Emberkit pounced on the moving object, stretching out his sharp claws to sink it into the furry target. With satisfaction, his thorn-like claws sank into the fur and his teeth were close to follow behind. My first prey, he thought excitedly.
"Ouch!" Nettlestem snapped, immedietely whisking her tail away. "My tail isn't a play-thing," his mother scolded. Emberkit pretended to be ashamed, but really he was secretly proud that his pounce landed him on the target this time. He was three moons old now, and bored out of his mind sitting around the nursery. Nettlestem sighed. "Why don't you go play in the camp?"
Emberkit squeaked excitedly and was quick to race towards the entrance. "Don't go anywhere you're not supposed to!" His mother yelled after him. Once out, he scanned the clearing, able to see the entire camp now that his eyes had developed. Warriors were sitting, standing, and talking while basking in the gentle heat. He also noticed that the apprentices were cleaning out the elders den. A ball of moss outside of the den enticingly called out to him.
Emberkit hurried over, excited by the prospect of something new to play with, and hooked it in his claws. It was springy and was easy to grasp, which made it the perfect play-thing. He quickly tossed it into the air, and it landed a tail-length away. Emberkit scrambled over to it again and repeated the process, thoroughly amusing himself. Small bits and pieces broke off everytime he threw it, and soon the ball dwindled to less than a quarter of the size.
Just then, an angry yowl made Emberkit freeze. "What are you doing?" He turned around to see a black cat with a white stripe along his face glaring at him from the entrance of the elder's den. "I had to collect that moss myself, and now you've ruined it!" He realized that the cat must be an apprentice, and he backed away from the moss, feeling guilty.
"Calm down Badgerpaw," a she-cat voice murmurred soothingly. She appeared from behind the other apprentice. "He's just a kit. We can go get more." She was fuzzy looking and her fur was much longer than her denmate's. When her gaze met Emberkit's, it was gentle and sympathetic.
Badgerpaw hissed in annoyance. "It'll take forever to find new moss, Swiftpaw. It just rained yesterday and everything is still wet." He muttered to himself, and ducked back inside the den. Swiftpaw blinked at Emberkit once more, then followed her denmate.
Emberkit left the ruined moss in search of something new to do, undaunted by Badgerpaw's annoyance. His whiskers quivered with excitement. His eyes honed in on another fun lookimg target: the fresh-kill pile. A mouse had fallen off to the side of the pile, and its brown fur was being lifted the wrong way by the wind, which was the movement that caught his eye in the first place. Emberkit crouched and slowly made his way towards it, his tail end wiggling in the air. When he was only a couple tail-lengths away, he prepared himself, already imagining killing the prey.
"You're not going to catch anything like that," A dark ginger tom called out, padding up to the kit. Emberkit blinked and looked up, and his own amber eyes met with his father's blue ones. "You have to keep your entire body close to the ground." Redshade gently pushed Emberkit's back-end down. "And when you're stalking your prey, keep your tail off the ground. You don't want to make any noise by accidentally brushing against a leaf, because your prey will hear it."
Emberkit nodded, focusing back on the mouse. He stilled his body and lifted his tail off the ground. Then he leaped, landing on the mouse. Redshade blinked with approval at his son. "In no time you could become a great hunter. Maybe the best in the clan, even."