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Post by **Liz** on Feb 21, 2009 15:05:07 GMT -7
The swollen queen dug furiously, her breath becoming ragged and heavy. The spacious pocket was clean, but the tunnel before it was choked with earth, but that was the least of her problems.
She was almost due, and she had no den.
The she-cat dug faster, the pads under her paws starting to crack as the pebbles dried them out.
Strikefrost, gasping for breath, stopped her digging suddenly, and stepped back. Her den was almost complete.
She turned her back and made her way toward the fresh kill pile, covered in earth.
She didn't care how bad she looked, she needed that den to be done. As she dragged a small mouse from the pile, she sighed with exhaustion. It would take the she-cat ages to dig and line that den, but Smoketail was nowhere to be found, and her nephew, Littletear, was out hunting.
She looked around sadly, chewing a piece of flesh slowly. She wouldn't ask for help, being who she was, she would wait for a cat to offer, and even then make it hard for them to help. But, then again, they were her kits...
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Post by Tealah on Feb 21, 2009 16:23:33 GMT -7
Hawkkit tripped and fell, oomph, right in the middle of the nursery area. This was his usual method of entry, so most of the cats ignored him. A few glanced up from whatever task they were in, but when they saw who it was they turned back. Hawkkit was oblivious to all of it, also as usual. Shaking the dirt from his long fur, he scrambled back to his oversized paws. He'd been chasing imaginary mice all day and now he was bored. The other older kits were playing games that he was simply too clumsy to manage, or so they claimed, and he'd been forbidden to play with the younger kits because of his tendency to accidentally fall on them. Well fine. He was old enough to be an apprentice now anyway, so maybe he didn't NEED to play games. He could... well, maybe he could help the warriors do something!
The kit glanced around expectantly, as though warriors were going to be lining up to ask his help. This, of course, didn't happen. But there was a she-cat here in the nursery area that had been digging... something. Hawkkit didn't have a clue WHY she'd be digging another tunnel in this maze of tunnels, but hey, it was something to do! He gallumphed (yes, gallumphed) up to the cat, who he only vaguely recognized. "HI!! Can I help?" Enthusiasm practically radiated from the young cat. Digging was kind of like an apprentice task, right? Right? He wriggled eagerly.
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Post by **Liz** on Feb 22, 2009 10:47:20 GMT -7
Strikefrosts ice-blue eyes wandered toward the body that created the sound, and they smiled, those eyes of hers. A kit, she sighed. Something she thought she'd never be able to have. The queen jumped a little as her kits wriggled and squirmed suddenly, but then she paid no attention. It was New Leaf, and she was almost due...
With that nerve racking thought, she grabbed another piece of fresh kill one of the apprentices had left by her den, and ate it quickly, licking the juices off of her chops.
"Well love," she said in between bites, "Do you like to dig? I'm getting ready to have kits in a while and I need help to build a nursery... do you think you can do that?" She paused for his answer, taking the time to look over his eager expressions. It was cute, she thought, that he wanted to help...
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Post by Tealah on Feb 23, 2009 10:25:41 GMT -7
As the queen was talking, Hawkkit was trying to make himself look as big as possible - which wasn't really all that hard since he was a little large for his age anyway. "Yeah, sure, I can do that!" He bounced once, twice, then without being able to contain his excitement raced over to the unfinished den and stuck his head in. The den was dark but with whiskers and ears and fur he could get a vague idea of how big it was. He could remember how big the nursery he'd been born in was, but that one had been big enough for several queens to kit at a time. Yeah, he could do no problem!
The kit wriggled down into the tunnel and moments later more dirt began to join what Smoketail had already begun. But Hawkkit stopped digging only a few seconds later to poke his head back out. "Oh hey, my name is Hawkkit, what's yours? And how much do you want me to dig?" And then he vanished back in to start digging again. Here his large paws served him well, scooping and clawing dirt out like a tiny badger. He attacked said dirt with his usual enthusiasm, and luckily for Smoketail was too excited about his "apprentice task" to do too much of the chatter that often annoyed other cats.
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