And yet it kept on. Howling as it continued its assault on those foolish enough to not seek shelter when they were warned. Gale force winds ripped across the battlefield. Wreckage of what was once a building, trees standing tall, and cars upright all thrown haphazardly about and a bell tower now lies in ruins. 

Standing in the heart of the disaster are four friends ash whirling around their ankles. 

Three of the four surveyed the damage with varying looks of disappointment as the fourth narrowed his eyes.

“How could this happen?” Houndheart asks breathlessly, his green eyes locked on an overturned car. His long tail lashed in frustration almost as if he blamed himself for this event happening “I knew we shouldn’t have left. We should’ve been here.”

“My calculations say this was inevitable. With us being here or not it would’ve happened.” Akira chimes in crouching, his fingers tracing the claw marks that are etched deep into the concrete too deep to be natural. Appearing almost as if they were carved out by hand “As it is nature.”

“Tsk. You say nature like this is normal. We all know it’s anything but. Stop acting like you're surprised.” Taigo growls.

“I just don’t understand…” Ratleap starts breathlessly still feeling baffled by the whole situation, still reeling that what he is seeing is real. “But I know that there’s only one being reckless enough to leave destruction like this.”

His pink rat tail flicked.

“And she’s not even subtle about it.” spits Taigo as his ears pin back. The storm howled, stronger this time almost on cue. A violent gust pummeled them, nearly knocking little Taigo off his paws. Debris flew past chunks of building, splintered wood, and glittering shards of pottery.

Then a sound cut through the storm. A war cry.

High pitched, ferocious, and oh so tiny. The four friends snapped their heads toward the source just in time to see a small dark blue creature launch itself skyward, silhouetted in a bolt of lightning.

Tiny fangs bared. Fur fluffed. And eyes blazing with heroic fury “I’LL SLAY YOU, WIND DEMON!!”

And then-

SLAM!

Everything suddenly stopped.

The storm suddenly vanished.

The lightning blinked out.

The ruined city melted away.

The reality of the situation being that the formidable gusts of wind were nothing more than a standing fan with high velocity as it turned left to right. The battlefield being the living room where pillows were ripped and gutted. Feathers danced lazily as they fell to the ground as the couches they were previously perched on had been knocked backward or upside down.

Potted plants lay helplessly on their sides as their soil lay pooled around them and their vases shattered. Toy blocks and cars have been scattered across the rug.

The one at its center is a little dark blue dog baring her teeth. Jaws snapping at the gust each bite is followed with growls.

“I’ll beat you!” The tiny pup yips at the fan trying to bite the oscillating wind. Yet to no avail causing the little dog to leap to all fours fluffing up and growling before tackling the fan.

“Taida!” Snaps the other small dog, his black ears pinned back as he glares at his sister “What have you done!?” he growls his hackles rising.

“Taigo! You’re back!” she yips, scurrying over to her twin pinning him down and nuzzling him affectionately. Taigo, in response, leans back but makes no move to get away from his kin. He doesn’t even growl. But he cringes when he feels her lick his cheek leaving him to grumble clearly annoyed. 

“Aw man…this will be a nightmare to clean up.” Ratleap huffs as he shakes his head. 

Taida’s eyes snap up towards him with the means to greet him but the words about cleaning has her staring him down. 

The room goes still as everyone focuses on the tiny dog. Her ears perked and her tail freezes mid wag.

Her pupils dilate like she’s just heard a command to attack.

“Clean… up?” She repeats slowly almost as if she was testing the words out and frowns as if the idea was hard to comprehend or she simply refused to accept such an idea.

Before anyone can react, Houndheart reaches for the broom leaning against the wall. He grips it carefully with one hind paw and uses his tail for balance. Testing the weight, then gently presses the bristles to the carpet. 

The broom does not last two seconds.

Taida shrieks and launches herself at it, teeth sinking into the middle of the handle as she thrashes like it had personally offended her. 

“Taida, please unhand the broom!” Houndheart cries as he tries to fight back control of the withered broomstick.

“She’s in gremlin mode,” Akira says anxiously, already jotting something down on his clipboard “I truly think it’s best we abort.”

Then the broom snaps clean in half! Causing everyone to freeze. Splinters flying and showering to the ground.

Taida stands triumphantly atop the remains of the fallen broom, chest puffed out, tail wagging violently.

“No clean!” she declares.

Taigo finally scrambles to his paw and growls as he shoves her off of the base of the broom, causing her to topple “You absolute menace—” he snaps, grabbing her by the scruff. Yanking her to the side as she flails and twists and just for half a second, they lock eyes.

Then Taida growls. Prompting her brother to growl back at her. They both lock eyes, unmoving daring the other to make a move when they suddenly throw themselves at each other. They clash lightly nipping and pawing.

The others watch on as the twins tumble across the rug, wrestling and snapping it looked less like a real fight and more like two toddlers arguing over a toy. As the siblings roll about and slam into the couch, they knock a square cushion off and it lands haphazardly near them. Sharing an understanding the pair pounce onto it. 

Two sets of tiny teeth sinking into two corners and is yanked in rough game of tug-o-war.

Ratleap stares on, ears back slightly “…Do we stop them?”

Houndheart watches calmly as Taida swings the pillow with reckless force. Feathers explode into the air and so does poor Taigo, who is caught in the momentum and launched helplessly over the overturned couch.

“No,” he says quietly. “We let it play out.”

Taigo reappears on the armrest, fur puffed, eyes blazing.

“Stop cheating!” He barks as he leaps down stomping over to his sister who ignores him as she looks back towards the fan which continued to blow air. Watching as the blades continuing to spin. Her eyes flash with renewed passion.

“THE STORM IS NOT OVER,” she declares as she bounds back over to the fan.

Everyone groans in unison.