Chapter 62: Little Monsters
With two new kits in camp and my still ongoing recovery, Splitpelt, Frecklewish, and I decided to just keep things calm for a little while. I was still not at full power. Splitpelt and Frecklewish didn't have a grasp on the limits of their power. On top of that, the two new kits were turning out to be a pawful. You'd think the larger brother would be the troublemaker of the two. You'd be wrong.
Moonkit turned out to a rambunctious spirited little nightmare. It was like she could just disappear on a whim. Every cat in camp has spent extensive time trying to locate her whenever she feels the need to just vanish. She doesn't turn invisible or manifest any sort of power. She's just a sneaky little kit. We believe she's playing since she never leaves camp, but we've been worried about her adventurous spirit.
In comparison, Sunkit seems much more tame. Don't let that fool you. He's way stronger than he looks. He can roll a full-grown warrior. He often plays distraction so Moonkit can slip away. Unfortunately, he's also the only cat that can reliably find Moonkit. They've got some sort of instinctive connection with each other. Sunkit is at least gentle. He may be way stronger than most cats in camp, but he's also understanding and willing to accept orders. Unfortunately, he can be a bit vindictive. Sometimes if he doesn't like an order, he'll follow an order to word but not the spirit of the request.
The two kits are opposites, but they're also complementary to each other. Sunkit is a bit simple minded so far, but he's got this charm and can-do attitude that makes him just draw in cats. Moonkit is a bit more… like me. She's sneaky and tends to learn things she shouldn't know. She's very logical and tends to try and find what makes each cat in camp tick. The two are little monsters, and somehow I couldn't be prouder.
In my own youth I remember being a terror as well. I don't know how many times I snuck into the medicine den to shuffle the herbs. I've also flipped the fresh kill pile a few times to move the oldest pieces to the top. I once convinced Frecklewish and Birchface to move a chunk of bramble I pulled from the camp barrier in front of the warriors den. I was a right menace, but it was fun. For every time I almost drove the medicine cat to lunacy, I did the apprentice chores of the camp. Flipping the fresh kill pile was generally disliked, but somehow the leader saw the potential in the idea. He'd flip it every once and a while to keep prey from spoiling.
Frecklewish wasn't the perfect kit either. Admittedly, that was mostly my fault. There was one elder that was always mean to her, so we devised a plan to get back at them. Every time we got into the elders den and they weren't there, we'd remove a small amount of their nest, not enough to be noticeable. Eventually the elder came crying to the medicine cat about becoming a giant. The medicine cat just thought he was going senile. Afterwards, he had an apprentice replace the nest, which would now only serve for a kit. Good times.
I decided to finally deal with our daughter and son when they ended up accidentally knocking Snowtuft off the high rick. How Moonkit got up there is a mystery. Kits who were like me need something other than discipline to keep them from being naughty. They need direction. What made me a brat was the unending boredom of waiting. My kits were likely the same. They wanted to feel needed. Thus, I decided to come up with little jobs for both of them.
Sunkit needed his strength put to use, so I made a slab of wood with a loop of vine coming out the front. Since we still had a portal to the hunting ground, we tasked Sunkit with hauling the freshly killed prey baack to camp in mass. Sure, it wasn't a necessary job, but I made the slab just heavy enough that only Frecklewish, Splitpelt, Sunkit, and I could actually pull it. It made him feel special that only he and his parents could do it. Even when there were no kills to haul, he'd tug that thing all along camp. Sometimes he'd even give other cats rides. It was cute in a strange way.
Moonkit was a bit more difficult to satisfy. She was bright and desired to feel important. I gave her two jobs to bounce between. She was to creep through the hunting grounds reporting any new warrens or burrows made in the area and note any growth of the territory. The other job I gave her seemed to fill her with a malicious glee. She was to spy on the cats in camp to find any particularly nasty secrets. She was then to report them to either me or Splitpelt.
She was like the ghost of the camp, despite us all being dead already. She'd vanish for hours on end, only to reappear at either Splitpelt's or my side. Then we'd get a report. She particularly seemed to take joy in staring cats down as she quietly reported to us about anything. It'd make them squirm, fearing that she was telling us secrets about them. She was still trouble, but at least it was manageable now.
Eventually, the time came for Dawnstar to announce a change. The first was something many of us had been waiting for. Buzzardpaw and Leafpaw were getting their full names. Under Dawnstar's watch, Boragepelt named Leafpaw Leafear for her slim ears that always know when to listen. Quietstep seemed to take particular pride in that. Buzzardpaw was named Buzzardhead for his unusual coloring. He specialized in food and hunger. His powers literally ate away the pillar he was standing on.
Dawnstar also decided to name two new apprentices. Sunkit and Moonkit were getting mentors. Dawnstar already came to us about potential mentors. We ultimately decided Snowtuft was the best option for Moonkit since they were both skilled in stealth. Hopefully Snowtuft could reel in her more spirited tendencies. Sunkit was one that took some time to decide. He'd function well under any cat, but we wanted him to learn when to lead and when to follow. In the end, we called Northstar back to the main camp to ask if he'd be willing to mentor the kit. He agreed and left his faction in the care of Potentheart until Sunkit could become a warrior.
Those two kits couldn't help making one final bit of mischief in the ceremony. Sunpaw gave Northstar a nosebleed when they touched noses. Meanwhile, Moonpaw decided to have one last game of hide and seek after touching noses with Snowtuft. At least Snowtuft had gotten clever at this point to be able to guess her location based off what he felt from the shadows. Our two little brats were now apprentices and It kind of hurt to see them go.