Junior Entomologist [C]

The early morning sky was tinted red, painting Woolykit's patternless fur a glowy orange. He'd woken up early today, to Mother's chagrin. He valued his sleep, as all healthy kits should(Mother's words), but dawn was too perfect of a bug-hunting time to be sleeping. He'd come across this discovery entirely accidentally, when he woke up too early on accident and found that the outside of the nursery was alive with moths and beetles he'd never seen before. He'd been worried that it was just a fluke, but one look at the greenery around him and his hopes were confirmed: the place was crawling with bugs. He looked around at them for a rather long time, finally deciding to focus on a shiny blueish beetle. Moths were cool, but they were very similar to butterflies and he'd caught lots of those before. He dropped low to the ground, emulating the apprentices he sometimes saw training on the outskirts of camp. He was unsure how to move forward, though, so he lifted himself back up off the ground every time he walked. Finally he 'crept' close enough to the beetle that he was within pouncing distance. He wasted no time, jumping onto the creature with paws outstretched. The beetle was knocked off its six legs, rolling onto its armoured back. Woolykit admired him for a moment- he'd never seen a beetle like this up close before- before getting a brilliant idea. He picked up the beetle in his mouth (gently, he didn't know how fragile they were) and turned towards the apprentices' den. He'd show the apprentices his catch! Sure, he hadn't killed it, but he caught it all the same. There was no point killing the beetle, he didn't want to eat him and he'd rot away into dust if he was left around. He was sure the apprentices would be very impressed, anyway.

He reached the den, familiar to him only from the outside. He'd never actually been inside, but he was big enough now and he figured the apprentices wouldn't mind. He poked his head in. Most of them were in some stage of waking up or were already gone training. Choosing a cat to show at random, he calmly padded up to a grey tabby she-cat. She looked tired. Woolykit bet that the beetle would be just the thing to wake her up! He placed it on the ground and secured it with a paw so he could speak. "Excuse me, miss, I'm Woolykit how do you do. I caught a beetle, I'm soon to be an apprentice and I wanted to show one of you. Look, he's all blue! They only come out at dawn, that's why I'm awake. They're c- cra-" he paused, trying to remember the big word for the dawn insects he'd learned from Father. "Crepuscular!"

Woolykit wondered for a moment if he'd gotten it wrong and approached a cat who didn't want to be approached. That would be rude of him, so he did worry he was being rude now- but then Sleepypaw responded. It took her a while, but Woolykit was very patient (Mother said it was rude not to be). It was worth the wait, anyway, as Sleepypaw looked up at him and dropped some information he'd never considered: cats were crepuscular as well. And mice, and foxes! His jaw dropped for a moment, though he swiftly closed it again so he didn't appear uncouth. That was another word for rude. "Are we really?? So I'm just like this beetle! Is that why we get all sleepy in the middle of daytime? I always thought it was because it was too warm."

This apprentice was really cool! There were a lot of cool apprentices in RiverClan, but so far she was the first to know things like this. Father knew lots of things, but he was very busy. Did Sleepypaw know as much as Father? He reckoned that maybe she did. She seemed very smart. "Who's your mentor? Did they teach you about 'crepuscular'? Or did you learn it yourself?"