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"...Derix, please stop uprooting the grass like that." The blonde kitsu sighed and put a paw to his temple. Derix had been causing trouble the entire way. Smashing into his legs, pouncing on him, tripping him, and now the kit was tearing the landscape apart, cackling as usual. Xelon continued to make his way to the clearing where the rest of his family was, stopping now and then to nudge his third oldest back onto the path.

"You're only picking on me because the others aren't here," Derix grumbled, dropping the tufts of grass in his paws and sauntering after his father. It was a few seconds before he found himself bored once more, and began to snap at Xelon's tails.

Xelon quickly raised his colorful tails up and out of reach, turning to look at his son sternly. " Can you please just walk normally for once? We're almost there. Then you can smash and hit all you want." He pushed the kit, who had hopped off the path and was now rolling around in the grass, in front of him.

Derix's ears perked immediately, and he bounded ahead, turning around and hopping backwards. "Really? Why didn't you say so?" he called impatiently. Honestly, his father never told him anything. He would have surely cooperated if Xelon had just said they were going to do some fighting. Fathers these days.

Xelon refrained from commenting and followed his son, his eye twitching.

Of course they wouldn't have waited for her. Derix had made sure of that, hogging all the attention whenever he could with his chaos. All of the others had been overly excited for this outing, which led Zweix to believe that things would go rather poorly for her. She trudged slowly behind her father and younger brother, paying special attention to her paws as they fell one by one, determined not to fall. She scowled to herself, listening to her siblings and their chatter. Didn't they know it was a perfectly good day to stay indoors.

She paused, tail flickering as she looked up at the slowly shrinking figures of her father and her brother. As it would turn out, they had been much further ahead than she thought, and in her yearning to catch up and not be late she began to walk faster, her eye on the others instead of the ground. She got hassled enough as it was for her clumsiness, she wasn't going to get called slow as well--

Head over tails, the young kit stumbled forward, letting out an audible cry as she practically rolled to her mother's side, thumping against her flank before sprawling out on the ground belly-up, looking at Sechs with a bewildered stare as she caught her breath.

Mother wasn't going to like this at all, but her siblings must've loved having another opportunity to tease.

Zweix slowly maneuvered herself on her feet again, her stare never leaving her mother as her ears moved backwards, her tails having fallen low in humility. "...Hi, Mom..." she muttered, forcing herself not to so much as blink incorrectly. She only wished that her father would come save the day, but knew in all honesty that it wasn't going to happen. It never did.

Oh well. Soon enough she could get back inside, anyways. It was only a matter of time.

Derix settled down next to his younger sister, mirroring her facial expression. "He does that often. I don't know how you stand him, really." The kit wrinkled his nose as his elder brother whacked him, raising his metal paw to return the blow before glancing quickly at his mother and changing his mind. It wouldn't be good to get her mad when they hadn't even started yet. The blue-haired kit sighed dramatically and took to smirking at his older sister's entrance. What an odd one she was.

Xelon frowned at Zweix, his turquoise eyes searching for any injuries. His oldest daughter was certainly different from the rest of the litter. Whether it was a good thing or not, he still wasn't quite sure. The half-nobody was, however, pleased that she seemed to have inherited some of his intelligence. Perhaps he would arrange a meeting time for them both, and teach her things in the academic department. But for now, Sechs had the stage.

The Kitsu moved away from the kits and Sechs, standing near the edge of the clearing. He inclined his head at his brother in greeting, motioning him to join him. It was nice that Xanul was present, as he would have someone to talk to.

"So... did you come out of curiosity? Or did Verix bully you into it?" He clearly believed it was the latter, and smiled slightly at the thought.

Eager to forget her entrance, Zweix nodded quickly and put her gaze to the ground, guiding her steps with calculation until she, too, found herself in line. She could practically feel the disappointment dripping off of her older brother, and after hearing his conversation, she had a decent estimation as to why.

When she had the moment, she turned her head and shot a pleading glance at her father, knowing well enough not to make her opinions vocal but still wanting them voiced in some way. Her worried expression lingered for a moment, then her head snapped back towards the front, and with it, her thoughts.

They were all going to fight. Zweix was going to lose. It was a simple cause-effect situation.

Nevertheless, she supposed that it had to be done, considering at least one of her parents, and if she had to be here, she could try looking for some connection to her sibling kits. There had to be an opportunity for comradery in them somewhere.

"So..." Zweix murmured, her head turning towards the younger of her brothers. "Do you, uhm...know when we get to leave?"

Derix moved to be next to his older brother, and turned to face their mother for further instructions. "We leave when we're done, of course," he drawled, not bothering to look Zweix in the eye. His tails twitched lazily, a small smile playing on his maw. In his mind, he was cackling away at the thought of not having to face his older sister. What a bore it would have been. Apparently the kit was always cackling, be it outwardly or in his head.

Xelon sighed inwardly as he caught Zweix's glance. It really wasn't the right place for her, but he decided not to step in. She had to learn some self defense, after all. It was really for the better, and hopefully this training would toughen her up some. He gave his daughter a reassuring smile before turning back to Xanul.

"Age and gender really don't matter," he laughed. "When you're dealing with these kits, anything goes." Thankfully, Derix didn't really exert much force when hitting his father. It was more of a playful smash or n**, as if encouraging Xelon to hit back. Alas, it wasn't the nature of the scholarly Kitsu to roughhouse with kits.

Zweix couldn't help but cringe slightly when her mother called out the respective pairs, but it didn't stop her from shooting Nexis a glare for being so enthused about it all. True, she wasn't very good on her toes, and true, she wasn't much of her fighter, but the least they could do is give her a chance. Nexis might have shown some mercy on her, but as she looked at the glower on her little sister, she realized she would receive nothing but pain from her other sibling. Even Derix would have been preferred, as he at least didn't have a weapon.

"Does she really get to use that?" Zweix said, her eyes on the weapon. The last thing she needed was for her opponent to have yet another advantage in the fight, as she was going to be sore enough afterwards as it was. It didn't help that Zweix hadn't come into any of her powers yet, and if she heard correctly, Verix had magic.

Not fair at all.

"Mom, I really really think that I'm not a good match for Nexis, and maybe she can fight the others after they're done," Zweix suggested, nodding nervously. "It'd be better for her, y'know, so she could really fight." Zweix did her best to be sincerely enthused about the idea, seeing as how it could keep her from broken bones or detached limbs. After all, it'd be even harder to walk on only three legs.

What a spontaneous kit Nexis was. Though Derix was also quite random at times, he certainly wasn't as enthusiastic or bouncy. "'Get set' comes before 'Go', you know that?" the blue-haired kit said indignantly as he somersaulted forward to avoid Nexis smashing into his side. Derix was, after all, a copy of Xelon during full moon. And so he was endowed with the same enhanced strength and speed his father had, which was a lucky thing as he probably wouldn't have been able to walk properly with a metal forearm.

Derix snorted as he rolled out of his somersault and immediately turned to speed back at his brother, a wild gleam in his eyes. He made sure his metal limb was facing Nexis as he charged. Mother said no weapons, which means we can only use our bodies... I'm certainly not breaking the rules, came the cackling thought.

Always trying to find loopholes... Xelon thought as he raised an eyebrow at Derix's antics. "Well Derix doesn't really show any interest." he answered, eyes still on his kits. "In fact, I'm not really sure he's magical. Sure, once in a while he might do something odd like end up on top of a tree or make a small item disappear, but I don't think it's enough to deem him a wizard."

He'd taken Derix one day to get him a wand, but none of them had seemed to work for the kit. Derix had grumbled and griped that they were wasting his precious "wreaking havoc time" before he had shot out the door, leaving his father to clean up the boxes.

"But I suppose on the bright side, he can't become some sort of Dark Lord and destroy the world." Which Xelon was quite certain the kit would do if he knew magic.