old enough [O]

Aspenkit growled at a ball of moss that is a pretend mouse, trying to pounce on it, but it just got blown away by the wind, and his paws met the floor of the nursery.

Remembering how an apprentice had been carrying some prey into the nursery to feed the queens and some kits, and how Aspenkit had asked the apprentice how to hunt prey, like the mouse the apprentice brought in, which had been hungrily gobbled by mother. She had hoped she could hunt and bring mother a mouse, but the apprentice denied his request of teaching him, said he was too young. "How much older must i be?" Aspenkit demanded, but the apprentice told him until he was old enough to be an apprentice.

Aspenkit had been very annoyed, but decided to practice hunting on his own first, so when the apprentice left, he rolled some moss he found in a corner of the nursery into a ball and decided to try pouncing on it. However, it has been almost a day and he still haven't managed to catch the moss ball.

Sootkit looked up at his brother's antics, and quickly caught on with what Aspenkit had been trying to do. Springing to his paws, the little white-and-fawn speckled tom dashed next to his brother. He looked around to check that cat was there to hear what he was about to say, then leaned in and whispered, "I overheard some apprentices talking about a rabbit hunt. Apparently, we have to run really fast, faster than the rabbit, to catch it! So to practice catching prey, we need to practise running!"

With that said, Sootkit sprang away and called over his shoulder, "You chase me as if I'm a rabbit, and when you catch me we switch positions!" Without checking whether Aspenkit had heard him, Sootkit hurled himself out of the nursery and into the camp, only to accidentally bump into a cat. Sootkit bounced off and landed on the ground with a loud yelp.

"Sootkit! Wait up!" Aspenkit mewed, chasing after his brother out of the nursery, before accidentally bumping into a huge cat.

Aspenkit glanced at the she-cat,"Hi! I am Aspenkit!" Aspenkit introduced himself to Sleepyhollow enthusiasically. Pointing a paw at Sootkit, he added, "This is my brother, Sootkit!"

Sootkit looked up at the she-cat with wide green eyes. He had seen the warrior around a few times, but never this close. "Sorry for bumping into you!" He apologized, jumping to his paws and bowing like his mother had taught him to if he should ever do something wrong to an older cat. He supposed this was a scenario that required that.

Done with the apologies, Sootkit looked back up at the fluffy she-cat with wonder in his eyes. Questions burned on his tongue, but he held them in. Mother had said that it was rude to ask another cat personal questions. But he wanted to know so badly-- what was it like, during a Gathering? Were the other clan cats nice?

Sootkit puffed out his chest at the mention of his name. He really loved it. Thank Starclan his mother had chosen such a good name for him, and not something like soft or tiny.

The she-cat asked if he had any questions. If she asks what questions I have, then it wouldn't be rude to ask questions, right? The tom-kit reasoned. "What are the other clans like? Brakenwing says that Shadowclan has a bad relationship with Windclan, and my mother says that Riverclan cats are mean, but that can't be all there is to a clan right?" He asked, tipping his head to the side, "Like, some cats in Windclan are not the nicest, like Jayfrost, but some cats are really nice, like Batsong!"