falling forward [open]

Laurelkit was young enough that her life before ThunderClan was a little fuzzy, but she remembered more than others seemed to expect. She remembered a face, though the details blurred when she tried to pick them out (her mind filled them in with a mirror of her own, only older), promising to come back before disappearing into the sunset. The waiting was the worst part. She remembered the last words that face had said to her, in a lyrical voice that felt like safety and warmth: "You'll never be alone," the voice had whispered. "I'll always love you."

It was Ashleaf that found her, curled into a tiny ball of fluff. Her mother. As far as she knew, there was no blood linking her to her parents, but what did that matter when they had given her a name and a home? They had given her ThunderClan, they had promised her that she belonged here.

And that brought her to where she was, just outside the nursery; practicing her hunting crouch and knowing that her mother's watchful eye was fixed on her. She would do her best to make her parents proud, and the best way to do that was to be a daughter they could take pride in - a clever warrior, a skilled hunter.

(As she thought that, she stumbled forward, tripping over her own tail and stumbling into another cat.)

Cedarheart’s kits had grown up so quickly. Crowpaw was already an apprentice! She still resided in the nursery with the majority of her kits, but she did have a longing to be back to her duties. Hunting and training her apprentice gave her such a rush, she loved providing for her clan. Then again, kits were entertaining to be around. Providing milk for her litter gave her opportunity to interact with many different personalities.

Today, she was outside of the den, basking in the nice weather. It was a nice break from being in the cramped den with all of her kits and the other queens. She felt a bump next to her and turned her head. ”Oh!” she exclaimed. Examining the figure before her, she recognized her after a moment.

It was the kit that had been taken in, found outside the territories. She remembered now. Ashleaf had adopted her. ”Hello there, Laurelkit.” she mewed with a smile. ”I’m Cedarheart.”

Nettlestar let out a small sigh of relief, having caught a spare moment of rest in her increasingly busy days. Her whole life she had hated not having anything active to do, but now that she was the clan’s leader...she almost found herself enjoying the brief moments where she had no greater preoccupation. Still, she disliked being entirely idle, and was always on the lookout for something to give her time to. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Laurelkit bump into Cedarheart, and her whiskers twitched in light amusement. The gray tabby she-cat made her way over to the pair.

Nettlestar had never been particularly apt at making casual conversation or maintaining casual acquaintances; her tendency towards stiff formality and distaste towards casual emotionality had always gotten in the way of it. But of all the everyday interactions one could have she always found talking to kits to be the most pleasant. They had an inherent eagerness, an outlook on the future not yet fully warped by reality, that was both refreshing and reassuring especially in uncertain times. Besides, now that she was leader, it was more important than ever to get to know all her clanmates, young and old. These cats' lives were in her paws now...she would be remiss if she didn’t take the time to understand them. And she had another kind of duty, too, now that she was a mother, to get to know her adoptive daughter’s peers.

“Good evening, Cedarheart,” Nettlestar said, her green gaze falling on the queen. The identity of her kits’ father was yet unknown, but Nettlestar wouldn’t press. She wanted to place her faith in her clanmates; if there was something she needed to be told, she trusted Cedarheart would tell her. The scarred gray she-cat turned her attention to the little kit who had bumped into Cedarheart moments before. “Hello, little kit. Are you alright? I saw you took a bit of a tumble there,”

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Buzzardkit had silently followed his mother out of the nursery and lay down near her, as if her were her little shadow. He was unsure if she had noticed him; he was small, dark-pelted, and quiet, which made being unnoticed an undesirably easy feat for him.

But the little tom didn’t need attention at the moment; he just wanted to stay near her. He was old enough to become an apprentice and knew the ceremony would likely be coming any day now, and as the moment drew seemingly closer he became more and more wary of it. All he wanted was to stay by his mother’s side, clinging to its familiar warmth, and ignore the increasingly clear fact that he could not see or hear the world the same way those around him could.

He had not noticed Laurelkit bumping into his mother until he was alerted by the sound of her voice, and he looked over, thinking for a moment she was calling him. It was then that he saw the other kit, along with a new cat, and he shifted towards the group, staring intently at them (and at Laurelkit in particular, who he had seen before in the nursery but never spoken to), but saying absolutely nothing.

Ospreykit had been bothering an apprentice, trying to get the older cat to teach her some moves early- but then she spotted her mother, talking to a new kit. Always eager to make friends, she bounded up behind Cedarheart. She didn't stop there, however. With typical enthusiasm, the torbie kitten rushed up to Laurelkit, tail held high in greeting. "Hiya! I'm Ospreykit! That was a real good tumble. Maybe it could be used as a battle move! D'you wanna play battle with me? Can I play battle with her, Mom?" She looked eagerly up to Cedarheart, tail twitching, before noticing the leader approach. The title didn't mean much to her- yet- but what she understood of it was that Needlestar was there to protect and guide them, and while the little torbie thought that she must be a very smart, brave cat, she didn't hold the reverence than some others did. "Hi, Nettlestar!" She paid no mind to her brother, in her excitement to play with someone new.

    Briefly she wondered if his feelings might be hurt, but guilt was quickly replaced with a question. "D'you wanna play, Nettlestar?"

So many new faces, Laurelkit noted; and she sat up tall after knocking into the kind warrior. "Sorry, Cedarheart... I didn't mean to roll into you," she apologized. And then - before she could say anything else, or begin to explain herself - there was another kit, asking her to play, and another silent kit moving toward them, and a new stranger that Ospreykit called Needlestar. "I'm okay!" she assured the older cat, before turning her attention to Ospreykit once more. "Play-battle?" she asked with interest.

Robinloft let out a small bout of laughter as she watched the kits interact with their peers and other warriors from across camp. It was always refreshing to see a new face around, a new face could mean a new friend, after all. Looking past the kits she soon spotted Cedarheart. Her old friend! They had been good friends since they were young, but the she-cat had to admit that they had grown a bit distant since Stormpaw had left Thunderclan. Even just thinking of it made her feel a bit sad.

Shaking the feeling away, she padded over to Cedarheart and sat next to her. "Hey there, Cedarheart." She flashed a smile to the brown tabby. Cedarheart's newest litter didn't seem like it would be anything too out of the ordinary- except for the fact that nobody knew who the father was. Robinloft herself had tried thinking of who it could be but it didn't seem like any of the toms' pelt matched up to the kits, or really anything close to it. The warrior had her suspicious, but if Cedarheart wanted to keep the father a secret, so be it, she would accept her decision. "Well, how are the kits doing? It seems like they're growing quite strong, soon enough they'll be big, strong warriors!" She flashed a playful gaze toward the kits when she said the last few words. Perhaps she would end up mentoring one of them?

Looking over, her eyes landed on her former mentor and leader, Nettlestar. Although she wasn't so close with the grey tabby anymore she still enjoyed a nice conversation with her every now and then. "Hello, Nettlestar, how have you been lately?" She knew that the leader was constantly hassled with responsibilities, so it was nice to finally see her catch a break.

Cedarheart jumped just a bit as Nettlestar approached. A guilty, sinking feelings filled her stomach. She had broken the code, given birth to a litter with Smallbean as the father. She hated keeping secrets. Her leader deserved to know...but she didn’t want to face punishment. Not just for her, but for her kits. If the whole clan knew, what would they think of her litter. Some cats with similar origins might understand, but she didn’t want them to be shunned. Deciding to put the matter away for now, she smiled. ”Hello, Nettlestar! How have you been?”

She felt something shifting at her side and realized that it was her son. Buzzardkit was more quiet than his siblings, a sneaky little fellow. She nudged him with her nose playfully. ”Buzzardkit! I didn’t even see you there.” she mewed.

And that was when yet another one of her kits came rushing in. She chuckled softly as Ospreykit approached Laurelkit. ”You can as long as you don’t hurt each other too bad.” Cedarheart chided, in that motherly voice she had been speaking in quite a lot recently.

Robinloft had been close friends with Cedarheart when they were younger, but they had drifted apart a bit. The warrior mentally reminded herself to try and rekindle that bond they had once had. ”Hi Robinloft!” she glanced at her kits. ”They really are.” It was a bittersweet feeling, the aging of her kits.

"I am glad you are alright," the gray tabby said, acknowledging Laurelkit's answer with a light smile.  

Nettlestar noticed Robinloft had joined them. She had not spent that much time with the she-cat since Robinloft became a warrior. But she had been her first apprentice to make it to warriorhood, and had been a good apprentice. Nettlestar had liked being her mentor.

"Hello, Robinloft," she said, greeting her former apprentice, and then said in response to both Robinloft and Cedarheart's inquiries, "I have been well. Busy, of course, but...well,"

The silvery she-cat turned her attention back to the kits, and responded to Ospreykit's invitation to play, still wearing a light smile. "I don't think I am quite suited to join your play-battle, but I would be happy to cheer you both on,"

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Buzzardkit pressed into his mother's pelt and looked up at her, happy that she had seen him, and now a little more reluctant to leave her side and attempt to join his sister and Laurelkit's game. Nevertheless, he really wanted to make friends, and he began to awkwardly shift forward bit by bit, hoping he could participate in their play-battle as well.

"Me too? I can join too?" Though he meant it as a question, his lack of proper inflection made it sound more like a statement. He was entirely unaware of the possible miscommunication, however, and simply sat and waited for some kind of signal that it was okay to join, focusing as intently as he could on the other two kits.

Ospreykit flicked her tail, ears pricked in excitement. “Okay! Here, Laurelkit, you and Buzzardkit can be warriors, and I’ll be a ShadowClan cat! You win if you pin me down!” She looked eagerly between her brother and Laurelkit, paying no mind to her brother’s tone. To some cats it might have come off as rude or demanding, but those types of things tended to fly over Ospreykit’s head at this young age. So she crouched into an approximation of a fighting pose, although it was far too dramatic and left her off-balance, and fluffed up her thick fur, ready for “battle”.