Of Reeds and Grass [For Icekit and any other Riverclan cats]

Water welled up against his paws as Wailingkit cautiously slithered amongst the tall grass to the funny shaped rock just outside camp that he'd agreed with his sister to meet up at. He'd endured burrs and slippery rocks to meet up with her to go exploring. A part of him wondered if this was even worth it, so much trouble just to see something they'd get to see in a moon's time when they'd become apprentices.

Waiting for her, he relaxed and began grooming himself. Small licks here and there to remove debris from his fur. He was so grossed in this task, a badger could have snuck up on him and he wouldn't have noticed.

Icekit stalked her brother, wanting to play-attack him before exploring. With a low growl, she pounced on her brother and laughed. "Gotcha!" She said happily and swatted his face lightly.

"Gah!" Wailingkit shrieked loudly, displaying his name sake in a high pitched tone. His paws slipped beneath him on the cold, wet ground, making him fall in an undignified heap. His fur which he had been grooming for the past few minutes was ruined again.

"Icekit, you mouse brain!" He hissed, and took a swipe, not with his full strength of course, at his sister. "You messed up my pelt!"

"Oh it's just your fur! It's not like it will be like that forever!" She said and rolled her eyes. "No wonder Mama named you Wailingkit. You're always wailing in complaint!" She stuck out her tongue and swiped him back. "Come on, get up!" She laughed and hopped off him."

"Hmph," Wailingkit grouched as he got up slowly grooming himself to make a point. He disliked being teased about his voice, it wasn't his fault that he had a particularly high pitched whine. But having been teased since birth about this particular characteristic of his, he shrugged it off with a huff and pounced on his sister in revenge.

He tumbled them into the nearby shallow stream with a cheerful mreow!

(ooc: Sorry, the usual notification didn't come and I missed this post.)

(Its fine! Don't worry about it)

Icekit grumbled as he pounced on her. Thinking of a plan, she was about to strike back but they tumbled into the river. She let out an angry wail. "Wailingkit, you idiot! Momma just took an hour drying my fur!" She hit him on the head with her paw and swam off a little farther off, but the current picked up slightly and she jumped out.

"Well maybe you should of thought of that before you- Ow!" Wailingkit yelped, a paw immediately went to his head to rub his sore head. After taking a second to recover, he raced after Icekit. His paws lightly but surely gripping the pebbly, icy ground before he fell into a low crouch a paws leap from her. Then he pounced once more, pushing her into the stream once more along with him.

He didn't realise she'd gottened out deliberately to avoid the stronger currents.

"Wailingkit! Get out of the stre-" Suddenly, a wave jumped onto the shore and she was cut off. "WAILINGKIT!" She screamed. The stream was rising and she couldn't see her brothers fur. "Wailingkit! Wailingkit!" I'll save you!" She jumped in the stream, seeing grey fur. She tried to pull him out, grasped him in her jaws, but she wasn't strong enough and the current dragged them on. "Help!" She wailed.

Panic rose as the icy waters slammed against him, he could no longer feel the sand and pebble ground that was his anchor. When his sister tried to pull him out, he lashed out against the current with his webbed paws but it was pointless. The current was too strong, and his legs had yet to fully develop the strength that allowed for Riverclan cats to swim effortlessly. So he did as his sister did, he did as his namesake suggested and wailed loudly.

"Help us! Snowfrost! Rippletail! Someone!"

Shimmerlight heard screaming from the river as she was hunting. "Is that...Icekit? Wailingkit?" The she-cat yelled their names as she raced on the bank of the river. There was no doubt Wailingkit was one of them, Shimmerlight could hear his loud screams from a mile away. "Don't worry guys, I'm coming." She cought a glimse of the two kits being swept away in the torrent of the river. Without thinking, the she-cat leaped into the water, swimming towards the kits. "Don't worry, I'll get you out of there!" Despit the freezing cold waters, The she-cat pushed on. Every time she got close, the turrent yanked the kits away. Shimmerlight kept getting dragged under, but she kept swimming. Finnaly she cought one of them in her mouth by the scruff. She threw the kit on her back, realizing it was Icekit. "Hang on, and I don't care if you use your claws to help, it won't hurt me, I promise." The cold water was starting to numb her skin.

Wailingkit could hear Shimmerlight in the water, his ears were waterlogged but he could guess her direction. He tried with all his might to paw the water with his webbed feet, to stay above the raging current and toward Shimmerlight, but he couldn't. All he could do was to be tossed aside, hitting rocks and sticks as he was being carried away.

Shimmerlight's breathing was ragged. She coughed as she swam with all her might towards Wailingkit. "Don't...worry," she said between breaths. She was caught underwater by the waves and struggled to get to the top so she and Icekit could breathe. Her lungs stung as she gasped for air once she was above water. She found a big rock, pushed herself off as hard as she could towards Wailingkit, and zoomed towards him. She grabbed his tail in her jaws. Now, how do I get back to shore? She aimed herself towards a rock jutting out from the water, and smashed into it so that the rock stopped her from moving farther down stream. She was close enough to the bank to throw the kits without them getting hurt. They were in the rapid part of the river, so if she tried swimming to the bank, she would get swept away. "First, Wailingkit," she said, her voice muffled with the tom's tail. She switched her grip from his tail to his scruff, pulled back, and tossed him onto the shore. "Now, Icekit," she motioned for Icekit to come to a spot on her back where she could grab her scruff in her mouth.

Wailingkit barely made a squeak as he was flung to the bank, which was highly unusual for the vocal cat. Waterlogged and half drowned, he had no energy to do anything but lie as he landed, taking shallow breaths.

"Ice... kit." He quietly gasped out in concern, he wanted to know where his sister was.

Icekit wailed, her claws growing weak on the rock as the water pulled her down. When she saw Shimmerlight motion for her to get up so she could be thrown onto the bank, she pulled her self up just barely, but enough for the she-cat to grab her. She couldn't get up more.

Shimmerlight grabbed Icekit by the flank and tossed her onto the shore. "Stay there," she said. "I'll come for you! Hide in some reeds until I come back," she said as she tried to find a way to get onto land. She decided to that the rapids had to stop at some point, so she was going to keep going downstream. She pushed herself off of the rock and tried to find a branch or something to grab onto that came from the bank so that she could get up. Shimmerlight kept smashing against rocks and getting dunked underwater. Finally, a tree root stuck out into the river. She grabbed on with her mouth as she passed by and pulled herself up onto the bank. She coughed and wheezed, trying to get some air in her lungs. She had traveled a long way down from the kits, so she had to run upstream to get to them.