We All Grow Together

Chapter Seven - Time For Some Change

Zuma left and went to the garage.

"Hey Wydew? You in hewe?" Zuma asks.

Rocky looked up as he heard Zuma come in and immediately felt concerned when he saw how upset Zuma looked.

"Wydew you hewe?" Zuma asks again.

"I'm here Zuma, what do you need?" Ryder asked as he turned off the equipment he was using and came over to him.

"It...it...its Chase." Zuma says.

"Chase? What's the problem?" Ryder asked.

"Well he thinks that he has to be all gwown up all the time and that he's gotta be the wesponsible pup. He thinks that the weason why he is second in command is because you need help with taking cawe of us all and that he is the only one who can do it. He won't do anything fow himself, and he won't let anyone help him. I mean we all can help each othew, and we don't need to make him the big pup that takes care of evewyone else but himself. He needs help, but he won't allow it. You need to talk to him." Zuma says with tears rolling down his face.

"Is Zummy ok?" Lincoln asks Rocky after seeing how disturbed the pup seemed.

"Yeah he's okay Lincoln, don't worry. Everything's alright." Rocky assured him.

Ryder however felt uncomfortable after hearing Zuma say this.

"Well...actually Zuma...he's right...see, when our family started to get bigger, I...I realized that I couldn't do it all myself. It got overwhelming for me, so I...I pushed Chase hard to have a larger amount of responsibility for you all, because he'd proven himself to be a good leader who can stay cool under pressure. I was just so afraid of failing you all as a caretaker, that I put a large amount on Chase and cracked down on him real hard, and I thought he was handling it real well...but it looks like I was wrong...I guess I was so caught up on trying to ease the pressure on myself, that I didn't realize I was putting it all on someone else...my own pup for that matter..." Ryder confessed in shame while blushing.

"Yes but that took away his childhood. And it has pushed him to think that he's the only one who can help people, and that he can't be helped. And now that we are all older we can help each other, and Chase doesn't have to be you. Heck we could assign one younger pup to one older pup and then we are all sharing the responsibility of taking care of a younger pup. It doesn't have to be all him. He is going to end up burying himself alive at a young life because he did everything for someone else, and nothing for himself." Zuma says.

Ryder groaned and face-palmed. "Ah no...that's exactly what I ingrained in him...to focus only on what others need and keeping them safe and happy...I have been turning him into me, and I've been so blind that I couldn't see it til now...and if it keeps going on, he's gonna get hurt real bad...remember that time a while ago when I got really sick?...It came from working so hard..." Ryder explained.

"Yeah. Which is why you need to go talk to him and tell him to take a week off, to let his body reset. He's working too hard and he is going to drive himself into the ground. I am not going stand by and do nothing while my friend kills himself from work. If you wont do anything about it I will." Zuma says as he leaves the garage.

The three were left stunned at the fierce words that came from Zuma, the one who was usually so laid back and chill about everything.

"Wow...that was unexpected..." Rocky finally said quietly after a period of silence.

"Whats going on?" Lincoln asks as he looks up at the two older ones in the room.

"It's...complicated...I'll explain it to you when you're a little older." Rocky told him.