Continued from here | @empirescxrned
Cairis had finished her edu-vids for the day.
Most everyone was at work.
She'd managed to avoid the older kits for the most part; had gained only one new bruise from a lucky kick to her leg.
I can't wait until I'm in my nineties, she thought bitterly. Then it'll be my turn to be the boss around here! Only seventy more decaphoebs...
Having nothing better to do and finding no rats to hunt, she decided to go play Slivers.
She loved the freedom of acrobatic flips and twirls; the thrill of knowing that if she missed catching one of the springy twigs, then at best she'd be dead - at worst: alive to be sanctioned.
She climbed up a section of branch wall until she could get to the peeling slivers. Then, she leaped: caught one of the flexible peelings of wood and let her weight drag her down. The wood stretched until it sprang back, pulling her up, and with a laugh Cairis used that momentum to hurl herself to another sliver.
She spent a good bit of time playing; bouncing and twirling from sliver to sliver - almost missing a few times. She lost herself in the rhythm of motion and flight.
And then, a voice startled her out of her fun.
She missed the sliver she'd been aiming for.
Shrieking, she plummeted towards the floor below.
