Kind Words Only- JK! [c]

~ Lilackit ~

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Lilackit emerged from the sanctuary of the nursery to find the camp transformed into a mock battle zone. Her ears flattened against high-pitched cries as she skirted the edge of the hollow away from the crowd. The apprentices were sparring again it seemed. "Why do they have to do this in camp?" She muttered to another cat, but they barely spared her an odd look before turning back to watch. It always started with two, boasting louder than the rest until one offered a challenge. With the ridiculous number of apprentices, and mentors eager to train new fighters, it didn't take long till the hollow was practically overrun. Truly it was only a few young cats testing their moves, most just sat back to watch. But still the cheers of boasting apprentices and enthralled kits reverberated in her skull.

Too resigned to return to the nursery she backed up towards the gorse barrier. The kit stayed far away from other cats and carefully out of range of kicked up sand as she followed the longer route to her favorite quiet corner of camp. Not that it was quiet today. She tried to tune out the noise but there were still so many overlapping voices. Her ears twitched restlessly at the droning. It went on and on like cicadas in the tall grass of the moor. Eventually —thank Starclan— the apprentices dispersed a bit, walking off to exaggerate with their friends about battles won or lost. Lilackit sat alone in the shade, running her tongue over her tail meticulously to groom out any speck of dust. She was surprised to hear one of the apprentices nearby and turned to look at the approaching she-cat with a dead neutral expression. Hopefully the apprentice wasn't looking to use any recently earned 'bragging rights'. Lilackit wanted nothing to do with conversation until her head stopped buzzing, but politeness kept her in place.

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