Big World (Open)

[Icestorm]

A small white and brown she-kit crouched low to the ground "stalking" her prey. Her tail high in the air swishing back and forth as her eyes focused on the soft ball of moss in front of her. In her head she was a warrior, a great warrior in fact. She was just like her mother, Mudpatch. She was sure her mother was the best, after all she was her mother who could be better than her. And just like Mudpatch she wouldn't be scared and someone would look up to her too. Focusing back on her prey, quickly the young kit bounded toward the moss ball squeeking with delight as she caught it rolling around playfully with it.

[εℓιzαвεтн.]

Grassthorn watched through slitted green eyes as a young white and brown she-kit played with some moss in the clearing. Now, the Abyssinian warrior was grumpy, no one could deny that. He would fight any cat who looked at him sideways, including Bramblestar. And every cat knew it was because of his gender, how he was born as a girl but had been hissing at everyone to call him a tom since his first moon as an apprentice. He had simply learned to fight, rather than deal with anything any cat could say about him.

However, kits were withheld from his usual hate at first sight. Sure, they could say some hurtful things, but not normally out of malice. Mainly, kits said such things, like gasping out comments about how scars on a cat's face made them look awful, because they were dumb and knew no better. So, though it may surprise the other warriors in the camp, he called out to the young kit who rolled gleefully with her moss ball, "Toss it over here. I'll throw it back to you."

[Icestorm]

Mothkit froze at the sudden sound of a voice, her head spinning frantically to find the source. When her large eyes landed on a warrior she let out a sigh of release. She took a deep breath trying to calm her racing heart. She hated herself for being scared then, but he had come out of no where, how else was she suppose to react. With a nervous smile the kit nodded, "Okay!" she shouted back as she moved toss the moss ball as hard as her little body would let her.

[εℓιzαвεтн.]

Grassthorn stood up from where he had been lounging just as the kit threw the moss ball. It landed a few mouse lengths short of his paws, but he didn't comment. Instead, he scooped it up and tossed the makeshift toy, hoping to just barely go over the smaller cat's head so that she could leap up and catch it. "That was a good throw, but trying pushing up and then out to get some further distance," he commented lightly, wanting to help but also knowing that a kit could only do so much. "I'm Grassthorn. What's your name, little one?"

[Icestorm]

Mothkit tried to loosen herself up a bit as the warrior grabbed the moss ball. She was a bit disapointed in herself for missing the warrior. She wanted to get stronger, like Mudpatch! As the moss ball came back towards her the kit jumped, it was clumsy and not a good jump, but Mothkit was smiling. The moss ball catching her complete attention for just a moment.

Her attention was drawn back to the warrior as he started to talk. She felt pride radiate through her as he complimented her first throw. She thought it was bad, but maybe not as bad as she had thought, why would he compliment the bad? Her head turned to the side listening, and trying to understand what he was saying. Carefully she tried to listen to what he had said. Tried being the key word. Her throw was again clumsy, even causing her to loose her balance slightly, but at least a slight improvement.

"Grassthorn," she tested the sound on her tongue. She wasn't sure she knew the name, at least not that she remembered. She raked her memory but just couldn't remember. "Oh, I'm Mothkit." She jumped a bit in the air with a sense of pride, "Mudpatch is my mom!"

[εℓιzαвεтн.]

It would be a lie to say that Mothkit's little leap to catch the moss ball wasn't adorable, because it truly was cute in the way only kits could be. Mothkit's throw was better, if only in the very minuscule amount. And she did listen to his advice. However, there was only so much a small body could do. Her skill would come in time, developing as her body grew. At least she seemed determined, for whatever reason, to throw that moss ball as hard and far as she could. A faint thought crossed his mind about what she would be like as apprentice, before he quickly shook it off. He didn't need an apprentice, really, and he shouldn't be playing with a kit just to see if they would make a good apprentice. Not that Mothkit wouldn't make a good apprentice.

"Mudpatch, hm?" That made certainly made sense. The little she-kit looked similar to her mother, short white fur with that distinctive brown patch along her back. "Better," he commented absently as he again scooped up the ball to toss it to her. He hoped that the ball would not be quite as high with this throw, so that Mothkit could catch it and actually play with the thing. Kits should be allowed to play while they could. She would have all of her apprenticeship to learn skills.

[Icestorm]

Isilme

The kit smiled largely to the warrior, "Uh huh! She is the best warrior in the clan!" The kit was going to be just like her, she was the best after all. No one could tell Mothkit differently. She was brave, well braver than Mothkit, but that wasn't a hard thing to do. The kit jumped at every thing.

As the moss ball was thrown back Mothkit tried to catch it, this time just catching it with her long claws. As purr escaped her as she pulled it close to her. She was happy a warrior was playing with her. She couldn't wait to tell her mom!

[ℓυиαя]

The striking female warrior stepped into camp, thin dark brown tail snapping with the wind. Blue eyes stared out of a chocolate dipped face, contrasting with the creme of her body. The camp was quiet this time of day, allowing her to hear the conversation of a young kit and warrior to her right. The warrior walked further into the camp, watching them carefully, ears pulled back as she moved through the conversing pair to the fresh kill pile, posture proud, eyes alert.


"Mudpatch, hm?" The older warrior asked.

"Uh huh! She is the best warrior in the clan!" came the kits sure reply.

Ears pricked forward as she reached for a juicy thrush. Pausing, Snowblaze gave a confident flick of her thin, whiplike tail. "Oh I wouldn't be so sure of that, if I were you." Her tone was blunt, to the point and a statement cast out to the wind. Ignorance was dangerous and this kit had enough of it to fill a badgers den. Ah well, one day she would wake up to realise your mother was certainly not everything. Meeting the kits eyes with her own blue ones, Snowblaze cocked an eyebrow before turning back to select her meal.

[εℓιzαвεтн.]

Mothkit seemed to be enjoying herself, especially after her catch. And she seemed to hero-worship her mom, if just in the slightest bit. but, that was how kits were. No cat at age three moons had any sense of the grey-scale, the spot between good and bad. It was always that someone was nice or someone was mean, and their parents fell on the most extreme end of either of the side. Grassthorn waited for the little kit to throw the ball back at him, watching a Siamese she-cat seemed to strut past them, quite possibly overhearing Mothkit's exclamation of her mother's greatness.

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure of that, if I were you."

Almost instantly, Grassthorn's short fur was bristly with aggression and whipped around to face the she-cat, who had gone back to paying attention the fresh-kill pile. It wasn't so much what the cat said, for he knew sometime a kit would have to learn to judge their own parents, but how she said it; so flippant, like it didn't even matter that she could be hurting an innocent kit's feelings. Starclan, why did warriors have to be so rude? His claws itched to sink into that cream fur of her's, but he had learned restraint since his apprentice moons. "Oh yeah?" he hissed. "Then I suppose the best warrior in Midnightclan is you?" Some warriors just needed to learn to let the things kits said go, because he certainly had. They learn on their own time and didn't quite understand the concept of learning from others and their mistakes.

[[And now I await Isilme.]]

[ℓυиαя]

"Oh yeah? Then I suppose the best warrior in Midnightclan is you?"

The sharp tone of the warrior behind her ruffled Snowblaze's fur and pale blue eyes snapped to his face, white whiskers drawn back. "I was simply being realistic Grassthorn but I suppose you are simply going to encourage such nativity." Standing to her full height of mostly legs, Snowblaze forgot about her meal and stepped around the fresh kill pile towards the aggressive tom. He didn't scare her, she had seen worse, she had fought worse. And she had triumphed. 

That sharp tail flicked again, snapping against the still air of Greenleaf, blue eyes darkening as she zeroed in on the tom. "And last time I checked, I didn't have to answer to you whenever I open my mouth." That was just it, Snowblaze rarely listened to anybody. She was independent, opinionated and straight shooting - generally a dangerous combination but she had learnt in life that that was the way to be otherwise others walked all over you. 

Especially those you trusted the most.

[Icestorm]

Mothkit jumped with the sudden sound of a new body. She really wished everyone would say a soft hi in her line of vision before talking. Was that such a hard thing? She hated all the suddenness around her, it scared her. The small kit lowed her ears as the warrior talked, she wasn't sure what it was but the new warrior scared her. "Mudpatch is the best. Better than you," she muttered quietly her body shaking. Of course Mudpatch was the best, why would this stranger say otherwise.

As the two warriors fought Mothkit found herself shrinking. She couldn't stop shaking as her fear built. She didn't like fighting, and the two larger warriors were definitely fighting. She wasn't even sure what they were saying, but she trying to block them out. Her eyes closed.

[Isilme]

A white she cat came to the clearing, she had been spending a long time in the nursery just like any other queen and feelings the fresh air fill her lungs surelly felt revigorating, blue eyes scanned the cats that passed by her trying to recognize someone but failing miserable, the female sighted and walked to the fresh kill pile direction and that's when a familiar form called her attention. "Mothkit?" The queen said to herself eyes narrowing lightly, wasn't Duskmist supposed to be watching over the kits?! Mudpatch approached slowly curious to see what kind of situation her kit was in, she couldn't simple jump there... Well unless her daughter was in danger, in this case she would kill every single creature in her way to protect Mothkit, but, it seemed that things could be fixed yet. "Mothkit!" She said louder this time approaching the trio her eyes filled with worry. "What are you doing here all alone? I though I had told you to stay close to your father" her voice was hard but filled with care at the same time, blue eyes focused on the warriors her tail moving side to side, what they were going to do now that she was there?

[Icestorm]

The small kit flinched once again as a new sudden sound filled her ears. This time though she relaxed almost immediately, the voice was all too familiar and one she could never forget. The small kit turned around to face her mother, but quickly looked down. She had honestly forgotten her mother saying to stay close to her father, "I forgot," it was so common for her to forget such trivial things, she then looked back up to her mother, "I was just playing with um," she looked to nice warrior who had tossed the moss ball with her, "Thorn...grass?" she tilted her head trying to remember the warrior's name.

When Mothkit looked back to the warriors she felt her stomach flutter like the wings of a butterfly. The kit moving closer to her mother. Who ever that new warrior was, Mothkit didn't like her.

[εℓιzαвεтн.]

"...but I suppose you are simply going to encourage such nativity."

"She's a kit," Grassthorn snapped. Who cared what kits thought? Snowblaze wasn't telling Mothkit off about the snake-monster that elders spun tales about running on the abandoned Thunderpath nor was she saying anything about the cat eating toads some kits believed in. Besides, Mothkit would grow out of any tales of perfection before she became a warrior, and that's all that mattered. A kit needed to learn by themselves the faults of their parents. It was clear that the Siamese she-cat was just looking for a personal ego boost, and maybe even a fight. Grassthorn would happily oblige the latter. "And you don't have to answer to me, but you are anyway, aren't you?"

Mothkit was shrinking away, all signs of play seemingly gone, muttering things about how Mudpatch was a good warrior. The warrior was aching to slash the other she-cat across the nose. Why was it that some cats couldn't just let kits be? It was then that the mother in question showed up, talking to Mothkit though her blue eyes stayed on all of them. Grassthorn held his place and tried to meet her eyes. He had done nothing wrong to anger the queen; he was the one who had been playing and encouraging her daughter.

"Grassthorn," he corrected, tone still tight from the tension in the air, but not nearly as sharp. Mudpatch's tail seemed to be moving out of some sort of anticipation as she viewed the scene, and his own tail was lashing, not completely over the aggression between him and Snowblaze. "Snowblaze was just leaving." Maybe the she-cat would take the hint that he was at the end of his rope and really didn't want to fight over a kit, especially not with the kit's mother present, and would just take her graceful leave before he did something he was sure to regret.

Doubtful, he thought.

[ℓυиαя]

"Mudpatch is the best. Better than you," the small kit piped up.

Severely debatable.

Snowblaze barely paid the shrinking kit any head, instead fixing her cold blue eyes on the prickly blade of grass before her. A pain, but easy enough to trod on. A thin, chocolate brown tail swung lazily back and forth, the experienced she cat confident in her abilities as she sized up the tom. She only looked away briefly as the she cat in question grew closer to the group, watching the pair carefully before talking to her kit in a gently but firm tone. Really, how pointless. Snowblaze herself had no desire to find a mate, to find kits. It was reason half the good warriors in the clan were tied up.

What a waste.

Meeting Mudpatch with a proud look showing she was not threatened in the slightest, Snowblaze turned back as the thorn in her foot started to pulse annoyingly.


"She's a kit, and you don't have to answer to me, but you are anyway, aren't you? Grassthorn, Snowblaze was just leaving." 

The snow white she cat stared out of a dark face at tom, raising an eyebrow over crystal eyes. "Oh really? And you were going to escort me were you?" A smirk, "Come at me then, let me knock you down a couple of pegs."