Whitebark Stream tumble weed

There wasn't much sun that day. The blue overhead covered by fluffy things. Not to mention the tops of trees that lined everything.

Still she had managed to make her way to the den's mouth. Where she had toddled around for a bit. Content to chase wisps of dust, glimmers of light and occasionally her own pesky tail. Although she had not yet nailed the fine art of the chase.

Which led to her tumbling over her own growing paws. With a delicate thump, she met the ground. Stunned for a moment and overwhelmed by the sensation. What did she do?

Winter observed his sister try to pass time, and he was bored. His stormy eyes followed the ashen cub's clumsy movements as she padded around the area beyond the den's mouth, and regarded her with a disinterested flick of a charcoal ear.

Отец had gone off and left him there, and he felt pretty sour about it. The youngster wanted nothing more than to explore whatever magical places his sire spirited off to so often, yet he remained confined beneath his mother's watch. As his sister stumbled to the ground, Winter looked over a peppered shoulder to be sure she wasn't keeping an eye on him too closely and, finding that she was busy scolding Juniper for misbehaving. A moment of opportunity presented itself for the taking, and made a beeline for Storm to pounce on her while she was vulnerable.

The last thing she expected was for someone to come along and take advantage of her poor situation. Very whimsically she hoped that Отец might return to nudge her along. Instead someone pounced upon her.

The sound that escaped her was a mixture of a choked gasp and yelp. A twisting of her neck revealed the culprit. Her own brother!

With a bit of wiggling, she aimed to grab some part of him. Maybe an ear or a leg. However she was happy to get anything she could.

A yowl of surprise came, and the tiny hunter beamed a triumphant smile. His sister writhed beneath his grasp and he aimed to pin her in place with alabaster paws, yet she managed to twist just enough to clack her vicious baby teeth in his direction. He jerked his head away, free of her attack.

No fair! Winter's open-mouthed growl seemed to say, a mere warning. How dare she turn such weaponry on him when he had not assaulted her so violently!? He'd been on the receiving end of Storm's jagged canines several times before and should she persist, he wouldn't hesitate to use his own.

Clearly teeth or claw would not do! So, what did Storm turn to when such things weren't really needed? Sloppy affectionate. An easy enough thing when you were a tumbling child so full of love.

Although that meant she planned to swipe her tongue right across his face. With a loud giggle to follow. How on earth could he retaliate against that?

Thankfully, Storm did not continue to try and attack with pointed baby teeth. Instead she did something that was very much unexpected: she kissed him! From between her lips appeared her tongue, which she managed to trail sloppily from the tip of his nose to all the way between Winter's stormy eyes. He shrieked in horror, of course.

At once he withdrew, defeated, and scampered to the side with his scruffy tail flung high over hindquarters to continue his display of dominance from a safer distance. Winter glared dangerously at his sister, enraged that she couldn't just roll belly-up in submission. 

Not much deterred her from her conquest of spreading love and happiness. So she crawled with her belly against the ground. Rear wiggling the whole time while her tail became a blur behind her. She had every intention of spring upon him to shower him in more love.

Needless to say she was only distantly aware of her brother's attempts at this being a dominance display. She sort of figured that those were den-exclusive. Like when they squabbled for food or the best resting spot.

Out here was fair game.