Found in the Braken (OPEN)

(OOC: Hopefully it's not too early to do this XD)

Heatherpetal padded back into camp through the gorse tunnel. She had left in search for prey to keep up the Clan's strength through this difficult leaf-bare, but instead of a squirrel or a mouse, in her mouth she carried a kit. She had fount the kit lost and wandering in the snow all alone. Though she looked for the little one's mother for several minutes, she eventually concluded that the kit was all alone.

There was no way she was going to let her freeze to death. ThunderClan had been so kind as to rescue her from the wild and her horrible late mother when she was a kit, so the only thing she could do was do the same for another kit as a ThunderClan warrior. With her mate's approval, she could perhaps raise the kit as one of her own with Emberheart.

She placed the kit down in the center of camp and drew her tail protectively over the little bundle of fur, looking around. "Blizzardstar, I have something important to tell you. And has anyone seen Emberheart? I need her, too."

Bracken looked around nervously, her eyes darting around as she swung about. Her body shook and convulsed as she trembled in fear looking at the hoard of cats around her. The most she could remember was her mother and father discussing something, their bodies frail and weak from hunger.

"She's not worth the trouble." They said as they padded away. "We don't need an extra mouth to feed."

And just like that, Bracken was alone in the world, with no more than a memory of a time where her parents had actually cared and loved her. Where they'd laugh and Bracken would watch as her parents caught food. Bracken already missed her parents, and she yowled a little in distress as she continued to shiver with the cold.

Birchheart came in from another patrol, managing to yield two mice and a chaffinch. It had taken a long time to gather just those three but they would be precious mouthfuls to the clan. She heard the end of Heatherpetal's announcement from the tunnel and pushed past it quickly. Was something wrong? The warrior wasn't going to stand seeing another cat she cared for hurt. When she saw the kit, her shoulders sagged in relief. Things were fine. They'd be tougher but, they were fine. She gave the kit a soft look and went to drop off her prey, keeping a mouse for the new arrival. She padded back over as the kit yowled. Dropping it, she rolled it with a paw to the kit. "Here, you look like you've taken on a whole family of badgers. What's your name?" She meowed. She'd wrap her tail around the kit if it wasn't gone. Just another thing that she couldn't do anymore. The other warrior already took care of warming the kit she supposed.

Bracken looked at the mouse warily, the brown creature seemingly strange in her presence. She had never seen the creature before, and sniffed it cautiously. She slowly climbed over Heatherpetal's tail and slid in front of the mouse, her two different eyes taking in the entire sight of the creature before her. It's skinny, non-furry tail and strange ears and paws intrigued her, but it still didn't seem right. She swung her tail a little before looking at the strange cat before her.
"I'm Bracken..." she muttered under her breath, her meow quiet and dark. The shock of her parents leaving her still littered her brain with anger and sadness. But thinking about it more, she had decided that it would do her good to maybe be a little kinder. If she was, maybe these strange cats would like her, and keep her around.
"What's your name?" she asked, twitching her ears as she shivered a little again from the cold.

Emberheart came into the camp empty-pawed, looking rather annoyed at herself for the lack of prey, but that look dissipated almost immediately when she saw Heatherpetal with a small kit.

Making her way over, she blinked. "Where did you come from, little one?"

"Hi, Emberheart. I found her out in the forest," Heatherpetal decided to answer, looking down sadly at Bracken. "I think she's been abandoned... There was no way I was going to let her starve to death, or worse, be eaten by a fox."

Bracken looked up at the two other strange cats talking to each other, her attention drawn away from the cat originally talking to her. Everyone around her seemed to be making conversation about her. Why was every cat talking about her? She shuffled her paws a little, her eyes finding their way back to the strange creature (mouse) sitting in front of her. A little growl sounded from her stomach. It had been a long time since she last ate, and while the strange thing in front of her didn't look edible, she had to admit, she was very, very hungry. So padding up to the creature, she sniffed again and took a small bite. Surprisingly, the meat tasted very good. Bracken was surprised at how much she liked it. She dug into the mouse, taking nimble, small bites as she filled her stomach with food that she hadn't had in a long time.