Some of the sadness is washed away by his kind words, I know he meant them as a comfort, but...I know better. I know my family and I know my mother left me here for reasons other than the fairty tale that Mortz explained. I simply let a sad smile cross my features at him as he spoke, a shadow in my dark eyes. I perk up at his next words, and wave my tail happily. "You really think so?" I inquired about him meeting me, was it really nice? Did he really think it was nice to meet me? And what if he did? Or was he just being nice? I could never really tell, but he seemed genuinely pleased to make my acquaintence, so I smile. It excited me that someone could be so nice. I have never known such kindness, my family always seemed to blow me off and push me to the back of their minds. As if I was plagued by some horrible sickness, mothers of my pack would pull their playful puppies away from me. They whispered in nasty tones about me, though I never could make out what they said.

I never understood why, I never asked. Eventually, you grow used to such treatment, stop trying so hard to reach out or to gain approval that will never come. You just, sort of, grow into being shunned within your own home. It isn't that I stopped wanting to be noticed, to have friends, to want my mother's approval. I just stopped trying for it all, there was no point. I never belonged with them, they never wanted me to. Sometimes, you just know when wolves hate you, sometimes you have no idea until it is too late. I've known I was different, and I can't understand why it was such a bad thing for me to be. Maybe here it won't be, this wolf seemed to be rather interested in at least being nice to me.

I smile again, my tail waving behind me as I stand, his offer of bunnies making my stomach growl. "I would love to chase bunnies! But, I haven't seen any here, do you know where some are?" My thin legs and runner's body suggest that I would be very good at running them down, but I am not so great with catching them. I can run them to death, I can exhaust them, but when it comes to making a killing blow, I am a bit unexperienced. Maybe he would be able to help with this, maybe he could teach me how to hunt the smaller prey. I am simply too fragile framed to seek after the larger animals like deer. My mother always told me I was too small to do any thing, much less be actually useful in a hunt setting. I wait, wondering, my smell giving off the sound of puppies laughing. This is a first and I am glad to think it was him to produce such a good sounding smell in me. I like the idea of friends, I have just never really been great at making them.

"Speech"