Nocturnal Wonders [c]

It was late. So late that the sun was starting to come up. Hedgekit had been blissfully asleep, lost in some kind of cloudy dream that would be impossible to remember when she wakened. A single white paw twitched in a running movement. Then, something warm blew on her face, making it scrunch up reflexively. A quiet voiced stirred her from her rest. Though her eyes remained shut still against the uncomfortably bright light streaming through the nursery entrance, her ears swiveled reluctantly forward. "Mrrrp?" A quiet, confused sound emerged from her throat. Eventually she was able to identify the voice as Fernkit's. That was enough for her to force one eye open, peering out into the blinding daytime. Did she want to... follow him? Her other eye opened. Sleep fled from her mind. "Sure," she responded eagerly, just barely remembering to keep her voice a whisper. Mamma would be very tired; they didn't need to wake her up. "If you heard them earlier, they can't be very far, right?" Carefully she extricated herself from Stagkit's warm, fluffy form, and jumped out of the nest to land next to Fernkit. She was smaller than him, but no less enthusiastic. "Where should we look?"

Normally she slept all through the day, aside from the occasional tossing and turning, so the bright light streaming through the entrance of the nursery was strange and almost foreign. But hearing Fernkit mention how blue it was made her scamper over her own paws to join him peeking outside. Her eyes scrunched up reflexively. It was so bright. "Okay," she whispered, trying to blink the bright afterimage away so that she could see the blue. More carefully this time, she stole a glance upward, only to let out a gasp. Blue. She had never seen anything that blue before. "Wow!" Belatedly she remembered not to be too loud. So bright blue--and were those fluffy white things the clouds that always looked so wispy and gray at night? "Maybe the sun's too big. Maybe it scared the frogs away."

Hedgekit could hear that her brother was saying something else--he must've moved on. But her green eyes remained wide open, fixed on the stunning blue of the sky. "Where'd the stars and the moon go?" she whispered, half-rhetorically. Eventually though, she looked around at camp, and her mouth fell open. Everything looked so different! The grass was brighter, the bushes, the moss--even the dirt seemed like a warmer shade in the sunlight. How odd. Was this what everyone else saw all the time? Most of her missed the comfort of the cool and reassuring darkness, but another, smaller part gaped in wonder at the colors she'd never seen.

Finally she blinked, returning her attention to Fernkit. As always, he was so smart, he understood everything. "I guess frogs gotta get sleepy too," she agreed. It made lots of sense when he put it that way. As he stepped out into the light, she cocked her head at him, watching his fur brighten in the sparkling morning light. Curious, she looked at her own paws, and was almost blinded by their whiteness. But, easily distracted, she heard Fernkit's words and trotted happily after him. "Okay! I mean, Mamma said the other Clans are awake during the day, so there's gotta be a couple animals up. Otherwise what would they eat?"

Hedgekit nodded rapidly at her brother's follow-up question. "Yep! All of 'em but us, she said. I think it would be way too bright though! And you'd miss all the pretty stars! So I'm glad we're different." Fernkit was thinking again; she could tell by the way his eyes narrowed. Or maybe he was just squinting 'cause the sun was so bright. As he stalked forward though, she followed, mimicking his exact pose and steps. It almost made her stumble because his legs were slightly longer than hers. Were the frogs... trying to hide? She blinked. Fernkit's brain always moved so fast compared to hers. Hiding from what? Hiding from being eaten. "Ohhhhh," she said. "That makes sense! If I knew cats were coming to get me, I'd hide too. You're so smart, Fernkit!" Her ear twitched as a belated thought struck. "But, uh, then why not be quiet all the time? They know we hunt them too, right? Why do they croak then?"

If the sun was bright, the way that Hedgekit's deep green eyes lit up at her brother's praise was brighter.  Her nose tingled when he touched it. If Fernkit, the smartest cat she knew besides Mamma, said she was smart--! She couldn't stop the wide grin from spreading on her face, even when he pulled away and went back to thinking with his squint-eyed expression. She was smart. She was smart. Fernkit was the best. The idea of frog communication was enough to strike her from her admiration-induced haze, though. She blinked. "Frog... talking? Oh!" She shifted her weight quickly from white paw to white paw, the thought taking hold in her mind. "You mean like how we do! But I bet they only speak frog so we can't understand 'em. I guess that makes sense--I dunno why else they'd make so much noises. It's kinda loud. D'you think they have brothers and sisters too? And families and patrols 'n stuff?" Hedgekit wrinkled her nose. Thinking too much was starting to make her brain swirl around inside her head. "Huh, I don't know about that. I'd feel bad eating them if they were like us. So even if they do talk, I hope it's just about dumb frog stuff."

Foxes. Hedgekit shuddered at the thought. She'd heard some pretty scary stories about them, especially from Stagkit when he started telling tales he'd heard from the elders. They were big and terrifying and apparently they could eat a kit as small as her in just one bite. She didn't want to get eaten... she doubted that the frogs wanted to get eaten, either. When Fernkit spoke quieter though, getting her attention, she raised her worried green eyes to meet his. "I... guess so," she said uncertainly. "If frogs were really smart then they just wouldn't get caught, right? And I guess we need to eat." Still. The thought of her getting eaten by a fox, or the thought of a frog fearing her like she feared foxes, made the fur of her bristle-brush tail stand on end. "You're probably right. As always, Fern." She smiled at him. Even when she got worried like this, even when her heart clenched tight, she still loved spending time with him.