Not It

Chapter 3

Swiftkit was the first awake, and when she did wake up, she was quickly rising to her paws. Her brown-tipped tail was lashing speedily through the air as she gazed around the den.

The majority of the den was asleep still. She rolled her eyes, prancing over to the elder's den. 

Maybe the elders will listen to me. The other kits don't care about my stories or ideas, She thought, quickly racing faster toward the den. She barely looked at the camp as she raced by. 

Behind her, she heard a faint call.

"Sw-Swift-kit-kit...!"

And suddenly, all the kits came charging out of the nursery.

"Swiftkit! Swiftkit! We want to play!"

"Play with each other," Swiftkit hissed, irritated, "I wanted to go talk to the elders."

"Um, do you know what that-" Pigeonkit began.

"Really? Those crusty, old, almost-dead guys?" interrupted Pikekit, clearly shocked.

Swiftkit scoffed and walked off.

Everyone else tumbled after her. She hissed and slipped into the elder's den. She grinned at each of them.

One, whose name was Lightningstripe, looked up and snapped, "Get out. We don't need meddling kits in our den."

"Back in my day, the kits were well behaved-" started Otterspeckle in an elderly tone.

"Hey, be nice, Otterspeckle," said a patchy-furred she-cat. Her name was Mothfur, for clear reasons.

Furzekit stumbled right into the middle of the den.

"And they weren't stupid-" began Otterspeckle once more.

"We just wanted to hear a story!" exclaimed Pigeonkit and the entire den silenced. Furzekit began to chew on a piece of moss, and Cloverkit rushed over.

She apologized, "I'm- I'm sorry, Furzekit's- not the brightest, and I think- I'm sorry, he doesn't know- what he's doing- I'm so sorry..." She hushed Furzekit, who mumbled something slowly.

Otterspeckle stared at the kit.

The two elders that weren't mentioned yet, Poppystem and Mudpool, shared a glance.

"Story, you say?" Mudpool inquired.

"Yes!" chirped Applekit curiously.

"Once there were an annoying group of kits who kept bothering the elders. The elders were very angry with the kits and began to scream at them to leave-" Otterspeckle started. Cloverkit listened intently, her eyes wide. Applekit's ears were pricked curiously. 

Poppystem glared sharply at Otterspeckle, "Once upon a time, there was a lovely warrior. This warrior was named Elderpelt-"

"Invalid!" trilled Otterspeckle.

"And Elderpelt was very kind but very old. Not many people appreciated Elderpelt because of their elderliness. The leader, Berrystar, didn't like them. The deputy, Leafheart, didn't like them. The medicine cat, Speckleleaf, didn't like them. So they died."

The kits all stared at Poppystem, eyes wide. "Woah..." they murmured.

"What a deathly great story," hissed Otterspeckle, "Now, Mudpool, get these bothersome idiots out."

Mudpool glanced at Otterspeckle rather irritatedly, and Applekit exclaimed, "That's not fair, we barely did anything!"

"Back in my day, kits didn't complain about fairness-" snapped Otterspeckle, rolling her eyes angrily.