In the center of the village, Mo Xiao stood with his arms crossed, his broad chest rising and falling with the heavy sigh of an Alpha who was rapidly losing his patience. Arrayed before him, looking like a row of extremely dangerous, highly indignant kittens, were the panther triplets.
"Absolutely not," Mo Xiao rumbled, his voice leaving exactly zero room for argument. "You are not coming."
"This is an outrage!" A-Li yelled, throwing his hands in the air. "I am a tactician! I have studied the blade! I bit a badger last week!"
"You bit a badger because it stole your honey-cake, and then you cried because it tasted like dirt," Mo Xiao deadpanned.
"I am stealthy!" Xiao Hei argued, instantly shifting into his panther cub form and attempting to blend into the shadow of a nearby cooking pot. He was entirely visible, mostly because his tail was twitching furiously.
