I hope you enjoy this twist! I love all animals so reading about the badger cubs in Twilight sparked an idea for a small one-shot. And here it is! What happens, and the characters (the cats anyway) are from Erin Hunter's Twilight, I simply changed the story from Squirrelflight's perspective to a badger's. It's a bit short... okay a lot short, especially for a one-shot, but here we are anyway. Enjoy!
Apple sat nervously with her brothers, hoping Mother would be back soon. Her brothers, Rock and Stick were scuffling around in the mud their mother had dug up.
"Where is she?" Stick squeaked.
"She has been gone for too long" added Rock.
"Maybe she found some good beetles." Apple suggested, trying to sound confident. "We haven't eaten good beetles for a while."
"Yeah, maybe" Rock squeaked, still not convinced.
Apple smelled the air, hoping to smell her mother approaching. Instead she smelled something that made her black and white fur crawl. Cats!
"R-Rock?" she stammered "Do you smell that?"
Rock lifted his nose, his small black eyes sparkling with fear.
"Cats!" he screeched.
Apple remembered what Mother had told her. That cats had chased many badgers away from their homes, that many badgers were left wandering looking for homes. She had told them that the cats were far away and that they would be safe here. But it looked like she was wrong. Apple squeaked loudly in fear. She spotted a brown striped cat peering over the top of a stone. As she watched the cat quickly disappeared. Apple squeaked again, louder this time. Rock and Stick joined in. Apple tensed as she heard rustling in nearby bushes, expecting the worst.
To her relief it was Mother, returning with beetles. She stomped over, following Stick and Rock and began to eat the beetles Mother had found. Suddenly a loud yowl startled Apple and she turned to see the cat on the rock again, peering down at them with hatred. Mother glared at them, pushing Apple and her littermates behind her. Apple watched the brown striped cat yowl again, signaling to more cats which burst from the bushes. Apple crouched to the ground, shaking with fear as the cats launched themselves onto Mother.
Mother tried to shake them off. She slammed her large, powerful paws on the ground, trying to hit a cat. Apple closed her eyes tightly. She did not like the cats taking over badger territory, but she could not watch Mother kill one. She opened her eyes to see a dark ginger cat scratch Mother's side, causing her to bleed. Apple shut her eyes again, only opening them when a screech of alarm sounded from the ginger cat, who was now shaking as it rolled away from Mother's paw that had slammed down. Two gray cats were also there, slashing at Mother with small but quick paws. The brown striped cat leaped into the air, close to Mother's throat. But she shook it away, causing it to fly through the air, landing with a loud thud. He got to his paws again though, and the ginger cat slashed at Mother's eyes and nose. The cats bit onto Mother's legs. She shook them off and stomped away, gathering Apple, Rock, and Stick.
"Come" she grumbled, leading the way away from the cats.
Apple looked back at the cats, who were staring after them, yowling victoriously.
"Where are we going?" Stick questioned.
"I don't know" Mother sighed, stomping through the pebbly ground.
Apple looked back again. For a second she thought she could see sympathy in the ginger cat's eyes. She shook her head. A cat wouldn't know what it felt like to be chased away from your home. Would it?