curiosity satisfied

Flashkit all but rolled out of the nest, still new to standing on her own four paws. She stumbled a little as she took one, two, three steps forward - but she swiftly found her footing as she made several confident strides toward the edge of the nursery. She and her siblings had heard second-paw tales of what it was like out there, but they had yet to see it for themselves; and at the very least Flashkit's curiosity would not be satisfied until she'd poked and prodded and seen everything her home had to offer.

She knew about things. She knew that there was a camp outside the nursery, and that was where the other cats that sometimes visited lived when they weren't here, and that there was something called a river. She knew that she was named after something called lightning that flashed, but she wasn't all too sure what a flash was, exactly. She'd know it when she saw it, maybe? It seemed like that kind of thing. Like it would be... What had someone called it once? Striking?

(What did that mean? It sounded good, whatever it was.)

She poked her nose out of the entrance, mismatched eyes rapidly blinking in the sudden brightness as she very nearly tripped forward once again. With tremendous effort, she stayed on her own four paws; finally taking in the sight that she'd been so curious to see.

Turning back to her siblings, she called for them to join her: "C'mon!"

The moment her sister gave the all-clear Splashkit tumbled out of the nursery, shivering with a mixture of excitement and fear. Rolling to a stop a few pawsteps behind Flashkit, the small she-cat jumped to her feet and squinted at the open sky above her, taken aback by the sheer brightness of the Outside world.
Splashkit's nervousness dissipated as she took in her surroundings. She stared open-mouthed at the seemingly endless stream of warriors that padded past her, clutching silver-scaled fish that shone brilliantly in the sunlight. Beyond them, she could see soft, white sand and a wall of towering reeds that rustled enchantingly. There was so much to see, hear, and smell that for a while, all Splashkit could do was stand stiff-legged in the sand.
Finally tearing her gaze away from the camp, the kit stared upwards and marveled at the sheer size of the sky, dotted with fluffy clouds that she'd only ever been able to catch glimpses of before. 'How far does it go?' She wondered silently, craning her neck to try and see where it ended on the horizon. Someday, she promised herself, she'd find out.

Her heart leaped as a soft breeze ruffled her tortoiseshell fur, bringing with it a whole score of new, exciting scents. The world was hers for the taking. Whiskers twitching, the she-kit padded to stand beside her sister. Her eyes glinted with possibility. "Where are we gonna go first?"

The tuxedo-patterned tom was quick to drift after Splashkit, glancing this way and that way at whatever seemed to catch his eye. He had expected a wider range of colors from the warriors that milled around. Perhaps a blue one might be nice. A pink warrior, named Rosefur, the color of his pawpads. That would have been splendid. He was quite content with what he did see, at least. The slow meandering of the river glittered between wavering reeds and cattails. He knew the names of these things; they fit the descriptions that his mother had given them. The willow tree was much larger than he had pictured, and the willow branch on which the leader sat bent low from seasons of use. He particularly liked how nicely the elders' den rested on the slope. He wanted to nap inside it.

He dawdled in the sunlight, unaccustomed to such heat and sunlight burning on his dark-pelted back. After a while, he shuffled up close to the pair, who were both similarly dappled in mixed tortoiseshell hues, and pondered Splashkit's question. "Ooooo... Hooo... hooooo..." he whispered. He was named after a loon, and when he heard them wailing their melancholy song on the river's edge, he figured that he out to speak their language sometimes. Loonkit only wailed quietly, and when deep in thought. He had been chastised for it once before. It was, allegedly, a very strange activity. "Let's go to the cattails and make them our prey. I think they're probably soft and squishy. Hooo, oh."

The moment Flashkit had woken up, she'd been determined that this was going to be the day the siblings went out of the nursery. Shrikekit had no problem with that. As Flashkit rose, he tried to do the same. First, a sitting position. Easy enough. His untested limbs trembled slightly under the weight of his furry frame, but held firm. Rising from his haunches posed a challenge, but the ghost tabby refused to give into weakness by falling down. As Splashkit and Loonkit tumbled out, Shrikekit found new resolve and jumped after them. He didn't noticed his new surroundings, too intent on creeping up on his target: Loonkit's white-tipped fluffy tail. It was perfect for pouncing on. His target was drifting towards Splashkit, responding to her question. Shrikekit paid them little mind as he leapt - or, well, tried to. Due to his untrained limbs, he collapsed in a heap on top of Loonkit in mid-leap. Rolling away, the kit deftly grasped his brother's tail with small kitten teeth. "Gotcha, Loonkit!" His squeaky vocal cords were more used than his legs, but still wavered in pitch and volume. The discovery of using tone of voice to portray emotions was a gradual process, one Shrikekit was trying to learn now.

The tabby's delicate frame tilted to the side as he rolled over on the ground, Loonkit's tail forgotten. "Cattails? Hah, that's funny, 'cause I just caught yours!" The world was already amazing from the moment he'd walked out, despite not really paying attention to it. But it looked a lot better in Shrikekit's opinion upside down. The river was the new sky, the sky the new ground. And there were the dens, warriors and apprentices occasionally moving in and out. Shrikekit found that activity enchanting; company besides his family enchanting. Not that Tawnylight had interacted with them much anyway. The thought was cleared from his mind as his gaze shifted to the river again, cattails beside them. "Cattails sound good, but looking at dens sounds better. But, hey, we can do both! Six moons isn't gonna pass anytime soon."

"Shrikekit's right," Flashkit said, trying to sound like she was important. She'd stepped easily into the role of fearless leader, charging ahead and expecting her siblings to follow. "We can do both. And we might find even more things to do if we ask!" As she spoke, she looked around the camp and saw endless possibility. They could do anything, and everything, and she wanted to do all of it. A thought struck her, something catching her eye as she turned to look over the camp again: "Oh, the river's pretty...!"

Mousekit was sitting by the river, doing his favorite thing, fishing. But he wasn't having much luck. The heat had dried most of it up, so there wasn't much chance to catch anything. And he still hasn't very good yet. But Mousekit didn't give up, if anything he just liked looking at the water. He imagined all of his bad thoughts being washed away. But one stormcloud always remained ... his parents.
(OOC: is this water therapy? lol)

Mousekit hadn't gotten over his mother's death yet, and spent a good amount of his time by the river. But Mousekit didn't let his depression show though his smile, especially when he was with Streamtail, his adopted mother.

Mousekit's dark blue eyes flashed, he darted his furry tabby paw in the river, causing a splash. He missed. Oh well, Mousekit thought as he puled his wet paw back up, and continued to watch the water.

Ears twitching, the tortoiseshell considered Loonkit and Shrikekit's suggestions with all the seriousness of a tiny deputy faced with a clan-altering decision. Sure, they could do both... "But which one are we gonna do first?" She squeaked, looking to Flashkit with an expression of distress. There were so many interesting things they could explore and learn about, and she couldn't possibly choose between them.
A sudden splash caught her attention and she turned towards it, eyes wide. "Hey, look!" The cause of the sound was an older kit who was peering intently into the puddles of muddy water in the riverbed. "I think he's fishing– maybe he can teach us!"
That settled it. The potential to learn how to fish before becoming an apprentice was too alluring. Without another word, the tiny she-kit began to wobble towards him, her mint eyes narrowed in concentration as she struggled to stay on her paws. Her clumsiness combined with the heat made the trek a very daunting task, and Splashkit quickly found herself short of breath. "Or maybe- maybe not," She panted, looking back at her siblings. "Flashkit, Shrikekit, what do you guys think?"

Loonkit gasped as Shrikekit fell over on top of him, rolling the toms over in a tangle of fur. He flicked his tail as his brother grappled with it, smiling as his littermate entertained himself. When the ashen-colored tom was seemingly no longer satisfied by the activity, Loonkit retracted his tail. He pawed at his own wispy appendage, beaming at the thought that his own tail was anything like those lovely, bulbous plants. Splashkit exclaimed, which drew Loonkit's dreamy gaze away from his tail and towards the shimmering river. Though the river was low, and seemed like barely a trickle to the warriors, the little tomkit couldn't have know any better. He was drawn to it like moth to flame.

He wandered after his sister, towards their denmate, who was peering into the foamy, dark water towards the shoreline. He splashed his brown tabby paw into the water, missing the glittery shapes below him. Loonkit leaned over his shoulder like a specter, happy to watch him make feeble attempts at fishing. Splashkit seemed a little more impatient. "Hooo... ooo. Hello, Mousekit," he murmured, moving to the tom's side. "I want to try, too."

His eyes began wide and unblinking, honing in on the little iridescent daggers that flickered through the water. Loonkit nearly touched his nose to the water, little ripples moving across the surface from his long whiskers. He lifted a paw to swing at the minnows, having as much luck as Mousekit had. He lifted up his dripping paw, empty.

When the surface of the water settled, he gazed out into the crystalline veneer. "There are clouds in the water!" he exclaimed, mouth agape. He flicked his ears, watching his reflection in the water mimic the cyclical motion. "I'm there, too. But not really. Me... but not me." He beckoned Mousekit closer, pointing to the brown tom's reflection. "That's Not-Mousekit, next to Not-Loonkit. Splashkit, Flashkit, Shrikekit, do you want to fish, too?"

Streamtail lurched up from the nursery, not finding Mousekit anywhere near her. Panicking, she dashed towards the river, where he normally went to fish, and spotted him there playing with his denmates. She sighed in relief, before padding towards Waspburn's kits. "Hello, kits. What are you doing?" The blue-grey queen spotted Loonkit remarking about the reflections in the water and laughed. The first time she laughed since Applefang's death. Emerald eyes sparking in amusement, she bent down and touched her nose to the water, making a small ripple. "That's called a reflection, Loonkit. You're right, that's not you, and those clouds you see? Those are from the sky." She gazed up to see the fluffy white clouds and sat down next to them.

As the kits came out of the Nursery and wandered around, Shimmerpaw watched from a distance. Flashkit was already showing signs of becoming a leader. Loonkit seemed to be finding out about reflections. Shrikekit was making a joke that Shimmerpaw didn't hear.

Shimmerpaw felt her eyes linger on Flashkit. She couldn't help but feel like Flashkit would be significant in her near future.

Flashkit had darted after Loonkit, toward Mousekit, despite the heat; looking into the water at the strange... Streamtail called them reflections. She'd make sure to remember that. She looked down at her own, at the Not-Flashkit that stared back at her with the same calico fur and mismatched eyes, and reached out with a paw to touch the water. Not-Flashkit's face rippled where she touched it, and her paw moved when Flashkit's did. She looked up to Streamtail, hoping to learn something more. "So if we're reflections... And the clouds are reflections... Is everything a reflection? What about the little fish? Are they reflections, too?"

Streamtail shook her head at Flashkit's questions. "Not everything is a reflection. Those rocks and fish you see in the river? They're real. If you held a dead fish over the river, though, that fish would be a reflection." To prove her point, Streamtail placed a paw inside the water and waited for the scales of a fish to slide across her paw. When it did, she tossed the fish onto the riverbank and killed it with a strong blow to the head. It stopped flopping around and stilled. "As you can see, this fish isn't a reflection at all."

Mousekit gaped at Streamtail. "How'd you do that? I've been trying all morning!" he asked. Mousekit then looked at Flashkit. Wow. She's pretty. Forgetting all about Streamtail's catch, he padded over to Flashkit. "Hi! I'm Mousekit. What's your name and why are you so beautiful?" he asked the pretty she-kit, genuinely curious as to why she was gorgeous.

Who was pretty? Shimmerpaw's head jerked up, and she saw Mousekit talking to Flashkit. She stifled a purr of laughter. Ah, young love. They were still kits and were already struck by it? That was a bit young in Shimmerpaw's opinion. You can't even actually mate until you become a Warrior, after all. Although...Better to take care of it early than too late, huh?