what lies beyond the garden gate? [c]

Don't go beyond camp, it's dangerous out there!

Such a mantra had been repeated on a practical loop to the kit's ears since her innocent questions had been raised that morning as she was grooming her fur. It had become a particular ritual of the young she-kit to spend her mornings amidst the queens, pretending to take part in their gossip as she groomed out her pelt. Since her mother had passed, leaving her in the nursery on her lonesome not long after she could survive off of prey, it had become her source of comfort to work out any stray flecks of moss or dust from her already-long, snow-colored fur. She could still hear her mother's voice in her mind every morning as she had done so:

You must look perfect, my princess. You are so beautiful.

Yes, mother.

It had quickly become her greatest source of pride. A pristine pelt, the exact same hue as freshly-fallen snow, groomed to the point of nearly glittering like such. During that time, she would occasionally ask the other queens questions about the world around them. In particular... what would exist beyond their camp and in their actual territory. She had the faintest of memories of being carried, tossed clanmate-to-clanmate, amidst an endless tundra of wandering. She had been rocked to sleep by the rhythm of her shepherd's steps, only to be roused when she would then be given to another. It was never her mother who had carried her, though, only ever checked. She was fine with that. They carried her gently, anyways.

Staring once more outside the walls of the nursery, she found herself particularly moved by some unforseen force to follow where her curiosity was drawn. Right outside camp's walls. Away from the safety. Perhaps to where her mother had gone? She missed her mother terribly. Her belly was particularly warm, and the snow was particularly cold. But even more than that... she wanted to know about what was beyond. Where had they come from? Why had she been carried the way she was when the new kits that were born simply slept peacefully? So many questions, and no queen was particularly keen to hear her answers. Her hazel eyes were wide with a yearning to understand... even as the obedience that had been bred into her tiny little paws held her back like some phantom wind.

Ever since Larchkit's birth, his paws had been instilled with some unshakable urge to move. Perhaps it was due to his kithood of journeying through the snow, something he only dimly remembered in his faintest of dreams, but he'd never been one to sit and let life happen to him. Sitting inside the small snow-sheltered ground-hollow of the nursery seemed like the biggest waste of time ever. So from dawn till dusk, every wakeful moment, he was out in camp. He spoke to other cats, wheedling and charming and making friends every chance he could. He explored every nook and cranny of the warriors' nests, of the Tallrock, of the sagebrush indicating the camp's entrance. He'd looked everywhere. He'd talked to everyone. But now... he was bored. There was nowhere left to go. Nowhere, that was, but out.

The flame-red calico tabby tom was a bright orange splash against the dull frosted grasses of WindClan camp, but he moved fast and light on his feet, stealing quickly on his way to the entrance so as to be unseen. But it seemed that someone had beat him to it. Pipitkit, one of his favorite and most annoying kithood companions, stared longingly at the entrance as if some unseen tether was keeping her from going. "Do you plan to sit there all day?" he asked smoothly, tapping her shoulder with his tail on the opposite side from which he appeared. It was the physical way he always greeted her, and yet every time, she was always fooled. Bright golden eyes met hers, then looked over the horizon. He let out a theatrical sigh. "Looks beautiful out there, doesn't it? The wide-open world, so big, so ready to explore. It's a shame we can't go out there." Silence settled over him for a moment before he laughed. "Is what I would say, if I were a hare-brain." He flicked his tall ears forward, glancing back at Pipitkit with a mischievous grin. "Come on, live a little! What's keeping you trapped here? We should go look at what's out there. Just a quick peek. Me and you. We can make it."

"Prreh~?" The chirp of surprised confusion was met by her head turning in the direction of the sound and touch, only for her gaze to immediately whip to the other direction with narrowed eyes and pivoted-back ears. "I told you to stop doing that!" Quick-rising frustration made its way into her tone as she glared at him for several moments, only further risen by the smug look that she was greeted with on the fire-splotched tom's face. He was so annoying when he did that to her each and every time! She had half a mind to hiss at him again, only reminding herself that she was a proper molly, and they did not hiss at the tom-fools. They were worth nothing more than the glare she gave his way, only for her to immediately be pulled from her indignance as he immediately went right into his theatrics.

For as much as his greetings had a penchant for being an ant under her fur, Pipitkit had to admit, Larchkit was perhaps the best company she could get from the nursery. Especially now that almost all of the deputy Sootstorm's kits had moved themselves to the apprentice's den because they were simply too old and important to come interact with her. Tilting her head to the side in order to study her choice in company, she simply allowed him to go on his monologue. There was no interrupting Larchkit when he had his own tangents playing; it was best to simply take them for the entertainment value that they were. At any moment now, his true intentions and plans would come out. In three... two... one... Yup.

She immediately went to look beyond camp again. She felt that thrumming once more, that itch in her paws to get moving. Looking back to the tom beside her who was clearly ready to drag her out by her scruff if she declined, or taunt her for the rest of the day, she sighed. "Okay fine. But if we get caught, it was your idea." She pouted, giving a particularly sharp swipe of her tail to mark her position. Immediately after, though, she took one step after another. Hesitantly, as if at any moment she was going to hear one of the queens shrieking at them. It was a few pawsteps of scared movements... before finally scurrying forward to cross that invisible threshold. Her heart was already pounding in her chest. She didn't dare defy what the queens had told her, especially when her mother had been around. The cuffing she'd got on the ears and talking to had embarrassed her for a moon afterwards. Meanwhile, the tom-fool beside her collected them like prized fresh-kill on what seemed like the daily. So, surely, she'd be just fine... right? A quick glance beside her had her wary eyes searching for her compatriot, hoping he hadn't just dared her to cross alone in one of his pranks.

Larchkit couldn't keep back the smugness that glimmered in his eyes at her eventual acceptance. He knew she'd have to agree. As much as she always protested, she lived for their interactions just as much as he did. She'd sit around and be bored all day if he left her alone. He did roll his eyes, however, at her caveat. "Oh come on, prissy-feathers," he scoffed, twitching one of his tall pointy ears. "Since when have you ever been blamed for my escapades? If anything, I get blamed for yours. Like when you smacked Rainberry with a mossball and then hid behind my nest." Rainberry--his mother, who'd passed recently to illness, a specification he tried not to add in his head--had been furious. She'd grounded him for a full day, and Pipitkit had waved her stupid tail in his face about it for weeks afterward. "Trust me, I'll take the fall, as usual." But at the idea that they were actually going to make it out, his face brightened again. "If they can catch me, that is!"

Confidently, he shook out his wild mess of flame-red calico tabby fur and began striding towards the entrance of camp. Surely no one would notice a couple of kits. And it wasn't as if they would go very far, right? Simply walk around the perimeter, maybe dig a snow tunnel or two. Wouldn't it be delicious if he caught his first rabbit before he was even trained to do so? Surely everyone would have to acknowledge his greatness then. Envisioning the awe that would strike Pipitkit's face at his imagined feat only widened his grin. Nothing would go wrong. If he was in charge--and he was--then everything would turn out just fine.

The air grew colder as Larchkit neared the outskirts of camp, possibly because the wind that blew unrestrained across the moors was half-sheltered by the many clustered bodies of older cats. Out there, though, nothing kept it from going where it pleased--blowing past Highstones, if it wanted to, or simply eddying around the forest and shaking frost from the branches. He wanted to do that. He wanted to meet everyone, to do everything, and to be everyone's favorite. This was his first step, metaphorically, into doing so. His paw trembled slightly with anticipation as he moved it forward... and placed it down firmly past the line of camp's boundaries. Into the territory. Then, beaming, he turned back to Pipitkit. "See?" he proclaimed proudly. "Nothing happened! Now, let's go."

The member 'Ash' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Invasion Dice' :

Pipitkit couldn't help the smug look that registered on her maw as the tom brought up the successful prank she had pulled on his mother. It hadn't even been her intent to frame him for it, but when the opportunity presented itself, she simply had to take it! It had been her payback for his constant tease-greeting, in which the molly still had yet to catch on to the fact that he literally did it every single time he greeted her, despite her insistence that it wasn't absolutely every single occasion. "I think it's entirely a reflection of your character that she believed myself over you." It was a good-natured jab, but she fell into a moment of quiet afterwards as she remembered the queen's passing not too long ago. Elmbreeze's passing still stung at her like a wound that didn't seem quite ready to close anytime soon, and she was almost certain it was the same way for the tom she now followed out of camp.

Placing her own paws outside the border, the solemn thoughts seemed to vanish entirely. Her hazel eyes widened with absolute wonder as she now truly got to look beyond the walls of camp without any obstructions, and it seemed to expand for ages. Cats and cats worth of rolling hills, all speckled with snow that resembled her own sparkling pelt. Some areas had particularly dense patches of pawsteps, where others seemed untouched in their entirety. "It goes on for ages! Do you think-"

Just as she was about to raise the question to her chaos-companion, she heard the voice behind her. It took not even a single syllable for the small kit to know exactly who it was: Nectarflower. She was a nice enough molly, having visited the nursery enough times to be a face that she knew by name. In this case, she was also a voice that Pipitkit had come to know by sound. Freezing, the look of wonder shifted to that of alarm as her face immediately set itself into an embarrassed blaze. Tears almost were ready to speck at the corners of her vision, and the immediate words of Don't tell Elmbreeze! immediately got caught in her throat. The only reason they had been cut off was the sharp order that came from the warrior, and before she had even finished the sentence, the snow-white kit had spun on her paws to immediately follow the recall.

Dipping her head down as she expected a cuff over the ears, they pinned against her head as she looked up from her lowered posture. "Sorry, Nectarflower... I just... wanted to look outside camp. We weren't going to go far!" She mewed, and the slightest tremble came to the edge of her words. She hated getting caught.

As if his very words had cursed his efforts to be doomed, the moment Larchkit had spoken, an authoritative voice interrupted their fledgling efforts at gaining freedom. Startled, he jumped around almost completely, light enough on his paws to whirl before she had even finished her sentence. Because it was Nectarflower, one of the warriors who most frequently took shifts watching over the nursery. Ah, great. Perfect timing. Just a few moments more and they would've been out of there! They weren't even that young. They would have been fine. The cold wind at his back from the open moors ruffled his pelt, blowing away the momentary heat of embarrassment at being caught. Now all that was left was a vague annoyance. It wasn't as if Nectarflower had the authority to ground him, anyway. And Rainberry... wasn't around.

The sight of Pipitkit's fur standing completely on end made Larchkit want to soothe it down with his tail, before he remembered that he was also in trouble. So he settled for lashing his tail a single time instead of following his more obedient counterpart away from the entrance. Before he could speak in his frustration, though, he remembered that he ought to be making a good impression on other cats--especially warriors. He wouldn't want to give them any excuse to dislike him. So he took a single step forward, settled down, and blinked slowly, large golden eyes wide in an attempt to potentially lower some of Nectarflower's anger. "We were only looking," he reassured her, tilting his head in the very picture of kithood innocence. "The snow out there just looks so pretty. And we were getting tired of being cooped up in camp. You know Pipitkit and I. We'd never actually run away--not very far. Our legs are too little, anyway." He nudged her shoulder subtly, hoping she'd back him up instead of leaving him to take the fall. It was equal chances of either, in his experience. "You used to be a kit too, didn't you? When you get this old and you're waiting to be an apprentice, it's so tiring to do the same thing all day, every day." Larchkit pinned his ears back dramatically, punctuating his statement with a small frown. Then he smiled, his most charming grin, as if an idea had suddenly occurred to him. "I'm sure if we had a warrior accompanying us, just a few steps out into the territory wouldn't hurt. We'd be perfectly safe from any hawks."