Chapter 1: Adorable Little Rascals

On the pretty sunny, yet quite chilly day of the month February the year 1932, this was looking like as if it was some kind of the regular day for the everyday community of humans and dogs alike in the Alaskan town of Nome. Only it wasn't for the certain Alaskan Malamute.

Steele being his name, was anticipating this day with a such joy. It was February 12th, 1932 and that was meaning one thing to him - his puppies, from Lizzy's litter of course, had turned today one month old and for a such event, it meant one thing - he was going to go with the puppies on the beach and play with them.

"I can make sure that under my paws, the puppies are going to be real safe!" These were the words that was Steele humming in his head, eagerly awaiting to get to Lizzy's house and greet the puppies. As he was expecting, he was just a the front doors of her house. As always, he was welcome there every day he desired.

Pushing the dog doors with his head, the warmth of that house was ever-present, not to mention the fact that most of that warmth came from Elizabeth, or as he loved to call her Lizzy, the black female Siberian Husky, wearing that lovely blue collar with the golden tag around her neck. Being partly inside, he whispered in a lovingly way: "Guess who!"

He didn't have to wait for the response to arrive. The response in the form of silent, yet sweet giggling, arrived pretty fast. Showing himself to his beautiful mate, who was just laying down in the basket, it was Lizzy who spoke the following: "Come quietly, there's a lovely scene for you to see on this day!" Wondering what could she have been speaking about, he just did how she said. It turned out very sweet for the reformed Malamute.

Their six lovable puppies, now being one month old rascals, were sleeping soundly in the same bed as Lizzy. From the distance he could have spotted his and Lizzy's oldest puppy Annabeth sleeping on her mother's head. Two of their older sons, Titanium and Timber, were cuddled by their mother's chest, with each other as it was seen. Amanda, the daughter which was adored by Steele the most, was sleeping by her mommy's belly, considerably falling asleep while being nursed by her. Geed and Noir, the youngest two puppies, made themselves soft under their mother's tail, serving as their blanket.

"They haven't been any nuisance to you last night, have they?" Steele asked her jokingly, spotting the puppies everywhere in his bed, Still, seeing Amanda how she had fallen asleep while drinking mommy's milk was something that made him squeamish a lot. That sight that made the tough malamute into the marshmallow was at one paw expected.

"No, silly. Why'd they?" Lizzy laughed his comment off. Even if the puppies were a bit of trouble, that was just fine to both of them. After all, they were pretty young and the fun time and playtime was something that should not be taken away from them. Now that this was the day he was going to take her of the puppies, she nodded to her mate.

Making sure that she was going to wake all six of them at once, it was on Lizzy to just whisper soundly to them all: "Annabeth, Titanium, Timber, Amanda, Geed, Noir! Look who has come to look after you today!" That whisper, despite not being frankly loud, actually made the puppies stir awake, noticing the presence of their father in the house.

"Daddy! It's daddy!" The yips of all six puppies were echoing throughout the basket and the room alike as soon as they had seen that their father was there. Knowing that this would be coming, Steele just tackled himself on the back and was awaiting the upcoming - belly tickling from the tiny paws of his six puppies. Fair enough, that arrived very soon.

The delightful laugh was coming out of Steele's lungs, feeling the tiny paws all around his body. On his head, on his neck, on his own paws, on his belly. He felt like as if he was going to cry in happiness for having this big family. If only he was affectionate and caring with Shira, things would have been different, but then again... he'd never have had Lizzy as his mate.

"Daddy, are we going to play? Are we!?" That yipping came from none other else than from his most beloved puppy - Amanda. Being as black as her mother and having the same eye colors as her, what was it not to be adored by Steele the most because how much she was resembling her mother. As Amanda was on Steele's head, he had used the opportunity to lick Amanda's belly as she rolled down on his chest laughing. Pretending to be a puppy, Steele used the puppy language to talk: "Yesh, we are! Yesh, we are!"

"But first, you need the breakfast for your day!" Lizzy said that wisely, taking in account that every day was starting with the most important meal of the day - breakfast. Puppies heard the word breakfast and knew instantly what was she meaning - her own milk. Even if they were one month old and that their fangs were slowly growing, Lizzy was still letting them being nursed.

With the puppies running back into the basket, they all took their spots by Lizzy's belly and used the opportunity to be nursed by their mother, both Lizzy and Steele watched that scenery in an utter amusement. There were the moments when Lizzy was stirring, feeling the fangs on her belly, but she was not minding at all. As long as the puppies were wagging their tails in happiness, everyone could be happy. This was making Steele even more squeamish than he was.

"Okay, that's enough! Now it's playtime with daddy!" Elizabeth nudged each of their puppies as soon as she felt that it was the time that she had provided them enough food. Even if the puppies, most of them, weren't happy to be over now, they didn't want to make their mommy upset so they stopped feeding themselves. Then, their father moved their muzzle to the basket and asked: "Who's ready to have some fun on the beach?!"

"Oh! Oh! OH! I AM, I AM!" The echoes of the cheerful puppies were heard when Steele was heading to the dog doors of the house, with Elizabeth escorting the puppies to the exit so she could have bid them proper farewell. With the joined forces, Steele was taking the puppies out from outside while Lizzy was pushing them outside. With all six cheerful balls of fluff outside, Lizzy gave a soft nuzzle to Steele's face, whispering: "Have fun, Steely."

Smiling with that gesture given to him, he whispered even softer: "I shall make that happen, Lizzy." With that whisper being given, it was now on Steele to lead his six puppies to the beach. Trying to have them keep up with him, he was frequently amused by their adorable yipping. This is how Balto must have felt like when he had become father back in 1926.

"Look, we have made it on the beach!" These were the words Steele had given to his cheerful puppies, with his voice sounding even more cheerful as soon as they made it to the snowy beach outside of Nome. The snow, being fresh and untouched, would be the finest hour for the puppies to play with each other and with him. But the question was... which option was going to happen first.

"Tag, you're on it, Timber!" These were the words that broke the silence, coming from the oldest puppy Annabeth. With a gentle nudge to Timber's shoulder, it was on him to catch at least one of his siblings, who scattered around and left him to choose which one to catch. That made him a bit insecure.

Not wanting his son to be shrouded with the insurance, Steele lowered his head down to Timber's level. Like a real and loving father, he just had to whisper him: "Show them that you have a spirit in yourself, Timber! Go get them!" With these words said, the insurance inside Timber was immediately gone.

Smiling at his daddy and rubbing his body against Steele's paws, Timber just said: "I shall go with that, daddy!". Without much said afterwards, Timber sprinted towards his siblings, wondering who was going to be the one he was going to tag in. In the meantime, Steele was watching that entire scenario in the biggest pleasure possible.

"Oh, how pretty and sweet these have grown lately." Steele was thinking that, watching all six of them playing with each other on the beach while the laughter of them all was not missing out at any point. If only there was someone else, standing by his side and watching them playing, this could have been possibly the best day of his fatherhood.

"Hey, Steele! Over here!" The voice was calling him from the distance. Young, energetic, full of humor, he exactly knew whose voice that was. Furthermore, it belonged to none other else than to his older son Rodney, the pup from his first litter coming from Shira. He wasn't alone though, him being accompanied by three other dogs. One was Kiana, the silver female wearing the purple bandanna around her neck and his best friend. The other two, the dark red female with special facial markings, was Kiana's younger sister Amber. The third one was the black male with dual eye colors, Nero. All three of these were the pups of Yukon, the red faced pup male of Balto.

"Rodney, hey! I see you have brought the friends with yourself!" Steele greeted his older son cheerfully, as well as he was doing the same thing with his friends. Ever since his reformation, he was now in a very good relationship not only with him, but with his siblings too. Furthermore, Yukon's pups learnt to accept him better. Even if Steele had them kidnapped back in 1929, with his change of heart, they were learned to accept the others by the heart, not the looks.

"And I believe that there is some kind of fun down there." Kiana said, hearing the cheerful yips from the beach. Much to her delight, the six puppies that were playing tag with each other, now being Geed's turn to tag someone, focusing on Annabeth at the moment. Since these were adorable young little rascals, the amused looks on the faces of Rodney and his friends were there. It was Kiana, whose voice went quite squeamish, who said: "What'd we do with these six cuties?"

Gaining the giggles and the laughs from the dogs present, it was hard to resist that kind of cuteness. Rodney shrugged with his shoulders off out of joke, commenting: "The step-siblings that are always welcome to play with us, aren't they? How about we call them?" That idea was pretty much appreciated and not to forget tolerated by the others around.

"Puppies! Guess who just arrived!" Of course, it was on Steele to call his puppies to himself, with him whistling to gain their attention. Just as Annabeth was going to tag Amanda, they all turned their heads back to their father and found out that their stepbrother Rodney, along with his friends, just arrived.

"It's Rodney! It's RODNEY!" The puppies barked out all joyfully, being happy every single time when they were seeing their stepsiblings. Seven of them, the triplets of Shira and Yang, Shen, Atta and Ian or the four of them, Taiga, Rodney, Sarah and Tayer, brought the joy on their cute little faces. Somehow, it seemed like that all of them loved Rodney as their step-sibling the most.

While Rodney was laughing upon being "besieged" by his cute little stepbrothers and stepsisters, his friends and his father were watching that in total amusement and delight. Not even Rodney thought about backing up to be besieged by them. He enjoyed it a lot, hoping that there were more to see this. All in all, there were enough dogs to see this and let the others know.

"Oh, hey there, little girl!" Nero was heard saying these words, and the reason for saying these was because one of Steele's daughters, Amanda, grabbed tightly around Nero's front left paw, giggling sweetly. Instead of playing with her father, she was looking like as if she was enjoying with Nero. "Playful one, aren't we?" He asked her as she was laughing hard while holding him.

"Look, Amanda is in love!" Titanium teased his sister in a pretty friendly way, with Amanda replying: "Am not! Am not!" Besides, she was just swinging around Nero's paw and literally enjoying to be with his male husky. Realizing that his "love" joke was not touching anyone, Titanium decided to stop making fun of it.

But Nero was not the only one who had a puppy to deal with. Out of blue, Amber felt like as if the puppy jumped on her neck and was climbing on her head. Looking above, she had noticed it was Steele's youngest son Geed. That made her laugh a bit, seeing how the cute little rascal was able to jump that high.

"Look! Geed is having lots of fun up there!" Noir yipped out of the happiness. Amber was swinging herself slowly around as Geed was laughing, obviously enjoying his playtime on Amber's head. The other puppies, noticing their father, their stepbrother and Kiana, being free, decided to "besiege them".

Penultimately, Timber jumped high enough on Kiana's back, chewing the bits of her bandanna there, with Kiana playfully jumping. Annabeth took care of Rodney, biting his ear. That left Titanium and Noir to "besiege" their father. All four adults were having tons of fun with these adorable little rascals.

"Oh, if only there were some others to see this!" Steele said quite happily, with Noir and Titanium sharing the spot on Steele's neck. While the others were having fun, Steele had a brief moment to take a glance on the town of Nome, noticing the black canine coming. At first, it looked a lot like Elizabeth, but noticing the leg markings and the collar shining silver...

"Hey, Shira!" Kiana called her, noticing that Shira was heading towards them. The look on her face was oozing the delight and happiness like any other day and seeing her son with her friends and her ex-mate with her steppuppies, this was something that was not meant to be missed at all!

"Hello, Kiana, Rodney! I see that Nero, Amber and Steele are here too, with the puppies." Shira greeted them all, one by one, while referring her stepppupies all at once. Even if the relationships between Shira, Steele and Lizzy were very good by that point, she still didn't manage to memorize the names. Not especially when Geed came to greet her, climbing up her paw.

"Hey, hey! Easy there... uh..." She was heard talking to him, but knowing that she didn't memorize the puppy's name, she threw a glance at her ex-mate, who formed the words "Geed" so the little one would not be offended in any way possible. Looking back at Geed, she repeated: "Easy there, Geed! Playful one, aren't we?"

"Very playful! Very, Shira!" Geed barked out happily, with Shira being a bit surprised to be called by her own name. Still, since she was their stepmother, she had to face it that she'd be called by her name from these cute six little rascals. Soon enough, Geed let her go, but the puppies felt like they were going to play with Shira.

Knowing that she shouldn't miss this chance, she did raise her paw a bit, talking to them: "Before I come to play, do you mind if I ask your father something?" While the puppies were heard sighing in a light disappointment that Shira was not playing with them now, they were still keeping up their joy.

With Steele, Kiana, Rodney, Amber and Nero being in Shira's presence, Rodney seemed the only one around who knew why his mother was here. Still, if he was not the one who was the center of this discussion, then he was not going to say anything unless being asked. But the topic didn't seem to be too serious at the moment. It started with Shira: "They don't know anything about your past, do they?"

Of course the puppies had no clue about their father's dark past, because they were meant to enjoy their puppy days, not to despise their father! But at the same time, the puppies, once grown up, would be asking why their father had the pups with Shira and so on. Once they were old enough, by their first birthday, that'd be accurate enough. Steele confirmed that: "I will let them know when they turn the age one. If necessary, I'll need you, Shira, as well as our pups."

"Fair enough about that. And mom, do please enjoy time with puppies, they're getting impatient." Rodney decided to say that, being a bit surprised that this meeting was very short. True, the puppies were barking in impatience as they wanted to play with their stepmom. All in all, Shira accepted the offer and rushed towards puppies, laying down in snow and awaiting to be tickled by them.

"Don't worry, just keep it authentic and they won't detest you badly, Steele." Rodney let his father know, trying to outsound his mother's laughter and the giggles of the puppies. Accepting his son's offer, the five dogs watched Shira roll in snow and run with the puppies across the beach, thus their faces turned from plain and serious to joyful again.