"Lalalala," Silkey sung to herself as she kept pacing in circles. Come on, One-eye, where are you? I gotta know how it went!

"Lalalalalalala."

She grew more and more nervous. What if he'd failed? What if Mum'd noticed he had moves normally only catamounts would use? Would she have gotten mad at him? What if she took his other eye and blinded him? Oh, I'd never be able to forgive myself! And he'll hate me! Please come back, Oney, come back unharmed!

"Lalalalalalala..." Her song lost all sense of melody or rhythm and turned more into nervous blabbering.

Then she heard some cracking in the bushes near the edge of the Main Base where she waited.

She looked up, blowing her wild hair out of her eyes. "One-eye?" she whispered. Lalalalala, everything's fine. Totally fine.

The rustling sounds got louder, and Silkey could easily distinguish the sound of paw steps in the deep snow.

Then, all of a sudden, a grey ball of fur burst out of the woods and hit her, knocking her over.

"Ah!" Silkey tried to roll over, but she was pinned to the ground, two paws pressing down on her chest to hold her still.

She opened her eyes and noticed someone was staring into hers, a huge grin on his face.

"Ask how it went," One-eye ordered.

Silkey smiled and sighed in relief. This could only mean good things. She'd hardly ever seen One-eye this happy or enthusiastic.

"How did it go?" she asked, smirking.

One-eye jumped off of her. "Great! Arrow...she was surprised! It was only for a second, but that look on her face! I'll never forget that! And then there's Diggs and Maud, you should have seen their faces!"

Silkey got up and bunted her head against his. "That's amazing!" she said.

But then she looked around. Something didn't feel right. We're at the Main Base, the most crowded place of all the Clan's territory! Whoopsie.

She looked at One-eye's overly-happy, grinning face, which looked totally ridiculous, especially on his scarred and his huge crooked tooth.

"Come on...it's not safe to be so friendly towards one another right here," she whispered. One-eye noticed her point and nodded, and the two left.

In the woods, not too far away from the big glade, they continued to talk.

"You really managed to impress my mum?"

"It was just for a second, but yeah! I did it!"

"Oh wow, Dad's never going to believe this! Did you use the move I taught you?"

"Combination of what I learned in training and what you taught me! But it worked! Even Diggs and Maud—those expressions! Ha!"

Silkey felt euphoric, so glad that she helped her best friend.

"I told you this was a great idea! Now I just have to impress Arrow, too, and my day will be made even more! High paw!" She lifted her right-front paw, and One-eye his left one, and they hit them mid-air, laughing.

"Hook claw!" he added, as they hooked their dewclaws together in a swift movement.

The two unhooked their paws and rolled in the grass, laughing for a few minutes, until they heard someone speak.

"Hey, look, it's the 'oh-so-great' One-eye."

Silkey looked up. Not again! Cut us some slack already!

Diggs and Maud were approaching, Arall in the back.

One-eye looked up, ears back.

"Don't act all victorious, Quasi, we know that you'll never become a full assassin. You will fail those silent stalking classes without a doubt! With a paw like that, even the deafest wolf on the world will hear you coming!" Diggs spat.

Silkey saw One-eye backing slowly away.

"Just ignore them. Don't cry. Don't give in. That's what they want," she tried to encourage her friend; she realized he was having trouble keeping back the tears.

Maud stepped in front of One-eye, growling. "Hey, hello! Diggs said something! It's rude not to respond!"

"Get away, Maud!" Silkey snarled, stepping between her and the deformed pup.

"Ehem...interfering with a conversation...even more rude!" Maud growled. "I was talking to the hunchback."

Keep calm, don't attack her, keep calm, keep calm. Alright, Silkey, you got this.

She took a deep breath and spoke, trying to keep her lazy eye from flinching. "You know what's rude? Picking on someone just because he's a bit different. First you should get your manners straight and maybe--and I mean maybe--he will show you some respect! But you're not worth any! He is!"

She heard One-eye mutter a faint "Silkey" behind her, but stayed put, a big frown on her face and her right eye no longer in control.

Diggs went to stand beside Maud. "You're just siding with him because you're weird, too!"

Silkey felt very offended at that. "Well, in fact I—"

Suddenly, the brown pup, Arall, came in between the two canines and the cougar cub. "Shut it! Both of you! Maud, Diggs, Arrow told us and the others to go back to the Main Base, and we should be heading there, not just going around taking detours because we hear these two just doing their thing. Let's just go!"

It was silent for a moment, and Silkey felt somewhat grateful that her mother had actually given a useful order to these pups for once. Please leave, please leave.

Diggs sounded reluctant, but agreed. "She's right..."

Maud blew a raspberry in Silkey and One-eye's direction as she and the others left in the direction of the Main Base.

Silkey waited until they were gone, glaring after them, and then turned around. "One--ehhh..."

Her friend was nowhere to be seen.

"One-eye? One-eye?"

She called, but there was no response. She sighed and headed in the direction of her tree.

***

"One-eye, you can come down. It's just me."

Silkey put her front paws on the trunk of her tree and looked up to the bare canopy. She saw One-eye's silhouette vaguely through the mass of branches.

She sighed as he made no noise other than sobbing. Aww...poor Oney. She jumped into the tree, claws unsheathed, and climbed up, until she sat on a thick branch behind him.

"There you are," she said, trying to sound positive. Her attitude had cheered him often ever since they became friends.

But One-eye just sobbed again. He sat hunched, making his hump look twice as big, and himself utterly miserable.

Silkey sighed and put her paw on his shoulder, knowing that he'd move. The deformed wolf had grown to hate others touching the area near his hump more and more throughout the months.

One-eye's neck fur instantly rose as she touched him. He turned around, looking angry for a millisecond. But then his one-eyed gaze clouded with tears again.

Silkey sat down beside him. "Oh, One-eye...if only I could do something for you," she said softly, sitting close to him and bunting him with her head.

"Don't you see? It didn't work! You taught me so much, I even managed to impress Arrow, but they...they just.... They still think I'm trash! I might as well just throw myself off of a random cliff!" One-eye blurted out, glancing away as he blinked away the tears.

Oh, give me an idea. I gotta cheer him up somehow!

Silkey didn't know what to do, so she hit One-eye right in the face with her claws retracted.

"OW! What'd you do that for?" He rubbed his painful cheek.

You are just brilliant, Silkey. Brilliant. Do you want him to hate you? Because that's how you get him to hate you! "Eh...sorry," she said awkwardly, but then shook her head. You've got his attention. Now use that before he gets carried away in his misery again...Oh, I feel so bad for him, though!

"Hold it together, Oney! You can do this! You haven't tried using your moves on them yet!" she said, trying to sound firm.

Her friend wiped away a tear. "Do you really think I'm confident enough for that? I mean...I'm not! I'm too afraid to even approach them! They'll just launch another insult at me."

He's right, you know, Silks. "Eh..." She thought for a moment. "Stuff your ears with leaves! You won't hear it, then!" she suddenly blurted out, instantly shutting her mouth. You are a total idiot, Silkey.

One-eye stared at her for a moment, confused, but then, at the same time, both suddenly started to laugh.

"Hahahaha! You're crazy!" One-eye laughed.

Silkey panted. "Eheh. That. I don't know if that will work."

One-eye grinned. "I don't think so. Ha."

You got him to cheer up again; it's something. Now onto the rest.

"No, but, seriously. I think you need to grow a spine. If you're just a tad stronger...mentally, I mean...I think you wouldn't be sad all the time, and you'll have the courage to stand up to them." She folded her tail around her paws, which were growing cold from the damp branch she was sitting on.

"Pfft!" One-eye sounded bitter. "Grow a spine? I have a spine! That spine is the exact problem I'm dealing with!"

And you're going down the simpleton-route once more. Congratulations, Silkey. You win the worst-friend-of-the-year award. "Eh...bad choice of words," she mumbled awkwardly.

Her friend let out an annoyed "meh" as he gazed into the distance. The clouds were flowing low tonight, so they couldn't see much of the valley, nor the faraway mountains.

Silkey moved a bit closer to him, feeling bad. "I know how stupid and uninspiring this sounds...but...never mind. I just don't know what else I can do to make you happier."

She saw him smile again as he turned his head towards her, allowing her to see his eye once more. Sitting on his left side sometimes made it hard to read his emotions.

"Silkey...I'm...I'm really glad that we're friends. I don't know where I'd be without you."

"That's okay, One. I'm glad to have you, as we—"

A sound suddenly interrupted her, but it didn't come from the humans that were practicing their winter sports on the faraway-slopes.

Silkey looked confused. "Are you—?"

One-eye grinned. "Oops, totally forgot that I should be at the clearing having dinner."

Silkey raised an eyebrow. "We should get some food. You're hungry!"

The grey wolf looked at her. "Am not!"

Silkey let herself slide down the tree. "You totally are!" she called as she bolted towards the Main Base.

"Alright, I am! Wait for me!" his high-pitched voice sounded behind her.