OOC: I don't mind at all. Slade will get used to it.
Sorry for the little delay there; was eating supper.<.
Slade was surprised to hear that the puppy - Gunnar - was an orphan, but he didn't push the subject. He didn't really care about personal matters like why-on-earth-someone-would-want-to-have-puppies unless they directly concerned him, anyhow. He was somewhat confused at Gunnar's sudden 'mood swing' and wasn't used to hearing a puppy calling their parents 'Mother'. It was too formal coming from someone that young. Slade relaxed a bit; could it be that Gunnar was one of those rare puppies that actually had common sense? He had to admit that he might have been a bit - okay, very - naïve when he was younger, but that ship had sailed. Now he looked at Gunnar wish a sudden curiosity.
Remembering that Valinta had apologized, he turned his attention back to her. "All's fine with me so long as it doesn't happen again." He also recalled her saying something about 'whatever it is you're doing' and decided he might as well explain. "It just startled me. Was making up a story and all...." It was at this point that most storytellers offered to tell or explain their story. Slade, feeling the way he did about puppies and all, chose to stop his talk there. If Valinta or Gunnar were interested, they could ask him to explain, and even after that he would only do so if the hairball was on his best behavior.
It was partly because of the puppy, but there was another factor as to why Slade was reluctant to offer to tell his story: he had never really shared what went on in his imagination. The only one he had ever told his stories to in his lifetime was his mother, and even then she had smiled, nodded, told him he was a good storyteller but never really paid close attention to what he was saying. As he turned back to Gunnar, he wondered how he would feel telling his story to someone who might just listen.
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