Young Blood [Juni/"Sun" Litter]

The camp was dappled by warm sunlight breaking up the fading shadows of the early morning as Wolfblossom picked up a plump blackbird from the fresh-kill pile and trotted toward the nursery.

Grandkits.

She felt as if her own kits had only just escaped the nursery, and now Sunfire had kits of his own with Juniperheart. To say Wolfblossom had kit-fever was maybe a bit of an understatement. She had been excited by the news, and eager to meet her grandchildren. The kitting had been a long one, leaving Juniperheart recovering in the medicine den, but the kits themselves had been healthy. After assigning the day's patrols, Wolfblossom was glad to take the time and visit while she could. They were family, and the deputy would do everything she could to ensure her family were happy and taken care of.

The kits were already outside the den as Wolfblossom padded up, setting the prey down for one of the nearby queens. "Good morning!" The deputy's tone was cheerful, perhaps obnoxiously cheerful to some of her clanmates who weren't morning cats. But it was a fine day, and Wolfblossom wasn't going to waste it by being subdued and reticent around her own family.

Bubblekit was lost in her dreams. A bright pink butterfly landed on an emerald blade of grass, and she chased it, laughing. The sun was blue and the sky was white, with yellow sunflower clouds. When she finally caught the butterfly, it granted her wings, and let her soar up into the sky. Wind ruffled her fur. Trees became small purple dots, and all the other cats melted away too tiny to be seen. The horizon was an orange kaleidoscope that burned across her gaze and set her heart on fire. Everything was prettier from above. She just wanted to keep going forever and ever.

However nice her dreams were, she was never unhappy to be awoken. Her gray-green eyes opened immediately at Wolfblossom's call, ears perking forward at the sound. Dreams were nice. But the real world was nice too. She'd already forgotten about flying the moment she leapt out of the nest, shaking out her soft fur and beaming with a wide grin at the deputy. "Morning morning morning, Gramma!" she sang happily, running up to tackle Wolfblossom. "What color is the sun today? Is it blue yet? Oh!--what's that you have there?" She was immediately distracted from her own train of thought by the bird that was set down at the nursery entrance. Bubblekit didn't want to stop nuzzling her grandmother's fur, but the shiny new thing made her bound over to it, inspecting its black feathers that littered the ground. "Did you catch this? How did you do it? Did you become a bird?" Her bright eyes sparkled as she looked over the bird. "Am I old enough to eat this yet? Wait, I know you can be too young to eat something, but can you be too old to eat something? Are you too old for birds, Gramma?" Her train of thought jumped to yet another intriguing question, and so Bubblekit turned her attention back to Wolfblossom, tail waving eagerly as she awaited an answer to her query. She'd already forgotten all of her other questions. Her mind was consumed only with the present moment.

“No, the game doesn’t work like that!” Cypresskit complained, lashing her tail behind her. What sort of absolute bird-brains didn’t know the right way to play a game? It was incredibly straightforwards and simple, for StarClan’s sake. Ugh. Whatever was she supposed to do with these furballs? The small she-kit stepped forwards, eyeing the mossball with a judgemental glare, flexing her tiny claws. “Like this.”

Just as she swiped at the mossball, a voice rang out from nearby. Cypresskit’s swipe missed, and the kit spun around, fur fluffed in annoyance and eyes narrowed. This was an adult cat, though, and so she smoothed her pelt down with a few self-conscious licks. “Good morning! Say good morning, guys, we gotta be polite,” she hissed, uncaring whether her siblings had objected or not.

Whether her siblings had been paying any attention to anything Cypresskit had been saying or not, the small kit puffed out her chest, mismatched gaze meeting Wolfblossom’s. She was their (self-appointed and definitely undisputed) spokescat after all- although, in reality, she’d just mastered the art of talking over other cats until they shut up and listened.

“What kind of bird was that? Was it a Plover-bird? Bubble, let me ask some questions! Grandma, tell her to let me ask questions too!”

((I adore them. Wolf adores them. They're such a handful and I love it!))

"Hi Bubblekit," Wolfblossom purred, leaning down to nuzzle the top of her granddaughter's head in greeting. And where one kit came over, the others followed, clambering over one another and bombarding her with questions. Sorrelkit's comment on the sun being like Sunfire's pelt made her smile softly, "Like that, but you shouldn't look directly at the sun. It's not good for you. Your father's pelt was as striking... Without the harm the sun can cause." She agreed. Stars... So many questions. "It's a blackbird- Cypresskit, be nice! -and we climb into the trees after them. Sometimes they come to the ground looking for food of their own. You'll get to learn all of that as an apprentice, it'll be exciting!"

"I don't know where the sun goes... Somewhere past highstones, I think. The sun leaves and the moon rises, almost like they chase each other across the sky." Purring, the deputy stretched out, making herself comfortable. "Hi Ploverkit- I'm alright, kitten. You?"

At Cypresskit's question about the bird, Wolfblossom shook her head with a smile. "Plovers are a bit more colorful than blackbirds. They can be brown or gray and white, some of them have spotted wings and other markings. You'll see them near the creek, or our border with Riverclan." Hopefully, their time near the Riverclan border would be brief and uneventful for moons to come.

The last of the kits to come over to her was Bearkit, more subdued than his siblings. "Hey, Bear," He was certainly the more laid back of the bunch, and there was nothing wrong with that. "And how are you this morning?"

Bubblekit frowned at Cypresskit as her sister approached, trying to boss her around and begging for the chance to ask questions. "Ask your own questions," she said, sticking her tongue out briefly. "You don't need permission, just ask!" Her other siblings soon came to join them--Sorrelkit correcting but eager, Ploverkit calm but interested, and Bearkit the most mature and quiet of them as always. She loved all of them. "I know the sun's not blue. That's why I was asking! I just had to make sure. It might change someday." Her tail flicked eagerly behind her, and she accepted the warm nuzzle from Wolfblossom with a purr of her own. "Yeah, we can't lookit the sun. It's too hot. But you can kinda tell what color it is anyway."

As always, the answers to her questions--and those of her siblings--came quickly and cleanly. The sun wasn't blue; the bird was a blackbird; she caught it by climbing a tree; plovers had different colors; the sun went behind Highstones. Something about how Wolfblossom mentioned the last one made her whiskers twitch in excitement. "Do they chase each other like how Cypresskit chases the mossball? Or like how you chase the bird? Which one's the bird and which one's the cat--the moon or the sun?" Her mind moved even faster than her mouth did, arriving at different conclusions before she even finished the previous words. "Oh, oh, I can't wait to be an apprentice. It's gonna be so cool! I get to go see the territory and catch birds and learn to fight! Maybe I'll catch the sun someday! Have you ever tried catching the sun? Can you get up that high if you climb a tree and then jump reeeeeallly far?" Her shining eyes glanced at her quiet brother. He never really asked much for himself, but he was always fun to be around. "Yeah, how are you, Bearbear?" she asked him, rolling over from her position cuddling Wolfblossom to lie on the ground, batting lightly at his legs. "I bet you're gonna be the first one to get your ceremony!"

“It’s alright, Plov,” Cypresskit mewed with a twitch of her whiskers, feeling a bit bad. “The important thing is- now you know how to do it.”

Grandma was talking! Oooh! Cypresskit tried to rear onto her hind legs to get the height advantage, promptly overbalanced, and went back down onto the sand with a huff. Ohhhh… embarrassing. The dilute tortie popped right back onto her paws, head held high as if nothing had happened. “And I look the most like dad and the sun!”

“I am being nice, Grandma! Sorrel didn’t say good morning, and Bubble was taking all the questions! I wanna ask questions too, and I can’t if you can’t hear them because somebody was talkin’ too loud!”

With a small huff, the little kit flicked her tail lightly against Plover’s flank. ”Don’t worry, Plov, as soon as we’re apprentices we’ll all go catch a plover to see what they look like. I’m not catchin’ a bear, though, so you- oh, I bet I’m faster than sun an’ the moon. You can’t even see those move!”  

As Bubblekit rolled away from Wolfblossom, Cypresskit eyed the blackbird. Hmm. No, she’d definitely get nabbed before she reached it, and wouldn’t that be embarrassing? Her siblings would never listen to her again- and somecat needed to be in charge, with Momma sick. “Is that why Da got his name? Because he caught the sun? That- no, no no no, Bubble, I’m gonna be the first to get my name. Just you wait an’ see! I’ll be sure to save everyone a nest in the apprentice den, though, ‘cause that’s what good sisters do!”

…her mismatched eyes darted from sibling to sibling, just daring them to challenge her words. There would be an all-out battle then, and Cypresskit- Cypressstar, mind you- definitely had never gotten in trouble for playing too rough with the other kits. Noooooooo. That- no.

"I don't know, they've never caught each other. Perhaps Ploverkit has a point, though?" She answered honestly. It was hard to tell who chased who. Did the sun chase the night away? Or was it the other way around? Wolfblossom thought it would probably depend on who one asked. "The sun is much too far for any cat to get to, even if you jumped from a tree."

Cypresskit tried to rear up onto her hind legs and fell, but seemed uninjured. Wolfblossom wasn't inclined to embarrass the kit by pointing it out however. Wolfblossom let out a soft snort at Cypresskit's words, "You can ask questions, Cy. Waiting until your siblings are done speaking would be polite, though. And Sorrelkit did say good morning." She chastised gently.

Ploverkit and Bearkit looked much more like their mother than the other kits, and it did seem as if Cypresskit had the closest appearance to Sunfire. Though the gray within her fur as well as Sorrelkit and Bubblekit's seemed more close to Sunfire's sisters and herself. It made sense, of course.

"I don't know. I don't think we want Starclan angry at us, regardless of the sun changing colors." Though it certainly seemed like Starclan were angry at someone in the forest sometimes... As long as Skyclan stayed out of it, Wolfblossom would have no quarrel with them. "Highstones is a far walk, even for grown cats like Birdstar and Plumleaf. But you'll be taken there when you've nearly finished your apprenticeships. Not farther than it, though."

"Of course I'll show you the trees," Wolfblossom purred, "All of you. Though your mentors will also show you how to climb them."

"Sometimes," Wolfblossom agreed, "Of course, I have to find mentors for all of you, and that takes a bit of time. I want you to be the best warriors you can be, so I have to think about who each of you will get. I'd mentor you all myself... But I think my warriors would have something to say if I hogged all the apprentices to myself." She tried not to give multiple apprentices to the same cat at once, but she always put careful thought into which warriors would work well with which apprentices.

"I'm fine, Bear." She added, a purr rumbling in her chest as the kits snuggled up to her. It was nice to take some time to relax with her family. She just wished that Juniperheart could be well enough to join them. Her kits were a lively bunch who deserved their mother to return to good health. Plumleaf and Smokepetal would do everything they could, of course, but that did not stop Wolfblossom from worrying after her all the same. She would not, however, allow the kits to see how worried she was.

Bubblekit frowned up at Cypresskit when she started being bossy again. Why did she have to claim everything for herself, anyway? "Betcha Bear can do it faster'n you," she retorted, reaching out a paw to bat at her sister. She was too far away, but the intent was there anyway. "Maybe you c'n be third. It doesn' really matter though, so I guess you can try an' do it the fastest if you wanna. It'll be lonely in the den without us though! How are you gonna sleep if you don't have Sorrel snoring?"

The small gray she-kit continued trading soft blows with her brother. But Ploverkit made a good point about the moon getting bites taken out of it, which caught her attention, so she instead glanced at her sister for a bit. "But then how does the moon get its pieces back?" she asked. "Food doesn't regrow. When you eat the blackbird, it's not gonna suddenly get up and get back to normal. So the moon can't be a mouse 'nless it's a reeeeally magical one. Maybe they catch each other and the moon steals the pieces back from the sun?" Wolfblossom began to speak again, and so Bubblekit changed focus just as quickly. "Gramma, gramma, who was your mentor? Who's the best mentor in the whole Clan? Besides you cause you're the best. But we can't all be your apprentices so I guess that's fine. But how many warriors are there in the Clan anyway?" Bubblekit couldn't count much higher than ten. But she thought that SkyClan was so big they might have twelve--no, even thirteen warriors! Surely they had to be the biggest Clan if they were the greatest Clan in the forest.