Patchkit's First Time Out

Patchkit rose from her nest in the comfy nursery and yawned, stretching her limbs from the sleep. As she opened her eyes, she peered at the bright light from outside. She immediately brightened up, telling herself today was the day she would leave the nursery for the first time. She trotted to the entrance, took a deep breath and stepped out. The brightness and busyness of camp surprised her. She watched, wide eyed, at all the bigger cats.

Duckpaw was stretched out in a weak patch of sunlight not far from the nursery. He didn't notice Patchkit pick her way out and rolled over, flicking her ear with his bushy tail as he buried his muzzle into his paws.

Patchkit, being quite friendly, grinned and charged over to Duckpaw as she saw him. Her tiny paws made near to no sound as she ran, weaving between cats. As she got close to him she leapt onto his back and playfully gripped his ear in her teeth. She lightly tugged and laughed through his ear "Gotcha!"

Duckpaw yelped in surprise as Patchkit bit his ear, chewing on it. "Oh, no!" he exclaimed, shaking his head slightly and eventually resorting to just pawing the kit off. "You would've shredded my ears if I didn't stop you, wouldn't you?" he purred.

Patchkit laughed and hopped off of Duckpaw. Then she trotted in front of him and rolled over in laughter then purred "Yep!" She gently pawed his cheek, or at least the air as close as she could to his cheek.

Duckpaw purred, leaning closer so she could successfully paw at his face. "How close are you to being an apprentice?" he questioned, rolling over onto his back.

She laughed before shrugging "I think I'm about 2 moons, so it might be a while..." she sighed, wanting to be a apprentice very badly.

"Oh. I know how you feel, though. I got Lichenpaw to sneak out of camp with me when we were your age. I crossed the river and everything! It's too bad, though, because we got our ceremonies delayed for another moon." he said, pawing her nose lightly. "So don't copy us!" he warned, laughter in his voice.

Her eyes widened as she told her this but sighed when he told her it got his apprenticeship delayed. Patchkit rolled onto her stomach and looked up at him "What is there to do in camp though?"

"Well, I could always teach you to fish for minnows in the part of the river the runs through camp. Or we could play moss ball, or even hunt the frog." he suggested, rolling over onto his side.

Patchkit jumped up at the thought of hunting "Oh, oh, oh!! I want to hunt minnows!" she exclaimed happily. Then she tilted her head and asked "But...uh...what's a minnow?" She really didn't know, it WAS her first day out of the nursery after all.

Duckpaw purred, getting to his paws and leading her to the river bank. As he watched dark shapes flit around the water, he waited until one day flit close enough then yanked it out of the water, nipping it's neck and nudging the tiny fish towards Patchkit. "This, Patchkit, is a minnow."

Patchkit followed Duckpaw closely, then watched with her eyes wide as he caught a fish. She sniffed the fish then nipped a tiny bit of meat off of it, which there wasn't that much of, then exclaimed "That's good!!"

ooc: Can I join?

ic: Amberkit hear some splashing and padded down to the river. "Hi!" she squeaked, "What're you doing?"

Duckpaw looked up to see the newest arrival out of the nursery, Amberkit. "I'm teaching Patchkit how to fish." he answered.