Finders Keepers

It had been kind of the older male to include him in the trip and Sunder was looking forward to getting his paws on the same kind of light fabric Ashmedai wore. It was early in the year but Sunder had already gotten his first sunburn and he loathed the idea of getting another. Back home he would have bought and used a skin protectant made of beeswax and oils, but the mainland canines, having no need for such a thing, had no idea what he was talking about when he asked after it. He'd resorted to doing what the poor folk did when they couldn't afford the sunscreen's price; Sunder had taken up rolling in pale mud. It worked, sure, but the coating was itchy and fragile, and flaked off with the slightest of movements.

Water ran from him in rivulets as he stepped out of the surf and made his way up the beach after Ashmedai. The water had washed all of the dried mud off the lower parts of his body leaving just his lower back, shoulders and head ashen. The rest of him was shiny black save for the scars on his legs which were a pale gray.

Sunder stopped beside Ashmedai as he gave instructions to the group. He then watched as the brown youth took off for the ruins but didn't move to follow or to blaze his own trail. Instead he investigated with his eyes. The ruins reminded him a great deal of his own island, but the rundown buildings of home had been picked clean and "remodeled" long before he'd been born. He had no idea where humans kept their things. After eying all of the buildings he turned to Ashmedai and asked, "Ya find da shirt where?"