Exchanges

[Claudius Aston]

WC: 447

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[/html]Ulilohi was quick to offer him a smile, so Claudius tried his best to politely allow her to enter his den. As she stepped in, he stuck his head around the animal skin door searching for a leather loop. It was just a crude strip of leather that he wrapped around the skin to hold it back, but it served its purpose. Ulilohi apologized for waking him, but he didn’t mind. He was about to mention that, but he found the piece of leather and suddenly, he was no longer able to talk. He pulled his head around the animal skin and tried to say that it wasn’t a problem, but it came out as a garbled mess. He laughed awkwardly to himself and tried to finish this one task before talking. He brought the leather strip over to a part of the cave wall and then used his left paw to push a stone on top to hold it down. Once that was done, he turned to Ulilohi to properly address her.

He shook his head and smiled, since he sensed that she had more to say. She was quick to speak and Claudius was glad; he was not very good at small talk.

His eyes widened when she explained her reason for being there. She needed his help? For what? That seemed unlikely. He held back a snort and instead nodded eagerly, curious why she had come to him.

When she explained that she was not a part of the tribe, he frowned. Of course she was; she was more a part then they were. The members were a motley group of canines and only two of them – Anatole and himself – had been raised (partially) in AniWaya. But when Ulilohi explained further, he understood. She was not a part of this tribe. The Great Tribe was very different and he knew that he had some controversial opinions about it. But now he understood her reasoning.

Of course, if he was understanding this correctly, then that meant she was asking much more of him than he would have. She was asking him to lead.

“I—” he began. He was about to ask, ‘why me?’ but he knew the answer to that. He had led the tribe before, even as a puppet. He frowned as he considered the decision. He wanted to ask her more questions, but he knew the answers to all of them. He didn’t know what to say.

“I do-o-o-on’t kno-o-w wha-t-t… to say,” he replied slowly, “ho-o-onestly. I a-a-am no-o-t a wa-arrior… I ca-a-annot… prote-e-ct thi-i-s tri-i-ibe… and I cou-ould not… against… Maska. Why-y… no… I don’t want to – let any-o-o-one down-n…” [html]

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