slither and shake [C]

Pigeonkit

After a fair bit of wriggling and kicking her little legs, Pigeonkit rolled herself off her back and right onto her paws. It was still early in the morning, but after dawn by now; when she squinted, she could just barely see patches of blue through the small gaps in the roof. That meant she had plenty of time in the day to bother whoever she wanted! Pigeonkit gave herself a hearty shake, banishing any lingering sleepiness, and got ready to whirl around and bother her littermates until they all woke up, too.

A flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye made her stop mid-spin, though, body half twisted around its self. Pigeonkit’s pupils went wide, nearly flooding the blue out of her eyes. It might have just been a queen’s tail she saw. Maybe. Whatever it was, it was small and thin and kind of, like… writhing.

So it was definitely, without a doubt, a snake.

“Guys!” Pigeonkit shouted before an admonishing grumble made her remember she wasn’t supposed to be so loud in the den. She finished turning and gave each of her littermates a firm headbutt, batting lightly at the ears of whoever was slow to wake. Lowering her voice to an urgent hiss, “Guys, get up! You have to come outside with me. Now! Don’t tell anyone but I’m pretty sure I saw a snake so I have to go check it out and if you don’t come with me I’m going to go by myself so if I get bit it’ll be all of your faults! So wake up, let’s go!”

Pigeonkit

Her siblings answered her demands quickly, but none of them had any of the enthusiasm necessary for this. Pigeonkit rolled her eyes dramatically at her littermates as they hurried out of the nursery after her, looking first at Dovekit. “That’s not fair and a bad idea and you know it! How come you get to go first? I found it! And what if you get bit then? How come you can get bit but I can’t? Huh?” She huffed, wrinkling her nose. Swankit came soon after, but she was only chasing Dove, and Crow and Raven came out betting against her. Pigeonkit stamped a small paw against the ground. “Dove doesn’t need to protect us, because the snake’s not going to bite us in the first place. And if it does, that’s why we have a Sandyshell! We’ll be fine. But that’s all besides the point! I’m going after that snake and I’m taking both of your rocks.” With a final snort, Pigeonkit shot off around the side of the nursery.

The den walls were woven tightly, as were the walls keeping them from rolling off the little into the supposed river… surely too tight for a snake to get away. Never mind how it would have gotten in in the first place. But circling the den revealed no coiled predator, and Pigeonkit was starting to think she’d been wrong. Which- being wrong was fine, but she didn’t want to look like a liar (even if she kinda was), and she’d look like a liar if she didn’t have at least a little proof of a snake.

Lucky for her, she was pretty smart. She might’ve been the only one that thought that, but she knew she was. Struck by inspiration, Pigeonkit skittered forward to claw and bite at the rushes forming the walls of camp until she managed to unthread one. The stalk came with its dense brown flower intact, just as she’d intended; and while tripping over her paws in surprise when it came loose was unintended, throwing (or, unceremoniously dropping) the plant where its flowering head was in sight of her siblings was perfectly to plan.

“Ha!” Pigeonkit barked from behind the nursery. “Snake! I told you!” She bent to snatch the stalk in her teeth again, jerking her head left-right-left. Nevermind that puffs of the bulrush’s flower drifted into the air as she shook it. She was fighting a snake, and this was definitely convincing, and definitely wasn’t going to get her told off by half her siblings.