"Princess come on!" A light brown kit squealed as a tortoiseshell kit stumbled after her brother. "Wait up Duke!" Princess mewed as a flame colored tom trailed after her, his forest green eyes were wide with excitement. "Rusty!" Duke called as they bounced up onto one of the Twoleg nests, their tiny paws scrambled up the sheets of blankets as another flame colored kit but much smaller squeaked after them. "W-wait up guys!" She complained as she stumbled to keep her footing, Duke and Princess looked down from the nest as Rusty reached them. "You're too tiny Small! Go and play with the old nest." Duke hissed as Small glanced over her shoulder at a shredded nest they used to play in but was thrown out by the Twolegs because it was too torn to sleep in, she turned back to her siblings as Rusty bounced around, clearly oblivious to Small's brother and sister bullying her. "I don't wanna! I wanna play with you and Rusty!" Small protested as she ran up to the hanging blanket and clung to it as she started to climb it. "No! I said you're too small! Too weak! And too stupid!" Duke hissed as he leaped down and swat Small off with his large paw, he bared his teeth as Small squealed in pain and hit her flank on the wooden ground. Rusty stopped bouncing and ran to the edge to see what was going on, he winced as he saw his sister lying on the wooden floor shivering. "Hey! Duke, what's the big idea?!" Rusty snapped as he lashed his tiny tail which stuck up like a twig afterwards. "None of your business. Small's too weak and stupid to play with us bigger cats." Duke mewed to his brother before turning back to his sister which had risen to her trembling paws and shook her fur, her bell on her red collar rung. "I-I'm not stupid!" Small mewled as she stood up straight but she still wasn't as big as her older siblings. Duke hissed then unsheathed his tiny claws which were unusually sharper than regular kits, he stepped to his sister and circled her, his blue eyes were sharp with hatred. "You're the most smallest, stupidiest, ugliest, and the worst mistake this family could ever have." Duke's words struck her heart like icy claws that will last forever as tears started to form in her beautiful forest green eyes. Her fur was ruffled and her tail was straight like the rest of them as she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "The worst mistake ever!" Duke spat as he smacked his front left paw across her face and sent her sliding across the floor, she screeched as the tom kit glared at her in triumph, Small felt a sharp pain along her face which was across her right eye and down to her jawline. "Mama!" Small squealed as Princess leaped down to sit beside her brother, she too glared at her younger sister. "I knew you could beat her easily. She's so pathetic that she isn't worth fighting." Princess taunted as Rusty stared down at them with panic flashing in his eyes, his blue collar was badly visible under his puffed up pelt. "She isn't worth a life." Duke snorted as he licked the blood off his paw and grinned for a split second before putting it back down as a larger cat burst in the room. "What's going on?!" Nutmeg, their mother, screeched as she stared at her kits, one on the ground with half her face bleeding, two sitting beside each other as they faced their sister, and the other on the nest of the Twolegs. "Mama! Duke hurt me and Princess is being mean!" Small complained as Nutmeg raced over and started licking her kit frantically, after cleaning the blood off, it revealed a fearful sight. "What happened?!" Rusty gasped as he stumbled down back to his mother and sister's side, when he approached Small, fear struck his mind as he stepped back at the look on Small's face. "Your face!" Rusty screeched as Small dashed over to the mirror and gazed into it before her fur started to bristle. Small stared at the mirror, three long scars were engraved onto her face, her right eyes which the scars were over were still bright but she only saw the scars that start from above her eye and down to her jawline which was still fresh from Duke's attack. She stared in horror before Nutmeg grabbed her scruff gently and padded out with Rusty scrambling after them, Duke and Princess sat in the room unmoving from their spot. After a bit, Nutmeg stomped back in, she glared at her daughter and her son in fury. "Duke, why did you do that?" She snapped as she cuffed her son with sheathed claws, but anger pierced the light brown kit and the tortoiseshell kit. "Because mama, Small's too small, weak, stupid, and she's the biggest mistake a family could ever have." Duke mewed with a bit of fear edging off his voice, his amber eyes were dark with hatred as he stared past his mother and at Small who was watching from outside the room, across the large way. "I don't care, you two need to stop doing that to her. This is the fifth time something like this has happened to her because of you two." Nutmeg scolded as she whipped her tail side to side, her tortoiseshell fur was spiked and her eyes were blazing with anger. Just then, she had a flashback of her dream about blood. Scarlett was spread all over the ground and a cat was just visible in the dark mist, she couldn't see its eyes as clear but she assumed they looked more amber. She then envisioned her kit Duke as the cat because of his aggressiveness but she quickly dismissed it as she turned back to the real problem. "So what? She isn't part of our family, she's an outsider." Duke still went on as Nutmeg grasped his scruff in her jaws and lashed her tail for Princess to follow, the kit obeyed and the she-cat led the way out of the Twoleg's room, she put Duke down in their nest as Princess followed. "You two need to learn how to respect her, no matter what." Nutmeg hissed before whipping around and leaped up onto the wooden platform that stood taller than any cat, she sat there and watched her kits. "This is all your fault." Duke hissed to Small who was rubbing her eye and stared at him in hurt, her heart ached from his attack but was warmed by Rusty's kindness. "It's okay, ignore them." Rusty mewed in a soft voice as he licked her on her face and flicked his paw which was covered in a fluff of the torn bedding. "Okay." Small mumbled as she lowered her ears and watched Duke and Princess play, she too noticed that Rusty had jumped to the window ledge and was staring out at the forest behind and beyond the fence. If only my other sister wasn't taken away, then maybe I might've had a playmate... Small told herself as she thought about when her mother told them about there sister that was taken away soon after being born. Nutmeg didn't know what her Twolegs called her but she decided to name her herself, their mother named their lost sister Silk. Small liked that name, she only wished her name was different like her siblings. She lay in the bed, her tiny paws were crossed and she rested her chin on them, her tail was sticking out from her curled body as she let her eyelids fall. Before she knew it, she was deep into sleep and she felt herself engulfed by the darkness of a dreamless slumber, the only thing she could see were herself sitting in a dark place, nothing stirred and nothing seemed to be there except for her. Small stared into the pitch blackness of her dreamless sight and soon after she couldn't see anything. A mistake... Duke's harsh words stung her like a bee as that was the last thing she heard before falling deeper into sleep.