within her castle walls (c)

Finally, she'd finished all her duties for the day. Tired, Hedgepaw stopped in the middle of camp and got down into a stretch--front paws digging into the mud, bending forward to let out the tension in her back. It had been a long evening, and now the sun was beginning to rise, which meant she ought to be getting to bed. But just for a moment she paused, sitting up and looking at the way the sky changed into a balmy orange-pink. She didn't get to see it very often. It reminded her of when she and Fernpaw had peeked outside during the day to see where all the frogs went. She smiled, looking up into the clouds and feeling the first ray of warmth reach her. She liked the cold and the night, but a little bit of dawn wasn't bad. But really, she knew she had to get to bed so she wouldn't be tired tomorrow evening when she got woken up for the dusk patrol. So she began backing away slowly, in the direction of the apprentices' den, eyes still fixed on the light blue that began to creep over the horizon.

"Oof--!" Backing up without looking meant she'd completely bumped into someone. Surprised, Hedgepaw whirled around, wondering who else would possibly be awake at this hour. Oh. Turning brought her face-to-face with one of the strangers in camp, one of the non-Clan cats. The cats who apparently had been invited for defending the Clan, though she'd never really spoken to them before. She'd hardly even seen them. If she was being honest with herself, they kind of scared her, not being from ShadowClan. They were unpredictable. Quickly the apprentice drew in on herself, shrinking back in a mixture of shock and apprehension. "Oh, uh... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" she squeaked, voice hardly audible. Her ears pinned back slightly. "I'll, uh, I'll just go in then. Hi. Sorry. I'll get out of your way."

The she-cat seemed nice--almost too nice with her loud giggling and exuberant smiles, which made Hedgepaw shrink back a little bit further. But the stranger wasn't mean at all, and in fact seemed... welcoming. So maybe it was okay to not run away immediately. The words she said didn't make any sense though. Was she trying to guess Hedgepaw's name? "Fudge?" she echoed in abject confusion, the sensation of befuddlement momentarily distracting from her fear of new cats. "What's that?" Her tail, sticking straight up as always and a bit more bristly from her momentary fear, waved a little bit behind her. "My name's Hedgepaw. I, uh... I'm sorry, but I don't think I know what your name is. New cats kinda scare me." Shyly she blinked up at the nice she-cat. "But... you seem all right, I guess. And really happy. What are you happy about?"

Hedgepaw tilted her head, listening carefully to the strange new cat. Cherish, she said her name was. What... an odd name. Had she been Cherpaw once? But what was a Cher, and what was a Ish? Or was it just one word and she forgot her suffix? Surely Fernpaw could figure it out if he was here. But he wasn't so she'd just have to ask. "What... what's a Cherish?" And what a strange question to ask. Choosing her own name? But what if she chose wrong? And when she was just little, what did she get called? Her fear of the she-cat faded away in the wake of all these questions. Curiosity awakened, green eyes sparkling with thought. "Well, it signa... signifies different parts of your life." She'd learned that word from Fern! "When you're a kit, it's -kit. Like I used to be Hedgekit. Then -paw means you're an apprentice, so you're learning how to do stuff and you've got a mentor and everything. Then you get your full name when you become a warrior! And it gets chosen based on your personality, and how you act, and how good you do with your training. I don't have one of those yet but I'm excited to get one." Her tail waved behind her. "Picking your own name--do you pick it when you're just a little kit? What do you get called before that? And what if you pick it wrong, do you just... change it yourself, later?"

The other things that Cherish said only made her more confused. Hedgepaw blinked several times trying to comprehend them, but just ended up repeating the phrases she didn't understand. "Upright Zone?... Diplomacy? Why do you travel so much if there are mean cats out there? Mean cats scare me. I like staying in camp and in our own territory. That's how I know I'll be safe." Her head tilted again. "Wait, so... does that mean you're going to leave after you have kits? Why? Why not stay here?"

Cherish... to care deeply. So it was like love, then? Hedgepaw nodded thoughtfully, storing the word away in her memory for use someday. Fernpaw already knew it, but maybe she could surprise Mamma Pineblossom or Silverhawk with it. She loved them, a lot. Maybe she cherished them also? Wait, was it cherished? Cherishen? Anyway. Cherish--the cat, not the word--kept talking, spinning an interesting story about her background. She used to live with Twolegs, apparently, the thought of which was strange enough to nearly make the apprentice's fur bristle. So she'd been a kittypet? She didn't look like one, or at least not from the tales she'd been told. She was slim and scarred and very pretty, not anything like the fat lazy cats in the elders' tales. It was odd; a complete difference in their thinking. Hedgepaw liked staying put in one place. Of course, the "place" was very big, since ShadowClan territory had a decent chunk of land--but she felt no desire to go any further. The closer she was to home and her family, the safer she was. She had hated the weird awful time journeying in the snow, staying at the strange place. If that was "travel," she wanted nothing to do with it. But if Cherish enjoyed it, then Hedgepaw was glad that was what she got to do.

"I like staying in one place," she said, sitting down on the ground as if to prove her point. ShadowClan was comfortable. "I'm famullier--familiar with the territory here. My family's here. We all went on a big travel one time, and that wasn't fun at all. Everyone was sad and Mamma got sick and I didn't like it." Hedgepaw flicked her ear, pushing the memory away. It didn't matter--it was over now. "So I don't get it. But it's okay. Mamma told me that some cats are just different, and we all think differently from each other. There are cats who like swimming and there are cats who sleep during the night. I like how I live, though." She smiled up at Cherish. "I'm glad you got to visit for a bit, even if you think we're weird. How long are you going to be staying? Where will you go next?"