Pleasant Surprise... Kind of

The following day, construction of our quick travel Formation went into a full swing. I tried to help out as much as possible, but even I couldn't expect what my father had in mind. He actually brought a huge amount of Obsidian from the Obsidian Mountains. The Obsidian would be used to layer the whole Formation room, which required a smith, as well as a specialist in construction. That was precisely why my father required the help from Ama. She was the most experienced when it came to such intricate builds.

When I asked my father for a reason, he told me that Obsidian would provide additional protection to the Formation. Moreover, besides Lizards and my mother, no one else would be able to afford that. That was physical protection of course, he didn't even mention the Formations at that stage. 'This feels like he's trying to build defences akin to a city… For just one room. Hehe, I'm not going to complain though. This is an experience in itself', I thought.

Dawn received her lessons too, even though my father was busy. She trained as much as she could, but tried to help out with Dante and the pack of wolves. Tara and Teri visited us as well, and they were put to work by me. Teri didn't mind, but of course Tara didn't like the idea of working for free. Still, since Teri urged her, she finally crumbled.

The whole construction project took us three weeks. My Formations turned out to be of great help to them, since I could make tunnels, caverns and whatnot. Nonetheless, the process of layering the whole room with Obsidian was left to my father. No one was allowed to step inside when he was working there. That wasn't because of some sort of secret techniques or anything like that. No, that lunatic actually started a huge fire inside the Formation room. There was a reason for his lunacy. In order to layer the whole room, top and bottom included, he had to melt the Obsidians ore.

Perhaps no one except my father was able to achieve that. Others would simply cook inside that place, but he was able to protect himself. Where he learned to do things like that, I could only wonder. Once he finished with that room, we were invited inside. The dark room slowly lit up by the glowing orbs in our hands, revealing the glass-like Obsidian walls, floor and ceiling. "So, what do you think? Looks great, doesn't it?", my father asked. "Nex, we did this to improve durability… But, I like it. You made an effort, so I'll let it pass", my mother replied.

The black interior would be dull, if not for the red streaks coursing through the whole room, like veins in a body. My father's work looked really great, but the main dish was yet to come. "Hehe, thanks to you, we finished this really quickly. When we were working on Sedon's Formation, the whole development took many months. Anyway, do you need us for anything else?", Ama asked.

"I think we should be fine now. If anything pops up, I should be able to handle it myself. Either way, stay for a while if you want, no one's chasing you away", he replied. "I appreciate the gesture, but there's more work to do around Sedon. I'll probably visit you guys once the Formation is up and working. This will indeed save a lot of time for everybody", Ama declined the invitation.

Though she declined, other Atols decided to take that opportunity for a little break. Since Ama had no means of going back, Frosty had to be motivated once more. He complained like always, but agreed to take her back to Sedon.

With the initial construction completed, we had to wait for the Grey Lizards to arrive. This allowed me to have some time for myself, and even get some practice in. A few days went by, when my father announced the 'good' news to us. "You probably haven't noticed yet, but Ivory, Nana and Fluffy are pregnant. They will give birth to little wolves soon".

Though everyone expected that to happen one day or another, I surely didn't want that to happen so soon. With the project underway, there was no time for me to worry about selling or giving away these wolves. "I thought you'd be more happy", father added. "I'm not unhappy, I knew this would happen sooner or later, you know? Now's not the best time though. I have loads of stuff on my hands already, worrying about the baby wolves is the least of them", I replied.

"You don't really have to worry about them. They'll have mothers, you know?", he argued. "Yea, but these wolves will grow up one day. I need to give them away while they're cute, otherwise who'd take them?", I said. "Hahaha, I suppose you're not wrong. We sort of threw them at you to worry about. I'll find them new homes, don't worry so much… By the way, don't you wonder which ones are the fathers?", he asked.

'Now that he mentioned it, I wonder which rascals did that to me', "I do, now that you mentioned it, but how can we know? I mean, it's not like I'm spying on them or something… Are you?", I replied. "Hehe, of course not. You can guess by the females' behaviour. They will keep close to the male they mated with. Have a guess", he said with a smirk. 'Ah, whatever. I'll try it, since he made me curious already'. That smirk also meant something, I just didn't know what.

Me, my father and Dante walked inside the house to have a look. Of course the wolves always ganged up on me for some cuddly time, but once they calmed down, I tried to figure them out. '...Hmmm… Nana seems to be really close with Woofy, that's probably one pair', I thought. The second pair was a bit harder to figure out. 'I think the second pair is Fluffy and Sneaky. Fluffy doesn't show it as much as Nana, but she seems to be closer to Sneaky than others'.

The question was, who was the third pair. I knew it had to be Ivory, but she interacted with others as per usual. She didn't seem to be leaning towards any particular wolf. "I'd say Nana and Woofy are the pair, and it's rather obvious too. Fluffy and Sneaky are the other pair, but they're a bit less obvious. The third pair… I have no clue. Ivory acts pretty much the same. She interacts with others normally", I said to my father.

"Hehe, the two pairs are correct. As for Ivory, well it's not that simple you see", he replied. "You mean her mate isn't from our pack?", I asked, surprised. "Oh, no, no. I mean that Ivory is really good at hiding who it is. I'll give you one more try. This time though, don't try to find who she interacts with the most, try to find who she looks at the most", father hinted.

'Interesting, let's give it a try'. With that in mind, I observed Ivory for a while. She interacted with other wolves like per usual, but her gaze was mostly directed to one corner of the house. "Don't tell me… It's him?!", I exclaimed. "Hehe, little Rogue attitude towards the pack seems to have improved a bit. Yes, it's actually Rogue who's the father", he confirmed my suspicion.

I couldn't believe it, that shut-in wolf would actually become a father to little wolves. I couldn't contain the excitement anymore, and rushed at him. Rogue seemed rather confused by my sudden action. He probably thought I was going to punish him for something. On the contrary, I grabbed and lifted him up. "You little rascal, to think you and Ivory would make little wolf puppies… I'm happy you decided to open up to them", I said while hugging him.

"Awo, awaa wooo…", he complained about being hugged like that. "Ivory, come here for a minute", I called her over. The two wolves acted indifferent, refusing to even glance at each other. "Hey, hey, you two made some babies, right? Why act like this? You see Nana and Fluffy? Even they got closer to their other halves. We already know, so don't pretend anymore, alright", I said before leaving them alone.

They seemed lost for a while, but once Ivory made some moves on him, he didn't seem to mind at all. "Hehe, anyway. This will be a while before they'll give birth, but do check on them more often. The males will be a bit more protective of these females now, though this shouldn't affect you in any way. Alright, I'm off. Promised Dawn to teach her a bit more today", father said before leaving. "What do you think little Dante? Want to see little wolves as well?", I asked my brother.

"I like waf wafs!", he said, even though the pronunciation was a bit off. "Hehe, you are doing great. A bit more practice and you'll probably torture us to death with your talking", I said while snuggling him. "Anna play Tu tu!", he exclaimed next. "Sure, let's go play with Turry", I agreed. Living with my brother and taking care of him, allowed me to understand his needs or what he tried to convey.

Dante was usually calm and behaved well, though he had his fits sometimes. He wouldn't want to eat something, or someone didn't allow him to do a certain thing. Our mother was rather strict with him in that regard, that's why he always wanted to go to his sister. He knew I'd allow him to do more, since I wasn't as stingy as our mother. After playing around with Turry, I had left Dante with my mother to practice some stuff.

There was little progress in regards to my Aura, since most of my time was spent on the project and taking care of everything. My focus was mostly on energy and its control. My intentions were to help out during the Formation making process, not sit and watch. Breaking past that Half Step surely helped out a lot though. The energy could easily leave my body, and my control improved. Moreover, I was actually practicing two types of control.

The flowing control was most suitable for Formations, since it wasn't aggressive and easily controllable. The condensed control was suitable for battles. Although my energy was able to leave my body, I was still on the final step of master Irwin's training. I had to condense the energy in my finger, which wasn't easy to accomplish. The area of my finger was much smaller compared to a whole fist or whole arm.

'No matter, so long I practice enough, the results will appear one day'. Nothing happened instantly. Everything I knew and managed to achieve came at a price. Years of learning, exercising and practicing brought back memories for sure, but that wasn't the end of the road for me just yet. I had loads more to learn, and even more to accomplish. That alone gave me willingness to continue, and improve.