The tawny child had been watching the border curiously. He had noticed that this invisible - but smelly - line seemed to be very important to the grown ups. On rare occasions wolves he didn’t recognize would come calling and the Big Grown Ups (one of which being his mom) would go talk to them. The other grown ups also seemed to be very worried about walking along it and peeing on things. Khalon did not know why any of this was so important, and was trying to figure it out.

It was pretty boring actually. Today the border was quiet, the adults had done their walks and pees and no visitors had come. He was rapidly losing interest in his quest, but really wanted to know why the Big Grown Ups made such a big deal about this line. Him and his siblings weren’t allowed to cross and so outside the line was a sweet temptation Khalon had yet to taste.

Nose wrinkled when his sister called that she had found a deer. That was way cooler than what he was doing, and the ugly head of sibling rivalry quickly reared its head. Still, he had to see this himself and quickly got to his paws and rushed towards where his sister was calling. Huffing a little from running as quickly as he could, he came up beside Euna, eyes widening when he saw the buck and its rather gory antlers. Tiny mouth popped open in surprise and all he could think to say was, ”woah,” in admiration.

Euna almost immediately pissed him off. He was here to gawk in awe at her discovery and all she wanted to do was rub it in his face. Unacceptable. His eyes narrowed and ears pressed back flat against his skull as he let out a huff of annoyance. Honestly, why were all of his siblings the way that they are? Constantly jostling and fighting over who was the best, or the strongest, or the most whatever. Khalon rolled his eyes dramatically as she continued to drone on.

Then they focused on the buck behind her, tossing his antlers and stomping his hooves into the earth. The right thing to do would have been to interrupt Euna and warn. But he was not all that concerned with what was right and what was wrong. Besides, she would have noticed herself if she ever shut up for half of a second.

Instead a sly smile crossed his muzzle and he agreed happily, ”Okay, it’s all yours.” And then he backed way off with fake submission. She wanted to be the one to take all the credit? She could handle it herself then. He would be well out of the way and safe by the time the deer had closed half the distance between them. That would show her

Khalon hated the fake submission, not wanting to grovel at the paws of his loud and obnoxious sister. But, he was always willing to lose a battle if it meant he would be the victor of the war and this was a prime example. He did his best to show how small and wrong he was, all while Euna approached and tried to rub it in his face, that’s right.

He had backed his way into the bushes and whispered under his breath, ”enjoy your prize Euna.”

He watched just enough to see the buck beginning to charge before turning and disappearing into the territory. He would have loved to stay and watch her really collect her winnings, but wanted the plausible deniability of being seen somewhere else. He always needed to be thinking about the long game and not just what he wanted in the moment. He needed to go find somebody else quickly and get wrapped up in some other activity. Leave Euna to fend for herself.