//Un//made

// chapter 12 //

The tall grasses swayed around Rosekit as the sound of her racing heart filled her head. Up ahead, she could just make out the black and grey tailtips of her littermates. She didn't know if they were headed in the right direction, but Spiderkit seemed to know what she was doing. Lifting her nose into the air, Rosekit caught the scent her littermates had to be following – a rank, unpleasant one that made her wrinkle her nose.

In her distraction, she nearly barrelled into Stonekit, who had stopped at Spiderkit's raised tail. The she-cat at the head of the group crept forward to what Rosekit could see was an opening in the ground – a burrow of some sort. The closer they moved to it, the more apparent the scent became.

"Let's attack it while it's sleeping," Spiderkit whispered, claws glinting in the morning light. "It will have no idea we're coming."

Stonekit nodded enthusiastically but Rosekit stayed back, terrified at the idea of coming face to face with a fox. You have to prove yourself, she thought. Just go along with Spiderkit's plan.

Yet, when Spiderkit let out a fierce yowl and dropped into the burrow, Stonekit right behind her, Rosekit felt her muscles freeze up. She took a tentative step forward, fur bristling.

Spiderkit's yowling stopped abruptly, replaced by a frustrated growl. "It's not here," she yelled, scrambling back up to the surface. "I wonder where..." Rosekit watched the she-cat's eyes widen as a shadow fell over them.

She gulped, afraid to turn around. Ginger fur puffed up to twice her size she glanced over her shoulder just in time to see a row of shiny teeth bearing down on her. Terrified, she bolted with a screech. The fangs snapped closed somewhere behind her.

"We need to get out of here!" she shouted but Spiderkit was already running in the direction they'd come from. The fox took no notice of the black she-cat, bearing down upon Rosekit instead. The ginger kit shook with fear, claws gripping the earth beneath her. This is the end, she thought. I should have never agreed to come.

But the fox turned away from her as it passed by its burrow, attention now directed at the ground. A chill ran through Rosekit as she realized Stonekit was still in there.

Suddenly, she was running across the dirt and launching herself at the fox's side, claws scratching at every bit of it that she could reach. It turned its gleaming eyes to her, snapping its fangs closed a whiskerlength away from her and causing her to leap away. She tried again, this time clamping her jaws down on its tail.

It gave a shriek, waving its tail wildly. Rosekit felt her jaws slacken, and then she was flying into the tall grasses. She landed with a heavy thud, her sides heaving.

A bloodcurdling screech filled the air and the kit shivered. Forcing herself back up, she stumbled back in the direction of the fox's lair. All she could see of the rust-coloured animal was it's back legs and tail, which stuck out of the burrow as the screeching continued.

She gathered her paws beneath her, swaying slightly, but before she could pounce a grey shape leapt over her, hitting the fox squarely in the hindquarters. The animal shrieked, body bending at an unnatural angle as it slid its way out of the burrow to face the new attacker.

The scene was beginning to grow hazy for Rosekit but she attempted to blink it away as the tom battered the fox's head with blow after blow, avoiding its jaws without much effort. Then, another shape appeared, and another, until the fox was surrounded by five cats. It looked between them, as if sizing them up, before turning tail and fleeing.