Celebration

Cloudykit giggled. "It's gotta be you now, silly! Get down here and count!"

Badgerpaw leaped down from the tree, laughing on his way down. "Ok, I'll count now!" He started to count to ten.

Cloudykit scrambled for a few moments to climb a tree, but once Badgerpaw got to five, she gave up and hurried under a bush.

Once he had finished counting, Badgerpaw looked around. He couldn't find Cloudykit, but he rememberd the sound of a bush when he was counting. He padded over to the bush and sniffed it. Just what he had expected. He wanted to let the kit have some fun, so he pretended that he couldn't find her. "Hmm, I wonder where Cloudykit is," he said to himself, meaning for her to hear. "She is pretty good at this game!"

Cloudykit nearly laughed, and crouched a little more. Hopefully the bush was hiding her fur- it was a last-ditch option, but it could work.

Badgerpaw flicked his tail, getting it purposely stuck in the bush. "Oh no! My tail is stuck," he said as he pawed at the bush. His paw landed on Cloudykit. "Hmm, I wonder what this is!" He pulled Cloudykit out. "Ha ha, I found you!"

Cloudykit giggled. "You had me convinced I found a good spot!" she said happily. "You have it easy with your fur!"

Badgerpaw looked down at his pelt. "Yah, I guess, but there is still some white in there!" He looked around for a good hiding spot. "It's your turn to count now!"

Cloudykit crouched on the ground again and covered her eyes with her paws. She just hoped he wouldn't climb another tree.

Badgerpaw ran and covered himself in mud from a mud puddle, then he crouched down behind a tree, hoping that his new "look" would help camoflauge him. He closed his eyes and hoped that Cloudykit wouldn't see him.

Cloudykit stopped counting and bounded around once more. Again, she was stumped. After searching the ground, she began inspecting the trees. She didn't realize she was supposed to look in the opposite direction, and even failed to notice the lump of muddy cat behind the tree she now stood by.

Badgerpaw silently laughed as he got ready to spring onto Cloudykit. "I got you!" He yelled as he tackled her. His mud dripped off of him and he got the kit all dirty.

She laughed again. "You sure did! And now I'm dirty too! Maybe now I can hide from you!"

Badgerpaw laughed and looked up into the darkening Sky. "I don't think so, Cloudykit. It's starting to get dark. We'd better get back into camp before we get into trouble. Oh, and don't tell your mother that I got you dirty, she'd kill me!" He laughed and started walking away, looking back to make sure that Cloudykit was following.

Cloudykit was following. "Momma wouldn't hurt you for getting me dirty. If I got hurt, that would be another story." She giggled and moved faster to keep up. "Thanks for playing with me, Badgerpaw."