The young woman teased him, laughing, and his golden tail wagged behind him. He flashed another pearly grin then shrugged his shoulders, which were getting broader though he was still dwarfed by the adult males of the pack. “Next time,” he promised with all of the seriousness of a four-month-old, though he highly doubted there would be a “next time” for a long while yet. His caretakers would be watching him like a hawk after his little escapade, and life would be boring but safe for the next few weeks until he was at least large enough to take care of himself.
He turned back around once he decided she had gotten her fill of the claw-caused rifts through his pale fur, his bright green eyes meeting hers as he eagerly waited to see if she had bought his story. When she inferred details about the tiger, he glanced quickly back at his scarred rump and gave his head a little shake.
“No, not big big,” Skoll said hurriedly. He had learned that the really boasting and embellished details worked better for other kids, but usually the adults only stared sternly at him until he fessed up. “But it was really, really mean and scary,” he went on; that much was true of the tiger’s distant North American relative that had attacked him in the woods. It had been as bold and hungry as the puppy but with more experience and nastiness than a young’un could muster up.
Taking a seat and lifting his head, the little cocky smile that was slowly becoming his own crawling across his lips, he added, “You don’t gotta worry ’bout though, Terra. I gonna learn how to fight all the tigers and bears and everything!”
The prince tossed his head, imagining his place as the shining protector of all of the pack—but at least he was willing to do his best to make sure his family and friends were okay, even if most of his words were silly and boastful. He told childish fibs about a lot of things, but his desire to get strong enough to defend all of the Court was no lie.
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