The past few weeks had been eventful, to say the very least. As a pup he dreamed about growing up to be as awesome as his mother, and as cool as his father; to have their traits and walk around with sharp fangs - or even saber teeth - and an intimidating horn or two. Little did he know that he was just simply... asking for it.
Now, really. A pup doesn't think about the process of getting to be as awesome-looking as some of the mokai out in the world, a pup just wants them. And not because it'll help them in their trade or respective field, no; simply because it looks cool and they think it'd be neat to have them. Take Jak, for example. The now young adolescent had no idea that the annoying process of growing the horns, and scales, and teeth existed, let alone how it would be as painful or as much of a hassle as it was. Of course he didn't; no pup really knows it unless they either ask or just experience it first-hand. He simply expected to wake up and voila! Awesome traits.
But sadly, no. Things were just definitely not that simple - especially growing up.
It started out slow. Small stubs on his head where his horns now were; his fangs were getting a bit on the bigger side; and he felt his shoulders were getting a little on the itchy side. His body was also growing. It started getting a bit hotter, and he suddenly realized that his fur was getting on the thicker side. His tail was also a little fluffier, and the fur on his head started to grow out too. It was really cool at first, even though when he looked at his reflection in puddles and other reflective bodies of water he looked kinda - no, really - funny. He was strutting his stuff though, knowing that he was finally starting to get old enough for his traits to show.
The horns eventually got a little bigger, and there were three instead of just two. They itched like crazy, and were really sensitive at first. He couldn't really ram into things, which he learned the hard way when he bumped into the wall just for fun and had a splitting headache the rest of the day, not to mention his horns were throbbing and sore too. The scales on his shoulders started to spread and the itchiness just drove him insane. He'd rub himself on the walls, on the floor, against the trees - anything that he thought would help. It got so bad that Andi had to keep a blanket strapped and covering that area so he didn't go and accidentally injure himself. There wasn't really anything she could give to help him though, so instead he got a few extra treats, which was a small bonus. And the new size of his fangs kind of gave him a slight speech impediment, so he had some serious trouble talking for a while.
The cull in the house even started poking fun at him, right along with the other mokai he got to see and hang out with every day. The poor boy hid inside Andi's room during the worst of it, and all he did for almost a week was eat, sleep, and jog around the room to keep himself from gaining too much weight. Oh, and try and scratch his crazy-itchy shoulders. Andi tried her best to keep him under control, but since he was growing he'd also gotten to be a lot stronger and it proved to be more of a task than she initially thought. Her dad eventually came in and wrestled Jak down; thankfully he also applied a kind of lotion that temporarily soothed the itchiness, so he slept like a baby while he was in that room. It wasn't much longer until things started looking up for the young mokai.
Finally though, after the miserable weeks that officially started his adolescence, he was perfectly... kind of alright. The horns finally stopped - or slowed - growing and hardened up a bit, getting rid of the sensitivity and allowing him to ram and impale things to his delight; he sort of got used to the still-growing saber teeth, though they seemed to stop growing for now as well, and his speech impediment became a minor lisp that he's hoping will go away the more he got used to them; and his scales, while still itchy, had basically finished growing - maybe just for now as well, but that was enough of a relief - and they weren't as itchy anymore. They were still pretty itchy though.
Staring at himself in the small puddle that had pooled by the street corner, the adolescent smiled down at his reflection. He didn't look like a pup or an awkwardly-growing adolescent anymore. The fur on top of his head was neatly cut, as was the rest of his fur; his tri-horn looked awesome (by his standards, anyway); his saber teeth were kind of small, and he still had a lisp when he talked, but they looked equally as cool; and the scales looked kind of weird but they kind of glimmered in the sunlight, so they weren't so bad either. Golden eyes stared back at an almost unfamiliar, smiling face, and he gave a small nod.
To top that off, earlier that morning Andi told him that, after her father assessed him just a few days earlier, he determined that he was of the fighter sub-type. All that was left now was to train and make himself the best that he, and Andi, knew he could be. He couldn't wait for them to start training. Of course, it wouldn't be easy; he knew that much. His mom was a great fighter but she still trains a lot, as did his father. He was sure that all other fighters were the same, so naturally the process would be the same for him. To be the best, you definitely had to work for it, but he knew he was ready.
It was what he wanted. It was what Andi wanted. And between the two of them, plus with the help and experience of her father, he knew he definitely had the means to be among the best.
Ever since he was a pup he knew - this was exactly what he was hoping for.
Word Count: 1,070
