Wapun Meadow it isn't about the stuff

In the Meadow, there weren't quite as many things that belonged to other wolves as in the pack. Charles sniffed around to look for things that he could make his. Clumsily he tried to pee with lifting a leg rather than squatting, a fairly new feat for him and still a little wobbly. A rock, a patch of snow, the bark of a tree. All his now. But it wasn't really challenging unless it was someone else's first. He could claim the entire world but what would that bring him? Just a lot of stuff. And it wasn't about the stuff. It was never about the stuff.

Finally Charles picked up on another wolf scent. He felt excitement thrum in his body as he smelled a large rock out in the open field that smelled like some other wolf had claimed it! While nervously licking his lips Charles sniffed the rock excessively with his tail raised up and then got into position to lift his leg. He lifted his leg and looked back just to make sure he was peeing on the exact right rock, while his gaze shifted around anxiously just in case the wolf to whom the rock belonged showed up.

It had been freaking forever since she had had momma's blessing to go wandering outside the territory; the moment the restrictions were begrudgingly lifted she flew off like she had wings on her feet. The whole meadow looked pretty dead as she trotted through, with the lush grasses mostly still standing but well-bleached by winter's touch. Brou entertained herself for a moment weaving her skinny form among a particularly tall patch that was still standing tall, reaching her nose up to touch one seedy stalk as it bobbed its own head down to greet her. In that motion the other wolf's scent hooked upon her upreached nose.

Nostrils flaring, Brou instinctively crouched down a bit as she eeled a few steps further forward to peer through the curtain of yellowy grasses. Some punky young wolf with a form possibly even more attenuated than her own was wobbling his way about out there. Brou stared at his impressive ginormous ears for a moment before his shaky attempt to tripod drew her eye away. Another moment of indecisiveness, as she briefly and ponderingly caught her lip on an eyetooth, and then Brou snaked back a few steps and began to stealthily work her way around toward her goal. As the proud-tailed boy made his way toward the big smelly boulder plopped prominently mid-meadow, Brou slunk around its far side to come up behind him. Her lip twitched up into a small smirk as she spotted the nervously darting eyes of the other, and the pretentious, precarious, unsteady male pose he was again lifting himself up to assume—sheesh, why did the boys all do that all the time anyway? Ridiculous.

BOO! yelled Brouhaha as she leapt out from concealment. Her own white-tipped tail waved high as she tilted her head slightly and offered the stranger a wicked little twinkling grin. Don't fall over, she added in precaution, a little too sweetly, and fairly unhelpfully. Too little too late—or so she could only hope.

Nervously Charles licked his lips as he looked around -- in the completely wrong direction -- and wondered what would happen. Would someone show up to claim this here rock? Would they punish him? He started to pee and there was something really satisfying about claiming this rock. A semblance of control that he had never had in his life. His brothers had torn at his ears and pushed his face into the mud. His mother had loved him for only the briefest times, and then ignored him most days and told him off roughly when he tried to grasp her attention. But this, this rock, this piece of land, this becoming his -- that was real, a real thing, something only he decided. It felt as if he had control over what happened in the world to some degree, and he liked the feeling.

When suddenly someone leaped towards him and shouted loudly Charles let out a pathetic high-pitched shriek of Ah! and he fell backwards immediately, even as he vaguely heard the other say he shouldn't fall. Charles fell back against the rock and into his own piss with his left haunch, and he immediately realised his mistake there. Shit.

Look what you made me do! he shouted with dismayal at the other, who, he realised just a moment later, looked to be around his age.

Dang but his shriek was puppyishly girly. Brou had never been all that feminine herself, but nonetheless could vividly imagine what her brothers might've said if they heard it. Thwomp, straight into the rock too as the boy inevitably teetered over. Ouch, that might leave a bruise.

Though she winced slightly in sympathy, irrepressibly Brou started to giggle, and then to more loudly guffaw as she watched the increasingly inept antics of the other. Still, her wide smile was good-natured as she moved to stand boldly over the other with her tail held high at a cheerily impish angle. Hey, I warned you! she teased. Gosh, I don't think you should go looking for any more rocks, though. Time for a different element, yo. Let's find you some water and get you a solid bath. Brou scootched back a little so the kid could more easily right himself (plus, you know, she didn't really want to get any of his mess on her, thank you very much). C'mon now, hurry up!

She cocked her head the other direction and looked him up and down again. Don't think I've ever seen you around. One corner of her mouth twitched even further involuntarily upward just before she added: And I certainly think I'd remember having smelled you. Eyes twinkling, she danced happily from one forepaw to the other in place. Might not be the most aromatically pleasing wolf she'd ever encountered, here, but really she was just glad to be out and about and seeing some new faces again for a change. (Besides which given some of her own not-too-far-distant history, she really was the last one to harp too much on someone else's smell... not, of course, that this boy ever needed to know that, sheesh!) She paused again a moment to ogle his hugemongous ears in admiration. She didn't think she'd ever seen such disproportionately huge saucers on anyone before. Prodigious! she muttered to herself, mostly under her breath.

Charles quickly tried scrambling to his feet, but before he managed to get up, the girl stood over him. Charles didn't want to let himself get bested by a girl, of all things. He could see Riley's sneer of an expression now. But there was something more that it released in him. As the girl stood over him and laughed at him, it was hard for him to see her cheerfulness and good nature; all he was reminded of was his brothers pushing him around and chewing on his face. He tightly squeezed his eyes shut and instinctively ducked his head between his forelegs to protect his face, while he tucked his tail tightly under his hind legs. He felt utterly humiliated, laying in his own piss and unable to get up and terrified that he was about to get chewed out and chewed on --

-- But it never came and she went away again, goading him to hurry up. He didn't understand why there was a hurry. Charles licked his lips nervously as he headed the command and slowly got up, adrenaline rushing through his veins and still nervous and afraid to the core. A little confused, maybe, because the punishment he expected hadn't come.

When she said she hadn't seen him around before, Charles muttered, Yeah, me neither. He meant that he hadn't seen her around either, but it came out sounding a bit more as if he confirmed he hadn't seen or smelled himself around, either. If only it was the truth.

Eager to get over the weird moment where he'd been so afraid Charles was glad that she just moved on. She then stared at his ears, a thing that Charles wasn't all that used to; he had yet to learn that the world was often unkind to coyotes, but perhaps if he would run into such bias he would simply think it was because the world was often unkind to him and not even realise it was for his heritage. ... What? he asked when she said a really difficult word he hadn't heard before. Not that Charles was dumb or nothing, but he wasn't the most eloquent youth around the block either.

It looked like this kid was trying to hide from her or something, for a few seconds. ...Or maybe he was just failtastically trying to get a better look/sniff of just how much of a mess might've been made down on his underside. Either way...weird. But Brou brushed it off as an unimportant anomalous distraction, especially since she was much more entertained by the implication that he hadn't smelled himself around before either. She giggled, but then turned her back on him as she flipped her tail up again and started off in a businesslike fashion, expecting him to exert those long gangling legs a little to keep up. Well come on, you don't want to stink like that all day now do you? she scolded over her shoulder.

She did pause her march for just a second, white-dipped forepaw raised midair, as he spoke again. What what? Then she realized she must have unthinkingly spoken aloud. Oh, I said 'prodigious,' she said airily, flipping her upcurled tail first to one side and then the other. 'Cuz that's what yer big ol' ears are. Prodigious! Unwilling to stop any longer, she surged forth again. If this boy wanted to talk, he'd better walk the walk while he was at it, because Brou had definitely had her fill of sitting put and behaving. Like, enough for a lifetime. ...Never mind that she didn't actually know this territory and had no real idea where she was headed. Regardless of where their pawsteps might lead Brouhaha was confident it would be someplace more interesting, and figured surely she was bound to run into some significant body of water sooner or later, right? ...Keep up!

As quickly as she had come into his life, so quickly was she gone again. Charles looked as she disappeared, and he felt a little relieved. He licked his lips and relaxed his muscles a little, until she shouted over her shoulder that he should come (he thought that was what she implied, anyway). As she slowed down Charles trotted after her, able to catch up then.

Charles felt a little nervous to admit that he didn't know what prodigious meant. He knew his ears were freakishly large, larger than his brothers' and larger than anyone he had ever met, but he didn't chalk it up to anything but bad luck. Or bad genes, maybe, whatever those were; that's what he had heard aunt Indra say sometimes. Oh, he just said at that, because he didn't want to admit he didn't know the word's meaning. Maybe he would ask Kaito or Leta if they knew the word, later.

As she sped up again and told him to keep him, Charles dashed after her. Where are we going? he wondered while they ran, not really sure.. what.. was going on, and not really sure if he liked it, but somehow feeling pretty good that someone else took charge. He liked not having to think for himself for a moment.

This kid picked up his feet obediently, finally, exerting himself a little in order to catch up with her. Good. This satisfied Brou's inner sense of self-importance, and okay, maybe inflated it a little more than was warranted, too. Though this guy didn't seem nearly impressed enough by her choice of multisyllabic words to describe him: that was a point against him. Still, Brou was entertained and appreciative enough of him otherwise thus far to encourage him to hang around. Careful, she warned him teasingly. Not too close, though. Better not get any o' your stink on me. She glanced back at him, grinning, and gave a little wink.

Her brisk forward motion didn't cease; maybe even increased a bit, because Brou liked watching him scramble a bit. We're going to find some water to dump your whole body into and get you clean, duh, she said in reply to his inquiry. We'd better make sure we get your ears extra-clean, 'cause apparently they're not working very well. She turned abruptly left, where the ground started sloping downward a little more as the dip in the expanse of rolling grasses indicated. By the way, Prodigious-Ears, what's your name? she asked absently as she swiftly picked her way down. He seemed like he was interesting or at least entertaining enough to make note of, so she probably oughta have a label for him. And maybe if she didn't like his given name, she'd just stick with whatever nickname...s... struck her fancy, instead.

Charles did not know how to handle someone being... teasingly nice? He had no experience with this mood at all, and so he just kinda silently followed. As she teasingly said he should not get too close because she didn't want his stink on her, he could not tell if it was really a joke or if she was just trying to word it so that it looked better. Okay, he said submissively, his tone of voice almost a little defeated sounding, even though the fact that she said he should not get too close made him toy with the idea of getting too close, just to see what would happen.

Before he could decide on it, his new companion said they would find water to clean him with. Charles did not understand exactly why anyone would want to help him. It was a mood he had not seen often in his life, and what times he'd seen it it had been from Kaito, a wolf from his own pack. Charles did not laugh when she joked about getting his ears extra clean, because he completely missed that it was a joke. He wasn't very well-versed in jokes.

She used the hard word again to refer to him and then asked for his name. He answered: Charles. Then, after a brief silence, he added: From the stone circle. He tried to remember the name of the place he had visited the other day and then asked: Are you from the Legion? Was she a fighter, then?

Brou stuck her pink tongue out at the other kid before turning her head back in the direction she was trotting. Her feet skidded a little at the next little dip in the terrain in the process, but Brouhaha paid them little mind. So long as they didn't seem about to send her spilling into a puddle of her own pee like this poor fool, right? This kid did seem kinda... flat, though. Like, why wasn't he taunting her back? She peeked curiously over her shoulder at him for a sec as her paws scattered some unwary pebbles before her. How come he rarely ever seemed to smile, even when she was obviously joking? Sheesh, what a weirdo. But whatever, he was definitely a change from the usual and for right now, at least, Brou was having fun. Even if somewhere in the back corner of her mind she privately wondered if he was. Sheesh, and she'd bet he didn't even have an Arbiter of his own watching every move—dumb kid just didn't know how lucky he was there, did he.

Okay then, Prodigious Charles-from-the-Stone-Circle, replied Brou readily, and rather grandiosely. I'm Brouhaha, Princess of the High Fields of Noctisardor Bypass. But you can call me 'Brou.' She flashed him a grin, and then turned to watch her feet for a change as she hopped impulsively over one smallish rock, and then up onto another, rather bigger flat-topped boulder. Yeah, I'm from Legion, she said, though for once her reply lacked quite the enthusiasm she had heretofore displayed. And I think the best water is over in...this direction! She veered off rather suddenly toward the right, keeping her ears perked expectantly forward for the sound of rushing waters ahead.

Charles' large ears lifted as she started introducing herself, curious about her name. He'd never heard of anyone named Brouhaha and thought it sounded rather... well, odd. But her name was forgotten momentarily when she said that she was a princess, and so Charles swallowed his comment about her name. Although, if she was a princess, would she have guards who would come in and whack him? He wondered about this and contemplated.

Moments later she confirmed that she was from the Legion pack that he had visited earlier. That's a funny name, Charles said and he licked his lips nervously to wait and see how she might respond. And if she had bodyguards who would punish him for this... Why don't you like the Legion? Charles asked as well -- a conclusion he had drawn completely from the lack of enthusiasm in her voice as she mentioned it. He kept following meanwhile, ignoring her mention of the water ahead even though he heard it, too.

Brou had not actually heard any water, as of yet. As she scurried briskly along on her rockhopping way she was in fact making a random wild-assed guess as to what direction water might lie in, especially since she wasn't really familiar with the landscape here just yet. This expedited hustle may have been something of a reaction to Charles's mention of Legion, in particular—but unfortunately, it seemed that this weirdo was just perceptive enough to catch onto that, of all things. Ugh. What, he couldn't sniff out a proper sense of humor to save his life, but caught right onto that little hiccup? Damn, if you asked her that really wasn't fair.

But oh well, Brou was nothing if not good at rolling with the punches. Oh, right, like Charles is a perfectly normal sort of name to have, geeze, she sniped back, and then made a face. Sigh. Fine, if he wanted to talk about this she supposed she could. A little. I mean, it's okay... it's just, y'know. My mom's the leader and all, and has all these...expectations. Euw. Besides which Brouhaha had just spent the better part of a couple of months trapped there within the pack's tentatively-claimed lands: on a usual day she'd more than had her fill of family, but lately she felt like she'd really, really had her fill. And why the hell was she talking about this when she'd worked so long and hard to finally escape that pit trap of a packland? Sheesh. She didn't want to go into too much detail anyway, in case that only encouraged this nosy nitwit Charles to ask even more awkward questions of her. Eeeeesh. She flicked a black ear in irritation. Come ooonnnnn, she implored him from the next granite boulder up in line. Get up here, you bat-eared turkey!

Following this thoughtlessly casual insult, exactly the kind she would have thrown off-the-cuff at one of her dumb brothers, she turned her face restlessly toward the other side, ears swiveling to match as she paused for a few seconds to take in the landscape from her new, moderately elevated perch. And from that lofty lookout post, now that she'd shut up for a bit and actually paid a bit of attention, now she too could hear it. Look! she cried triumphantly, and probably a little too surprisedly. It wasn't quite over in the direction she'd been leading them, but well...close enough. Water! Over there! Come ON, you! If she had to in a moment she'd race the actually-quite-short distance back around behind him to nip and prod his (to her) sluggish butt along, if necessary. ...Though preferably not with her nose making contact in the process, if at all possible. Hahahaha. If you don't hurry up it's all gonna dry on there and make it really hard to get off and then yer gonna stink like that forever, sheesh! Brou did not in fact know or even believe anything of the sort—and really, she herself oughta be an expert on noxious smells attached to impulsive teenagers' coats, if ever there was one—but she did want him to freaking hurry it up already and not stand around here wracking his brain for even more questions that would spoil all the fun of the day for her. What a lump; she really had expected any fellow wolf around her age would be better fun than her brothers, not worse.

It seemed as if he had hit a sensitive subject. Charles' body language instantly grew a little meeker and more submissive as she started talking about why she didn't like Legion; he didn't feel actively nervous on the surface, but his subconscious was brought back to the many times he'd asked undesireable questions to Mother. How he would get away from it depended a lot on her mood at the time and the timing of his questions. Brouhaha said that her mother lead the pack -- that must've been the scary wolf he had met at the borders -- and that she had expectations of him. He could sorta relate to that, because Mother had expectations too, except he had no idea what they were. I get that, was all he answered, and Brouhaha continued to bring them towards water. Charles didn't really understand that he had touched on a touchy subject she didn't want to elaborate on, not consciously anyway, and that her being in a hurry was her way of coping with his questions.

The insult was met with a twitch of his tail, a subtle sign that it might be a sensitive subject, but no more as he jumped up on the boulder and looked in the direction she told him to look in. She didn't sound like she knew what she was doing -- or rather, as if she hadn't known what she was doing before -- when she said that water was over there.

At her prompting nips, Charles came into motion again and started going towards the water. He didn't want to stink forever, after all. He nodded and started hurrying towards the water, eager to get the stink of shame off him. Charles was happy when he got to the water and put a paw in it first. It was rather cold, honestly, and he wasn't much looking forward to getting in there, but after a second or two of pondering he tiptoed in and sat down so he could get his stinky flank into the water anyway.

Dis baby keeps trying to eat my activity and brain both, here, sorry!  >.<  So slow, I know

A decidedly skeptical look flashed across her face at Charles's I get that, though Brou didn't so much as glance back at him in the process, which left it an open question whether the kid actually saw or not. Brou rather doubted it—doubted he had seen it, and even more strongly doubted that he "got it" in any real sense. Charles seemed way too oblivious and inept to appreciate the nuances of a situation like hers, on the whole, though on some level Brou appreciated the attempts at sympathy anyhow.

The irony that she herself failed to appreciate, of course, was that while she was busy dwelling on the deep obliviousness of Charles in her mind she managed to completely miss his own tailtwitch of obvious discomfort. Go figure.

She did pay a lot closer attention to his entry into the water, though. She and her snippy teeth were somewhat mollified by the speeding up of his pawsteps, and she stepped up her own pace immediately to match. Hot on his heels, she halted quite abruptly at the whooshing brook's edge: she didn't wanna go in there; that water was cold this time of year! She hovered there with a beady eagle eye pinned to Charles's form, however, followed by an impatient Hurry up, you, accompanied by another warning nip when the boy hesitated after the chilly stream struck his toes.

It didn't take very long at all in reality for Charles to wade in fully, and even to settle his rump down into the gurgling waters. Brou watched this approvingly but even so could
not help but bossily intrude once more, brisk and businesslike: Right, now you gotta get in there and scrub your butt against those rocks. That'll help keep you from freezing there too. Which was more than a bit exaggerated, sure, given that it was not in fact the dead of midwinter, but Brouhaha figured it helped to emphatically get her point across. And made her sound more authoritative to boot. Right? Right. She squinted haughtily at Charles to make sure he was following her instructions to the letter.

no problem <3

She was an impatient girl, not entirely unlike Mother, although mostly in patience span and bossiness. Charles didn't tell her that -- it was not like it would mean anything for her anyway, after all -- but he could not help but think that as he was nipped and commanded into the water. It was cold but he sat down so that he could scrub the piss off anyway. Hopefully it wouldn't still be smelly, though he did not really notice such things much himself. He just didn't want Mother to be upset when he got home.

Brou suggested that he scrub his butt against the rocks in the cold water, and Charles glanced at the rocks. It was hard to decipher from his face what he was thinking while he contemplated whether or not he would amuse her with that. Maybe it would help, but he wasn't so sure that Brou was a very big authority when it came to these matters, anyway. He wasn't so sure what she meant, did she mean his butt would freeze over if he didn't move against the rocks?

... But in the end Charles glanced at the rocks for a few seconds longer and then decided to do it, because the thought of not doing what she asked was a lot more daunting than simply following bossy Brou's commands. Charles moved over and started rubbing his flank against the stones, right where he had fallen into his own piss.

She kept her tail kinked high at a bossy angle she preferred to think of as authoritative and businesslike. She cleared her throat impatiently and pinned him with an assertive eye lasering him through with a you better hurry up there or ELSE look, and then backed off a few hairs and watched both haughtily and approvingly as he followed her instructions. Her high, stiff tail even unkinked itself slightly to give a small brief wag, and the hint of a smile played about the corners of her lips. But she still couldn't help but add pushily, And make sure you get the spot right up there on your left flank, too! Euw! She pointed her long needlenose at the patch in question, which may or may not have actually had any filth remaining on it but nonetheless Brouhaha wanted to be sure.

Well, that and flexing her muscles of authority with someone young and meek enough to capitulate to her bullying was kinda fun she had to admit. It was probably a good thing her own mother wasn't here to see this; Brou could understand a little better why Arbiter liked throwing orders around so, now. (Not that she was really any more inclined to pay attention to them now, mind you, but she could at least comprehend some of that heady power high that came along with them, ey? Why else would somewolf bother, after all? Simply making things orderly and predictable and safe was surely far too boring an answer to be true, after all.)

...Scrub harder, barked Brou, a little more snappishly than was truly warranted, especially since it wasn't as if Charles here had actually challenged any of her orders in any real way—but, well, thinking of her mother made Brou a little crabby, and Charles here was such a convenient target who seemed unlikely to punch back at her. Now that she was paying a little more attention to the outer world rather than the inner, however, Brou's attention was diverted from her target of convenience to the small muddy shadow that seemed to be flickering and wending its way toward Charles's unsuspecting rump, slowly but surely. Huh, mumbled Brou softly as she squinted and leaned in a bit closer to try and ascertain what it was. She didn't consciously decide not to warn Charles; it was just that, well, he didn't seem the sort to take decisive action in any case. On some level her subconscious had firmly slotted him into the category not just of being able to be pushed around by her orders but somehow now also actively needing them. Thus without ever truly thinking it through her mind was settled that Brou herself had better figure out what was up first, and then she could tell this Charles boy what if anything to do about it.

The funny named girl was sure being quite bossy. Charles was used to that though and somehow it was a comfort zone of sorts that she would boss him around. He did what he was asked, but sometimes missed a spot just to see how she would respond to that.

He didn't notice the shadow at all, but he did vaguely hear the 'huh' and asked, What? as he looked up towards Brouhaha -- therefore noticing the shadowy spot even less.

When it reached him and he felt a nibble on his toes Charles screeched a surprised Aaayeek! with a high-pitched shrill voice and dashed out of the water, tail tucked; leaving behind a very flustered fish that quickly turned tail and left from where it came, too.

There was half a beat before Brou replied, almost getting the warning in in time...

You missed a spot. THERE. She jabbed a shining black nose indictively again. And...

But almost didn't quite cut it. With the most dramatic shriek Brou'd ever heard the boy practically levitated himself out of the water; obviously Mr. Fishy had made contact. Brouhaha rolled her eyes. Well no one's gonna catch that fish now, she noted, a little disgruntled. It had looked pretty fat and tasty, too—imaginatively filling out more with every passing moment since it had vanished, in fact, naturally. You big baby. And what're you doing, Stinkbug?! You're not done yet!

She was pretty strict; what did she care how clean he was, anyway? Charles felt mixed towards it, and paused with a frown as she mentioned he had missed a spot. He contemplated talking back when the fish got to him instead and he jumped up.

While he dashed out of the water, the fish went opposite direction. Charles didn't see it, so he didn't realise there'd been a fish at all until Brouhaha mentioned there was a fish. He turned around, tail uncurling from his butt as he looked blinking towards the water. Then he looked at Brouhaha as she called him a big baby and said he wasn't done yet. No, Charles said as he stared at her. His muscles tensed after he had said it, and he stared straight at her, making eye contact, while he waited to find out what she would do next. Would she physically force him to wash? Shout at him more? Or turn away in indifference?

Oh, so the creature did have a spark of resistance in it yet! Brou had been more focused on the fish, wondering if perhaps it might yet be catchable after all, and for an instant was taken aback, almost having forgotten to factor in Charles to her calculations at all.

This, of all the places and times, though, was where he defiantly chose to make a stand? Brouhaha rolled her eyes in exasperation in the face of his own assertive stare. You're gonna stink forever if you don't go back in the water and finish, stupid! Sheesh, what kinda wolf's afraid of a lil ol' fish anyway? Hah! That's just pathetic. Brouhaha sniffed haughtily. She hadn't had any sort of plan in place for this, not really, but the answer seemed to be when in doubt, fall back on making fun of them and laughing in their face. Although this was pretty mild stuff, comparatively speaking: Charles was still just an easy target, not truly a thorn in her side deserving her full attention and excoriation, not like (say, for instance) one of her obnoxious brothers.

Brou's own tail remained rather loose, her stance confident but relatively neutral in the face of Charles's challenging self-assertion. Is that really what you want everyone to think though? Brou asked scornfully. That you're too 'fraid of some dumb fish to actually gitcherself clean? Sheesh!

She didn't physically attack him; only ridiculed him. This wasn't exactly unfamiliar territory for Charles, and he knew how to play this game. It was easy enough to fall in line. This was just like at home with mother, after all. She might even tell him the San the same thing when he'd come home after this.

After she finished ranting at him about how disgusting and scared he was he looked her straight in the eye and said, It isn't because of the fish. It's because you're a total bitch and I'm not gonna do what you say anymore. Again it felt as though all the air was sucked from his lungs and Charles stared at her, holding his breath, and waiting to see what she would do or say next.

Again, Brou was rocked back on her metaphorical heels by Charles's sudden stubborn change in demeanor. Where was all this sudden backbone coming from?! Certainly Brou hadn't been prepared for it—and heck, all she'd been telling him to do was wash himself off thoroughly! Well, okay, and laughing about his fear of fish and all that other crap and nonsense, but— close enough. Except apparently, it wasn't.

For a moment Brou just stared at him with her mouth slightly agape and her blue eyes wide with the shock of his tone as well as his words. It took a moment for the words themselves to really sink in, as her brain and eyeballs first struggled to absorb his quietly forthright stance and assertive gaze and tone. Who the hell are you, kid, and what ever did you do with that wimpy boy Charles?!  Then as the import of his words began to sink in, Brou started to incoherently splutter in indignation.

Wh— well I— what the— what the heck?! You— you take that back! She actually went so far as to stomp her singular white foot as she bristled and stepped forward to glare self-righteously at him, suddenly a considerable slice more serious herself. These were fightin' words, they were. How dare Charles point out what a jerk she'd been being to him all along! Suddenly all of this wasn't nearly so funny or fun. And that, too, offended Brouhaha, probably more than any other aspect of any of this: how dare Charles dare to stand up to her and ruin what had in her mind been a perfectly acceptably entertaining and fun day. Boys! Wasn't that just like them! Ugh.

I think you're still just trying to cover up how scared you are of those slimy scaly little fishies, you wimp, she added with a sneering upcurl of her lip to most prominently display one bright white fang. So there. ...Brou didn't really even believe her own words, here, but she did think maybe if she prodded him about it enough it might still prove to be a sore spot for his pride and have him collpasing back into agreeable malleability once more, any moment now. Maybe? Who knew. She wasn't certain what she was doing; not so much acting as simply reacting in the moment. Despite Brou's continued and ever-more-prickly assertiveness of her own Charles really had the upper paw here at the moment, if he only wished to sieze it.

It felt so good when Brouhaha seemed taken aback at first. But then he didn't really know what to do next. Maybe he should continue to stick up for himself, but what would he say? Uncertainty grasped at his hackles, as he wasn't really sure what to do next. Charles was not used to be in charge at all. He looked both taken aback and glad to see that he had made Brouhaha stumble over her words this time.

No, Charles said when she said that he should take it back, though he didn't say any more while he tried to figure out what to do with his newfound power.

She repeated what she had said before and Charles just stared at her and blinked. He didn't really know what to say, but he also knew that it would be like losing to go into a discussion with her right now. Instead, he decided that he should run away, as he was starting to feel less safe. You only say it because you're scared! And Brouhaha is a dumb name anyway! Then Charles turned away and he started to dash off, the one thing he was pretty alright at with his long legs and aerodynamic body. His tail was between his hind legs, showing how scared he really was that she would come after him and beat him, but he kept running running running, hoping that he would get home safe.

'No'?! No?!?! Bewilderment and what little levity was left in Brou's face were fast evaporating as she instead offered one upcurled lip. Take. It. BACK, she gritted out, eyes glittering as she stepped stiffly forward. She was so sure that if she just pressed him enough the old way-more-fun wussy version of Charles would reappear. Though did she have to whup it outta him now? Despite her glaring and obvious threats Brou was scrambling to envision what that might look like, in her mind—she'd never been in a real tussle, not really, but hey if this bratty boy was gonna make her defend her honor she supposed there was no time like the present. He couldn't have any more alternate identities up his furry sleeves, right?! Surely not. Surely there was no way she would lose if this wimpy guy was really going to insist on picking a fight...

She was caught flat-footed when instead he did pretty much the exact opposite, whipping tail-about and fleeing instead. For a heartbeat or two Brou just stared angrily after him, affronted as much by this next sudden shift of his as anything, and just when she'd been psyching herself up for a fight, too!  Though how could he claim she was the scared one here?! No way! That—that twerp! He really ought to have stayed here and faced his crimes, by all lights, but Brouhaha wasn't really much in the mood anymore. All the entertainment had suddenly vanished from the day, leaving in its wake only a surly disenchanment. Oh yeah, yeah, you stick-legged bat-eared smelly little freak?! That's what you think! Okay, really not impressive as comebacks went but Brou was kind of pressed for time here, all right? Indeed she already was uncertain the fast-blazing boy was within earshot anymore. But she took another bold step after him and shrieked some more, just for good measure. Yeah you better run! Next time I'll feed you to the fish myself, you slimy dullnosed little runt!

An instant later she sagged in place as Charles whooshed over a small distant rise and disappeared, all the fight going out of her all at once and her tail drooping like a branch overladen with snow. Well that had been a disappointment. Where on earth had she gone wrong?! No...no, wait, on second thought it surely wasn't her fault at all; it was that dumb boy Charles with whom something was terribly wrong. Not her fault at all. But as she turned for home her footsteps dragged rather dejectedly. She had hoped that for once she might have actually made a friend, darnit. If only that Charles hadn't had to go and ruin it all. Blast!