Max boofed.

He ran - well, it couldn't really be called running, it was more like tripping and barely catching himself. But, oh boy was it fun!

The dog had no idea where he was going, but it was sure to be a lot of fun! Maybe there'd be food there! Or sticks! Or rocks! Or stick-rocks that could be eaten!

He began to drool as he ran, imagining such an amazing thing.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Best friends tell you you got boogers on your noseBest friends don't laugh when you wear your grandpa's clothesYou're my best friend!

Aspen blinked at the weird yellow furry thing.

Was it prey? No, no, that could not be possible. For one, who would want to eat a thing with so much fur? And for another, prey would certainly be more careful. This creature was not careful at all.

Besides, it was cute. He didn't want to eat cute things.

It had not crossed his mind that this creature could talk. All the talking beings he'd met so far looked like him - spots, greyish fur, cat, etc. This one was most definitely not like him. Still, it was being so adorable that he couldn't resist jumping out and rolling onto his back in a playful hello, purring loudly.

@Max

Something jumped out in front of him, and Max threw on the breaks.

Dropping onto his butt, he skidded to a stop with an excited boofboof! It looked very soft, with lots and lots of fur, and making a very funny noise!

His tail wagged violently, and he squirmed, dancing from paw to paw. The pup's nose was shoved into the soft fur of the cat's belly, sniffing heavily. He sneezed as the fur went up his nose, boofing "Hello! My name is Max, and I have only just met you, but I love you. You are very soft and fuzzy and I like soft and fuzzy although I did not know that until now."

@Aspen

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Best friends tell you you got boogers on your noseBest friends don't laugh when you wear your grandpa's clothesYou're my best friend!

The dog made a weird sound, and Aspen wrinkled his nose. What was that supposed to be? And its tail was doing a side to side motion really fast. He felt like that was something angry people did, but the motion wasn't quite like that and plus, this dog just looked happy and excited.

And now it was sniffing and sneezing on his belly fur. O..... kay.....

Aspen nearly jumped two feet in the air when it spoke. "You can talk?" he yelped. "And you have a name? Why didn't anyone say so before? Can everything talk and have names?" Then again, he'd never tried talking to prey before.

But wait, this dog was obviously not prey. He could see its sharp canines when it opened its mouth to speak and it was obviously not camouflaged enough to be prey either. Maybe being a predator was what allowed things to speak. Yes, that was a good theory.

"Well, Max, I'm Aspen. And yes! I'm very fluffy, aren't I? It sure takes a lot of work to keep my fur from tangling, though." He gave his shoulder a lick to emphasize the point, then sniffed curiously at Max's fur. "You're very fluffy too!"

@Max

The pup yipped when the cat jumped, and tilted his head with a whine. What had that been? Could he do that? He jumped, but could only make it a few inches off the ground.

No, he could not do that. And that made him sad, but only for a moment.

"Yes I can talk! See?" he barked repeatedly, showing off his ability. "I am smart and so I can talk! and you can talk too because you are smart! I do not think everything has a name but I could be wrong, but I have not met a stick or a rock or a bug that could tell me if they did but if they did I would feel bad because they taste very good."

However, he was completely stunned when Aspen said he was fluffy as well. With a completely gobsmacked expression, he looked down at his fur, gasping, "I am?" and then his tail began to wag excitedly, "I am! I am very fluffy but you are fluffier!"

@Aspen

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Best friends tell you you got boogers on your noseBest friends don't laugh when you wear your grandpa's clothesYou're my best friend!

So smart things could talk, huh? He was smart and Max was smart and so they could talk. And sticks, rocks, and bugs couldn't. So far, his only-predators-can-talk theory was holding up well. One thing Max said was confusing him, though. "Why?" he asked. "What do bugs talking have to do with you feeling bad? They're just prey." Aspen himself had never eaten a bug, but if Max liked them there was no reason he couldn't eat them.

"I've never encountered prey that could talk to me, but even if they could - what difference does that make? Prey is still prey. I see no reason why I should feel bad for eating."

@Max

Max pranced from paw to paw, wagging his plumy tail. "If bugs could talk I would feel bad because I would make friends with bugs and then I couldn't eat bugs because I might eat their friends and family and then it would make my friend sad and I do not like for my friends to be sad." he nodded emphatically, tail wagging.

However, he tilted his head, confused, when Aspen asked why they shouldn't eat talking food. "Because talking means they can think and thinking means they can feel and feeling means they can be sad and sad is bad! If you can talk you become friends and why would you want to make your friends sad?" he asked, sounding rather confused.

@Aspen

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Oh gosh, this puppy was so adorable. Even if he didn't do such a thing himself, Aspen could tell what a tail wag meant. So he started purring. Max was his friend, and if his friend was happy he was happy. Speaking of which, I should go meet up with Rast and Layla soon! But he was quickly distracted from his thoughts by Max talking.

"Well, who says that prey that don't talk don't have friends or family? I mean, I'm sure most prey have mothers and fathers and siblings, even if some of them do pop out of rocks without parents like I did. And of course prey can feel! They know to be afraid of predators. Fear is a feeling."

@Max

Max tilted his head as Aspen spoke, opening his mouth a few times and tilting his head. He blinked, the gears in his head grinding together and beginning to smoke.

Finally, he yipped, "Well, you can't really make friends with prey that can't talk! You can't talk to them and so you can't get to know them and can't get them gifts they like and can't make them happy!" as though he had uncovered some grand secret, he nodded.

@Aspen

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Oh right, that was true. Well, that didn't interfere with his eating habits all that much anyway. Aspen had never planned on eating his friends. "Right! So I won't eat my friends, or their friends in case that makes them sad. I get what you're saying!" Maybe he'd just eat the ones he didn't like. That made sense.

@Max