Impatience [c]

Hailkit sat by the camp exit, staring out into the rocky forest outside. He knew better than to walk out, but that didn't mean he didn't want to. He felt he had done everything imaginable inside camp. He could listen to elder stories or play with other kits, but there was a whole world outside camp just waiting for him! He so badly wanted to climb the trees out there and discover new things... mostly pretty things.

Iridescent bird feathers, new flowers, anything new to adorn his fur with other than the dead leaves he could find in camp. They were a pretty color, but too fragile. They ripped or crumpled within a few days of collecting them. He needed something new and he just knew the outside had it. It was like... infinitely big, surely there would be some really pretty flowers out there that wouldn't be ruined by the slightest touch. Maybe it would come in purples and blues too! The prettiest colors.

He just had to be an apprentice to experience it... Keeping track of the moons was hard when the moon looked like a fuzzy blob regardless of what phase it was, but his ceremony should be relatively soon. But for now, he could only pacify his curiosities by squinting outside of camp, hoping he was watching a bird and not just a branch waving in the crisp wind.

Oliverain headed back to camp, starling hanging in her maw. Today there hadn't been as many prey lurking around, but neither predator. The camp entrance came into sight, as well as the pretty white pelt of a kit. He was staring out into the territory. The warrior walked up to him, placing the starling down carefully before greeting the kit, "Hello, are you the camp guard?" She couldn't help teasing him, not everyday did she see a kit here. Though she did wonder why kits weren't as curious as this one, perhaps he was bored. "The forest is quite beautiful ain't it? It gets better in new-leaf, when all the flowers bloom and young animals are out."

A slight purr rose in his throat as a warrior came into camp, acknowledging him. "Yes ma'am," he chirped. Of course, he wasn't a real camp guard, he wouldn't be very good at it, but it sounded like an important position to have. He could protect the clan from danger... once it was close enough for him to see clearly.

"I can't wait. I was sad when all the flowers wilted, they lost all their pretty colors." He frowned, pawing at a few of the leaves at his paws. They were pretty too, but when the whole forest had become red and yellow, those colors didn't feel as rare and pretty as they were before. Like liked the hard-to-find colors, like blues and pinks and purples. Because when he wore them, then he became the rare pretty colors too!

"Do you have a favorite flower? For when they come back in new-leaf?" He already knew his favorite flower, but he wanted to broaden his horizons for when he was a big apprentice and could find them on his own. For all he knew, there was the most colorful, most pretty flower out there somewhere that he didn't know about.

"Well, I love the blue ones, the ones that look like frost after rain. Or the bright bouncing ones, that look like these leaves. Or sweet purple ones, with small petals and that droop from their thoughts. Dreamy ones with pink tips, they're fluffy and shiny. Oh there's so many flowers, too many to label as a favorite," she responded simply, though her answer anything but simple. Oliverain thought about how stunning it would be after leaf-bare, she couldn't wait. Hopefully they didn't move away from the forest by then, even though she deeply wanted to explore new fields.

She looked down at the kit, remembering his name to be Hailkit. He was similar to her, he shared her love for the world's beauty. Oliverain bent down, picking a single feather out of her catch. The ragdoll placed it in his fur, tucked behind his ear. "There. Uh- Don't tell anyone alright? We shouldn't mess with our prey in the future, okay?" The starling feather looked beautiful with his stark white pelt. Oliverain quite liked his appearance, though she wasn't eager to share that opinion quite yet.

Hailkit got more and more enraptured with each description, wide blue eyes somehow growing wider. He hadn't seen most of what she explained, but he could imagine them vividly in his head. Green-leaf seemed much too far away now. Leaf-bear would only rob those flowers from him that leaf-fall hadn't already taken, but at least leaf-fall replaced them with pretty red and orange leaves. Leaf-bear would make everything a uniform white and make it a nightmare to navigate.

"Oh wow! I can't wait to find them all, they all sound so pretty!" He purred loudly, already imagining them coating his pelt in color. Sometimes he wished he had markings and colors like other cats, but usually he saw himself as a blank canvas to which he could place his own markings, far more colorful than any other cat could achieve naturally. No cat was born with purples and blues in their fur, but he could be could put them in himself with flowers!

Hailkit blinked as the she-cat plucked a feather from her catch, a thunderous purr rising from his throat as she placed it behind his ear. Oh! He never had someone decorate him before! "Ah, pretty!" Starlings were his favorite bird. Dawnfeather had shown him their magnificence before, but he could never get over how shiny and beautiful their feathers were. He wanted a nest full of starling feathers.

"And, you know, I'm sure the Starling wouldn't mind. I think it would be sad if we threw the feathers away after we were done with it. It's like we're taking a little part of it as a thank you!" It was a rather eloquent excuse to continue his habit of stealing and wearing feathers, but he did partially believe in it. If something were to die by his paws, it seemed only respectful to not let any part of it go to waste. "But if you're worried about plucking feathers, you would look really nice with flowers too! Maybe blue or orange ones." He paused, tilting his head in thought before nodding at his first assumption. Blue or orange would go with her eyes. Or purple, because everyone looks good in purple.