In the park, all of the pups were running wild, playing games and enjoying the sunny morning.

"PASS, PASS, PASS!" Dee Dee yelled at Dizzy, who tossed her a rubber ball.

Dee Dee bumped the ball with her head towards her sister, Dizzy jumped and hit the ball back.

Meanwhile, Delgado was racing with Dolly, who was on her skateboard. The two were at even speed and were nearing the fountain of the park.

"WOOOHOOOO!" Dolly shouted out then looked at her little brother with amazement in her eyes. "Look at ya, little bro! Barely broken a sweat!"

"Hehe…!" Delgado giggled as he was panting. "As if this is hard or something…"

"Wanna go faster?" Asked Dolly.

Delgado started increasing his speed in response, he began taking the lead in their race.

Dolly adjusted her helmet as she smiled at Delgado. She dropped down into a crouch, kicked back with her hind leg, boosting her speed, and evened up with her brother again.

No way! You're taking the win, Dolly! Delgado stated to himself and began increasing his speed, yet again. Though, he had started to sweat and began feeling his muscles burn since he hadn't stopped racing with Dolly ever since they entered the park.

Finally reaching the fountain, the two dogs made a circle around it and continued in the opposite direction.

As Dolly rod her board, she couldn't help but feel admiration towards Delgado. She just watched with awe as her brother smiled, even though he was gasping for air through his teeth, he still pushed himself to keep pace with her.


Dawkins was laying under a tree, reading his medical book from where he'd left off. He took his eyes off the book when he heard steps approaching him from the side.

"How's the studying coming along?" Dylan sat next to him.

"Perfectly fine." Dawkins answered him, flipped a page and continued reading.

"Are you going to stay under the tree the whole day?" Dylan asked. "You can read that book whenever you want, why not get some exercise, instead?"

"Love to…" Dawkins faked a grin as he looked at Dylan.

"Great! Then come on!" Dylan wagged his tail.

"I was kidding, Dylan…" said Dawkins with indifference. "Couldn't you tell?"

"Aww, Dawkins…" Dylan rubbed the side of his face. "I know this is important to you, but getting some exercise does your body good."

"Obviously… But I'd much rather read a book than engage in some silly game." Dawkins said then gave it a little bit of thought. "Unless, of course… You catch my attention with something more intriguing… Perhaps."

Suddenly, something hit Dylan's head from the back, making him flinch.

"Huh…?" Dylan spun his head to look at what hit him. He saw a rubber ball and quickly recognized it as Dizzy and Dee Dee's.

"Dylan, Dylan! Toss the ball, toss the ball!" Dizzy and Dee Dee yelled at him.

Dylan put his paw on the ball and rolled it side to side when an idea crossed his mind. He threw it at his brother, the ball hit Dawkins on the head, making it wobbled a bit, then bounced back to Dylan.

Dawkins turned to his brother with an angry look.

"Sorry, Dawkins…" Dylan stopped the ball as it rolled towards him. "My paw slipped."

"Aha… Sure it did." Dawkins returned to reading. He then got hit by the ball again.

"Dylan!" Dawkins barked as he slammed his paws on the grass.

"Sorry, sorry!" Dylan made an awkward smile. He grabbed the ball and began walking to his sisters.

Dawkins kept an eye on Dylan for a bit then fixed his attention back at the book. He got hit for a third time by the ball, which finally made him snap and he leaped after Dylan. "Now you've done it!"

"Dizzy! Dee Dee…!" Shouted Dylan to the pups as he ran from Dawkins. "Got room for two more?!"

"Sure do, Dylan!" the two pups made some distance from each other as they jumped.

Dylan stopped and quickly turned around, he threw the ball up and headbutted it towards Dawkins.

"I'll teach you to hit me with a ball!" Dawkins fiercely hit the ball back at Dylan with his head.

"Now that's how I like you!" Dylan braced and met the ball with another headbutt, deflecting the ball at Dizzy, the pup bounced it at Dee Dee and she back at Dylan.

"Don't let it drop on the ground." Dylan told Dawkins as he quickly spun and hit the ball with his hind legs to Dee Dee.

"The first to drop the ball's out…!" Dizzy told them. "And so are the others to do so!"

"Winner's the last one who hasn't let the ball hit the ground" Dee Dee added then hit the ball at Dawkins. "Then the winner makes the others do whatever he wants!"

"That so?" Dawkins said as he sent the ball flying at Dylan with a paw. "Then when I win, I'll make you eat the ball, Dylan!"

"If you win." Dylan corrected, flustering his brother. "And if I win, you'll be cleaning the bathroom."

Dawkins frowned at the thought of that but smirked as he accepted Dylan's challenge.


Da Vinci laid on the grass and stared into the blue sky. "Hmm, hmm…"

How funny…! She giggled to herself when she saw a cloud in the shape of a chicken.

"Big sis, what are you doing?" one of the pups—Dara, rolled next to her.

"Look up there." Da Vinci pointed at the chicken-shaped cloud.

"Haha! It's a chicken!" Dara chuckled. She then surveyed the sky to try and find other clouds that resembled animals.

"There, there! Look, look!" Dara taped Da Vinci on the shoulder. "That cloud looks like a lion's head. Raa! Raa! Haha…!"

"Sure does." Smiled Da Vinci.

"Say will you play hopscotch with us?" Dara asked.

Da Vinci nodded, but as she did, she felt someone nibbling on her ear. "Huh?!"

Another pup—Dingo, was the one who played with her ear, he did make sure not to bite too hard of course.

"Dingo… Dingo, stop." Da Vinci told him, but the pup ignored her and continued.

"That's it, mister!" Da Vinci extended her paws and grabbed him, pulling him in a hug and began tickling him. "You aren't going to listen to your big sister, are you?"

"Ah! No, no…!" Dingo begged trough laughs. "I'll listen…! Haha! Hehe…! I will, I will! Please, just… Just stop! HAHAHA!"

"Good enough for me!" Da Vinci stopped and let go of her younger brother.

"What are you… Doing just lying on… The grass here…?" Dingo asked as he tried catching his breath.

"We were watching for funny-looking clouds." Dara told him.

"Look over… Oh…" Dara got disappointed when she saw that the cloud that resembled a lion head had despaired. "Aww…! It's gone now!"

Dingo looked up to see if he could find something too. "Umm… Oh, hey, over there!"

Da Vinci and Dara looked at the direction their brother was pointing at. It was a butterfly-shaped cloud.

"What?! Oh, dog! Not some stupid butterfly!" Dingo scowled and crossed his arms. "Why not a crocodile or a dino?!"

"Hehe… What's wrong with it being a butterfly, Dingo?" Da Vinci caressed his head.

"… It's small and… Fragl!" Dingo told her.

"You mean fragile?" Da Vinci corrected. Dingo nodded.

"And it's small too, right?" she asked to which Dingo nodded again. "Reminds me of another little guy…"

Dingo rose his eyebrows in confusion. "Who?"

"You!" Da Vinci started pinching her brother's cheeks with one of her paws.

"Ah! No, no, no!" Dingo began to wriggle, trying to get out of his sister's hold.

"Haha! Dingo's a butterfly! Dingo's a butterfly!" Dara jumped around the grass.

"Am not!" Dingo stated with anger in his voice as he freed himself from Da Vinci's hug.

"You are!" she teased him.

"Yeah…? You're a larva then! Yeah, yeah, a larva!" Dingo grinned at her.

"Oh, eww! Gross!" Dara held her paw in front of her mouth. Annoyed, she then began chasing after Dingo.

"Larva, larva, you're a gross larva~!" Dingo sang as he ran circles around Da Vinci.

"Okay, okay, enough, you two." Da Vinci stepped between them.

"Humph! Whatever! Big sis and I were going to go play hopscotch anyway!" Dara sated then grabbed Da Vinci by the paw and pulled her towards the other pups who were already playing the game.

"Hey! I want in too!" Dingo ran after them.


"… You sure you can keep going?" Dolly asked Delgado, seeing that he had heavily started gasping for air. "You could use a rest."

"… No… Problem here…!" Delgado spurted out between pants. "Just… Don't slow down… Got it…! Go faster if you can!"

"Alright, if you're sure…" Dolly increased her speed, while Delgado pushed himself to go faster as well.

As they approached the fountain for the fifth time since they started racing, Delgado inhaled a quick breath, squinted his eyes and flexed his body to reach the fountain before his sister. He mustard any remaining strength he could to outrun her.

Damn…! Dolly was impressed by her brother as he took the lead. Little guy's pushing himself harder than ever…

However, as Delgado had his eyes closed and only focused on speed instead of what was in front of him, he didn't notice Diesel's sudden emergence from the ground and was rushed straight at him.

Dolly gasped when she noticed this, and as there was little time to act, she, without a second thought, pushed Delgado to the side just before he collided with Diesel, but now she was the one heading towards him.

With a fast bend of her knees and a strong push down on the tail of her board, Dolly jumped over Diesel, tough since she was in a rush to do so, she also went crashing in a field of large bushes.


"You're the last one standing, Dawkins" Dylan smirked as he hit the ball at him. "Better up your game, or you'll be cleaning fur from the bathtub's drain all day!"

Dylan paused for a moment when he saw all of the pups running in the same direction. "What's going on…?"

Dawkins bounced the ball back at Dylan which hit him in the head then fell on the ground.

"YES! I win!" Dawkins exclaimed in joy. He hopped to his brother with a conceited smile. "Well, how would you prefer your ball served, brother? With some eggs perhaps? I know you're a big fan of shrimps—"

Dylan put his paw on his brother's mouth, silencing him. "Wait, Dawkins…"

"What's up with the pups?" Dylan asked, concerned.

Dawkins removed Dylan's paw then looked at his siblings. "Nothing, it seems to me. Probably gathering to play a game or something like that."

"DYLAN! DYLAN!" Delgado shouted from the distance, rushing over to him. "You have to come! Quickly!"

"W-What, Delgado? What's wrong?" Dylan asked a little more alarmed now when he heard his little brother's gasping voice.

"It's Dolly…!" Delgado paused to take a breath. "We were racing when all of a sudden she pushed me to the side and next thing I know, she went flying into those big bushes over there!"

"Dawkins, Let's go!" Dylan turned to him then started running towards where his brothers and sisters had gathered. Dawkins quickly followed after him as did Delgado, who stumbled a little upon moving.

"Something wrong?" Dawkins stopped when he noticed his little brother slip.

"No, no. Just my shoulder hurts a bit, that's all." Delgado told him, they both continued after their brother.


"Is big sis alright?" some of the pups asked, worried.

"She is, don't worry about her." Da Vinci tried calming them down. "Dylan will be here soon and—"

She stopped when Dylan arrived on the scene.

"Dylan, she's somewhere in there…" Da Vinci pointed towards the field. "But I'm worried. It's been some time since Dolly crashed in those bushes, yet she still hasn't come out… What if she's hurt?"


"… Ohhh… My head…" Dolly slowly opened her eyes and found herself on the ground, surrounded by thick bushes.

Though she was dizzy from the fall, Dolly began to stand herself up. She scratched her head and rubbed her face. "Argh…! My helmet… Where did it…

Damn does it hurt… The hell…!"

Dolly tried moving but paused when she felt that her right ear was stuck onto something, or so she felt it. She pulled hard to free her ear, but stumble and fell on her back as she did so.

"…! What was that?" Dolly rubbed her ear. "… That felt… Weird…"

Shrugging it off, Dolly proceeded to make her way out.


"I'll get her out of there." Dylan reassured everyone then walked into the bushes.

As he searched through the field, Dylan poked himself on several shrubs, which he recognized as Yucca—A sharp-leaved shrub. "Ouch! Since when did the park have Yuccas? Probably some of the humans planted them here."

Walking further in, Dylan stumbled upon his dizzy sister.

"Dolly!" he ran up to her. "Are you alright, did you hurt yourself anywhere?!"

"Oh, Dylan…" Dolly rubbed one of her eyes. "Err… Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

Dolly scratched her right ear as it began irritating her.

Dylan's eyes widened in shock when he looked at Dolly's ear. "Oh, my dog… Dolly, your ear!"

"Yeah, I know, it's been irking me for a while now!" she scratched her ear even harder.

"Stop, Dolly! Stop!" Dylan grabbed her paw. "Stop scratching it!"

"Huh…?" Dolly got confused. "What's the matter?"

As he held it, Dylan showed Dolly her paw. Dolly's face froze when she saw that her paw was cover in blood.

"W-What?!" she shivered. "W-Where did this blood come from?!"

"Your ear." Dylan carefully pulled the ear in front of her face. Dolly saw two cuts on it from which blood was flowing out.

"When did this… When did this happen?!" Dolly got alarmed, but then suddenly remembered. "Was it when I pulled my ear back there?"

"Where?" Dylan asked, worried. "What did you do?"

"Well, I—" Dolly hung her head when she got cut off by a strong headache. "Ah!"

"Forget it. You'll tell me later. Let's get you out of hear." Dylan told her then grabbed her by the paw and began leading her out of the bush field.

"What about my helmet?! My skateboard?!" Dolly questioned.

"I'll have the Dimitris get them for you, right now you should be more concerned about yourself." stated Dylan.


"Oi, oi! What's happenin' here?!" D3 arrived along with his brothers.

"Why's everyone gathered here like this?" D1 walked up to Da Vinci.

"Dolly fell in there." Da Vinci pointed at the bushes. "But she hasn't come out in a while."

"That so?" D1 put on a serious look.

"Think something happened to her?" D2 asked D1, a little worried.

"We'll figure out, come on!" D1 waved to his brothers to follow him. "We're going in."

"Wait." Da Vinci stopped him. "Dylan already went in there. It shouldn't be long now, I'm sure they'll come out any mo—"

Dylan emerged at that moment, along with Dolly.

Everyone gasped in shock when they saw their sister's bleeding ear.

"B-B-Blood!" D2 shivered and backed away. "She's bleeding!"

"Oh, kibbles!" Dawkins ran up to her and examined her ear. "What happened in there? Those aren't any small cuts."

"I'm not sure…" Dylan replied then gave it a short taught. "Though, when I went in there, there were a lot of Yuccas… Dolly could have gotten her ear pierced by one of their leaves when she fell. I'm just glad she didn't get her eyes poked out by them."

Dylan then turned to his other brothers and sisters. "Alright, everyone we're going back home!"

All of the pups understood and got ready to go.

"Go lead them, Dawkins. I'll be helping Dolly." Dylan told his brother.

"Right!" Dawkins replied.

"Dimitri 1." Dylan looked at him. "I want you and your brothers to go find Dolly's skateboard and helmet."

"You got it, Dylan." D1 told him. He, D2 and D3 went in the field to search.

"Be careful in there!" Dylan yelled at them. "Watch out for shrubs with big, long, sharp leaves!"

"Oh, Dolly." Da Vinci looked at her sister, with a distressed expression.

"Don't ya worry, Da Vinci…" Dolly put her paw on her shoulder. "Your big sis ain't frail. A cut on the ear isn't that big of a—"

"Ahhh…!" Dolly groaned and rubbed her head as she felt the sharp pain hit her again.

"Did you hit your head?!" Da Vinci worried.

"It seems like it. Hope it's nothing serious." Dylan said, he gestured for Da Vinci to go on with the others as they headed back to their house.


As Dolly was holding her injured ear under the sink, in the bathroom, Dylan washed the blood away.

"How's your head?" He asked then took a cotton pad and applied peroxide on it. Think mum did it like this…

Dolly pated her head and smirked. "Better now. No biggie, really."

"Think mom and dad are gonna freak out over this?" Dolly jested.

"Mostly dad." he replied. "So tell me, what happened back there?"

Dolly put a paw on her chin, trying to recall the event. "Umm… When… I opened my eyes… My head was spinning and I couldn't feel a thing for a short while. As I got on my paws, at first I felt that my ear was caught onto something and I just… pulled. But thinking it now… My ear might've been pierced on to a… How did you call it?"

"A Yucca. So it's as I speculated." Dylan exhaled.

"Now hold still." he started wiping with the pad on the cuts.

"Ouch! Ouch!" she pulled away. "Be more careful, Dylan!"

"Stop whining and hold still." Dylan pulled her back to him. "This is on you, always acting with no thought."

"Hah?!" Dolly stared at her brother, baffled. "Is something wrong with your head?! There was no time to think, I had to act on the spot!"

"And look what that brought you." he waved her ear in front of her face.

"Fine, what would ya have done then, huh?!" she asked, annoyed.

"Think of something that wouldn't endanger me, obviously…" Retorted Dylan then began poking her on the head. "Instead of acting on impulse!"

"Again, Dylan, how could I? There was no time!" she threw her paws in the air. "Diesel would've gotten seriously hurt if he got hit by Delgado, especially with the speed he was going at. Both of them could have gotten injured in fact, broke a tooth, a bone, or Delgado could have been the one to sustain a head injury.

"And I'd much rather have it be me the one to get hurt rather than them!"

Dylan stood, agitated as he listened to his sister. "Argh! There's no reasoning with you! Yeah, Dolly, How very heroic of you, not caring about your safety."

"Well, what?! Would ya have left them just crash into each other?!"

"Of course not. But did it ever occur to you that you could've yelled at either of them to move out of the way, or told Diesel to get back in the hole? From what Delgado told me, you just shove him to the side, did you know that you also accidentally hit him on the shoulder? Noting to bad, but it still hurts him."

"What?!" Dolly eyed her brother. "I didn't mean to—"

"I know you didn't intend to, but do you see how doing things without thinking them over can affect not only yourself but others too?" asked Dylan with a solemn expression.

Dolly went silent, thinking to herself as Dylan continued wiping at her cuts.

"… Give me your paw." she told him.

"Why?" Dylan wondered.

"Just do it…"

Dylan rose his paw, Dolly took it and put it onto her chest. "Can ya feel them?"

Dylan felt the small scars underneath his sister's fur. "What about them?"

"True that most are from me falling on the ground when I started practicing with the skate at first or jumping over roofs, or fences…" Dolly admitted. "But some I got from putting myself in harm's way; just so that our family could be safe… You can understand me, right, Dylan?"

"… I know it was with good intention… Yet, if you keep doing reckless things like that, something very bad may happen to you sooner or later." Dylan moved his paw from her chest back to holding her ear. "I want you to give it a little thought at least before doing things like that."

Dolly huffed and laid her head on the sink. "… I'll go apologies to Delgado after this…"

"I don't think there's a need to, he knows you didn't do it on purpose." Dylan finished disinfecting Dolly's wounds. "Now where did I put the bandages?"

"Ahem!" Dawkins cleared his throat from behind Dylan, getting his attention. "There's no need for bandages, Dylan. She just needs some medical plaster."

Dawkins then tossed him a small box of adhesive bandage.

"Oh, thanks…" Dylan said. He opened the box, pulled out a bandage and went on to stick it onto Dolly's cuts.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Dolly backed away. "Yeah, how about no? I'm not walking around with that on my ear."

"Well, we could always just sew your ear back together." Dawkins offered.

Dolly started sweating when she heard her little brother say that and turned to Dylan. "Bandage, bandage! Give me the bandage!"

"It was merely a suggestion, Dolly. No need to overreact like that." Dawkins walked out of the bathroom.

Dylan stuck the bandage over one of her cuts then stuck another onto the second one. "There! That should take care of that."

"Thanks." Dolly smiled at him.

"No problem." Dylan replied.

Dolly then started scratching her ear with her hind leg, but right as she did, Dylan slapped it away. "No scratching."

"But it still irritates me." Dolly complained.

"Bear with it." Dylan smirked at her and proceeded to leave the room.

"Aw, dog!" Dolly exclaimed and exited as well.

Dylan walked to Da Vinci's room and knocked on her door. As the door opened, Da Vinci poked her head out, nose covered in red paint.

"Ah, your nose, Da Vinci." Dylan pointed at it.

"Oh…" Da Vinci crossed her eyes to look at her nose. "Never mind that, how's Dolly?"

"Fine. She will survive." Dylan joked.

"That's a relief. So, what is it you want?"

"Well… We were going to go check on Desmond, remember?" Dylan reminded her.

"Ah, yeah, yeah! Okay, just a second. I need to finish something first." Da Vinci told him and went back into her room, but then poked her head out again. "Actually, I'd like your opinion on this."

Dylan rose an eyebrow and walked into her room. Upon entering, he saw two canvases next to each other, with the same image portrayed onto both of them—Desmond looking over his shoulder with bandages wrapped around his back.

"Desmond asked me to give him a copy of the painting from when we first met." Da Vinci sat in front of the paintings.

"Yeah, I remember." Dylan sat next to her.

"I'm not sure if the second one is as good as the first one…" she looked at him. "Tell me what you think. The left one is the original."

Dylan took a close look at the right painting and examined it carefully for a while. "Seems fine to me. Sure, it's not one hundred percent like the original, but it took me quite a while to spot some minor differences."

"Alright then…" Da Vinci walked up to her desk to take out some cordage. "Mind if you carry it on your back?"

"Not at all." Dylan laid down as his sister tied the canvas to his back.

"Now we're good to go." Da Vinci smiled. The two walked out of the room and headed for the main door.

As they were about to exit, Dolly approached them from behind. "Where are ya two going?"

"Checking on Desmond." Dylan answered.

"Then I wanna come too." Dolly told them.

"I'd prefer that you stayed here and helped Dawkins with the pups while we're gone." Dylan said.

"Why? Dante can help him with them." Dolly pointed out.

Dylan and Da Vinci looked at each other and back to Dolly.

"Really…?" Dylan asked. "You want to leave Dawkins and Dante to take care of the pups?"

"Well…" Dolly scratched the back of her head. "Now that ya mention it…"

"Bye, Dolly." Dylan waved at her as he and Da Vinci exited the house.

"Hey, wait!" Dolly yelled to them as she stepped out the door. "Tell Des I said hi!"

"Will do." Dylan replied.

"Those plasters look good on you!" joked Da Vinci then giggled.

"Ya ain't being funny, sis!" Dolly frowned at her.

She then walked back into the house. As Dolly made her way towards the kitchen to start preparing lunch for her siblings, she noticed Dawkins in her way. "What?"

Dawkins lifted his paw, showing a needle with a thread on it.

"No!" Dolly exclaimed then spun him around and pushed him to the kitchen. "You're helping prepare lunch!"