My, What Long Ears You Have!

Nico had survived alone forever and was well prepared for strangers passing by.  Well, forever was a couple of days and prepared was jumping into the brush at the sound of anything larger than him coming about.  Unfortunately, at this age a whole lot of things were bigger than him.  The small coyote pup’s hackles were up, teeth shown in challenge but it didn’t amount to much as he did it all from the brush he was hiding in.

The boy had never seen a donkey before and when the animal called out to him Nico did nothing for a moment.  It looked like a prey animal of some sort so it wouldn’t be interested in him for food at least.  Hmm.  Finally, curiosity and some loneliness had the boy step forward from his hiding space.

He didn’t show his fangs to Nico but he did give the prey animal a wary glare.  “This is my tree,” meaning one shortly behind him though there were plenty that looked exactly the same.  “What do you want,” the question didn’t really sound finished so much as the black pup looked unsure, “what are you?  Some sort of fat deer or something?”