Hailpaw's kits

[Cloud]

"Okay!" Said the tabby, completely forgetting his mother's warning. He headbutted his sister's face, then shook his head from dizzyness. "Ar!" He growled, stepping backwards.

Which, of course, was when Hailpaw put her paw on his back, pinning him to the ground.

"You asked fer it, sonny boy." She said. "Aw, MOOOOM!" He said, groaning from embarrassment.

[Ten]

Tinykit fell and rolled over laughing at his brother's expense. "Ahahahahaha! That's wha'yuget!" It really didn't matter by now what he had done to disobey their mother, just that he was getting punished and was unhappy about it. Then Tinykit added on to his taunting sentence with the new word he had learned. "Stupid!"

[Cloud]

"WHY YOU LIL'- DUNG-FACED, CRICKET-BRAINED COWAR-!"

Which was when his mother switched her paw from his back to his mouth. He was too furious to even notice that he could now escape if he wanted to and kept on struggling, blue eyes raging at his little brother.

Quickly, Hailpaw trapped him once more with her other paw. She growled warningly, causing her angry son to quiet. "Just stop right theyah, mistah. Yous need to learn a less'n. A real importan' less'n. In fac', ahy'll tell ya a storeh', all of ya. Gather 'roun'.

Even Stonekit was interested enough by this promise that he forgot his anger with Tinykit for now, and when his mother let go plopped himself down and looked her expectantly. He'd get revenge later.

[Ten]

"Story?" Tinykit sensed this was serious. He rolled back on to his paws and wobbled as he sat down, eyes bugged. His mother was going to tell a story! "Izzit one we know?"

[moddy]

Blotchkit was about to get her brother back, but Hailpaw already had him pinned down. She giggled, enjoying the sight. She looked over to her mother when she heard the idea of a story and padded over quickly. "Yay!"

[Cloud]

Assuming her brown tabby daughter, too, was listening, the small light gray she-cat began her tale.

"Long, long ago, in this very place, there lived a Clan named-"

"Whassa Clan?"

Hailpaw hissed, then answered impatiently: "Issa big group o' cats who live togethah, huntin' fightin', and protectin' each otha. Now shuddup and lis'en."

Stonekit thought to open his mouth and retort, but remembered he wanted to hear the sotry and settled for grumbling and twitching his tail.

"Anyways, they wa' named RivahClan, because SUPPOSEDLY they lived by a rivah." Hailpaw snorted. A huge stream, in the middle of a desert? Yeah, right. "So zey lived theyah, but one day th' deputy and da leadah of da Clan put us all in dis enclozhah an' ran off. Rotten rats they were. So now, some cats wanna make a Clan agin'. But some dun wan' em to. See, me, I neveah cared really. Ah was jus' a con - tha's a cat who doesn' wan' a Clan - 'cause mah mothah taught me so, but it hasn't really done anythin' fer me, so. Imma teach you to be Clannahs, kits, jus like yer fatha."

[Ten]

This was too complicated. Tinykit had heard some of these words before, but he had always tuned out that sort of stuff; he didn't understand any of this grown-up business. In fact, he was still hung up on the beginning. "Whassa river?" He looked at Locustkit and wondered if she knew the word -- and that made him worried. What if everyone understood this and he didn't? What if he got left behind? "Momma, I dun wanna learn this! Iz hard!"

[Cloud]

Hailpaw sighed. "Tinykit, son. Ah know is' hard, but ya gotta learn it. If ya dun learn it yer gonna end up dead, most likely. ALL of da enclosure cats take dis stuff verryyyy seriously. Zey die fer it, sumtimes. 'Sides, don'cha wanna be a big strong Clannah', Tinykit? Oh, an' a rivah is a big ol' stream, huger than you can imagine. Well, so they say. Sounds too good to be true. Oh, an' a deputy is a leadah's right-paw cat who's leadah when zey die."

Stoneit was entranced. He knew what he wanted to do in his life now. He wanted to be the greatest Clanner ever! Fight cons, win battles, make his mother proud...

"Tell us moa', momma!"

[Ten]

"NO! No more! No!" Tinykit was worried for sure now. Cats could die because of this stuff. "No! Noooooooooooooooooo!" He got up on all four paws and tried to run around his siblings in a circle, but with his weak walking ability he could only totter along with a horrified expression.

[Cloud]

Stonekit snorted. He loved his brother, he really did, but sometimes he was the dumbest darn thing in the whole enclosure. "Yew idjit, ya wanna die cause yew were too dumb ta live?"

Hailpaw sighed. Again. As annoying as stonekit was, he had a point. Tinykit did have to learn. Speaking gently, she meowed, "I dun wan ya to die, son. And 'sides, I won' be teachin ya, ya'll have a bran' new cat ta teach ya. An' I'll make sure they treat you right."