Soot and Water (Open)

Sootkit was resting on his and his mother’s nest at the nursery, his mismatching eyes scanning the camp through the opening leading to it. The small kit has been the only kit on that specific litter, so he wasn’t really used to social interaction with any other cat but his mother, what didn’t help his already noticeable silent and aloof personality.

After a deep sigh, he finally got up and padded towards the nursery entrance’s and carefully poked his head out, the usual noises of the cats on their daily routines reaching his young ears.

Thistlekit was sitting outside of the medicine cat den. Uncomfortable things holding her leg in place as it healed from her fall a few days again. She would have a while before it healed fully.. so she knew she couldn't become an apprentice til then. For now Ivyfall was taking care of her along with Cloudpaw. Others checked up on her but they didn't really concern themselves too much with her since she was an outsider to them. Some kit from an unknown place. She couldn't tell the truth of where she was from. She didn't want to go back there.

Looking up from the ground to the nursery she noticed another kit poking their head out. She blinked and then decided to hobble over there to see what he was doing. "Hello?"

Sootkit immediately turned his head to look at the kit, he had seen her around before, as his mother spent a nice amount of time with her since she arrived completely soaked and with a broken leg, but he had never even tried to greet her before, just looking at her from afar.

“Hum…hi?” The odd-eyed kit couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward, as this was the first real social interaction he ever had with any other cat besides Ivyfall. Most kits would probably start chatting happily or even suggest a game, but thanks to the lack of littermates he wasn’t sure of what he was supposed to say or do at all.

Thistlekit didn't really know what to say to the tom. She expected a little more from him, but it seemed her expectations should be a little different in Riverclan. This whole clan was run differently from Windclan. She didn't really know what to do besides sit to the side and let others take care of her. She knew with her leg she would never be able to run again, and that was something important to Windclan.. and if she couldn't do that.. then she would never become a warrior with Windclan. She was glad she was staying here.

"What are you doing?" She asked. She sat down holding her broken leg off the ground slightly. She was still trying to get used to not being able to move it like normally

Pinekit's ears careened at the sound of stirring in the nursery. She opened her bright blue eyes to sunlight, and the kitten sat up in resentment. She tiredly stumbled over to her two denmates- one which she didn't bother talking to due to the abnormality of his eyes. She hadn't seen a cat like that before! She sat a tail-length away from Sootkit. Pinekit found it hard not to let her eyes stray over to Sootkit. The older cats told her it wasn't nice to stare. So, the black kit tried to keep her gaze as far from Sootkit as possible.

However, when she watched Thistlekit, she realized it was the rumored stranger kit to have broken her leg. Seeing the limp appendage, the cat scrunched up her nose. "They were right. You do smell funny..." Not the best first impression. Why did all of the other kits have to look and smell so weird?

Sootkit shuffled his front paws nervously, wondering why he thought that walking out of the nursery would be a good idea on the first place “Well…just looking around…” Sootkit was trying to come up with something better to say, or at least some words to add. He couldn’t help but let out a short relieved sigh when anther kit padded closer to them.

He looked at Pinekit, another kit that he never had really interacted with before, even if he had caught her staring at him more than once before. His ears immediately perked up as she pointed out the strange smell coming from Thistlekit, his attention returning to her as he sniffed the air, picking the odd smell for the first time “Well…maybe it is just the herbs they used to heal her?” He said almost to himself, barely loud enough for them to hear. He doubted this was the truth though, as he had been close enough to the Medicine Cat more than once to know what herbs smelled like. Then again he knew very little about herbs, so it still could be a possibility.

Thistlekit was taken back by Pinekit's comment. She knew people were talking about her behind her back since she was the rogue kit that randomly fell into the gorge, but seriously? She had the gall to say that to her? "Thanks and your a fish brain." She growled in reply. It was still weird for her to use Riverclan insults but she was getting used to it. She was just trying to have a conversation and this cat had to come up and insult her, and actually confirm others were talking about her.

She let out a small sigh. All of her Windclan scent washed off in the river so the only smell she had was the smell of the medicine den. "It's just the smell of herbs, they are constantly putting more on because of my leg." Even if she had some Windclan scent left it would take a really well trained warrior to detect it and they would have to be close. Thistlekit wasn't afraid. Ivyfall would protect her, right?

Manners wasn't much of what Pinekit was taught. She didn't really accept her current foster mother as her real one. Her fur bristled at Thistlekit's insult. "You can't call me fish-brain! You haven't even seen a fish, have you?" She didn't know where the kitten even came from. She wasn't from RiverClan, that was for certain. Maybe she was a ThunderClan spy...

She glanced from Sootkit and his quiet mewling of a response. His miscolored eyes sent a shiver down her spine. She flicked her attention back to Thistlekit. "Well, what's wrong with your leg anyway?" Pinekit inquired nosily. "Did you fall in the river?"

Sootkit looked at the two she-cats with his mouth tightly closed, lowering his ears and unsure of what he was supposed to say or even do in this kind of tight situation. Now he was regretting to ask about the smell, even if he got the answer from Thistlekit. It was obvious that the new kit felt a bit touchy about the subject, so he decided to drop it immediately.

“I…think she did? I heard mom talking about that with Cloudpaw once” He still could remember the first day after Ivyfall had returned to camp with Thistlekit, constantly asking to Cloudpaw about her “You must be really tough to be able to come out from that with just a broken leg” Sootkit was sincerely impressed by this fact, he had heard some stories of cats as young as them falling into the river, and most outcomes were fairly worse than hers.

Thistlekit's ears flattened against her head at Pinekit's response. "Of course I have! Our clan kind of... I dunno.. hunts them and eats them!" She hissed at the younger kit. "I can't believe that you are sitting here telling me, I can't call you a fish brain when I have way sense than you do!" She turned her head away from the black and brown kit. Focusing her attention on Sootkit the one who was being nice to her.

"Actually I fell off the gorge, and hit my leg on the way down.. which ended up breaking it. Luckily Morningpaw saved me, Tawnystorm helped too." She was thankful for that. She needed to go find them and thank them. She had already thanked Ivyfall and Cloudpaw. She needed to thank the others. She didn't want to be rude.

Pinekit blinked, tail fluffing at the hostility. Her and her big mouth. She was told many times by Willowbreeze to watch her tongue and her questions and not to be nosy. What did Willowbreeze know! She dropped into a crouch, glaring at Thistlekit, wiggling her rump. I'm gonna show her what a real RiverClan warrior is made of! The young black cat kicked off, leaping toward Thistlekit. Err... no. She found herself barreling into Sootkit, having aimed quite badly.

Pinekit's fur stood on end. She'd missed! She pressed her paws against Sootkit's fur, flexing her small claws against them. "Oh! Sorry, Quietkit." Were any of the other kittens as shy, she wondered? She glanced between Sootkit and Thistlekit, ears flicking at their conversation. "Why are you backing her up? She could be a ThunderClan spy for all we know!" She backed off of Sootkit, smoothing down her fur. That was probably the case.

Sootkit listened to Thistlekit’s words, trying his best to just stay out of the discussion that her and Pnekit had decided to start, watching his mouth to not say something that would end up dragging him into it at some point “The gorge?” The odd eyed kit had heard about it, but never had seen it before. All he knew about it was that it was extremely dangerous and also really far from camp, falling inside it, falling into the river and living to tell the tale… “You surely are lucky! I wish I had any exciting tales to tell as well, but I never had left the camp in my whole life” His gaze traveled to Thistlekit’s leg, he suspected that she wouldn’t be able to become an apprentice until it healed properly, as she wouldn’t be able to train otherwise.

“How long it will take y-” He couldn’t even finish his question when he felt something hitting his flank, making him fall with a surprised yowl that soon turned into a hiss as he tried to fight off the attacker, only to find out that it was Pinekit “What in StarClan’s name?!” He hissed at her as she backed up, getting up with his whole fur still standing on end thanks to the surprise “Well, excuse me for not thinking that any clan cat would put their own kits in lethal danger by breaking their legs and then throwing them into the river just so they can be rescued by RiverClan and then spy on us!” He spat at Pinekit, his tail lashing angrily.

Thistlekit was surprised when she saw Pinekit tackle Sootkit instead of her, and then burst out snickering as Pinekit apologized to Sootkit. "Wow. A fish brain and you can't aim. Nice one." She said snickering still. She stood up still not putting weight on her broken leg. "I probably have better aim than you and I only have three useful legs." She commented.

She shot Sootkit a look that silently thanked him for backing her up. "And Thunderclan spy? Seriously? If you keep bringing up these things you might as well go swim with the fishes since you seem to be as dumb as one." Riverclan was her home now. Windclan didn't want her, and she knew they didn't since they didn't come searching for her. She belonged here, Ivyfall took her in even though she wasn't her actual kit. No matter what a stupid kit said. She belonged here.

ic: Pinekit stiffly stood away from the two kits, tail fanned out in anger. She hadn't expected the quiet Sootkit to snap at her so fiercely. She retorted back with her own false sense of thought. "What do you expect? It's ThunderClan!" She glanced back from Sootkit and Thistlekit. "Fine! You want to trust her, go ahead! Don't come to me when she turns out to be a traitor!" She hid the sharp pain of sadness in her chest from the rejection of her denmates. She'd been much too loudmouthed to their liking. The black kitten spun around on her heels and stomped off, fur sticking out all over her body.

ooc: Ya'll can continue without me at this point ^^

Sootkit usually was of the quiet aloof type, but it was clear that he still could have some temper, especially if taken off guard like Pinekit did. He hissed a bit at her when she stubbornly tried to believe that this was all a plan from ThunderClan, he wasn’t exactly fond of their neighbor clan as well, especially after all the stories he had heard from the grownups about them, but no cat could be fox hearted enough to risk their kits like that only for a small chunk of information. His hiss, however, was cut short as soon as Pinekit stomped off, were his words really that harsh? He lowered his ears and shuffled his paws, his intention never was to make Pinekit leave and now he felt regretful for opening his mouth before thinking, he would need to more careful next time.

“So…hum…” His attention returned to Thistlekit, trying to not let the whole fight affect him more than it already did “Your leg…how long it will take for it to heal?” His words returned to their usual neutral tone, being barely above a whisper.