519 words.
####Still, the King did not answer his question, only continuing in his own way. In such a short time span, Vigilante had come to realize that getting a direct answer from Jacquez was very likely difficult to do, and probably not likely to happen at all. He had initially asked the collie mix why he had been called to the cliff, the death scene of a former leader and then member, but had only gotten a question in response. Now that he had asked why he was being asked such things, he had only been told of the current status of the leadership of the pack. It was not as if he was not capable of making a guess—and one that he assumed could be considered an educated guess—as to why he was being asked and told these things, but he did not like to make assumptions, generally. It was not in his nature to do so, as so many wrong assumptions could be made about literally anything, and his former business had to be run completely on facts. He could not assume anything, and he could not take anyone’s word for anything or something could very well go drastically wrong and innocent blood could be shed. It had never been a risk he was willing to take, so he did not do so still, even if the outcome would not be nearly as disastrous.
####It did not seem likely that the pack was in immediate danger, as he was sure that he would have heard of this before now, but he also did not know what the standing was with any of the other packs in the area. Vigilante was aware of past problems with Dahlia de Mai, but as far as he knew, nothing had happened as of late that should be worrisome for the King when it came to the way that other packs saw them. “I suppose that would be a very logical step for you to take next, if you are worried about the way our pack is presented to the others,” he mused, considering the direction this was going. It did not seem likely that Jacquez would have called him here to ask for suggestions about who he should ask to step up, because it was not as if the two dogs had any sort of relationship. They had barely ever conversed, and yet, Jacquez was discussing this with him. “Where is this going, in regards to myself?” he asked carefully, selecting the words carefully. He did not want to offend his King, but he was not one to dance around subjects if he could easily avoid it. Where his King liked fancy words and pretty tongues, he preferred things to be very straight forward, as he had never been one for much small talk. Of course, what sort of small talk could he possibly have been involved in? He had been a separate entity from his old pack entirely, operating on his own and only keeping in contact with his sister and her children and the Elders, when forced to.