[Deleted]

Curiosity killed the cat...

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Hemlock-kit was nearly overwhelmed by the sights and scents of TreeClan's camp outside the nursery. With the snow beginning to melt and cold not quite so biting, he and his siblings were finally allowed to spend more time out of the safety and warmth the nursery provided, and there was just so much to see, to do, to explore. The forest beyond the camp was even more daunting, tantalizing, but he knew better than to try to leave camp alone. He had no desire to make his mother worry about him, or get yelled at for that matter. He could be patient. He would have moons and moons to explore the forest. For now there was plenty to do in camp.

Fluffing up his short gray and white fur, he bounded through what remained of the mushy, melting snow, small paws splashing chilly mud as he went. Mud was new. It was squishy and sticky, and cold, but not as cold as snow. He paused at the edge of camp, where a small mud puddle had formed, and dabbed at the shallow pool of murky water experimentally. Then he shoved one paw into the depths, the mud below swallowing it up, and squeaked in alarm when it took him a long moment to free himself. He skittered backward, fur fluffed out in alarm, but cautiously re-approached the puddle a heartbeat later.

Reaching back into the puddle, he scooped out a small pile of soaking mud and prodded it around, watching how it sucked at his paw when he raised it. Mud was strange. There was solid ground beneath him, it didn't stick to his paws. The puddle of water on its own didn't cling and trap. But when the two mixed together to become mud it was entirely different. Why? He dabbed at the mud a bit more, considering it with a humorously serious look on his face. More warily this time, he pressed his paw into it, enjoying the way it squished up between his toes. It didn't trap him this time when he lifted his paw, and he frowned slightly, thoughtfully, and glanced back at the puddle. Did it need water on top to do that?

He stuck one leg back into the puddle, letting it sink into the mud below even as he let out a squeak at the chill of the water seeping through his pelt. He waited a moment before trying to pull his leg back out. It was harder this time. His heart fluttered in a brief moment of panic as he wondered if he would be stuck there forever as he pulled wildly to free himself, and finally tumbled backward as the mud finally let loose all at once. He lay there, his pelt now more brown than gray, his right foreleg completely plastered in mud, and panted as he calmed down and recovered from the ordeal.

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But satisfaction brought it back.

This thread is semi open xD Anyone with a TreeClan kit or a member of the MockingMagpie family is free to throw them in~
Fawn @poptart Taxx @medusa Silver Phoenix just tagging anyone that might be interested, don't feel obligated!

[Taxx]

Crouched in the shadow of the den entrance, Adderkit watched her brother play. He was dabbing his paw in mud, pawing at it and splashing in a puddle, investigating another new thing in their recently expanded world. The brief urge to join him breezed across Adderkit’s mind, but it was brushed aside in the next moment. Let Hemlock-kit have his fun- she wouldn’t interfere. Yet.

Interest sharpened as the young tom’s movements became more erractic, his face pinching with fear as he leaned back on his haunches and dragged his front leg free of the puddle. Dark spots of mud marked his gray pelt, and his ribs heaved with quick, shallow breaths. Rising to her paws, tail in the air, Adderkit padded over to him, circling until she was in front of him, easily seen, and blinking down at him. “Are you okay, Hemlock-kit?” she asked.

The question was one that hinted at concern, even as the voice that asked it leaned toward curiosity. Of course she worried about him, and if he had been unable to free himself, she would have helped, or called their mother’s attention to his plight, but he was free and there was no reason to panic. Adderkit was more interested in why his eyes were still wide with the residual fear- why he had felt the need to stick his paw in the puddle again, when the first time had shown him what would happen. “Should I fetch Falconstorm for you?”
@zen

[Fawn]

Brackenkit

Kit, 6 Moons, TreeClan, Tom

Meet me where the sunlight ends

There was a different or unique kit born into every litter. Among his siblings, Brackenkit would say it was Lilykit - who could not see like the rest of them - or even Ivykit, who always seemed to be smarter than anyone expected. For the younger litter birthed by Mockingbird, Brackenkit thought it was Hemlock-kit that was the different one. This latest show with the mud puddle all but perfectly proved Brackenkit’s theory.

He nodded softly, pleased to know he was right.

Licking the warm remains of mouse from his paws and then his whiskers, Brackenkit walked over to join his denmates; with wet fur and wild, frightened eyes, Hemlock-kit looked even smaller than he normally did. Brackenkit, with his denser coat and well-meaning disposition, laid down next to the gray and white tom to help keep him warm.
”Hi Adderkit, hi Hemlock-kit. Are you trying to learn how to be a RainClan cat? You’d better start licking all that mud off,” Brackenkit mrrow’d, ”or else our Moms are gonna have your tail for bedding.”

For Brackenkit, it didn’t really matter why a cat had done something, just so long as they were okay in the end.

Meet me where the truth never bends

198 Words // @zen Taxx // Notes