno's, but Keno tricked Alicyn, Tristan, and Reiner to keep his hands clean from the mess), and all attention towards Dingo and Rune is redirected to Alicyn and Tristan. Dingo and Rune then stop the romance nonsense, and Reiner notices this change. Reiner asks Rune why she and Dingo aren't so lovey-dovey, and Rune tells Reiner in confidence that she was helping Dingo as a friend to act as his girlfriend, and that she never had any romantic feelings for him.

Rune and Reiner become friendly once more, and although they don't declare they're an item or are in love, it's implied for quite a while. Keno is confused by the relationship and decides to tell Reiner that Alicyn is pregnant. This leads Reiner to realize what a horrible mistake he made, but Alicyn tells Reiner to not tell Rune the truth of her pups, since in the end they all got their desirable outcomes.

While Reiner and Alicyn are discussing this, Kenan overhears the entire conversation and understands what Alicyn did. Kenan tells the truth to all the dogs in a town hall meeting in the boiler room, uncovering that Tristan isn't the father to Alicyn's pups, but Reiner. This leads to Alicyn confessing that she just wanted Tristan's love, since she couldn't have Dingo's. Alicyn, in a rage, uncovers why Dingo doesn't want to tell his sisters who he loves. She then runs out the boiler room, leaving all the dogs in a shock. Dingo is the next to run away, out of shame, and Kenan follows after him. Tristan gets back together with Ava. Reiner tries to leave too, much to Keno's confusion. Reiner runs into an alleyway and trips into a trashcan. He gets trapped and can't manage his way out.

Rune comes across Reiner in the alley and frees him from the trashcans. He then tries to offer an explanation, but Rune yells at him that he doesn't need to give her an explanation, since they're not a couple. Rune finishes her rant by saying that any chance of them being a couple is gone. Rune leaves Reiner and runs off. As it turns out, Steele had watched the whole ordeal. Steele offers to help Reiner find his way home, since it is dark and difficult to tell the difference between ice and snow. Reiner asks Steele how he knew about his condition, and Steele tells him that he watched Rune train with him on the beach. Reiner becomes even more suspicious that Steele could be his father, but ignores the thought when Steele offers advice. Steele reminds Reiner that Rune helped him out of the kindness out of her own heart, and wasn't obligated to help him in the slightest after what he did to her. Reiner realizes that Rune had actually loved him and he loves her, and asks Steele how he can ever fix his situation with her. Steele tells Reiner to do the one thing he (Steele) had failed to do: apologize.

So in a big romantic gesture, Reiner apologized to Rune for everything he did, finally giving her the one thing that she wanted since he started bullying her: an apology. Rune accepts the apology and they reconcile, officially becoming mates not long after.

Reiner then meets up with Steele one evening on the beach and asks Steele if he was his father. Much to his surprise, Steele explains that he has a brother who moves around a lot, and that Steele is in fact, Reiner's (and Ralph's) uncle. (Ralph takes after their mother, while Reiner takes after their father.) Steele tells Reiner that it would've done more harm than good for all of Nome to know their relationship, acknowledging that he is far from redemption. Reiner then moves on to repair his relationship with his brother Ralph.

A few months later, Alicyn has two pups from her pregnancy with Reiner. Alicyn left the two pups at his doorstep, and with Rune's help, Reiner raises them in a loving family. Rune and Reiner eventually becomes parents of their own litter of puppies as well. 

Other

Modifications: None
Relation to Balto: My Balto Family Tree (Ralph's brother, Steele's nephew)
Name Meaning: From the Germanic name "Raganhar", composed of the elements "ragin" meaning "advice" and "hari" meaning"army"

Credits

Original Body Art & Template © Kay Fedewa
Character  © Exile