Vixenkit

Vixenkit is a mostly-ginger tortoiseshell tabby she-cat with extra front toes and amber eyes.

## Personality

Inconsistency is something that Vixenkit is known for. At one moment she can be the calmest kit around, the next she'll be excitable and energetic; one day she'll have an amount of patience that could be hard to believe belongs to a kit of all cats, another she'll be short-tempered and quick to snap at others. If she finds a cat that she admires, she's known to adopt parts of their personality into their own - from her mother, for example, she might borrow her gentleness, and from her father she might take his loyalty - but even then, who knows how long those traits are going to stick. Other aspects of her personality can reemerge at times, depending on her mood and the situation she finds herself in. One thing that does remain a constant - and something that sets her apart from her parents - is her tendency for trouble-making. She enjoys getting under other cats' paws and breaking as many rules as she can without getting herself in *too*much trouble, and she also likes trying to find out how much she can get away with. She also tends to dislike being ordered around, and is likely to rebel against any orders given to her just on principle rather than her not agreeing with the orders themselves. She likes to think of herself as her own boss; which is something that doesn't really go along all that well with the Clan system, but she doesn't care all that much about those kinds of things, most of the time.

## Long Posts

### oh the joys of kit death

Vixenkit felt tired.

Generally, she always was - finding the strength to open her eyes had taken a bit longer for her than it had for most kits, and despite the fact that she was a moon old she hardly ever left her family's nest. Clambering to her paws and walking around sapped so much energy from her; doing anything like playing with her siblings was unthinkable. Even though she could eat solid food now (and enjoyed it plenty), going from the nursery to the fresh-kill pile and back was just *so much* to do.

Had she always been *this* tired? Hadn't there been a time when she would shove her paws into Robinkit's side, or swat at Squirrelkit's muzzle, or felt tempted to pounce on her mother's swishing tail? She thought there might have been, maybe, for a little bit, but her mind was too foggy now to remember properly.

Moving was getting too hard.

Thinking was getting too hard.

*Breathing* was getting too hard.

She didn't notice when her breath stopped. Only noticed that the next time she opened her eyes, she didn't feel tired anymore.

Curious, Vixenkit scrambled to her paws, for once not having to struggle (much - kits aren't known for their coordination, after all). She looked around the nursery with wide, curious amber eyes, but paused when they landed on an unfamiliar brown tabby. She was sitting near the entrance of the den, but that wasn't the weird part - she had stars in her fur, and her paws didn't touch the ground. When the tabby spotted her, she offered the she-kit a smile.

"Hey there," she greeted.

"Who're you?" Vixenkit asked, making her way out of the nest and up to the she-cat to sniff at her pelt, wondering if that might help to identify her. "Are you gonna be a new queen here, or somethin'?"

The tabby shook her head, watching the tortoiseshell sniff at her pelt with twitching whiskers. "My name's Otterleap," she introduced. She hesitated for a heartbeat, then continued, "I'm here to take you somewhere."

Vixenkit's ears perked, and she sat back to look up at Otterleap. "Where's that?"

"StarClan."

Vixenkit stared up at the tabby, silent, for a few long moments. "But only *dead cats* go there," she told her confidently.

Something changed in Otterleap's expression, but the younger cat couldn't name it. "Vixenkit," she mewed, her voice soft and gentle, "you *are* dead."

She tilted her head up at Otterleap, one ear slowly folding backwards in confusion. "No, I'm not. I was just alive a heartbeat ago!"

"That's how it is," Otterleap told her with a small shrug. "It happened to all of us - or, well, it *will*. Now it's your turn."

Vixenkit opened her mouth to deny again, turning her head to look at her family's nest to point out how clearly alive she was, but paused when her eyes landed on the cats there. Her parents were there, and so were her siblings... and so was she, lying there still - especially compared to the easy breaths everyone else was taking.

"But I..." Vixenkit trailed off, looking helplessly between the nest and Otterleap, "I didn't even *feel* anything."

"That's good," Otterleap mewed, nodding her head, even as she brought her tail around to brush it comfortingly against her flank, "Most cats don't *want* to feel anything." For a short while, the pair of them were silent, just sitting there. Then Otterleap mewed, "Come on - it's time to go," rising to her paws as she did so and dipping her head to gently nudge Vixenkit with her muzzle.

Vixenkit watched Otterleap turn around and slip out of the nursery, but she hesitated for a moment, looking over her shoulder at her family's nest again. Then, with a wave of her tail, she chirped a, "Bye!" before she bounded out after the tabby she-cat.