The rock that the female had been holding clunked against another on the ground, and Hemming felt a little sheepish for surprising her. She seemed game, though, and the gray male could only be pleased that he didn't cause her to run away. He hadn't made anyone do that in his short time in AniWaya, but it was sure to happen someday as he continued to grow bolder and bolder. The fact that his acquaintance replied in a good imitation of the Victorian language that he had utilized made him practically giddy.
Grinning, he took a few more steps forward, giving a little bow. "I am but a humble page. But I dream..." he reached out to the side and grasped a greyed, dead stick that was still attached to a tree close by as if he was shaking its hand, and in one swift motion he pulled it off and held it up to the sky with a flourish, sticking out his chest and tilting his chin upwards, "To be king!" Of course this was complete fantasy; Hemming wanted nothing to do with any sort of important leadership position at all. Though the other's tale could certainly be true, he wouldn't assume so. He took it for granted that the other wouldn't completely believe him either.
Hemming had practically never played a game such as this with anyone before. As a pup, he had been rather isolated from anyone else his age, and the adults didn't seem to think that such folly was at all productive. In the past few years, while he lived alone, he had ran through a few plays by himself, but it never made the blood pump the way this encounter did. Having missed the opportunity to interact this way as a youngster, he would spend his adulthood filling that hole. Who said make-believe was just for kids? |