Heron Lake Plateau sometimes I can't even see the reason why

The experience that is the act of power slipping away faster than it can be grasped, left Svalinn with a yawning pit of new emotions he'd yet to experience in this context before. Despair was chief among these feelings -- an unhealthy side effect of a competitive nature: taking loss twice as negatively as the average wolf. So far everyone had only been lucky he'd yet to have a taste of victory. His tenacity was already bordering on intolerable; to what lengths would his desire to win take him? To what depths?

With Raleska's escape and his subsequent fumbling (both physically and mentally), Svalinn was ill-prepared for his sister's counterattack and met her rather clumsily for their toothy dance. He recovered mid-action, trying to meet her raptor-like swiftness while  using what he had of his weight and toleration for abuse to shove her back. He wasn't quite strong enough to be successful in overpowering his sable sibling, but nor did she seem to have the strength still to send him reeling as easily as in weeks previous. He growl-laughed, finding this game more fun now that winning seemed to be in his view.