fighting seasonal prompt
word count: 227

The moon lingered high in the sky and the stars shone bright, bathing the gently swaying long grass of the plains in an almost silvery sheen. It was bed time, or at least it ought to have been, but Ophie wasn't ready to sleep just yet. She didn't stray far from the den, close enough that she should skitter back at the first sign of trouble, but lingered in the moonlight all the same. Her home was such a busy place, full of very busy people but at night it just sort of felt quiet, in a nice way. Not for long though. Peace didn't really to be an option around here, which was fine. More than fine really! Ophie squatted down low at the sound of rustling grass and wriggled her rear, ready to pounce on whoever emerged. And oh how their fight would be legendary! A tale told for ages and ages, till her Ma and Da started to get old and grey around the muzzle. The grass shifted again and the paw steps were closer, louder. On instinct she unsheathed her claws and scritched at the dirt, leaving little grooves in their wake. Had she any common sense she would have checked the scent to see who approached but she was riding the high of anticipation, all excitement with little thought. Just Ophie things.

Walk | "Talk" | think

Of course she knew she was supposed to be back in the den by sundown, buuuut there was just so much exploring to be done! She at least made sure that dad's bear companion was following her around so it wasn't like she was alone. But now that it was very, very dark Briar figured that she better start heading back... not because she was scared - no no no, not that at all. The long shadows and the darkness in the tall, thick grasses wasn't spooky in the slightest... At least that's what her puppy bravado told her. She wiggled her way through the grasses on her way back to the den, the bear friend following not too far behind. The grasses were hard for her to see through since she was so much shorter than them, but she was able to follow the path she had made in them on the way through the first time so she at least she knew where she was going. When she finally tumbled out into the clearing near the den, she found herself nose to nose with her sister, and she squeaked with wide eyes when her sibling immediately pounced on her before she could even get her footing and she scowled as she fell to the ground under the monochrome girl's weight. "Hey! No fair!" she complained as she wiggled and tried to push Ophelia off of her. "That's sneaking! No fair!"

WC: 469/1500

Gossamer raced through the grasses, head turned skyward as she looked at the beautiful sky. Stars winkled and sparkled amidst a black velvet sea and she swear she saw one suddenly streak across the sky. Her cyan eyes focused on the stars, just waiting for another one to fall through the sky. Her tail wagged as she bounded through the grass around the den. Technically they were supposed to be at the den not in the den so she sought to just push her luck a little. She was sure her parents would be outside watching the stars streaking across the sky to anyway.

The only thing that pulled her attention from the sky was a sudden squeak from her sisters. Uh oh! Gossamer immediately sprinted toward the sound but without any moonlight to guide her it was hard to see exactly where her siblings were. She heard Briar's voice and immediately wondered if they were play fighting without her. "Hey, I want to play to!" She barreled towards the others and attempted to pounce on Ophelia's back, hoping to wrap her arms around the other girls neck and bite at her scruff.

WC: 193
Total: 661

word count: 283
total word count 944

Lacking the skills and prowess of a proper huntress, Ophie wasn't really sure what to do with her sister once she'd caught her. For a moment she remained where she was, all sprawled out as though she'd fallen from a great height and then it clicked in her mind and Ophie broke out into a big and beaming grin. This wasn't so different from the play fights they'd had within the safety of the den, a lot had changed but not this. With a renewed sense of vigour, Ophie wriggled and squirmed atop Briar, pinning her down and gleefully ignoring her complaints as she attempted to chew on her sister's fawny ears. It felt really fun to be the top pup for once, she wasn't the smallest of the litter-Aris took that honour- but compared to her bigger siblings it was easy to feel...small sometimes. A feeling that would only worsen with age. But in the here and now she was as pleased as a plum, ready to show Briar who was the boss- until yet another big sister barged onto the scene.

Ophie let out breathy ooof as Gossy's weight bared down on her and smushed her into a puppy pancake, still atop the squirming Briar. Even if she wanted to get off of her sister she couldn't, especially not when her sister wrapped her up in a bear bug with a show of teeth to the scruff of her neck for good measure. Ophie grumbled as she kicked out her back leg, flashing a bit of claw to try and rid herself of her sisterly backpack.

"Git off!" Squishing was fun but the same couldn't be said for being the squishee.

Walk | "Talk" | think

Briar continued to wriggle and struggle under her darker colored sister and kept trying to bat her with her paws in an attempt to make her get off - but she wouldn't use her sharp claws since her parents told her it was a big no no to use them on her siblings during their play fights. She was already going to be in trouble for not being back in the den by bed time, she didn't want to be in trouble for that and hurting her sister too. She was just about to try head butting her sister's shoulder too when she felt an added weight get piled on top of the weight that Ophelia had put on her, making her feel even more trapped and squished in the process. It was hard to tell at first what had happened in the dark, but Gossamer's insistence that she wanted to play too made it click.

"Yeah!! Get off!" she insisted in an echo of Ophelia's command, feeling incredibly smothered by the two pups piled on top of her. She tried to reach past Ophie to swat at Gossamer's head in an attempt to help get the monochrome wolf off of them so then maybe she could finally be freed as well, but it turned into more wild flailing from the tan pup since it was hard to reach up far enough to be very effective in her attacks.

Total WC: 1183

Gossamer relished the feeling of a successful pounce. She'd spent much of her early life hunting tails and anything else that dared to move in her presence. While not the biggest, she was not particularly small either and she enjoyed the slight advantage it gave her in wrestling. Her long arms wrapped around the base of her sisters neck, her heels trying to dig into her sister's side to help hold on while her teeth nested in her sister's fur. She knew better than to bite fully with her monstrous fangs, not that she really could at this point. She was still learning how to use her teeth in combat.

Gossamer growled, pretending she was a fierce and mighty warrior despite the growl coming out more like rumbling squeak. She felt her sister's hind leg connect with one of hers and the smaller girls claws scraping across her ankle. "Ow! Hey, no claws!" Gossamer's statement came at the cost of her teeth no longer being at her sister's scruff but she still had her arms wrapped around the smaller girls neck. "I'll get off when you declare me the winner!" She wasn't going to give up her victory that easily.

WC: 200
Total: 1383

word count: 287  
total word count: 1670

Ophie ducked as best she could, letting Briar reach around to swat their squishing sister, as she attempted to do the same. Needless to say she meant no harm but in typical Ophie fashion forgot that scratching someone with her kitty claws hurt, whoops! With a sheepish little mumble her claws slipped back away into their sheathes but she kept up the kicking and squirming, struggling even harder now that Gos had gotten a proper grip of the scruff of her neck. The teeth were gone but her forelimbs remained encircled around her neck, pinning her down in place and given her position there wasn't a whole lot Ophie could do, no bright ideas came to mind...unless. Two was better than one, if Briar and her came to a truce to defeat the evil Gos then surely the pair would emerge victorious!

"Bree." Ophie whispered, or at least made a childish attempt to. Which was to say she wasn't that quiet or sneaky at all. "We gotta get Gos."

The issue was that she wasn't sure how to just yet but that didn't matter, the idea sounded cool and fun in her head and that's all that mattered. Probably. With an almighty roar, as though she was a tiger not a wolf, Ophie squirmed the hardest she'd ever squirmed, wriggling and worming her way out from beneath her sister till she had just about freed herself. Minus her poor squished tail. It was only now that she was on her four paws did she turn and address her sister's condition.

"NEVER!" And then she charged, as though she had a great cavalry at her back, tail raised and hackles all puffy. Not a threatening sight at all.

Walk | "Talk" | think

Briar continued to flail and do anything she could with her limited range of motion, desperately trying to get out from under her sisters until she heard Ophe whisper to get her on her side. Even though she still didn't forgive her smaller sister for how she had sneak attacked her, Briar was willing to put that aside in order to get Gossamer off of them. She'd agree to the truce... for now. As Ophelia went to work wriggling her way out from between the two of them with a squeaky roar, Briar jumped in to help out her sister by batting at Goss with her paws - careful not to use her claws in the process - to prevent the monochrome sister from being able to get a hold on Ophe again. Once Ophelia was able to get back onto her paws and look at Gossamer with her fur all puffed up like a fuzz ball, Briar refocused on getting herself free.

While Gos was hopefully distracted by Ophe's defiant declaration she got to work wriggling and swatting and over all just being a wild blur of tan as she wriggled her way out from under Gossamer, getting more irritated by the second as bits of grass and dirt got all stuck into her coat in the process. By the time she was back on her feet and facing her sisters again her fur was all kinds of disheveled and she felt like she had the whole plain worth of grass stuck to her - even though it was really just a sprinkling of dried grass bits sticking out of her coat here and there. With an annoyed huff she shook her self to get rid of all the grass and dirt, pouting all the while.

For all her bluster Gossamer didn't have the longest attention span and sitting on top of ones siblings was only fun for so long. Just as her grip started to loosen, Ophelia started squirming. She twisted and wiggled until she slipped out of Gossy's grasp. Gossamer then fell onto Briar who was also wriggling and she scrambled to get out of the way of her sisters horns. Eventually the squirming mass of puppies was untangled. Gossamer shook out her coat, scattering the dust and grass that had clung to it. She looked at her sisters for a moment then turned tail and darted for the den. "Last one to the den is a rotten egg!" She gleefully yelled as she bounded across the grass, grateful for her head start. Her legs were longer than Ophelia's but Briar was the tallest of the girls. She had to beat them at at least something! Hopefully, mom and dad wouldn't be too mad that they were a little bit late. After all they'd been right outside the den so not too far away.

-exit?-