Along the borderline

Nico loved being the center of attention, he always had.  He’d never been shy to make an opinion, never fearful about taking risks nor worried that anything might find him silly.  Nico was young but felt he knew how the world worked or the important parts at least.  Besides, what he didn’t understand he’d figure out or Echo would tell him anything important.

The little coyote didn’t bother to correct Cal on the notion of Nico being almost a year old.  He was closer to being a year old than he was yesterday and a whole lot closer than Jack was.  So, sure, in a strained sort of way he was almost a year old.  For that matter, Nico felt like he did know a lot!  How many wolves knew that some prey animals kept pets?  How many knew how huge, truly huge, a cat could become?  Had any of these wolves ever ridden a donkey?  Nah, Nico was special.

He didn’t bother rattling off these amazing details though, he’d save them for another day.  Cal already was clearly impressed by what Nico had already told him.

What was with the act? Nico looked at Cal’s well-reheared puppyish act that was designed to win adults' sympathy for a pup's plight.  Nico was a pup too! It was one thing to use ‘the act’ on parents or adults but not on a kid your own age! Right? Or did Cal put Nico into the camp of older folk it should work on?  Nico grinned at the notion though didn’t bother to explain the reason.

“Hey, I said it looked awesome!  Honest, it does.” What more did Cal want?  Nico wanted to explore the ship, every impish child part of him did but there were limits to how much he could ignore his instincts telling him a thing was a bad idea.  Hopefully, Cal didn’t plan to try and urge him onto it.  There were probably dozens or hundreds of wolves all shoved onto it somehow.  More wolves than could be counted.

“So yeah, where’s the ‘net’?  I want you to show me how it works.” The subtle challenge was there; did Calico Jack know how to use his own net?


"Niko"