The kitten's gaze flicked to whatever the other had found, studying it for a moment. A long moment. She tilted her head one way, then the other, studying both the mouse and the pale cat, until it clicked.

She extended a white paw and gently pushed it, briefly, to the ruby on the cat's shoulder. It was shiny and not fur or flesh, either-- therefore, it must be something similar. "That thing," she suggested. "But smaller. And dark," she added more as an afterthought, before tilting her head upwards and sniffing.

"I will find," she said, dutifully, only half paying attention to where the kitten was pointing to. She was off fairly quickly-- perhaps a little more quietly this time --to a direction around about where she'd been pointed to.

She found another mouse-- a little bigger, a little fatter. Still not much between two kittens, but good enough for sharing. The black cat slowed down, crouching, and began unevenly stalking towards it. Everything seemed fine, right up until she pounced for it.

She missed.

Horribly.

Her paws went about a solid foot next to the mouse and, predictably, it skittered quickly off into the darkness with a lumbering kitten furiously hissing and giving chase, crashing into a wall as the mouse vanished away into it.

The kitten's outrage lasted far longer this time; hissing and screeching at the crevice the rodent had slipped into as she wildly bat it with her paws, tail lashing wildly behind her as she tried to dig through solid stone to get to it.

@Palefur

She watch the cat push against her gem and she looked at it curiously. She hadn't really paid attention to it before but now she realized that it wasn't like the rest of her. A gem, like the little gem she found in the mouse. She looked up. The black kitten didn't have anything visible on her, perhaps hers was inside, like the mouse's had been. Did everyone have one? It was interesting and she wanted to see if they did. But there was no one else around right now.

She watched the black kitten stalk off in the direction she had pointed and, this time, she followed behind, slowly, deciding to leave the jasper behind. If everyone had one, it was no longer an oddity. Just a thing. Food was more important.

But the cat missed again and the pale kitten sniffed with disdain at the ferocity that she attacked the rock with. The anger she displayed and how she just went and lost control. It was pathetic to watch, so she stalked up next to it and made a low gurgling noise to catch her attention. "Stop," she commanded. "You won't get through. There are more to catch. Somewhere around." Her own tail lashed a bit, the only, instinctual display of her own frustration as she glanced around. Her senses weren't picking anything up but that didn't mean that nothing was there.

@Jaysong

With ears pinned back against her head, the kitten turned and instinctively hissed at the other-- a gesture that might be intimidating if she were older, but slightly laughable as a furious kitten. She didn't reply, but she did leave the wall alone with shallow marks left behind from her claws.

Which, incidentally, had begun to ache from the violent outburst.

The cat began stalking along the cave floor again, slowly, sniffing out more prey. They must have been near a nest, because it was only a few minutes longer before she caught the scent of another mouse.

She took a long breath to steady herself before she sank down, belly on the cool stone below her, pacing slowly and quietly towards the mouse. This one, she found, was distracted. It held something between it's tiny hands, turning it over and then bitting rapidly into it.

It didn't matter what it was. This was food that she wanted to eat.

Slowly, without breathing, the black kitten stalked up behind it. Closer and closer, inch by inch, until at the very last moment, she noticed the mouse lift it's head. It was now or never. It was now or start screaming and raking a wall again.

She leapt and her paws quickly found something under them, something warm and squirming and she could feel it's heart racing under her paw-pads. There was an instinct to let it go and chase it down again, catch it and swing it around, play until she felt satisfied, but the risk of losing another mouse was too much.

With one well-placed bite, the mouse's neck snapped and it fell instantly limp, lifeless.

She picked it up in her jaws and went pacing back to the pale tabby, tail lifted with pride. She dropped the prey down on the cave floor and sat back. "Food," she announced.

@Palefur

She sat back again and waited for the other kitten to do her hunting. She kept an eye on her this time, ready to step in if she missed and lost her temper. If she wanted to catch a mouse, she couldn't go wasting time and energy on a futile task like scratching at rock.

And as she watched, the kitten finally made her kill and the pale cat's tail flicked happily. Finally. It was good to watch her friend succeed, even if that was the only indication of her pride. When she returned and set the mouse down, the pale kitten nodded. "Food. Good job." She leaned down and took a few bites, although less then before - she didn't need as much food as the black kitten and, besides, it wasn't her kill. She didn't want to be rude.

When she was done with her food, she began to wash her whiskers and her muzzle, cleaning off what remained of the blood from the kill while she waited for the other kitten to finish as well.

@Jaysong

The huge kitten waited for the other to eat first, still bubbling with pride. A long, rumbling purr left her throat as, eventually, she bent her head down and began to take her fill. Two half-mice had been enough to comfortably fill her.

She lay down on her side and then rolled over onto her back, purring and rubbing her back against the cave floor. There was a long pause, and then a soft rumble. "What now?" She asked. Which was a much broader question than she made it sound.

'What now' referred to things like: what are we doing here? What are we? Who are we? How did we get here? Where are we? Are there other people here? What are we supposed to be doing? Are we the only ones here?

These were not, however, things that a newborn could voice. Although the black kitten was quickly finding words and how to put them into sentences, she couldn't ask every single question on her mind so shortly after hatching.

But that one question did linger as the broad cat rolled onto her side, lazily licking her muzzle and chest clean of blood.

@Palefur

She watched the other cat finish eating a bit blankly, sitting straight and still, the only movement being a soft thumping of her tail. What now indeed? They had hatched, they had eaten, but what was supposed to come next? Sleep? More eating? She wasn't particularly tired and she was filled comfortably with mouse. There was no need to do anymore hunting.

She lifted a paw and licked at the inside of the pad, picking out bits of dust and pebbles. She shrugged. "I don't know. Look for others? Explore?"

It occurred to her a moment later that she'd been referring to the black cat as simply that - a black kitten. She felt like something was missing there, something else could fill that empty, nameless slot. She tried to think of the right words to ask her question and placed her paw back down thoughtfully. "You...what do I call you?" That was the best she had.

@Jaysong

For a moment the kitten only stared, a little blankly at the other. A name wasn't something she'd considered, and when she asked herself what she was meant to be called, a one-syllable note rolled out of her mouth. "Jay."

Just Jay, apparently.

There was another long pause. "What do I call you?" She asked, then rolled back up to stand on all four paws, looking around. She didn't exactly have an appetite for seeking out others just yet-- perhaps it'd be best to do that when she could talk without having to mull over her words for fifteen seconds.

Exploring meant wandering, she considered-- but exploring might be better done with more company. Something told her there might be bad things out there-- things that could hurt her if she didn't wander in a group.

Jay licked her jowls for a moment. "Practice," she suggested, her mind lingering on the instinct that there are things that could kill her if she went out fighting-- but also, practice for hunting. "We fight-- not hurt each other, but fight," she explained, then added-- "for practice. Yes?"

@Palefur

She also paused when the kitten said her name. "Jay," she confirmed. It was...a name. She didn't really know if it was a good or bad name, per say, but it was certainly a name. And when asked for what she would be called, she found herself pulling a blank. She glanced at her own fur and blurted out the first word she thought of. "Pale." Another one syllable word, but one that adequately described her.

At the mention of fighting, not hurting, she raised a paw, watching her claws slide out. She didn't want to hurt Jay and she certainly didn't want Jay to hurt her. The word fight she associated with using claws to defend or attack, and also with hunting, which also used claws. But if they were to practice, then they could do without. "No claws. Keep them in." As she said this, her claws retracted back into her paw. It would be harder to fight and grapple, but injury didn't sound very ideal at the moment.

She crouched and waited a moment for Jay to prepare before spring off at her, aiming to grab at her head with her paws. To land on it or shove her towards the ground.

Round: 1
Attempt: Jump on her head
Defense: none
Injuries: none

@Jaysong

Pale. She similarly had no reference if it were a good name or a bad name, so it was simply, a name. Jay dipped her head and then spent a moment watching her paws, eyeing the claws sheathing and unsheathing out of her white toes.

Keep them in, Pale said.

She left her claws sheathed and lifted her head. "No deep bites," she added. No blood, specifically, was what she meant, but she was unable to accent this properly. Doubly unable to given that Pale was tackling her head-first into the ground.

There was a hollow thump as the massive kitten fell over, but she didn't stay there. With a yowl of protest she twisted her forelegs upwards and made an attempt to loop them around Pale's shoulders to try to pry her off and, in turn, slam her into the ground as well.

Round: 1
Attempt: Yank Pale off her
Defense: None
Injuries: Ouchy head
@Palefur

She heard the yowl and felt the cat's head go down with a satisfying thump but it didn't last long. She had heard Jay's request not to bite deeply and she restrained herself, but that made it more difficult to hold on, especially when the bigger cat's paws came up and grabbed her shoulder. She yowled with surprise as she was flipped over and realized that her belly was exposed now. An instinct said that that was bad.

With Jay now over her, almost on top of her, her legs were positioned right where they needed to be. She had felt the strength in her hind limbs when she had first sprung at her and earlier when she had been hunting. A good kick would be enough to defend herself. So she pulled her her legs and tried to wildly kick out at Jay's chin, or, whatever came too close before she could get up.

Round: 2
Attempt: kick at her chin
Defense: none
Injuries: none

@Jaysong