A small yawn escaped the young male as he rolled over in his place, eyes closed as he still wanted to sleep a bit more. His mind had other plans though, and so after a few minutes of simply lying there Jak forced himself up. Golden eyes surveyed the immediate area around him - the nursery, where he and his two sisters had been kept since being separated from their mother. There was talk of "owners" and stuff of that nature, but the young pup could hardly piece together the puzzling conversation the two-leggers, as his mother called him, had. There was no one really around, or at least no one that was awake. It was probably on the earlier side of the morning considering the amount of light that was filtering through the window curtains. The gray-brown little mokai got on his feet, shaking his fur out and stretching a bit to wake his still sleepy muscles.
He sat around the nursery for a while, waiting for the other pups to stir awake and having short bits of conversation with them when they finally did. Jak kept mostly to hismelf though, as he was hungry and a bit moody from the grumbling in his small tummy. Breakfast came soon enough, and with a gentle pat on his head, a two-legger left him a bowl of food. It was the usual nasty goop-stuff that barely passed the picky mokai's tastebud test, but he was hungry enough to let it slide and he ate until he stomach protested that he'd ingested too much for his own good. Satisfied, the male sauntered off and enjoyed the day with those in his company. They played, wrestled, laughed - they were pups.
Soon enough more two-leggers filtered into the building, most unfamiliar and strange and curiously looking down at him and his friends in the nursery. Some had big eyes, others had narrow ones with a sly glint in them that Jak picked up on and shivered when he did. Others were loud, others picked up the pups, some simply reached down to pet them. A particular two-legger, a smaller one than most that he encountered, reached down and ran a hand through his fur. Jak rellished the feeling and leaned into her hand, tail wagging. The two-legger giggled, but withdrew her hand. The pup looked up at her with friendly eyes, taking a seat though his tail still beat the ground in a lively, playful manner. Some of these two-leggers weren't so bad, he thought.
The small two-legger then went away, and he spent the day wandering about and staring at the new and strange faces that went in and out of the nursery. It wasn't an overly busy place, so sometimes he would just lie around and wait for someone to walk in. That is, if he wasn't distracted by the other pups wanting to play. At one point he took note of another small two-legger that came in. She was with a bigger one, most likely her dad, and she had an eager look about her. Excited, young, eager, determined even. He liked it, and was immediately drawn to her. Despite that, however, he stayed put and simply kept an eye out for if or when she passed by again.
Soon enough she did; she reached down to pet the pup nearest to her, picking it up of its feet and doing a sort of impromptu inspection. The small two-legger looked up at her father, they exchanged words, and she gave the pup a small hug before setting it back down. She did the same with a few of the other pups, but Jak simply watched from where he lay. In all honesty, he was tired and didn't want to walk over to her; he was curious though, to see if she would make it all the way to him. When they were close enough, his ears flicked in their direction to see if he could catch a few words from their conversation.
"Just pick one from one of ours back home," the big one said, sighing as the smaller one continued on with her search.
"No," came a quick and short reply. "I want my first to be different."
"You know there's no way to tell if it'll grow to be a fighter, right?" he said, his hands going into his pockets.
Oh, so she wants a fighter, huh? A part of Jak hoped he would grow to be a fighter like both of his parents, but there was no way to tell now. He had a good chance though, or at least he felt he did. Smiling slightly, the two-leggers drew closer.
"What are you looking for anyway?" the big one spoke up again after she set down yet another pup.
"A connection."
Connection? Jak quirked a curious brow as she went on to the next pup. What in the heck did she mean by that? Slowly, but surely, she made her way over to the gray-brown pup. The conversation between her and the big two-legger had basically died down; it mostly comprised of him trying to convince her to pick one from home and her refusing. Honestly, it kinds of amused him how stubborn she was being about it; he liked that.
When she finally got to him she picked him up like all the others and looked him over. Jak squirmed a little bit, uncomfortable in the position she was holding him in. She frowned and tried to get him to quit so she could inspect him carefully, but he wouldn't have any of it. His legs were dangling, for one, and she was squeezing him and it kind of hurt. Irately, he squiggled and squirmed until she finally dropped him none too gently.
"Let me guess, not that one?" the big one asked, a small smile on his face. Jak shook out his fur and stared up at the small two-legger with a sort of "don't do that again" look. She simply stared back, almost equally as curious as he had been just moments earlier before she picked him up.
"Not sure..." she said, a thoughtful look now on her face. When she made a motion to pick him up again he stood in a defensive position; thankfully she didn't, but simply leaned in close to get a good look at his face. Jak took a seat and met her gaze, neither here nor there about her now. She was kind of weird, honestly, and he kept that in mind as she watched him closely.
It was maybe a minute or so later that she stood up and he walked off, not really caring about it anymore. Any interest he had for her was gone by then, and he would simply be contented with being fed his lunch and taking a short, pleasant nap. Seeing and observing all the strange faces had gotten him rather tired, considering he was still so young, so after lying down to rest he kept watch on the door to see if someone would be coming in with lunch soon.
While he watched he caught the gaze of the small two-legger again from the corner of his eye, and she was smiling brightly in his general direction. Odd, but she was just that so he didn't attribute it to anything else. She left, and lunch came.
Word Count: 1,213
