As Good as I Ever Was

The big male separated them into two teams without any preamble, no lesson, just sink-or-swim melee fighting. Arpeggio hesitated, brow furrowing. She'd never learned to fight, what on earth was she supposed to do? But Caelestis grinned at her, excited, and Peggy couldn't help but grin back. The other girl's enthusiasm fanned the flames of her own again, and she bounced on her toes. "You guys are going down," she stage-whispered playfully to her cousin and Cael. She bounced towards the alpha, then spun around to face her friends, her opponents.

Sneaking a glance at the alpha, who presumably did actually know how to fight, and at Caelestis, who surely also did, she sought to copy their stances, with her ears pinned back and her eyes narrowed, her paws spread and her legs squared up. She raised her hackles, but her tail wagged wildly behind her, and her teeth were bared not in a snarl but a grin. She bounced once on her toes, then flung herself towards Caelestis. Rearing back on her haunches, she tried to slam her chest into the front of the other girl's chest, forelegs seeking to wrap around her neck. She hoped that the momentum and unexpectedness of her charge since no one else had yet attacked would knock Cael over, like when she'd wrestled with her brothers as a pup, but just in case she attempted to cling to her neck like a monkey. Her teeth flashed as she snapped towards Cael's face, but she hesitated, and pulled the blow hard, so that her teeth would hit with way less force than strictly necessary even for a practice fight, aiming to close over the right side of Cael's muzzle with her upper jaw over and her lower jaw under Cael's muzzle.