Word Count :: 335 I'm so sorry for the wait... and the fact that this is, like, my worst post ever. xDD
After his most recent escapade involving the sea, Skoll had been confined in his house. It might have frustrated him, but he was too sniffly and sick to really care—and guilty, too. Fighting bobcats was one thing, but nearly drowning was another, and it had scared the child and scared his caretakers and made him realize that maybe he wasn’t invincible like he thought. It was a lot for the four-month-old to think about, but he had all the time in the world to think, cooped up in a room all day with a runny nose and a shivering body.
Presently the creamy puppy felt well enough to walk around the Victorian-style house. He walked down the steps—one at a time, rather than flying down them like usual—and was about to see if his mother was anywhere inside when he heard a weird noise coming from one of the hallways. Whipping around, tail wagging, he ran toward the sound in hopes of tackling one of his siblings or asking his mother for some food.
The sight that greeted him instead was that of an agouti stranger, narrow-framed and big-eared, padding down the hallway from the other direction. The child skidded to a halt for a second, green eyes widening.
Had this been someone outside, he would have bounded up to them without hesitation and started badgering them with excited questions: who are you, are you new, how do you do, have you ever eaten a frog? However, while he knew that everyone in the pack grounds was safe and nice, the Haskel-Catori residence was its own little haven for the family. And this male was intruding, popping up in a place where Skoll didn’t expect him to be.
Protective instincts flared up in him, and the prince puffed his golden fur, letting up a cry. The snot-nosed cub flew at the intruder, hoping to give one of his sturdy legs a bite, wanting to chase him away and away from his family.
Image courtesy of ilovememphis@Flickr; coding by the Mentors!
<style>.skoll1 { background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/2BMJL.png); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position: top center; background-color:#d8cc97; width:100%; max-width:600px; min-width:500px; margin:0px auto; text-align: left; padding:320px 0px 10px 0px; color:#616d6a; font-family:georgia, serif; font-size:12px; line-height:18px; border:1px solid #FFFFFF; outline:1px solid #000000;}
.skoll1 b {font-family:georgia, serif; font-size:12px; color:#fffbe0; text-shadow:#000000 2px 1px 2px;}
.skoll1 p { text-indent:30px; padding:5px 15px; margin:0px; }
.skoll1 p.ooc { font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:11px; }
p.template-credit {text-indent:0px; text-align:center; font-size:10px; font-style:italic; width:425px; text-align:center; margin:0px auto;}
</style>
[/html]