Mount Apikuni cat and mouse in partnership

Despite the upheaval in his life, Thade had never quite lost his tendency towards introspection. He knew better now than to present his personal thoughts to strangers, but Wintersbane was not someone unknown to him, and better still, he was an adult who seemed willing to tell him things. Not like Mother, who had been just as prone to berate him for questioning her as she was to give an actual answer.
 
Conditioning made the boy hesitate to ask anything, but indomitability always seemed to make him want to anyway. In the end of things, he decided to trust the hooded rescuer with his inner thoughts. What makes it diff’rent? Thade inquired — unintentionally asking the very thing Wintersbane secretly dreaded — and he’d be surprised at anything other than a confident response.
 
He kept uncomfortably close to the male, often bumping into him, as they went. Despite this, he listened on raptly, taking in the information with an eager look on his haggard face. At the end, he asked: What’re droppings? Repeating the word precisely enough for a keen wolf to pick up on the fact that his current manner of speaking was a product of his education (or lack thereof) and had little or nothing to do with his level of intelligence. Just a sharp mind trapped in an untaught body.