Beetle That Crawls Near Home

"Tumble, don't leave my sight. And don't play with those kits over there, you're too little".

"Okay Motha!"

Gentle Little Tumbleweed, a small she-kit, was still so young, and she didn't know how the world worked. All she knew was the world was a scary place, and her mom was always guarding her from danger. Despite most kits not being allowed to leave the Nursery that sat at the back of the tribe's cave, the walls of the cave were not what held her back. Her walls were not physical, but the other cats in the Nursery could see them clear as day. She was unaware of just how small her world really was.

Tumble shook out her white and cream fur after she climbed out of the family nest, the force from the action made her lose her footing and she stumbled over her paws to avoid falling. She looked back at her Mother with a smile, letting the usually worried she-cat know that she was okay. The white and yellow Queen gave a glance that said "What?" So Tumble knew it was okay to proceed.

The young cat stepped away from the nest, about a tail-length away, and sat down to look around. There wasn't much going on in the Nursery, some families were resting, some kits were playing around, and some older cats laid nearby as they watched the fireballs roll about. The other kits in the Nursery usually didn't come up to her, either they were too scared to get near her Mother, or she shoos them away for playing too rough. Wheat, her brother, was the sleepiest kit the Nursery had ever seen, so she couldn't rely on him to play with.

She looked over at the Nursery exit. She remembers overhearing other kits talking about imaginary friends, maybe that was a good idea, she could pretend! She tried to envision the friend: "I want them to be a cat! With light blue fur! I like light blue".

As hard as she tried, her mind was stuck on the sight of a black cat with red eyes, she tried harder to give them blue fur, but it was just too hard. "That's fine, I guess," she thought, "They can't change their fur color".

She focused back on the Nursery exit and imagined this cat walking in, she looked shy. Tumble's tail bobbed up and down, "This is so cool! Oh!" she realized something, "She needs a name!" She looked around the Nursery, there wasn't much to go off of, unless she wanted her friend's name to be Cave. Her new friend looked like a spider, but spiders were scary, she needed something that was like a spider but not scary. "Beetle! Beetle.. That… Crawls! Near.. Home".

The imaginary black cat came and sat  next to the young kit, who was beaming like morning dew on a flower.

"Hi Tumble," Tumble mumbled, pretending Beetle was talking, "What should we do?"

"Motha showed me this thing on my foot an' said it was a birthmark," she rolled onto her back, struggling to get herself to stop kicking so she could grab her paw paw with her fore-paws. She pointed at the brown patch on her paw-pad with her claw, "See? Motha says it looks like some grass, I think it's a mouth with lots of teeth".

Beetle looked at her paws, she looked sad, "I don't have a birthmark, I wasn't made- I wasn't born with one".

The little kit rolled back onto her paws, feeling guilty that the first thing she did was make her friend feel bad, "Oh, well, it's not all that great, it doesn't do much; they're not real teeth. But! But you have red eyes and they look really cool! I wish I had them, they look like really pretty flowers". Beetle was happy now.

"Tumble stay in the nest," Sunflower interrupted their playtime, "It's time to eat".

Tumble got to her paws and shook out her fur again.

"Tumble!"

"Okay Motha!"

Sunflower let out a small grunt, but walked away when Tumble hopped into the nest.

"Sometimes I like to play with the grass," she told Beetle, "They look like stick-flies". She batted at one of the blades of grass that stuck up out of the nest; each time she let go it would stick back up, she continued this until it had flattened.

Returning, Sunflower looked annoyed, a fish hanging from her maw. She dropped it down in front of the nest and started to cut off the scales with her claws. She grumbled as she cut: "Can't those damned hunters catch anything other than fish? I need more than one sort of food. If I have to eat fish one more time this quarter-moon someone is losing an ear".

Once the fish was fully descaled and deboned, Sunflower tossed two slices of fish out in front of the nest. "Wheat, Tumble, come eat. Sorry you have to eat fish again".

Tumble didn't mind having fish again, food was food to her. "C'mon, Beetle," she mewed to the imaginary cat with her, crawling out of the nest. She rolled over to the fish piece for her, her claws were too little to cut a piece like her mom could, but her teeth worked just fine. She chomped down a piece of the fish and ripped it away, dropping it beside her. "There you go, Beetle," she motioned to the piece on the floor, "That's your piece".

"Tumble don't talk while you're eating, you'll choke on your food". The Queen was focused on her own food, she wasn't looking at her kits at the moment.

"Okay Motha!"

The little kit returned her attention to her own food; fish had so much flavor, she didn't understand why her mom wouldn't want it. She looked over to the fish piece beside her, Wheat still wasn't up.

It was like she could read her mind, as Sunflower turned towards the fish piece as well. "Wheat!" her tone was agitated, "Get up and eat!" 

Wheat groaned from within the nest, his movement sounded slow and heavy.

When the tortoiseshell kit made it to their fish piece, the she-cat turned her attention towards Tumble, and the piece of fish next to her. "Tumble, what's that piece there? Is there something wrong?"

Tumble's ears perked up when her Mother was talking to her. "Huh? Oh! That's for Beetle, she's hungry too".

"Beetle?" The white she-cat's fur prickled.

"Yeah, she's my new friend. She's a black cat with red eyes".

The Queen looked like she was trying to put the pieces together, and when she did she relaxed her fur. "Eat it, don't waste it".

"But it's for-"

"Stop playing with your food or I will take away another privilege. Now eat".

"... Yes Motha".