Post by Ashen on May 3, 2009 22:31:11 GMT -5
Characters
Ashen, male juve. cougar
Cael, male juve. cougar
Location
Snowy Highlands
Time
Late Winter
He'd waited all night until the very faintest inkling of morning light was peeking over the horizon, before striking out on his personal mission. The sky has once again faded to a deep, dark indigo and Ashen has only just begun nearing the end of the scent trail. It was difficult to track, and the cub had gotten lost more than once. There is no gnawing concern in the back of his mind that this might be a bad idea, nor is he frustrated by how long his journey has been, or how far he is from his home and family. The only thoughts that pervade are of Kein, and the things Ashen plans to say.
When morning broke, Cael was wide awake and alert. Kein's restriction to inside Amaranth hampered his spirits, but Nayeli's assurance that the boy was doing his father a grand favor by obeying that helped satiate that desire to go after Revan and Malak... a little. Still, even without the cougar brothers and his mother well recovered, the boy is restless. Pacing in the snow, his thoughts wander to all the things so far; the disrespect of his sister to their father, the struggle Kein has had to protect what is his. While young and inexperienced to what it means to be Chief, he knows that Kein has struggled to keep Amaranth, his /family/ whole, from tearing itself apart from the inside out. And everyone else is not helping. Frowning, Cael issues a deeply annoyed gruff and swats at the snow, watching the crystals flitter in the sunlight. And then. His ears roll forward and he looks across his shoulder, neck fur bristling; someone is near...
Even if Ashen knew he's already been noticed, he would not have hesitated. He starts to look around, fascinated by the unfamiliar sights and smells. His body is trembling from the cold, so much so that he can hardly manage to walk straight. His thick bones, and layers of flesh only protect him so much. But it's cold up here when it /isn't/ winter, and Ashen has not acclimated himself to such a climate. He sniffs, golden eyes fixating on the invisible path that lies before him. Is that another cub? “Kaya?” He chirps. Ashen only knows the name of one of Kein's offspring, and he's never met Cael before. At least not so far as he can remember.
The sound of his sister's name causes the young male to bristle, jaw setting firmly and black lips peeling away from his teeth just slightly. Cael shakes his head, chuffs again, this time loudly, and displeased. He is /not/ Kaya. The young male lashes his tail and bounds a few paces toward the voice, moving quickly through the snow and around some of the more hardy vegitation that has managed to tough it out through the winter. When he rounds a scraggly bush, he nearly comes head on with the other cougar boy and manages to skillfully avert a collision with a timely sidestep. Cael whirls to face the stranger; he doesn't recognize him. He's certainly not one of his brother's, and he isn't that other boycub that his baby sister seems to like so much. Cael doesn't know who it is, and /that/ means he's a strange, and /that/ means he's a threat, and /that/ means they don't belong in his /father's/ territory. "Who're /you/?" Cael quips, thick neck fur raised an an unconscious effort to make him even bigger.
The sudden shock of the strange cub's appearance, and -right- in his face, freezes Ashen in place. His initial answer is a sputtered gasp, and the rapid *thudthudthud* coming from within his chest cavity. But as he comes to grip the situation with a little more clarity, Ashen's body language gradually slides away from fear and into defensiveness. His tail flares, his ears sink back, his golden eyes widen. But he really doesn't -need- to look bigger. "I'm /Ashen/. What's wrong with you?" Ashen isn't positive this even is one of Kein's cubs, although the physical similarities are not hard to pick out. It doesn't matter, though. Ashen isn't here to make friends. "Please move." Without waiting to see if the other boy even does as much, Ashen turns to slink around.
Ashen's defensive, and not offensive, posture gives Cael the gusto he probably didn't need. His temper flares almost instantly at the other's cub's reply, and even more when he's told to move. As the stranger cub tries to slink away, Cael bristles and utters a deeply aggressive growl, bounding through the snow to try and cut off the other male's path from going any further into Amaranth. Kein had told him to alert him if any strangers were to come near, but Kein isn't here, and Cael's fiery blood is more than willing to do his father's job for him. At least Ashen is closer in size; Nayeli can't tell him to not defend his home against someone who /is/ his own size! HA! "Get out of here!" he demands, unwilling to let Ashen advance a single step, not after.. not after /everything/.
Rather than angered by Cael's continued efforts to thwart him, Ashen is confounded, and just a bit frustrated. "/No./" The larger child does stop, however. He didn't come to start a fight, but this other cub is robbing him of his patience. "Came to see... the Chie... the... to see Kein." Ashen shakes his head. The most emotional he gets, the harder it is to string his words proper. His intentions of avoiding a conflict are tempered by his rush to do what he came to do, and return before anybody realizes he's gone.
Came to see Kein? The mention of his father's name elicits another deep growl from the Chieftain's son, and when Ashen stops Cael changes tactics from simply blocking the other cub to driving him away. He turns and advances warningly, hoping to push a defiant but wary looking Ashen back across Amaranth's borders through the forest. "He doesn't /want/ to see you," Cael warns, tail lashing in irritation behind him. Kein worked very hard to keep everyone, even his children, away from Nayeli, and has worked even harder to keep strangers out of his territory. To Cael, this boycub is a stranger and worth fighting off, and he'll have nothing else happen to his mother, either! Cael advances again, clawtips itching at the edges of his paws.
At first, Cael is successful in forcing Ashen to back away. The larger cub has been brought up to bend to others cubs, and not use his size to whatever little advantage it gives him. It's the way that the other cub goes about it that gets to Ashen. "Stop!" How d'you know that? Not Kein!" He points out, as if it would make any difference. "Don't -wanna- hurt -you-!" He grits, emphasizing all the wrong words. Ashen is not the best jumper; on the contrary, he is an absolute failure at it. Nevertheless, he tries. Throwing all his weight forward, the cub attempts to leap over Cael. The thought that this other cub might actually, genuinely try to *hurt* him, doesn't even cross his mind.
Instantly jumping to conclusions, Ashen's words leave Cael to believe that the cub actually came here to hurt his father. While unlikely, the thought alone is enough to push the Chieftain's eldest son, quite literally, over the edge. Cael is either unaware or ambivilant to Ashen's slight size advantage over him, and what looks like Ashen backing up for another retreat has Cael readying himself for another advance; he couldn't be more wrong. Two young cougars go barrelling into each other, and Cael is a ball of claws and anger. He lashes out with his paws at whatever he can connect, snarling and spitting at the other cub. Words don't come to him anymore, too intent on evicting this intruder, too intent on saving his father from another attack.
While Ashen may have sheer size on Cael, the latter has speed and intent over him. The larger cub lets out an agitated mewl, throwing up his paws to first protect his face. But they soon join into the fray, throwing reactionary swipes at the other, which soon turn more and more aggressive. He's not practiced at this art, not in the least, and it shows; in every miss, and hesistancy. Ashen whimpers as one of Cael's claws catches across the top of his nose, scratching the skin and drawing tiny specks of blood. He growls, slamming his back into the snow to bring them both to a stop, himself pinned beneath and half-anchored in the snow. Originally, this was supposed to give him some kind of beginning to a stradegy, however the sudden feeling of cold over a large portion of his body stuns Ashen for several seconds too long.
The sudden feeling of his paws connecting with another creature, one he doesn't intend to kill for a meal, aggitates the other cub ever so slightly. But it is that feeling that helps to spur him on, among others, and perhaps when all is said and done he will be able to figure out the myriad of emotions that are running through his body. While clumsy, Ashen's pawswipe manages to club Cael heavily across the crown of his head, dazing him for a moment and taking a few small nicks of fur from one of his ears. It stings like hell, but is unlikely to cause much damage. But Cael's forward momentum is stalled when the other cub effecitvely creates a wall, but it does not stop the other cub from rearing up and slamming down his forpaws, trying to force Ashen's retreat. The thought of killing another cub never crossed his mind, at least, not yet.
After scraping and slipping uselessly on the frozen ground for several tries, Ashen gets solidly to his paws. He backpedals again, but doesn't commit himself to turning and fleeing just. He tries again to move in a much wider circle around Cael, a path that now leads him toward much more rocky, precarious terrain. He doesn't want to get hurt... not any more than he already is. Nor does he wish the same for this other cub. But on the flipside, he wants his journey here to accomplish something more than a mark on his nose, and on another cub's ear. Ashen truly has no idea why Cael is so angry with him. He'd done nothing threatening... had he? He only wanted to see Kein, to apologize. It was supposed to make everything better. Why do these things always end up the way he hadn't intended?
"Get OUT of here!" Cael nearly screams, forcing his voice from his throat as hard as he can, his enraged growl mixing with his words to create a frightening picture of an otherwise innocent young cougar. The tip of his left ear is stained slightly pink, showing that Ashen's claws did a little more damage than thought, but the sting that he will likely feel later is completely ignored. Cael doesn't care why Ashen is here; as far as he is concerned, this stranger has come to his father's territory, to see Kein himself, and to cause him untold grief. That is enough for this son of Amaranth to swell his chest and to try and cut Ashen off at a sharp diagonal, scrambling, and at times tripping, over the rocks that are growing more and more dangerous, more and more prevelant the more they dance in this wide circle.
As their choreagraphy goes on, Ashen's thoughts draw further away from his goal, and settle just on trying to avoid the living obstacle that refuses to give way. With every step he takes, Ashen's size becomes more of a curse. Little things like balance and agility are far away, alien concepts to him, and every icy rock that shifts underneath his paws, drags with it a bit of his courage and leaves terror and defeat in its wake. "No!" He answers back, before his voice decides to leave him as well. "Just wanna talk!" He scurries onto a boulder that -looks- secure. It wobbles, but holds fast. Ashen cringes to himself. "Not fight, not hurt! /Talk/!" How can he just turn and go home now? Not after everything, and now that he's so *close*. Ashen can't recall a time when he's felt so frustrated.
He has Ashen on the run. It's clear that Cael has the advantage now, and the childish anger that follows in his wake is unlikely to give the other cub any leeway. Kein's son bounds on top of a flat, perched rock, on that slides back on him and his flexed paws grip the edges to keep him on balance. But it gives both of them enough pause for Ashen's words to hit him, and Cael's wildly frantic, blue eyes dart to the other cub across the precipice of rocks and shrubs, maw twisted into a silent sneer. "Kein doesn't /want/ to talk to /you/!" Cael shouts back, anger still clearly present in his voice though as the adreniline fades his chest is gasping for more and more air. "You're not family! He /hates/ you!" Cael doesn't know Ashen, and doesn't know Kein's feelings on the other cub, but he doesn't care. Anything to keep him from finding his father.
"Don't care! You're /lying/!" Ashen snaps. His tail lashes, out of aggrevation, and as a reflexive attempt to stay his footing. In truth, he really does believe that Cael is right, that the Chieftain hates him. That he hauled himself all the way up here, braving the climb, the freezing cold, and fiercely protective cubs... it was all nothing more than a wild bid at trying to change that. Ashen's eyes drift to the drop just behind him. If he fell, it wouldn't necessarily be fatal itself. But it would hurt, and he might not even make it back home at that rate. The only -other- ways to go would lead him toward Cael, or to his original place. Ashen growls to himself, his mind racking too hard on getting past this curent situation, that he doesn't even entertain the notion of giving up any more. And it's probably that which is his largest weakness of all. "Why does it matter to you? If he doesn't want to talk, let him say so himself!" That's surely a reasonable compromise?
"You're /stupid/!" Cael bites back instantly, the fur of his neck ruff bristling at the accusations being thrown against him. Whatever backwards logic Kein's son has used to arrive at his conclusions, Ashen is an intruder and here to cause his father harm. While it is unlikely that a cub, even one bigger than he, could possibly /hurt/ an adult male in anyway, Cael is certain that Ashen, like others that have disobeyed his father's commands, will only cause pain. "Kein is Chieftain, and he's /my/ Dad! /I/ know he hates you, 'cause he told me to keep cougars like you /out/!" Again, not entirely the truth, but how is Ashen to know? Kein's son is willing to stretch the truth, outright lie, if it means keeping one less danger, one less irritant, away from Kein and Nayeli. Cael issues another unintelligable growl and launches from his wobbly perch, flinging smaller rocks and snow behind him in a maddened attempt to push Ashen back, unaware of the fall behind him.
Ashen's base instincts drive him back, the immediate goal of avoiding the oncoming cub drown out common sense and an awareness of his situation. If it had just been left at that, he would still have been able to hold his balance. It's the impact of the other cub that throws him back. Soon, he finds, there is nothing beneath his paws at all. The sound of claws chafing hopelessly against rock is all that Ashen leaves behind. His body doesn't fall for very long, before impacting with the ground below, with a sharp and unsettling snap of some sort. All air is knocked free from his lungs, and the left side of his skull raps against something dull and hard. It's enough to throw all conscious thought away, and blurs away the rest of his trip, rolling and tumbling a ways. Eventually he does come to a stop, in a place far from where he'd fallen. Ashen still breaths, but for the time being all other movement is ceased.
Another heavy thud as his paws and shoulders connect with another body, and his momentum carries him quickly forward, claws scrabbling furiously at the rocks underpaw to keep his footing sure. And then, that momentum sends him tripping forward, and when Cael is pushing at nothing but air his paws come out from under him and he falls face first into the snow. A sharp rock grazes against his muzzle, and the cub sees blackness and stars when his already injured chin hits the hard ground below him; distance noises of claws against rock, signs of struggle that aren't his, reaches him but he is too dazed for a moment to realize it. Eventually, he drags his paws underneath him and pushes until he is standing, albeit wobbly, with the tips of his toes just past the threshold of Ashen's fall. He looks down. A deep trail of snow spread out and away slides down the mountain, and far below, far enough for his eyes to squint, Ashen's prone figure. Cael's eyes narrow further, a strange and twisted feeling of elation churning in his chest. The cub slowly crouches to his stomach, chest resting on his paws, and watches the other cub from his vantage; if Ashen tries again, Cael is ready to do it all over. If not, well, then he has fought off an Amaranth intruder, though Kein may or may not ever hear of it.
Ashen, male juve. cougar
Cael, male juve. cougar
Location
Snowy Highlands
Time
Late Winter
He'd waited all night until the very faintest inkling of morning light was peeking over the horizon, before striking out on his personal mission. The sky has once again faded to a deep, dark indigo and Ashen has only just begun nearing the end of the scent trail. It was difficult to track, and the cub had gotten lost more than once. There is no gnawing concern in the back of his mind that this might be a bad idea, nor is he frustrated by how long his journey has been, or how far he is from his home and family. The only thoughts that pervade are of Kein, and the things Ashen plans to say.
When morning broke, Cael was wide awake and alert. Kein's restriction to inside Amaranth hampered his spirits, but Nayeli's assurance that the boy was doing his father a grand favor by obeying that helped satiate that desire to go after Revan and Malak... a little. Still, even without the cougar brothers and his mother well recovered, the boy is restless. Pacing in the snow, his thoughts wander to all the things so far; the disrespect of his sister to their father, the struggle Kein has had to protect what is his. While young and inexperienced to what it means to be Chief, he knows that Kein has struggled to keep Amaranth, his /family/ whole, from tearing itself apart from the inside out. And everyone else is not helping. Frowning, Cael issues a deeply annoyed gruff and swats at the snow, watching the crystals flitter in the sunlight. And then. His ears roll forward and he looks across his shoulder, neck fur bristling; someone is near...
Even if Ashen knew he's already been noticed, he would not have hesitated. He starts to look around, fascinated by the unfamiliar sights and smells. His body is trembling from the cold, so much so that he can hardly manage to walk straight. His thick bones, and layers of flesh only protect him so much. But it's cold up here when it /isn't/ winter, and Ashen has not acclimated himself to such a climate. He sniffs, golden eyes fixating on the invisible path that lies before him. Is that another cub? “Kaya?” He chirps. Ashen only knows the name of one of Kein's offspring, and he's never met Cael before. At least not so far as he can remember.
The sound of his sister's name causes the young male to bristle, jaw setting firmly and black lips peeling away from his teeth just slightly. Cael shakes his head, chuffs again, this time loudly, and displeased. He is /not/ Kaya. The young male lashes his tail and bounds a few paces toward the voice, moving quickly through the snow and around some of the more hardy vegitation that has managed to tough it out through the winter. When he rounds a scraggly bush, he nearly comes head on with the other cougar boy and manages to skillfully avert a collision with a timely sidestep. Cael whirls to face the stranger; he doesn't recognize him. He's certainly not one of his brother's, and he isn't that other boycub that his baby sister seems to like so much. Cael doesn't know who it is, and /that/ means he's a strange, and /that/ means he's a threat, and /that/ means they don't belong in his /father's/ territory. "Who're /you/?" Cael quips, thick neck fur raised an an unconscious effort to make him even bigger.
The sudden shock of the strange cub's appearance, and -right- in his face, freezes Ashen in place. His initial answer is a sputtered gasp, and the rapid *thudthudthud* coming from within his chest cavity. But as he comes to grip the situation with a little more clarity, Ashen's body language gradually slides away from fear and into defensiveness. His tail flares, his ears sink back, his golden eyes widen. But he really doesn't -need- to look bigger. "I'm /Ashen/. What's wrong with you?" Ashen isn't positive this even is one of Kein's cubs, although the physical similarities are not hard to pick out. It doesn't matter, though. Ashen isn't here to make friends. "Please move." Without waiting to see if the other boy even does as much, Ashen turns to slink around.
Ashen's defensive, and not offensive, posture gives Cael the gusto he probably didn't need. His temper flares almost instantly at the other's cub's reply, and even more when he's told to move. As the stranger cub tries to slink away, Cael bristles and utters a deeply aggressive growl, bounding through the snow to try and cut off the other male's path from going any further into Amaranth. Kein had told him to alert him if any strangers were to come near, but Kein isn't here, and Cael's fiery blood is more than willing to do his father's job for him. At least Ashen is closer in size; Nayeli can't tell him to not defend his home against someone who /is/ his own size! HA! "Get out of here!" he demands, unwilling to let Ashen advance a single step, not after.. not after /everything/.
Rather than angered by Cael's continued efforts to thwart him, Ashen is confounded, and just a bit frustrated. "/No./" The larger child does stop, however. He didn't come to start a fight, but this other cub is robbing him of his patience. "Came to see... the Chie... the... to see Kein." Ashen shakes his head. The most emotional he gets, the harder it is to string his words proper. His intentions of avoiding a conflict are tempered by his rush to do what he came to do, and return before anybody realizes he's gone.
Came to see Kein? The mention of his father's name elicits another deep growl from the Chieftain's son, and when Ashen stops Cael changes tactics from simply blocking the other cub to driving him away. He turns and advances warningly, hoping to push a defiant but wary looking Ashen back across Amaranth's borders through the forest. "He doesn't /want/ to see you," Cael warns, tail lashing in irritation behind him. Kein worked very hard to keep everyone, even his children, away from Nayeli, and has worked even harder to keep strangers out of his territory. To Cael, this boycub is a stranger and worth fighting off, and he'll have nothing else happen to his mother, either! Cael advances again, clawtips itching at the edges of his paws.
At first, Cael is successful in forcing Ashen to back away. The larger cub has been brought up to bend to others cubs, and not use his size to whatever little advantage it gives him. It's the way that the other cub goes about it that gets to Ashen. "Stop!" How d'you know that? Not Kein!" He points out, as if it would make any difference. "Don't -wanna- hurt -you-!" He grits, emphasizing all the wrong words. Ashen is not the best jumper; on the contrary, he is an absolute failure at it. Nevertheless, he tries. Throwing all his weight forward, the cub attempts to leap over Cael. The thought that this other cub might actually, genuinely try to *hurt* him, doesn't even cross his mind.
Instantly jumping to conclusions, Ashen's words leave Cael to believe that the cub actually came here to hurt his father. While unlikely, the thought alone is enough to push the Chieftain's eldest son, quite literally, over the edge. Cael is either unaware or ambivilant to Ashen's slight size advantage over him, and what looks like Ashen backing up for another retreat has Cael readying himself for another advance; he couldn't be more wrong. Two young cougars go barrelling into each other, and Cael is a ball of claws and anger. He lashes out with his paws at whatever he can connect, snarling and spitting at the other cub. Words don't come to him anymore, too intent on evicting this intruder, too intent on saving his father from another attack.
While Ashen may have sheer size on Cael, the latter has speed and intent over him. The larger cub lets out an agitated mewl, throwing up his paws to first protect his face. But they soon join into the fray, throwing reactionary swipes at the other, which soon turn more and more aggressive. He's not practiced at this art, not in the least, and it shows; in every miss, and hesistancy. Ashen whimpers as one of Cael's claws catches across the top of his nose, scratching the skin and drawing tiny specks of blood. He growls, slamming his back into the snow to bring them both to a stop, himself pinned beneath and half-anchored in the snow. Originally, this was supposed to give him some kind of beginning to a stradegy, however the sudden feeling of cold over a large portion of his body stuns Ashen for several seconds too long.
The sudden feeling of his paws connecting with another creature, one he doesn't intend to kill for a meal, aggitates the other cub ever so slightly. But it is that feeling that helps to spur him on, among others, and perhaps when all is said and done he will be able to figure out the myriad of emotions that are running through his body. While clumsy, Ashen's pawswipe manages to club Cael heavily across the crown of his head, dazing him for a moment and taking a few small nicks of fur from one of his ears. It stings like hell, but is unlikely to cause much damage. But Cael's forward momentum is stalled when the other cub effecitvely creates a wall, but it does not stop the other cub from rearing up and slamming down his forpaws, trying to force Ashen's retreat. The thought of killing another cub never crossed his mind, at least, not yet.
After scraping and slipping uselessly on the frozen ground for several tries, Ashen gets solidly to his paws. He backpedals again, but doesn't commit himself to turning and fleeing just. He tries again to move in a much wider circle around Cael, a path that now leads him toward much more rocky, precarious terrain. He doesn't want to get hurt... not any more than he already is. Nor does he wish the same for this other cub. But on the flipside, he wants his journey here to accomplish something more than a mark on his nose, and on another cub's ear. Ashen truly has no idea why Cael is so angry with him. He'd done nothing threatening... had he? He only wanted to see Kein, to apologize. It was supposed to make everything better. Why do these things always end up the way he hadn't intended?
"Get OUT of here!" Cael nearly screams, forcing his voice from his throat as hard as he can, his enraged growl mixing with his words to create a frightening picture of an otherwise innocent young cougar. The tip of his left ear is stained slightly pink, showing that Ashen's claws did a little more damage than thought, but the sting that he will likely feel later is completely ignored. Cael doesn't care why Ashen is here; as far as he is concerned, this stranger has come to his father's territory, to see Kein himself, and to cause him untold grief. That is enough for this son of Amaranth to swell his chest and to try and cut Ashen off at a sharp diagonal, scrambling, and at times tripping, over the rocks that are growing more and more dangerous, more and more prevelant the more they dance in this wide circle.
As their choreagraphy goes on, Ashen's thoughts draw further away from his goal, and settle just on trying to avoid the living obstacle that refuses to give way. With every step he takes, Ashen's size becomes more of a curse. Little things like balance and agility are far away, alien concepts to him, and every icy rock that shifts underneath his paws, drags with it a bit of his courage and leaves terror and defeat in its wake. "No!" He answers back, before his voice decides to leave him as well. "Just wanna talk!" He scurries onto a boulder that -looks- secure. It wobbles, but holds fast. Ashen cringes to himself. "Not fight, not hurt! /Talk/!" How can he just turn and go home now? Not after everything, and now that he's so *close*. Ashen can't recall a time when he's felt so frustrated.
He has Ashen on the run. It's clear that Cael has the advantage now, and the childish anger that follows in his wake is unlikely to give the other cub any leeway. Kein's son bounds on top of a flat, perched rock, on that slides back on him and his flexed paws grip the edges to keep him on balance. But it gives both of them enough pause for Ashen's words to hit him, and Cael's wildly frantic, blue eyes dart to the other cub across the precipice of rocks and shrubs, maw twisted into a silent sneer. "Kein doesn't /want/ to talk to /you/!" Cael shouts back, anger still clearly present in his voice though as the adreniline fades his chest is gasping for more and more air. "You're not family! He /hates/ you!" Cael doesn't know Ashen, and doesn't know Kein's feelings on the other cub, but he doesn't care. Anything to keep him from finding his father.
"Don't care! You're /lying/!" Ashen snaps. His tail lashes, out of aggrevation, and as a reflexive attempt to stay his footing. In truth, he really does believe that Cael is right, that the Chieftain hates him. That he hauled himself all the way up here, braving the climb, the freezing cold, and fiercely protective cubs... it was all nothing more than a wild bid at trying to change that. Ashen's eyes drift to the drop just behind him. If he fell, it wouldn't necessarily be fatal itself. But it would hurt, and he might not even make it back home at that rate. The only -other- ways to go would lead him toward Cael, or to his original place. Ashen growls to himself, his mind racking too hard on getting past this curent situation, that he doesn't even entertain the notion of giving up any more. And it's probably that which is his largest weakness of all. "Why does it matter to you? If he doesn't want to talk, let him say so himself!" That's surely a reasonable compromise?
"You're /stupid/!" Cael bites back instantly, the fur of his neck ruff bristling at the accusations being thrown against him. Whatever backwards logic Kein's son has used to arrive at his conclusions, Ashen is an intruder and here to cause his father harm. While it is unlikely that a cub, even one bigger than he, could possibly /hurt/ an adult male in anyway, Cael is certain that Ashen, like others that have disobeyed his father's commands, will only cause pain. "Kein is Chieftain, and he's /my/ Dad! /I/ know he hates you, 'cause he told me to keep cougars like you /out/!" Again, not entirely the truth, but how is Ashen to know? Kein's son is willing to stretch the truth, outright lie, if it means keeping one less danger, one less irritant, away from Kein and Nayeli. Cael issues another unintelligable growl and launches from his wobbly perch, flinging smaller rocks and snow behind him in a maddened attempt to push Ashen back, unaware of the fall behind him.
Ashen's base instincts drive him back, the immediate goal of avoiding the oncoming cub drown out common sense and an awareness of his situation. If it had just been left at that, he would still have been able to hold his balance. It's the impact of the other cub that throws him back. Soon, he finds, there is nothing beneath his paws at all. The sound of claws chafing hopelessly against rock is all that Ashen leaves behind. His body doesn't fall for very long, before impacting with the ground below, with a sharp and unsettling snap of some sort. All air is knocked free from his lungs, and the left side of his skull raps against something dull and hard. It's enough to throw all conscious thought away, and blurs away the rest of his trip, rolling and tumbling a ways. Eventually he does come to a stop, in a place far from where he'd fallen. Ashen still breaths, but for the time being all other movement is ceased.
Another heavy thud as his paws and shoulders connect with another body, and his momentum carries him quickly forward, claws scrabbling furiously at the rocks underpaw to keep his footing sure. And then, that momentum sends him tripping forward, and when Cael is pushing at nothing but air his paws come out from under him and he falls face first into the snow. A sharp rock grazes against his muzzle, and the cub sees blackness and stars when his already injured chin hits the hard ground below him; distance noises of claws against rock, signs of struggle that aren't his, reaches him but he is too dazed for a moment to realize it. Eventually, he drags his paws underneath him and pushes until he is standing, albeit wobbly, with the tips of his toes just past the threshold of Ashen's fall. He looks down. A deep trail of snow spread out and away slides down the mountain, and far below, far enough for his eyes to squint, Ashen's prone figure. Cael's eyes narrow further, a strange and twisted feeling of elation churning in his chest. The cub slowly crouches to his stomach, chest resting on his paws, and watches the other cub from his vantage; if Ashen tries again, Cael is ready to do it all over. If not, well, then he has fought off an Amaranth intruder, though Kein may or may not ever hear of it.