09-14-2017, 06:16 PM
“Stop!”
“No, you stop!”
The banter of brats.
Two very bratty panther cubs that is.
The more time spent away from their parents’ watch, the more time they spend as their other halves and like all children are wont to do, they bicker amongst themselves over anything they can. Currently, one cub is antagonizing the other until the game becomes too much and the one shouts - “Stop that!” and shows it’s claws in a ferocious swipe near the other’s face. The response is an ear-splitting yowl because the one who narrowly missed having its face clawed has bitten down on a mouthful of panther-tail causing the other to shriek in pain.
“Enough!” comes the little roaring tone of the brother whose tail was bitten and smarts as it curls around his black little body. Annoyance and pain are apparent in the yellow-green stare he pins his sister with. She ignores him, rolling over on her back as she tries to breathe through the laughter. “I - have - never - heard - a - boy - scream - so - loud - as - that!” Each word is punctuated by laughter and struggles to resume more normal breathing as she collapses in a furry mound of giggles much to her brother’s growing annoyance. He doesn’t think it is possible to be so annoyed by her but it fills him up until he knocks her upside the head with a paw.
“It’s not funny!” he splutters, half growling and half trying not to dissolve into laughter himself because Wine looked so funny rolling around on the ground. She had bits of grass stuck to her black fur and she just looked ridiculous! Iron loses it and falls over laughing too, since laughter is rather infectious especially amongst siblings - twin siblings, that is. But Wine didn’t particularly care for him joining her in laughing and she sat up abruptly and glared at him. He just had to go and spoil all her fun! Wine’s little panther face was all scrunched up between the glare and the frown that her mouth set itself into and Iron kept laughing while trying to wheeze out a “Your face might end up stuck that way!”
Wine was not amused. She struck out with a paw that was no longer a paw but a hoof and caught him across the cheek. He yowled again and kept saying “Ow! Ow! Ow!” until the pain receded a little. “That wasn’t nice or very fair.” he said to her, annoyed that she had broken a cardinal rule of theirs - no half-shifting parts of one’s body in the midst of play, they were either one or the other for the duration of their games. Ignoring him further, Wine fully shifted back into the black overo filly that she normally is and sauntered away from him with a swish of her bushy little tail. Iron stalked after her, still in panther form until the time was just right for him to leap onto her back.
The combination of his weight and his jaws grasping at her neck drove Wine down to her knees. In the midst of her stumble beneath her brother on her back, she transitioned in a hissing and spitting panther cub that rolled over and pushed her back paws into her brother’s belly. They ended up rolling over one another and the ground until they landed square at a mare’s feet and they stopped their fighting to blink two surprised pairs of panther eyes up at her. “Uh…” began Iron in a surprisingly boyish voice. “We’re sorry,” ventured Wine as smoothly and as sweetly as she could.
