This is Serious Business (open)

Sunkit stepped out of the nursery, her chest puffed out and a determined set to her jaw. Today was the day that she was going to prove that she was ready to become an apprentice. Yes, she still had a few moons left before she was old enough, but that was beside the point. She was ready, for StarClan's sake! When she was an apprentice, she'd be able to leave camp where she wouldn't have to deal with so many cats all the time. They tried to waste time that could be spent training talking to her. Why did they need to know if she was having a nice day? She could take care of herself, thank you very much. Plus, then she would be able to hunt and fight and do all sorts of cool stuff. She could finally be able to show all of the other clans who's boss with her superior fighting skills. Apprenticehood was something she needed to gain as soon as possible. All she needed to do was prepare for when the day came and prove to that clan that she didn't need to wait any more moons.

Noticing a warrior nearby, Sunkit decided to show off her skills. Carefully maneuvering herself into their line of sight, she looked around for something to prove her hunting expertise on. While she had never seen anyone hunt before, she'd heard older cats talk about it and figured she knew what to do. A beetle caught her eye, and she smirked. The perfect practice prey. Sliding into a far too deep crouch, she slowly padded towards the insect, waiting for the right moment. She had to time this perfectly if she wanted her plan to work. However, the beetle started flying before she was anywhere close enough for it to have saw her. Eyes widening, she realized that she was about to miss her chance. Leaping to her paws, she made a mad dash towards the airborne insect, lunging into the air with her paws outstretched. She was going to catch this bug and prove her worthiness to whatever random warrior may or may not be watching her if it was the last thing she did. However, beetles turned out to be much better at flying than cats, and her paws batted uselessly in the air as the insect zoomed far out of her reach. Oh no. Her dignity would've been salvageable if she had stuck the landing, but alas, she failed at even that simple task. Upon hitting the ground, her legs splayed out of either side of her, and she narrowly avoiding smashing her face into the dirt. Humiliated,she got back to her paws, licking the dirt off of her chest with her ears flat against her head in shame. Oh StarClan, hopefully no one saw that.

Crowpaw was slipping out of his den for the day, when the movements of Sunkit, the new kit in WindClan, caught his eye. He yawned and padded to a sunny spot of camp, as if to warm up and bask, though his gaze didn’t leave the she-kit. He couldn’t hold back a chuckle when the beetle noticed her early, and cut short the beginnings of a laugh at her reaction after missing it. Haughty, frustrated, and yet made rather cute by her age and size. “Careful, kitten. You’re supposed to kill the bug, not the other way around.” He flicked his tail, whiskers twitching with amusement. “I don’t mean anything by it. You would’ve caught it if your direction was a little better.” The tall, dark apprentice shrugged, hoping Sunkit wouldn’t take offense. “If you want, I can show you. I bet a kit as ambitious as you will catch on quickly!” Crowpaw laughed, good-naturedly. The almost-warrior finally thought to introduce himself. “I’m Crowpaw, by the way. Sunkit, right?”

Olivepaw, having followed Crowpaw out of the apprentice's den, had also caught eye of the tail end of Sunkit's tumble. Smiling at the kit, she stifled a purr at the little orange tabby, desperate to prove herself worthy of apprenticeship. She sat down to groom her fur, smoothing down the clumps that were sticking up from sleep. She knew what it was like to want to be apprenticed, and had considered giving advice to the kit, but it seemed that Crowpaw had beaten her to the punch.

Your turn will come in time, little one. Then again, I'm not much older than her...

Drawing a paw over her ear, her thoughts wandered. I wonder what Briarthorn's gonna have me do today? I hope it's hunting. Chasing rabbits is so much fun. ...I wonder who will mentor Sunkit? I wonder if she'll be a moor runner or a tunneler?

Lost in her thoughts, she didn't realize that she was hungry until her stomach rumbled.

"Hey! It wasn't my fault, it just happened to fly away before I had the chance to catch it," Sunkit defended immediately, doingher best to not look at all phased by Crowpaw's words. She wasn't embarrassed, obviously, she just, well, she just rather would have had no cat ever acknowledge what had just happened, that was all. "Don't call me kitten. I'm ready to be an apprentice, you know. And I honestly don't need your help. I can do this on my own, thank you very much, and the fact that you think otherwise is kind of insulting. Once I'm an apprentice, I'll be a better hunter than you'll ever be." With those words, the young she-cat turned her nose up arrogantly, hoping her little speech was enough to distract the apprentice from her failure that he'd witnessed.

"Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Crowpaw. And yeah, my name's Sunkit, but it won't be for long."

Crowpaw stifled another laugh, as he turned towards the fresh-kill pile, intent on grabbing breakfast. The little she-kit was amusing, that was for sure, but he hoped his own kits wouldn’t be so much of a pawful! He couldn’t imagine trying to raise something so feisty. “Nice to meet you too, Sunkit. Keep trying to perfect that crouch.” He stuck his tongue out, playfully, at her, before grabbing a small sparrow, just enough to satisfy him for the morning’s training.

Olivepaw stifled a snort at the kit's words.

Cheeky kit! So feisty!

She stood after drawing her paw over her ear a few more times, and made her way over to the fresh-kill pile after Crowpaw. On the way past Sunkit, she commented,

"I thought your crouch was good. You'll do great as an apprentice! I can't wait to train alongside you."

She smiled and continued on her way, stopping by the fresh-kill pile and grabbing a vole and settling down a little ways away to eat it.

"I will," Sunkit replied to Crowpaw confidently, once again puffing her chest out. She wished she were as sure of herself as she tried to seem, as her complete failure weighed more heavily down on her than she would care to admit. Hopefully she would have her technique completely mastered by the time she was an apprentice, so she could avoid future embarrassment like this. At the older tom's playful face, the she-kit rolled her eyes with a huff. She wasn't a kit! Well, she was, but that didn't mean he had to treat her like one. Looking around camp, she caught sight of a stray bit of moss, and an idea came to mind. It would be a lot easier to successfully hunt an inanimate object, so maybe she could more easily impress someone by catching that. Without thinking too deeply about it, she started running towards the bit of moss, until Olivepaw's voice made her pause.


"Uh, ah, thanks? Yeah, thanks," Sunkit answered awkwardly. Pure compliments always had a weird effect on her, and she never was quite sure of howto accept them. There was always a part of her that expected them to be followed by a "however" and when they didn't, she was always a bit taken aback. Olivepaw certainly seemed genuine, which was strange, but also made her smile. It wasn't that she needed validation from others to be happy with herself, it was just that it felt nice. That was all. But still, she had no idea how to respond to it. So, in her completely Sunkit fashion, she pretended not to care. She would've continued chasing after the moss, except for now it seemed more like a kit's game than practice for being an apprentice. So instead, she wandered over to the fresh-kill pile, trying to seem casual and nonchalant.

Ferretpaw had just finished taking some fresh-kill to the nursery, and his limbs felt like there were spiders running up and down them from being serious for so long. The brown tom glanced around camp as his eyes adjusted to being outside once more, and spotted a bit of moss that could easily make a moss ball. He also saw his adoptive sister nearby, and so he dropped into a crouch and wiggled his butt before pouncing towards the moss and swatting it across the camp towards Olivepaw.

"Heads up!" He called out, unsure if the moss ball would actually make it to her, or possibly hit one of the other two young cats that were also in the line of fire.

Olivepaw had taken the last bite of her vole when Ferretpaw had called out to her, and she looked up to see a moss ball headed her way. She quickly scraped some dirt over the remains of her meal before leaping up and swatting the moss ball back over to her brother.
”Right back at ya!”

After sending the moss ball flying, she called over to Crowpaw and Sunkit.
”You guys wanna join in?”

Downkit had found his new favorite person to tease: Sunkit! They were so similar, it was so easy to pick on her! Softkit was still asleep, but Downkit was too restless to sleep. Scanning the clearing for his target, he was excited to find Sunkit's ginger pelt quickly. Rolling a burr tgat was small enough to go unnoticed but big enough to be a nuisance in between his paws, he made his way over to the fresh-kill pile. Almost imperceptibly, he nudged the burr with his paw to beside Sunkit's hindquarters, in a place where the second she got up she'd end up with a burr on her leg or fur.

Nonchalantly, Downkit sat down at the fresh-kill pile by Crowpaw, "Hello!" Downkit chirped, keeping one eye on Sunkit.

Softkit was having a nice sleep. Recently, Downkit had been increasingly annoying, trying to play tricks and pranks on Sunkit all the time, much to Softkit's annoyance.

"Uh, sure?" Maybe playing with a mossball wasn't such a kit's game after all, if apprentices were playing it. Possibly, it could even seem impressive if she did well enough. Not that she needed other cats approval or assistance in order to succeed, she never wanted to be that kind of cat, but she could do this just this once. Running over to where Olivepaw had flung the mossball, she pounced on it, making sure to keep her movements completely warrior-like and not like playing in any way whatsoever. After she was satisfied with her subduing of the moss, she took a moment to look around, seeing who she wanted to pass it to next. In those few moments, she happened to notice a small weight on her hind leg, which was accompanied by a prickly sensation. Confused, she turned to inspect it, only to see that there was a burr caught on her pelt. 


"Oh stars," Sunkit muttered, unsheathing her claws and trying to remove the offending object from her fur. It had a stronger grip than she had initially expected, and tugged painfully at her skin when she tried to claw at it. Realizing that this would take more than just a few moments, she quickly flung the mossball away from her, hoping to divert the other cat's attentions elsewhere. She could do this on her own, and it would make everything so much worse it cats were watching her. Already her fur was starting to grow warm with embarrassment. Gritting her teeth, she finally yanked out the burr, a fur strands of her fur coming out with it. Looking around to make sure nobody had witnessed what had just happened, she made eye contact with Downkit. "What are you looking at?"

Crowpaw laughed, chasing after the ball as Sunkit threw it. “Game on!” Batting it out of the air, he sent it hurtling towards Downkit, whiskers twitching with enthusiasm.

The tom sprang backwards, hopping from paw to paw. He might have been close to warriorhood, but he wasn’t about to let age keep him from a game.

Downkit had (somewhat) waited patiently for Sunkit to move. Olivepaw invited her to a game of mossball, and Downkot knew it was only a matter of time before Sunkkt joined it. His whiskers quivered with satisfaction when she got up. Watching her, he noticed Sunkit found the burr. The burr, in turn, stubbornly clung onto her pelt, seemingly refusing to let go. It took all Downkit had not to fall over laughing; she looked like a fool! When she looked at him, he stuck his pink tongue out at her, laughing, "Did you hit it off bad with the burr? It looked like it liked you!" Downkit teased.

Downkit watched as Crowpaw ran after the mossball. When he launched it to him, he was ready! On his hindquarters, he batted the ball as hard as he could, sending it over to Olivepaw. Hey, just because he liked teasing other cats doesn't mean he doesn't like playing with them, too!

Olivepaw pounced on the moss ball, tail twitching with excitement before she batted it back over to Sunkit. She hopped back and forth on her paws, fully invested in their game.

"Heads up, Sunkit!"

Ferretpaw laughed out loud as everyone joined in on the game. He would never turn down a game of moss ball, not even when he became a warrior. He wanted to play and enjoy life forever, not take everything so seriously. He practically bounced after the moss ball, as it was sent from cat to cat. When Olivepaw batted it towards Sunkit once more, he pounced, intercepting the moss ball with a loud purr.

"Got ya!" He crowed, batting it between his two paws for a moment before launching it the rest of the way to Sunkit. He wasn't going to be the mean apprentice who actually kept it away from the younger cat, after all!