Username: Chanceuxcat
Cat Name: Ink -> Inkkit -> Inkpaw -> Inkrip
Gender: female (she/her)
Rank: Bridge
Clan: ScorchClanAge: 3 moons
Which kit?: 1
Do you want an apprentice ref?: no, but would it be possible to get a headshot of the apprentice ref? So I could see how the eyes look? If not, that's fine, just wanted to see if that would be a possibility :3
Prompt 1:Ink wiggles away, paws moving uncoordinated across the ground. It’s almost comical she was able to get this far, but the dread and sadness overwhelms her. She had made her dads argue! It was all her fault that dada, known as Twist by the adults, had run away from papa known as Freckle, and would never ever come back. Well, she didn’t know for sure he wouldn’t come back, but her simplistic young mind saw it that way. So naturally, she had to leave.
The argument had taken place that morning. Bright and early, the sun had barely risen when another cat, a different scent from dada, had visited. Ink had woken first, her sharp nose catching this strange scent. Stretching, she scooted herself a bit out of the den to explore. The cat stared down at her with curiosity. He seemed to be really familiar. Like dada! That’s who she almost had mistaken him for upon sight, but his scent made it clear he was not the same cat.
“Hello little one,” he cooed, leaning down to gaze into her eyes with wonder. Had he never seen a kit before?
“I’m Ink,” she proudly declared in response. The tom chuckled.
“Hello Ink. I’m Pretzel.”
He went silent, examining her again.
“Do I know you?” he muttered suddenly, eyes momentarily unfocused, as if he was recalling something from long ago. But the look quickly faded and his unworried smile returned.
“Ah well, I can’t seem to figure what that was about,” Pretzel said, addressing Ink again.
Ink didn’t dwell on such an odd statement, her mind quickly forgetting.
“What’s your favorite color?” she asked with a touch of seriousness, as if she had been waiting to ask this question since she first saw him and its answer would be of such grave importance that his response better fulfill her expectations.
“Oh, well…” he began.
“Pretzel?”
Ink’s papa interrupts as he stepped out of the warm den.
Oh no, I didn’t mean to wake him up, Ink thought to herself, a touch frustrated that she hadn’t been quiet enough like her dada had told her to be, if she was to get up before anyone else. After all, she wants to be a good group member and not wake the whole camp up.
While she had been admonishing herself, the two toms had been cordially talking, and even as a two week old kit, eyes barely open, Ink could see they appeared to be getting along quite well. Maybe that’s some other family member? Another dad?
A stone flicked past her paws, and Ink batted at it without thinking, entranced by the rolling object. But the two toms glanced towards the newcomer, who had just announced his arrival with the scattered stone. Twist looked at Pretzel and Freckle with hurt, a soulful expression that made Ink look up from her new toy and freeze.
“Twist-” Freckle said, taking a step towards him. But Twist shook his head, angry tears rolling down his nose.
“Just… just stay there. With Pretzel. I know… he’s the one… you wanted him… he should have been the father of our- your kits.”
The venomous words made Freckle recoil in hurt, and it dawns on Ink that this strange cat being here made her dada so mad. And she had been the one to talk to him first instead of telling him to go away!
Ink helplessly watched her dada storm away, and her papa run back into the den, shame and anger at herself rippling across her pelt. No one noticed her in that moment, the tiny kit she was, and with her limbs still barely under control at this age, she moves away.
She had ruined everything, and she was going to leave before she could cause any more harm.
Prompt 2:Ink’s legs betray her quite quickly, as she begins to climb down a hill. The dirt slides under her paws and she’s soon on her belly, tumbling down the slope with no way to stop. She tries to cry out but is only able to do so weakly. Her body finally slows, splashing into a shallow stream at the base of the hill. Ink mews pitifully, trying to rise to her paws and get away from the water. But lying there, exhausted, she is struck by how different the land is around here. The trees certainly weren’t as big and red a moment ago, at the top of the hill. And when she looks back towards the hill, she has to raise a paw to her eyes and rub them. The hill… it’s gone!
Except for… is that a tear, a rip in the sky? For in front of her face seems to be a small tear in the world. Later, she’d have the words to call this a “rip in reality” but for now it seemed just a door into another world, where the hill was visible. And from it, she could faintly hear desperate cries of “Ink! Ink! Where are you!” from her papa. But with a small pop, it closes, as if it had never existed in the first place.
Ink wiggles in fear. She’s suddenly very, very alone. She’s cold and wet, and yet unable to move much more than a few inches. Her body goes limp. Her two week old self barely made it this far, and it seems to her that she won’t go any farther.
-
Marblenose catches the strange milkscent as he passes by. Even dampened by water, the scent is very distinct and clearly one of a young kit. He had been out hunting, just for fun passing this way by chance, and as he nears the stream he sees the kit’s motionless body. Without delay, he pulls her out, returning to camp with the kit clutched in his jaws as quickly as possible.
“Petalscorch!” he yells at the camp’s entrance, no sure who else to turn to. Petalscorch instantly spots the kit, drops the firewood she’s gathered and races over to him.
They lie the kit down in some dry moss, and Petalscorch quickly get a small fire going to dry the kit. As heat returns to her body, Ink’s tail wiggles and here eyes open ever so slightly. She stares blurrily at the anxious cats around her.
“I’m Ink,” she says in a small voice, before drifting back to sleep.
-
Ink grows quickly, as young kits do, upon arrival at Scorchclan. The clan is shocked to realize she can eat prey and soup rather than needing milk as kits usually do. Maybe that’s due to the strange portal Marblenose could have sworn he had seen right before picking Ink up. After two weeks, almost half a moon, it was clear that this kit was utterly alone. No parents were nearby, not even a rogue or loner. But Ink is a joy to have around, the clan’s first kit. She is curious although a bit reckless, jumping headfirst into any challenge with her claws extended. So, the clan gave her a proper name, and she became Inkkit.
Some cats note with confusion how mature she seems to be, despite her young age. When they had found her, she had already become able to walk around the camp, although it takes most kits about a moon to reach this stage. That wasn’t the only strange thing. At two moons, she had the ability to move as quick as an apprentice. And she seemed to have an affinity for the world around her as well. She wandered off at three moons, by herself, but returned safely and quickly. When questioned, Inkkit shrugged and said she knew the territory, despite only traveling it once. Perhaps these quirks come from her place of origin, a remnant of the magic in that world, or would be traits that a kit in her world would need to retain, in order to adapt to such a strange place.
The memory of her home before, the other world she came from, has faded to just shapes and feelings. She can’t remember what had happened or what the other world was like, or what her fathers even looked like. Even her siblings, her own littermates, she can’t recall in the slightest. All she remembers is that someone was mad and she caused it. It frustrates her that she can’t remember why they got upset, and in these moments she’ll have to go shred a piece of firewood until she calms down. Whatever the reason though, Inkkit is glad in a way it happened, so she can be a member of Scorchclan and have some consistency in her young life.
