Nihil Timeo! I Fear Nothing!

The residual adrenaline burns through my veins and I feel as if I am crawling out of my skin. There had been a few times in my relatively short life that I had felt like this and I always felt a moment of innate fear followed by glorious euphoria. Now I understood what my father had talked about all those times. I had been a rather sheltered pup in the beginning but only because I wanted to be. I had worried and fretted and maybe part of me still did those things but I had also grown. My time spent among the nomad packs had kept me spry and taught me a few things. They had hailed me and trained me and loved me as one of their own but I would never leave Molodian for eternity. My family was here and family was the root that kept all together; without them I would never sprout.

The girl thanks me and I grin at her, that wild grin that meant I was ready to take on more if I had to. Why not? We had bested a cougar with minimal damage and we weren't even fully grown yet! My dad would be elated, I think, even if my mother would be less inclined to congratulate me. I could just imagine what my grandpa would say - father always did mutter how Azrael hated his scar. Not that I wanted to get scarred, mind you! My tail waved back and forth between my legs in response to her own.

"A hero stands ready to show his skill at any moment," I blurt out with a cocky expression, although it fades quickly into clear amusement and a chuckle so the girl would know I was jesting. "Do you guys have problems with cougars alot?" I followed at her side swiftly, not needing to be asked twice. My nose drifted from side to side, capturing the myriad scents and storing them. The pack was active and large, a clear deterrent to other creatures, but that one had been starving. "You must've been born here," I add as I glance at her for she seemed surefooted against the sloping foothills, a permanent staple to the countryside.