03-05-2010, 05:55 PM
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Private. (418.)
It was high-sun time. Mama wasn't here. Sometimes she was, sometimes she wasn't—she kept good care of him, and he did not wander off. She was usually not gone for too long; sometimes she would take him with her if she was going somewhere for a while. No, she had told him to wait here for a little while. She would be back. King knew that he could leave. In all likelihood she would not punish him; he could get away with most anything. But he stayed here today. He decided to be nice but in the end it was still his decision. He liked having the power to decide what to do.
He was still bored, of course. You could only look into the forest for so long before you thought you knew everything about it. He knew where the birds kept their nests, and which of those had babies to feed because he kept seeing the birds come to it again and again with food. He knew which trees were evergreen and which were not. He had been told that the barren were-not trees would be green like the evergreens soon, but he wasn't quite sure he believed it. It would be something, though. He could hear (and smell, he imagined) a small stream a distance away. He was a little thirsty, but not bad. The sun wasn't strong enough for it to be bad. It was warmer than the previous days, he thought, but it might be because it was clear. No rainy clouds today. He liked the rain, he liked how it sounded and how it smelled. He didn't as much like how it felt—cold.
King eventually amused himself by lying down near the den, a mid-sized rock between his large forepaws. He tried to grip at it, remembering how Mama could use her hands in her two-leg form to pick things up. He couldn't do that yet, pick things up or be in two-leg form. Soon, soon. It was always soon or later. He wanted it to be now, but sometimes he couldn't get what he wanted. He wished he could. After fumbling with the cool stone for a while, the pup began to chew on it unconsciously. His teeth still hurt, even though they were all in now—at least, he thought that was all of them. He hoped so. They hurt. He scanned the forests and grassy places around as he did so, alert for when Mama came home.