Skipper cuffed his little sister over the ear.
"Hurry up, Petal! Mother has a squirrel for us!" He chirped as his smaller sister sat up.
There was shifting on the other side
of the nest.
"Squirrel?" Skipper's bigger brother replied with a yawn, sitting up as well.
Skipper scowled. "Aw, shut it, Fresno. You practically eat all the food and never let us have a single bite!"
All three kits scrambled to one side of the nest, pressed together as their mother came into the den, a plump squirrel dangling from her jaws by its tail. Their mother dropped the squirrel. There was a moment of squealing of delight, before two of the kits tore into the juicy prey.
"Mmmmm!" Skipper swallowed a mouthful of squirrel. "This is fantastic! Mama, will you teach us how to hunt,pleeeeease?" Skipper begged.
Skipper had asked their mother
to show them how to hunt every day for moons, but her answer was always the same.
"You're too young."
As Skipper swallowed disappointment, Fresno ripped a chunk out of the squirrel half the size of Petal.
"Skipper is too young." He corrected. "But I learned how to hunt ages ago!" He boasted, before gulping down the prey.
"You learned to hunt one quarter moon ago!" Skipper hissed in annoyance.
Skipper would have torn a whisker off of his arrogant brother, had there not been something else catching his attention. Skipper turned to his smaller sister, who was just staring at her piece of prey like it was an adder. He pushed his share over with a paw.
"You eat it." He offered.
When Petal shook her head, Skipper was shoved aside by their mother.
"Oh, Petal, dear, you must eat!" She fretted over her sickly kit.
Petal just shook her head again, breaking off with a coughing fit. Her whole body trembled. From her ears, to the tip if her tail, Petal shook and coughed.
"Rowanpaw, what's wrong with Petal?" Skipper tipped his head.
Their mother whipped her head around.
"I told you never to call me that. My name is no longer Rowanpaw... It's Maggie!" She snapped. Maggie turned back to Petal, who had finished coughing but still would not eat.
He watched as Maggie gently set Petal into the nest, and slowly groomed her.
Is Petal going to die? Skipper asked silently. Oh, please don't let her die!