Danger on the ice[Open]

[Wolfkit]

****SPLISH SPLASH****
Deep sapphire eyes popped open suddenly at the sound from its light slumber. The eyes narrowed slightly and with a sigh rose to its paws. Wolfkit shook her pelt removing any moss that desired to cling to her unruly pelt. A kit in the mighty Riverclan, Wolfkit was small and not as fat as a regular Riverclan cat. Not that she missed meals or anything far from that fact. She was just constantly moving, playing, and bugging the warriors about petty little things little kits do.

No parents for the little kit meant that the whole clan was raising her together. The one cat that Wolfkit looked up too was of course Crimsonstar, then again most kits look up to their leaders and elders. Sort to speak role model. Though Wolfkit didn't know that Crimsonstar was the last person she should look up too. Though not knowing she would be part of her scheme to take over the clans with her decoys, once she was poisoned.

Wolfkit found her to the nursery entrance and poked her head out into the camp. Her deep blue eyes scanned around camp before she shuffled into the open. Stifling a yawn Wolfkit slunk around toward the reeds. Hiding in the shadows when she could and tried to stay unnoticed. Managing to escape camp and the warriors she weaved through the reeds stopping to sniff every now and then and to make sure no warriors were coming. Though she wasn't as sneaky as she thought she was for a trail of tiny paw prints led the way out and followed her every move. A loud crack like sound came from within the lake startled the young kit and she made her way to the lake and watched the ice covered lake.

She took a small step onto the ice testing its strength, then another and another till she was a quite a ways onto the ice. Her paws slipped several times but she found the feeling fun. Wolfkit felt a tremor and was knocked off her feet well slipped and to her horror fell through the ice. She dug her claws into ice hoping she wouldn't drown before someone came. She began to cry frantic for help. Her claws broke their hold and she plunged under the water. Frantic she kicked her legs and popped back up and tried again to dig her claws into the ice as she coughed up water. "Starclan help me!" she whimpered fighting the cold lake that wanted to drown her.

[[Duskmist]]

Duskmist sighed, and a wisp of cold air appeared in front on her. There wasn’t much she can do with her stock of herbs, now that the frost killed most of the new shoots. There weren’t enough tansy that could be found in her usual source, and there wasn’t even a scrap of catnip near the horseplace. Her clanmates were depending on her to keep them healthy during leaf-bare, when there aren’t much prey to be found. Unfortunately for the whole Clan, she wouldn’t be able to heal them whenever they get sick if the cold season continues to kill her herbs.

‘StarClan, help me!’

A tiny faint voice caught the attention of the gray medicine cat. Judging from the sound, it was made by a small kit coming from the lake. Duskmist grumbled at the thought of a drowning kit. “Great, another heap of fur that would waste my stock of herbs...” It would be easy to ignore the kit and continue his way back to camp, but thinking that her warrior ancestors would be watching her every action, she marched straight to the lake. Besides, every life, whether it was from a kit or an elder, was useful to keep the Clan alive.

Duskmist made her way through the forest and into the lakefront. It was there, right in front of her eyes, that the little parentless kit Wolfkit was dying. Is she trying to kill herself? Soon, she trekked the brittle ice until she reached the part where the ice broke. It wasn’t easy for a heavily built cat like herself to flawlessly walk through thin ice, but with luck on her side, she managed. Duskmist then jumped down the water and paddled till she reached the kit. They were probably lucky that they weren’t near to the center of the lake, or they’ll have to swim for their lives.

The medicine cat hauled the kit until they reached the shore. There, he placed the wet and frozen kit and licked her fur to warm her up. “You know, for a RiverClan cat, you need to learn how to swim,” she commented as she took a break from warming her. “Anyway, drowning yourself would be a waste of my effort to take care of you. It’s already hard to monitor the Clan with all the sickness leaf-bare brings...” Duskmist suddenly found herself telling the kit useless stuff, things that were more personal. It wasn’t that important for situations like this, but it was when dealing with young cats.

“First things first; Why did you escape camp, then try to drown?”

OOC: Hope you don't mind me popping in. ^^

[Wolfkit]

Cold fear ran though Wolfkit's mind. She had never been so scared in her life. As little as her life has been. She went under once more as her claws slipped from the ice. She didn't have the strength to cling onto the ice again. Coughing up water she mewled pitifully in between the chattering of her small teeth.

Then as if on cue Wolfkit heard a splash and felt teeth grasp her scruff dragging her though the water toward the shore. Wolfkit shivered violently as she was placed on the lake shore. Why did I have to be so stupid? Wolfkit thought as she was licked to help warm her up.

Wolfkit shuffled her paws before she lifted her head to look at Duskmist. She was a Riverclan cat who didn't know how to swim, Tipping her head as Duskmist rambled about something the kit didn't understand. "I..I..I just wanted to explore...and...and... I heard a loud noise so I followed it,"[/b] she paused catching her breath in between shivers. Her unruley fur began to stick up all over the place. "I didn't mean to fall in," she said with a sniff. Wolfkit knew she was going to get in big trouble for sneaking out of camp and then only to nearly drown herself.

Not to mention the higher risk of catching a cold since she was in the water long enough to nearly get hypothermia. Lucky for the kit Duskmist had heard her call. Next time she might not be so lucky.

"What made you realize you wanted to become a medicine cat?" [/b]Wolfkit asked curiously looking up at Duskmist with her sapphire colored eyes. By now her pelt was nearly dry though she shook some it was slowly fading away though she was starting to sniffle.

OOC: No not at all :]

[[Duskmist]]

Duskmist felt a shiver down to her spine as a cold wind blew. She shrugged it off and continued warming the kit with rigorous licks, even though she was already dry. Along with Wolfkit, Duskmist herself was drenched in the cold freezing waters of the leaf-bare lake, leaving her thick gray pelt heavy with lake water. She didn’t mind getting cold once in a while, for the sake of her patients. She could’ve warmed herself up, just like what she does with Wolfkit, but the kit’s own health was more important at the moment. She wouldn’t want to waste a lot of herbs if the problem could be fixed on the spot.

“What made you realize you wanted to become a medicine cat?”

A sudden question from Wolfkit broke her concentration on her job. She abruptly stopped the licks for a while, thinking of the right answer she could probably give. How she wanted to blame her previous mentor for it, although it wasn’t morally right to say it in front of a kit. (She’s been trying to act nice in front of her.) It would also be silly if she would ever say that she just became a medicine cat because her training was postponed and she was too impatient to wait for her ‘injuries’ to heal. Besides, she didn’t even want to be a medicine cat in the first place.

“I became a medicine cat before I had a chance to think why I should become one,” the gray she-cat joked. With her straight serious face and monotonous tone, it all sounded like a sarcastic comment. She didn’t want to share the cheesy history she shared with the medicine cat before her, her mentor who shared simple facts of life. Realizing that the question was quite directed to her personal decisions, Duskmist can’t help but ask the kit. “Why would you even ask about it anyway? It’s not like you’re interested in becoming a medicine cat, is it not?”

[Wolfkit]

Wolfkit's pelt ruffled as the cold wind blew sending shivers down her spine too. The little kit zoned out a few heart beats while Duskmist continued to warm her up with rigorous licks to her pelt.

Why did I walk across the ice for? the kit thought deeply. It was like Wolfkit was pulled by something unexplainable but maybe it was Starclan's actions or just some stupid kit thinking it was. Wolfkit didn't know what it was she just knew what the punishment was going to be. Only being 4 moons old she was at a high risk for getting her apprenticeship delayed and she didn't want that.

Duskmist's voice snapped the kit out of her deep thinking as the she-cat joked. "So you didn't want to be one?" the kit asked tipping her head even more slightly confused by the joke the medicine cat said.

Wolfkit shuffled her paws before she spoke again, "I don't know. Its just I've been having these weird dreams that I don't think other cats dream about. I don't dream about chasing mice or love I dream about..." Wolfkit fell silent almost ashamed about talking about her dreams to the medicine cat. She should know about dreams maybe that's why the little kit spoke almost freely about her dreams. I mean would a warrior dream about searching for herbs or healing cats from a battle. In fact Wolfkit was really happy in her dreams and when she would wake up it saddened her to realize it was just a dream.

Wolfkit was torn between wanting to be a warrior but she admired Duskmist almost as much as she did Crimsonstar. All Wolfkit wanted to do was help the clan the best way she can but she didn't know what path Starclan wanted to lead her down.

"Maybe I'm being foolish but I want to be a medicine cat but I want to be a warrior too. I just don't know what Starclan want me to do." she confessed. "I want to help the clan the best way I can. I mean who dreams about healing cats and finding herbs when they are asleep only to wake up and realize it was a dream and they are still just a kit?" she rambled.

[[Duskmist]]

“So, you didn’t want to be one?”

The gray she-cat was surprised at what Wolfkit asked. It wasn’t a question an innocent cat younger by almost five years would ask; especially if she’s been a medicine cat for so long. Nevertheless, it got the old gray medicine cat thinking. If I wasn’t that immature back then, would I be a warrior instead? Thinking it was foolish, the medicine cat drove the thoughts away from her mind. No, this is what I was meant to be. StarClan probably played with my young mind just to set the path of my paws to the path of the medicine cats.

What really got the attention of the medicine cat were the stories of the kit saying that she had dreams different from others. Whether the kit’s dreams were from StarClan or just from her wild imaginations, dreams that didn’t include hunting were plain boring. Furthermore, the kit also added that she was a bit indecisive about her intentions whether she would train as a regular apprentice or a medicine cat apprentice. Adding her concern with Duskmist and her ‘unusual’ dreams, it was only there that it had hit her: Wolfkit was trying to inform to the medicine cat that she was interested in her path.

“Why don’t you try being a Warrior first, before trying to become a medicine cat?”

Personally, Duskmist wasn’t really keen on finding another apprentice, just after the death of Dreampool. The old black cat was once Duskmist’s assistant in her work; doing chores, harvesting herbs and taking care of the younger apprentices. Having received her name from the Moonpool, the cat was already qualified to be a medicine cat in the eyes of StarClan. Having a new apprentice would just mean she’d train another one again. Besides, even she, herself, had train to be a Warrior before she discovered the path laid by StarClan. “You really do not know what kinds of things StarClan prepared for you, so it’s better not to hurry,” she added. “You still have two more moons to think about it.”

A gust of wind reminded the thick furred she-cat that they were still by the lake’s shore. It would soon chill the young Wolfkit again if they didn’t find any place warm to rest to. “Let’s get back to camp, and continue this conversation on the way,” Duskmist mewed. She fluffed her fur against the cold and herded the kit back to the camp, tracing her previous footsteps that the kit left on the snow.

[/quote]