The cool breeze tasted salty, Featherkit finally figured out, on her fifth trip out of the nursery. She didn't know why, and was confused on the matter of it. She was quite inquisitive on it, and for her first five trips out, she would simply sit outside the nursery, ears perked, head tilted up, jaws ever so slightly parted. When she'd figured it out, she turned to her brother, Torrentkit, and interrupted him playing with some other kits but pouncing on him.
"The air is salty!" She squeaked, and he stared up at her in surprise, dark blue eyes round.
"Um… Okay? I'm in the middle of a game." He meowed, rolling out from under her, and shook out his fur. "We can talk about it later. Wanna play with us?" Featherkit's ears instantly perked.
"Yes!" She squeaked, tired of just playing with her brother. Now she'd get to play with other kits! He lead her over, to where other, older kits were playing.
"Hey! Featherkit is gonna join us- She's really good at pouncing." Torrentkit meowed with a wave of his stumpy tail, and all the cats stopped, looking over. Lemmingkit opened his mouth to speak, looking excited, but Brawnykit and Gullkit stepped forward.
"No she-cats allowed. They don't fight." Brawnykit growled, and Gullkit sneered in agreement. Both littermates blinked in surprise.
"What? Yeah they do." Featherkit gave a cross snort, "So let me play!"
"No." Gullkit responded, baring his teeth at his half-sister, and she huffed, crouching down, and pounced towards him. The kit sidestepped, and Featherkit fell down in a flurry of paws and tail. "See? You can't even hit me." He scoffed, and she growled in response, rolling and bouncing back up to her paws. She was about to leap again, only to see a soft white tail block her way.
"No fighting, Featherkit. Why don't you come inside?" Whiteflower crooned softly, stroking her tail along her kit's back, and Featherkit growled, shaking her tail off.
"No! I wanna play, but Brawnykit and Gullkit aren't letting me!" She complained stubbornly, stomping her tail on the ground. Whiteflower heaved a soft sigh, looking down at her daughter, and almost seemed to contemplate what she said.
"Why don't you let Featherkit play with you all?" Whiteflower asked softly, and most of the kits gathered around snorted.
"She's a she-cat though," Antkit protested, "She can't-"
"Nonsense, of course she can." The white and pale grey she-cat responded in a chide, "You are all kits, not apprentices."
"I don't think it's best to let her think it's alright this early on, Whiteflower." A brown and fawn tipped she-cat protested softly, but she had an almost dangerous look in her eyes.
"I don't see what the problem is, Blossomfawn." Whiteflower responded carefully, tail tip twitching as she looked at the queen across from her. The two exchanged glances of emotion that was unknown to Featherkit, and she watched with now wide eyes.
"She'll be bitterly disappointed when she's made an apprentice and won't be able to fight. You'll be doing her a favor, not letting her participate in such events right now." Blossomfawn crooned, sitting behind the toms. "Why, she can go and play with the other she-kits." The suggestion was followed by a flick of her tail tip towards said she-kits. The bundle of them were all merely sitting, talking and purring and batting at each others tails occasionally. It all looked dreadfully boring to Featherkit, who meowed her protest.
She saw her words had fallen upon deaf ears, though, as Whiteflower let out a breath through her pink nose, rolling her shoulders to look down at her daughter. "Why don't you go talk with them?"
"Because they don't wanna play fight. They just sit and talk!" Featherkit complained, turning to look up at her mother, tail sticking up indignantly in the air.
"You should too." Gullkit snapped, instantly causing the she-kit to turn on him, kitten fur fluffing up even more so out of anger along with bared teeth.
"Come." She squeaked out as her mother grabbed her by the scruff gently, hoisting her into the air with paws churning in protest. Featherkit was soon plopped down in front of the other four she-kits, whom all blinked owilishly at her for a few impending moments. "I surely don't have to introduce you to your own denmates, do I, Featherkit?" Whiteflower asked in a soft and teasing tone, and Featherkit grumbled out a 'no' in response. "I assumed as much." A tongue rasped across the kit's head, and Whiteflower had gone to speak with Willowfur soon after.
"Does anyone wanna play?" Featherkit then tried hopefully after she bounded back onto her paws. Frostkit's ears twitched, and she averted her clear blue eyes, pushing herself up to her paws.
"No thanks. That's not how it works." She said quietly, and her sister, Smallkit, bounced up too, shaking out her fur. The two kits were the oldest in the den, and would be made apprentices very soon, so Featherkit wasn't very surprised when they declined(it was disappointing, nonetheless).
"Yeah, you're gonna get in trouble!" Icekit squeaked, standing closely beside Frostkit. Icekit was in the youngest litter, and had seemed to taken Frostkit as some kind of role model. Frostkit turned after her statement, trotting elsewhere with Icekit on her heels and Smallkit at her side. Sunkit was the only one who remained, looking at a dejected and frustrated Featherkit.
"I'll play." She offered, fuzzy orange tail curling up in delight as Featherkit turned to her brightly.
"Really? Okay!" She purred out, kneading her paws in the ground for a moment. "We can act like there's an invasion on the clan! I'll act like I'm from TideClan, and you can protect the camp!" She suggested, and Sunkit seemed somewhat apprehensive, but gave a timid dip of her head nonetheless. "Okay, go!: Grr, CliffClan must be driven out! We can't have a clan stronger than TideClan!" She growled out, fur fluffed up. Sunkit giggled slightly, before standing tall, puffing out chest out.
"CliffClan will never be driven out! We are the strongest!" She protested, and Featherkit bared her teeth in response, crouching down.
"I'll show you who's strongest!" She roared out, lunging forward and grappling with the flat-faced she-kit, the two tumbling in a flurry of fur and tails. Featherkit seemed to have the upperhand, eventually pinning her denmate with a triumphant squeak.
"Haha! I, Spraystar, am victorious!" She cackled, only to squeal as she was suddenly caught off balance and was now pinned by Sunkit.
"Not so fast, Spraystar! My clan is stronger and therefore, wins!" Sunkit mewled in protest, reaching down to bite out Featherkit's throat, who howled in mock defeat and pain, writhing slightly for effect.
"Sunkit! What are you doing!?" The weight was lifted off Featherkit in one swoop, and she rolled onto her belly, looking at her denmate's paws flailing in the air as Brindlebreeze hauled her off, setting her down.
"I was just protecting the clan!" Sunkit mewled in protest, staring up at her mother with round, yellow eyes. Brindlebreeze sighed quietly, fur slowly lowering as she willed it.
"You know you can't do that, sweet… If Molewhisker saw you, you'd get a good boxing for that." The queen chided, casting Featherkit a glance, before looking back at Sunkit. "Let's get some rest, huh? Then, later, I'll teach you how to play 'Stalk the Moss'." She suggested, picking up her protesting kit, and turned tail, slipping into the nursery.
"Figures you could only get the flat-faced, half-blood cat to play with you." Gullkit sneered, trotting over with Brawnykit and Torrentkit in tow. She huffed, bouncing to her paws and shaking her fur out.
"Who cares? She's apart of this clan like any other cat!" Featherkit protested, and Gullkit just laughed in her face, Brawnykit snickering in response as well. Torrentkit seemed uncomfortable, shifting slightly on his paws as he listened to the banter.
"Yeah, but she's weird. She's different. Molewhisker isn't even her actual sire! She was lucky to not be kicked out- Especially for her face. I'm surprised Kitestar didn't have her drowned when she was first born." He continued, tail lashing, and the last retort caused Featherkit to involuntarily flinch. She glanced towards the nursery, before back at Gullkit, eyes narrowing.
"You must have a different sire than I do, because no way mine would do that!" She snapped, causing the other to scoff at her answer.
"Well it's clear which litter he favorites, then." Came his smug response, and the breath hitched in her throat. Torrentkit also seemed taken aback, and growled out, cuffing Gullkit around his ear, ending his cackling. "What the heck!?" The kitten growled, looking at Torrentkit, whom stood to his full high. Torrentkit was more filled out than Gullkit, who was more lean, but with undeniably long legs like his father. It seemed clear though, at the time, who could outdo the other.
"Shut up! You can't say that because you don't really know!" Torrentkit snapped, baring his teeth slightly, and Gullkit hissed back, turning away.
"That wasn't aimed at you! But find, if you wanna be friends with a she-kit, go ahead!" Was the angry response, and he stormed away, Brawnykit following beside.
"Does he not realize we're littermates?" Featherkit snorted, feeling a little more glad that her brother seemed to be taking her side. She turned to him, but he was frowning at her, and she, in turn, frowned at this. "What?"
"You know you can't be arguing like that… I don't want you to get in trouble. They could kick you out of the clan!" Torrentkit protested. She snorted, waving her stumpy tail before giving a response.
"No way Kitestar would. Whiteflower wouldn't let him." Was her response, before she turned away, tail straight up in the air as she trotted off.