It's Great to be a Kit Again [semi-open/ask]

Ivykit jumped at the sound of the other kit. With the voice being rather flat, she honestly had mistaken them for a queen. Her leap landed her just a couple of mouse lengths from Bluekit, to which she quickly scurried to a place farther away. Sitting up a bit straighter, she took a deep breath. Failure was failure, but at the same time, she was still so young. She had time to learn, didn't she? After all, while ShadowClan was home to many prideful warriors, a first attempt's failure usually wasn't punished so harshly. "S-Sorry... I-It was a first attempt... How can a cat learn if they don't fail at least once?" With a blink, she tilted her head. "Failures come at a cost, I know that." But at the same time, even the Elders had to know it was impossible to catch every single piece of prey they pursued.

Watching as Yewkit seemed to come closer, Ivykit herself took a step back. Yewkit was much older compared to herself, and hopefully the she-kit would be turning into an apprentice soon. If there was anyone in the nursery that intimidated her more, it'd be the Queens.

Yewkit let her lips curl back, showing a flash of teeth, with a hint of indignity in her voice. "We're all ShadowClan here, toad-brain." At least she was. "Of course I was awake." That was at least mostly true, but what did any of them care anyways? Her eyes narrowed into slits, but she still slackened, letting her fur flatten, even if she didn't relax her straight-backed posture, like a warrior on high alert. It was the tiniest, teeniest, telltale sign that she'd ever-so-slightly let her guard down. She turned her gaze on Ivykit, sniffing. "Whatever. That's just an excuse. Warriors wouldn't let themselves off that easily."

Bluekit gave a small smile. Something about her angry reaction made him feel good, like he was in control. He gave an aloof flick of the ear, a lick of the paw, but said nothing. It wasn't like he had a retort anyway. Did he really need one?

"Why don't you catch one?" the small tom meowed, his vivid blue eyes glowing in the moon, the brief clear sky. The bugs had begun to dip once more into grasp, only temporarily disheartened by the swipe Ivykit gave them, freely flitting through the air and to the occassional leave. They dipped in and out of visibility like a carp going through the water. Was this how Riverclan hunted? Only seeing the prey half the time?

"That's because they have experience..." Ivykit muttered, huffing as her cheerful mood was sucked away into Starclan-knew-where. Yes, she was also a ShadowClan cat. From the Queen's stories, they were the hostile and proud when compared to other Clans. But Ivykit didn't see it that way. They were all just... different. While the she-kit wanted to enjoy her youth, even though she spent it sleeping, it was hard to do so when the true personality of a pure ShadowClan cat was so... Negative. The silver cat was used to it, but it didn't make her hopes of the nursery kits being more cheerful falter.

Bluekit's challenge issued towards Yewkit sparked her interest. Yes... that would be interesting. "You can't kill it, either." Gotta make it fair, right?

She felt herself bristle as her pride was pricked. Yewkit backed off a pawstep, tail swishing from side to side. "I won't back down from that," she muttered back, with the hint of a growling undercurrent in her voice. Were they calling her out...?! There was a pang of sudden uncertainty, but she steeled herself with a sharp intake of breath and turned, eyes following a firefly as it bobbed and looped through the air. Grr, she'd show these two toad-brains, and then maybe they'd finally be impressed... Leopardstar would have to make her an apprentice soon, and she'd prove how ready she was!

Yewkit hunkered down into an uneven crouch, so low her belly fur almost brushed over the top of the damp grass, haunches up, fluffy tail sweeping over the ground. Careful steps, silent, like a real ShadowClan warrior... She crawled over the grass with overarching pawsteps, looking more like a snail than a cat, toward where her prey twirled through the air like dust in a sunbeam. Gah, there was a sharp ache in the arch in her spine, but she pushed through it with a low breath, creeping forward.

The tip of her tail twitched. Less than a hare-length away, just over head height, there it was, and if she could only just leap...

She broke out of her crouch, all stealth and subtlety forgotten, and sprung into the air with claws outstretched. A black paw flashed out in a wild swipe, and just like with Ivykit, the firefly flit just outside her grasp, as if swept away on a breeze. Yewkit came back down in a tumble of dark fur, hissing and spitting, just as the firefly swooped tauntingly back down again, its trailing glow imprinted in the air like an afterimage.

Somehow, in the scramble, she found her paws again. You won't get away that easy...! As the bug swept toward the camp wall, she scrabbled after it, kicking up mud and grass and moss behind her, leaping, flying, and it was so close—...! The firefly's light blinked out in front of her as she went careening into the brambles. "Gah! Ack!" Thorns and thin branches snagged into her fur, entangling her the more she kicked, turning her momentum against her as her headlong sprint slammed to a standstill.

Yewkit tore herself out from the bushes, clumps of fur tore up along her once-glossy pelt, huffing and puffing. But where was...? She wiped her paw against the ground, and there was her prey... or what was left of it, anyways, all ick and dark goop and broken wings... "Ugghhhh..." she shuddered, a long whine of frustration that bubbled out from the back of her throat. The she-kit stamped her paws, trying to shake off the rest of it. Her voice sounded on the verge of breaking, all choked up, a hot flash of shame washing over her from the humiliation... "This is a stupid kit game anyways! Real warriors don't have time for any of this kind of stuff! Fireflies won't feed any elders or queens!"

And besides, it was closer than any of them got anyways! Hmph...

Bluekit was momentarily enamored as she went through her customs. He never showed it on his face, but he watched her crouch with intrigued blinks, thinking back to his own and how unrehearsed it was. She seemed to grow a dozen moons with her new posture, her approach to the swarm of fireflies. Was she going to do it? He was certain she would have no chance when he dared her to catch one, but the little tom grew silent, even his breath becoming quieter than the night air.

She leapt. She imbued such serenity, the jump so clean and graceful. So how did it flip as soon as she hit the ground?

What a mess it was. Bluekit watched her scramble, and was sure she would come up empty. Of course, what she did wasn't much better. He wrinkled his nose at her catch, but could not help but smile at her reaction. His ears perked. "If this is a stupid kit game, then you must be the stupidest kit of them all." His tail was high behind him, to keep out of the wet blades of grass. "You looked like a dog released from its Twoleg." He'd never seen a dog or a Twoleg in his life, but he heard a story from an elder once about them. Maybe it made him sound smart.