Waggling her rump in the air, her nose twitching in a manner worthy of a lethal predator, the kitten moved forward and unsheathed her claws. Her tail twitched frantically. "Don't move." She ordered under her breath.
Abruptly, four brown paws landed squarely in front of her, the rainbow-coloured butterfly fluttering away. "Cettie!"
"Carbucketty!" Wailing, Etcetera watched the insect flutter off. "I was hunting and you just scared it away!"
The tomcat's grin wavered slightly, then widened even more. "Um...whoops?" His hazel eyes danced with mischief, his body bracing on his forelegs as he shifted his weight. Etcetera managed to shriek as he tumbled her into the dust.
"Car!"
"What?" Sitting up, he tried his best to look contrite, but failed miserably.
The white-and-rainbow-striped queen grabbed a pawful of mud and smooshed it into the older kitten's fur with a delighted giggle. She flipped him onto his back and made a break for freedom, whooping with glee.
"That's not fair!" The tom howled in protest, giving chase while trying to brush the dirt out of his head fur. He promptly ran into the female kitten's back, not needing to even hazard a guess as to why she'd stopped so sharply.
As he expected, Tugger was lazing on the tyre. Leaning around Etcetera's side, Carbucketty couldn't help grinning. The kitten's eyes were saucer-wide, her mouth hanging open in a perfect 'O', her tail doing the pollicle thing and wagging.
Waving a paw up and down in front of her eyes, the brown and white tom sniggered as she lifted and ducked her head to see around his paw. Her whiskers twitched furiously, nostrils flaring in annoyance.
"Stoppit!" She finally smacked his paw down with one of her own, her ears flattening down as the Maine Coone got to his paws and strutted off towards Bombalurina. Her tail stopped moving, her whiskers drooping miserably. "No fair!"
Carbucketty glanced after Tugger. "Yeah. He's lucky."
"No." Etcetera pouted. "She's lucky."
"He is."
"She is!"
"He is!"
"She is!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Uh-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Uh-huh times a million!"
Carbucketty pulled a face at the young queen. "Just cos you like Tugger."
A small grin flickered on the pale kitten's lips. "Duh! He's gorgeous and yummy and funny and he has the mane and the tail and the purr and the fur and his collar is so cool and his mane! Did I tell you his mane was brilliant and cool and..."
"Uh...?" The queen's sudden silence caught him off-guard. He glanced at her in surprise. She was sitting upright, one paw raised, her eyes flicking around the yard. "Cettie? Whatcha doin'? Whatcha lookin' for?"
Shushing him with a gesture, she flared her nostrils again, whiskers twitching crazily. "Can't you smell it?"
He sniffed the air. "Smell what?" He sniffed again, pulled a face. "Ew! Cettie! When was the last time you took a bath?" He promptly received a firm whap on the tip of his nose and grinned engagingly at his friend. "What?"
Ignoring him, Etcetera got to her paws, prowling forward, still scenting the air. Carbucketty twitched his nose, sneezed twice, then scampered after her.
"Whassamatta?"
"I can smell it. I know I can smell it."
Several of the older cats were taking notice of Etcetera's curious behaviour. Demeter and Munkustrap were watching her from on top of the car trunk, exchanging small smiles. Electra and Victoria looked over from where they were grooming each other, shrugged and bounced down to see what their normally-hyper friend was so focused on.
"What's she lookin' for?" Electra inquired, peering at Etcetera's practically-glazed eyes. Her paw waved in front of her friend.
"Dunno." Carbucketty shrugged, giving the queen's flicking tail a furtive tug and hastily leaping back. To his astonishment, she didn't react, stalking forward slowly, her dark eyes moving towards the stove.
"Are you blind when you're born?" A new voice bellowed, another brown and white blur smacking into the rainbow queen and knocking her off her paws. Bill Bailey rolled to his paws with a grin, improvising as he went. "Can you see in the dust?"
"Dare you look at a King?" Electra demanded, grinning as Etcetera shook herself and brushed dust form her ears, her nose wrinkled. "Would you sit on his throne?...unless he had a big bum and you couldn't fit..."
The two tom kittens giggled madly, Bill Bailey only cut off when he shrieked as Etcetera pounced on him and sat firmly on his belly. "Can you say of your bite, that it’s worse than your bark?" As emphasis, she bent down and bit him firmly on the nose.
"Ow!"
"Serves you right." She said smugly, butting her head against his.
"Are you cock of the walk when you're walking alone?" Victoria did a pirouette that was perfect...until it was perfectly ruined when Carbucketty and Electra tackled her from opposite sides and rolling her into the dust with the rest of them.
Rolling off Bill Bailey, Etcetera resumed her prowling, sniffing hard and succeeding in inhaling a noseful of dust. Sneezing, she jumped off her paws with every violent sneeze. "Are you keen to be seen when you're smelling a rat?"
"Not yet, Cet!" Victoria laughed. "Are you keen to be sneezed sounds better..."
Etcetera peered into the depths of the stove. "But didn't you smell it?" She glanced back at the little group. "Come and see this!" They looked at her blankly and she sighed. "Okay, okay, make me do it the hard way, then."
Every single feline in the yard's paws snapped to their ears, as a shrill, deafening and agonisingly ear-splitting shriek of "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!" tore through the silence of the yard, held far longer than any kitten should be able to hold a note.
"What on earth is going on?" Skimbleshanks scrambled out of the window of the car, closely followed by the ever-so-slightly mussed Jennyanydots.
Munkustrap rubbed his ears, wincing. Demeter pulled the end of her tail and Munkustrap's out of her ears and shook her head to get rid of the ringing lingering there. Cassandra's stoic features crumbled as she whimpered.
Tugger and Bombalurina both scrambled fearfully over the back of the tire, their thick fur bristled and standing on end. Both of them looked like they had stuck their tails in electric sockets. "What the hell was that?"
All eyes turned to Etcetera, who was sitting amid the whimpering group of kittens, each of whom were convinced they had blood pouring from their ears. An innocent look was plastered on her mischievous, little face.
"Etcetera..." Stumbling slightly, his ears still ringing, Munkustrap took a shaky step towards the kitten. "Why did you scream?"
Her eyes widened, saucer-like in her impish face. One striped paw rose and pointed back into the depths of the stove. "I smelled it and saw it in there and no one would look, so I screamed to make people look at it..."
"You what...?" Shaking his head in bewilderment, Munkustrap raised a brow.
She flashed a guileless smile up at the silver tabby, happily aware that everyone in the yard was seeing her. "I smelled a rat!"