dauntless’ ears perk as the call for a sparring partner rises through the air of the plateau. he’d been spending time with @Lavender where the pack convenes as it was a particularly cold day and he knows that his white, red and lilac merle sister is easily chilled; but it was sunny that had sent up the call which caused a persistent itch to accept the challenge of a spar. he liked sunny immediately the first time he’d met him — because realizing he wasn’t the only boy besides grayday was always a boon — but a teenage dauntless, who is in that stage of trying to figure out where he fits in the hierarchy of his siblings, flipping flopping between assertive commander and obedient and loyal protector and with the recent noticing of girls not related to him in new ( and exciting ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) ways brings to attention that sunny is the cool older brother and this leaves dauntless struggling with the hormonal realization that cool, big brother is competition. dauntless presses his nose to lavender’s cheek before he heads towards sunny’s position.

dauntless’ head bows as he catches first sight of his burly brother, the smoky grey pelage standing out in contrast against the ivory of snowfall and the deep browns and greens of nearby foliage and winter flora. dauntless’ gaze, more brown today than it is green, zeroes in on sunny and he lets out a soft chuff that says: challenge accepted. it’s a friendly spar, dauntless knows this, but as he does not expect sunny to take it easy on him and neither will dauntless hold back. his tail raises over his back and gives a wag of invitation for his elder brother to initiate the spar.

sunny is heftier than him and dauntless is capable of putting two and two together to quickly understand that he has the small advantage of having more speed than his bear of a brother. sunny will be a heavy hitter and dauntless knows that his best bet is to play defense until he gets an opening to go on the offense. to take advantage of what is working against his brother all the while knowing that if sunny gets him to the ground and pins him there he’s going to struggle to regain his footing and that he should avoid that as much as possible. they both have their advantages and their disadvantages against the otherwise are relatively well matched. dauntless’ expectation is met as his elder brother ducks his head low and charges for him. there is enough distance between the pair for dauntless to anticipate the hit and dodge sunny’s attack.

dauntless snaps his teeth as his brother charges past him. he takes no time to think, instead trusting his instincts. in a clear effort to take advantage of sunny’s back to him dauntless lunges and makes to grab his brother’s hind leg in the attempt to tug him off balance and get him down to the ground.

dauntless’ teeth make contact with sunny’s leg and his burly brother goes down. it matters little whether dauntless had managed to knock him off balance or if sunny had rolled over on his own: the point was that he was down. not out of the fight, no, but dauntless was in a good position with his brother’s belly exposed to him. dauntless dodges sunny’s kicks and remains determined to keep his brother down on the ground as he rounds and aims for a bite at the older boy’s shoulder, teeth seeking flesh. would this have been a real fight dauntless would have undoubtedly went for sunny’s exposed belly to spill his innards out while all the softest parts are exposed to him. but, this was not a real fight and dauntless has no intentions of harming his brother beyond the few scrapes and bruises one usually accumulates while sparring.

dauntless keeps his movements quick and tight, trying not to linger too long in one spot and thus far it has kept him dodging sunny’s attacks. the tactic aids him once more as he moves to a new position right before sunny attempts to push him away with his forepaws. dauntless feigns left as if he is going after the opposite shoulder and at last minute veers right, aiming to make his next attack on the same shoulder as before hoping to hit the same spot twice as in a real fight it would already be weakened and dauntless assumes it might help to give him a further edge.

dauntless’ grip slackens as his brothers writhes and phrases beneath him and just when dauntless thought he had sunny it turned out that his elder brother had him instead. sunny’s paws wrap around his neck and dauntless recoils but it’s a moment too late. he’s ensnared within sunny’s grasp and before dauntless can escape sunny’s headlock his brother kicks daunt’s back leg out from under him and the chocolate garbed boy collides to the ground as his brother grasps his scruff and shoves him to the cold, hard earth. a low grunt escapes dauntless as he quick scrambles to his paws and goes for his brother’s muzzle, seeking to grab it and force him into yielding submission.

dauntless had not intended for his bite to be hard enough to pierce flesh but it is easy to get caught up in the rush of the moment. dauntless moves with sunny as his brother tail tucks and lowers to the ground. at sunny’s whimper of resignation dauntless releases his grip upon his muzzle, the faint tang of blood lingering upon his tongue. dauntless takes a few steps back and takes a deep, even breath to level out his pants, a wide grin tugging the corners of his muzzle upwards. victory was his but dauntless didn’t gloat or boast. there was a slight swell of pride in his chest but he coveted it, not deigning to rub his brother’s loss in his face. dauntless knew that there would be days he won and days he lost and that both were useful in learning how to become better. “that was a good fight.” dauntless turns his grin to sunny and draws nearer in the hopes of gently bumping his nose against sunny’s muzzle in a wolf version of a fist bump. whatever feelings of competition dauntless had, had entering the spar have since dissipated ( for the time being, anyway ) and all dauntless is left feeling is sore in his muscles and hungry for a nice cut of choice goat. “you feeling up for a hunt? i bet we could take one of the goats that hang around the porcupine ridge border.” dauntless suggests ( offers? ); regardless of if sunny accepts the invitation to hunt or not dauntless will set off to hunt one with the intention of taking some of the catch back to lavender.