Camellia's Story

“Come on, Drift!” she mewed, not waiting for her as she sped across the meadow.

“You’re too fast, Cammie!” Drift squealed behind her.

Their older brother, a tall gray and orange tabby, watched behind them. “Don’t get too far,” he warned.

“We’re not!” Camellia said. Gosh, that butterfly was not giving up! Camellia got down on her haunches, her tail high up in the air as she wiggled and leaped forward, paws ready to catch that butterfly!

NO! It sped from under her paws! She’d almost had it! She fell to the ground, giggling as Drift sped past her.

“Ha! I’m gonna get it!” Drift chirped. Camellia watched her run past in awe. Drift was super duper fast. She was faster than anything Camellia had seen—including those really fast birds that make your head spin when they fly past you. Drift can chase those! It was amazing; it was like she had some sort of super sonic superpower!

But apparently it wasn’t enough for that butterfly.

“Alright, guys, enough,” their older brother concluded.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Drift cried, tripping over her paws as the butterfly got far, far away. She got back up to catch it when their brother snapped again, “I said, *enough*, guys.”

“Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!” Drift grumped, walking back towards them. Camellia looked up to see her brother standing over her, catching a suspicious eye. Her brother, Craw, was not the best cat for having fun. Camellia humphed in defiance. Craw rolled an eye, leaned down and licked the top of her head, and then, raising it again, “Come on, Drift. Sun’ll be setting soon—we need to get dinner.”

Dinner—Camellia had almost forgotten about that! Her stomach, as if on cue, made that funny, weird growling noise.

“But we’re not hungry,” Drift protested.

Camellia got to her feet. “Whaddya mean ‘we’re’ not hungry? I am hungry! You are the one who isn’t!”

Drift rolled her eyes and shouldered her. “Whose side are you on!”

“The one with food!”

“I thought we were gonna eat the butterfly!”

“Ew!” Camellia made a face. “Who eats butterflies?”

“I would! If I could catch one!” Drift held her head up proudly. “And I’d make you eat it, too!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No butterflies tonight,” Craw sighed. He sounded tired. “Just regular ‘ole meat like usual, kittens.”

“OOO!” Camellia jumped in the air at a great idea she had. “Can we hunt for it? Huh? Can we? *Please? Pretty please? Pretty pretty pretty please!*”

She wove her way around her older brother, purring sweetly. “We’ll be good!”

“Yeah! Please! I mean, we can catch butterflies!” Drift hopped up and down. “I mean—almost.”

“No,” Craw sat down, head lowered. He really looked tired! “Maybe later, guys. You still are a bit too young for it.”

“How are we too young?” Drift snorted.

“It’s not exactly safe for you guys yet,” said Craw. “You and your surroundings…you still have to learn to pay attention to them.”

“I know my surroundings!” Drift said. She ran a lil distance away from them and looked around. “See! Right now we are in a big meadow! Over there is a tall hill. In front of us the meadow goes on and on and on forever…um…over here is the forest—over there is more meadow but there’s something tall over there I think….and…”

All while she was talking, Camellia had gotten down, flattening her ears. Drift was chatting so much she wasn’t even paying any attention to anything! Wiggling her tail, she crawled from behind Craw, stalking up to behind Drift.

“And in the forest there’s this really big cave tha—”

Camellia got up on her hind legs, unleashing her claws and hissing, “MEOW!”

Drift screamed and hiding her claws again, Camellia tackled her down.

“Ha! Gotcha! I’m a big bear and I ate you!”

“NOOOOO!”

To Camellia’s surprise, Craw actually started laughing. He walked over to the two and nudged Camellia off Drift. “See? Point proven, Camellia is right.” He leaned down and put his nose next to Drift, and helped her to her feet. “Even so—it is still open season, and I don’t want to risk it.”

“Open Season?” asked Camellia.

“I thought it was just Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall,” Drift sat down, tilted her head. “Is there a Closed Season too?”<movethis>

“They just call it a season, it’s not really a season,” Craw sat down as well, quickly licking a paw but keeping his ears alert. “Around this time of year, hunting humans come to hunt animals. Usually they’re here just to get deer, bears, rabbits, stuff like that, but they still have guns and I want to make sure you guys are safe.”

Camellia and Drift exchanged a look. That sounded scary! “You think they’re gonna shoot us too?” Drift said, eyes wide.

“I don’t know,” Craw replied, his tail twitching a bit uneasily. “Humans tend to be careless, so we have to be careful, ok?”

“Okay!” Drift got to her paws, running in a circle. “But I’m not scared of any human gun! I’m faster than a bullet!”

Craw got up to knock her on her ears. “No, you’re not. You couldn't even catch a butterfly."

Drift pouted. "I WOULD have if you hadn't stopped me!"

Craw rolled his eyes. "Come on.” Brushing his tail around her and, without turning around, beckoning to Camellia with his head, he began walking back into the woods.