CAKE BY THE OCEAN | o, race

Lilypetal had been given hosting a race as her task, which sounded like a lot of fun to her. She hadn't entirely been sure how to go about it at first - she didn't want it to just to be some lame, boring race. There had to be a twist! And so, after a lot of pondering (which had very much distracted her from the hunting she was meant to be doing) she had come up with a way to make the race more exciting.

Two words: the chickens.

After careful examination, Lilypetal had found that the chickens left tons of feathers on the ground, all over the place. Lilypetal had soon realised that she had a use for these feathers, and had gathered up a bunch of the chicken feathers.

Then, she had made two marks in the ground, a decent distance away from eachother. This would show the length of the race, the start line and the finish line. The pretty molly's paws were aching greatly by the time she had dug both marks deep enough that they were easily noticeable - and her work wasn't even done yet!

The cream point's final addition to the race was - well, the feathers she had gathered earlier, of course! She had flung the feathers all about on the ground, leaving a decent distance between each feather near the start of the race, but leaving much smaller gaps between the feathers near the end of the race. She had already thought about how these feathers would come into play, and intended on explaining their part in the race once the contestants had showed up.

Once Lilypetal was finally done, and, admittedly, incredibly tired, the slender she cat called out, "I'm holding a race! I promise it'll be fun!" And waited for a decent amount of competitors to arrive.

"Listen to me..."

//AAAAAA I have no idea why the response ending up being this long but!!! As a summary, because I would probably be too lazy to read all this lmao, she agrees to Volepaw's bet, explains what a race is, and agrees to Cardinalkit looking out for cheaters, as is now standing by the starting mark, waiting for the others to join her. The extra rule is that if anybody steps on a feather, they have to stop moving for three seconds.

Despite how tired she was, a grin slipped on to Lilypetal's maw at Volepaw's clear excitement. "YES, YES YOU DID!" the pretty she cat yowled in response, sounding just as eager as the younger tom, though it was hard for her to ignore her small, delicate paws and the way they ached after all the hard work she had put in to setting up this activity. Her grin grew a little wider as the apprentice proposed a bet - stuff like this was bound to make the game more exciting! But Lilypetal hadn't actually intended on taking part. Firstly, she was super tired, and secondly, she needed to keep watch to make sure that nobody cheated. And, so, with an apologetic smile, the cream point ruffled the fur on the top of Volepaw's head. "Man, Volepaw, I would, but someone has to keep watch for the cheaters," she flicked her tail towards a figure approaching in the distance. "Because this isn't just a race between you and me, but listen!" she leaned a little closer to the apprentice, a playful smirk on her face. "The bet is still on. You win this race, no matter who you're up against, and I'll go on that extra patrol. And if you lose, the extra patrol is yours!"

The molly then focused on the approaching shape, which she now recognised as Cottonkit, and, oh great StarClan, she was messing up Lilypetal's perfectly positioned feathers! She felt her pelt fluff up slightly, visible annoyed. She had worked her paws off getting all of those into the right place! The creamy furred she cat stalked over. "Cottonkit! Don't touch those! I-" she spoke angrily, tail swishing a little, though she cut off, feeling a pang of guilt. Cottonkit was just a kid, she didn't know what she was doing wrong, and she seemed super excited about the race, even though she didn't even seem to know what it was. The she cat let out a sigh, "Come on, then," she nuzzled the top of Cottonkit's head, sighing again. Man, she was way too soft for kits. "I'm sure you're going to do great."

Cardinalkit was next to arrive, her reaction to the race being much the opposite to the reactions of Volepaw and Cottonkit. The brown tabby seemed pretty nervous, and along with that, she didn't even want to play! Keeping watch? That was what Lilypetal had planned on doing, though unlike Cardinalkit, she actually had an excuse for not wanting to play, because she was exhuasted! Perhaps Lilypetal was being a little insensitive, but she didn't really understand cats who got nervous, or cats who didn't like taking part in fun activities such at this one. What were they so afraid of? The other competitors were Cardinalkit's Clanmates, they were hardly going to bite! "Caaaaaardinalkit!" Lilypetal exclaimed, fixing her pretty blue eyes on the kit. "Why don't you want to play? Watching from the side is so boring! I'm sure your brother and Cottonkit would love to play with you!" but once again, after speaking, she immediately felt guilt, watching the way the adorable kit pressed herself against her brother. Lilypetal felt a rush of protectiveness, and was quick to give the child a gentle smile. "But it's cool! I need you to do the best job that you possibly can, okay? Make sure that absolutely no cheaters go under your radar!"

The pretty she cat then turned back to Volepaw, a playful gleam in her eyes, though her paws suddenly seemed to be aching more than ever. "Guess I'm going to be racing you after all, Volepaw!" she grinned. "So, going back to your original plan - whichever one of us reaches the finishing line first between the two wins the bet!" Honestly, her bet with Volepaw was the only thing keeping her on her feet. Logically, Lilypetal would win this race, she was the oldest, but she was naturally quite a slow cat, which was especially unusual considering that she was a WindClanner. Plus, she was already tired. She doubted that Cottonkit stood much of a chance, because, well... she was a kit, but Lilypetal of course didn't voice her opinion on that. As long as Cottonkit had fun, that was all that mattered. But Volepaw... he seemed like a worthy competitor, and Lilypetal secretly suspected that Volepaw might reach the finishing line before her, but of course, she didn't say that out loud, either.

Addressing all three of the cats, Lilypetal began to explain the rules. "So, it's a normal race, but with a twist!" the cream point purred, flicking her tail towards the chicken feathers. "So, you all know how those chickens have invaded our territory? As it turns out, they leave feathers everywhere and I thought I should put them to some use! So, the twist is this," the she cat lashed her tail, eyes shining as she explained, "If you step on a feather, you have to pause for three seconds. No running, no walking, nothing! Well, uh, I guess you can still breathe!" the molly let out a laugh. "You'll notice there are lots of feathers especially close to the end of the race," she nodded to the feathers which lay close together near the mark she had made representing the finish line. "So, you'll want to be extra careful of those!"

Lilypetal then came to stand by the starting mark, offering the other cats a smile, "Get it?" she was still a little concerned that Cottonkit probably didn't know what a race was, but it was fine... well, it was probably fine. Deciding to quickly add, "On my signal, the first one to run from here to where that mark in the ground is," she pointed with a paw in the vague direction of the finishing mark. "Wins!" Maybe she should have explained that at the start - at least she had said something now. Hopefully Cottonkit would understand.

"So, Volepaw, Cottonkit, come stand with me near the starting mark and Cardinalkit, stand somewhere you can see!"

"Listen to me..."