never trust a dragon [o]

[Firepaw]

firekit was not happy. the tom was angrily hissing at his paw as he cradled it like a baby. he winced and flattened his ears as he wrenched the thorn from his paw pad, spitting it out and licking the blood off his foot as it dribbled out of the cut. the tom waited for about half a minute for the blood to crust when his short attention span snapped. he stood up and wandered over to his nest, right next to his mother fawnskip's, when he ran straight into another kit. "hey! i was walking here!"

[Shadowpaw]

Shadow didn't really have a personality, of sorts. He sort of just took things as they came and reacted as he felt like he should. Though perhaps he could be perceived as broody, though such a concept sort of merely relied upon point of view and circumstance. For now, he merely sat in the corner of the den 'brooding' per say. Though in actually fact his ears were pricked as his place like eyes traced each cat in turn as they come and go. He was still rather small, being only new to the nursery. His fur a little frizzled from his tactic avoidance of yet another morning grooming session. He cared little for appearances. He is a kit, after all, and what should a kit care of how they look? At his state of youth, he hadn't even exited the nursery yet, so it's not like anyone would see him other than the seemingly billions of other kittens. His ears tweak and tune to conversations, though he displays little interest and rather lacks any evidence of actually listening. Which one might suppose would be extremely useful in times of gaining information. He is, however, a visual learner in fact, as he often aims for taking things by stride.

Finding himself rather excessively bored, he trains his minute attention upon yet another kit. This one is different from all the bustling giggling fur balls that surround him in this cramped void of noise and amusement. This one is wincing and twitching. Like he's angry at his own paw. A slight chuckle escapes Shadow's lips before he can stop it. Fortunately, he is situated at the other side of the den, so the noise is most certainly inaudible to the older feline. Curious, however, he raises his haunches to the point of standing, and flicks his tail slightly. He displays little interest, though finds himself approaching as it is. The other male appears to have removed a thorn from his pad, and is seemingly sating his hissing and grumbling by licking it until it stops bleeding. Which evidently doesn't take very long, as the older Tom then gets to his paws and strolls smack bang into him before he can even react. Flicking his head, he hisses a slight utterance of contempt at the older feline's lack of suave. "Really? How fascinating." Shadow rumbles irritably, narrowing his gaze upon the white and ginger pointed tom. "As you clearly lacked the skills to observe, as was I. And unlike you, I was trying to move out of your path when you so rudely collided into me. You're quite lucky I care little for evidently reluctant apologies." He snorts in clear amused frustration, though his face happens to show his clear lack of interest in this feline.

[Firepaw]

firekit wrinkles his nose at the tom he had bumped into. "what language are you speaking? we're not talking to the leader, you know." he says, then grins. "but it's sort of funny." the flame-point tom ignores the pretentious snort that the younger kit makes, and instead sits back down on his haunches and continues to lick his paw. the blood dribbles down and onto the floor of the nursery, and firekit wipes it against the moss. "runt." he whispers, smirking over at the younger kit.

[Shadowpaw]

(Since you are an apprentice now, and they have still yet to introduce each other, shall we say he's an apprentice visiting the nursery rather than ending the thread? Just less confusion that way.)

Shadow finds himself struggling between contempt and mere distaste for this cat. He seems a little up himself, and it causes the younger tom to huff his irritation before deciding he doesn't care. This cat is clearly in a bad mood and trying to get a rise out of him. He doesn't allow his irritation at the older cat's insolence to show to any degree, and instead flicks his head once more and sits down, deciding he might as well make himself to appear semi decent, if only to pass the time. His tongue passes over his slightly ruffled coat in halfhearted swipes as he eyes to older tom out of the corner of his eye, not really caring what this feline had upon his mind. He seemed to be rattling on about Shadow's strange choice of wording, so the young feline stalls in his licking to offer a nonchalant shrug. He didn't understand it either. He just listened to conversations and surveyed emotions more than most kits did. This in turn led to him picking up new words and allocating them meanings based on overheard context. Either way, this cat seems rather ignorant, though perhaps that is mere perception. Like how most tend to perceive him as broody and secluded. Which he would suppose he sort of was in the latter aspect.

A slight chuckle echoes from him in response to the other's grin and comment. He personal,y didn't find his speech or mannerisms all that amusing to be completely honest. He never tended to find such trivial things to be all that interesting. Otherwise he could be snickering over the fact that this cat is so ill spoken compared to him. He doesn't, for he lacks the motivation, and nor does he really care how anyone speaks. More so what they say. Which is what causes him to perk up again from his grooming at the next choice words from his supposed companion for the day. His narrows his lime gaze slightly to gauge the feline's smirk. It doesn't seem to badly natured, so he merely responds with an eye roll as his only reaction. "Oh? Well maybe I'm small because I'm younger than you." He states this a little matter of factly. Sort of just pointing out the obvious and not giving two tails about it. His gaze flits up to meet the other's, and he props his head slightly to one side, still lacking in outward emotion. "Just who are you, anyway? You're certainly not a kit, right?"

[Firepaw]

firepaw chuckles and presses against the scratch to stop the bleeding. "obviously you're younger than me. you're still a kit, after all." he says, rolling his eyes right back at the dark-pelted kit. he realises without missing a step that this kit is a lot more mature than other kits, and crouches down to the other cat's height. "i'm an apprentice. i'm visiting my mother, fawnskip. firepaw. pleasure."

(yeah, that sounds good. sorry the post's short, mom's harassing me to do my essay.)

[Shadowpaw]

(Hehe, no prob. I'm sorta just halfway through dinner like, eh, not really hungry...*writing mode*)

Well that explains his high and mighty attitude then. Which has seemingly lessened. Perhaps it was the mere fact of his bleeding paw that soured his attitude. He still seemed to be nursing it slightly, so it was clearly still bleeding, though the older feline seemed a little disinterested in that now and more so concentrating on Shadow himself. The younger Tom shrugs his clear indifference on the matter, lifts his paw, and promptly swipes his tongue over it lest his mother decide he needs a good and proper grooming. A few more passes of his tongue and he rubs the appendage over his head behind his ears, swiping his tongue over the black limb once more to repeat the action.

Within the process of grooming himself, he allows his mind to wander due to slight boredom of the current conversation. He nearly misses the other's next words, though he's brought to attention by the word 'apprentice.' He'd often wandered what such a status might be like. A trainee that's not that old, but reared enough to see and experience the world for themselves. His ears perk forward, and once the other has finished, he nods. "Hopefully so. My name's Shadowkit, my mother is Birdheart and my sister is Rainkit. I have other siblings, but I believe they're at your rank, being of a seperate little and all." He's not really all that sure of the reason for such a distanced birthing. They were supposed to be litter mates, but he and his sister were born a lot later than anticipated. His eyes switch back to Firepaw's darkened gaze as his question comes back to mind. "What is it like to be an apprentice? Humor me."

[Firepaw]

firepaw's dark green eyes immediately flick to a movement in the corner of his eye, but realise it's just a group of kits playing and quickly turns his attention back to the cat in front of him. there was hardly any movement like that in the apprentice den, he realised - everyone was either out training, or catching up on sleep. the creamy white tom lets out a small smile as he hears the squeals of the kits. he wished he had spent more of his kithood playing - he spent it all harassing apprentices to teach him how to battle. when the tomkit speaks again, firepaw's attention snaps back to him and he listens quietly.

"shadowkit, huh? i knew a shadowkit once, but he was way older than me and became a warrior while i was a kit." he says, then listens to shadowkit's next words. "what's it like to be an apprentice? different. from a kit. you've gotta be independent, so you can't rely on your mother or denmates to do things for you." firepaw says, raising his eyebrows. "do you reckon you're ready for that?"

[Shadowpaw]

This cat seems very interested in something other than our conversation. My ears twitch and I follow his attention to a group of kits playing. I smile because I recognise one or two of them. I wave my tail slightly in greeting before tugging my attention back to him. I should probably play more, like them. But hey, why not ask a few question since this apprentice is here? It certainly couldn't hurt to gain some insight. He's pretty sure he spots a flicker of a grey pelt amongsrpty the tumbling kits, and hopes that it's his sites. She really needs to meet some other cats. Being only littermates to each other, they're nigh inseparable. And if they do stray, it's like they haven't gone anywhere at all. With a smile draw out by entertaining the thought of his sister making some friends, he turns back to the Tom and returns to his former nonchalance.

"Really? That's possible? You must have been a kit forever then. Or maybe he was a really good apprentice." A tweak of a smirk tugs at the corner of Shadow's mouth. For some reason he doesn't quite find himself believing this cat's story. Oh well, none of his business really. His ears perk to attention once more as Firepaw goes on to answer his requested question. At his explanation, I give a slight shrug. That's not really what I wanted to know. "I meant what is it like to train and hunt and fight, mousebrain." I snort slightly in amusement. It's clear I don't mean it as an insult, and I arch one fictional brow at his own question. What is he implying? "For independence? Of course I am. The only thing I rely on is my mother for food, but that's because what am I going to do, produce it myself? And me and my sister don't rely on each other we're just really close." He gives a shrug. That should really be obvious to the older tom. Especially if he has been a kit for as long as he implied. I'm still not convinced that's possible.