Alone Together (Closed for Seppawku)

Warm ray's of sunshine drifted through the roof of woven brambles, along with the enticing scents of what lay beyond the cozy nursery. Shadekit sat up in the cramped nest he currently shared with his sister Stormkit and their mother Hawkmask. Rolling onto his side and stretching his legs out until his toes quivered, Shadekit finally blearily opened his sleep-heavy eyes. Noticing that Hawkmask wasn't in the nursery currently, and that her scent that clung to the moss was quite faint, Shadekit decided that his mother must of left quite some time ago.

After thinking for several moments, Shadekit rolled to his paws and then dropped into a crouch before leaping at Stormkit's sleeping form, crushing her smaller form underneath his already much heavier frame. Shadekit quickly nipped at the soft fur that surrounded the area of base of her small ear, before practically yowling, "C'mon! Get up already! Hawkmask isn't here so we can go explore without her yelling at us!"The small tom continued to eagerly shake his sisters form.

Waking up was a difficult enough task without being rudely awakened by heavy paws and sharp teeth, and Stormkit cracked open one eye to squint blearily up at her sibling before huffing and letting her eyes close again. Her dampened ear twitched once, fluffy fur drooping a little with Shadekit's warm breath. "You --" she broke off into a breathy yawn, all pinpoint kitten teeth and a curling tongue that tasted the air lazily, "-- can, mousebrain, but do I haaave to?" Even so, she batted a soft paw at Shadekit's chest, squirming out from under him with the advantage of her smaller frame, and slapped her tail against his side as she stretched and got to her paws.

The slow lashing of Stormkit's tail betrayed her excitement, regardless of the determinedly sleepy look on her scrunched muzzle. "...you're gonna wake the whole camp, anyway, 'n then we'll get caught, so ha. Shoulda let me sleep if you were just gonna yowl like that."

Rolling his eyes, Shadekit shrugged Stormkit's tail of his side and fluffed his fur, his small claws sinking into the soft, worn moss of their nest. His tail continued to whisk about in the air excitedly as Shadekit turned to peer outside of the stifling nursery. "The whole clan's out on patrol- look at how empty it is. I doubt any cat will stop us." Shadekit grinned, flexing his claws eagerly. "Aren't you tired of how Hawkmask doesn't let us go anywhere other than the elder's den? Now we can go anywhere we want!" Shadekit eagerly added, rising to his feet again before beginning to pace circles around his sister. The dark fur on his nape rose in excitement while Shadekit's eyes glinted in excitement.

Stormkit blinked slowly, letting her lazy gaze sharpen and fix on Shadekit and flicking her tail again -- at his muzzle, this time, one paw scuffling in the moss of the floor. "...I'm always tired... I wanna see the apprentice's den, though...!" She extended tiny claws almost on reflex, scraping at the dirt, and flicked a glance through the gaps of the nursery across the empty, shadowed camp, padding closer to the nursery exit with her fur already fluffing up from interest. Stormkit cast another look back at her brother, curling her muzzle a bit as she looked up at him with an unpracticed look of disdain that didn't quite fit her kit-soft face, and almost purred as she brushed past him and out the door, fast on short legs.

"...if they catch us it's your fault, na-naaah~!"

"They won't catch us. Nobody's ever in camp at this time of day. Well they might catch you cause they can probably hear you stomping around from Fort Trees!" Shadekit snorted, brushing past the thick brambles after Stormkit, the bright sunlight making his eyes screw shut momentarily. After blinking several times, Shadekit's eyes finally adjusted to the bright sunlight and he quickly scanned the mostly empty, mud filled camp.

Shadekit's eyes fell on the slightly smaller den made up of ferns, and the familiar scent of some of the apprentices who often cleaned out the nursery, and bumped his hip against Stormkit. "There's the apprentice's den- come on. I wanna see where's the best spot for a nest when we become apprentices!" Shadekit then took off towards the small den, his paws skidding slightly against the muddy ground of the camp. Once he entered the den, Shadekit began to eye the inside, looking for the best spot to claim for his nest once he moved into the den. The fact that no milk scent clung to the den made him slightly uneasy, but eager nonetheless.

Stormkit blinked in the sunlight, half-dazed and shaking her head from side to side to clear it, and stumbled to the side at the nudge before hissing and chasing after Shadekit. She skidded after him, scrambling paws kicking up mud to splatter on them, and came to a halt just before she would have run into him, muffling a purr of amusement. "It's so big! I won't have to sleep where you can roll over onto me anymore, ha."

She flopped suddenly onto the packed den floor, staring intently across the dim space at Shadekit with a quirk of her head; her tail whisked over the floor, disturbing the moss, and Stormkit brought a muddy paw up to her mouth to gnaw clean in a nervous gesture."Do you think we'll be living here instead soon? Hawkmask probably wants to be a warrior again.."

Shadekit's haunches collided against the more pact soil of the den with an audible thump, his claws picking at the soft moss that Stormkit sent sprawling across the floor of the den. Watching his sister chew at her claws nervously as she spoke of their mother, Shadekit rolled his eyes, his claws firmly sank into the springy moss before shredding it in a display of irritation. "She's wanted to be a warrior since the moment we were born. She's constantly been trying to make up for all of her mistakes." Shadekit scoffed at Stormkit's question, his ears going flat against his skull as the sore subject of their mother.

"I can't wait to sleep here and be free of Hawkmask's constant nagging. We'll be able to stay up as late as we want without her hissing at us all night." Shadekit finally added, trying to rid himself of all the bitter whispers about their heritage that he's constantly heard from all the other Shadowclan cats that constantly nagged at him like a thorn in his paw.

Stormkit shook out downy fur, one of her ears twitching down unhappily as she bit particularly hard down on her claw. She tugged her damp paw away from her teeth, lapping over the flat of it once before reaching out to paw at her brother's side. "...no wonder, with how much you wriggle around at night!" She forced enough cheer into her voice that it rung less hollow, keeping the nervous motion of her tail going in a steady sweep that sent another rain of moss over them and blowing the bit that fell onto her muzzle away with an annoyed huff.

"Anyway, some of us like sleep, Shadekit! I'm definitely gonna be a better warrior than you if you don't." Stormkit let out an amused, if stilted, purr; her eyes half-closed and skirting away from Shadekit in an attempt to distract herself. "Where to next? There's nothing to do in here...!!"

Shadekit fluffed out his still kitten-soft fur as his sister prodded his side, his eyes rolling as Stormkit teased him. A short, powerful breath puffed out of Shadekit's nose in the form of a noisy sigh as he stared up at the thorny roof of the apprentice's den, the scents that rose up from the nests stale. "There's nothing to do here if none of the apprentices are in camp." Shadekit agreed, his ear twitching as he peered out of the den and into the muddy center of the camp.

"Maybe we could go visit the elders den? We could sift through their matted fur for ticks while listening to them tell stories about how they were born before the highstones were created?" Shadekit purred, jumping to his paws and stepping over the smaller form of his sister before squeezing out of the den; the thorns gently pressing along his sides. Staring up at the weak Leaf-Fall sunlight, Shadekit began to scan the camp clearing for a more interesting spot to explore as he waited for Stormkit to join him.

Stormkit huffed out a laugh through a curling muzzle, brushing close past one of the thorny walls as she followed Shadekit into the sunlight, barbs leaving quick indents in her newly-fluffed fur. She stuck close to her brother's larger pawsteps, eyes darting across the camp and lighting on each structure and thing of interest before she caught at his tail with a needle-sharp claw. "They all smell like rotten bile, and they'll just yell at us for being out of the nursery. We should find our own adventure to tell them about ooover and over!" She shifted from paw to paw, claws stropping the ground idly as she considered her off-handed suggestion, only to nod decisively.

"Imagine how jealous all the younger kits will be if we do something impressive! 'n if we don't tell anyone but them until we're apprentices we can't in trouble, so ha." Stormkit scented the air, a quick dart of her tongue poking out through her teeth, and tasted nothing but dying leaves and the long-stale scents of their Clanmates. "The warriors won't be back for aaages, anyway..."

Shadekit sniffed the damp air, his tail kinking in the air as he debated his sisters words. Shifting his weight back and forth on his paws and watching how the mud seeped around the soft pads of his paws, Shadekit huffed as he explored their options about their so-called 'adventure'.
"Let's go to the Carrion place! That's the only place nearby that seems to have any action."  The tom suggested, eyeing the unguarded entrance while his already long, hooked claws escaped their sheathes to sink into the muddied ground of the camp.

"C'mon! We gotta go now before any patrols come back to camp and see us!" Shadekit hissed as he took off in a semi-stealthy gait, his small paws kicking up clumps of mud behind him as he dashed towards the gap in the brambles. Without even checking to see if Stormkit was close behind, Shadekit burst through the brambles, ignoring how they prodded at his pelt uncomfortably, and came skidding to a halt as he examined the unfamiliar territory and towering pines, his fur bristling in excitement as he tasted the air while waiting for Stormkit to catch up.