Hazelkit and Nettlekit
Part Two of the Nursery Arc

"If you three keep getting in this much trouble I'll make sure your apprentice ceremony is pushed back!" The queen hissed at her three kits. "You know that there's a rogue in the territory. Barkstar announced it yesterday."

"We wanted to find the rogue." The first kit said, smoothing out her dappled pelt.

"We wanted to see what it looked like." The second kit mewed, swiping a nose to flatten her nose fur.

"We wanted to be brave and chase away from ThunderClan!" The third kit meowed, puffing out his chest.

The queen was laying in the nest with her three kits sitting in front of her acting as if they did nothing wrong. She hid her face in her paws. She didn't think that she could get more embarrassed after the whole honey incident. I thought that I raised them better than this.

Suddenly, a wonderful idea flashed through her mind. She raised her head and beckoned kits. "I have a story to tell you. It's about kits who went out to fight a rogue."

"Oh, cool."

"Sounds good!"

"Were they brave?"

The mother sighed through her nose. "Well, Treekit, Leafkit, Brackenkit. I'll tell you the story if you get in the nest."

The three kittens climbed into the mossy nest and snuggled up to their mother. This would be a better story than last time! For the first time in a long while they stopped talking. It seemed like stories ere the only thing that taught these kits a lesson.

"Okay, well, one day there was an old she-cat living in our territory. And on that same day two kits snuck out of camp. Their names were Hazelkit and Nettlekit. Just like you three, they left camp. They wanted to explore the forest. Unlike you, they didn't know there was a rogue.

"The kits were afraid of losing their way back to camp, so they left a trail of seeds and berries as they padded away from camp." The kit's mother looked down. The three little scraps were staring at her with avid interest. Satisfied, she continued. "They came upon a rabbit burrow in the middle of clearing. Tasty prey scents wafted from the den. They were so hungry that they approached the burrow.

"They padded in. The walls were lined with fresh-kill. There were rabbits, mice, birds, squirrels, voles, and even a freshly killed eagle."

"That's a lot of prey..." Leafkit whispered, eyes wide.

"Hazelkit and Nettlekit began to eat the prey. From the shadows of the den, an old she-cat rogue approached them, her milky white eyes gleaming.

'Hello, kits,' The long-furred rogue meowed softly. 'My name is Witch. What is yours?'

'I am Hazelkit and this is Nettlekit.' Hazelkit replied." The queen looked down. Her kits looked like they would burst. They wanted to know what will happen to the two stow-aways.

"So Witch let them eat their fill of prey. She blocked off the entrance of the burrow with prickly blackberry tendrils so the kits could not escape. Witch then trapped them both in the back of her den in a mesh of more thorny vines so they could not even walk around.

"Witch kept them there for days, feeding them as much fresh-kill she could hunt. The old rogue wanted to fatten them up so she could eat them."

All three kits squealed and gasped. Even the brave Brackenkit squeaked like a mouse-heart.

"She was going to eat them?!" He mewed, lashing his tail. "That's disgusting!"

"Yes, it is," His mother nodded. She shushe him and continued. "Hazelkit and Nettlekit figured that out. They would stick out the bone of a rabbit out of their thorny entrapment. Witch would feel it, thinking that it was their own legs. So she kept giving them prey, waiting to eat them when they were as fat as a kittypet.

"Then after a half moon, Witch grew impatient. 'I will you eat you fat or lean!' She exclaimed. She took down the bramble and prepared to eat them up. But they dashed out of the way and ran for the exit. Witch was mad and ran after them.

"Hazelkit skidded to a halt. The exit was blocked by thorns. Nettlekit kept running and slipped through them, though his pelt was full of thorns. He ran away leaving his brother in Witch's den. Hazelkit was then eaten by the rogue. The end."

The three kits had horror plastered to their faces. And from that day on, Treekit, Leafkit, and Brackenkit never left camp to find a rogue again.