When Sootstar had come to gather them all, Luckykit had fallen into step immediately, dutifully trailing along after the other kits and settling into place to await the demonstration. While he's been trying to keep it out of his mind, the motley collection of his fellow denmates serves as a stark reminder that one day he and his littermates will be split between moor runners and tunnelers, no longer free to stick to one another's sides and instead half out in the open plains and half below the earth. There's still time yet, but the signs are still there - Scorchkit and Rumblekit have been growing bulky and lanky, while he and Frostkit remain on the smaller side. Selfishly, Luckykit hopes that they'll both hit a growth spurt so that all four of them will at least be able to train alongside one another, but he knows it's a distant hope at best. At least this way they'll all have a sibling to work with; he doesn't think he could bare the thought of entering the tunnels alone, or even patrolling the moors without knowing he has a sibling in the same boat. If he weren't so displeased at being separated, he might think it was poetic, in a way - one parent and two kits fulfilling each role.
As Sootstar begins to dig into the earth, each movement carefully measured, Luckykit watches intently. Every motion is deliberate, calculated, and it's more than just a little intimidating. It's not just digging, not really; like Sootstar said, thought goes into every aspect of the work, and as far as he's concerned, there doesn't seem to be much margin for error, considering one wrong move could probably collapse a tunnel. When Sootstar asks for a volunteer to pick up where she left off, he makes no move to step up. Experience is invaluable, especially since his apprenticeship is coming up sooner than he would like, and yet Luckykit can't make the first move, too hung up on the burgeoning realization that tunneling is going to be harder than he had imagined. Thankfully, Littlekit is quick to dart forward, small paws sifting through the dirt, but he almost wishes his fellow kit hadn't stepped up to the task. Digging looks natural for him, as though there's hardly anything to it, and Luckykit feels something unpleasant well up within him. He doesn't have any sort of digging experience - hadn't even thought about preparing like that - and now he feels he's already falling behind, watching Littlekit smooth out the edges of the hole as he works.
The pile of dirt continues to grow, the hole deepening, until finally Luckykit can't take just watching anymore. "I can do it, too," he says, squaring his shoulders as he trots up to join Littlekit. Rather than try and start on a new spot, he places himself across from his new digging companion, hovering uncertainly in front of the forming hole. Deliberate movements, he tells himself, before scooping his first pawful. It's awkward, at first; the dirt is more loose than he expected, and he loses part of it before it can make it into a new pile. Gritting his teeth, Luckykit tries once again, this time with more success, adding another small scoop to his own pile. Maybe it wasn't so bad, even if his attempts were almost certainly clumsier than Littlekit's. Dirt-stained paws continue to work against the earth, gaining confidence as they go, but he still feels outclassed - after all, Sootstar and Eaglepaw both have moons worth of training, and Littlekit at least seemed to already know what he was doing. There's not much he can do about any of that now, however, so Luckykit continues to dig, making an attempt to mimic Littlekit's smoothing of the walls of the hole and keeping his eyes trained on his work, not wanting to know who was watching. /font]
[ PENNED BY HIJINKS ]
