Leaping lizards (open!)

Echokit bounced through camp, chasing after a lizard. He had noticed the lizard sunning itself on a rock near the entrance to camp and had tried to sneak up on it. But he wasn't very skilled at sneaking yet, and the lizard had heard him coming. Then it had taken off with surprising speed. Echokit didn't know lizards could run that fast!

Echokit didn't really mean to hurt the lizard. To be honest, he felt a little bit bad that it was running away from him, clearly terrified. Well, you're going to have to chase and kill lots of lizards as a warrior, he reminded himself. But he'd never killed anything before, and he wasn't sure he was ready. Maybe this time he would gently tap the lizard, just to prove that he could catch up to it. The lizard would be fine, and it would be good practice.

The lizard ran around a large rock that was too tall for it to quickly climb over. Echokit leaped on top of the rock and saw the lizard right in front of him. He tried to be gentle as he jumped down onto the creature, but he misjudged the amount of force. He landed right on the lizard's tail and one back leg, crushing both. The lizard writhed on the ground, hissing and unable to move.

Echokit stared at it, horrified. He had never wanted to kill it, but now he had to, right? Echokit knew he needed to end its pain, but he couldn't bring himself to deliver that final blow.

Tanglepaw watched the little grey tabby bounce around in her midst. Kits were usually noisy, nasty, slobbery, impish creatures, but Echokit was focused on his "prey." For that, he was tolerable. She generally avoided the nursery, but she was having a good day. Her hunt had been successful, she hadn't gotten into a scrape, and she didn't even clumsily step on a sharp rock in the marshes. She finished picking the last shreds of mud from her tangled, wiry fur before looking on to see what Echokit was looking at.

The kitten hovered over the small lizard as it writhed, squashed into the ground, mouth agape. Even Tanglepaw cringed at the unsightly creature. Echokit stared at it, almost dumbly, clearly conflicted about the morality of his choices. Tanglepaw scoffed, ear flicking. "What are you waiting for, fuzzball?" she asked. "It'll die anyway. Besides, don't you want to see the look on the queens' faces when you walk in their with freshkill?" She watched the reptile writhe for a few more seconds. "Hey, if you don't kill it, I will."

Echokit was still so horrified he could barely move. Tanglepaw came up and offered to kill the lizard instead. For a second, Echokit considering closing his eyes and letting Tanglepaw do it so he could stop watching the sad spectacle. But he still felt so guilty.

"I just feel terrible because I didn't mean to hurt it! I didn't know I would crush it when I landed on it." Echokit was so upset he wanted to whimper and curl up in his nest. But he could just imagine what Leopardkit would have to say about that, and it seemed like Tanglepaw might agree with him.

Echokit tried to put on a brave face and come up with another idea. "Maybe if we take it to Mothglow's den she can save it," he whispered. Part of him knew it was a dumb idea, but he had to hope that maybe there was a chance.

Tanglepaw's already narrow yellow eyes dwindled to confused slits as she heard Echokit's pleas. He begged for the lizard's life, even offering to take it to the medicine den, for the sake of his own guilty conscience. For a moment, she entertained the idea of letting him go to Mothglow, so she could handle the kit and his sorry state... but Eveningpaw's memory encroached on her heart, stinging her throat with acidic tartness. Her sister had been just like Echokit, so full of empathy and pacifism that they gave her an apprenticeship in the medicine den. Of course, she had been too weak. When Shadestrike died, she ran off with twolegs like a coward. This was a learning opportunity. Echokit couldn't fall victim to that softness, not in this forest.

The she-cat approached the lizard, looking Echokit in the eye. "Look, kit. There's a cycle to everything," she explained, voice dampened and blunt. "Life and death, Greenleaf and Leaf-bare, strength and weakness. We eat the prey that we catch, because it wasn't fast enough or strong enough to escape us. If a badger crashes into camp right now and kills me, it just means I wasn't fast enough or strong enough to escape. But the more prey we catch, the stronger we get, and when badgers are out for blood, we have a better shot to escape. Understand?" Tanglepaw lifted a paw to the lizard and turned it over so its spine was clearly in front of Echokit. "You landed on it wrong, that's all. When you get better at hunting, you'll learn how to land so it doesn't hurt when it dies. C'mon, find that inner warrior in you and take your prey."

Echokit flinched away from Tanglepaw as she lectured him on the cycle of life in the forest. He knew that hunting was an important part of being a clan cat, and he knew he needed to be tougher. But the freshkill pile already seemed big enough and he hadn't mean to kill this lizard. Still, it was clearly suffering, and perhaps killing it now was the only merciful thing to do.

Tanglepaw was holding the lizard for him, spine exposed. Echokit took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and stepped down on its neck. There was a sickening crunch, and Echokit could feel the lizard stop moving. Opening his eyes again, Echokit flinched back from the newly still body. Whimpering a little, he ran off and curled up under some nearby brush at the edge of camp. His eyes were wide and he felt like he couldn't quite breathe.