Displeased

[Yoko]

There was no other word to describe Ravenkit at the moment. He was thoroughly unhappy. It was raining outside. Ironically, the tears falling from the morbidly gray sky matched his mood well. But if it had been sunny, and cheerful, he would at least be our of their presence. Curled into his corner on his half of the den, he cast a disgruntled glance at the intruders, then curled up tighter with his back to them. For nearly a moon they had been here and by the looks of it they weren't leaving.

It was not a personal hatred...well, not for Stonekit at least. Spottedkit, he despised. It was more the fact that they were from WindClan. Their scent was fading but even the slightest whiff of it in his home seemed a gigantic crime against his nature. It made his nose wrinkle, his neck bristle, and his eyes squint in dislike. And what was worse was that they brought their kin in as well. The nursery seemed too crowded now.

They had not played together since Rabbitheart's interference. They had not asked him to play, why should he ask them?

[Kitty]

Ew, rain.

That was Stonekit's first thought when he woke up in the morning. A drip came down through the branches of the nursery and plopped right on his nose, waking him from his slumber.

Rain was something that Stonekit did not like. It was icky. It was wet. It was cold. It made his fur feel icky. But on the positive side, it kept the plants alive and the streams running. So rain wasn't all bad, he supposed.

He climbed out of the nest, careful not to wake his grandmother or brother. They'd been here in ThunderClan for nearly a moon now, and were settled in, more or less. He'd learned most of the cats' names - it wasn't like they were a huge Clan. They were the smallest in the forest, he'd heard. The warriors were nice, for the most part, and most of them seemed to be getting used to his and his brother's presence in camp. In fact, it was horrible for him to say it, but he couldn't really remember much about WindClan. He remembered his siblings and mother and grandmother - still missed them terribly - but not much else had made a lasting impression on him, apparently. Except maybe the prey, but he could get rabbit here, too, sometimes.

ThunderClan was his home now, and he had come to accept that.

He glanced around the nursery. A very dejected-looking Ravenkit was curled in a ball, his back to Stonekit and Spottedkit and Mottledleaf. Stonekit knew that Ravenkit saw them as intruders still, but he wasn't all that bad. The gray kit remembered when they had played mossball with Rabbitheart (he now knew the tom's name) Ravenkit had actually been kind of fun. But they hadn't played together since then. Stonekit was a bit reluctant to ask him, because the black tom did not seem to like them at all. He wished Ravenkit would play with them again. He always seemed a bit lonely to the gray kit. But he never invited them to play.

But this morning was different. Stonekit was determined to get Ravenkit to play with him. It didn't matter that Spottedkit was still asleep. Stonekit was going to make Ravenkit play with him. He dared to cross into the side of the nursery that Ravenkit had claimed as 'his', and paused a couple pawsteps across. Then, mustering his courage, he approached his denmate, preparing for whatever attacks came his way.

"...Ravenkit? Would you like to play?" Stonekit made sure to keep out of striking distance, but he was still close to Ravenkit's nest. Certainly the tom wouldn't ignore him, right?

[Yoko]

What was that noise? Some kit talking? It sounded very close! With a snarl, which (despite Ravenkit's efforts) only made him look cute, Ravenkit lifted his head and twisted it rather violently to look at who had crossed "the border". It was Stonekit, of course. Ravenkit rose immediately to his paws and took a few steps towards the gray kit while glaring.

Well, despite his irritation that boundaries had been crossed, the question asked slowly registered in his little hot-head. He hated to admit it but he was painfully bored and Rabbitheart was nowhere to be seen. He looked a little at his paws and pointedly scraped the nursery floor, scowling and mumbling, "Yeah well...what would we play? WindClan have any games for rainy days?"

[Kitty]

Stonekit just stared at his denmate for a couple heartbeats. Despite the fact that he'd glared and growled the whole time, he'd actually come over to stand in front of Stonekit without ripping him to shreds. And although he still looked at the ground and scowled throughout his answer to Stonekit's question, he actually spoke back.

This was considered progress in Stonekit's eyes.

The gray tomkit recovered from his brief moment of surprise and planted a small smile on his face while he thought back to the games that they'd played in WindClan. The games in his former Clan weren't all that different from the games here in ThunderClan, actually. But most of them required more space than the nursery could provide, like tag, hide-n-seek, and mossball. They could play mossball inside the den, Stonekit supposed, but without as much room to move around, it wouldn't be as fun.

"Well, hm...for rainy days...we...um..." What had they done on rainy days? Sat and waited for it to be over? "Well, sometimes we would go stand out in the rain and see who could stay outside the nursery the longest, but I didn't really like that game. We also..um...sometimes we would playfight or play mossball. Oh yeah! I remember a couple times we found this pebble in the nursery and hid it and then the other kits had to find it." Knowing Ravenkit, he probably wouldn't be interested in any of the games Stonekit had just listed off, so Stonekit also asked, "What do you do in ThunderClan on rainy days?"

[Yoko]

Ravenkit listened attentively, his paws wrapped royally around his paws and his face ever-more arrogant. He weighed the options: Play-fight,or Hide the Pebble? Well, neither looked to appeasing. His gaze wandered over to the sleeping Spotted Kitten. Then he looked back to Stonekit with a rather curious smile.

"Hide the Pebble? I've never played a game like that. I suppose we can give it try, but where could we find a pebble."

One of the annoyances of having an adult in the den was that they kept the nursery remarkably clean. Ravenkit had not seen a single thorn since the arrival of the new kits and their grandmother. The moss was hardly ever even out of place.

The small black kitten began to claw at the dirt, turning over the earth to look for a pebble. He pulled one up, but it turned out to be a dirt clod. But, before he knew it, he was having more fun digging for the pebble than actually finding one. After a long moment, he beckoned Stonekit with his tail.

"What are you waiting for?! Help me," he mewed sharply, but without any real anger.

[Kitty]

"Yeah, Hide the Pebble is pretty fun," he agreed. The black tom didn't seem familiar with all of the games that Stonekit had listed, and he actually admitted to never having played the pebble game. Stonekit gave a little shrug when Ravenkit wondered where they could find a pebble. They'd always had little rocks and pebbles and things laying around the nursery, or they could go out into the rain and find one. With all the kits in the nursery, there was always someone willing to go find one in all the muddy wetness of the outdoors.

He watched in confusion and interest as Ravenkit took to the ground, scraping away at the nursery floor with sharp claws. It took a moment, but Stonekit realized that he was digging for a pebble. What a good idea! Surely there was one buried here somewhere. He didn't need to be asked a second time when Ravenkit beckoned him over to help dig, and without a moment's hesitation joined the black kit beside the hole he'd already dug, scraping away at the dirt alongside the tom. It was odd; just that morning Ravenkit had been just as hostile towards Stonekit as he had been the past moon that the WindClan kits had lived in ThunderClan, but now he wasn't that bad. He wasn't exactly nice, but he definitely wasn't as cold.

Scraping at the ground with his claws, which was slightly muddied from the rain, Stonekit realized that this was kind of fun. The damp dirt just made it easier to dig, but it also meant that the kits were getting dirtier. The gray tomkit didn't mind, though - being dirty and muddy didn't bother him as much as, say, it would a she-kit. Some she-kits, anyway. "Hey, this is kind of fun!" he commented, overturning a piece of dirt that he suspected was a pebble but instead just crumbled. Oh, a dirt clod. Pebbles were harder to come by than he'd thought.

[Yoko]

Ravenkit clawed happily away at the dirt, enjoying the cool soft feeling between his toes. Occasionally, he lifted up a dirt clod or two to check for pebbles, but that certainly wasn't his main interest at the moment. He glanced over at Stonekit and perked his ears at it seemed the gray kit had found one. But it was another dirt clod.

Ravenkit sniffed. Of course, WindClan cats were no good at finding things. Everything on their territory was out in the open. In a huff at Stonekit's disappointing find, he swatted some dirt at the other kits face. Then, seeing the rich earth cover Stonekit's face, he laughed.

"What's wrong? Don't Stones like dirt?" he chuckled.

[Kitty]

After a bit more digging and pebble-searching, Stonekit was beginning to wonder if they would ever find one of the little stones to play their game with. But he wasn't going to say anything about giving up on finding one. Not before Ravenkit. Ravenkit didn't like him enough as it was; maybe if he gave up on finding a pebble when the black tom really wanted to play he'd be even more mad. He had just come to this conclusion when something wet and grainy slopped across his face. He blinked, the sloppy brown stuff barely avoiding his eyes. It took him a moment to realize that it was the mud they were digging in.

"Hey, not fair! I wasn't prepared!" he squealed, wiping the dirt from his face. It wouldn't wipe off completely, and some of it still clung to his gray fur. Gathering a pawful of the stuff, he flung it at the black tom and it covered his back. "Hah! How does the Raven like that?" he laughed, dancing out of firing range so as to avoid the next dirt attack.

[Yoko]

"Hey, not fair! I wasn't prepared!" the gray tom mewed.

"Tsk Tsk, excuses, excuses!" the dark tom snickered, shortly before receiving a faceful of mud.

Ravenkit raised his forepaw and wiped it over his own face. He opened his mouth and mud fell in. For a moment he sputtered, then once he got the majority of the mud off his face, he glared at Stonekit.

"Hah! How does the Raven like that?"[/b] Stonekit laughed and moved away.


The Raven...? I like it!

All the same, he glared and shot some mud at Stonekit but it didn't go very far. So he crouched on his belly and wriggled his bottom, crawling slowly towards Stonekit. Then he launched himself into the other tom.

"Gotcha!"

He pushed his paws down on the other tom's chest.

"What's the matter? Kits don't wrestle in WindClan?"[/color]

[Kitty]

Stonekit cackled at Ravenkit as he struggled to get the mud off of his face - some of it fell into his mouth, which made it all the more funny. Lucky thing he had moved out of throwing range, because the black kit launched another pawful in his direction. It fell to the ground, having missed it mark, a tail-length in front of the gray kit. Distracted in his laughter, he didn't notice Ravenkit stalking toward him until it was too late.

He launched himself at Stonekit, knocking him down into the mud. The gray tom flailed out at his opponent, but his paws were now pinning him down, pressing down on his chest. "Gotcha!" Ravenkit meowed triumphantly. Stonekit glared up at him in mock anger as he taunted, "What's the matter? Kits don't wrestle in WindClan?"

Playfighting never having been his strong point, Stonekit was a bit reluctant to respond. He gave up his useless flailing and decided to try a different tactic to getting free. "Wrestle? Oh yes, we definitely wrestle in WindClan." With that, he jabbed his back paws straight upward and into Ravenkit's stomach, loosening the kit's grip enough to slip away and cuff him over the ears before dancing easily out of range. His WindClan speed had not abandoned him even though he was ThunderClan now, it would seem.

"Aww, is WindClan too fast for the slow ThunderClan kit?" he taunted, waving his tail teasingly.

[Yoko]

Ravenkit grunted as his soft kitten tummy was kicked, but he gritted his teeth. He would DIE before he let the WindClan kits here him wail like a kit. All the same, he lay huddled over his belly for a moment. Then he stretched out with the customary 'now you're gonna get it' glare and bolted after the swift Stonekit.

He might be fast, but an angry Ravenkit was nothing to mess with. In his wild chase after the gray tom, he carelessly stomped on Spottedkit's tail, covering the spotted kit's bottom with mud. Ravenkit stumbled a little and cursed Spottedkit for sitting there like a rock and ruining his fun.

Fun? Was he having fun?

Yeah....I guess I am...

But that wasn't going to save Stonekit from a world of pain when Ravenkit would catch him. And so the black kit ran all over the nursery, ignoring the boundaries he himself had laid down to get at the gray kit.