Mountains out of molehills (open to wc)

With half of his body deep in a burrow that he’d been working on to house some of the sick, Molehill’s rump stuck up in the air out of the hole and his short fuzzy tail swished back and forth happily. His claws tore against the soft earth below, shooting out dirt behind him with each swipe, and the plump tom sang a tune that he’d recently come up with. "Two lovers, forbidden from one another... a war divides their clanmates," he sang softly as he continued to dig. He wasn’t quite sure who the song was for, but the lyrics had come to him as if from a dream and he happened to find it catchy. So, while he’d been put to work he’d been fleshing out the lyrics bit by bit.

Using his round body to his advantage, he stood on his tippy toes and pressed his back up against the roof of the hole to keep it from collapsing on him while also helping to form the small cavern-like space. Hopefully once they got some moss and grass in here as bedding, his clanmates would be able to rest more peacefully knowing they had a safe and secure place to sleep. “And a mountain divides them apart,” Molehill hummed to himself, doing his best to remember the rest of the song.

Galekit

Galekit peered out of the makeshift nursery. The sun was bright, the air cold, unfamiliar scents sharp as they poured over his scent glands. This was his first excursion outside the confines of the nursery. He blinked sleep from his eyes and set a paw out onto the cold, hard ground.

Cats, so many cats everywhere, Galekit thought with surprise. I had no idea the clan was this huge! On wobbly legs, squinting against the light, and using his ears more than anything else, he made his way towards the sound of a melodic purring tune.

Suddenly, the ground disappeared from under his paws and he tumbled down into a small hole. Galekit yowled as he was face-to-face with another, much larger cat. The source of the sound, he guessed. He scrabbled away from the unfamiliar tom.

"I'm sorry," he mewed, looking up at the large brown cat with his huge amber orbs, flecked with blue. "Are you a warrior?" he asked, unable to conceal his curiosity. "Why are you digging that hole? What's that song you're singing?" The words came pouring out of his mouth before he had much of a chance to think about them.

Eveningpaw had been watching Molehill in a bit of awe - she had always been curious by the burrower lifestyle. The apprentice was seeking any sort of distraction she could muster from her pain - her sister, despite how sick she was, had managed to leave camp and now she was... The thought of her sister being gone - even if they didn't know what happened to her - made the corner of her eyes burn as she fought back the tears. Smallstar, Jayfrost, Finchspeckle...How much was this territory going to rob them in return for the simple fact they could fill their bellies once more?

She shook her head. It was no use crying over it, the cats had searched everywhere they could for the first two before Finchspeckle had joined their numbers in absence... She...She knew there wouldn't likely be an answer to what had happened to her sister and she hated it - just when she was trying to reach out to her after growing so distance as apprentices. Finchspeckle had been the better of the two - getting her warrior name so swiftly despite the fact they were littermates... She couldn't help but feel shame that WindClan was stuck with the lesser of the two.

But... Her eyes focused once more on the entrance of Molehill's hole as she fought off the tears that were blurring her vision. What he was doing - digging...It was a way of providing for WindClan she hadn't quite realized existed - or well, how useful it was until Molehill had wasted no time digging dens for them along with a few others. Her gaze fell down to her paws, flexing her claws with a frown. She...She wasn't sure if she had the strength for digging, but she was small - more than she should have been, thanks to the lack of food until recently but...Maybe... Maybe Molehill would-

Her thought was cut off at a surprise yowl of a kit, gaze snapping up to see a small tail disappearing into the den that Molehill was working on. She hopped to her paws quickly as she crossed the distanced, peering into the entrance to see a small kit - Galekit, she was pretty sure - staring up at the newly named warrior. "That's Molehill," Eveningpaw meowed, settling down near the entrance of Molehill's current project - it wouldn't do for another cat to stumble into it. "He is a newly named warrior, but a warrior all the same! And I am Eveningpaw!" she added with a purr, before she looked at the tom - younger than her, yet still a warrior before her...

Another mark of shame for her, she suppose but she hid the bitterness behind a soft smile. "I'm curious about that tune as well, where did you learn it?" she asked, laying her head down on her paws to get a better look at the progress that Molehill had made so far.

One moment he was digging alone peacefully and the next there was a kit falling into his den. Surprised by the little bundle of fur that had come tumbling in, Molehill let out an audible gasp before jumping back. "Careful!" he mewed to the kit in a worried manner. This was no place for a kit to be playing, especially with the roof not being done and thus still unstable. Listening as the kit rambled on with questions, the warrior swiftly picked up Galekit by the scruff. Turning around, he placed him gently outside of the den, just in time to see a gathering crowd of his family and clanmates. Well, he assumed that's who they all were by their voices and scents. For a moment, every-cat's figures were a bit blurry but it didn't take long for his eyes to adjust so that he could see every-cat more clearly than before. Great stars, he really needed to get more rest apparently.

"It- it's a den, for whoever needs it," he mewed in reply to one of Galekit's questions. Luckily for him, the others had managed to beat him to answering the rest of the kit's questions, though of course the question about his little tune had yet to be fully answered. "I just recently put lyrics to it," Molehill added softly. For a moment, he contemplated simply going back to digging, but then it dawned on him; he had some of his clanmates gathered, so what better time than this to share the rest of his song? Perhaps he'd even get some feedback on it. Of course, singing in front of others wasn't exactly his strong suit, nor was he entirely confident about such a decision and knew if he didn't go for it now, his nerves would surely take over and he'd stick his head back down into his hole.

"You guys missed the rest of it, so uh, here." Well, here went nothing, he supposed. "Two lovers, forbidden from one another, a war divides their people. And a mountain divides them apart, built a path to be together," he began to sing, moving his gaze through the small clowder of cats that sat and laid around him while he stood down in the burrow he'd begun. 'So good so far,' Molehill thought, doing his best to reassure himself. "Yeah... and I forget the next couple of lines, but then it goes..." the brown warrior sang before taking a deep breath and proceeded to belt at the top of his lungs; "Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountain! Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnnneeelllllll!" he yodeled, raising his head to the sky before looking back at his clanmates, his lungs heaving. 'Dear StarClan I pray they don't think I'm crazy or somethin.'

Tigerdance had been resting in his own.. well hole near by. The cool dirt doing wonders for his fever, lessening the heat he was feeling significantly, and if he got to cold then the sun was warming him right back up. It was a delicate balance that he finally managed to achieve, and the striped leader was so close to drifting off, at least that was until Molehill's scream singing startled the tom away, causing him to sit upright immediately. Green eyes looking around making sure they weren't under attack before finally finding the source of everything.

"Thanks for the scare." The tom grumbled, slowly settling back down, tucking his paws underneath him. At this point sleep wasn't going to happen anytime soon considering his heart rate was still up. Of course his deputy spoke up afterwards, causing Tigerdance to give him a harmless glare. "Don't encourage him."

Galekit

Galekit let himself be picked up and placed outside. Once sat down, he shook the dust from his fur and turned to the pretty young she-cat that had approached, alongside the WindClan medicine cat apprentice. "Hello, Eveningpaw, Daisypaw!"  he squeaked, and tried to smooth down the tuft of fur sticking up on the top of his head, to no avail. At Daisypaw's scolding, he looked up at her with huge amber eyes. "I'm sorry Daisypaw. I will look where I'm going next time, I promise!"

And as if things couldn't get any worse, the clan deputy, Sootstorm, had walked up on the group as well. Burning hot beneath his fur, Galekit turned his eyes down to his paws and mewed, "I didn't mean to, Sootstorm, I promise! I was just going to explore the camp and I fell in." He glanced up to meet the deputy's eyes. I'm going to need to do a lot better, he thought to himself, if I'm going to be like him one day!

To Molehill he turned and said, "I didn't know cats dug holes!" he looked past the brown tom again at the to-be den and listened to the rest of the song. His ears pricked up, all hot embarassment gone now, as he imagined cats digging holes through the mountain to be together. His tiny jaws gaped as Molehill finished his song loudly, and caught Tigerdance nearby acting grouchy... as usual, he thought, not unkindly. Though he was still too young to really understand, Morningmoon had warned Galekit to trod carefully and be respectful towards Tigerdance because he was dealing with a lot, with Smallstar having gone... somewhere. The old deputy did look exhausted, he noted.

"Molehill," the kit started, "That's a really cool song! Did the Clans dig holes through the mountains to come here?" he tilted his head to one side questioningly.

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Eveningpaw's ears perked at the sound of paws approaching, turning to see Daisypaw coming to a stop next to her as she explained a bit about the tune. Eveningpaw nodded, a little surprised - she had heard bird songs out in the field but...Cats singing their own? It was curious...But rather sweet, she couldn't deny. Soon enough, even Sootstorm arrived, playfully batting Galekit's ear. Any greeting she was going to tell the deputy was quickly silenced by Molehill deciding to share the rest of the song - before a small muffled laugh escaped her. He had forgotten the lines to his own song? It wasn't something worth mentioning out loud but it did make her smile at how...Unabashedly himself that Molehill was.

Her tail thumped the ground behind her in approval - any words she wanted to give was caught in her throat - mostly when her attention was drawn to Tigerdance who seemed not amused by it. She could only give her mentor a sheepish grin, glancing down at Galekit as the kit chose to pepper Molehill with questions. For a heartbeat, she thought about answering - she was actually older than Molehill and had been an apprentice the entire journey after all but yet still her words failed her - there was just so many people now that she could only lay her head on her paws as she waited to hear what explanation the others would offer to the kit's wonder.