Meanwhile, back in Nome, Tavic and Desa have been living happily. Monae and Racu have grown older and each one of them has A dream. Monae's is to become A sled dog and Racu wants to try to be A mail dog.

Tavic was resting in the hut he and his family were living in until something came inside and did A sneak atack on him.

He groaned to see it was Racu, playfully biting his ear. "Come on,dad! Let's go outside." he said.

"Racu, can't you see i'm trying to sleep?"

"You can sleep when your dead! Now come on!"

"Alright,alright!"

Tavic couldn't blame his son for acting the way he is.After all, he gets from him. Racu jumped out the front window and started jumping from one side to the other of his father. "So do want to do? Wrestle? Play 'Capture the bone'?  Have A speed race? Ginrummy?"  "You don't play Ginrummy." Tavic said. "I know,but i'm just tossing out ideas." He said..

Tavic sighed. "Shouldn't you be practicing on achieving your dream?"

"I'm taking A break. I've had enough of training for one day."

"Apparently not."  Tavic said to himself.

"Well,I see your up." A voice said.

Tavic saw Desa and Monae as they walked up to them. "Desa, i'm glad your here! Can you please do something with Racu?"  "Tavic,you and Racu need to spend some father and son time together." she said.  "She's right,you know." Monae agreed.

Tavic groaned. "Why do I have to always get sucked into this?"

"Come on,dad! Please?"

Tavic looked at Racu as he gave him A puppy dog face.

"Racu,that's not going work!"

Racu started whimpering.

Tavic couldn't take it. "Alright!"

"Ha ha!" Racu cheered "Works every time!"

 

They both decided to go in the forest and test Racu's abilities in mailing.

"Okay. Before we start, let me explain what being A mail dog is about!"

"It's about having speed, coordination,embrace,and intuition." Racu said in A bored tone. "Come on,dad. I already know that stuff!"

"Okay,Mr. know-it-all,prove it! To test your speed," Tavic placed A small toy cat with A winder on it's back to the ground "Catch this cat within 5 minutes."

"Pfft! Piece of cake!" he said as he readied himself.

"On the count of three." Tavic said as he winded the cat.

"1!" Racu lowered himself to the ground.

"2!' Racu focused his eyes on the cat.

"And.....3!" The winder was let loose and cat sped off into the forest. Racu charged after it.

The cat zoomed from one side to the other at lightning speed while Racu tried to catch up. "Wow! That toy's fast!" He thought in his head. "How do humans make those things?"

The cat skidded threw A shallow pond with him chasing after it 3 seconds later.

He panted heavilly. "Too......fast!........Can't.......keep up." He fell to the ground and fainted from exhaustion.

 

About fifteen minutes later, Racu woke up to find his dad looking at him. "You overdid it."

"What do you mean?"

"You used up so much of your strength,you collapsed before you could finish."

"It's that stupid cat's fault! It was too fast!"

"Please! I could've caught it within 30 seconds!"

"Yeah,right! Let me see you try!"

Racu took the cat from him and winded it up as Tavic stood completely still.

"Aren't you going to get set?" Racu asked as soon as he noticed.

"Nope." He said with his eyes focused on the cat.

Racu shrugged. "You'll regret it later."

"Okay. On three! 1!" Tavic stood still.

"2!" Tavic remained still.

"And.....3!" Racu released the winder and gasped with amazement as Tavic trapped the cat before it entered the bushes.

"What the......what.......what........what just happened?! I blinked and you already caught it!"

"Comes from experience,son." Tavic said as he dropped the mouse at Racu's feet. "Now let's test your coordination."

Racu lowered his head to the ground. "No.......um......I don't want to train anymore."

"What? Why not?"

"I just don't, okay?"

"But Racu...."

"I SAID I DON'T WANT TO TRAIN!!!" He shouted as he ran passed him.

"Racu...." Tavic said in worry.

 

Later, as night came, everyone was in the hut,eating dinner,except for Racu, who still hadn't returned.

"Is Racu okay?" Monae asked.

"He's fine.He's just going through issues." Tavic said.

"Well,what happened?" Desa asked.

"I don't know. It was the strangest thing. We were testing his speed for when he becomes A mail dog and he collapsed from exhaustion after like 48 seconds. Afterwards, when he woke up,I told him that I could catch the mouse within 30 seconds and I did."

"And?"

"And then he suddenly shouted that he didn't want to train anymore and ran off."

Desa looked thoughtful for A moment. "I see what happened."

"What?"

"I think Racu is scared."

"Scared? Of what?" Monae asked.

"Scared of not being like his father."

Tavic looked confused. "I don't understand."

"Think about it,Tavic. Racu couldn't catch the mouse within 30 seconds,but you could. He probably felt like since he couldn't do it like you could,that means he wasn't good enough."

"But that isn't true. He can do it like me,but he needs to learn first."

"You know it and I know it,but I don't think he knows it."

Tavic was really lost. "How can he not know that he needs to learn in order to succeed?"

Desa sighed. "Racu looks up to you A lot,Tavic. Ever since he was A pup, he looked up to you. He probably thinks that since he's your son,he can do anything you can do without any work."

"Well,how come he didn't realize that he needs to learn to do things like this?"

"Because he's still maturing,Tavic."

Tavic grew silent at this. He had A sorrowful expression on his face. "I'm....gonna go talk to him." he said as he stood up and left.

"Mom,how come dad and Racu don't understand this like you do?" Monae asked.

"It's A woman thing,Monae. Men just don't have what we have." They both laughed at that.

 

Meanwhile,Tavic found Racu on the beach near Nome,laying on his stomach with his eyes closed.

He walked over to him. "Racu?"

He opened his eyes and then shutted then again as he saw him.

"Racu,I know why your upset and........I want to say i'm sorry."

Racu opened his right eye.

"I shouldn't have done that to you. I didn't realize that you looked up to me so much,that you'd feel like things like that would come naturally instead of you having to learn."

Racu opened his other eye.

"Racu,you've got to learn that life is not always going to be easy. You have to work hard to achieve your goals and you can't just expect things to go your way." Tavic turned lowered his head. "But I guess that's my fault for not teaching you this earlier."

Racu stood up and nuzzled his father. "No,dad. It's my fault. I was arrogant and I always blamed everyone or everything for my own failures.Well.....that's not going to happen anymore! Your looking at A new and improved Racu!"

That made Tavic smile. Racu smiled back. They both nuzzled each other.

"I love you,dad."

"I love you too,son."

 

 

 

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