400 words; Sometimes I fear the child will spontaneously combust.
An onslaught of sounds drew the boy’s head up from his paws, and his rosy ears twitched as he turned his head wildly from side to side. Someone was coming this way! He hopped onto all fours, a conflict brewing within. The only outsider he met was the AniWayan lady, and that had been with his mother. Should he go find a grownup to let them know someone was coming? Was a prince supposed to let others take care of business?
He didn’t quite know what a prince would do, but he knew that Daddy would meet this stranger confidently, his big doggish head held high. And so Skoll turned with his golden tail curled over his back, paws splayed as he stood before Court lands with nose chin comically upward.
Of course, any semblance of dignity he carried vanished when he actually saw who was coming. It was a funny-looking young lady—and she had so much stuff with her! All kinds of knickknacks hung from her, contributing to much of the noise she was making. His bottom jaw dropped then met the upper again in a broad, childish grin of excitement.
“Heyyyy! Who’re you, lady?! Whatcha got, whatcha got?” Skoll scampered toward her, slipping on the wet leaves hidden underneath the snow, but he didn’t manage to completely lose his balance and fall down like usual. Tail wagging, he proceeded to dance around the strange lady—though he couldn’t quite put his paw on why she was so strange, exactly. It wasn’t because she was an outsider, this time, though her scent made his tail wriggle even faster behind him. Despite her being oh so new and interesting and possessor of tons of fun stuff, though, there was something else—
His eyes grew large, and he plopped down in front of her; if she hadn’t already stopped at the sight of him, she would have to now or risk tripping over the cub. “Are you a ghost?” Skoll gasped. She didn’t look quite as silly as wispy Caspa did—at least in her body shape. She looked wolfish enough if with odd frazzled dark hair, but maybe her weirdness was because she was a spirit!
The boy blinked then, realizing that he must be acting rude somehow—though he couldn’t quite pinpoint what to do to remedy the situation. Instead, he supplied a safe, “Please and thank you.”
Image courtesy of blmiers@Flickr; table by the Mentors!
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