Alike in our Differences [c]

The snow had become a common sight around ThunderClan camp now, and since it was the only place Dappleleaf ever was, she was beginning to grow tired of it. Just like every leaf-bare, it was exciting at first, but soon the coldness of it was annoying. Still, she had business to attend to today, and since it was so rare for her to have something to do, she was looking forward to it. Recently, Robinloft had had a very, very large litter of ten kits, all but one of which were apprentices.

Through the chatter that circled camp (mostly the elders' den in all fairness), she had heard that the remaining she-kit, Spottedkit, seemed to be having some trouble with confidence. She poked her head into the nursery, still finding it a little strange that Fernskip was no longer a queen, since her kits had become apprentices. "Hello?" She called, but it didn't take her long to spot the calico kit through the gloom of the nursery. "Are Spottedkit? Come, let's have some prey outside." As she left the nursery and waited for Spottedkit to follow, even Dappleleaf could tell how bad her limp had got in the past few weeks. She tried not to bother Daisybloom too often, and preferred the precious herbs to be used on the younger cats, but it was properly beginning to slow her down now.

It wasn't like Spottedkit to mope or spend so much time alone, but with all her siblings already having been made apprentices and so few other kits to play with, she had found herself doing just that. And with her mother, Robinloft, already starting to return to her warrior duties it seemed there wasn't much attention left for the little calico kitten. So she was rather surprised when she heard a cat's voice call out from the entrance of the nursery. "Hello?" She turned to look at the visitor, who she recognized as an elder by the few grey hairs around her muzzle and stiff movements.

The kit stood up and followed the older she-cat out of the den. She paused at the entrance to let her eyes adjust to the brighter light of the camp and noticed that the cat leaving the nursery ahead of her also walked with a limp. Spottedkit hurried forward to stand beside the elder. "You have a limp, like me? What happened to your leg?" She asked before realizing it wasn't very polite to immediately start interrogating her clanmate. "Sorry, I mean, what's your name?"