◦540 words.
It had never occurred to him even that wolves and these so-called mixed breeds could mate together, but Nala could only assume that this male was at least part coyote, albeit an absurdly large one. Otherwise, he would not be hanging around in the area completely destined for coyotes, obviously. Anselm’s look after her spoke was completely missed by the young boy, so wrapped up in all of his questions as he so happened to be at that point in time. It was not likely he would have noticed it in any other situation, though, unfortunately. Nala had a knack for missing important parts of body language, tones, and facial expressions, but he never really seemed the worse for wear. He was scrawny, but not tattered and beaten and scarred, which was surprising, considering how many times he pissed people off. Oh well.
“No way!” he shouted excitedly, bouncing up from his sitting position to stare at Anselm incredulously. “You mean that there really are those?” he asked in awe, obviously referring to the ones who could walk on two legs. The rest of the explanation went in one ear, out of the next as he was not completely capable of processing such complex information. The idea that canines could actually change between two forms was already an awful lot to process, and adding in a third form in the middle was more than he was, unfortunately, capable of handling. “That’s so cool! I didn’t believe it when I heard it, but I guess I should’ve, because it’s true!” He was very excited over something so common for most in the area, but he could not help it. This was all very new to him.
Wrinkling his nose in confusion, Nala spent a few moments considering the explanation, tossing it around in his mind awkwardly. Anselm had used some words he did not understand, but he could gather that this other pack’s leader attacked their leader, and that really wasn’t cool. “Is your leader okay?” he questioned, finally deciding that would be a good question to ask. It was possible that the Inferni leader was still okay, but Nala did not understand the concept of war and he did not see why there needed to be fighting. Regardless, though, if the other ones had done it first, then the coyotes really should retaliate. It would be silly not to do so, just incase those wolves decided to try again.
It seemed very unsafe to be wandering around alone, and he suddenly wished he had not come at all in the first place. So what if he wanted to learn about the two-legged canines? It certainly wouldn’t be worth losing his life over! Unless, of course, he could find somewhere to be safe, with his own (relatively speaking, since he could not shift) kind. “Could I stay here? Maybe I can help! I never really learned how to fight, but I can run really fast! I can!” He did not really know what else he could do to help and stay safe, but maybe his small stature and speed could be used for some crazy, strange, unknown to him war tactic. Anything was possible, obviously, or there wouldn’t be two-legged canines!