Twisted Wonderland Moments

Glare Off (Leona/Mara)🦁🐆

In the Savannaclaw dorm, Ruggie was happily munching on some cheese chips he had 'borrowed' from Ace at lunch.

"Hey Ruggie?"

The hyena glanced up from the bag to his friend, Jack coming in. "Oh hey Jack. What's up?" The sophomore asked, licking the cheese crumbs on his fingers.

"I was wondering if you could help me out. With housewarden Leona and vice housewarden Mara." The wolf started, crossing his arms. "Yeah. What about them?" Ruggie asked, rolling his bag of chips to save for later.

"Did something happen between them? Did Leona do something to make Mara upset, or was there an argument?" He questioned further, earning a confused look from Ruggie as one of his ears flopped down to indicate that.

"No. Not that I know of. Why?"

"Well...." Jack paused, rubbing the back of his head to figure out what to say. It was puzzling for the young wolf, and he thought maybe Ruggie would know. "Maybe it's best if you come and see for yourself." He suggested, pointing outside.

Ruggie, still confused, shrugged his shoulders and got up, letting Jack lead the way while he thought about what the problem could be between the lion and cheetah. They arrived at the pool, and Ruggie's eyes widened, slightly dumbfounded.

"Huh?"

Leona and Mara stood in front of each other, glaring at one another. Mara had her golden eyes narrowed at Leona's bright green ones. The two were silent like statues, and their angry stares were maintained while Ruggie and Jack watched from the other side of the pool. 

"How long have they been like that?" the hyena asked, turning to the freshmen for answers. "I was jogging around the dorm when I passed them and spotted them like this. I've passed them like three times, and they were still like this, glaring at each other." the white wolf explained, slightly worried if his friends had gotten into a disagreement or something. At first, Jack thought they were talking at but after jogging past them a few times with no sounds, he started to realize something was off.

"Really?!" The blonde hair hyena turned back to his friend with his mouth dropping in surprise. Jack nodded yes to confirm, and they looked back at cats, still staring and glaring.

"Ok, well, that's a little weird." Ruggie said, observing the two cats as his brain tried to think of a reason. Maybe Mara was nagging Leona to clean his room again. Or they had a race, and Mara lost, so she wanted a rematch. There were multiple reasons Ruggie could think of, and while he wanted to go in and ask, he didn't want to get caught between those two. Especially with one of them being a female cheetah.

However, after staring a while and his thoughts trying to think of something, Ruggie did catch an interesting little detail. One that surprised them. "Hey Jack. Is it just me, or do they seem pretty....calm?"

"Huh?" Jack turned to the hyena with a puzzled look. One of his white ears dropped to express his confusion. He turned back to see whaf Ruggie meant, carefully studying their body postures.

A beastman's behavior is the same as a normal animal. The most easiest details are the movements of their ears and tails. Though Jack wasn't familiar with lion and cheetah behaviors, he assumed they were similar to what he had seen.

"Now that you mentioned it, they do seem calm." Jack agreed, surprised about this. "Right? If Leona's and Mara were mad, then they would be swishing their tails or growling at each other by now." Ruggie informed, being more familiar with their kinds behavior from back home.

For lions, when they were angry, they would be flattening their ears and whisking their tails very quickly or jerking their tails up and down.

For a cheetah, they would keep their head below their shoulders, which Ruggie had seen Mara do several times, and having a wide mouth snarl with an upward stare.

"Boht, their postures are calm, and their ears aren't flattened either. Their tails aren't making a move either. So if their bodies had no indications or hint of them being angry, then how come they're glaring at each other like they're fighting over a scrap of food?" Ruggie asked, completely puzzled.

"Heh heh."

The wolf and hyena's ears shot up in surprise when they had a sound. A giggle. They directed their eyes to Mara. Her glare was faltering, and she suddenly started laughing.

Leona's glare faded away, smirking at her.  "Looks like I win, Mara." He exclaimed proudly as she calmed down. The cheetah shook her head with a playful smile. She made a small bow to him out, never taking her eyes off his.

"You sure did. Guess you're still the king of glares. But that throne won't be yours for long, Leona." She vowed in determination.

The lion laughed in amusement, about to reply when he spotted a slacked jaw Ruggie and wide eye Jack still watching them. Mara looked in his direction, surprised to see them but confused by their expressions.

"Um hi. Are you guys ok?" She asked, confused as the two kept staring.

"THAT'S WHAT THIS WAS ALL ABOUT?! A CONTEST?!"

The two cats and even Jack,
jumped, startled when Ruggie broke the silence, yelling in disbelief. It never crossed his mind that they were merely competing with each other.

"Yeah, so what? Mara and I do glare off contests all the time? And there's really no need to yell." Leona explained, unfazed by Ruggie's reaction to it. Since their first year, it had been a thing of Leona and Mara to have a glare off for fun. Sometimes, with small bets or deals along, but most of the time, for a good laugh, really.

"You! What! I....Forget it! Nope! I'm not gonna think about this! I'm gonna go find Ace! See if he got any good snacks!" Ruggie retorted, getting annoyed as he stomped off, grunting and having a rattling growl. Leona, Mara, and Jack watched, kind of surprised to see the hyena this upset.

"Well, that was weird." The cheetah spoke, raising an eyebrow at their friend. "Uh, Jack? You want to explain her, bud?" Leona inquired, crossing his arms. Jack rubbed the back of his head, feeling uncomfortable to be left to do the explaining.

"Well, we thought you and Mara had a fight or something when we saw you like this. We didn't think it was just a game." He explained to them. "Fight? No, Jack. We were just having some fun. That's all." Mara replied, assuring him it was nothing personal.

Leona directed his eyes to her, smiling amusingly at a thought that came up. "Hey. Don't forget about what we agreed on." He told her, eagered for his prize. Mara sighed defeatedly, shaking her head at him with a small smile.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll make you your lunch so you can sleep in the gardens tomorrow." She told him, walking away. Leona watched her leave, still smiling as Jack watched puzzled.