Once upon a time, Fern was still a five year old kitten and she would lose her temper really quickly. One afternoon she was walking along to Marsh’s in a really annoyed mood. And as she passed by a bush, her little brother popped out shouting “boo” and made her jump.
“Haha I got you” Pine cried!
“No you didn’t,” snapped Fern, “you just startled me.” She was beginning to feel even more annoyed. “Now go and leave me alone.”
“Okay,” Pine scampered off between the trees.
So Fern continued walking but this time she was really annoyed.
“Hi Fern!” Marsh called when she got there. “Did you know that I just learned that leopards are related to a type of cat that stays in the house all day and almost never leaves?”
“I did know that” snapped Fern to her cayman friend. At the same time, Fern was thinking “We are?! I didn’t know that.”
“I’m going back home” Fern told Marsh.
“But why?” Marsh asked, “You barely got here!”
“Because” Fern snapped, “I sometimes need a little bit of privacy.”
“Oh” said Marsh. He slid back into his swamp. “I hope you have a good day” he called after her.
Fern stomped away into the trees and snorted. “He’s lucky he doesn’t have a little brother” she thought to herself.
That morning her little brother had woken her up by singing the good morning song in her ear and practically jumping on top of her. Pine had laughed but Fern thought that it wasn’t funny at all.
Next, at breakfast, Dada Leopard had asked Fern to empty the entire dishwasher. Fern hated emptying the dishwasher, it was her least favorite job. So she had stomped all the way to her room and stayed there until breakfast was over.
When she came back after breakfast, Mama Leopard had asked Fern if she could play with her brother. Fern has said no because she didn’t want to be with her annoying little brother again. But Mama Leopard was busy so Fern eventually had to play with her little brother.
After that Fern’s dad had reminded Fern about the dishwasher. He said that he would take away one of her toys if she didn’t do it. So Fern had to do that also. And thankfully, right after that, she had a little bit of free time so she took it up with reading.
She read her feelings book. It was a big book with a lot of small writing. And it had everything you need to know about feelings. It had a couple of pages with pictures, too. Fern’s favorite page was one with a leopard saying “How are you feeling today?” and a list with different feelings and pictures with their different expressions. Not too long ago she had copied the page onto a poster and hung it up on her wall opposite of the bed. Her favorite expression was the goofy one, which had a picture of the leopard sticking his tongue out in a weird and funny way. It always made her feel a little bit better.
Then, at lunch, Pine had purposefully kicked her under the table because she hadn’t set up a tower properly when she was playing with him. Fern had pretended that she didn’t notice so Pine then started kicking her even more. Then she yelped “Ow” and her Dad fined her because he thought that she was playing around at the table. Fern tried to convince him that Pine was kicking her but when Dada Leopard asked Pine, he lied that he wasn’t kicking her and stopped. So Dada Leopard fined her for lying too. And then, when Fern went to get the money to pay her dad, Mama Leopard called “Fern! Lunch is over.” “What!?” Fern growled. She had only eaten half a spoonful of cereal. And when she went to her room and slammed the door, she heard her dad calling “Fern! You owe me a dollar now.” Well that made Fern really angry. She was cold and hungry because she hadn’t eaten anything that day yet except for that one spoonful of cereal. She had to pay her dad that dollar and that’s when she decided to go to Marsh’s swamp.
But she hadn’t thought that Pine would scare her on the way. And she didn’t think she’d be annoyed by her best friend. And now that playdate hadn’t worked out. She needed some alone time. So she went to Quiet Meadow.
Quiet Meadow was a little field and there was a rule there, that whenever you went there you had to be quiet. That’s why it was called Quiet Meadow. It was a meadow in the shape of a circle and it had a stream bubbling through it, and a pond in the middle, which merged from three separate creeks that came from different directions. It formed a sort of peace sign.
When Fern entered the meadow she noticed there were a lot of people whereas usually the meadow was empty. “Today must be a bad day for everyone” Fern thought. She went over to her favorite little pond and sat down and closed her eyes trying to calm herself down.
Suddenly Fern heard yelling. She opened her eyes and looked around. There was a leopard who was yelling at a porcupine.
The porcupine looked very very very spiky, and was almost as round as a ball but also had a long tail. It was brown in the front but bright yellow on its back half.
The leopard was about Fern’s age and he looked very mean. “Uhoh” she thought, “I know that leopard.” His name was Strike, and he was Fern’s worst enemy.
Strike was yelling “I don’t like the look of your spikes. They are ugly and they make you ugly too!” He was very mean.
“They don’t look ugly,” shouted the porcupine back at the leopard, “I think they look splendid.”
“Hah” shouted Strike, “I’ll bet you’ve never looked into the mirror.”
“I have looked into the mirror,” said the porcupine, “and I think they look good. They certainly look better than your fur.”
“Hey” yelled Strike, “my fur looks much better than spikes!”
Fern stood up and walked toward them. “Hey Strike,” she said “I think the porcupine is saying that she likes the look of her spikes as much as you like the look of your own fur. You didn’t like it when she called your fur ugly and she doesn’t like it when you call her spikes ugly.”
“Hah” Strike said “my fur looks much better than her spikes.”
“Does not,” said the porcupine, “I’m with Fern. My spikes look good!”
“Ha ha” sneered Strike, “as if that’s true.”
Fern paused and looked around. Every single animal in the meadow was staring at her. Fern shifted her paws. She didn’t like getting all this attention, especially not before she had combed her fur. “Look Strike” she said, “why don’t you just go, and leave this porcupine alone? How did you two even meet?”
“In Flower’s Field” murmured the porcupine. “I wish we hadn’t met.”
At that point, Fern exploded. “Strike whey don’t you just go and leave us alone?” She repeated louder. “Why did you even get involved with this? You didn’t have to get involved with this.”
“Fine” snarled Strike, “but I don’t think it’s going to last that long.”
Pleased, Fern sat down again. He had actually listened to her! Fern stood up again and started walking back home. She could sense that Strike was glaring at her but she wasn’t worried too much. Right now Fern had to go back home and apologize. To apologize for yelling at Dada Leopard, Pine, and Mama Leopard. She was feeling in a much better mood as she skipped home.
