what about you, cactus butt?

Noir toddled along at the edge of the rapids minding his own business for once when he saw her. This huge spikey beast came out of nowhere and charged him. Thankfully the boy had decent reaction time and was swift on his feet. Dark blue marked legs coiled and released beneath him as he jumped out of the way. His first question happened to be what in the world even is this creature. It had a much shorter face than himself, with long whiskers and spiky fur. Wait. It had actual spikes coming out of its back.

Blue and lavender gaze widened as he watched it waddle over to a line of three miniature ones. His second question to himself turned into how in the world had he not seen the thing in the first place. He was sure that all of his sisters would have called them cute, but all Noir could see were those long pointy quills. How many different things could he use those for? His own personal dart set, or maybe he could stick them into a freshly dug pit as a booby trap for one of said sisters? The latter idea really excited him and he decided that he needed to take one of those pups.

Noir circled around them curiously, giving them enough girth that the mother wouldn’t charge him again as she saw to her children. He thought he might even be able to keep them corralled against the edge of the fast moving water. As long as he stayed at the front end of the spike beast he should be good. It didn’t look like the creature could face its quills in the opposite direction.

He studied their movements, all the while with the mother’s beady little eyes on him. The boy was feeling more confident than he should have. He quickly forgot that she had ran him off once already. Of course he would have said that she had caught him off guard was all. Now that she had his whole attention there was no way her and her brood were leaving without leaving him some quills behind. Noir didn’t realize that the most likely way their quills were being left behind was when they connected with his soft flesh.

The boy smirked with inflated confidence as he began to harass the creatures again. Slowly at first the boy would creep in close to one of the smaller ones, testing the boundaries and looking for an opening he could take. He was pretty big, if he could manage to get his jaws around the head or neck of one of them he could probably grab it and run. She didn’t look particularly fast, waddly and disproportionate yes, fast and agile, no. Noir began to test his luck, coming in close then retreating quickly as he tested her defenses.

He faked her out to the right, and as she charged in that direction Noir suddenly veered left. With his eyes on his prize he reached out to grasp hold of the tiny porcupine, what he hadn’t expected was the mother to suddenly put it in reverse.

Noir had no idea how he managed to escape without any quills to his behind. He didn’t get his prize either though, and as soon as the mother stopped advancing he stopped retreating. He wasn’t done yet. The two of them stared at each other for a long few moments. Noir’s bright blue and lavender gaze in slits and his brows knit as he stared at the huge creature. His tail waved behind him as the moments ticked by, the boy uncharacteristically patient. The porcupine’s nostrils flared dangerously as its options were weighed out before it. Already the wolf pup was making himself a nuisance, and she just wanted to corral her babies to safety. She blinked quickly before finally making her choice.

She tried to feint. With an aggressive stomp of her feet, the porcupine reared and threw her front paws to the earth. She effectively made a huge thumping sound, hoping to be rid of the boy. This only served to make Noir more eager to attack. She was still facing him and as she mock charged Noir took his chance to really charge. Huge disproportionate paws carried the young boy forward, his eyes suddenly locked with the porcupine as it squealed a warning and the babies went running the opposite direction. She wouldn’t stand for the behavior however.

The mother was swift to turn herself around and offer her backside full of quills as her young scampered off into the bushes. Noir was suddenly confronted with a wall of spikes, and his paws were still carrying him quickly towards her. He felt a panic roll up in his chest as he tried to skid to a halt. He might have avoided a few pins had the mother not reacted in turn and back into him. With a painful yelp Noir get his feet back underneath him and ran as fast as he could away from the murderous beast.

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