I had endured this “game” I don’t know how many times. In most cases, it had been Celeb and Aster seeking a rise out of me. When I was younger, the year of age they held over me had made it difficult to do anything about it but wait it through or call on Ark’s help. Our eldest sibling, much like myself, never particularly cared for the asinine antics of the twins. Perhaps that is why I found him bearable company. But as I grew, the physical gap between myself and the twins quickly became nonexistent and my mental acceleration left them in the dust. Still, they would try to catch me off-guard. They would recruit minions, children of my father’s loyal peasants, to swarm and ambush me all for the sake of a laugh. I hardly found that amusing...

It should come as no surprise, then, that I was privy to the tendencies of children influenced by their disappointment. While I do not prize myself a psychic by any means, I do believe study and basic deduction can be used to predict the general trend of another’s actions. With my knowledge and experience with children, I knew to open my eyes enough to peer through the dark veil of my lashes at the wretched little thing which had gone suspiciously still and quiet. What I saw made my lips quiver in annoyance: a scraggly silver girl with wide open jaws rushing for my rear leg.

The dirty little wretch was going to bite me, or so she thought. My ebon leg curled a little closer to my body, a fraction of an inch and in such a manner that seemed but a lazy shuffle of sleep. If she intended to bite me, a stranger five times her size at the very least, then I intended to kick her square in that grizzly little face of hers.

But what happened next halted us both in our actions, as the sudden crash through the foliage came upon us quickly.

What approached me this time was larger than the ghastly little whelp, and the haste in its cadence was cause for alarm. I fast gave up on my trivial war with the child and instead made to stand, but I barely had time to get my paws beneath me before this new disruption threw us all into chaos.

I caught the scent of wolf just before it happened and thought to myself that, perhaps, the child’s parent was here to collect their daughter. I was not so lucky, though, as this stranger seemed very much unaware of our presence when it burst from the foliage and ran straight into the little silver ball of trouble. I saw her rear quarters flip over her front end and knew there was no hope for control as she became airborne over the body of the pup, and I ducked quickly to avoid the majority of her flying form as she continued in my direction. Her paws still managed to hit me as she passed over, sending her rolling down the river bank and landing with a heavy splash in the water. I could not avoid the spray of water and mud which showered down in a sheet on my previously clean chocolate coat. I was soaked, absolutely drenched in that one instant, and I shook immediately in my disgust. As my anger quickly got the better of me, I was lost to the silver child’s words of encouragement toward our new arrival.

”Неуклюжий женщина!”"Clumsy woman!” My roar is strictly reactionary, as I was seething with anger at that point. I did not care if either of them could understand me or not. That was not my problem. The look of terror on the face of the female which stood awkwardly in the water was briefly satisfactory. She should feel bad for what she had caused and, for her age, she shouldn’t be so ungraceful. It was very unbecoming of a woman to be so ungainly. Which reminded me...

I turned to watch the whelp which had been rag-dolled away by the older female’s impact approach the riverbank and, this time, I heard the words that dripped from her mouth like the brown water still dripping from my fur. She had called me a name, ”Grumpyface”, and the very insolence of the thing cause the muscles in my jaw to tighten. And, furthermore, it seemed like she was trying to recruit the female which had bowled into her to try to “take me down”. I scoffed aloud at this, my lips pulling back in a small smirk as a bit of amusement shone through the icy expression of my rage.

”Unlikely,” I informed the child with a confident arch of my brow before turning my attention pointedly, deliberately, off of her to set my piercing blue eyes on the clearly embarrassed drowned rat of a woman in the water.

”Ну?”"Well?” I questioned expectantly as I looked down upon her from high up on the riverbank. She may not have known the word I spoke, but the meaning was clear by my tone and waiting expression. What excuse would she have for trampling a little girl and drenching myself? I didn’t entirely care for the story, but wanted the submission of an apology nonetheless. I had been raised to draw such things from my wrongdoers. And if she did not... Well, neither of them were particularly worth my time.

.Isander