[justify][shadow=#47253B,left]
I hadn't expected something as simple as bringing up his name's origin to change the mood, but for a moment it did just that. He seeed to sink into himself for a moment as his eyes cast themselves down toward his paws, and I wondered if I'd ruined his upbeat mood. "My dad. His name was Chemical -- Chemical Warfare. He was the leader here, until- until he, um... Well, a few days ago, he just disappeared. We looked for him, and apparently these... things called humans just took him away."
Ah, so that was the problem. I guess I could understand that. I mean, I personally knew that it was stupid to develop any real emotional attachments to anything in this false world, but to those who didn't have the same understanding as me, everything around them must have been extremely precious. It was almost sad that it was all built on fragile little lies.
Instead of focusing on the more philosphical side of things though, I shifted my attention to the name he'd given his father. Chemical Warfare. I had heard that name somewhere before, hadn't I? My mind brought to light the meeting I'd attended the other day. That Azik-whateverhisnamewas had said he would be taking control of the clan now that Chemical Warfare was gone. Well, at least that was one more piece of the puzzle solved.
"Humans are a real piece of work, I'll tell you that." I said with a slight snort, not sounding entirely amused.
To be honest I'd had little interaction with humans in my life-directly, that is. I'd seen their handiwork from afar though in my homeland, and it usually wasn't pretty. From the sounds of it Awol didn't know too much about them, only that they'd spirited away his father. Maybe that was for the best. I mean, it wasn't that I cared that it would upset Awol or anything, it was just easier for me. This guy was interesting, and that interest I held might be ruined if he became darkened by the knowledge of what humans usually did to captured animals.
To my rather plesant surprise he was shaking himself off a moment later though with a soft laugh that was no doubt meant to clear his mind, and I found my own lips pulling into a small smile of contentment. Good, my fun was done yet it seemed, and I listened in silence as he went on to speak of his promotion to Second Tier, whatever that was.
"Yeah. I got promoted the other day. 'S not much, but I don't wanna get demoted! I gotta start thinking of ideas else I'll get myself in trouble."
"Great." I said, rolling my eyes with playful sarcasm, "Your younger than me but technically my boss. I guess I should be trying to score as many points with you as possible, huh?" I asked, though I really didn't think I'd be going out of my way to impress him. I didn't go out od my way for anybody unless I got something from it, and maybe that was a selfish way to go about things, but I'd never said I wasn't a selfish guy.
"So you're clingy, huh?" he teased. "That's okay. I don't mind."
Well, that was good to know. Hastily I made a mental note to try his patiance one of these days with my 'clingyness'. We'll see how confident he was then. "I never said clingy. I prefer attentive." I replied, flashing the younger a toothy grin as we finally made our way tot he nearest fresh kill pile. Glancing down at the various rodents, birds, and chunks of stuff I would deem 'mystery-meat' I cocked an ear in Awols direction to catch his next words.
"Not enough action? I'll believe that when I see you move, dog.
I couldn't help but pause in my choosing to cast a glance his way upon hearing this. Had he seriously just called me dog? "Yeah well, try not to be too blown away when you do." I replied, letting some of my arrogance slip through. I wasn't a fighitng god or anything, but I wasn't a useless bag of bones either. Back home in the north things hadn't been easy, and the sleek, muscular body and the scars on it that I donned weren't won from playing 'dog' to anyone. Bears, Caribou, Hunters, other Packs. Something was always out there trying to either take what you had, or deny you what you needed to survive, and you either toughened up and survived, or you withered away in the cold.
I gots to say, though, it sounds cool enough! The north sounds cold, though. Might get frostbite on my toes."
At this I couldn't help but let a real chuckle escape me as I turned back to selecting a prey item. The birds were looking good.. "A tenderfoot like you wouldn't last an hour where I'm from." I replied as i nosed a rabbit out of the way to reveal a baby hog. Bingo. "The cold alone would kill you in a heat-loving body like that." I informed him. In case he hadn't noticed, my own body was covered in remarkably thick fur with both an over and undercoat. The heat of this jungle desert was actually quite hard to adapt to, which was one of the reasons I chose to lounge around rather than work. "But I guess if i went with you I could keep you warm. Like your own personal heater." I said with a wink and a grin b efore turning back to the fresh kill pile.
Man, what was that rank smell? I tried to figure it out while he went on to tell me about himself, wondering vaguely if the smell would effect the taste fo the fresher kills.
"I dunno. I'm guessing I was born in this body, but I only woke up two weeks ago. I knew nothing. Dad said he was my dad, that I was Awol Warfare, and that was it. I dunno much about what happened, but I guess dad saved me, so it's okay. He made me wake up."
Well, that was interesting. So he had no memories of his life before two weeks ago, and had basically had no choice but to believe what he was told. That kind of sucked. From what I'd seen though he seemed to legitly care about this Chemical guy- his dad- so it couldn't be all that bad. At least he was happy- or, used to be happy. No, scratch that. He was still a pretty cheerful guy. I'd seen far worse in my travels.
""So... What do you want? Take your pick; I think I smell manticore. Eugh. Don't try it, it's yucky."
I wrinkled my nose at this. "Is that what that nasty smell is?" I asked, wondering why the hell they would even bother to catch something so unnapealing before snagging the baby hog for myself. Gesturing to a fairly secluded spot over by a small cluster of young trees, I padded off to settle beneath them in watever shade they offered, belly down int the grass to drop my food between my paws.
"If that manticore tastes as bad as it smells I pity whoever eats it."
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