This challenge is for the LightClan forum, and my word was Cold.
Brownkit squeezed his amber eyes shut against the snow. It was a blizzard, not good weather for a kit, especially a young one like the light brown tabby tom. He had remembered what had happened earlier that day that lead up to his voyage through the icy forest.
"I bet Brownkit couldn't last a second out in the forest," Petalkit whispered.
"He's too small," Whitekit agreed.
"I overheard Brightstar say that she was going to delay his apprentice ceremony another moon just because of his size," Shadekit giggled.
Brownkit sighed. He was hiding behind the nursery in a secret spot he never told any of the older kits, listening to their conversation about him. He slowly padded out of his spot and four heads whipped toward him.
Petalkit smirked. "Well if it isn't Smallkit," she teased. "What are you doing back there? Talking to rocks?"
Brownkit frowned. "No, I wasn't hiding," he muttered. "I was… thinking."
"Thinking about what? You're delayed apprenticeship?" Shadekit laughed.
"Yeah, Shorty!" Whitekit taunted. Petalkit flicked her tail at the white tom and he shut his mouth, looking down at the ground.
"Brownkit, come here!" his mother, Cherryfrost, called him. He reluctantly went over to her. "Oh look at you! You're so dirty, Brownkit! Here, let me clean you up."
"I can do that by myself, Cherryfrost," Brownkit grumbled, ducking away from his mother.
"Nonsense! You need to be clean, and if I won't, who will?"
"Yeah, Smallkit! Let her groom you," Petalkit mocked. Petalkit, Whitekit, and Shadekit burst out laughing while Fawnkit sat still, looking at her sister in disgust. Fawnkit looked back at Brownkit in embarrassment, silently apologizing for her sister's actions. He mouthed an 'it's ok' to her and she smiled a bit. Cherryfrost finished grooming him and he fluffed up his fur from the cold.
Cherryfrost looked up at the sky. "It's getting a little late, you kits need to go to sleep," she mewed quietly. The three kits nodded and laughed all the way back to the nursery. Cherryfrost followed them, leaving Fawnkit and Brownkit out in the nearly-deserted clearing.
"It's ok." Fawnkit's mew brought him back to the present. He looked at the speckled she-cat.
"What is?" he asked curiously. He looked at the stars being covered up by dark storm clouds. He heard Fawnkit get up from her spot and sit next to him.
"To be different," she answered. "Different isn't always bad, it has its good qualities as well."
"Yeah, well, you're the first," Brownkit mumbled.
They stayed silent for a while before Fawnkit spoke up. "Don't take my sister's taunts to heart, Brownkit. They're just empty threats and teases," she meowed.
"It's a little hard to ignore them when they're all true," the light brown tabby admitted.
"But they're not."
Brownkit looked at the she-cat while Fawnkit kept staring at the sky. "Yes, you are a bit smaller than regular kits, but that makes you all the more special. You are the way you are, so embrace your differences," she encouraged.
They stayed silent again till Brownkit spoke up this time. "Thank you, Fawnkit. I needed that," he mewed.
Fawnkit smiled. "Anytime. We should probably get back to the nursery before Cherryfrost comes back out and yells at us."
Brownkit nodded and slipped into the nursery with Fawnkit on his heels. He jumped into his nest and saw Fawnkit do the same.
"Good night!" he whispered to the speckled she-cat.
"Good night!" she repeated before laying her head down. Brownkit saw the steady rise and fall of her chest and decided it was time for him to sleep too. He closed his eyes and waited for sleep to come, but it didn't.
Brownkit whimpered a bit at the sharp sting of the frigid air on his short fur. He felt his tiny body shake and shiver. I shouldn't have gone out just to prove myself to the others, he thought to himself. He opened his amber eyes slightly and saw a hollowed out oak tree a head. He fought with what strength he had left and slowly limped over to the fallen tree. He stepped inside and a wave of tiredness washed over him. He laid down on the exposed wood and covered his face with his paws.
"What have I done," he whimpered to himself, his voice almost lost in the wind. "I'm going to die out here alone, just because of Petalkit and the others. I didn't even get to tell some goodbye. Cherryfrost, Embertail the elder," Fawnkit…
Brownkit suddenly looked up. He had heard paw steps. He lifted his ice-crusted nose in the air, trying to smell anything, but all he could smell was the wind and snow. He huddled ever closer to the log and watched as the figure got closer. He squinted his eyes and saw a black and white she-cat with some sort of brown skin around her body and head. The she-cat looked up and her amber eyes seemed to gaze into Brownkit's, leaving him temporarily paralyzed. She padded closer and ducked into the log. The she-cat had no clan scent on her, but a faint hint of ginger.
"Hello, little kit," she mewed. Her voice sounded different, but sweet to his ears. She was about his mother's age. "Why are you in this blizzard?"
"Adventuring," he mumbled.
"In a storm?" she asked. She took her paw and took off the part on her head, but it flapped onto her back, attached to the thing on her body. "It's dangerous for a kit you're size."
"I'm not that small," he grumbled. He was too tired to argue with this she-cat.
"Well, did you not like your home? Is that why you are out here?"
"Yes," Brownkit admitted. "They always make fun of me and I'm tired of it, so I ran away."
"Hmm," the she-cat thought. "You could stay with us, if you would like?"
"Us?" he echoed.
The she-cat nodded. "Yes, many of us. We could take care of you, giving you a new name and a whole new life."
"That sounds nice," he murmured wistfully.
"I'll take you to them."
The she-cat grabbed him by his scruff and went back out in the storm. The flap had gone back over her head and she ran through the forest, dodging trees and the snow drifts littering the forest floor. He watched as they entered a cave with many sleeping cats in it. The she-cat took him to a nest that smelt like the she-cat. She laid down in it and set Brownkit down beside her in the nest.
"Thank you, uh."
"Delilah."
What a nice name. "Thank you, Delilah."
"Go to sleep, little one."
Brownkit nodded, laying down his head. He heard the she-cat start to say a lullaby.
"Deep in the meadow, under the willow
A bed of grass, a soft green pillow
Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes
And when you awake, the sun will rise.
Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you.
Deep in the meadow, hidden far away
A cloak of leaves, A moonbeam ray
Forget your woes and let your troubles lay
And when again it's morning, they'll wash away.
Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you.
One of the sweetest lullabies..."