Airis sat in her room, staring at the charm of her mother's staff and wondering when she should use it. After all, she hasn't had very much practice with her mother's staff, and it can't stay as a charm forever if she was going to be a full-fledged Mage one day.

"Perhaps you should ask Lucinda for help." The voice said, "She is a magic user as well."

"I know she is, but Auntie Lucinda is a witch, not a Mage. This kind of magic is something that no one understands, no one outside the Aine family anyway."

"Yes, I understand that, but Lucinda could at least help you learn to harness your magic through the staff. After all, there is only so much I can do until the time comes for it to happen."

Airis sighed, knowing that the voice was right, but could she really talk to Lucinda about this sort of thing? A Mage to a witch? People weren't even supposed to know that Mages were real, much less one being a seven-year-old girl walking around Starlight Wonderland with a powerful staff in her grasp.

Just then, Aphmau opened the door to her room, stealing Airis' attention from her thoughts.

"Airis, have you seen Aaron?" Aphmau said.

"Papa? Nope, I haven't seen him." 

"Well, would you like to help me look for him? There's something I wanted to talk to the both of you about."

"Okay!" Airis hopped off her bed and took Aphmau's hand before running off to find Aaron. As they searched, they bumped into Kim, although from the look in her eyes, it would better to say that they ran into Ghost/Kim.

"Have you seen Zane?" Ghost/Kim asked in a rush.

"No." The two answered.

"Ugh! Neither of you are any help! Fine, I'll find him myself." Ghost/Kim ran off in a huff and the two continued looking for Aaron.

They wandered down the hall of the ship when they heard Derek and Rachel talking. Aphmau pulled Airis into a corner near the room and began listening.

"What?!" Derek shouted angrily.

"It's exactly as I said. They were discriminated against, and even Airis was there to witness it." Rachel answered.

"Hold up! Here? In Starlight? I think you heard wrong."

Rachel sighed, "No, you didn't hear me wrong. Aaron, Airis and the pack were going to a restaurant in the park. When Aaron asked to be seated, they were denied due to the fact that they were werewolves."

Aphmau's eyes widened, "They what?" She whispered and looked down at her daughter. Airis' attention met her feet, which gave Aphmau the answer she needed. 

"That's just.... disgusting!" Derek exclaimed.

"You don't have to tell me twice."

"I'm going to get in contact with the park and make sure that this issue is addressed. If they do that to werewolves, then that won't stop them from doing it to others."

"I understand, and I am fully supportive."

"Was that Aaron's first time dealing with something of... that nature? What about Airis?"

"Hmm, I'm not so sure." Rachel answered, "Aaron did have issues in high school being singled-out for how he looked, especially from all the cuts and bruises he got from fights."

"Hmm, he would bring it up if it bothered him. What about Airis then?"

"I'm not so sure about her any more than I'm sure about Aaron. But, from what I heard from Aaron, it seemed like she was physically and mentally hurt because of the fact that she's a werewolf."

"What do you mean?"

"Aaron was hesitant to talk about it before, but he said that she was terrified when they found out that she was a werewolf. Airis told him that people hurt her because of her ears and tail. And when they were at the restaurant, she gave the manager a lecture on his disgusting discriminatory behavior against them. From what I can tell, she's just as disgusted by this behavior as we are."

"I see. I suppose we'll just leave it at that for now. I'm sure hearing about a report being filed would help the both of them."

"Agreed."

Aphmau was stunned by this news, both her boyfriend and daughter were treated as outcasts and not allowed to do something just because they were different.

The two of them went back to Aphmau and Aaron's bedroom, where Airis sat on the couch and watched as her mother paced around the room.

"Airis, is what they said true?" She asked, "Did that really happen to you, Aaron and the pack?"

Airis was hesitant for a moment, but then nodded to answer her mother.

"It's true." She said.

"Then why didn't you tell me about this? I would've listened and tried to help."

"Papa and I didn't want to stress you out. This is supposed to be a fun vacation! And besides, this is just how it is for werewolves."

"But it's still not okay. Werewolves are people, too, just with fluffier ears and a tail. I just don't understand it..." Aphmau said, thinking back to the other day when Aaron hid his ears and tail.

"Is that why he hid his ears and tail the other day?" She then thought back to all the werewolf remarks and jokes she made since starting the vacation, "And I haven't even tried to begin to understand the two of you."

Aphmau went to her bookshelf and pulled out a book about werewolves.

"I need to learn." She muttered. Suddenly, a hand tugged her own. Aphmau looked down and saw Airis smiling at her sweetly.

"I can help you learn about werewolves, Mama. If you want." Airis offered, to which Aphmau happily agreed.

The two spent the next couple of hours talking about werewolves, from their physiology, to even their smallest little ticks and habits. Aphmau was sucking in all the information she could from her daughter, and Airis was giving her as much information as she could remember from learning from her biological parents.

Airis remembered a lot about the werewolf body and how her father explained a lot of the reasons why werewolves acted the way they did. However, some of her memories of the lessons he gave her were beginning to become fuzzy. As if they were fading away, and Airis knew that.

Memories tended to fade away or just disappear completely as one grows older, and Airis only spent a few precious years with her biological parents. It was just a way of life, seeing as the memories would eventually fade away to the point where she would hardly be able to remember her parents' faces. But for now, while she had those memories, she would help her current parents to get through this confusing time.

"...and that's why their fur stands up while angry or frightened." Airis finished explaining.

"Oh, I get it now." Aphmau said.

All of a sudden, the door opened and Aaron walked in, ears and tail showing.

"Aaron?"

"Papa!" 

"Hey, Babe, Airis. I, uh, wanted to talk to you two about something."

"Huh? Oh, sure." Aphmau said.

Aaron took a deep breath in, "I think I'm gonna go back to the resort. Just for a little bit."

"Why?" Aphmau asked.

"I need a break right now, just to collect my thoughts." Aaron answered, "To be honest, having everyone around has just been so much lately. I need a breather from it."

"Hm. I get it, Papa." Airis smiled at him.

"I understand." Aphmau added.

"I won't be gone for long. Just a day or two. I'm gonna go tell my parents about what's going on."

And with that, Aaron left to tell his parents that he was leaving. But Airis and Aphmau weren't completely excited about Aaron being on his own. Aphmau wanted to be there for Aaron, since they were apart for so long and she wanted to better understand the complete picture that was Aaron. And Airis wanted to be there for her father to help with the curse, since his eyes were still in a fragile state. With her experience with the curse, she could be of at least some help.

"Mama..." She called out and grabbed Aphmau's hand, "Let's go with Papa."

"What? But Aaron said--"

"I know what Papa said, but I also know that you wanna be there for him just as much as I do. Come on. He needs us. Being along won't make it any easier on him."

Aphmau sighed, "You're right. Then we should hurry before he takes off."

Airis nodded and the two ran off the to dock to catch Aaron before he left. Luckily, they caught him just as the boat was preparing to leave.

"Aaron!"

"Papa wait!" The two girls shouted rushing down the stairs to catch Aaron. Aaron turned around and saw them stop in front of him.

"Aaron..." Aphmau said panting for breath, "There's.. something... I need to say to you. I'm sorry, for being an ignorant stupid-head!"

"What?" Aaron questioned.

"I overhead about what happened to you and the pack at the park, and Airis helped fill in the rest of the blanks. And it made me realize a few things. One: I've been treating you like every other werewolf I've met. And even though I had no ill-intent, I was no better. I didn't treat you like you, and for that I'm sorry. I haven't admitted this, but I have been having a hard time getting used to the new you. I'm afraid... I don't know what you like. And I'm afraid that things have changed more than I realized. That's why I'm defaulting, and I shouldn't be doing that. I'm sorry."

Aaron stared at Aphmau with sad eyes. He didn't know that she was feeling this way, he barely even considered how she was taking the overall change to himself being a werewolf and an Ultima all in one. And what about his daughter? How was she feeling about this change? True, she's an Ultima just like him, but how was she taking this overall change? He looked down at Airis, who had stayed silent the entire time Aphmau was talking, and he couldn't read her face.

She was smiling, but her eyes... he couldn't read a definite emotion from them. Was she happy? Sad? Hopeful? Confused? He couldn't understand.

"Two: I realized that you are experiencing things for the first time. All my life I've known you.. I've known you as Aaron. Not Aaron the human. Not Aaron the werewolf. Not Aaron the Utlima. Just... Aaron. I'm sorry, I forgot that. I probably won't ever understand what you're going through. But I want to make myself open to you."

Airis walked over to Aaron and looked up at him, "It's gonna be hard for all of us, Papa. There's a lot that we need to learn, but it will be better if we learn with each other. Werewolves are scary to a lot of people, and Ultimas are even more terrifying, but what's more terrifying than that is going through something so difficult and confusing all alone without any support. It was the same for me when my parents died and I was all alone. I thought I was going to go mad. I don't want that to happen to you. We'll understand if you don't want us to, but we really want to come with you back to the resort. If you don't--"

Aaron shushed her as he picked her up in his arms, "Aph, Airis. Thank you, the both of you. One, I really needed to hear that from someone close to me. It's hard for me to accept what's going on, but I needed to hear that."

Aphmau and Airis smiled, their cheeks turning as red as the soft sunset behind Aaron.

"Two, I would never say no to you two going with me. I wanted to know that you two were coming with me for the right reasons. And after all that you two said, I know that you had good intent. This is an experience for me, and I won't be able to guide you the right way, but Aph, I can let you know what makes me comfortable and uncomfortable."

"I'll be here and work with you." Aphmau said.

"And don't worry Papa, I can help you, too. There's a lot that I can teach you about what we have."

Aaron chuckled, "All right then, let's get going."

"Oh wait, our bags! We couldn't--" Aphmau stopped short of her words when Aaron moved away and revealed her purple luggage and Airis' blue suitcase.

"Hey! So that's where they went."

"Again, I really wanted to the two of you by my side. I'm glad that you realized this on your own."

Aphmau laughed and the three boarded the mini boat to head back to the resort, ready to help each other understand and heal.