◦520 words.
The skulls were really starting to wig him out, but Nala did not quite understand what their meaning was. Really, they were just gross, even if they did seem pretty clean for something that came out of someone’s head—oh, gross! Obviously, he was not happy to see these decorations, if you will, and he was curious to know what their purpose was. They looked like canine skulls, but probably too big to belong to coyotes. He had never seen a human or a human skull or anything related to the humans, really; his family had been a normal coyote family, living in a den in the ground in an area further south than here. Nala had only seen a wolf once, and it had been much larger than him, so perhaps these were wolf skulls on the strange pikes. Even with this vague idea of recognition, though, Nala had no idea why the coyotes might want to surround their land with wolf skulls on sticks. It seemed most unpleasant.
At the sound of another’s approach, Nala yipped excitedly again, grinning widely as he quickly forgot about the skulls on the border. His eyes widened in surprise at the sheer size of the coyote—he was massive! He was not walking on two legs, but he most certainly was larger than any coyote than he had ever seen, especially himself. “How come you’re so big?” he asked in complete awe and surprise, still staring at the clan member. Maybe this was what everyone had been talking about when they had been speaking of the two-legged canines. He supposed it was possible that they might mistake something so large for something that was able to walk on two legs, as Nala was still very skeptical of the idea that there were canines that really could do that. It seemed highly unlikely, because really, what creatures could walk on two legs? As far as he knew, the only ones he could think of were birds, but they also had wings to fly with and stuff.
“What is. . . war?” he asked, crinkling his nose in confusion. Everything that the clan member had said was too much for him to comprehend, other than the fact that he looked pleased. Despite the skulls and the other’s massive, towering size, it was true. Nala was very happy and excited! “Well, never mind that. I was told that there are coyotes that can walk on two legs and that there was a whole clan of them here! I wanted to see what it was all about,” he added, as that was obviously all that he would need to say. It was pure curiosity that had pulled him in the direction of Inferni, and he was curious to know everything that the massive male could tell him. “Oh, I’m Nala!” he added excitedly, staring at the coyote expectantly for answers to everything he had said. He was certain he could find something to do here, once he figured out what was going on with the whole. . . Two-legged canine thing. Such a strange concept, that.