The goopy thing's gallant attempt at an explanation went completely unappreciated by the impatient kitten. "WUH?!" she paused her spitting just to say, before immediately going back to spitting again. She wanted to know when her totally frightening 1000%-foolproof intimidation tactics would begin to work on the stinky! It was certainly taking a while, darn that goofy stinky thing! At least she felt further out of reach of its growing goop.

Which hadn't retracted by the way.

The child had expected it to work like the claws she herself bore on her toes (although only the toes on 3 of her paws, in her experience)-- the same claws she was so eagerly willing to bat at the stinky if it didn't quit being
annoying soon. In fact, about that... alright, the intimidation tactics were definitely 1000% foolproof, and every kind of terrifying in the book of terrors, but... maybe it was time to switch it up? Just maybe. To make it more noticeable, you know?

So the kitten got up and tried to balance on her back legs, lifting her forearms as high as they would go, and batting her right paw (since her left couldn't do much of anything at all) at the stinky in front of her. Yes. This was the ultimate stance, surely! Good for fighting, conversation-ating, all that stuff!

Right?

Ri-- woah-oh-OH!!! The kitten was beginning to wobble!! By some miracle, however, she managed to flail enough to catch herself and stay upright. Now that had to be some kinda magic right there. Cat magic.

@Sniffles

Sniffles couldn't even tell what the small thing was trying to do when they moved to stand up on two of their legs. Their first reaction to that was: No not right! That wasn't right! Small thing was not supposed to walk like that! It was pretty evident by the way the small thing stood, wabbling, as if asking for Sniffles to push them over.

And so, they tried.

Not right!" In a shout before moving their goopy head to try and knock the small cat over.

@Madhukar

The stinky finally reacted to the kitten's attempt at fearsome wrath, but ABSOLUTELY not the way the kitten expected. They shouted at the kitten, which panicked her, already inviting the unbalance in her stance right back in. Then, it came at her, too fast and sudden to have predicted.

The creature, with a surprising amount of efficiency and a perhaps less surprising amount of goop, knocked the tiny feline backwards, quite a ways so, with enough force to definitely leave her winded. All she would manage in that brief moment before impact would be a SHRIEK, and then bam! She'd be down.

As soon as her back hit the damp ground behind, the magic of the felis catus would attempt something more daunting, more powerful. Perhaps it was because of the instinct, or the impact, or the ineptitude of the kitten's magical abilities that caused the result. A weak, but valiant puff of a thunderous roar was produced by electrical discharge; its range barely escaped earshot of the stinky and the kitten. The clap was almost like a single, wimpy ovation extended toward the grounded cat from its own pool of magic.

In other words, it wasn't great, and might've even been humiliating had she known better at all. Both fortunately and unfortunately for her, she didn't.

Well, for now, what else could she do but wait for her mind and lungs to come back to her?

@Sniffles ((I know it ain't much but the post is feeling long already, hope the Thunderclap is enough to respond to? Lemme know if it isn't, I can add more :3))

The small cat was shoved over with some kind of strength Sniffles didn't even know they had. Almost like a gallant knight saving their princess. Except Sniffles and @Madhukar were neither of those things. Sniffles was stronger than they thought they were, and they only hoped that they didn't hurt the little thing! That would be bad! Not good! Wrong! Sniffles didn't like being wrong!

And then a scary noise sounded. Yes, the thunderclap wasn't as impressive as a strong one was, but it was enough to spook the snake to the point of going in protecc mode and swiftly moving to circle the small thing. Must protect small thing! Protect friend! Loud noise not good! Bad! Evil! Loud noise hurt! Sniffles no like hurt! If they had a spell they'd have activated it out of sheer willpower, but they did not. Instead, Sniffles was left to flick their tongue at the air in front of them, only to look around with three sets of eyes to find nothing.

The kitten came back to her senses to realize there was something super gross-feeling and gooey and snakey coiled around it... wait. Wait. WAIT! "AAAAaAaa..." the kitten yowled, feeling immediately too close to the stinky for any kind, shape, or form of comfort. She tried to yowl, but the attempt inevitably died out. The child was still too weak for yowling. She'd been knocked to the ground for the very first time in her life! That sensation would take some time to adjust to!

Feeling bad and weak and kind of hurty, the kitten began to break down into quiet, sad mews. She didn't feel good. She felt all kinds of negative feelings she wasn't sure of how to express. It stunk. Something was making her tummy growl and she didn't know what or why. She didn't understand why the stinky was wrapping around her like this. It was all so scary and bad and mean and the LAST thing she could go was understand it all!

"No rie?! Hungyyy!" she cried out at last, when her breathing was doing better again. She didn't understand anything the stinky was doing but she did understand the word that popped in her head just then: hungry. She was hungry. Her belly was grumbly because she was hungry. And it was "not right", as the stinky had said earlier, although what about she wasn't sure. So, she tried to say it as best she could. Maybe the stinky would understand and help her fix it. She wanted nothing more than for the stinky to leave her alone, but... she wasn't entirely sure how to stop being hungry, or if that was something she could do right now, and since the snake knew what "magic" was... maybe it understood this too?

She didn't know... what else to try.

@Sniffles

Sniffles wondered if the small thing was okay, still laying there on her back like that. Though it seemed to be, especially when the small thing began to yell out despite Sniffles not doing anything wrong. The tail end of the snake flicked back and forth, held up by their body as those sets of eyes watched around them to make sure the loud thing wasn't coming back.

"Loud bad! Not good!" The snake voiced out.

Maybe they should have tried to clear up which loud noise they meant. Sniffles wasn't good with words. but oh! oh! Hungry was something they knew! Sniffles knew that word! Hungry meant food! Food meant omnom eat! But what did a small thing eat? They had those sharp teefers, so maybe something like Sniffles? The snake uncoiled themselves from the kitty cat.

"Food!" They almost shouted again. Yes! Hungry meant food! Food meant eat!

They would just have to find something the little kitty liked.

Mousey mouse. One of those would do.

But oh! They couldn't find the thing they needed!

"Find mouse! Red!"

@Madhukar

The stinky felt it was extremely necessary to tell her "loud bad". The sole reaction that provoked from the kitten was a grouchy ear flick. What loud? Her loud? Her loud was fine and completely understandable!! She was being circled by a massive stinky fiend she didn't know anything about! The stinky was lucky that she was really too tired to be loud again, because she would've -- oh you can bet she would've.

To clarify, this kitten hadn't heard the thunder blam she'd just made. She hadn't even known she'd made anything besides a yelp. When she'd fallen backwards, she'd just gone mind blank for a blip there. What was one supposed to focus on or notice when they'd been headbutted by a giant goopy stinker? Falling. Falling is the correct answer to that question. Alright, maybe a bit of rage, but at least 98% falling.

Her declaration of hunger got the stinky to react in a manner far more fitting to the child's interests, her interests being: not getting tackled and coiled around by a stink fiend, in this particular moment. Also, getting food was an interest right now. Oh! Food! YES! The stinky said it, and its definition came to the kitten's mind. Yes! Food, eating food, was how to not be hungry!

It seemed the stinky understood that. It went off looking for something, presumably food. That was... actually not annoying at all. Helpful, even. Huh. Interesting. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like it found any. Did it want the kitten to help? Uh... find mouse? Red? Red mouse? This was like some kind of game of charades, and the kitten wasn't doing so well with it. Regardless, could she help?

Maybe. Actually, you know what? Sure. Let's go find a mousey mouse! Red.

The yearning for a definition of the word "magic" almost entirely forgotten, the kitten searched.

There was one issue with that, however. Well, actually several -- from the rotten stinking goop that now covered her fur, to the energy that had been drained from her thanks to that minor tussle, she was in no place physically or mentally for a searching spree. But one issue in particular reigned supreme over all the rest.

The kitten didn't exactly know what a "mouse! Red" looked like. So, when she went about using her sniffer, she wasn't able to find anything at all. She didn't know what to look for. So just just ended up going back to the stinky and looking at it confused. She mewed at it, as if to ask... an indiscriminate number of questions, really.

@Sniffles

Sniffles knew how to food! They fed themselves! Small cat was small, so small mouse was best? Could the kitten even eat anything bigger? The mousey mouse would be the easiest for her to catch! But that meant finding the mousey. Both of them didn't seem to have much luck. Maybe it was harder because all of the muck and grime that naturally was in the area? (Sniffles didn't even think about their own stench).

"Find find find." The chanted to themselves as they slithered about.

As they moved something was making noise. Oh oh oh! Mouse! They found mouse!

"Mouse. Mouse. Red mouse." It, indeed, was a red mouse.

@Madhukar

The stinky was still looking. The kitty cat decided to follow it instead. She wanted to eat and then sleep, and having to go through the whole process of finding and then catching a mousy mouse red in order to do that? That sounded so tiring and boring and not worth it... there was no way!

It appeared as though the stinky was having more luck though. The kitten herself would've completely missed it, but indeed, once the stinky pointed out, she could see a little red-lookin' thing. Was that what a mousey mouse red was? A red mouse? Intriguing. It was kind of big, in her opinion -- then again, she was a kitten. Was that what they'd be eating? Mmmm.... she could get behind that, most certainly.

The stinky didn't seem to be moving to catch it, so the cat would just look up at the stinky expectantly. In her eyes there resided a look that said something like "Come on, stinky, you know what to do!"

Hopefully it did know, or else they were going to have a problem. Another problem.

@Sniffles

The small thing's yelling was surely going to scare the red creature away, and then the thing would have nothing to eat! Maybe Sniffles would be considered adharma if they told the cat to shut their face, but they'd rather give the thing something to eat then scare the food off. "Quiet!" In a hushed hiss, accompanied by a flick of the tongue and a blink of one of the sets of eyes.

They then turned back to look at the red mouse as it was still in its spot. Not moving, not yet spooked. Hopefully it would stay that way. And then the cat told the snake to catch the small thing themselves. Well... Sniffles might be able to do that, they mused. They did feed themselves from the creatures in the place, so catching something wouldn't be hard. Unless the small mouse got away from them.

They moved to strike.

Fangs reaching into the small creature, it let out a shout before Sniffles had it in their chompers. Dropping the thing at the feline's feet, they tilted their head.

"Mosuey mouse!"

@Madhukar