Disclaimer: This story is based on "Inuyasha," copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied.
Attack
The wise cat sleeps frequently, but never deeply.
She was neither asleep nor awake, drifting from state to state as her wounds pulsed with pain and her energy drained steadily in instinctive effort to heal. Nevertheless, she was not unaware of the environment surrounding her and her two-legged kitten.
Her ears twitched, and her eyes cracked open, as she sensed the youki fizzling beyond the warm fire. Her growl was dismayingly weak, but Kohaku heard it anyway. Fingers touched her head. "Kirara?"
She growled again, hackles rising, as she struggled to roll onto her belly. "Kirara, don't move!" begged her kitten, pressing down on her shoulders. "You're hurt-!"
The youki outside the rim of the clearing flared, and Kirara realized that she had only managed to distract the kitten. Rage exploded, and her own youki spiked in response to instinctual demand. Cloth split and burned as she transformed. Straddle-legged but upright, she roared her rage and challenge at the foolish youkai who thought they could attack her and her kitten.
Yelps went up from the two lesser sources, and the others slid to a halt.
"Kirara! Hey, we came to rescue you!"
"Yeah! Why are you roaring? We thought you were hurt!"
"We thought you were stolen!"
"Did this human hurt you?"
"Hey!" That was Kohaku. "Kirara's my friend—who are you and what do you want with her?"
Oh, murrf! Kirara examined the one youki within range of her vision, and recognized his appearance and his smell, as well as his voice. Oh, them! The wolf boys that followed Koga.
She started to give voice to her opinion of the pair, but her recognition of her 'foes' broke the concentration of her fight-mode. Her legs buckled, and she collapsed to the ground, shrinking as she went.
"Kirara!" She sensed Kohaku's feet landing on either side of her crumpled form. "Don't come closer, or I'll kill you!"
She wanted to reassure her kitten that the wolf boys were allies, not enemies. But her head was so heavy, and she was tumbling head over tail down into the darkness, trailing a final, annoyed thought.
Stupid wolves! Couldn't they recognize a friendly kitten when they saw one?
Author's Note: A somewhat shorter version of this was posted for the prompt "Demand", for the LiveJournal community "Inuyasha's Unsung Heroes." It was originally posted on July 26, 2011.