Flutter By

Willowkit sat outside the nursery, eyes tracing the path of a butterfly fluttering around in front of them. They would've still been in the nursery cuddled up to their mother had she not pushed them out with her back leg telling them to "go explore". Willowkit wasn't aware of this, but their mother had in reality only told them to to this because they were getting far too big to comfortably share a nest with. Willowkit got to all fours and began to follow the butterfly, bumbling along at a leisurely pace. Suddenly, the butterfly was gone from their view and they crashed into something big and fluffy. They looked up with wide eyes, mouth in an 'o' shape. It was an apprentice, a fluffy red one. Willowkit spoke in an almost-whisper. "Oh, hello. Were you looking for the butterfly too? It went that way." They pointed over the apprentice's shoulder with a paw only to realise that there was no butterfly to be found. Willowkit frowned, searching for the bug. "Oh. It disappeared." Already forgetting about the butterfly, they turned to face the other cat again. "I'm Willowkit. Who are you?"

Cypresspaw had been pacing around the camp - trying to sort out the thoughts and feelings that had been weighing him down recently. There was something making his skin crawl but he hadn't figured out what had been causing it... And didn't have much time to dwell on the pieces when something caught his attention - a butterfly sailing past...Then something ran into his leg. He stumbled to the side, turning with a frown although it quickly disappeared at the sight of the kit. As the kit questioned if he was looking for the butterfly as well, Cypresspaw took the moment to sit down and started to groom at his ears. Then, the kit mentioned their name and the apprentice couldn't help but pause.

It was a little bit of a surprise that the murmuring about the kit had reach the apprentice's den but it had been a point of interest recently - a kit, who almost as soon as they could talk, declined being both a tom and she-cat. He had to imagine that most cats didn't understand and that is why Willowkit's name was being spread about but... Cypresspaw couldn't deny the little fluttering in his stomach at the thought of how... Nice it almost sounded. "Oh!" Cypresspaw suddenly realized that he had fallen quiet for a good bit, blinking back into reality. "I'm Cypresspaw. So...Chasing a butterfly, huh?" he questioned, resuming the grooming of his ear. Already, he could feel himself relaxing in the presence of the kit - he often would question motives but...What was nice about kits was that they didn't have much motives other than to play and distract themselves. Not very deep but nothing to worry about.

The large kit nodded, tufted ears flapping. "Uh-huh. A real big one. Like..." they spread their paws as wide as they could go, tongue sticking out slightly at the effort, "thiiiiis big. T'least. Did you ever catch a butterfly? Was it a big one? Bet it wasn't 's big' s mine. Betcha three bits of freshkill." A big grin spread across their face, sure that Cypresspaw couldn't possibly have seen, let alone caught, a butterfly as big and impressive as that one.

Cypresspaw tilted his head as Willowkit streached out their paws to show how big the butterfly was. He knew there weren't any butterflies that size - and he couldn't help but shake the temptation to question if the kit had instead been following a bird but he knew better. Kits were...Simple - not in a bad way, but he wasn't going to question Willowkit's imagination. Nothing good came from that and he did want to befriend the young kit - if only to question about how they had come to their choice to be neither a tom or she-cat but...It also seemed a heavy question to ask a kit, even if they seemed so sure of themselves. "Right, right," he meowed, curling his tail around his paws. "I've caught a butterfly or two in my time, but I must concede - they certainly weren't anywhere close to the size of your butterfly. But...I suppose you didn't catch it, did you?" he questioned, a soft smile crossing his muzzle. "We can practice together so the next time you see this big butterfly, you can catch it and show it off properly."

Willowkit scrunched up their nose. Cypresspaw spoke like a grown-up. All the fancy words. "You talk funny. Con-seed. Is that a plant?" Not capable of entertaining two thoughts at once, Willowkit didn't wait for an answer. "I so too would've catched it if I wanted! I was just tired. It's very warm today." They said that last part with an air of confidence, as if the weather explained everything. They lifted their back paw to scratch at their ear. "Practice? Like training? Am I gonna be an apprentice now?" They grinned, already convinced. "I've decided! You're my mentor now. Teach me how to catch butterflies!" They faltered for a bit, adding, "uh, pretty please."

Cypresspaw smiled softly as Willowkit poke fun at the word 'concede', acknowledging that it was a rather strange word...And did sound like a type of plant. He listened as they went on, drifting from topic to topic until they declared that Cypresspaw was now their mentor, whiskers twitching as he blinked at them. "Your mentor, huh? I am only an apprentice myself but I do suppose I have some things I can teach you," he said as he jumped to his paws, dropping into a playful crouch. "First, butterflies are timid. They move at the slightest breeze - you gotta be quiet and careful if you are approaching one that has taken a second to land," he explained, slowly stalking across the ground as an example, his paws making not a sound against the stone. "No sudden twitches of your ears, no flicker of your tail...Nothing that could set them off. You gotta move slow and careful like - it ain't easy but its important."