Out into the bright big world (Qanik pups)

Three little words were all it took to release the boy upon the world. Immediately Shtiya was bustling passed his mom to get a good look at what lay behind the den mouth. He stopped just beyond the entrance to the only place he'd ever known. His mouth fell open, mismatched eyes widening and darting from thing to thing in an attempt to gaze upon everything. It was so big, so gloriously, endless and wild and open. It blew his tiny world apart and with it, the limitations of his mind. Shtyia was so wholly speechless that all he could do was lift boulder-sized eyes to his mother face while his mouth remained open in a very good impersonation of a fly trap.

He wanted to sample everything; to taste and touch and investigate until his heart gave out. The boy wanted to run and shout, to climb on all the things and poke his face into as many holes as he could find. His young mind was assaulted with question after question; with each new thing that his gaze settled upon, a new query was added to the list. He was so torn over what to do next that all he was capable of was awed staring.