The shock delivered through his paw and up Barb's arm was a restrained one, fortunately, and did little to exert the energy maintaining his being -- but the giggling that followed at the cougar's yelp was primed and ready to strain his damaged lungs. Combined with hollow wheezing and a shrill vocal chords, his laugh was an ear-piercing noise, seeming to reverberate off itself as he toppled back on his haunches, hugging his aching chest. It hurt like hell to laugh, but the boy couldn't care less. Her reaction wasn't the best he'd caused, but it was enough to find humorous in his eyes.

    Learned instinct guided him to flinch back even as he snickered and snorted, anticipating angered shouting or even a blow. He could still remember the crunch of breaking cartilage when an unlucky victim of his early, innocent pranks had punched him straight in the face. And despite his best efforts at resetting his broken and bleeding nose, it healed crooked and left him with a subtle defect on his then-unscathed features. The first scar of many, and he wasn't too keen to go through it again. But there was no retaliation; when he dared to meet her gaze again, she was grinning back at him, sharing his amusement. That was new. "Y'ain't mad?" Beck tested with a wavering giggle, slinking back up to Barbedwire. She liked his excuses for pranks? A dangerous idea that would fuel his mischief, more so than before. Maybe they would get along after all.

    Others stepped forward to introduce themselves, to which the grimy feline recoiled from in order to make room for the greeting clanmates. Honey-brown eyes glanced over the semi-blurred figures with a growing boredom replacing his previous mirth, and a disinterested pout crossed his freckled face. Not wanting to idle at the border forever, Beck rocked back and forth on his paws in anxious wait for them to conclude their chit-chat and interrupted with a rasp, "Yeah, well, I 'reckon' we get ya to our camp, it's gonna get dark soon." He didn't mind the dark, in fact he reveled in it, but no sane person would want to stay out in a toxic swamp teeming with dangers when the sun set. Even if most Tanglewood members weren't completely sane. With that, the commander turned on his muddy heel and began to stalk off back into the ferns, taking his magpie with him.