Shochu listened, gaze fixed on Kotori as he explained he’d be near the water. Just like Shochu knew better than to jump in, the rabbit would too. His gaze flicked to the ground as the older wolf kept talking. Hmm… focus on what the rabbit might want to avoid so it doesn’t get hurt. Probably the same things his papa and Outou-san wanted him to avoid? So if he chased the rabbit toward the water, closer to where Kotori was, the rabbit would have to go away from the water and run toward the older wolf? Right? He frowned, looking back up at Kotori. Simple instructions, but still a bit much for him to comprehend all at once. The basic gist he got was that water was bad for him and the rabbit, and that he needed to chase it closer to Kotori so he could grab it.
Kotori also mentioned that he shouldn’t be the one to try and grab it cause it’d be bad if he missed. He guessed that made sense… he wasn’t really sure how to grab it anyway yet. It would have to be different from grabbing his siblings during play but… how? Not important right now. He just needed to chase it. He waited a moment, gaze moved back to the rabbit as Kotori moved into his position. His tail flicked back and forth in thought. Okay… he looked over at Kotori, given the nod to go ahead. Alright, one rabbit chase coming up!
With a wiggle and a burst of speed as he kicked off the ground, Shochu raced headlong at the rabbit with a series of barks. Barks that came too early and alerted the smaller creature of the puppy coming toward it. In a second the smaller creature was off, bouncing first toward Kotori as it ran. Shochu’s pawsteps hit the earth behind it as it ran, determination in his blue eyes as he kept behind it. So far so good… until it wasn’t.
He was so focused on the rabbit that he wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings. The rabbit missed a large stone, the pup did not. He hit and tumbled head over heels over the thing in a wild display of flailing limbs and a yelp. He hit the earth with a loud oof, looking up to see that the rabbit had changed directions and was racing away from Kotori now. Disappointment filled him as he sat up, blue gaze following the thing until it darted back into its hole.
