Mischievous Energy [Open]

Lionkit’s toes spread apart and tiny claws slid out from their sheaths as she stretched her whole body, a couple tiny bones popping back into place with that satisfactory feeling that came with it. Tiny jaws spreading apart in a large yawn, needle-like fangs bared to the world for a couple seconds, tongue retreating to the back of her mouth as if trying to hide from the outside world.

After shaking off the tiny twigs and bits of moss from her nest that attempted to cling to her fur, she jumped off with the great grace and elegance so characteristic of the cats from her clan. She gave one final couple stretches once firm ground was under her tiny paws, licking her whiskers and nose instinctively as she did before looking around.

It hadn’t been too long since she had opened her eyes and ears at last, and with it, a huge curiosity was quickly made evident on her energetic figure. At first Lionkit didn’t really dare to leave the nursery, and not for the fear of the outside world like some queens seemed to assume at first, but because of all the cats wandering outside that she didn’t know. It took a bit of nudging and some warriors and apprentices coming in to drop prey that would be willing to talk with her for her to feel comfortable enough to take her first steps outside the nursery…

And from there, things started to spiral out of control for the grownups…

Now that she knew almost everyone in camp just enough for her shyness to not interfere, she was showing her true colors as a tiny ball of mischievous energy, and today was not the exception.

With a grin only fit those intending to cause trouble Lionkit darted outside the nursery as soon as the weight of drowsiness left her tiny body, her tiny stubby legs doing their absolute best to keep up with the great energy that pumped through her body like if she had just eaten all of the honey and ragweed in the Medicine Cat Den mixed together only seconds ago.

When Lionkit’s Plan A was foiled by the guards on each side of the only ways in and out of camp, making sneaking in or out impossible, she started to run around camp without any real direction until her orange eyes locked up on the tail of one of her clanmates, just low enough for her to reach. Without thinking it twice, she darted towards them and pounced on their tail with claws outstretched. Tiny claws got tangle in fur as her tiny jaws closed around the tail, not intending to cause damage but definitely trying to cling to it as if it was a piece of fresh-kill and she a determined hunter ready to catch it.

Tawnyflare was minding her own business, simply munching on a rabbit. (And yes, she did ask for permission.) It was already much better than the fish she ate at RiverClan, nice and tender, without those weird scales. However, just as she was about to sink her teeth in for another bite, she felt something sharp cling to her tail. It did not hurt so much as surprise her, and she nearly choked out of pure shock. When she turned around, she saw a tiny little kit, jaws clenched around her tail.

"What exactly do you think you are doing? You do know that is attached to me, right? I doubt you will go very far with it." Lifting a paw, she gently removed the tiny tabby, patting her head afterwards. "You sure got a lot of energy in ya, don't ya kit? Bet I can find ya a pretty good game to wear ya out. In fact, I think I know just the one! I want you to run around camp, as many times as it takes, until you can show me where everything is with your eyes closed. Think ya can do that for me, kit?"

Was it mean? Well she didn't think it was, but she could care less either way. After all, she just wants to eat. Besides, it wasn't like she knew how to interact with kits. She just remembered the captains had once had her do that when she was high on energy. She was just doing as she was taught, was all.

Lionkit’s eyes went from her “catch” to the older she-cat’s face. She recognized the warrior from other times she had been out from the nursery and knew she could trust her since she was a clanmate, but she still had trouble properly remember everyone’s names, this being one of those times.

Her ears twitched slightly when the warrior spoke, a signal that she was hearing her and paying attention, however, in her stubbornness she did not just let go of her tail as she spoke to her, making replying a bit tricky…well, at least until she pushed her off from her tail with her paw, which was relatively easy as Lionkit’s grasp loosened as soon as she recognized that her strength would be no match to the warrior’s and didn’t want to cause unnecessary damage by trying to hold on.

As soon as her claws lost grip on the tail, she purposefully rolled onto her back and started batting at her paw with sheathed claws, using both front paws as quickly as possible to do so while opening her mouth as if planning to bite it but never actually moving in to do so. This lasted only a couple of seconds before the larger paw got out of her reach and the she-cat started to speak again.

She rolled over and quickly got to her paws, shaking the bits of grass and dirt that got on her pelt by rolling over, all while listening to her. Her ears and whiskers twitched as the game was explained to her, she had never heard of that one before “With eyes…closed?” She looked at the camp. Being an open camp on the moors with nearly no dens or proper landmarks, it could be tricky to do…

Unless…

As the softest of breezes ruffled her fur her ears perked up “Ok!”

She rushed away from the older she-cat. She had told her to show her where everything was, right? She never told her to TAKE her there, and she had an idea of how to achieve this already as she never said anything about using her other senses, she had seen apprentices do something similar after all, and she had never tried it…but if she could find the other kits and queens in the nursery through sent alone then what made it so she couldn’t do the same here, especially with the direction of wind acting as her compass.

She started to walk quickly around the camp with her head constantly low, close to the ground as her nose picked up the scents on its path, only lifting it every so often to know where she was to avoid getting disoriented, all while licking her nose constantly not only to help her keep sniffing her way around but also to know at all times the direction of the soft moor breeze to know where she was supposed to point once she returned, as she kept going from the border of the gorse wall to an area close to where the older She-Cat was eating.

This caused her to trip more than once due to this causing her already small kitten legs to trip over an unseen obstacle, or for something to get into her tiny nose, causing her to sneeze. However, her stubbornness and determination shone through as she shook off these little side-effects to her plan and continued her scent exploration.

Probably the major trouble of this was how she kept bumping into other cats of the clan over and over, at least once or twice stepping on someone’s tail as they rested, thanks to how focused she was on the task at hand, earning a hiss or a startled jump from the older cats before they stared at them as she kept going, sometimes even using the sleepy or resting cats as a temporary landmark.

This meant she wasn’t burning energy as quickly as the warrior hoped to, but at the very least Tawnyflare did achieve to keep her entertained for a while with this, as this way of her achieving said task made the lap around camp take longer than expected.

Then again…this meant that instead of multiple laps, Lionkit only took a single large zig-zag lap around the camp, sniffing everything cautiously…except by the time when she accidentally fell into the shallow water pool and had to drag her now wet self out and shake her fur a bit to get rid of the excess water clinging to it and slowing her down.

By the time she returned to the she-cat, her paws were a bit muddy, her still slightly wet fur was standing on end and several twigs and grass blades clung to it from the multiple times she tipped with herself, and her nose was scratched from the not exactly few times she ran into the thick bramble wall that surrounded the camp.

She pawed at her for a bit to draw her attention before shaking herself a bit as soon as their gaze met again, eyes closing as she licked her nose, using it and her still wet fur to tell the direction of the breeze and to clean it to avoid extra scent dragging her attention away.

“Nursery!” She said, turning towards the place she knew so well to point at it with her nose, using both the faint scent of milk coming from it she was so used to and the direction the breeze gave her from her lap. She turned around a bit more before her nose pointed towards the Medicine cat’s den, recognizing the herbal scent that came from it and the fact that it was close to the nursery “Softbreeze’s leaf pile!” She still had no proper knowledge of what most of these “dens” and areas were called due to inexperience, so she made up names for them.


“Grownup wall!” She meowed happily as she pointed towards where the warriors and apprentices slept when the breeze and her nose picked up the concentrated scent of the cats in there thanks to how long they spent in that area vs the rest of camp. She still had no proper knowledge of what most of these “dens” and areas were called due to inexperience.

After licking her nose a couple more times she turned towards the Tall Rock, which luckily for her had the leader’s scent all over it “Lilacstar’s gathering rock!”.

It took her a bit longer and more nose licks for the next one, as Tawnyelt’s own meal made it tricky for her to find and she had to rely a bit more on the breeze direction than scent alone “H-Hum…oh! There! Prey pile!”.

“And…and…hum…” Mousedung, water was hard to find thanks to the lack of proper scent. It took her serveral seconds and a lot of spinning around, as well as one or two more hesitant stops before she changed her mind before finally pointing towards the water, only now finally realizing she could use her ears too to try and pick up the noise her clanmates made while drinking from it or from the tiny ripples when the water was disturbed for any reason “Drinking zone?” She still couldn't help but be slightly hesitant on that last one.

She finally opened her eyes, looking up at the warrior "Did I win?".

Nightwind had just returned from a hunt, carrying two rabbits by their ears. A kit that he was not familiar with (not surprising as he spent little time around kits) nearly ran into his foreleg despite using her nose. He managed to see her just in time and lifted his paw out of the way for her to safely pass. He watched and shook his head as she trampled over other cats in the clan. What in the stars is wrong with that one? He wondered, before walking over to the fresh-kill hole and dropping the rabbits inside. He spotted Tawnyflare and hesitated. Raisha, she used to be called... If she hadn't recognized him then no one here would.

Nightwind's eyes went back to the kit as she neared Tawnyflare and began to say where everything was with her eyes closed. Was this a Windclan game? Curious, he grabbed one of the rabbits that he had just brought back and approached Tawnyflare, hoping that they were on good enough terms that he could eat beside her without causing a fuss.

"Care if I join you? What are you teaching this kit?" He asked softly. He sat down about a fox-length away to give Tawnyflare some space.

"Good job, Lionkit! Now see if you can name every single cat in the Clan!"

Tawnyflare let out a sigh as Nightwind had joined her. Clearly she was not going to be able to eat. "Well, if you must know, I am playing a game with Lionkit. I never was too good with kits. Really just trying to get the furball out of my pelt. And in any case, at least she can learn the Clan better this way, and run off some steam. I am guessing a few more runs and she will be napping in the nursery. So I am doing everyone a favor. After this I am going to have her go to Fawnstep to have him recite the warrior code a couple of times."

She let out a small laugh at the thought of pawning the kit onto her makeshift mentor. Fawnstep actually wasn't all that bad in her opinion, but hey, if it kept the kit from attacking her tail, she was all for it. "So, what have you been up to, hmm?"

‘Oh, mouse-dung…’

Now that was a harder task, and he doubted that simply naming each cat per their rank would fly on this one. Lionkit was not the owner of the best memory and she was aware, on to of that, this would force her to interact with a lot of cats she hadn’t talked to before multiple times to make sure she would remember their names. She knew she could trust them since they were clanmates…but she wasn’t feeling comfortable with this, not one bit.

She shook herself a bit as she felt the fur on the back of her neck and on her tail start to raise against her will thanks to anxiety, not wanting to make it obvious and hoping that would force it to flatten again, allowing her to dissimulate it.

“Hum…” She started to spin on her place a bit as she looked around, eventually facing the older she-cat again “I never asked your name…did I?”

She then quickly spun around to face the black tom that had approached them when he spoke, allowing her to notice this. She tilted her head a bit at the funny-smelling tom, she guessed that she had been too distracted by her sudden raising anxiety to notice, as his stench was…hard to miss “U-uh…and what’s your name?”