Youth [open]

The dreams were always the same. Not once, in his admittedly limited memory, had the pattern ever deviated from what he had decided was normal. They began the same and ended the same, and it appeared as though they would continue to do so for quite a long time.

Blinking the fuzzy tendrils of sleep away, Lichenkit hardly paid any mind to the strange proceedings that had originally woken him up. Instead, his attention was fixated upon the soft chatter of voices that were drifting from some point outside of the nursery. Although he could hardly understand what they were actually conversing about, it still sent a rush of adrenaline soaring through his veins. The idea of being set free beyond the limited supervision of his mother and the other Queen's was absolutely riveting- there was so much to do! So much to see! And yet, he was stuck in here of all places. Whatever recollections Lichenkit still possessed about the odd dream were lost as he awkwardly scrambled onto his paws and crept towards the carefully woven entrance to the Nursery. After a painfully long moment of trying to make himself appear inconspicuous, the little tom hurriedly made a break from the cozy yet completely suffocating den, clearing heading towards the camp's entrance in a clumsy excuse of a mad dash.

Goldeneye emerged from the camp entrance, her eyes glazed with grief. The alluring scent of Catmint making her tongue water, the lone medicine cat holding a large wad in her jaws or there was a wad in her jaws, for a scrap of fur made the she-cat lose it in her tumble. In an instant Goldeneye was back on her paws, her fur spiking and her teeth bared as she picked out the nuisance that tripped her. Gold eyes flashed as she spent a moment glowering down at the kitten, her tail lashed as she obviously struggled to reign in her temper. "Kits as young as you should not be out of the nursery and tripping medicine cats carrying life-saving herbs." She spat before grasping her bundle.

Approaching Lichenkit Goldeneye lightly pushed the kit back towards the nursery but did not force him in, "If you wish to play, play with your peers while you're away from everyone else." Goldeneye meowed sternly, her fur slowly but surely lying flat once more. She was annoyed, angry even yes, but nowhere as near angry as she had been when Chillpaw and Mosspaw, kits at the time had devastated her herb storage just after securing her herbs from Windclan. Goldeneye's eyes flickered to look at the small tom once more before disappearing into her den, making sure he had not moved from his spot.

Shellwater had just stepped out of the elders' den to see about breakfast when a small kit came hurtling out of the nursery, inadvertently running afoul of Goldeneye. The easily irritable she-cat was the polar opposite of calm, collected Cloudstone, who was now an elder alongside her. But no matter the medicine cat's personality, that poor kit was probably just curious about the world, as her own daughters had been. Years in the nursery, and more in the elders' den, had made her love kits. Poor little thing, running into the dark yellow she-cat this early in the morning.

"Calm down, Goldeneye," the elder meowed, her rough old voice still as kindly as it was rebuking. "It isn't wrong for a kit to want to explore the camp- goodness knows you caused your own mother some trouble at that age. Put away your herbs and leave him alone. I'll keep him out of mischief." As the medicine cat left, the scarred calico turned to the young tom, her dark orange eyes softening. "Don't worry," she reassured him, "Goldeneye's just grumpy. If you want to be out of the nursery, though, you probably should be more careful when you run around." She looked the kit over, appraising him. Something about him looked a little bit different, but like all kits, he was adorable. She smiled. "Would you like to hear a story? My name's Shellwater. What's yours?"

Although the jarring impact of colliding with Goldeneye was enough to slow Lichenkit down for a heartbeat or so, it hardly quelled the storm of excitement which still raged within his little form. Not even Goldeneye's obvious displeasure could detract from his jovial manner. Simply responding to Goldeneye's scolding with some unintelligible babbling that was often common from kits this age, the young tom simply blinked over at the Medicine Cat with scorching amber eyes that burned with an unusual intensity.

Ducking and weaving his way beneath Shellwater's limbs, Lichenkit easily evaded the self-declared prison that he had been thrust back into mere moments before. Head tilting at the scarred Elder's words, his full ears swiveled and tilted with thought. "I've heard all the stories already," He responded, a slight complaint edging his voice, "Plus they're all boring." He had heard the stories countless times before, the dreams had often made a habit of recounting important events every time he closed his eyes.

With a small yawn, young Darkkit raised his head from the nest where he had been comfortably sleeping alongside his mother and littermates. He had the odd habit of semi-burying himself under the fresh spongy moss instead of cuddling against his mother like the rest of his littermates, which caused him to end up with a funny almost wig-like lump of moss on top of his head that in his drowsy state he failed to notice.

He stretched and jumped off the nest without waking anyone and padded curiously towards the elder and kit as the grumpy medicine cat walked inside her own den once more “What is going on, why all the ruckus?” He clumsily made his way towards the two cats, the small lump of moss still on his head and bouncing with each step he took.

Shellwater blinked, somewhat taken aback by the kit's nonchalant assurance that he'd heard every story- in part because she'd never talked to him before, nor had she seen him out of the nursery. Who was his mother again? "Well, surely I can find something to interest you," she responded, trying to regain control of the conversation. "I know all the best places in camp. When I was your age, I used to catch the warriors' tails when they slipped through the moss... I would even jump up on the Willow Branch and pretend I was Fishstar." Recounting all her memories made her want to look around some more. But she still had to make sure this kit didn't get into too much mischief.... What was he called? With a slight start, the calico realized that he'd never answered her last question. "What's your name, little one? Come look around with me, I'll show you everything." At the approaching of another kit, the elder's head turned, distracted. Were these two related, perhaps? StarClan, any more kits and the nursery would probably explode. She knew her grandkit Snowblossom had kitted recently, but this small black cat looked nothing like the white she-cat or her tabby mate... "Good morning," she purred at the newcomer after a slight pause. "I'm Shellwater. We were just about to tour the camp. Would you like to come with us?"

Blinking up at Shellwater once more, Lichenkit's bright gaze seemed to glow with an unreadable emotion. The longer he seemed to gaze up at the heavily scarred Elder, the more easily something clicked into place. Whatever memory he was recalling was most definitely not his- this was the first time his paws had ever strayed from the imprisoning confines of the nursery, he had never even heard of what the border between RiverClan and WindClan's territory looked like. Yet, miraculously, he could easily recall the unimpressive scrap of territory as though he had spent countless hours observing it. This phenomenon had only occurred once or twice before, but never with such a sharp clarity- it usually only came whenever Sparrowleaf was present in his dreams.

"Here's something to remember me by."

The bloody memory appeared for only the briefest heartbeat, alongside the images of a much younger, bloodier Shellwater and a golden tom, before completely vanishing from behind his eyes. "Do you hate WindClan for doing that?" He bluntly questioned, head tilting once more as he blinked up at the calico. However, Darkkit's arrival and words attracted much more of his interest that the foreign recollection of an event he hadn't ever laid witness to, and so he merely let out a short sneeze before Shellwater or Goldeneye could be given too much time to dwell on the strange question. "Will you take us to the Broken Pools instead?" Lichenkit obliviously continued, almost as though he was unaware of his previous words.