Culvert Urchin

"It stinks in here."

Casimir looked over at his companion. Kelsene was not the most optimistic creature at the best of times, but even so he was taken by surprise at the snarl of sheer disgust on her face.

"It's just the sewer," Casimir said dismissively. "Or are you still angry about the-"

"I am not!" the shewolf snapped.

"So that isn't why we're here?"

"Don't use any of your sarcasm. He bit me!"

Casimir snorted. He knew his companion too well to take everything she said at face value. She was bothered about seeing a foundling here of all places, not the fact that said foundling had then given her a nip. Probably. "Kel..."

Any further conversation was abruptly cut off by a dead end. The alleyway ended in a stone construction crisscrossed in decades of water damage. It appeared to be a large storm drain, built specifically to deal with water runoff. The gray stones were stained and damp, and some even had thin films of moss growing on them.

"Look at that," he said to Kelsene. "Even in the middle of a city there are some things that still manage to grow."

"Right," she said. "Very poetic. It still doesn't answer where our little 'friend' has got to."

No sooner had she spoken when a small bedraggled shape squeezed itself out from the depths of the drain. It emerged, becoming a small dark-colored pup. He hadn't been expecting the two of them, and froze, eyes widening.

Before the pup could slip back down the drain, Kelsene blocked him. "You bit me!" she snarled.

"You scared me!" came the indignant response. Oddly, the pup wasn't cowering, as Casimir had expected, although his yellow eyes darted around frantically, looking for an escape route.

"That doesn't mean you can bite me, you little scruffling!"

"If it keeps me alive I'll do what I have to!"

"Is that so? Why not have another go then, whelp?"

"Hold," Casimir said calmly. Both the pup and Kelsene stopped and looked over at him in surprise, as if only now realizing he was there. The gray wolf looked at the pup. "Who are you?"

"What are you?" the pup demanded back.

Casimir was alarmed, not so much by the forwardness of this question, but by the nature of it. The pup wasn't just wary of strangers, he actually had no idea what he and Kelsene were. And by that logic...

"The same thing you are," Casimir responded, and the pup's brow furrowed in wonder.

-----

Had to take a break for a while. I think I'm slowly improving at backgrounds.