Skeletal Hill eating hooks

“No, of course not,” Dread nearly snarled, not liking the tone the boy was using on his elder but Dread caught himself. The boy was still young and was his 'king'.

Yet his heart leapt somewhat when the boy went crashing into the bones, thinking the boy would start to cry and thus bring in his parents or whoever was meant to be looking after him. But the boy simply laid there, somewhat dazed before pushing himself up with little fuss. That’s good, it meant he was tough and didn’t need mothering, like some pups he had known.

“And what a magnificent crown for a fantastic king!” Dread crowed, grinning at the boy and his newly acquired ‘crown’ as Dread slowly moved towards him, eyes locked on the small mousy figure in the eye socket. the mouse as it realised what Dread was doing and scurried out of the skull, dropping to Mako’s paws and running a few steps before Dread snatched it up with a few quick steps of his own and a snapping of his jaws.

Once the little mouse hung limply in his mouth, Dread dropped it at Mako’s feet, the mouse bouncing slightly in the leaves before going completely still. “And would you look at that, the monster has been caught.” Dread laughed dryly as he stepped away, settling down onrto his haunches. “Might just be a mouse but these little creatures can be quite the annoyance my king, eating from food caches and such.”

Fiery eyes lingered on the little mouse’s body for a few moments before they flicked up toward meet Mako’s eyes through the eye sockets of the moose’s skull. “Perhaps we can take it back to your family’s caches, my king? They might like this gift, no matter how small.” It would serve a double purpose for Dread, returning the pup home and it would possibly make him look good in the eyes of the boy’s parents. And thus might allow him to join the pack, if they were the leaders. Because for all his previous worry that if the boy cried and brought forth a carer, the boy surely was alone.

And every loner knew that a pack was beneficial to survive the winter. But he certainly wouldn't say that out loud, to either Mako or anyone.

Mako grinned haughtily as the older wolf complimented his crown, eating up the praise as if he'd truly earned such a grand title as king. He couldn't even fathom what such a name meant, only knowing that it was something that bestowed a great deal of power with it.

In a blink of an eye the little mouse made a break for it. In the commotion his crown clattered to the ground, leaving Mako somewhat shocked though he managed to keep his composure. The stupid little mouse had been hiding on his head the whole time! Fortunately the stranger dispatched the errant rodent, dropping it at his paws. Mako looked down at the little limp mouse, his nose twitching as he considered the older male's advice. They'd worked hard for this little morsel, why in the world would he give it up? He hummed, flipping the tiny black lump over with a grey paw. "Nah." He decided, reaching down and picking up the mouse, chomping it down in two bites.

He'd grown bored of this game, and without so much as another word the boy simply turned around and started to walk home.