[Insidious]

She felt wise beyond her years. The feeling in itself was unexplainable and more pressingly unnoticeable. After all, she was a mere kitten. She still laughed, the sound blissful and full of life, whenever her mother pressed her nose into the small of her neck because it tickled. She still played for hours upon hours and whined whenever it was time for bed. The world beyond the walls of NightClan’s nursery was a beautiful and complex unknown that she couldn’t fathom no matter how hard her imagination tried, but did her imagination ever try—or rather her dreams. Warriors and queens were oftentimes puzzled by the stories she could conjure, and whenever they asked where she came up with such things the answer was always the same. It happened in her dreams, she said. It felt real and like it was actually happening to her, she said. Nobody ever thought more of it than that, not even Bluekit.

There was no reason for her to be awake at dawn, but she couldn’t sleep. The dawn patrol was about to leave, and she snuck away from her mother’s cozy flank to sit in the mouth of the nursery and watch with wide, inquisitive eyes. The NightClan deputy instructed them to head towards the TreeClan border, and Bluekit’s heart sank. NightClan and TreeClan had such a difficult time getting along, and she couldn’t understand why everyone couldn’t be friends. It wasn’t unheard of for patrols to return with reports of spats. Bluekit shut her eyes and whispered a prayer to StarClan for them to return later on in the day with nothing to report but peace.

She heard movement behind her and giggled softly. “Whoops, was I being too noisy again—I thought I was whispering.” At that she turned her head to the side to see who it was, and the tom-kit’s face brought an immediate smile to hers. Bluekit spent an awful lot of time with her sisters, and sometimes it caused her to neglect to pay as much attention to the other kits in the nursery as she would’ve liked to. She hadn’t talked to Rushkit too much, but it was never too late to change that. “One day we’ll be old enough to go on dawn patrols. Do you see the sneer on that warrior’s face?” She pointed to the head of the patrol just as he disappeared from view. “I get up to watch the dawn patrol leave every day, and whenever he’s on it he has the same scowl on his face. I don’t think he’s a morning cat.” Her expression was intensely thoughtful. Her thoughts on it weren’t anything special, but to her she was sharing something very personal with Ruskhit; she looked at him, and her mouth parted into a small o-shape. “I want the first face that TreeClan or RainClan sees to be a happy one when I’m old enough to lead dawn patrols. Maybe when he gets back I can make that suggestion to him.”

It was brave of her, that was for sure, but no part of he showed signs of fear. Bluekit merely thought she was doing something in his best interest. All she ever wanted to do was help each and every day of her life. “Hey,” she said quietly, “do you think you’d come with me for backup?” She rolled onto her back and reached out to bat his cheek playfully. “Something tells me we’d make a great team.”

@zen