Dying Embers

As Red rose up he felt Aurielle's teeth grip his foreleg and tug it inwards towards her chest. With his weight falling forward the torque on his upper body threw him off balance, jerking him forward much faster and with much less control than he'd planned. He desperately gaped his jaws wider to release Aurielle's neck to keep his fangs from sliding along her throat and lacerating it, and the violent movement and moment of distraction threw him even further off balance. With a muffled yelp he found himself flipping forward over Aurielle's shoulder to land with an ungraceful thud on his back opposite where he'd begun, and seeing stars to boot. His breath escaped him in a "whooof" and refused to come back for a long moment before he was able to drag in back in with a gasping gulp. "Yield," he wheezed, "I yield. Spirits, but I can see I have a ways to get back into shape!" He rolled to his belly and rose a little unsteadily though with a smile despite the difficulty in catching the breath that had been knocked out of him. "You fight well, Lady Aurielle. I'd be honored to spar you more often, as time permits."