Boo!

Arc had to bite his lip to hold back a giggle as he listened to Tira call after him, keeping himself crouched behind the tree trunk as he listed to her push the dangling branches aside and walk into the little secluded space that the willow tree naturally created. There was a pause and then she started calling for him, sounding really scared by his sudden disappearance and it was even harder to keep himself from laughing, his tail wagging at the prank he was pulling on her. He was poised and ready to spring out from behind the tree, his muscles coiled and ready to jump out and pounce on her, already way too eager to see the look on her face when she realized he had tricked her! But before he could do that he heard Ashur growling just outside the draping willow branches and his smile fell away, his gray ears perking at the sound. The feline companion went everywhere with them, but usually he was just kinda quiet and observant. He'd never heard him growl at anything before.

Completely derailed from his prank, he abandoned his post behind the tree trunk to sneak over to the willow branches that concealed them from whatever Ashur was angry at. He peeked through the leaves and spotted the culprit - a big feline that was even bigger than Ashur and had long fangs poking out past its upper lip like Grandpa. It was eyeing the smaller cat like he might be lunch. He looked at it with wide, worried eyes for a moment before backing away from the leaves and looking at Tira. He didn't want Ashur to get hurt! Did they run and get help? What if the big cat spotted them running away and tried to chase them instead? They were trapped in this tree and their feline buddy was at risk!

An idea popped into his head and he leaned closer to Tira, whispering, "Okay, here's what we're gonna do! We're gonna go up behind Ashur but stay behind the branches, okay? And we're gonna growl and bark and stuff, make it sound like there's a whole bunch of wolves! And scare it off!" He grinned and gave her a determined nod before creeping back up to the branches, waiting till she was ready to and giving her a nod so they could start making all kinds of noise at the same time. He was determined to save Ashur from a fight! As much as he liked fighting he really didn't want their friend to get hurt trying to protect them or anything.

WC: 437
Total: 1351/1500

"Arcturus Fatalis"