feather canyons — lupinekit

[Cherryblossom]

Most of the other nursery inhabitants are out this morning. Bobbie still rests in Dawnglare's den, while Orangeblossom is presumably out catching up on what deputy duties she can. The other kittens are taking advantage of the sun's return; re-fortified holly walls muffle high-pitched squeals and meows. Tranquil circumstances leave Lupinekit and Cherrykit sitting in the nursery, gold-tinged rays floating through the new nursery's canopy. Glancing over at the furry shadow on her right, she almost feels a spring a sympathy, close enough to the real deal as she could get with undeveloped mind. Her parents had ushered her inside upon that fated's patrol's return, unwilling to pollute her mind further. It'd been a little too late: the tang of blood had leeched into the nursery by then. She couldn't imagine Orangeblossom stumbling home with the red-scent coating her pelt, lies in the form of reassurance spilling from loving tongue. Well, she couldn't imagine it because it'd simply never happen. Her mother, deputy among warriors, is far stronger than Bobbie, kittypet turned queen.

She hasn't talked to Bobbie's boy much. He rarely joins the childish antics of the others, and she's only ever seen him trailing at his mother's hocks like a burr on a branch. He seems nice enough though, a nice boy, not like Doomkit or Plaguekit; his fur is almost as tidy as Cherrykit's. The calico scoots closer to him through the masses of feathers and dried grass, yellow eyes brimming with invitation. "Hi. I'm Cherrykit," she meows, though he might already know from how much her name is scolded and taunted. "Is your mama okay?" she inquires, more out of curiosity than concern. She's as concerned as a kitten could be, seeing as the lilac tabby had never been anything but nice to her, but it isn't like she's her kit.

@LUPINEKIT
​

 

[LUPINESONG]

Lupinekit had a stomach ache. The fear that bloomed from his body the moment that Bobbie came stumbling into camp, bloodied and hurt, never left completely. It shrunk, petals of terror shedding with a stream of tears, but remained now as a seed, a burr stubbornly clinging to the bottom of his stomach. It was a beautiful day outside, one he should have been enjoying either playing or soaking in the sunlight. But camp was proving to be too overwhelming for him to want to stay outside for very long. Lupinekit kept casting glances at the entrance, worried that another patrol would rush in wounded or chased in by a dog or some other scary thing. The constant bustle of cats moving in and out tugged at his senses and sharpened the worry that had settled in his belly.

Needless to say, Lupinekit felt a bit too stressed to be outside of the nursery today. He felt safe in the makeshift den he and the other kits and queens called home, the lively thrum of camp was muffled, and daylight shone through the woven roof in comforting dapples of warmth. Lupinekit was familiar enough with the other nursery residents that he knew who to expect to come in and out of his dark haven; it soothed some of the thorny edges of his burr-seed of anxiety. He groomed his tail idly, debating on whether he should try to catch a nap while the usually crowded den was caught in a rare moment of tranquility. The shadowy kitten was caught off guard when Cherrykit appeared beside him with a curious glimmer in her eyes. "You're Cherrykit, yeah..." he parroted back to her, feeling shy. He knew her, she ran around camp with a confidence he could only admire from the sidelines. "Oh uhm...I'm Lupinekit, hi."


His gaze fell downward at the mention of his mother, watching mismatched paws knead the moss beneath him nervously, "Mommy's hurt. But uhm, I saw her today and she said... she's feeling better. And she's gonna be okay. She has to stay in the medicine den for a little bit more. I'm worried for Mommy." He dutifully recounted what information he knew, and it felt a little better saying it out loud to someone. He blinked wide green eyes back at Cherrykit, "Do you worry about your mama?"


"SPEECH"

​

 

[Cherryblossom]

The buzz of anxiety surrounding Lupinekit goes almost entirely unnoticed by Cherrykit. Lupinekit has gone almost entirely unnoticed by Cherrykit. Still, she's noticed him, enough for her to meow right on the heels of his introduction, "I know you, Lupinekit!" She beams at the slightly younger tom, almost delighting in the disparity between their confidence, his a fragile fern frond shrinking away from her sunflower rays. His name, his little family, and his basic demeanor is all she knows about him—all she cares to know about him, for now.

Yellow eyes follow the path of green as they fall, as though Lupinekit longs to bury his own gaze beneath the shelter of moss and feathers. It's a little funny, how he only has two white feet while Cherrykit has all four. Does that mean she's better than him, somehow, in the purity and homogenity of her coat, and the way it follows so closely in her mother's fashion? Lupinekit and his siblings don't look anything like Bobbie, that's for sure. Orangeblossom's hues ripple so clearly upon her pelt, like a sunset blazing into the still surface of water. Drowsykit and Crowkit are tangled strokes of black, but at least the boy before her has taken on some of his mother's pale.

He regurgitates some foreign, soggy feeling towards Cherrykit when she asks him about Bobbie, something slippery she doesn't quite want to put her nose on. Orangeblossom and Ashenclaw don't give her much cause for worry, even with her father's disappearance right before her birth; he escaped, after all, even dragging home a prize in the form of a legendary story for the rest of SkyClan to hear. As for Orangeblossom, Blazestar made her deputy for a reason. Glimmerkit might fret over the wellbeing of their parents, but Cherrykit quickly deemed things like "worry" a waste of her time. Even still, she frowns. "Yeah, Bobbie will be okay," she muses. Duskpool was alive, and he looked even worse than her. "Don't worry about it," she adds, "coolly" flicking her tail.

Mismatched brows lift in surprise at his question. "Never! My mama's strong," she purrs, happy to be talking about Orangeblossom for the 70th time. "She never gets hurt. She's good at fighting," the girl continues, bending down to lick a hair floating from her chest. "Why do you worry about Bobbie?" Eyes faintly gilded peer into lush green, like tendrils of morning sunlight reaching for the forest floor. Inquisitive for a foregone conclusion; the certainty of the sun reaching the bottom, heralded by the faintest presence of its undergrowth. "You can't help her anyway."
​

 

[LUPINESONG]

Lupinekit's anxious, somewhat gloomy aura brightened at the attention of the older girl like a young flower shifted the greenest parts of their fragile, fuzzy leaves towards the warmth of yellow sunshine. "You know me?" he mewed, entirely surprised one of the most popular kittens in camp had even the slightest acknowledgement of his existence, "Oh, uhm, that's really cool."

He watches her with fascination, all bright hues and bold statements. She really did look a lot like her mother, their phenotypical harmony was something he envied. It was something of a running joke in the nursery that he and his siblings looked a lot like each other and not really anything like their beloved mother. Lupinekit was still unawares that he held the most resemblance to Bobbie, with his white-gloved paws and soft green eyes, he had a tendency to fixate things that made him unlike and perhaps even weird in comparison to others. It was then that Lupinekit noticed that he sat taller than his current companion, tufty black ears resting what seemed to be far above Cherrykit's own black and orange. The reality was that the difference was only slight, far from remarkable to anyone who wasn't Lupinekit, but he was taken with embarrassment nonetheless. The boy settled down into a crouch, hoping he didn't look too awkward as he scooted as to avoid towering over the older kitten.

Cherrykit spoke with such confidence, it strengthened his heart to hear her declare that his mother would be okay, it seemed like she really knew it was true. She said that he shouldn't worry about it, and Lupinekit believed her, nodding along thoughtfully. Why wouldn't he? She was, what, two whole weeks older than him? She must've had some wisdom currently inaccessible to him. Plus, she seemed to know a lot about her mother too, though it was troubling for him to ponder on the differences between Orangeblossom and Bobbie. Would Bobbie have to become deputy to avoid getting hurt in the future? That seemed like a tough job to get.

Unfortunately, the question that she innocently presses toward him turns on the waterworks he so desperately was trying to keep under control. 'You can't help her anyways' Sage-colored eyes shimmered wetly as he processed and realized that it was the hard truth. He can't help her, no matter how much he wants to, because he's just a kit. Lupinekit was just a small feather in a storm, he couldn't control what was out there, ready to hurt him and everyone he held close. He was brought back to that moment, of being held by his wounded mother, paws too small and shaky to stop the bleeding. The crushing pit of helplessness sank back down into his belly and tears dripped onto the moss below. "S-sorry I-I-I don't-" He hiccupped, trying not to blubber in front of the nursery's resident "Cool Kit". It took a minute, but he was able to get ahold of his shakiness with a few deep breaths. Composed crying was an odd skill indeed, but it would be one familiar to fellow Crybabies who didn't want to sob every time they were upset.

Sniffling and with steady tears still running down his face, he somehow felt it was important to give Cherrykit a real answer. "W-well... Mommy keeps me and ... my brother and sister safe because she loves me... and-and I love her too and I can't or no.... I didn't keep her safe. And I think, uhm... it makes me feel worried and... bad when I can't help. Because I want to." An adult might have noticed Lupinekit as being surprisingly articulate for his age. He, of course, had his mother to attribute to this. She was patient with her children, and with Crowkit and Lupinekit being more prone to being overwhelmed by their emotions, she had made an effort to teach them to find the words to describe their feelings. Lupinekit was a faithful student, and he was equally soothed by grounding his feelings in words as he was terrified by the various not knowings and inabilities of childhood.

"But... that's what we become warriors for, right? To um, keep everyone safe." Lupinekit said, still sniffly but filled with a renewed sense of determination.


"SPEECH"

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[Cherryblossom]

Cherrykit didn't know he'd cry. The girl turns to stare at him, incredulous, as green eyes grow big and shiny in the dark, like a wet leaf gleaming in the shadows. A frown crosses her own little maw, not from empathy urging her tears to join his, but from a faint notion of disgust. For the tears and snot soon to be mixed on his upper lip; for the way a single sentence could erupt him. She quietly tilts her head as he continues to sniffle, a flurry of embers dying down, cooling off, till all that remains is a slick of black upon delicate cheeks. More stunned than anything, she isn't holding her tongue but rather trying to wrench it out from her frozen teeth and tell him to stop. Crying. If doing nothing was the best they could do, why would he choose to cry about it too?

Lupinekit finally deigns to give her an answer that isn't half-drowned, and she listens with thinning patience. The boy is younger than her, not by a lot, but still young enough she doesn't except the torrent of words pouring out of his mouth. Or maybe she's just used to conversing with the more taciturn black smoke boy. Regardless, she wraps her tail around her paws as though encircling her nastier feelings away from her mouth, the way she's seen Orangeblossom or some other warrior do, before she responds: "Hmm. Okay. But we're not warriors." Cherrykit angles her head at him the other way, as though examining him from all sides for another point of weakness. It's an easy task; Lupinekit practically overflows with weakness, these gushy and wet emotions streaming from every orifice, touching her and trying to wriggle into her heart—gross.

A second wind, or maybe second breeze with how small it is, seems to re-inflate him after this. He straightens up a little and stops leaking as much, which Cherrykit thinks is a much better look for his larger frame. "It's okay," she adds, suddenly remembering how to deal with a crying kit. Like what she'd said to Yukio, it doesn't come from a place in her heart but rather her stomach, a regurgitated and distorted show of support. "They're never gonna make you a warrior if you're a crybaby." The look she gives him is wrinkled with impatience. "You're so tall. You have to be strong," she advises him cryptically. Perhaps Lupinekit was already strong, shouldering the burden of all those worries and expectations for himself, and Cherrykit just couldn't recognize it.​