The sun crawled up the horizon, its simmering orange rays casting dappled shadows into the camp. Somewhere above the crowded den, a bird chirped gleefully to greet the new day. While most of the camp continued to sleep soundly through the high-pitched harmony, the nursery suddenly exploded with life.

"Good morning everyone!" Swiftkit yowled gleefully.

"It's a brand new day!" Pikekit exclaimed, jumping to his feet. 

Pigeonkit huffed. "And I'm already bored."

Cloverkit emerged from behind her mother's sleeping body and spoke with her eyes glued to her paws. "M-maybe we can pl-play a game?"

"What?" Applekit asked, "speak up, Cloverkit."

"Sorry, sorry. I'm really sorry. I'll try to be louder."

Pigeonkit rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you do that. Does anyone have any game ideas?"

"N-no..." Troutkit muttered quietly. 

Swiftkit perked up her ears. "Clan?"

"Played that," Pigeonkit stated.

"Roleplaying?"

"Did that."

"Pokémon?"

"Caught that."

"Mossball?"

"Tossed that."

Swiftkit sighed. "Well, then I'm out of ideas."

"Me too," Pikekit mewed.

"I've got nothing," said Applekit.

"Well..." Applekit began slowly, "if no one else has ideas, we can ask someone else."

"You mean like an apprentice or something?" Swiftkit asked. 

Applekit shook her head. "No. It's only fair that we ask Furzekit for ideas too."

Pigeonkit's jaw dropped from his face to the ground in less than a heartbeat. "You're not serious."

"Be nice!" Applekit scolded him before turning to Furzekit. "What do you think, Furzekit?"

The fuzzy gray tom blinked slowly. "I think... moss is very yum." He promptly used a claw to lift half of his mother's nest to his mouth. 

Pigeonkit huffed in frustration. "See? I knew he wouldn't be helpful."

"Actually," Swiftkit interjected, "he may be on to something." When all the kits (excluding Furzekit, who was messily tearing at the moss with his teeth) gave her looks of confusion, she continued. "I have a game. It's called Chef!"

"Um... w-what is a chef?" Troutkit asked tentatively. 

"Yeah, what's a chef?" Cloverkit added.

"It's obviously something Swiftkit just made up," Pigeonkit declared. 

Cloverkit averted her yellow eyes away from the tabby tom in embarrassment. "Sorry! I should've known... oh I'm really, truly sorry!"

"...Okay then."

Swiftkit shook her head and continued to explain. "We go to the fresh-kill pile and find something to eat. Then, we find and mix in interesting things to make it taste better! We can have a competition!" 

"I love a good competition," Pikekit mewed.

All at once, the kits tumbled out of the nursery and into the middle of the camp. Furzekit stayed behind, still happily chomping on his moss. The dawn hunting patrol was just returning to camp, much to their delight. Ravenbreeze carried two mice by the tail, Sprucejump held a vole and a squirrel, Doefoot brought a blackbird and a shrew, and Cherrystream lugged a large rabbit behind her. It was the perfect assortment of prey for the mischievous kits to get their paws on. 

"Who wants to be the judge?" Pikekit asked the group.

Pigeonkit jumped up. "I do!" 

"That's not fair!" Applekit whined. "We should let someone who doesn't usually do that try."

Troutkit stepped forward slowly, ducking her head and speaking quietly. "I... I can do it. If t-that's okay with everyone else." 

Swiftpaw shrugged. "Alright, Troutkit. You're on. If you're the judge, then you make the rules!"

"Oh!" The light gray tabby glanced around nervously. "Well, h-how about there's a time limit. Until that cloud," she gestured to a fluffy white cloud drifting slowly toward the rising sun, "covers the sun. And... y-you only get one piece of prey each–"

Pigeonkit cut her off. "What can we use to spice up our creations?"

"Uh... anything in the camp. W-we're not allowed to leave."

"Cool!" Pikekit hollered. 

Swiftkit lashed her tail. "3, 2, 1, GO!" She took off running before anyone could react.

"Not fair!" Applekit shouted, scurrying after her. 

Swiftkit grabbed a rabbit from the pile and made a break for the medicine den. The medicine cat, whose name she never learned, was sound asleep. Creeping into the back where the herbs were stored, she began rummaging through the different plants and scattered them everywhere. 

Yarrow, no. Marigold is a maybe, but I think I can do better. Hmm... what about parsley? You can never go wrong with parsley. Oh, and catmint! I'm sure no cat will mind if I just use all of it. Furzekit told me once that it's really easy to find and practically useless during the moons of leaf-bare. Well, on the other paw, Furzekit isn't the brightest. But I must win this contest! All the catmint it is. 

Meanwhile, Pigeonkit dragged his sparrow toward the elder's den. 

The elders have been around for a while. They probably know exactly what makes prey super tasty!

Upon entering the dimly-lit den, Otterspeckle hissed in irritation. "Get out."

"But–"

Lightningstripe snarled. "Unless you're giving me that sparrow, get lost, kit."

"You don't understand! I'm in this competition and I need to know how to make this sparrow really tasty!"

Otterspeckle's muzzle contorted into a sickly smile. "Need advice? Well, mouse bile oughtta do it. It'll keep ticks off of whoever eats it, too!"

Pigeonkit tilted his head. "Really?"

"Oh, yes." Lightningstripe clawed a ball of moss from beside his nest and tossed it toward the kit. "Here, this is left over from when that idiot Yarrowpaw forgot to bring it back with her."

"Thank you!"

Pigeonkit hurried away from the grumpy elders and found a spot to apply the mouse bile to the sparrow. He took great care to make sure the strong-scented substance covered every feather on the bird.

Delicious and comes with a health benefit! I'll win for sure!

Pikekit, Applekit, and Cloverkit didn't finish their creations before Troutkit quietly stated, "time's up!"

Pigeonkit and Swiftkit hauled their respective pieces of prey toward Troutkit. 

"Me first!" Swiftkit mewed. "I have created a divine mixture of herbs from the medicine den and paired it with the juicy texture of the rabbit. I present to you: stuffed rabbit with parsley and catmint!"

Troutkit leaned down to take a bit, chewing slowly. "Hmm... not bad. V-very interesting."

"Now me!" Pigeonkit shoved his bile-covered sparrow toward Troutpaw. "The elders suggested this to me. It's amazing!"

The judge sniffed it and wrinkled her nose. "Smells... icky." 

"But it has health benefits!"

"...Okay..."

She took a bite, immediately wretching and splattering the mouthful everywhere. 

"My StarClan, Pigeonkit. What was in there?" Applekit asked.

He puffed out his chest proudly. "Mouse bile. Amazing, right?"

"N-no," Troutkit muttered, nearly in tears from the taste. "Not good. Swiftkit wins."

"Yay!" Swiftkit exclaimed with glee, jumping up and down.

Pigeonkit frowned. "Whatever. This game was boring, anyway."

Hello, hello! Written by your favorite Feather. If you didn't already know, we opened admin applications! If you're interested in writing for this account, then I suggest that you take a look at the most recent announcement on our message board.

Anyway, I know this has been asked many times before, but who's your favorite kit? Mine is definitely Furzekit xD. Also, apologies that this chapter took so long to get out!

Have a great day/night!
~ Feather