A Journey of Self Discovery... To the Fresh Kill Pile [Open as heck!]

Bearkit poked his dark nose of the nursery; the thick brambles had always shielded him from the rest of camp, kept him confined inside the nursery, but now, with his mother fast asleep, he was creeping slowly out of the entrance. His long, thick, black fur became entangled in the branches, but he managed to pull himself free, with some effort, and he blinked against the sudden onslaught of light as he stumbled into camp. His yellow-green eyes were round as they travelled around camp, taking in his new surroundings. It was huge. He could see several different dens, but he wasn't sure which was which, and he didn't know the names of any of the cats walking around. It smelled funny out there, as well, very different from the warm, milky scent of the nursery. On paws that were slightly too large for his body, he stumbled towards the fresh kill pile.
Bearkit carefully tugged a small mouse out of the pile, and poked it experimentally with his paw. Like the rest of the camp, it smelled strange, but... This seemed appetizing, as well, so he leaned down and took a bite that turned out to be much too large for his small mouth and teeth. Still, he chewed with determination, as though he had something to prove by sitting in the middle of camp (he hadn't though to carry the prey anywhere else) and eating his first piece of proper food.

Duneclaw was just looking around camp like he usually did, when he heard chewing. Wondering who was chewing that loud, Duneclaw traced the source of sound to the food pile, where he saw a kit eating prey. Duneclaw didn't really know if kits were supposed to eat prey around the time they got out of the nursery. He was more amazed at the amount of determination the kit was using to try and eat the food. He just stared at the kit, wondering what would happen.

Echokit stretched at the entrance to the nursery. Her siblings and mother were fast asleep. She was awaked by soft shuffling near her. Padding over to sit beside the entrance waiting for her siblings to wake up. She heard the loud chewing and stood up.

Following the noise to the fresh kill pile she giggled to herself when she saw the tiny kit trying to chew through the piece of prey. Then she saw Duneclaw and made her way over to him.

Bearkit could feel eyes on him as he munched on his prey--it tasted rather good, but he wasn't sure it was worth the trouble. After he swallowed, he turned around, scanning the camp to see who was watching him--his eyes landed on a striped warrior that he didn't recognize, but then shifted to Echokit, his den-mate. He liked talking to her, and he wasn't used to spending any time with her alone, rather than with her siblings. Intrigued by the prospect of becoming closer friends, he trotted over to her. "Hi, Echokit!" He greeted cheerfully, waving his tail in greeting. He looked up at the warrior, but was uncertain of how to greet him, given that he didn't know his name.

"Hi, Bearkit!" She greeted him,cheerfully. "How is that piece of prey? It does taste weird the first time you have it. But don`t worry you will get used to it!"

Following Bearkit`s gaze she purred at Duneclaw, "Don`t be afraid of Duneclaw!" She whispered to the other kit, "I played moss ball with him once! He really is a nice cat."

"Hi! Duneclaw!"

Roaringkit padded out of the nursery in a daze, still waking up. He blinked in the harsh sunlight, yellow eyes adjusting from the pleasant darkness of where he slept to the light of the outside world. The kit spotted Echokit, Duneclaw, and Bearkit conversing and decided to join them.

"Hi everyone," he yawned, sitting next to Echokit, the cat he's the most familiar with.

Rowankit trotted past, carrying a recently shredded leaf in his jaws. Spotting a group of cats at the fresh kill pile he dropped his leaf and padded over to them.
"Hi guys!" He mewed in his high-pitched, squeaky voice. He tripped over his large feet and fell flat on the ground at their feet. Scrambling up again, he quickly composed himself. "Wha'cha doin'?"

Hearing Rowankit's voice, Duskkit scrambled out of the nursery brambles to see what the commotion was all about. Seeing his friends and siblings, he trotted over to them. Finding a place to sit was not easy due to the fact there were so many cats around. Finally finding a spot by Bearkit, he sat down and curled his small tail over his paws. "How you guys doing?" Staring around his eyes landed on Roaringkit. Twitching his tail tip, Duskkit scrambled to his paws and grabbed a tiny shrew from the pile. "Anyone wanna share? Anyone?" Duskkit already knew by the scent of it that Bearkit had already ate. Sighing he laid down and put the fresh-kill on his paws.

Bearkit felt a slight spike of irritation as more cats joined their conversation; it wasn't that he didn't like them all, but this being his first time out of the nursery, he had been looking forward to chatting with someone one on one, for once. He shrugged off the emotion, though, and instead focused on the conversation--after all, all these cats were his friends, except Duneclaw. "We're just talking," He mewed in response to Rowankit, "Did you all just wake up? I've been awake for ages, it's so boring in the nursery though, compared to out here! We should do something fun."

"I've never been out of the Nursery- well, I did once, but not too far." He flicked his tail "Do you know any good places to explore?" The tom asked the group excitedly.

It was, of course, Bearkit's first time out of the nursery, as well--however, he wasn't about to admit that he didn't know any places to explore. Perhaps if they just went exploring, they would find something interesting, and he could just pretend that he had known about it all along. "Yeah, there's loads of cool stuff to see." He proclaimed confidently, without a trace of the doubt or uncertainty lurking beneath the surface, "Anyone else want to come?" He would have liked to go alone with Rowankit, who seemed enthusiastic, but he knew that it would be rude to run off without inviting everyone, so he waited for answers from the group, already on his paws.

When Duskkit offered to share, Roaringkit couldn't refuse. "Sure Duskkit, I'll have a bite." He sat down next to his brother and started to nibble on the small shrew.

The kit looked up from his meal when Bearkit made an inquiry about their state of wakefulness. "I don't know if I'm even am yet," Roaringkit joked, eyes still tinted with drowsiness. However, when Rowankit asked about exploring places, any tiredness left in his body was banished by a rush of adrenaline at the suggestion of possible adventure. He felt even more geared to go when Bearkit asked if they wanted to go exploring with him. "I will!" He replied, done with his meal. The tiny kit got up onto his paws.

"I want a bite!" Echokit exclaimed sitting down next to her siblings waiting for her turn at the shrew.

Now the smell of the fresh kill was getting to her, plus that she just woke up, made her eyes drop with tiredness. She just nodded with whatever Roaringkit said. But when she saw her brother spring to his paws she followed him. "Sure!" She meowed even though she didn`t hear what Bearkit said.

Rowankit jumped to his feet. "Let's go then," He said eagerly, pushing ahead to the front of the group to lead them. He looked behind to Bearkit and moved aside for the male to walk next to him. "Where'll we go today?" He purred.

Bearkit started walking with Rowankit, a couple of posts ahead so that he was leading the group--he searched his memory for anything he had been told about the camp and the territory, but he just couldn't summon a memory of anything. "Well, if you guys aren't too scared," he mewed, dropping his voice so they wouldn't be overheard, "I'll bet we could sneak out of camp and go hunting." It was against the rules, Bearkit knew that--but for the sake of the clan, wasn't it best if everyone who was able could go out and hunt? Surely, if they came back with prey for the clan, no one could complain.