sparrows and kites (open)

Kitespring hummed to herself as she gazed into the distance. She imagined being one of the sparrows, perched up in one of the willow trees and peering down at the cats below. Perhaps they had clan-like structures like the cats did. Would they have warrior names like the cats, or would they have simpler names? Did they have warriors, apprentices, leaders, deputies? Did they have their own warrior ancestors, even?

Nobody ever thought of these thoughts but her. That could be a good thing or a bad thing.

Putting herself into the heads of the sparrows, she pranced around the camp, smiling about the story of the two sparrows starting to develop in her mind.

~~

"Hey, Storm?" one of the sparrows asked the other.

"Yeah?" Storm replied. "What's up, Comfrey?"

"Well, I was wondering what you think about that group of cats." Comfrey fluttered her wings, before turning to Storm.

Storm let out a hearty laugh - at least from a sparrow's point of view; a cat could never be able to discern the complexities of a sparrow's call. "The furballs are not worth our time," he replied, giving a chuckle down at the cat on the ground.

"But what if there are some good cats out there?" She wasn't so naive as to think that every cat was friendly, but she was sure that at least one of them could be reasoned with.

There was just that pesky language barrier to deal with.

Storm scoffed. "Mousebr-"

~~

Kitespring paused mid-sentence. "Wait, would a sparrow curse like a cat?" Putting her tail to her muzzle, the she-cat pondered the situation. To be honest, they probably wouldn't, even with the knowledge of mice. Perhaps they even respected mice more than the average curse. Maybe... feather-brain instead? That seems like it would work better. Yeah, feather-brain! Taking a deep breath in, the young she-cat continued with Storm's dialogue. "You feather-brain! All those cats want to kill you the second you come down!"

Comfrey pouted - or at least, Kitespring imagined she pouted. "I get it," she grumbled. "But you never know. Maybe, some of them down there are thinking about us in the same way." Kitespring wondered if the real sparrows were like Comfrey and Storm, or if they were just talking about other, more reasonable sparrow things, like the seeds they ate today or the state of their wings. But she wished, selfishly, that they were talking about her, even if they probably had other thoughts currently.

Realizing that she had been speaking out loud in the middle of camp, the warrior turned around in a hurry, before anxiously gazing around to see if anyone heard her. Stars, the last thing she wanted was for them to think she was crazy.

Tinykit stared longingly at the camp entrance, overcome with boredom now that all of his littermates had moved into the apprentice den. He still had fun playing by himself, but it was nowhere near as enjoyable without his sisters' company. Kitespring's voice caught his attention and he turned to see her speaking to herself. Out of curiosity he crept closer, watching as her tale went on. His tail drooped in disappointment when it ended, and after a moments hesitation he sidled up to the warrior, his gaze imploring.

"Why'd you stop?" He asked, cocking his head. "What did Storm say next?"

As Fawneye spoke, the young she-cat shrunk away. Right… the clan did need more food, didn’t they? Kitespring found it way too easy for herself to get lost in her thoughts, even forgetting to grab fresh-kill from the pile. Perhaps that wasn’t the worst thing in the world, since they were still having some trouble getting fresh-kill. "Well, Fawneye, I… I wasn’t—"

A young kit’s voice interrupted her, causing her to jump back. How long was he listening to her? Probably the whole thing, since he mentioned Storm, and she didn’t even remember when she mentioned Storm before. Did he think she was crazy, acting out a dialogue between a couple of sparrows in the middle of camp? At least Fawneye would certainly think she was, even if he still didn’t grasp how strange it was to tell a story to yourself.

"Well, I… I didn’t think I had an audience," she admitted. Fawneye's going to call you crazy for pretending to be two sparrows. "And Storm... didn't really have that much to say. He just thought Comfrey was crazy." That wasn't... the most story-like of stories; it didn't really have the same beginning, middle, or end like the types of stories she usually told kits, so... "I can tell you another story if you want, though." Perhaps this one will be about cats, and not sparrows with cat-like personalities. That will stay locked up for now. Turning to Fawneye, the RiverClan she-cat smiled softly at her. "Fawneye, if you want to listen in too, you're welcome to." Perhaps she would rather try and get some fresh-kill in her body, and that was totally fine, but Kitespring still wanted to keep it open to her if she was interested in it.