Misplaced Kits and Dead Leaves [Open]

Shadekit sits like a very pathetic shadow, trying her very best not to look pathetic at all. It’s difficult considering the circumstances, mainly her pelt is matted with bits of broken earth and whatever she picked up from being dragged through the forest. Her neck aches something awful from being swung around in all the commotion, but she ignores that in favor of watching the swirl of strange cats. The scent tangles were almost paralyzing, all foreign and confusing. Her eyes are overflowing and molten in her dark face, impossibly big as she watches like a creature possessed. The leaves here were massive, wide and colorful, so different from those back home. They float around her with each drag of the breeze, twirling and twisting away from her playful attempts at knocking one out of the air.

All in all, Shadekit felt misplaced. She missed the nursery and it’s thick walls and comfy nest. She missed warm bodies and milk scent, chasing sun puddles and moss balls. There were no rolling storms or teases of heather in the wind,  just the crunchy leaves and too-big trees and confusing scents that got all jumbled up in her nose. But the she-kit would not be cowed. She was of WindClan, brave and strong and swift. She is strong and fierce and very much not afraid she decides. Slowly the towering trees become less oppressive, and the strange cats are less concerning. One of the leaves lands a bit in front of her.

She drops into a hunter’s crouch, tail lashing like a wild thing, and leaps with a spring of her tiny legs. Her paws are too big and she tumbles gracelessly over the poor leaf she was trying to catch, ending up winded and dusty. The kit pins her ears and looks up at the sky, crowded with branches. The trees are laughing at her, she thinks bitterly. Her pelt prickles with embarrassment as she picks herself up. She is small and dusty and peeved now. With her ears pinned, she snarls, sounding more squeaky than scary and lunges, needle-thin claws outreached. The leaf is brutally speared.

Shadekit holds up her paw, purring at the sight of it impaled. She shakes her paw. The leaf clings on stubbornly. She growls and shakes her paw harder. The leaf does not budge. With an annoyed flash of her tiny teeth, the kit slams her paw onto the ground with all the force she could muster, which was not a lot. She had survived the bucking earth and crumbling sky, and now she couldn’t even enjoy her kill because it was stuck to her paw. Shadekit’s ears droop as she sits back on her haunches, tail flicking angrily. She keeps her paw lifted awkwardly, the offending leaf clinging to her claws as she glares at it, thinking very hard about how to free herself.

Sleepypaw was out and about, doing… Sleepypaw-y things, she guessed. Why was Russetpaw not accompanying her friend? We-el, she had had to wake up so foxing early to go out hunting just the other day, and now? Now she was still recovering, ‘cause early and ‘er weren’t the best a friends. This was the very good reason as to why she was sprawled out on her back, doing her best impersonation of Sleepypaw. No one would know it was her. The secret to this impersonation?

Sleep.

And that was what Russetpaw was trying ta do, really, but it turned out taking a nap anytime other ‘n’ the night was a bad idea. How did the ShadowClanners do it? It was so loud, and she swore up ‘n’ down that someone ‘ad just stepped on her, for foxing sake-

Irritably, at the sound of some scuffling nearby, Russetpaw’s head shot up, ready to berate Fuzzkit to the moon an’ back, but- it was a kit. Like, an actual kit, not Fuzzkit. The irritation melted away- the lil’ thing had a leaf stuck to her paw! Russetpaw sprung to her feet, sleep forgotten, and darted over.

“Heya, I’m Russetpaw! Need some ‘elp there?”

The kit looked up as the young molly bounded over. Immediately she was hit with the scent of heather and wind and home. Shadekit feels it like a purr in her chest, something familiar in a sea of strangeness. She is suddenly embarrassed all over again and sends a venomous glare at the leaf stuck to her paw. She squares her tiny shoulders, trying to cling to some shred of dignity. First impressions were important after all. “I’m Shadekit, and this doesn't happen often. I promise!” She shakes her paw in disdain. The leaf stays stuck stubbornly.

“I’d appreciate it.” The kit grumbles, and offers the offending paw to the apprentice.

She flattens her ears, trying to look tough, even if she’s happy to find a friendly face. “Normally I’m good at killing things.” Her feathery tail flicks in irritation. “If there were moss balls here they wouldn't stand a chance!” She snarls with a mouth full of tiny teeth and her tail picks up speed to lash back and forth in the dirt.

She glances up at Russetpaw with eyes too big for her dark face “I bet you’ve killed things way cooler than moss balls.” Shadekit lifts her ears, one twitching in interest. “What’s the biggest thing you’ve caught? I bet it’s something huge, like a bird! The queens always tell me to stay close, so the birds don’t get me. But I wouldn’t let them.” The kit puffs her chest out. “I’d slash it with my claws and spit all scary-like.” She purrs proudly.

Russetpaw grinned widely. With a quick snap of her teeth she pulled the offending leaf off the kit’s claws- sharp ones, those- she wouldn’t be surprised if the kit turned out to be a good hunter- though not as good as Russetpaw, Silverwing’s apprentice. Yeah- she’d be nearly as good as her mentor at hunting in absolutely no time. Already the interaction was lifting her spirits.

“Yah don’t kill leaves, silly,” she snorted, flicking her tail. “They’re already dead, I think, and so are mossballs.”

At the questions she straightened up, puffing out her chest fur. “Yep! Me name’s Russetpaw, WindClan’s best apprentice!” Sorry Sleepypaw- but Sleepypaw just wasn’t Silverwing’s apprentice. She was a close second, though- but Russetpaw had won their spar, after all.

“I’ve caught scads of hares an’ rabbits! Birds ain’t that big, not really, less’un you’re talking about hawks ‘r eagles- and you stay close’n the queens, lil’ un, leastaways for now, ‘kay? Iffun ya got snatched by ‘n’ eagle you wouldn’t be able to be an apprentice!”

Shadekit stretches out her claws happily, relieved to be free of the leaf and back in fighting form. She headbutts Russetpaw’s shoulder in thanks and sits back to pull the flaky pieces of leaf out of her claws. “Well, they’re more dead when I’m through with them.” She growls, and feints a strike as if she was batting away an imaginary enemy. Her ear flicks when the apprentice says she was the best in WindClan. Shadekit didn’t really know any of the others apprentices, so it could be true. She decides to take that with a grain of salt.

“I’m not that little.” She retorts, drawing herself up, but she just looks silly with her too-big paws and gangly legs. “I’ll get bigger.” She grumbles with an annoyed flick of her tail. “And I guess your right, but not because I’m scared of the birds. I just want to be an apprentice, then the queens can’t boss me around anymore.”

The kit looks around the clearing again, still rolling with a sea of pelts and paws. “Have you talked to any of the cats that smell weird? I don’t understand why we have to stay here. The sun keeps hiding.” She wrinkles her nose at the thickly tangled branches above, and the lack of open sky.

Russetpaw chuckled, flicking her tail in amusement at the kit’s words. A born fight’r, this one. That wasn’t how it worked, not really- had she said such thistle-down things when playing with Silverwing an’ Sleeps as a kit? If so- well- neither had corrected her on it… so she guessed she’d be gracious to the kit an’ not point out her mistakes. She was awesome like that, eh? Maybe when this kit became an apprentice she’d already be a warrior, and then she could be a mentor just as awesome as Silverwing!

The red-pelted apprentice didn’t bother restraining her snort at the kit’s protests. “Yeah, yeah, right. The cats what smell weird-like are the other Clans, lil’ Shadow. I’ve talked to them, aye, but you’re best off keepin’ your distance. We’re allied with ShadowClan, though- maybe you could ask one a’ the queens iffen you could talk to some ShadowClan kits? An’ the sun don’t hide, silly, just passes behind the leaves an’ the clouds- just hides a’ night, ya know.”

Shadekit knew there were other clans, she had heard the queens complain about them more than once, but she hadn’t realized there were this many cats in the forest. She’d have to work hard when she was apprenticed if she wanted to defend WindClan from that many outsiders. Shadekit flattens her ears at the nickname. “I’m not that little.”  She says again but thinks she likes the nickname. It makes her feel a little less alone with the too-big trees and too-small sky. Nothing quite fit like she expected it to, but the nickname feels natural, her annoyance feels natural. So she might grumble about it now, but quietly she hopes it sticks. Not that she’d let Russetpaw know that.

“I don’t mind, they all smell weird and WindClan is better anyway.” She couldn’t help but be a little curious about the other kits, maybe they’d be better at rough-housing than her current denmates.

“The sun here is just.. different.”  She grumbles, shuffling her paws. She tries her hardest to ignore the pang of homesickness that rattles around in her chest. She hadn’t known much of the WindClan camp other than the nursery, but the hot sun and taste of wind were embedded within her from a time when she only knew milk scent and the shape of her littermates. Those times were gone, she had fierce claws and sharp teeth now. And maybe her memories of camp were fuzzy and limited to the shape the sun left on her fur or the color of storm clouds that didn’t bring rain, but she knew that this place wasn’t home. “I don’t like it.”

The she-kit flicks an ear, turning to look as the tom approaches. He isn’t WindClan, that much is obvious. He doesn’t look that intimidating either. “I’d rather smell like dust than dead leaves and fox dens.” She bites back with a snarl that curls into a sharp grin. It’s not exactly friendly, but she is much too small and soft-looking to be scary. Shadekit had never even seen a fox den, but she imagined they were bad from how the queens talked of them. “Russetpaw doesn’t smell like dust either, she smells like heather and moor-grass.” She defends, the fur over her shoulders ruffling up so she looks like a small, angry, void. She steps a little between the apprentice and the unfamiliar tom.“Who are you, anyway?”

Russetpaw grinned again. Stars yes, this kit was on t’ right track. “Yep. You’d be hard pressed ta find a better Clan ‘n this here one. We are WindClan after all, the swift and the strong, with all t’ power an’ ferocity of the storm. The sun ain’t all that different, ya know, just t’ trees make it seem that way. We won’t be here all that long, lil’ un, just long enough for the Twolegs ta get bored and ‘ead home, an’ then we can ‘ead home.”

Oh- here came… Erm… Eveningpaw? Yeah- wait- no- it was shorter ‘n that- Mhm… Eaglepaw? That sounded about right- Egretpaw? Eggpaw? Either Eagle or Egretpaw- but wait, it was someth’n more out there ‘n that- grey spotted tom… talked all funny-like… E… E… Evepaw? Endpaw? Ec- Echopaw, that was it! Was he insulting them? Was she supposed to be insulted?

Right, lil’ Shadow had the right idea. Russetpaw gave an approving nod as the kit stood up for their WindClan honor. ”This is Echopaw,” she said slowly, keeping her tone guarded. He didn’t need to know the kit’s name. Talking with two other apprentices was one thing- this ThunderClanner, harmless as he seemed, could be a threat to the kit. ”An’ she’s right, we don’t smell like dust no more’n RiverClanners smell like water. Be fair, though, ‘kit, he don’t smell like fox dens… just musty. Not fox.”

Shadekit’s dark ears perked up at Russetpaw’s approval. She was small but determined to make sure the other cats knew that WindClan would not take any insults with their bellies up. Something bright and warm settled in her chest and the kit lifted her feathery tail a little higher, leveling the tom with a fierce glare. And then he laughed at her.

The fur along her spine bristled as she pined her too-big ears. Did he think her teeth were just for show? Normally if one of the other kits pulled something like that they’d get into a scuffle and call it even, but he was too big for her to bowl over like her denmates.Graciously the kit let the slight go, mainly because she’d lose real quick and the last thing she needed was to embarrass herself again. Hopefully, Russetpaw had forgotten the leaf incident already.

Shadekit may be young with a tongue that got her in trouble and claws that caught on her denmates a little too easily, but she wasn’t entirely thistle-brained, despite what many of the queens seemed to think. It seemed to the kit that Russetpaw was on good terms with the tom, and got along just fine with cats outside of WindClan, but there was something distrustful in her introduction. The apprentice may be friendly, but it was made very clear that Echopaw was still an outsider. ThunderClan. Okay, tree-rot and dead leaves were ThunderClan, she could remember that.

The kit tilted her head at him. “I think I know why they called you Echopaw.” She said with a flick of her tail. Maybe she was still a little peeved about him laughing at her. Shadekit’s eyes flicked to Russetpaw briefly before she answered, aware on some level that despite being all stuck in Four Trees, she wasn’t supposed to be too friendly with cats from other Clans. "I'm a WindClan kit." She said with a proud jut of her chin."And anything else is none of your business."

Shadekit settled herself next to her clanmate, but she’d be lying to say she wasn’t curious about ThunderClan. How could they live where they couldn’t see the stars, or feel the sun on their pelts? She curled her tail around her paws. The kit couldn’t fathom how he could live in a space even more closed in than the clearing. She caught Echopaw up in her lantern gaze again, he seemed kinda weird and he laughed at her. Russetpaw might tease her, but at least the red she-cat knew that Shadekit was serious. If he pulled something like that again then she might actually swipe him across the nose. She wondered if Russetpaw would be mad. The kit flicked an ear, outsiders weren't impressing her much. "How do you know Russetpaw? She seems too cool for you."

Russetpaw’s ears flattened as the grey tom repeated her words, withholding a low growl of irritation and some choice insults. She probably shouldn’t get angry, not now, when anything, it seemed, could cause an incident (cough Nightstar cough), and so she dug her claws into the ground instead of swiping at Echopaw’s tail to teach him a lesson. Still- she could be cold without being real mean-like, right?

Shadekit refused to give the ThunderClanner her name, and Russetpaw gave another firm nod of approval. Good. And then- and then she complimented her? Wha? She was cool?- uhm, of course she was cool! She was Russetpaw, Silverwing’s apprentice and the best in the best Clan! This distracted her, a bit, from her intention of letting Echopaw know that WindClan wasn’t to be messed with- but not for long. She had heard stories about old yellow-bellied leaders who gave WindClan a bad name- it was up to her and her generation to prove them wrong.

“If all you’re gonna do is be rude, ThunderClanner, you’d best move along,” she mewed, keeping her voice from becoming a growl. “If ya take offense with somethin’ I say, ya don’t need ta shove it in me face, ya know.” This was- the second time, maybe, he’d done this? She’d let it go the first time, ‘cause Snowpaw seemed fine with it- goodness, she’d run into the tom a lot lately, hadn’t she? Almost more’n she’d spent time with Sleepypaw and Silverwing! Or maybe it just seemed that way ‘cause he was way more annoyin’ than either o’ them were.