Yes, it was all the things I’d imagined it would be. Confident. Alert. Poised for combat.
But there was another element that took me off guard. Something bubbling happily away beneath the rationality. Nothing giddy like a dolphin’s playfulness. Something less simple.
Optimism. That was it. Intense optimism.
I turned my head toward Ax. His eyes were smiling, the way they do.
Ax whipped his tail blade through the air.
Fwapp!
Ax said as he swung his tail in a figure eight, stopping just a centimeter short of the tree trunk.
I flexed the massive muscle that was my tail. I was tentative. I imitated the figure-eight exercise Ax was doing.