Leopardkit
Following behind the larger ThunderClan warriors was much more difficult than Leopardkit had originally thought, what with being the youngest among the four and her legs still somewhat short and little. But determination aided her stride as she did her best to not stumble and fall behind, managing to keep pace beside her kit companion. She was content on simply following them, not really speaking to give them away, until the kit beside her decided to open his big mouth.
Some sort of unknown emotion stabbed her fur, hot and sharp, and she found that her face felt scrunched up as she swung it around to look to her companion. She wanted to... shout, or put her paw across the place where words seemed to be coming out to get them to stop. But before she could do either the two bigger cats took notice and turned to look at them.
The first crouched down to their level, asking them a question about why they were out here. The kit beside her seemed to answer before she could, despite her having opened her mouth. Then the second bigger cat was talking and asking if they wanted to help out with an important job, and then even though she opened her mouth to talk the other kit answered again and suddenly Leopardkit felt her face scrunch up again and her eyes squeeze shut. Suddenly being out in the territory felt overwhelming. Too many cats were talking (there were only three other voices), there were too many scents (she recognized none of them), and there was just...
"CAN I TALK NOW????"
Coming out louder than intended, Leopardkit opened her eyes after the screech left her mouth. Almost instantly her eyes went wide and she blinked, sinking closer to the ground than she already was. "Sorry. S-Sorry. I just... I wanted to talk, too." Whiskers quivering she glanced down at her paws in an attempt to sooth the weird throbbing happening throughout her entire body. "...L-Leopardkit." It felt odd on her tongue, and repetitive considering the kit beside her - Stormkit - had already told them.
[ @Jayvines @littlelove @Emo Rat - I apologize for the delay! From now on I'll be able to reply to the posting order ]
Turning to Mistheart (Finally. She didn't have to ask for the name of someone she already knew!!), one of Cinderpaw's brows raised in questioning to the new warrior. She didn't particularly care that the kits had trailed them, but she knew she was an outlier in that opinion. Some cats acted like it was sacrilege for them to be outside camp, even with escorts.
Turning back to introduce herself, the apprentice's thoughts were cut short by a little shout. It had come from the mottled one - Leopardkit was her name, it seemed - and Cinderpaw was more than happy to hear her out. She gave the two troublemakers a toothy grin as the younger one seemed to recede, embarrassed.
"N-no need to apologize. There's nothin' and no one out he-here to tell us to stop sho-shouting." She told the kittens, standing up and turning back to the banks of the half-frozen creek. The tabby was pretty sure she could already see some stalks of marigold growing at its' edges. "We're loo--kin' for herbs. Were you tw-two at Sundust's game?"
Moving over to pick some of the plants with her jaws, she soon dropped a pawful of the herbs at their paws. "He asked for this, or po-poppies -- but I didn't see any. We mig-might even find catmi--nt. You two th-think you could help us?"
Turning to Mistheart (Finally. She didn't have to ask for the name of someone she already knew!!), one of Cinderpaw's brows raised in questioning to the new warrior. She didn't particularly care that the kits had trailed them, but she knew she was an outlier in that opinion. Some cats acted like it was sacrilege for them to be outside camp, even with escorts.
Turning back to introduce herself, the apprentice's thoughts were cut short by a little shout. It had come from the mottled one - Leopardkit was her name, it seemed - and Cinderpaw was more than happy to hear her out. She gave the two troublemakers a toothy grin as the younger one seemed to recede, embarrassed.
"N-no need to apologize. There's nothin' and no one out he-here to tell us to stop sho-shouting." She told the kittens, standing up and turning back to the banks of the half-frozen creek. The tabby was pretty sure she could already see some stalks of marigold growing at its' edges. "We're loo--kin' for herbs. Were you tw-two at Sundust's game?"
Moving over to pick some of the plants with her jaws, she soon dropped a pawful of the herbs at their paws. "He asked for this, or po-poppies -- but I didn't see any. We mig-might even find catmi--nt. You two th-think you could help us?"
The tom sniffed the herbs at Cinderpaw’s paws, “I think I could help, this is marigold I believe. But yes I was at his game.” His eyes still twitched from being yelled out.
“It’s fine lepoardkit, I’m the one who should be sorry… I spoke for you and over you,” Stormkit apologized as his eyes started to water up, threatening to spill tears. He attempted to blink it away, which failed. It only resulted in him to start sobbing. The kit started shaking as he tried to stop crying in front of lepoardkit, Cinderpaw, and Mistheart. He thought crying was embarrassing because he was supposed to be strong and not a crybaby.
Stormkit’s fur was starting to soak with how much he was crying, he had so many emotions bottled up because of his leg. He felt so useless, hopeless, and stupid. He never should have followed the patrol. Even now he stumbled over the leg and fell which caused him to cry even more.
“I-I-I’m-“ he stuttered as he choked on his tears as a failed apology.
__________________
ASK BEFORE FRIENDING Pixel by Zombhood on DA
Last edited by Kaybug.; December 7th, 2022 at 06:24 PM.
Perfect! Two new friends, and--OH Cinderpaw had already spotted some marigold. Today was shaping up to be a delightfully productive collecting day; perhaps she could-oh, she really wanted to sniff out some catmint, and perhaps---
Oh... oh goodness...
Grey eyes flicked nervously between the sheepish looking Leopardkit and the now sobbing Stormkit as their exclamations echoed through the woods.
"H-hey now, you're ok. E-um everything's ok," she managed to awkwardly state, glancing back towards her larger companion for assistance. How did you comfort kits??? They were much more complicated creatures than rocks or feathers..."Why uh... why don't you follow me over to the other bank? We can uhhhh... sniff out some catmint! Its got the nicest smell I've ever smelt, and I think if Sundust didn't need it I'd fill my nest with it."
Rambling on to try and distract the younger cats, Misthearts mouth practically began to water at the prospect of finding the delicious herb. If they found some it would be SURE to cheer up these two.
Leopardkit
Sniffling a bit as she wiped a small paw across her face, Leopardkit did her best to focus on what one of the larger cats - Cinderpaw - brought to her. She didn't recognize them at all, and was even more confused at who Sundust was. The stuff at her paws looked odd and as the young kit stretched her tiny neck to sniff it, a sudden jolt caused her to rock back on her rump. "It smells funny," she complained with a wrinkled nose, looking back up Cinderpaw. Wow, she looked... fierce. The young kits' jaw opened once, twice, then a third time before she got to her paws and up on her hind legs. Reaching a small paw up as far as she could she attempted to boop the older cat on the nose. "You look tough." Then, as if mirroring the apprentice, Leopardkit gave a grin of her own.
And then next to her came more sniffles, and then crying, and the young kit turned to look at Stormkit who was apparently having more of a breakdown than she was. Wet tears dripped down his fur to the point where Leopardkit side stepped a little, watching with inquisitive eyes yet feeling a rather uncomfortable feeling. She hadn't ever really seen a cat cry before, and if she were being honest had absolutely no idea what to do. Normally when kits cried, one of the queens or Mama was quick to snuff it out. But Mama wasn't here and the two cats before her didn't smell like the other queens.
But Mistheart seemed to jump in right away, attempting to distract Stormkit perhaps? Something about finding catmint that smelled nice. Well, if it smelled anything like the stuff Cinderpaw placed in front of her, count her out. Instead, Leopardkit turned to look once more at Cinderpaw with a wide grin. "Can I go with you?" Admiration bubbled under her gaze as she gave a little hop on tiny paws.
The apprentice smiled down to the kits in front of her as Leopardkit moved in to smell the plant. "Yeah. 'Parently th-that means they're good as me-medicine. Probably. I dunno." She rambled, not noticing the kit moving until she felt a paw bop against her nose. Cinderpaw blinked, crosseyed and still in surprise for a moment. Tough... tough. She didn't feel very tough these days, but she supposed her multitude of scars sent a different message. Especially to kits.
Her train of thought was interrupted once again, however. Pelt jumping in surprise, Cinderpaw looked inquisitively to the crying kitten. She... wasn't too good at this comforting thing (SHE was usually the one who needed to be comforted!), and neither was Mistheart it seemed. However, the other cat seemed to take charge of Stormkit's situation, so she turned back down to the tortoiseshell in front of her. "... Yeah, we can d-d-do that. It'll probably be fa--ster to split up - or we m-might get more than just marigold."
Shooting a last smile to Stormkit, she gave the little tom a few words of advice. "Chin up, kid. We all do st-stupid stuff sometimes." she murmured, patting him on the head with a paw before turning and padding back to the bank of the river.
At the shore, she made sure to stand a little bit into the water despite its' freezing temperatures. Better to freeze her claws off than have a kit fall face first into the creek. Looking to Leopardkit who'd hopefully followed her, she pointed towards some plants growing among the rocks and silt. "Do any of those sm-smell like those plants from earlier t-to you?"
Stormkit slowly stopped crying as he listened to the other cats around him. He hadn’t meant to cry so he felt bad for them.
“Y-yeah I’ll follow you Mistheart, if that’s okay,” he paused and decided to not say the next line. I don’t want to get yelled at again nor talk over Lepoardkit the tom thought.
“Yeah, although it depends on the herb I think,” Stormkit shrugged at the apprentice next to him, and had what happened in the medicine den was easily remembered. The kit wiped his tears off his fur as he was patted by Cinderpaw.
Magnificent. Crisis averted. She was pretty darn good at this kit wrangling thing!
With a hop in her step, the smaller warrior led the way across the (rather chilly) creek to the other bank. Lifting her nose to the sky, she gave a few cursory sniffs to set her in the right direction. Not over there... Nothing that-a-way... aHA!
There it was! The wisp of a scent of that delectable smell.
"This way," she hummed towards the small child behind her as she skittered a few tail-lengths into the underbrush towards the ever-growing delicious scent. Finally, she was face-to-leaf with her #1, most favorite-est plant in the whole forest. Pupils blowing wide, she delicately plucked a single stem off the bunch before turning to present it to Stormkit. "D-do you wanna taste a bit? Just for uh.. learning purposes, yes. We-we can only try this one piece... gotta bring the rest back to Sundust."
Gently she bit the stem into two pieces (keeping the larger one for herself), and placed one side in front of the kit before eagerly nibbling away at her secret treat.
Fernblaze chuckled at the words of the tom. She didn't have a special someone in her life, though she had always wanted to be a mother. "Ya, I'm pretty lucky to still see him, even if it's not often. I can definitely take you to the creek!" The long haired gray tabby started to trot towards that creek. Fern loved sun bathing and this was she favorite spot. "I find the sound of the stream flowing to be very calming," she said as they had started to arrive at the clearing that signified the creek was getting close. Closing her eyes and sniffing the air, and she was about as calm as she could ever be. She was with a friend in her favorite spot.
The cream colored tom followed her curiously. When they came to the creek he gasped and bounded over to the water. He peered at it, sniffing. It didn’t seem to be completely frozen yet. I wonder how long it takes. He turned and bounded back to Fernblaze. “This place is amazing!” He breathed quietly. It was so peaceful here he didn’t want to talk to loudly. This would be a good place to come and groom my fur. It was peaceful and quiet, a nice place to get away. He stood for a heartbeat, his ears twitching as he listened to the sounds of the forest around him. He took a deep breathe. Then he opened his eyes and turned towards Fernblaze, excitedly. ”What do you do here?” He was ok with sitting in silence, really he was. And he could do it to. For sure, for sure. But he hoped Fernblaze had some sort of hobby that she did here, like Butterflyblaze and his fishing. That would be a bit more fun than just standing around.
Re: Sunkissed Creek
]
