messing with a dreamer | downyfur

[Asterpaw]

Asterkit was fairly used to the comings and goings of warriors and apprentices in the nursery. Most came bringing prey, others came bringing supplies to fix the walls of the nursery or freshen up some of the nests, and a rare few just popped their heads in to say hello and spend time with the kits. Through this constant stream of cats, Asterkit was able to learn about several of her clanmates, putting names to faces.

The appearance of Downyfur in the nursery does cause her some difficulty. Asterkit struggles to recall her name, not even sure if she had seen her before until she recalled a day when the seal point warrior had visited the nursery with Pinkshine. "You're Downyfur," Asterkit mewed loudly, drawing Downyfur's attention away from what they were doing and to her. Her words are less of a question and more of an outright acknowledgement of their identity. Asterkit's yellow-green eyes look the older cat up and down, almost appraisingly. "Are you a tunneler?" She asks, suddenly remembering something from Downyfur's last visit. One of the other kits had told her so. You can tell because they're so small, Rosekit had said knowingly, sharing the information with a smug, authoritative expression. "What's it like? Is it scary underground?" Asterkit knew her mother was a tunneler too, but for some reason had never asked her about her life below ground. Perhaps it was because she subconsciously knew she would never be destined for that life.

@downyfur ​

 

[downyfur]

"You're Downyfur," a little, high voice claims. The bundle of dried grasses they'd been patching the nursery with sags in their jaw. "I guess I am," the tiny molly replies, bemused. "You're Asterkit, right?" They blink at the pale tortie that'd named them, studying her just as she studies them, a thought that makes them smile.

Even just from her coloring, she can tell she's one of Bluefrost and Thriftfeather's. Their eyes dart to her right hind paw, or the lack of it, and they briefly wonder whether Bluefrost had been disappointed at her birth. That's cruel, they rebuke themself, and they work their smile into something warmer.

Asking about tunnelers is a common question. Most kits notice Downyfur is almost the same size as them, and maybe even smaller for the bigger or older kits. "That's right," the puffy-furred warrior congratulates.

They close their eyes when she asks, as if they needed to picture the underground again to tell her about it. "It's not scary if you do it a lot. A lot of things stop being scary when you do them a lot," they explain. For the most part, and for a kit, it's true. "It's very dark in the tunnels. Like the nursery at night." They tilt their head at her, wondering if the idea would comfort her some. Not that she needed to fear the tunnels; at this rate, it looks like she wouldn't fit into them anyway.​

 

[Asterpaw]

Downyfur asks if she was called Asterkit and the young kitten beamed up at them in response, pleased that they knew who she was. Whilst it was harder for the kits to sometimes name the different warriors in the clan, she imagined it might have been easier the other way around for the warriors.

Again, she confirms Asterkit's suspicions that she was, in fact, a tunneler. When Downyfur closed their eyes as they began to speak, Asterkit did the same for a moment, perhaps thinking this moment of blindness would help her visualise what it was like in the tunnels. She is assured it isn't so scary, especially when Downyfur and the other tunnelers kept doing it a lot. "Like the nursery?" Asterkit echoed, when Downyfur told them what it was like in the talk. Her green eyes looked around the two of them, recalling what it was like in the nursery at night, curled up with her mother and siblings. If it was really like that, Asterkit didn't think it would be so bad. "Were you scared the first time you went into the tunnels?" She inquires, tilting her head as she speaks. It must have been different actually going down there, Asterkit imagined. "Did you see any monsters down there?" In this case, any sort of underground predator was a monster in Asterkit's mind.​

 

[downyfur]

Asterkit looking pleased makes Downyfur look pleased. They have very little memory of their meager kithood, but even as a young apprentice, they remember the briefest eye contact from a warrior as something special. Sootspot's undivided attention back then was a blessing and a curse.

Her mimicry brings a smile to her face. "Mmhm," they hum. There's no one to impress here, save for maybe one of Bluefrost's listening ears. "I think everyone gets scared at least once in the tunnels." I wonder if Bluefrost was scared when Sootstar first led her down the tunnels. Downyfur wants to ask Asterkit to ask her mother, but their wariness of the older molly holds their tongue.

She chuckles. "Well... you can't really see anything down there," she kindly explains. "It is dangerous though, yes." They nod. "There are badgers, foxes, snakes... even a rabbit can kill a cat with a kick." She cuts off with a small startle. Did I scare her too much? It's not like she'd become a tunneler but... she might tell other kits. "Um, but you don't have to worry about those! We rarely bump into them, and-and even if we do, we always fight them off!" They try to laugh it off, ears twisting back nervously.​

 

[Asterpaw]

Everyone gets scared at least once, Downyfur tells them, which Asterkit believes wholeheartedly. Especially when they clarify that you couldn't see anything down there. That thought scares Asterkit a little bit, finding it hard to imagine how it must have comfortable or even enjoyable to work down there. Did her mother get scared the first time she went down there? She knows from her father that kits were apprenticed younger than they were now, so she would have been very small when she first ventured into the deep, dark tunnels below them.

Downyfur's stories surprisingly do not scare her, so much as they entertain her. Asterkit had heard of badgers in the tunnels but foxes, snakes, and even rabbits on top of that? "You all sound very brave," Asterkit tells her. "Going in the dark and fighting off all those predators!" Downyfur tells them that such occurences are rare though, and when they do encounter anything they usually fight them off. "What is the scariest thing you've ever fought, Downyfur?" She asks. Asterkit doesn't specify it would be something they found in the tunnels, leaving it open for the warrior to tell her about anything they might have enocountered on the surface if they wished.​

 

[downyfur]

They smile, a soft ivory crease in their jaw. "Thank you, Asterkit." You all, the kit said. Not just you. It makes Downyfur feel a bit better, actually: truly, it wasn't them and had never been them. Even when they had stood here as an apprentice, squaring off against DuskClanner claws, they'd really just been hiding behind Rattleheart's motherly ferocity.

Staring into wide chartreuse eyes now makes them a little guilty, although they assure themself they have no reason to be. Rattleheart would've slayed them all before letting a single drop of blood well upon kitten fur. (But they'd taken advantage of that with no intention to do the same, no? Well, it'd never come to that again, so...)

They fuss with their dropped bundle of grass when she posits another question, tail curling nervously behind them. This was no judgement, no obligation of truth. It was just a kit's question, aimless and to be forgotten about the next day.

Still, they feel their navel clench. "I, um..." Anything they told her might wind up in Bluefrost's or Thriftfeather's ears. "I haven't fought very many things." They let out a small, shaky laugh. "But... the tunnels cave in sometimes, and you must fight against the earth itself." Even this, harmless flea of a topic is still marred by an apprentice's death. "What about you?" they ask, trying for some more playfulness. "Have you fought anything scary?" Bluefrost used to be pretty scary...​