Honeypelt's Story: Chapter 2 - A Few New Arrivals

Honeykit awoke to dew stained grass that tickled her nose by the entrance. It tempted her as Mistyfall and Birchkit were nowhere to be seen This is my chance to explore!

    She padded out slowly, so softly she had to keep looking down to see if she was still walking. Suddenly, a pine cone rolled in front of her. She couldn’t resist.

    Crouching, Honeykit padded towards it, her tail flicking with excitement. The pine cone was crushed by a black tabby tom that was two thirds bigger than her.

    “Hey!”Honeykit complained.”That was my cone!”She stomped over and leaped at the tom. She was caught by the scruff and swung backwards, tumbling into a small pile of dead leaves patted into a neat line by the suckle den. It was neat no more.

    Spitting out leaves, she glared at the black tabby tom who sat upon the cone.

    “What do you think you’re doing, leaping at me like that?”he arrogantly jeered.”That’s not how you play! Now.”he stepped off of the cone and nodded towards it.“Want to play it right?”

    Honeykit was intrigued.”Play what?”

    “Pine Prey?”he mewed as if every cat knew the game.

    “Sure! Um...Who are you?” She was still learning names.

    He flicked his ear, his blue eyes sparkling.”I’m battlekit, Ravenpaw.”

    “Well, Ravenpaw, how do you even play Pine Prey?”Honeykit mewed as she shuffled her paws with excitement. I’m already learning so much!

    “Well,” He responded, snagging up the cone with a single claw.”It’s quite simple.” He flung the pine cone a ways away. “You have to try to leap the distance that the other player has flung it. That is if you don’t catch it as it passes you.” He crouched, bunching his muscles.”I have to leap this one since I didn’t catch it when it passed me.”

    “But it didn’t pass you, you threw it!”Honeykit mewed pointedly.

    “For example,” Ravenpaw sharply retorted. Honeykit nodded. He then sprang amazingly far, landing squarely on top of the prickly cone. He leaped off and batted it with a paw. It stopped right in front of Honeykit.

    She looked up at him with huge hazel eyes.”Looks fun!”

    Honeykit yawned. She had played Pine Prey with Ravenpaw all day. It turns out that she was particularly good at it. Honeykit had left the battlekit panting.

    “You’re...not bad!”Ravenpaw panted.

    “Go Sticky!”Birchkit cheered with Mistyfall by his side. They had gone to the kill mound that morning. That’s why they weren’t in their nest.

    Now she was exhausted, but satisfied in almost beating a battlekit’s record of hits without leaping. She padded into the suckle den behind Birchkit and Mistyfall, the mouse they’d eaten for the first time still on her stomach. She curled down into the warm moss, almost instantly drifting into sleep. 

    Honeykit purred in the sunlight. It has been three phases. She was seated in the clearing, relishing the last rays of sun-time. Leaf-color was just around the corner, when the forest’s colors would be vibrantly enhanced, and the pod would be covered in frost. 

    Duckfeather and Ferretfoot, who turned a battlecat two phases ago, are tightening the brambles around the barrier and dens with Talonfeather and Willowknot. They didn’t want to take any chances of a cat getting sick during their slumber.

    She would be a battlekit in a little more than a phase, and she could already feel anticipation thrilling her paws. They itched to be out there, walking the forest and catching prey like a cat should.

    She lifted her head to see Birchkit pad toward her, carrying a fat mole. He muffled past the prey, “Hungry? It’s your favorite!”

    Honeykit shook her head and looked down again. She was too excited to eat. The longing thrummed harder in her paws. 

    Her brother sat down beside her and lapped her golden pelt with gentle strokes. Honeykit purred with gratitude.When her pelt was fully cleansed, her hunger came almost instantly. She’d not noticed until then.

    She glanced around to find the mole. Birchkit dropped it in front of her paws, gleaming after the wash.”I knew you were hungry you starved little she-cat,” he purred.

    “You’ve always known me better than myself,”she purred in response. Before she could sink her teeth into the prey, a terrifying battle cry led everyone’s eyes to the entrance. 

    Honeykit’s fur bristled. The drumming of paws made her whip around and unsheathe her claws. Beside her, Brichkit’s green eyes were wide with fear.

    “Riggedclaw! Take it to the camp!”