Out the corner of my eye... [OPEN]

Patchkit walked out into the clearing "The camp is SO BORING!" he thought to himself, shaking his short fur "There's never ANYTHING to do!". He strode forward was just about to leap onto a flat stone baking in the leafbare sun when he noticed a twitch out the corner of his eye. He stood still for a second, surely he had been imagining it? He slowly turned around, there was nothing there. He relaxed slightly, it had just been his mind playing tricks on him.

As he faced forward to jump on the rock, he saw it again. He jumped around, fur standing on end. Once again there was nothing there, now Patchkit was truly frightened, what was this monster stalking him from the shadows?

Fernkit was using the shadows of camp to hide herself as she snuck over to the warriors den. The mouse bile prank didn’t work as she thought it would so she was going to do something a little different. The tiny she-kit was planning on putting some catmint into the moss beds. Fernkit didn’t notice patch kit as she snuck towards the warrior den.

Walking backwards, trying to escape the monster. Patchkit was so intensely focused on what was in front of him that he backed up straight onto Fernkit. Scaring the life out of Patchkit he spun around hackles raised and teeth bared.

Softpaw had walked into the clearing when a familiar scent hit her nose. Catmint? Silverstream hasn't used any of that.. She thought. A midnight black tail caught her attention, and she stifled a growl. "FERNKIT!" She yowled, charging across the clearing. She stood over the kit and bared her teeth. Generally, she was shy, calm, and peaceful, but this kit had stolen catmint. That was the most valuable herb in leaf-bare! How had she even got it from their stores?

Fernkit looked up as she heard Softpaw’s yowl. She quickly hid the herbs and smiled at softpaw but then hissed suddenly as patchkit bumped into her. “Watch it!” she hissed making sure she didn’t step on the catmint.

"Give. Me. The. Catmint. NOW!" She hissed in a voice that demanded obedience. Oh she was going to tell Silverstream. And Brindleface. and of course, WindClan's leader. And Fernkit's mother. Pranks and jokes were normal for small kits, but stealing herbs from medicine cats? That was too far. Even a kit ought to know better. Softpaw knew Fernkit knew better.

Patchkit wailed out to anyone who'd listen "There's something following me!". His fur was stood on end and his eyes and nose were dribbling from fear.

Fernkit looked at softpaw. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” she mewed not understanding why Softpaw was this mad at her. Fernkit suddenly looked at patchkit and rolled her eyes. “That’s your tail dummy!” she said wondering why this kit was scared of his own tail.

Patchkit looked at Fernkit with big wet eyes "R-really? A-are you sure?" he stared at her.

Patchkit slowly craned his head back to look at his tail, he brightened up a bit "You're right!" he looked slowly from his tail, to Fernkit and slowly to Softpaw. He giggled at how silly he'd been and whispered to Fernkit "We should probably run now."

Softpaw growled, her anger surging up. It was one thing to steal, but then to lie about stealing was another. She hissed at the kits, hearing Patchkit's whisper. "That's it. If you don't give me the catmint now, I'm going to go tell Wildstar. And he won't be happy. He might even delay your apprenticeship!" She threatened, and as if to prove her point, she started walking towards Wildstar's den.

Fernkit quickly ran after softpaw scared. “Here take it back! I didn’t even steal them, they were lying on the ground by the camp entrance. Don’t accuse, it’s mean!” She hissed throwing the herbs at softpaw and stormed off.

"Yeah? Well it's mean to lie, too!" Softpaw hissed back, then gently collected the catmint, wincing at how crinkled it had become. It would still have healing properties, thank StarClan. Carrying the precious bundle, she padded off to the medicine den, passing by Patchkit, running tail down his back as an apology for all the yelling, since she wasn't normally so quick to hiss.

Rimekit wandered out of his den, squinting at the sunlight and blinking sleep from his eyes. The commotion outside had woken him, and he was not particularly happy about it. "Why are you ratbrains giving Softpaw such a hard time? You know she's the one that's gonna make sure you don't die of greencough some day right?" The kit scowled, baffled at the mischief of the younger kits. "You don't want to anger the medicine cats," he concluded with an expression bordering on a sneer.

Fernkit looked up at the other kit. “I didn’t mean to anger her, she decided to accuse me of stealing from the medicine cat! I’m a clan cat, I know how important the herbs are but noooo she accused me and then when I told her the truth she accused me of lying!” Fernkit ranted.

Heronkit had watched the whole scene from the entrance of the nursery, enjoying the warmth emitting from the queens resting inside. She let out a small mrraow of amusement at how quick Fernkit was to give up her rude 'prank' on Softpaw by stealing the catmint. She did find that to be careless because despite not knowing the slightest thing about herbs (or wanting to) she knew they were important and probably all dead with this chill. She chose not to take a side, but instead to just watch - she considered herself and Fernkit friends, and she did believe her friend when she said she didn't steal it, but she'd hate to be reprimanded by a warrior or starclan forbid, Wildstar.

Patchkit danced around happily, he was happy to be free of the "monster" that was his tail. He fluffed up his fur to look brave in front of the other kits. He bounded over to Fernkit and Rimekit "Hello!" he mewed happily he flicked his tail to show a warm greeting.

"Do you kits want to play?" he mewed and then got into a playful stance.