A Gentleman's Duel

The boy had erupted from his mother’s den like a bolt of red lightning. Why? No real reason. He just enjoyed being out and about, as all pups would after even a partial understanding of what they were missing out on. New things, new colors. New sights and sounds? Please. Who could resist that? Even after his accident Redrum had grown bolder and bolder, a testament to the resiliency of children. So, as the boy was so much larger than his siblings, romped about the grasslands – he was curious about anything new there was to see.

Just as the crimson coated boy was loping about the grasses, headed toward the river where he had met the little girl called Elara Klein, did a playful bark break the silence between his own inner musings and the quiet sound of the river water rushing over rocks. Red was still for a moment to two, before his face split into a grin and he was off. His oversized puppy paws covering the ground like a bolt of lightning before he found the source of the call. A boy, smaller, of black and white, with golden markings adorning his face and two mismatched eyes. One pink eye, one blue stared back at him as he approached, his crimson striped figure prowled into the arena, a mischievous smile on the vermillion boy’s face as he sized up the younger boy. He did not know this younger pup. So he said as much. “Red does-nt know- y-you yet. Name, have you?” Red struggled to string together his words, the twitching motion of his body as he enunciated each word obvious, though he hoped it would not be.