[Training] I'm on the hellevator

Maea

And I only needed one more touch
Another taste of devouring rush

Maea was not in a playful mood. The rumbling growl that kept issuing from her was a warning and a signal to back off if the other cat didn't want to get hurt, and the change in their expression suggested that the point might be getting across.
Touching ground again after the paw slap, Maea turned to keep facing the other tiger and when the next attack came she was ready. Tail whipping, she reared again and yowled as sharp teeth raked an ear bloody.

Heaving forward, she tried to push Charlie over and into the ground using the weight of her muscled form. Squinting to protect her eyes, the world became a faded blur of color, a moving kaleidoscope of chaos and vexation, where the greatest source of fury and relief both resided in the one thing aside from herself that moved.
It could have been extremely simple, this scuffle. Even pleasant. Only, a tearing, oozing pain somewhere inside her chest kept whispering that this was not going to fix anything. It was only a band aid over a bullet hole, and sooner or later she would have to look at the actual source of this pain.

But the room was so quiet
Whose side am I on?

Base by Skylark, Art by Midjourney