200 words of flash fiction:

“Maaaaaaara!” Farafinleet collided with Coli-nfarin in a wet-nosed tackle-glomp involving arms, forelegs, and a flailing tail. “Kinahran won’ lemme go wiiiiiiith her!”

Klarin-yal, Coli’s sister and the clanship’s captain, helped peel off Coli’s younger daughter. “Well, go with one of the others. Kurah-ral, maybe?”

“She’s wif Kinahran! An’ Ta-Pera! An’ Teecoli! An’ Ravahcroy!”

That was nearly all the clanship’s almost-adult females. The sisters exchanged glances over Farafinleet’s outraged white ears. Coli-nfarin said, “Find your brother and say he has to take you for a half-hour.”

“But he’s boooooooring!” Farafinleet wailed, ears down, while skulking off down the corridor.

When she was out of even keen-eared Kintaran earshot, Klarin-yal muttered, “There’s a privateer in dock, I hear. Mars Rainbow. The girls’re probably off drooling. Little young, but yours is nearly as big as you now!” She grinned at her petite sibling.

Coli frowned. “I’m not sure I approve. They’ve only a few Kintarans. And your daughter is with Kinahran.”

“Urm.” Klarin-yal’s ears went down. “Can’t think what they’d want with bipeds, though.”

“Well, if she takes up with an Mmsar, at least they’ve tails.”

“Yours likes languages. Might pick a Human.”

Their tails puffed, the sisters went to find their offspring.