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KingDoge
Gilda, the -
Gilda.
Gilda…
What is there to say about her? She’s a little spitfire, that’s for sure. Spitplague? I wake up to her chewing on my fans, I patrol the perimeter of our land and she’s snapping at my heels, I stop to sit back for even a moment and she’s chewing on my tail…
"She’s just looking for a playmate," Deesha gives me her opinion during times when I’ve pried myself away from the little golden terror. "Mephit is too big for her now, and Elysia is too small and light to wrestle with."
"Are you
sure that’s all?” I snort, skeptical. “You’re certain it’s not just her way of vying for the position of clan leader?”
Deesha laughs, and I enjoy hearing the mirth in her tone. “She would have quite a time, wrestling that title from you. You do not lead us through power; you have built your station out of respect and your initiative. No, I am
certain she is just looking for a playmate.”
"Well why not pick on Cray?" My tail sweeps over the ground in annoyance, and Deesha gives an amused snort.
"You’re more her size than Cray is. Besides, yours is the first face she saw when her eyes opened. Yours is the respect she wishes to earn."
"Pouncing me awake and chewing on my head does not strike me as the most reasonable way to do so," I state sourly. I’m not as upset as my tone might imply, but I’m not too thrilled, either. Deesha gives a nod.
"I’m sure she’s simply attempting to show off the skills she feels you respect best. In this case, ferocity and strength." My guardian’s great green head looks out over our crater as we sit above it, and she looks but does not see our little family, staring past them at all the expanse beyond. "We are small, and struggling to survive. Plague has a natural inclination for times like this, so her actions make sense to me." She turns, and her amber eyes gaze down at me. I can nearly see my own reflection in them and I am, for a moment, awed by her visage. "How did
you go about impressing your clan leader?”
I have to look away so that my mind has a moment to think. “We were all builders and craftsmen,” I admit. “Each one of us undertakes a special project that we dedicate ourselves to wholly, whether it’s a piece of armor, or a special weapon, or something for the clan as a whole, or even just a trinket. We study and practice and prepare and seek out the best materials possible to use for this project and when it is done we present it to our clan leader. His acceptance of us was earned when he was sufficiently impressed with or work. If not, then it was back to the grindstone.” I turn to look at her, confessing but not ashamed, “I had not yet begun my project before the attack. I was still just a scrapper - a gatherer for the clan. I wasn’t even certain what my project would be, so…” I gave a half-hearted shrug and looked down to our crater below once more. “I suppose I never did earn his respect, by that standard.”
Deesha gave a nod and followed my gaze. We were both silent for a moment before I heard her speak once more. “I am sure he would have given you his respect now. After all, what you are crafting here is the greatest of all projects.”
I was stunned into silence. Deesha’s massive form stood from her resting position beside me, and she turned and lumbered back to her cave. I was too caught up in her unexpected compliment to make any sort of acknowledgement, so all I could do was sit and stare quietly down into the crater as I watched the goings-on of my little clan. Pride filled me and my chest puffed out a bit as I took in a breath and then stood and headed quickly down the side of our caldera, returning to the faces and familiars who looked to me as their leader, who respected me and depended on my guidance. This, my greatest project, crafted from the forges of our struggles and tempered by our will to endure, and I had only just begun. There was still so much more to do, so many more details to refine and edges to polish. One day at a time, as the saying goes…
As I reached the bottom of our crater, I was immediately barreled over by a blur of goldenrod, and snarling filled my ears as fangs and claws dug with playful abandon into my hide.
Gilda…
What is there to say.
