"I'm gonna get it first!" Lrani bolted after Jenna and Daniel across the clearing, while Blaze and Reika were watching the little ones play fetch, their favourite game.

Over three weeks had passed since the Mazah, and the pups had grown much already, now a bit bigger than an average rabbit. Their coats had paled and their ears, though still a bit floppy, were mostly erect and they'd opened their puppy-blue eyes. Another strange thing was revealed in Daniel: Each of his eyes was a different shade of blue.

The two females, now that they were finally looking like actual wolves and no longer like hairy worms, both had the slender build of their mom. Jenna was gray, much paler than Daniel, and shy, while Lrani was a dark brown furball full of energy.

Daniel himself was gray, but there were also some shades of brown in his hardly-visible markings. He could walk like his sisters, but was by far not as fast as them, and he always carried his disfigured front paw in the air.

Reika had suffered a few rough weeks. Taking care of pups was always a lot of work, but taking care of partially two and entirely for one was even harder. Besides that, although she and Blaze had more or less reconciled the day after the ceremony, things just didn't feel quite the same.

"I got it, I got it!" Jenna shouted, as she grabbed the stick Blaze had thrown between her lips. She giggled as her sister jumped on top of her. Daniel stood beside them, barking with laughter.

"Again, again!" Lrani cried. She robbed Jenna of her stick and padded back to her father. "Throw it again, Dad!"

"Alright, alright." Blaze smiled as he grabbed the twig between his jaws and threw it to the other side of the clearing.

Jenna caught it again, since she stood closest, but Daniel wanted it now, and jumped on top of her.

Go get it, boy, Reika silently encouraged her son.

The dark gray pup jumped on top of his sister and roughly grabbed the other end of the stick, pulling hard with his toothless mouth.

"HEY!" Blaze barked from the other side of the clearing, and the pups and Reika looked up, ears perked.

The gray wolf got up and pushed Daniel away from Lrani. "What do you think you're doing?"

Daniel backed away, tail between his hind legs. "I...I was just trying--"

"How dare you just push your sister like that?" Blaze snarled.

"Blaze!" Reika called, and she walked over to her mate and son. He didn't look up. "Blaze!" she shouted again, and now he did.

"Yes?"

"Daniel didn't do anything wrong!"

Blaze stared at Daniel for a second, as if he was the thing that was "wrong" here, but then backed off. "Come on, I'll show you a nearby place to find rabbits once you're bigger," he mumbled to them, and walked off into the woods. Lrani and Jenna looked at their brother, confused, but then followed their father.

Reika and Daniel stayed behind. The she-wolf started licking her pup. "Are you hurt?" she asked, worried.

Daniel shook his head. "No..." he said.

Reika felt sad. The past few weeks, Blaze had constantly praised the girls, but he got angry at Daniel for even trying certain things. He also never took him on trips outside the clearing, like he just did with Daniel's sisters.

Reika nuzzled her son, who was obviously upset. "M...mommy?" he then uttered.

She lifted her head. "What is it, Daniel?"

He stared at the ground. "Wh...Why don't Daddy and my sisters want to play with me?"

She sighed. "Daniel, I..."

"It's because I'm weird, isn't it?"

She shook her head, helpless to keep her deformed son from the cruel reality. "No..."

Daniel started to cry. "I know it's that! My paw is weird! Dad and Lrani and Leaf keep looking at me like I'm a two-headed rabbit! And he never wants to teach me anything or even talk to me!"

Reika put her paw around him and nuzzled him again. "It's not your fault... Shush..."

"Yes it is! It's my paw!" He lifted his deformed paw a little higher. It was a bit smaller and less muscular than the others, since he avoided putting it on the ground as much as possible.

Reika sighed. She couldn't keep the truth from him. "Yes...it is your paw...and your back... But you are an amazing wolf, no matter what you look like!"

Daniel looked up. "My back?" he asked, ignoring her compliment.

"Yes...well..." Reika looked around. She grabbed a small twig in her mouth and drew a smooth line on a sandy patch of ground. "See this?" she said, pointing at the line. Little Daniel sat down next to her and nodded, ears down.

"This is what an average wolf's back looks like...and this--" Reika drew another line, much more crooked, "--is what yours looks like..."

Her pup stared at the drawing she'd made, and then looked at his good front paw. "I really do look weird..."

"No, that's not true!" Reika gasped. "Don't believe Blaze, he doesn't know what he's talking about, and he's influencing your sisters! I'll have a stern talk with him in the morrow."

Daniel looked at his mom and frowned. "It doesn't matter. They're right." He got up and limped to the other side of the clearing.

Reika nuzzled him. "It's okay. You are just as much a wolf as anyone else is, and I'll train you myself. If Blaze won't do it, then I will!"

Her son looked up to her, his differently-colored eyes grateful. "Thanks, Mom," he said, and he clung onto her leg.

***

By the time Daniel was five months old, he had changed. Physically, yes--his blue eyes had gained their permanent (and peculiar) colors: One amber like his dad, one brown like his mother. His teeth, not fully grown, also weren't very normal: He had one extra premolar, that was ridiculously big, on the right side of his mouth.

But he'd also grown mentally. After a severe sickness had struck the family, Lrani and Jenna had passed away. They'd been too weak to survive.

The fact that Daniel survived was a miracle. Reika was responsible for this: During the sickness, she'd used all of her strength to protect him. She'd loved her two daughters, but, since she was literally the only one who cared for the deformed pup and she was thus the only one looking after him, she'd gained an extraordinarily strong bond with Daniel, even surpassing any bond she'd had with her previous pups.

The sickness was long gone now, but the entire family, now only consisting of Reika, Blaze, and Daniel, had changed. Blaze now only had one son left--the son he hated and saw as an abomination. He'd loved Lrani and Jenna until the end, and thus the loss was the hardest for him.

Daniel, despite never really growing a strong bond with his sisters, had still gone through change, as well. It had shocked him, and he missed them nonetheless, and felt sad that he'd never gotten a chance to prove to them that he was a great wolf.

Reika was also affected: She blamed herself for Lrani's and Jenna's death.

The entire Lone One group was just more quiet, and overall hardly felt like interacting with one another, except for Reika and Daniel, who were always together. Reika even started to question on whether or not she and Blaze still loved one another, though they'd been mates for ages.

"Come on, Mom!" Daniel said, bolting ahead.

"Wait, Daniel!" Reika panted. The situation with the sickness had affected her mentally, and she felt like she'd aged a lot in just those two weeks of the disease. Daniel was really the only thing that made her spirits keep up.

He was quite the cheerful guy around his mother, even though he seemed to fear his father. But, around Reika, he was as open as he could be.

"Where are we going?" he asked. He bolted back to his brown mother's side.

Reika nuzzled his coat quickly. "We're going to the southern border to patrol. If you at least stay by my side. If you keep running like that, you'll be in Ranger's territory in no time, and he'll bring down a little pup like you."

Daniel stepped in front of his mom. "I'm not little! I'm strong!" he said, putting his deformed front paw loudly on the ground to look more determined.

In the past few weeks, Reika had (lovingly) forced him to use his misshapen leg, since he was indeed not going to survive with three. It had taken him some time, but, by now, Daniel's misshapen front paw had become just as strong, if not stronger, as the other ones he had, and he walked on it as if it wasn't even malformed at all.

Reika smiled. "No, you're plenty big for your age. But Ranger is even bigger than Blaze."

Daniels eyes widened. Reika had told him many stories of the Lone One that lived on the other side of the southern border. Apparently, he was this big and monstrous gray wolf that ate any pup that came near.

"Alright, alright, I won't run away anymore," Daniel insisted, and he continued walking down the hardly-visible forest path with his mother.

By the time it was almost dark, they reached the small clearing they called home again. Blaze was sitting in the middle of it, tail over his feet, looking irked.

Daniel immediately cowered away with his tail between his hind legs. "H-Hey Blaze," he stuttered. Blaze had forbidden him to call him "Father" or "Dad".

"Hello, Blaze," Reika said, trying to sound as friendly as possible. Stop looking at my son as if he's garbage for just a minute! Ugh!

Blaze got up and nodded to Reika as greeting. "I caught some rabbits," he said, pointing at the dead animals that were lying beside him.

"Thanks," Reika said coldly.

They had dinner, after which they decided to catch some sleep. Reika curled herself up with Daniel at her flank. Blaze lay at the other side of the clearing, staring in front of him with that everlasting frown that had been on his face ever since Daniel's Mazah, or lack thereof.

Reika looked at her son momentarily. Daniel had already closed his eyes and probably slept. I won't let anything happen to you. Ever, Reika thought, after which she went to sleep.

***

A year after the birth of Daniel and his sisters, another litter was born to Reika. Blaze had convinced her that maybe new, non-deformed pups would be able to reunite the two of them, and Reika agreed. Even though she still felt that she hardly loved him anymore, she did love pups, and having some other little ones around to distract Blaze from constantly getting mad at Daniel would be great,.

Within one night, the pups were born. It was another hard whelping, even harder than the year before, and Reika knew that she was really growing old by now. This would be her last litter. She knew it. Though hard, the birth-giving went alright. There was, sadly enough, one stillborn pup, but there were three that were born alive, two males and a female.

The night after that, the Mazah for the new little ones was held. This time, Blaze seemed to be genuinely happy for the first time in a year, and Daniel was hyped, too. He loved the thought of little comrades to play with.

The Mazah went well. None of the pups were deformed or sick, and they were given their names. The males, who were both dark gray, were given the names Devo and Maky, and the she-wolf, who had a reddish-brown puppy coat, was Laika.

The first few weeks after the Mazah, everything went perfect. Blaze seemed to be reborn, and wasn't even nasty to Daniel at all. Granted, he still largely ignored the pup, but at least he wasn't hating him openly anymore. Reika, who noticed that there was still some warmth in the heart of her mate, felt the flame of love once more, and the two, after some tough talks, finally put their differences totally aside, and decided just to raise the pups together like they'd always done, Daniel or no Daniel. After all, their new pups wouldn't do well under a family full of grudges, so they knew raising them together would be for the best.