Summary: Skimbleshanks has always had to be responsible which explains why he's a little kittenish now (and the favorite uncle). Jennyanydots didn't have much responsibility, so she doesn't act kittenish anymore and doesn't get onto Skimble for behaving like a kit as she does for other older cats (like Tugger). Why? Find out now through their kittenhood! Mostly Skimble's third person pov. (I'll have them age at the same rate as humans since I didn't want to do conversions from human aging to cat aging.) You'll have to imagine the accents!

Scottish Siblings

Theme song for story: Right Here by Ashes Remain

An orange kit with brown tabby stripes tries to pounce on a brown tail and fails miserably. His own long brown tail lashes before he pounces again, hoping to capture the tail of an older tom with a brown and dark brown tabby. His frustration grows when he misses again and again and again. He can't see why he can't get the older tom's tail when it's right there for the taking, swaying lazily while the owner's glass-green eyes stay on the barn where cries of labor are muffled by the sounds around them and the closed doors of the barn. The brown tom can't be in there because he has to keep the orange tabby kitten out of trouble and so he's not in there with his mate.

"Marcus! Skimble! Come in here," a feminine Scottish voice calls.

Skimble, the kit, stops trying to get Marcus' tail and trots forward with the other cat and enters to see a pale orange she-cat with leopard spots, eyes chocolate. In her arms is a kit that's as orange as Skimble with tiger stripes and leopard spots, but her eyes are closed. Skimble cautiously moves forward to get a better view, but it seems no matter what he does to see and keep his distance he can't get a clear view on the bundle and the she-cat smiles.

"Would you like to meet your new sister?" she asks.

"Aye," he murmurs in the same accent, not taking his eyes off the newborn she-kit. She holds out the kit and Skimble instantly loves this new addition and smiles warmly. "She's beautiful... What's her name?"

"Jennyanydots... would you like to hold her?'

He nods excitedly. "Can I?" Gently he takes hold of his baby sister and he realizes that he's afraid he'll drop her, but he can't help but smile proudly and lovingly at her and whisper softy, "Hey Jenny. I'm your big brother Skimble... I promise to always take care of you."

Marcus and the worn-out queen share a smile and gaze at their two kits, their four year old son and their newborn daughter, with love and pride shining in their eyes. Skimble knows he'll love and protect her always and forever no matter what.

-Line-

Skimble nuzzles his younger sister about five months later, and he helps her walk when their father comes in. Skimble brightens up and hugs his father before said cat picks up his daughter and nuzzles her, kissing her cheek. He went patrolling and hunting, but by the looks of it hunting was hard because he only cause one mouse when he usually gets three: one for his two children who don't have big appetites, one for himself, and one for his mate.

"How're my beautiful kits?" he asks.

"I'm teaching Jenny how to walk," Skimble says proudly. "It'll only take a day for her to walk like us!"

Marcus smiles and ruffles his son's head fur. "You're a good big brother! You're gonna be a great tom one day."

Skimble beams. "Really?" he asks.

"Of course. Now, let's go train," he says, putting the mice where Jenny won't get them.

Skimble nods and follows his father out into the field where they crouch and circle each other. They lunge for one another and wrestle with each other and Skimble's mother comes out, picking up Jenny when she gets too close and putting her on her hip and then putting her free paw on the other hip as she glares at the two toms training rather roughly with one another. The mother's eyes glint with worry as she sees the pure glee Skimble's eyes gained in wrestling so roughly with his father, the same look his father got.

"Alright! Break it up, the mice are done cooking," she says.

The toms stop at the promise of mice roasted on a spit. She kisses her son's head and nuzzles her mate before they walk into the barn and eat their food together as a family, chattering about the events of the day and then the males go to the entrance of the barn and the mothers eyes flash with worry.

"Where are you going?" she asks.

"I'm showing him the territory," Marcus answers. "We'll be back before sunset."

She nods. "Okay. Be careful."

"Always!"

Skimble walks beside his father, trying to match his longer strides, but it makes him much slower than usual, but his father shows him the very edge of their territory, which is along a river past the farm's fence. Another two borders was the actual fence, and the last was a fallen oak. Marcus promised that Skimble could roam around the territory on his own one day, but when he's more capable of defending himself. He walks with his father around the territory until it nears dusk and they return to the barn where Skimble hugs his mother and father and says goodnight before he curls next to his sister and falls asleep.

-Line-

Skimble wakes up to quiet sobbing in the middle of the night and he sees Jenny crying. He immediately hugs her to his chest and shushes her and she buries her face in his chest. He looks towards where their parents sleep and they're still slumbering. He strokes her head fur and waits for her to calm down.

"What's wrong?" he finally asks.

She sniffles. "I-I had a nightmare... I was alone and you, ma, and da left me."

"Oh, Jen," he mutters, hugging her closer before he breathes deeply and sings in a shaky voice, "I'll be right here, now, to hold you when the sky falls down. I will always be the one that took your place. When the rain falls I won't let go. I'll be right here..."

Jenny looks up at him and it's obvious she's putting all of her trust into her brother. "Really?"

"Always and forever," he promises, nuzzling his beloved little sister. "Not let's try to get some sleep."

She nods and snuggles closer to her brother and he hugs her tightly before falling asleep.

Skimbleshanks, now seven, and Jennyanydots, now three, play about as usual, not having a care in the world, and play tag. Their mother watches them while their father's out hunting. Since winter's here, food's scarce and it makes it harder to feed the family. The mother now seems nervous around Marcus, always casting him wary glances and getting extremely nervous when he goes out with either of their kits, especially Skimble, who he takes out frequently, but she doesn't show it much. Skimble tags his sister and dashes away, but she touches the tip of his long brown tail with her paw and he has to turn sharply to get a chance of tagging her back, but before this can happen Marcus returns holding three mice, a good hunting day.

"I'm back!" he says with a smile.

"Da's back!" the kittens cry, hugging their father.

Their mother smiles. "That big mouse for the kits?"

His eyes flash with frustration before he nods cheerfully. "Yes. They can full their bellies!"

The kits thank their father and immediately dig in beside each other while their parents go into the barn to eat alone. Skimble lets his sister eat the rest of the mouse and sits looking out at the sunset, his glass-green eyes on the horizon. It's a beautiful day, admittedly, and he doesn't want this perfect day to end. Jenny lays down beside her brother and watches the other end of the sky, watching the starts emerge. That's one thing about them. While Skimble watches one world leave, Jenny watches a new one come. It's something weird that they do, but they don't change it. Suddenly their content world is shattered as the two worlds are one, joined in the middle of the sky, when a scream pierces the air.

The two kits share a look before rushing to the barn where their mother screamed. They near the barn and peek in only to have their entire worlds shattered to pieces. Their mother lays on the ground bloodied and broken. They look for their father, expecting him to be dead from trying to protect their mother, but this next thing shocks them more than anything. Their father stands over their mother with malicious glee in his glass-green eyes and he's covered with blood, but he has no wounds, and his claws are stained with blood while a feral grin is on his face. Jenny lets out a quiet whine and Skimble grabs her paw and runs in the direction of the river border. Beyond that, he doesn't know much more than he can see, but he'll find a way.

He killed ma... how could he do that? Skimble wonders as he runs with his sister in tow. Well I don't care to find out. My top priority is to protect Jenny.

That's his purpose in life, he realizes, to protect his little sister no matter what. He tightens his grip on her paw and pushes himself faster, half-dragging her to get them as far as possible. When they reach the river he stops and looks behind them, ears pricked for the slightest sound and he's keeping aware of any fresh scents that blow on the breeze. He has to do whatever it takes to protect Jenny and keep her away from their madtom of a father.

"We need to wash our scents away and walk in the river for a little while before we get out," he says.

"I-it's cold," she complains.

He nods. "I know, but... I'll keep you warm. For now you've got to trust me," he says.

This time she nods and then they get in the water and soak themselves in the water and Skimble hugs Jenny to his chest before he allows himself to float down the river. They stay like this for about five minutes after they're outside of their territory (a grand total of eight minutes) before he swims to the river bank and sets his sister down. He licks her fur in the wrong direction to help her dry off faster while his body shakes from the cold hair touching his soaked body. She does the same for him and they're dried off within minutes before Skimble looks around to get a basic idea of their surroundings.

"We should be near a a city with those scents," he observes. "We can go there and hide for a little while before we move on."

She nods and they go into the city by nightfall. They find an abandoned building and go in there, curling up and falling asleep against each other to stay warm.

-Line-

Skimble walks up and looks out to see there's a heavy blanket of snow. He knows their father won't travel through this since it's still cold, winter has officially come. Jenny stirs and Skimble looks down at her. This, he feels, would be the perfect hunting ground because nice have retreated into the abandoned building for warmth. He shakes the stiffness from his muscles and nudges his sister until she blinks open her chocolate eyes and looks up at him.

"What?" she asks before she looks around confused. He waits for realization to kick him and she whimpers and tears up. "Why would da do that?"

Skimble shakes his head as he holds his sister. "I don't know..." he whispered and when she's done crying he holds her at arm's length. "I'm going hunting upstairs. I want you to stay here, but if you hear someone come in, run and hide, okay?"

She nods and he nuzzles her comfortingly before going to the stairs. He's reluctant at first, but he forces himself to go and he's on the second floor in an instant and the smell of mice and rats hands in the air, but mainly nice. There's no birds, but perhaps, he thinks, it's on another floor. Either way he scans the area for mice and when he spots it he quickly moves forward and kills it with a swift bite. To get another he'll have to do some work because they're now alerted to his presence... or at least in this room. He creeps into another and kills another. He feels this is enough for tonight before he carries them back down to the first floor where his sister's staring at a corner.

"I caught some mice. I caught one for you and one for me," he says, trying to be cheerful, but it's hard to be cheerful when his ma's dead. "You hungry?"

She shakes her head and he knows the feeling. He isn't hungry either, but he needs to make sure she's taken care of. He sets the mice down and hugs her while she sobs into his fur. He knows he won't cry, at least not in front of her. He has to be strong for her and take care of her. He rocks her gently and sings the same song he did before when she had nightmares. That always calms her down, so he feels it should work this time. When she stops crying he wipes the tears off of her cheeks and murmurs sweet nothings to her.

"Listen... for a little while we're stuck here, but there's plenty of prey. In about a week or two we'll have to leave."

"Why? Isn't this far enough?"

He sadly shakes his head. "I'm sorry, but we have to keep going. If we don't..." he trails off and sighs. "Trust me, okay?"

"I trust you," she promises

Skimble takes her mind off of it by playing games: tag, hide-and-seek, and many of those silly paw games that he'd usually never play. When Jenny fell asleep that night he covered his face and cries over the death of their mother and the loss of their father. He wipes his tears away and makes sure he looks presentable so when he wakes up she doesn't question him. He curls against his sister to keep her warm and then falls asleep.