The girl sat and looked at him with what he concluded was wonder and felt a small lift in his pride, just knowing that he knew something she didn’t. “Well, my dad has a raven companion too, but that’s not his familiar. His familiar is a cobra! And she’s so fast she can kill anyone in an instant!” He declared proudly. “But he says I’m too young to have a familiar…” He said, trailing off momentarily to look at the girl’s raven. Maybe he would let him have a companion if he told his father that all the Abaven pups had companions, which of course wasn’t true, but his father didn’t need to know that.
He sat and thought for a moment, reaching back mentally to remember what he could about his father’s explanation, or at least something he could passably make up on the spot. “A familiar’s special; they’re like a best friend or a littermate, but not a wolf.” He explained. “My dad says him and his cobra know each other so well they finish each other’s sentences!” He exclaimed enthusiastically. Which wasn’t exactly a lie; his father had trailed off once or twice while speaking only to have his cobra interject with a request for food. “Most of all a familiar won’t let anything happen to you, and you won’t let anything happen to them. It’s like losing an arm or something.” The sooty pup added.
