Merilin laughed with glee, glad that the coyote was now situated so that their eyes were at a much closer level. Again, the russet coyote was glad; she sometimes felt too lazy to lift her head up to get a good look at someone’s face. “Halo,” she repeated, pleased that she now knew her name. “Now we are friends.” To the young coyote knowing one’s name always made them her friend. This was regardless of whether the other agreed with her judgment or not. It was difficult to get her to dislike you; she practically liked everything. The young coyote moved toward the sitting Halo and set her brow on Halo’s shoulder fur. Ffft. The sound of fur crushing fur. Her ears were sticking out on either side. She remained in that position for several moments before withdrawing and sitting down as well. She gave Halo an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry. I did not know. I was just trying to play,” she said sadly. She hadn’t meant to be mean. Halo had not said the word ‘mean’, but to Merilin, ‘not nice’ was pretty much the same thing as mean. How could she have done such a cruel thing? The look on the russet coyote’s face was one that looked as if all her skin and flesh was dripping off of her face. Such a sad and comical expression. “I’ll try not to be so mean next time,” she promised, the expression on the young coyote immediately changing to a more cheerful one. “I didn’t mean it, though, really I didn’t.” She stared blankly at Halo now, thinking for once. She wondered why Halo had come out in the first place. She knew why she had come out; she had come out to play. Playing was fun. She wanted to have an adventure so she had been planning to explore the territory. This was just as fun though, meeting someone else.
“Why did you come out today? Did you want to play, too?” All of her questions were so innocent. She was so innocent. Perhaps with a couple more days immersed in the environment of other coyotes, she would become less baby-like. That was the hope, anyway; it was impossible to know what would happen. Only the sun knew, but he wouldn’t tell. He just stared down knowingly. Merilin looked up at the sun, yellow playing with the blue of her eyes. She closed them and looked at Halo. Too bright. Now a dark spot was blocking her vision. Merilin shook her head, trying to rid herself of it. It never worked; she never learned.
“If you are playing, maybe we can play together. I was just going on an adventure. I’d never seen a forest until earlier today when Kaena showed me, but I was planning to go there. It’s so weird.” She laughed, her little white teeth showing. She paused, one of her other questions remembered. “Are you a luperci, too? I’m not. I’d never heard of one until I came here. Are there many of them here?” She continued to bombard the poor Halo with questions. She just knew too little. She had been quite isolated when she had lived with her mother. Now, pushed into an entirely different world, she was just so curious about everything. It was like learning how to grow up all over again… although she still had not finished that journey yet.