I wish I had a job to quit

Light steps approached, and while the dark furred boy did flick an ear backwards, he was inclined to dismiss the sounds of movement as an animal wandering past. Whole lot of weird creatures underground, after all. The piebald ram butted his head against the wolf's haunch, demanding his attention. Once the milk-sweet scent of the youngster wafted into his nostrils, the lanky yearling swung his delicate crown about with a jerky motion to better turn his senses upon the child. Young enough to still smell like mother's milk and a warm den, but old enough to be wandering about unsupervised? What was this, another one of his dad's kids?

Then the youthful voice piped up with a hesitant hello. Wispy banner waved lightly behind him, and he tipped his chin up so he could try and match the pitch of the boy's voice. "Uh, hello?" he repeated, wearing a cheeky grin as he dropped his chin again and snickered to himself. "What's a little kid doing underground? Explorin'?" he quipped in the lilting, singsong croon that had become a feature of his already bizarre demeanour.

""