IMPORTANT NOTE, READ EVERYBODY: This was originally posted on my other account, Ziro, but I decided to put it on this account instead of deleting. -sigh- There goes 33 reviews.

For those who have beaten the game, you all know that Issun left his grandfather because he was working him too hard and Issun wanted to work alongside the Celestials. (Or something along those lines. I don't remember what happened to well.) Anyway, I feel the need to reply to this review:

Anonymous Midori Yoshi: I DO know my dog breeds. Very well, actually. I know the dog was a husky/samoyed/malamute/somekindofsleddog, but not everybody reading this might not know what he was. And yes, Ammy was out of character for a reason, because I like Pyscho!Ammy. Heh.

Argument

"--Maybe I should just leave!" came the shrill and angry voice of a small, green Poncle.

"Maybe you should! I wouldn't have to put up with your goofing off anymore!" came a more raspy and elderly voice. The smaller Poncle, Issun, glared daggers at his grandfather, and if looks could kill, Ishaku, his grandfather, would have been dead by now.

Issun muttered a few curses under his breath and turned around, a paintbrush and a sheet of paper gripped tightly under his left arm. "Well, you can do without me!" he yelled back and kicked open the door angrily. He marched out of the room briskly, and Ishaku hurriedly ran out of the room after him.

"Issun! Issun! Wait! Stop!" he called out. Issun was making his way down the cobweb to Ishaku's hut and towards the giant white mushroom. He paused beside the water spring which gave the mushroom life-giving water, and looked behind him to see Ishaku running after him. Ishaku stopped, his mouth falling open. "Please, don't leave. I didn't mean it!"

"Yeah, just like you didn't mean to yell at me to try harder, just like you didn't mean to yell at me everytime I would mess up, and just like you didn't mean to favor your other students over me," he growled back, clutching the paintbrush even harder. His teeth sank into his lips, causing a small trickle of blood to drip off of his bottom lip. Brown eyes shining with anger, Ishaku straightened up.

"Did it ever occur to you that I did that because I knew you were much better than everybody else? Did it ever occur to you that maybe I wanted you to better than all of them?" Ishaku replied, his voice starting to drip with venom. Issun muttered a few more words, the memories of fight earlier that day starting to return to him.

It all had started when Issun accidentally ripped his grandfather's most prized painting, the painting of a large, beautiful, stunning white wolf with long feather-like ribbons flowing off of her. Issun had said something, and Ishaku took it the wrong way, and now they were fighting... again. "No, in fact, it never occurred to me. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that you never praised me! You always yelled at me to get better and that my paintings were stupid and didn't honor the family!" he exclaimed angrily.

Issun's grip around the paintbrush was threatening to snap it in two. Ishaku let out a heavy sigh, regret evident. "Maybe I should have been less harsh with you, but that doesn't change a thing. I thought you were smart enough to figure it out, but I guess you weren't," he sighed again, his voice a bit more sarcastic than what he wanted.

"I guess I'm not as smart as you wanted me to be, then!" Issun snapped angrily. Before Ishaku could reply, he slung his paintbrush and backpack across his back and skirted out of the realm of the Poncles. His tiny feet kicking up dirt, Ishaku could only sit back and watch as Issun left him behind.

-

Issun raced out of the entrance to his old home quickly. He was panting, fatigue evident. He thought about stopping, but instantly decided against it. He bit back a few curses that he would have liked to unleash upon Ishaku, but knew it wouldn't make things any better. As he ran down an old trail through Yoshpet Forest, a few trees watched him, sometimes throwing their cursed fruit at him.

He dodged a few rolling snowballs along the way, and nearly got impaled by a large falling piece of ice. He paused to rest beneath a gray rock to catch his breath and sat down on the ground, tucking his chin between his two legs. He let a few tears come out and fall to the ground, freezing into a salty piece of ice before they even touched the snow.

His brown eyes were starting to turn red around the edge of them as he let tears start to flow down his checks. He wrapped his jacket around his body tightly, enjoying the warmth it provided. He knew he was far enough from his old home now; he had been running for at least two hours, taking short intervals to take a break every now and then.

It was then he saw a faint ray of hope.

Four large bodies barreled past him, slobber flying everywhere. "Hey, watch you're going, you old bag of fleas!" he yelled and shook his fist in the air. The four canines -- wolves, to be exact -- all skidded to a halt and turned around, their hackles raised. Blood dripped off a large black wolf with a fiery red mane, and the other three wolves all glared at Issun.

"A snack?" the smallest wolf inquired. A brown wolf, who looked like her relative, hushed the pup with her tail. The four canines all approached Issun apprehensively.

"A Poncle?" said the oldest wolf, a large bluish-white wolf.

"Yeah; what's it to ya?" Issun growled. The wolf with blood dripping off of his chin glared ice daggers at Issun.

"What are you doing this far out?" the blue-white wolf asked. The masks that each wolf wore protected their faces, small holes cut where their eyes were at. "Samickle of the Oina Tribe. This is Oki, Kai, and Lika," he explained, throwing his head in the direction of each wolf. Oki, the bloodied wolf, kept his eyes locked onto Issun. "Why are you out here?"

"My grandfather..." Issun murmured and kicked a small pebble at Samickle's paws. The massive size of the wolves compared to himself made him slightly unnerved, but he tried his hardest to not let the canines intimidate him. "We got into a fight."

"You can come back with us!" Kai exclaimed. Samickle and Oki both shot her a glare, causing Kai to lower her ears.

"...Can I?" Issun asked hopefully.

Samickle, Oki, and Kai all shared a glance with each other. As if they were speaking to each other mentally, Samickle spoke, "We have some rules, though." Shrugging, Issun nodded his head. "One, you had better learn to eat meat. Two, if Kemu tells you to leave, you leave. And three, you listen to us," he explained. That wouldn't be a problem; these wolves could swallow Issun whole, as he was only nearly the size of Kai's right forepaw.

"Got it," he replied cheekily and hopped between Lika's brown ears.

Well, Issun did know the Oina Tribe when you get to Kamui/Wep'Keer, and I figured there was a reason.

-Ziro