He shook himself. He was covered in snow and bruises and just wanted to go to sleep.

Silkey kept urging him. "Come on! Try again! You'll be the first wolf to ever have climbed a tree!"

"URRRGH," One-eye grumbled, annoyed. "Can't you see that this isn't working?"

He jumped into the tree again and started to climb. This is like my ninth time trying already! When will she see that this just doesn't work? Wolves aren't meant to climb trees!

Silkey kept cheering him on. "You can do it!"

He reached the halfway point again, and became wary at once. This was where he'd fallen the last time.

Silkey pointed. "Take that branch. Oh, no, that one. And lean more on your right hind leg, that stick is thicker than the one your left is leaning on!"

One-eye carefully followed her instructions and soon realized he was near the huge mass of smaller twigs that formed the trees' canopy.

"How am I supposed to get through this? It's like a maze!" he exclaimed.

Silkey laughed. "Follow your instinct. And me."

She climbed all the way to the top again, and he followed, carefully and much less nimble.

More than once, he almost fell again. The sticks were thinner and less reliable here, and his hump and thick winter coat that was growing in kept getting stuck.

"And what is the purpose of this, anyways?" he panted as he almost reached the top.

Silkey grabbed his right front paw and slowly pulled him up. She was leaning with her front paws on one strong-looking branch, with her hind legs on a bigger and broader one. "It's safe here," she said. "And...well...I wanted to share something."

One-eye groaned as he pulled himself up to the safe-looking twigs, until he sat down besides the smaller cougar cub.

"Now what?"

Silkey stared in front of her, eyes big with wonder, though her right eye was again a bit off.

One-eye shrugged. "I don't see how this....wow..." His jaw dropped as he saw where he was.

They were sitting in the treetops of a huge forest consisting of spruces and an occasional deciduous tree. The one they were in stood on the top of a ridge. The dark, unusually blue sky made everything seem that colour instead of the boring white and brown shades that usually defined winter.

One-eye could see really far. Many kilometres downhill, he saw the valley, with a small Humanplace in the middle. Through the dale ran a dark path, on which occasional beasts passed by, with their strange, glowing eyes and backsides.

He looked a bit further to the left. On his right was more forest, but on his far left he could see some faraway meadows, also downhill. Is that...home? He looked closer. It could be. His old territory where he'd lived with his parents had been much more downhill, and not too far away from a meadow.

He stared out over the valley. There, he could see many more mountains, each distant one seeming vaguer and vaguer.

"It's...it's...beautiful..." he finally managed to say. He'd never thought that everything looked like this. He'd lived his entire life hidden in a forest, where such a view as this was impossible to see.

Silkey looked at him, smiling. "Pretty neat, huh?"

One-eye nodded, still staring. "How did you...where...? This is incredible!"

Silkey twitched her always-down pointing ears. "Ah well...if you're a loner that's always being left out, you sometimes find stuff. When they used to pick on me because of my eyes, I always came here to relax."

"I wish I knew of this earlier! I've never seen the world from this point of view before!" One-eye responded, still in awe.

Silkey stayed quiet for a moment, but then pointed to the back with her muzzle. "Turn around. See that mountaintop? One day I'll run away from home and climb it to the top! The view from there must be the most beautiful thing in the whole wide world!" She grinned, and One-eye turned his head.

He saw the top of the mountain, all covered in snow.

"It must be... But...why'd you come here to show me this? This must be your private spot," he responded, turning back to her.

She hesitated, then murmured, "I wanted to...do something for a friend. We are friends, right?"

One-eye dropped his ears. "Friends? I never had one... You?"

Silkey looked somewhat sad. "No...that's why I thought that...maybe, just maybe, if I'd be nice to you, you'd like me. You are going through the same now as I went through a couple of months ago. It hurts...being picked on...without getting a chance."

One-eye smiled. I...have a friend. "It's okay. We have each other now. Fricks unite!" he said, as he fist-bumped Silkey, both of them laughing.

Silkey then sighed. "Heh, yeah. Whatever even is a Frick? Diggs and Maud keep calling you that."

"It has something to do...or had once...with Lone One beliefs. But Arrow told me that it's forbidden for us assassin recruits to talk about our beliefs... You'd probably think it's stupid, anyways."

"It probably isn't stupid! Tell me!" Silkey urged him.

One-eye sighed. "Well, okay, I'm not going into detail since the whole story is long, but...in our beliefs, the first wolves to ever be created were two brothers: Kegyelem and Alaktalan, of which the latter was deformed.

"Kegyelem was a great wolf: He led all of the other wolves in the valley perfectly and kindly. Alaktalan, however, grew bitter towards his brother, who got all the love. Instead of trying to get others to like him by socializing or helping them, he tried to overthrow Kegyelem to become king. He'd gone crazy for power, thinking that he could get their love this way.

"Kegyelem was heartbroken, for he still loved his brother as much as he always had, but after several attempts from his brother to kill him, he had no chance but to banish him.

"The wolves later started to refer to Alaktalan as a 'Frick', which means something like 'broken creature.' But in a negative sense. It wasn't deformities or even mental problems that broke --it was the evil that he'd allowed to corrupt him by living the totally wrong way.

"The 'Frick' Maud and Diggs are constantly shouting at me is derived from that word, but it's really just something they use to compare me to Alaktalan. They take it out of context." He sighed.

Silkey nodded. "I see..."

One-eye stared at his paws. "Not like I can do anything about them calling me names."

Silkey spoke loudly. "But they keep picking on you! I just wish I could be there all week to get rid of them for you, but Mom needs me a lot for training, since I'm going to be the next second-in-command."

One-eye looked at her, surprised. "You are? I didn't know!"

Silkey puffed out her fluffy white chest, grinning. "Yeah. When this Clan is mine to rule, I'll change a lot! Mom thinks that brute force is the way to rule. I want to use kindness. And I'll attack unfair animals like Dicks and Mud, whatever their names are."

One-eye smiled, but looked somewhat confused as he said: "Hehe, that'd be great. If you're the second-in-command, what am I going to be? An assassin? I can't use kindness on that job! I'll just kill random Lone Ones!"

Silkey looked a bit down. "I guess..." But then she looked at him, a bright gleam in her eyes. "Hey! Maybe you can gain some respect of those bullies if you become the best Lone One assassin! What if you know the best fighting moves and the best tricks for stealth? Then you can impress them! I already heard you are pretty good."

"I don't know..."

"But I do! Yes, I'm going to teach you more fighting moves, and then they'll have to stop picking on you because you can defend yourself! And you can teach me what you learn in assassin training!"

One-eye didn't look happy. Even if he knew more moves, it wouldn't matter. He did pretty well in Divine's classes, but just didn't have the courage to attack Maud or Diggs when they were taunting him again. And he didn't even want to hurt them. "Are you sure? I don't really feel comfortabl—"

But, again, once Silkey had something in her mind, there was no way to change it. She lashed her tail. "Shut up! I'll teach you everything my mom taught me! She's teaching me so many moves because I am to be the next deputy; it wouldn't be harmful if I showed you some!" she insisted enthusiastically.

Of course it will harm me when Arrow finds out, One-eye thought hopelessly. But he also thought that, maybe, Silkey was right. He could at least give it a try, and knowing more moves, even if it is just to show off in front of his bullies and scare them off, could help.

"Alright, if it pleases you. I still don't see how this is going to make me more popular among other wolves. I can fight and kill all that I want, but I'll still be a Frick to them. A monster."

Silkey put her paw on his shoulder, but he quickly moved away from her. Ever since Diggs had scarred his hump, he'd been reluctant to let anyone touch him even near that area of his body.

"But what if you use your moves on those wolves? Or at least threatened them? We'll still be ugly, but victorious. They'll be pretty cowards. Come on, it's a great idea!" she said, putting her paw down on the branch.

I won't win this argument, One-eye then decided. And, even though he didn't totally agree with her, they were friends now, and friends had to trust one another.

He grinned. "That's true. We have a deal?"

Silkey beamed back. "Deal!" she exclaimed.

One-eye was about to respond with something witty when they heard a loud scream, followed by calling.

"Silkeeeeey! Silkeeey! Where are you, lil' Silks?"

An adult male voice sounded through the forest, a slight bit muted due to the snow.

One-eye looked at her, astonished. "I thought this was your private spot? Something you only shared with me?"

Silkey frowned, but then laughed. "Oh, don't worry about it. Brad is my dad, he knows of this place. He's cool."

One-eye lifted his eyebrow with skepticism, but Silkey was already climbing down, twisting nimbly and quickly through the mass of twigs and branches.

The gray wolf was a bit more hesitant and carefully started to climb down, but then his paw slipped and he fell out of the tree.

"AAAH!"

"OOF!"

One-eye shook his head, only to see that he was on the ground, covered with snow. Under him lay Silkey.

"You're squashing me," she said as he got up and gave her some space.

"Sorry," One-eye said, ashamed.

But she was laughing beyond her faked anger. "Just messing with you!"

One-eye then looked up, and realized that, between the bare trees, a golden-brown catamount was staring at them. He didn't really resemble Silkey, though she clearly had his amber eyes and the dark markings behind them.

He approached them. "Oh, Silkey, there you are! I was getting worried!"

"I'm sorry, Daddy," Silkey said, ears pointing even more downwards.

The catamount looked at One-eye, a bit confused.

He's judging me! He thinks I'm a monster, too. Oh, no, he'll tell Arrow and I'm going to be blind, nonononono! One-eye pushed himself to the ground.

"Hey, who is this?" he then asked, somewhat surprised.

One-eye covered his face with his paws. Not like that will help, he'll still see my deformed front paw and humpback!

He heard the catamount talk. "Hey, hey, you don't have to be so shy, young one. I won't bite." He sounded somewhat friendly, but One-eye didn't trust him. He's Arrows mate, for crying out loud!

Silkey walked towards him. "It's okay. I promise. He won't tell Mom anything about this."

One-eye trusted her, so he uncovered his face, but he was still too afraid to look the adult cougar in the eye.

Silkey looked at her father. "Mom scratched his eye out and he constantly gets called names. He's a bit frightened and shy," she explained, somewhat bitterly.

"It's okay," Brad tried to assure One-eye, who slowly but surely got up until he was sitting, still hunched. He continued. "Silkey told me about you. She saved you a few times from those other pups ever since you came here, right?"

"I did! He's very nice. Come, One-eye, meet my dad."

One-eye looked at the ground, but walked towards the brownish catamount. "Uh...hello, sir," he said, and he managed to let his one eye look up.

The cougar didn't seem angry or disgusted by him. One-eye even thought he saw a tiny smile on his face, and not a malicious one like Maud's.

"Don't worry. Mom is very mean and tough, but my Dad is the opposite. He likes me, and I think he'll like you fine."

One-eye swallowed and started to mumble, "Hello, Mr. Jones. I'm...I'm sorry if I'm..."