Word Count » 814
Janos allowed his cold eyes to glance back at the female, letting her cold and terrible eyes wash over him like it was nothing and perhaps it was nothing to him. He had seen eyes like that before, those terrible eyes peering out of the darkness of the hull of a ship or from the laughing gaze of his task masters as he was put to work or put under the lash. No, those eyes no longer held the power, the fear that it may for others but it didn’t mean that he wouldn’t show the pup some respect, her eyes just wouldn’t be able to be the things to intimidate her. He was giving her calm neutrality that he often picked up when around those that he didn’t know and more than once he found himself wishing that he could be there with his master. Bastion would smooth this whole thing over but that was just not the way that it went. He would have to be the one in control of his future and of the current situation. And so far he felt that he was doing a good job of things. She hadn’t attacked him nor shown any signs of much outward aggression other than verbal aggression but all young wolves did that, tried their best to speak out in the hopes of making themselves seem bigger than they were. But so it went that eventually people evened out, or well most people did anyway.
He had no right to rein her in, no right to say anything to her so it was all that the wraith of Salsola could do to simply put up with whatever she had to say to him. Suddenly the puppy started approaching him and he was hit with a sudden case of fight or flight syndrome. He didn’t much care for people approaching him unless it was his master. Not even the pack leaders were people that he wanted to so brazenly come up to him but he still didn’t retaliate and even forced his body to stay still despite wanting to tense up in the off chance that he would have to make a run for it. Females were well known for being faster than males were but he hoped that such a thing wouldn’t have to be tested out between the two of them. The pup didn’t stop at a respectable distance either. Rather, she continued to approach him, even leaning close enough so that she could sniff at his clothing. The sniffing was fine but it took all that he had to not reach out and smack her in the head in an attempt to get her away from him. Taking a slow, deep breath to calm himself, his tail gave a little twitch, the only other sign that he was getting agitated. His face still remained perfectly neutral.
The question was something that he supposed that given her age he should have expected but he hadn’t even thought that she would show her age this quickly. But then again, to someone who didn’t wear clothing it was probably quite the normal thing to wonder. ”You learn to move with them. At first you won’t be as fast as if you were naked but it provides protection from the elements,” he said, reaching down a hand to pull out one side of his jacket before letting it fall back against his scarred hide. He had pulled out the side of the jacket opposite the side where he had his mark at, the jacket making no sound as it hit against his body once more. He shifted just a little bit to look down at the pup, tilting his head briefly as if considering something before he righted his head once again. ”Have you never been in the least bit interested in clothing like this?” He asked the girl, wondering if she would rather be more of a naturalist, someone who would never put on such things as he was wearing. But he didn’t think it was a bad thing for everyone to try out at least once, wearing clothing. Sure, it wasn’t always the most comfortable and it hindered with transforming most of the time but since he stayed in this form so much, it became second nature for him to finish off looking at least mostly well rounded. Other than that there was no real reason for any of them to wear clothing. They were fully clothed everyday as it was in their thick coats that covered them as well as any type of clothing that he could think or that he had seen before. He continued to eye her warily as if he wasn’t quite sure if he could fully trust her but until she did something that he deemed stupid, she was in the clear for violence from him.
