Word Count - 351 :: Rushed post, but here ya go. <3
After his various escapades and their disastrous results, Skoll had grown more content with remaining within the pack boundaries and simply listening to the tales of adventurers from the mouth of any patient pack adult. Though definitely a child of action, a youth always scrambling to and fro, the sun prince was also easily enraptured by simple stories. He loved stories almost as much as he loved acting them, and he had been absolutely delighted when the cowboy at the festival had traded him two books for only a promise!
The only problem, however, is that the blonde puppy had trouble finding someone who would sit down with him long enough to read the books. The members of the Court were often busy with the winter months, many of them still recovering from the trauma of the war, so he’d only been able to get snatches of pages at a time before they had to go.
Even now, the puppy ran with the worn book in his mouth, his pale paws slapping carelessly on the ground, kicking up snow wherever he went. He’d just gotten to the part where Baloo and Bagheera had spoken for the man-cub Mowgli, and he was dying to know what would happen next. The only problem was that there was no one around at the time to read for him, and he didn’t know how to read for himself. He’d flop the book on the ground and move the pages with a paw or his nose, staring at the pictures, but the meaning of the little symbols lined neatly across the pages escaped him.
It bothered the boy that he could not read just as much as it bothered him he could not yet shift. But, whereas trying really really hard wouldn’t help him change shape—as he’d been reminded—he did wonder if reading would be easier. Running onto the porch of the hotel, he plopped the book down on the wood, nosed it open gently, and with his paws tucked under his white chest scanned the pages again to try to decipher their meaning.
table by raze; image from wikipedia commons
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