warriors 🏮 feather-soft

one | softpaw

Gentle breezes ruffled Softkit's freshly-groomed fur, her downy kit-soft pelt having begun shedding and maturing a mere few days prior. The moorland camp of WindClan, located in a gentle dip tucked away within the valleys of vast and open territory, was alive with activity. Burrows and hollowed-out stones making up the members' dens were empty, as all of their occupants were out and about, either returning from morning patrols or sharing tongues underneath the warm morning sun of an early greenleaf day. WindClan's camp was a place of familiarity to Softkit, and she looked around whilst waiting for her mother, Appledawn, to finish grooming her other siblings. Stones and boulders of all shapes and sizes speckled the open camp, with the largest one being one that filled her with excitement and wonder. A generously-thick gorse bush pressed against the boulder itself was her own den- at least, her den until the anticipated meeting to come.

Today, Softkit's life was about to change for the better.

"What're you looking at?" teased Softkit's brother, a small silvery tom by the name of Jaykit. "You're always staring off into space. It's weird."

"Am not!" Softkit protested, flicked her brother's flank with her tail and pouting. From her spot just outside the WindClan nursery, Softkit jumped to her little paws and peered at her smirking littermate. "I'm just waiting for you and Brindlekit to be done already! Momma takes forever to groom you two."

Jaykit snorted. "Us? What about you?" he retorted, clearly amusing himself by riling up Softkit. "You're fur is longer than ours! Why do you think Momma decided to groom you first?"

Softkit huffed, sitting down and turning her nose upward. Recovering from the frustrated heat that lit up her brown and white fur, Softkit returned her gaze to the large boulder- a stone that the cats of WindClan called Tallrock. It casted a royal shadow over the small bodies of Softkit and Jaykit, and eventually Jaykit looked up at its surface as well with sharp blue optics.

"Who do you think is gonna be your mentor?" asked Softkit, flicking her tail as she glanced down at her brother.

"Beats me," Jaykit responded, stretching out and flexing his small, thorn-sharp claws. "I just hope I don't end up with Brighthiss. I heard he's a huge stickler."

"Who told you that?" Softkit asked, snorting as she recognized the pale ginger pelt of the warrior in question. Brighthiss, a few fox-lengths away, was sharing a meal with another warrior by the name of Flamesnout. "He always seemed pretty nice."

"Tansypaw did," Jaykit answered, growing a tad defensive upon hearing Softkit's unsureness in his comment. "Brighthiss is her uncle too, so she'd definitely know if he was or not."

"Just because she's related to Brighthiss doesn't mean she's gonna know everything about him," Softkit pointed out, lowering her ears.

"Whatever," Jaykit meowed, seemingly ending the conversation with an exasperated roll of his eyes.

"What're we talking about?" The familiar voice of Softkit's sister, Brindlekit, drifted over to the duo, and both Softkit and Jaykit turned their heads to the approaching feline. Brindlekit, her mottled coat freshly-groomed, brushed beside Jaykit and tilted her head.

"Nothing-" Softkit began, however Jaykit interrupted her.

"I was just telling Softkit about how Brighthiss would suck as a mentor," Jaykit meowed truthfully, to which Brindlekit's eyes widened.

"He wouldn't be bad at it," commented the she-cat, her gaze wandering over to the pale warrior. "He would just be strict. If anything, you would suck at being his apprentice."

"Hey! I would not!" Jaykit protested, offended by Brindlekit's words.

The mottled she-cat shrugged, and that was when the shadows of Tallrock shifted overhead. Softkit looked up, her eyes widening when he recognized the gray figure of WindClan's leader, Rainstar, leaping onto the stone. With bated breath, Softkit waited for his ringing yowl, and once it was heard the she-cat felt excitement course through her veins.