March on Soldier

Skoll Haskel · 02-19-2012, 02:01 PM

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When the cobra runs for her life, she goes like a whip-lash flicked across a horse's neck.

Word Count - 412 :: Had to jump in, bwahaha.

The adventurous puppy had found a new kind of adventure in reading the books the man from the festival gave him, and all the Court could breathe a sigh of relief now that the prince was often curled up listening to stories rather than running underpaw. He was beginning to learn how to sound out some of the letters and words, but more often than not he’d simply dump his book in an adult’s lap and beg them to read a story.

The chronicles of Mowgli and his wolf brothers was his favorite, but he had taken a break from those jungle tales to hear the story of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. He liked to pretend that he was the brave mongoose, sometimes, often leaping at the pieces of rope hidden away in some of the houses, pouncing at shadows, pretending that his green eyes could glow red. Luckily, there were no real live cobras in Cour des Miracles, as the cub might have chanced battling them as well.

Skoll broke out into a run now, leaping over the melting piles of snow, the sunlight bringing out the yellows in his creamy fur. Spring was coming, coming sooner every day, and he couldn’t wait for the first flowers to bloom and the days to grow long and warm. This first winter made him kind of miserable, and he didn’t enjoy it as much as his siblings did. He just hoped that these warm days were leading up to something, rather than just a little break in the freezing cold weather.

A happy howl came from the boy, whose growing gangly legs were eating up the earth at a steady tempo. Like Darzee, the silly tailorbird, he broke out into a childish song:

“Who has delivered us, who?

Tell me his nest and his name.
Rikki, the valiant, the true,

Tikki, with eyeballs of flame,
Rikk-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with eyeballs of
flame!”

His voice was too young to hold any true sweetness or talent, and it was more of a battle shout than anything—one that was interrupted before he could go into the next verse by the sight of his mother and a very muddy sister. He skidded to a halt and stared at the complaining Charlotte, her pretty pelt all covered with melted snow and mud. Green eyes flickered to his amused mother, her own fur stained, and he cackled loudly as he realized that Ayita had been the one to get Lottie messy.

“Is there room for me?” Skoll yelled, mocking his perplexed sibling gently before he galloped forward, executing a magnificent jump and landing right in the middle of the puddle.

Rikki-tikki knew that he must catch her, or all the trouble would begin again.

table by raze; image from wikipedia commons

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