New Places, New Faces

Now Kichi was certainly happy with the idea of being able to scare someone however he wasn’t even attempting to scare Bowen so what was her problem?  It was true enough Kichi had rather limited experience with other wolves and thus just expected them to have similar logic to what he was used to.  The jackal was ignored as in Kichi’s mind it was no threat.  Either he could take it on and win or Al would tear it into more pieces than Kichi could count.  Elk were intimidating but jackals were weaklings.

Kichi heard Al walking up behind him but missed his expression since the stormcloud-colored boy was puzzling over Bowen.  Thus it was Al was easily able to scoop him away as Kichi looked up at Al in some confusion at this.  He guessed Al made sense in the part of introducing himself first, that much could make sense.  Apologize though?  The words got Kichi’s ears flat in annoyance.  Not saying his name seemed a thing that didn’t need an apology.  This pup was beneath them anyway, right?  It shouldn’t matter what he did with that being the case.  “Why do I have to be nicer to her for being a girl?”  He had to be nicer to mom because she was mom, not due to her being a girl.  With a sigh of irritation, he looked back at Bowen as if it was all her fault, “I’m Kichi.”  The boy was very tempted to say something snarky with his apology but with a glance back at Al he imagined the time for debating the need to apologize was after this.  “I’m sorry,” even if he had no reason to be, and the belief was evident in his tone.  

What he liked? He looked at this timid little girl and wondered suddenly about other puppies.  Were most of them cowards or was it just her?  That pink pup he’d met hadn’t acted cowardly at all.  She was also pink and Kichi still thought it looked kind of weird.  “I like fighting, and exploring, and upsetting mom’s bear.  What are you so scared of?  Why don’t you want to fight.”  Kichi labeled none of this as rude in his own mind.  She was weird for not wanting to fight and they seemed reasonable questions.  It’s not like he called her out on being a coward.  

Ok.  Maybe he could be a bit nicer but Al had made Kichi apologize and his pride felt it.  Kichi let out a huff, wagged his tail in a false-friendly half-hearted attempt.  “What do you like doing?”

Speech