Speak of the devil, there he was- helping himself to the fattest squirrel on the pile. She could swear that he was mocking her with what he selected to eat, as if teasing her for the diet she had so foolishly chosen to take up. The fox-colored warrior swallowed hard, as if forcing away her temptations to snag a chunk of the squirrel for herself, observing the thick-furred leader as he seated himself and attempted to make conversation. The senior warrior had paused in the midst of her grooming to take in his words, eyes narrowing to the slightest degree.

A bad topic for him to strike up.

Vixenleap fought back the desire to slap him hard, so hard that his muzzle would become situated on the side of his face. The last thing she wanted to speak about was those mistakes that she took so much time to ditch, reminders that her loyalty had faltered to the clan that she had loved so dearly. Of course, he was oblivious to the fact that she was truly their mother, and she intended to keep it that way. This was a secret she'd take to her grave, and beyond that, something that not even Lynxstar would ever hear about. Curse that WindClan tom and his charmingly playful remarks...! She had hoped that WindClan would wind up with the little furry worms, but no- Stormstar was too lazy to go out of his way and check his borders.

After she finally managed to relax the tightening muscles in her jawline, the ruddy warrior flicked her tail indifferently. "They look close enough." She removed her hazel pools from the smoke tom and glowered down at her paws, proceeding to lick at them as a form of distraction for herself. Vixenleap allowed her mind to drift elsewhere, keenly interested in moving off the subject of the orphaned pair of kits. Raising her gaze once more, the feline briefly looked Lynxstar up and down with a satirical lopsided grin.

"You're that desperate to get away from bossy grandpa Sagewhisker, hmm? Think that I'm enough to scare him off?" The warrior regained her typical obnoxious demenaor, picking herself up so that she could walk herself closer to her companion before flopping herself down near him in a lazy manner. There was an almost mischievous glint in her eyes as they focused on the tom's tail, but she resisted the urge to claw at it like some pesky apprentice. "We're due for a rematch, y'know. Don't tell me the mighty Lynxstar is afraid to have a little battle practice out of camp. I know I'll win- but still." Understandably, he'd recently been off to war, but the fiery warrior was still itching to have her turn. She would forever hold a grudge against him for not inviting her along to the battle.

"Oh, please, the warrior scoffed when her leader yammered on about how Sagewhisker was old, pulling the whole "back in my day" while mentioning that the medicine cat was nothing more than a furball when Lynxstar first knew him. Of course. They all started out small- did he not understand basic biology? "Physically old, spiritually old, it's the same thing." The fire-colored molly sat upright as she spoke, tail twitching briskly to communicate her increasing derisive mood. Slowly, the cruelest of grins widened across her finely shaped facial features, with sharp eyes darkening as that sarcastic comment she'd been attempting to hold back just barely slipped past her lips. "In your case, you're just both. Most unfortunate."

Almost immediately she rose to her paws, incapable of sitting still like some enthusiastic apprentice prepared to attend her first ever hunt. Or, she was just a cat hoping to dodge any swipe Lynxstar might throw her way after that remark. "So I guess you'll just have to prove me wrong on that statement. Or try to."

Her? Struggle to bring him down before? Nonsense! "I went easy on you." Vixenleap argued in a smooth and regal tone, circling around him impatiently as if she was waiting for Lynxstar to slowly stagger to his paws like some ancient elder. "I couldn't risk burning all of that precious fluff of yours to a crisp. Can't have everyone laughing at you at the gatherings- I'd have to beat them up for you, and that's just rude. We both know I'm not the rude type." Already she was beginning to dance over to the exit of camp on light pawsteps, tail waving in the sassiest of manners.

The red warrior waited with several impatient yet enthusiastic twitches of her thin tail, eyes lowered at she studied her flexed claws with a scrutinizing glance. StarClan, he was awfully slow today- he had to be doing that on purpose, taking his sweet old time to glide across camp like the dustbunny he was. When he shot a sarcastic remark in her direction, the compact feline immediately raised raised her gaze to accept his challenge. "I'll try harder, I don't want to break your ego- times like these won't be as entertaining otherwise." The fire was practically visible in her eyes.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Vixenleap held her place as he passed for several silent moments, whiskers quivering from the energy she could barely contain. She let him pass for the time being, otherwise she'd run circles around him until they finally arrived. At that moment she decided to test the waters, to poke fun at him in a different manner, to let Lynxstar think that he had her attention. "Besides, I think pompous-Lynxstar is quite charming." Her grin was prickly and not at all appealing, and she was sure to give him a rough shove before passing by.

He had to be moving at that pace intentionally, just to get underneath her skin. Well, it was successful thus far, watching him lumber about caused the feline's flame-colored tail to twitch out of her impatience. Thankfully, she was amusing herself at the moment and therefore wasn't too likely to lash out. It wouldn't be unfair to catch him off-guard, now would it? Vixenleap was all about candor and every member of ThunderClan was aware of that. She was an open book....

...maybe a little too frank sometimes.

The compact warrior did not pause in her stride, rather she glanced back at him no-so-dubiously when he halted to shoot that almost charming response in her direction. Please, she wouldn't let that old furball get to her, no matter how handsome she thought him to be. She was untouchable, a goddess of ThunderClan- yet it was so tempting...

"Flattery might get you somewhere, Lynxstar." Her smirk was almost self-satisfied, narcissistically pleased that he seemingly complimented the spitfire of a she-cat, yet there was a touch of flirtatiousness in her low tone. Was it a trap? Likely- she enjoyed getting into his head, especially if it meant that she might be the winner of their little spar. Anything to put herself up on a higher pedestal.

At this rate, she had slowed her pace to walk closer to her leader, sick of circling him like a vulture to crowfood. Once Vixenleap felt that they were at a good location to stop and have a rematch, she swung around suddenly in hopes of intentionally slapping him in the face with her thin, whip-like tail. "Although, I think it's time for less talking and more brawling, hmm?"

With her tail starting to twitch wildly out of exhilaration for their first brawl in moons, the red warrior slowly lowered herself to the ground, pondering her choices. "So eager to get burned to a crisp? I'm happy to oblige." She imagined that he'd be quite a bit smaller without all of that hair, even if it did look pretty good on him. Not that it mattered.

She was longing to put her elemental powers aside and use physical strength against her opponent, but this wasn't the best situation for that. Due to the tom's superior size, he could easily outpower her, no matter how hard she worked on her strength and agility. For now, fire was her best option if she desired victory- and that was what she wanted most. A good workout was always great fun, but if she wasn't first...then she was a lower, and that wouldn't fly with Vixenleap.

So with a sadistic grin, the warrior allowed her claws to ignite, and she charged her leader in hopes of clinging to his side once more.