Flaw: A Narrative Fiction

Prologue

The dense undergrowth gifted comfort to the pads under her auburn tinted paws as light shone from the stars of silverpelt onto a freshly wept tear, which caught the light briefly and rejected it moments later. It trickled down a broad white face struck with the dead song of pure and utter sorrow. Thick, once exuberant fur ran in the breeze like the tawny-furred rabbits on the moorland.

Claws were unsheathed to assist the brawny feline in coming to an instantaneous halt. A bundle of fur was gently released from the jaws of the nurturing mother. Salty water gathered in a teardrop and dodged through white, grass-like fur until it had run so far that there was no more land for it to cover and in result it fell to the earth, silent and
The small and helpless kit still hanging from it’s scruff in it’s mother’s jaws.

Chapter 1

The dim light of dawn filtered through lively, jubilant, multicoloured leaves. Ferns grew plentifully under the warmth of green-leaf’s sun. The grass was moist and covered in dew from the previous night’s rain.

A short-furred golden tabby she-cat pushed at some leaves overhanging the exit from the camp before encouraging two small kits, with soft nudges, to follow her. Realizing the two kits, one with a white and gold coat, the other with a ginger tabby coat, were still deciding on whether it was safe to venture out into the untamed forest, the she-cat sat down just beyond the camp entrance and cocked her head to one side impatiently while beckoning with her tail for the kits to hurry up and follow her.

The orange tabby kit, who resembled his father, prodded a small blade of grass tentatively as if to check that the ground would not collapse beneath his miniscule, orange paws as soon as he left the safety and security of the camp. The white and gold furred kit looked inquiringly at her brother with a curious gleam in her eye. She seemed to be saying “Is it safe, do we
Sugarsnow, the kit’s mother, purred in amusement at the squeaks the kits made as the mud squelched when they trudged through it.

The small group roamed around their forest territory. Occasionally they would stop to look at the cobwebs shivering in the sheltered nooks in the trees or to examine the grubs squirming in the rotted wood. Sugarsnow even went so far as to show the kits some hunting techniques.

It was just as the trio had reached the waterfall, that they spotted a limp body huddled at the foot of one of the large boulders that surrounded the waterfall. Sugarsnow signaled to her kits to find somewhere they could camouflage themselves.

Keeping her body close to the ground, Sugarsnow crept closer toward the unmoving body. Light from the glistening water reflected onto the creature, who Sugarsnow identified to be a cat, creating the illusion that the golden-auburn cat’s coat was lit on fire. As Sugarsnow crept closer she noticed that the tomcat was barely the size of a newly apprenticed kit. He wouldn’t pose much of a threat to her kits, she supposed, so beckoned the two kits