Talk about cold! (OPEN)

Blazing realised how nervous he was, and the fur on the back on his neck started to bristle. He was going to talk to the leader of Riverclan! What if he was rejected? He tried to smooth out his ragged fur as Oakpaw called for her leader.

"Oh yes I'm well aware of the fact that he's a kit- a rogue kit. But we both know that the code only applies to Clan kits." Shallowpaw mewed, shrugging his shoulders as he returned Oakpaw's 'nice fake little chuckle'. "I think we're all familiar enough with the danger of having a cat among us who's an outsider- one who pretends to understand and be like us when they could never even begin to truly grasp understanding of Clan life.. He'd be nothing more than a snake in the grass, waiting for the moment he could betray us." He called, sharp eyes taking notice of the way that the young tom's nape fur bristled. Between Oakpaw's odd attempts at being friendly and joking -something that had rarely happened since they were born- and the little tom's nervous, rushed story, it was obvious that something wasn't right. Even if he couldn't place a paw on it immediately, the truth would come out.

Blazing's eyes narrowed, and his coat began to bristle again. He whipped around to stare into the eyes of this so-called Shallowpaw. Blazing was a nice kit, but he hated being thought as 'unworthy' the most. He'd challenge any cat who'd call him that, and he would even attack if necessary. "And what makes me untrustworthy? The fact that I haven't been living in one of your fancy clans? Do you think I'd kill you? Betray your leader?" he hissed. He then turned back around and let his fur lower.

Fishstar's ears perked, and the turned her head from the group of warriors settled on Oakpaw, who'd padded up next to her. A little ways away, Shallowpaw was sitting with a kit. It wasn't a kit that Fishstar could recognize, and she immediately knew that could spell trouble.

"Excuse me," she murmured to the warriors she'd been speaking to, rising to her paws. "It seems I have another matter I have to attend to before I organize patrols."

Shaking the snow that was clinging to her pelt off, she made her way over to where the two apprentices were situated. Her eyes narrowed a degree as she addressed Shallowpaw. "Who's this, and where did you find him?" Fishstar had never been one to toss an unattended kit back out into the cold, but apprentices and warriors bringing them into the camp from the outside always made her hackles rise. It wouldn't be hard for ThunderClan to frame RiverClan for kit-napping, if that was indeed where the kit was from.

Darkkit peered from the nursery, his solid dark gray fur held some moss here and there and his electric blue eyes wondered to the new kit. The older tom scampered over to the new kit. "Hi! I'm Darkkit, what's your name?" The tom meowed tilting his head. He waved his tail at Shallowpaw and smiled.

Shallowpaw rolled his eyes at Blazing, growing more and more weary of it all- didn't the mousebrain understand that he was an uninvited guest? Perhaps it would be best for the kit who just sit idly before he got himself into a mess he couldn't handle. His ear pricked up as Fishstar approached the trio, obviously not entirely thrilled with the situation. "Just let the record show I didn't do anything." He reflected, shooting a mutinous glance towards Oakpaw.

"His name is Blazing," He mewed, gesturing towards the outsider kit with a flick of his tail, "Oakpaw found him in the River. Apparently he's a loner without parents who managed to survive the entire Leafbare all by himself by bouncing around the outskirts of Clan territory." Shallowpaw explained, plopping down on his haunches as he looked at Fishstar, doing his best to not allow all the usual sibling-related annoyance he felt for Oakpaw creep into his voice as he addressed their leader. He watched as Darkkit scampered up to the growing group, clearly not at all phased by the slightly ruffled fur of everyone else, a slight smirk of amusement twisting his lips at the way that moss clung to the young tom's fur.

Blazing smiled at Darkkit and introduced himself quickly. He then turned to Oakpaw's leader and felt pressured to say something."H-hi.. Oakpaw brought me here," he mewed. He had no idea what to say. He didn't want to seem overconfident and rude, but saying nothing would make Fishstar suspicious of him. He realised how much his worry showed in his voice and tried to hide behind Oakpaw. He then glanced at the older kit who eagerly greeted him and wished he had the same confidence when speaking to authority. He gazed at nothing in particular, and waited for Fishstar's response.

Sensing the commotion, Acornpaw wriggled out of her nest, yawning wildly as she approached her siblings, dipping her head in greeting to her leader. The pale tabby bumped shoulders with her brother, Shallowpaw, in a silent hello before peering down sleepily at the kit before them. "I thought we didn't take in rogues." The she-cat meowed, licking down the flyway fur tufts on her chest. She had just woken from a nap, she was having a little trouble getting up to speed on things.

Her words lit a spark in Blazingkit. He thought about all that he'd lose if he joined this clan. Frozenkit, Shiningkit, even Clover... He thought about Blacktwig, the friendly warrior, and their leader, Darkstar. He thought about it long and hard, then turned to Fishstar. "Excuse me? Um.. I was just thinking for a moment, and I.. I don't think your clan is right for me." Blazingkit stuttered. He had made up his mind. He could not leave his friends behind. "You see, I'm.. I'm actually a thunderclan kit, and I accidentally fell in the river. Oakpaw said we would play a game, where I would join Riverclan... I'd thought it was just m-made up.. But I don't want to play anymore!" He cried. Then, without hesitation, he ran from the camp and sprinted back to the riverbank.

He gazed across the churning waters and into the forest. Waves of cold river water crashed into the sunningrocks. Blazingkit was panting. He had gotten himself into a mess he couldn't handle. But he couldn't swim back. So he did the only thing he could think of. "HELP!" he screeched. "HELP! I'VE BEEN KIDNAPPED!" His screams travelled through thunderclan territory like a roaring thunder.

Ivyfall had coincidentally been hunting at Sunningrocks for voles when she saw a tiny kit squeaking at the top of it's lungs. The rushing waters masked most of it's words, but she got the gist of it. Something about needing help, and napping. It was a little gibberish to her, but she figured it was worth investigating. Covering up her recently caught vole, she covered the distance between them in a few easy leaps before swimming across the water like a trout because she was quick like that.

Getting out of the water, the deputy shook off the water before looking down at the kit. "Hush, you're scaring off all the prey. What's the matter, kit? What are you doing here, you're not RiverClan."

Shallowpaw's nape fur spiked at Blazing's admission and he shot Oakpaw a hot, glowering stare; it was always Oakpaw causing mess after mess.He let out a loud gusty sigh before taking off after the young kit, easily keeping pace with the younger tom's frantic dash. The muddy river bank soil squelched loudly underpaw as he slithered to a halt beside Ivyfall and the disgraced runaway Blazing. With an annoyed hiss, he reached out and sharply prodded Blazing away from the rapidly moving water that gurgled loudly- there was no way he was going after the fishbrained kit if he jumped in a second time!

Listening to Ivyfall's question, he felt his fur spike slightly with exasperation. "This kit just tried to join Riverclan under the pretense that he was a rogue- when really he was just a fishbrained, conniving Thunderclan cat! He was totally prepared to lie to Fishstar's face about it all, but then he gave some half-done apology confessing to it all before running away screaming that we kidnapped him!" Shallowpaw spat, glaring down at Blazingkit with fiercely annoyed eyes. Looking at his grandmother once more, he forced his fur to fall back flat against his skin before sighing, "Although if I was this stupid and tried to join another Clan, I'd probably try to save myself by lying and saying that I was kidnapped." He mewed, voice full of contempt.

Before Fishstar could even breathe another word, Blazingkit had taken off towards the river, Shallowpaw hot on his heels. The leader's neck fur bristled in annoyance, and she rose up from her seat to follow them. She was getting too old for these kinds of mouse-dung shenanigans.

Once Shallowpaw and the kit were in sight, she halted. Ivyfall was now present, as well. Fishstar flattered her ears against her head. Was the whole Clan going to get involved now? One small kit was causing one very large, very irritating ruckus. "So if I am understanding this correctly - and I'm not sure, because you all ran off in the blink of an eye - this kit lied to you about his origins?" She looked to Shallowpaw.

Cloudpaw was hunting near by Riverclan territory when she heard Blazingkit's cry. "Blazingkit!! What are you doing in Riverclan territory!! Sorry about that Fishstar Ill just take him back to camp and give him to his mother. Blazingkit what were you thinking! Cloverkit was worried sick. She refused to do anything until you were found but nobody listened." The snow white apprentice meowed and flicked her tail walking down to the river where the border was.

Blazingkit hissed at Shallowpaw."I fell in the river! It was an accident! I didn't know Oakpaw was talking about real life!" Then, he turned to Fishstar and told her the whole story. "And then Oakpaw said that we would play a game where I would join Riverclan! She didn't say it was not a game, or tell me it would be permanent! All I wanted to do was play a game," he mewed, annoyed. He turned away from the Riverclan cats, staring at Cloudpaw.

"Well why we're you out of camp in the first place?" Cloudpaw meowed looking at the smaller tom.