A Planted Bug | Chapter 1

Instructions

Chapter 1: {Basil} Basil stretches out leisurely after a good-night’s rest and accidentally kicks her best friend Cricket in the side. He complains as he gets up and shakes off his sleepiness. “Again, Basil? This is like the 1000th day in a row.” She laughs, “1000 days? That’s longer than we’ve been alive combined, Croquet.” He pouts, and responds in frustration, “You know what I mean.” Basil smirks unapologetically, “You’ll get over it by the time I get back.” Cricket sighs with a little smile, “Yeah, I know.” She waves at him with her tail and steps out of their den. She looks back at the dead tree and smiles happily at him before bounding off into the forest. Basil looks around and sniffs the air tentatively. She perks up when she scents a rabbit on a breeze, and follows the scent eagerly. She thinks to herself, *It’s been such a long time since I’ve tasted a rabbit! I’ll bet Crockpot will enjoy it too. I may even get to go back early if it’s big enough!* She grins and follows the scent tail. Basil is so excited about the rabbit, she doesn’t notice when she crosses into territory that belongs to someone else. She finally reaches where the rabbit smell is coming from, she spots it, and falls into a hunting crouch. She pauses momentarily before pounces and bites the rabbit roughly. It isn’t clean, but she still succeeds in killing her prey. She barely has time to be proud of herself when she hears a loud voice to her left, “HEY! That was mine!” Basil jumps and the fur down her spine prickles in fear. She looks towards the voice and calls out a little shakily, “Who’s there? Show yourself!” “Me! And no! You might hurt me.” The voice answers. Basil rolls her eyes at this, but the fur that was raised settles down. “I won’t hurt you if you come out now, but I will if you hide any longer.” The voice is silent momentarily, then she hears a rustling noise as the figure it belongs to moves towards her. A young tom steps out of the brush and grins at her with sparkling eyes. “Hi, there.” Basil smirks when she realizes that he’s about her age, and asks, “What is your name?” The tom instantly answers, “Flashpaw. What’s yours?” Basil looks a bit surprised at his politeness. “Er, Basil. Your name is pretty weird, Flushpaw,” she says. He doesn’t notice the name she gave him instead“Well, true, but at some point I’ll get better name like Flashfur, Flashstorm, or maybe Flashlight—“ Basil bursts out laughing, and Flashpaw grins widely. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s probably not going to be Flashlight.” She appears much more comfortable after she stops laughing, and curiously asks, “So, why are you here?” He looks at her a little oddly, “Well, this is my clan’s territory. You’re actually trespassing right now but...” Basil quickly changes the subject. “What’s a clan?” “Well, I suppose you could say it is a group of cats who work together and who each have specific roles to fulfill. Mine is called HiddenClan.” “Interesting.” She surprises herself by realizing she actually meant it. Flashpaw’s eyes dance with excitement. “It is! HiddenClan is the BEST!” Basil smiles at his enthusiasm, then pauses momentarily before standing up and looking hopefully at him. “Okay, so I understand this is your territory, so this rabbit should TECHNICALLY be yours, but...it’s been a really long time since I had rabbit, let alone such a big one, and I did kill it myself....Would it be a problem if I kept it?” He studies her briefly, looks behind him at something, though she couldn’t tell what it might be, before nodding. “Fine, but try not to hunt here again.” Basil beams at him, and gratefully says, “Thank you! This’ll save me a lot of time I would’ve had to spend looking for enough food for the day. It was nice meeting you, Flashlight.” Flashpaw grins at the nickname. “Same to you!” Basil picks up the rabbit and heads back the way she came. She notices that the walk back seems much longer than it was when she was following the rabbit’s trail. Eventually though, she does return, and drops the rabbit in front of the dead tree, and calls out, “I’m back, Crochet! I caught a rabbit today!” Basil hears him shuffling around in the den, eager to come out. She smiles to herself as she thinks about her encounter with Flashpaw, and then about how excited she was to share the rabbit with her best friend. However, unbeknownst to Basil, someone that was not Cricket was watching her.