Otis The King, parts 1503 - 1506

1503. His dinner was the first real food he had eaten for days, and he lay down next to the fire where his new owners were relaxing and promptly fell asleep. When he awoke it was late at night so he lay still and tried to ascertain from the conversation he overheard, what to expect from his new owners. He had no inclination to run away; he had made up his mind already to attach himself to some people in order to avoid starvation.

1504. Otis could make very little from the conversation because he did not know the language. The time spent with the blacksmith’s boy was insufficient for him to master whatever it was the boy spoke, and what he was hearing was completely different. He had to resort to an analysis of body language and related clues. Don’t think for an instant that a wolf is not adept at the analysis of body language. They are masters of the science, for them it is practically genetic.

1505. But the three individuals offered him very scant information. The picture he had to work with to start was one of three men of various ages: an old man, someone middle aged, and also probably a young man considerably worn down on the edges. They were similar looking, so much so that they were perhaps related, even of the same family.

1506. They did not appear to be particularly intelligent. They would not have made you think of the three stooges if you were to have seen them, but yet there was something of the comical about their facial expressions. They were the type of men whose frustrations and desperations cause others to laugh at them.