Bill Nye the Science Kitty

Chapter Ten

WARNING: SPOILER FOR THE BOOK 'MOONRISE'.

Bill Nye turns around to thank Wheatfeather once more, but the tom had already gone. Fatigued and slightly exasperated, he turns back around to face his new challenge. The grey tabby's eyes widen.

Random Ginger Tabby: WHAAAAACHHAA!!! *There are stone platforms a few tail-lengths high spread out all over the moor. Cats are jumping off them; the ones below are either snapping photos with the latest JuniperBerry™ phone or filming.*

Bill Nye: *pads up to the Random Ginger Tabby, who had just landed and is mewing to the black cat that had been filming him* Hello! I am B—

Random Ginger Tabby: Yeah yeah, Bill Nye, Science Kitty, the young scientist that travels around to learn science, the one that had just visited AggikulureClan, the one that prefers AlCatel over JuniperBerry phones... 

Bill Nye: Actually, I like Microclaw brand the best, and, wow, Horsestar was right when he said the other Clans couldn't pronounce AgricultureClan. AND HECK YEAH I'M FAAAMOUSSSSS—

Black Tom: Well, thank you for the confirmation. I am Twistclaw, and that *gestures to the ginger tom* is Narwhalcloud. Now, you must be wondering why we're jumping off stone columns.

Bill Nye: *straightens* I'm more concerned about Narwhalcloud's name, but, yes, thanks, I'd very much like to know that.

Narwhalcloud: Well, we've been trying to find out how the narwhal (Bill Bye: daheq?) species always land on their feet after falling. You'll see that the column heights vary. These are part of the independent variables of our experiments, as we would like to see if height affects—

Twistclaw: *whispers to Bill Nye* He once stubbed his toe when he jumped down a stone column and tried to land irregularly. Since then he always thought that we were narwhals and nagged Momentumstar to change his name to Narwhalcloud.

Bill Nye: But that doesn't make s— *stops as he sees a big brown tom padding towards them*

Momentumstar: Hello, friends! Hello, Bill Nye! I see you've come to learn. You must be wondering why Twistclaw is called Twistclaw and why Momentumstar is called Momentumstar and definitely why Narwhalcloud is called Narwhalcloud. So, the story goes a long way back, when I first decided to create a Clan to investigate the question why cats—

Angularclaw: Basically, we decided to rename ourselves with things we've discovered from our experiments.

Momentumstar: From the videos we've taken in slow motion, a falling cat begins to shift his balance from the second his drop begins. He begins rotating his head, directed by his eyes and ears, until he's facing the way his body thinks is the side that should be up. 

Angularclaw: Next he arches his back, then his front feet, followed by his back legs; they get positioned under him.

His forepaws are close to his face to spare it from the ground's impact. 

As he lands, the cat's leg joints bear the impact of his weight. As his body twists itself to the falling motion, it relaxes and spreads out for the landing ahead.

Bill Nye: It's amazing, isn't it? You guys seem to have grasped the concept pretty well, so why are you still experimenting?

Narwhalcloud: Because narwhals—

Momentumstar: Because we want to see if height affects anything. Our hypothesis is that the cat will have more time to adjust its body if it falls from a higher place and land more safely.

Twistclaw: *nods*

Bill Nye: But cats have still died from falling. You know, Feathertail—

[Dem evil spoiler <| : - { ) idek why I just made a santa emoticon.] [*claps* Wow Saph, wow ~Sushi]

Narwhalcloud: *looks up from reading Moonrise* Hey! No spoilers! I'm only up to page 271!

Bill Nye: Well, actually that is the page that she —

Narwhalcloud: Shush, I'm a slow reader!

[Spoiler end]

Bill Nye: *ponders over the unnatural fact that the cats in this book could read books like 'Moonrise'. Then he remembers the broken down Fourth Wall* from the A Ballad of Yellowfang and History chapter and nods gravely.*

Momentumstar: So, anyway, now you know how cats already land on their feet! Don't you have another Clan to go to? I'm sure they'll welcome you there, and maybe even share prey with you. They're quite the hospitable bunch. 

Twistclaw: Yeah. We're still busy testing. *taps his JuniperBerry phone screen a few times*

Bill Nye: *shrugs* Well, I learnt a lot here. Good luck!

Narwhalcloud: NOOOOOOOOOOOO FEATHERTAIL DIEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!! *begins thrashing around, eyes completely white and glazed over, shrieking something incoherent*

[Well, that defeated the purpose of the spoiler alerts before. For those of you that hate spoilers, I owe you a doughnut 🍩 ]

Bill Nye: Uhhh... I'm just gonna be Bill Bye for now. I really need to go. Uh, bye! *When the three cats blinked, Bill Bye had already disappeared. Narwhalcloud continues to perform his paroxysm of spasms.*

Written by Saph, as you probably knew from the doughnut up there ^ 🍩✨ I only know a few people that actually like spoilers... including me...

* It was actually the Berlin Wall.