(LOL They truly do with their adrenaline junkie kids skdljgldksg also I'm here to steal all ur threads hehe)

Speak of the devil and she shall appear, as they say; it wasn't just any self-important warden's spawn that appeared before Iago, but the self-important warden's spawn. Though Nour would like to admit that she was in fact, the spitting image of her father and mother, destined for greatness and yadda yadda, she was still a kitten who very much didn't care for all the fanciful titles that she'd pick and choose at her own whims.

All she saw was the tail of a kitten she didn't know, and well, there weren't a lot of kits in the nursery these days; Trish's spawn had all grown up except for her youngest one, and frankly, her siblings were being boring. Cordelia was always following their mom, Laertes was disappearing all the time and Tilly...well, Tilly was Tilly. She was daddy's favourite girl doing whatever baby things she was doing.

A new kit however, made her eyes glimmer in mischief, as she crept forward slowly and steadily, and moments later, launching herself at the tom's head.

“Watch how you address my sister,” Matilde appeared by Iago’s shoulder, a fluffy white kitten that stood well below his height, but marched forward as if she owned the place. She fixated an icy blue stare at the tom as she turned a half-circle around him and then marched over to stand by Nour’s side. “She is a brute, and buffoon, and worst of all a heathen, but only I can call her that!” She looked down her nose at the tom (well- up her nose), daring him to object. Her words were barbed with rebuke, but it was hard to take her seriously with her tiny stature, squeaky voice, and over-sized ears.

Of course, Matilde had noticed his arrival a few days prior; she just hadn’t paid him any mind. She spent most of her time currying favor from her parents, and really, she wasn’t excited about the prospect of another tom-kit in the mansion (the first one hadn’t left a good impression). But she was bored with her parents gone... sizing up this upstart newcomer seemed like a great way to pass the time.

“What’re you supposed to be, anyway?” She demanded, studying his spiked fur that stuck up every which way. He looked like a great big orange bur.

Nour had simply wanted to play; she treated everyone, including the hunters, like peas on a plate that she'd rather play with than eat. She was about to challenge him, a playful 'fight me!' or an adventure in mind when Tilly appeared. She let out a groan at that. Nour loved her sisters, she truly did. They were all plenty dear to her, but she had hoped to get away from their bickering once in a while, despite being the one who often started it. She gave her sister an annoyed flick of an ear.

"If I'm a buffoon, you're a prat," she retorted back at Tilly, "where's your silk scarf and pretty collar, princess?" Nour had teased Tilly since day one, not nearly as badly as she made fun of Laertes of course, but Tilly was daddy's little princess, and she was the street rat their parents picked up by the nape and decided to pretend it was a cat. They were two very different creatures. Still, she aimed Iago a toothy grin.

"Scared you though didn't I?" she snickered, "at least being stupid isn't as bad as being a scaredy-cat." A cackle left her mouth, as she shrugged. "Come on, I don't have a bees nest to attack or anything; pretty sure my momma will kill all three of us if we try, but Laertes isn't here so I can't pick on the number one scaredy cat...you'll do for now."

She eyed them with a conspiratorial grin. "Have you guys been out of camp yet? Have you seen the ruins?" Her crooked tail was raised high in excitement.

Watching the sisters dynamic was fascinating, Iago hadn't quite realized how different they were in practice. Sure they both had the undercut of self importance Nour seemed more apt to be empowered by it while Matilde seemed ready to simply exercise it. Though as Nour continued speaking he felt emboldened by his own lack of siblings. These two seemed like liabilities he would hate to have to lug around.

Which is why when Nour poked and teased towards trouble his response was to wave his tail in dismissal. "I have never had a desire to leave the camp." Iago sniffed as if the mere thought was a silly notion. Peeking sideways at her he raised a brow and posed a new question. "For what reason would I want to go out and see the ruins now? I will see them just as easily when I am a trainee and burdened by expectations."

He breezed over all her comments of him being a scaredy-cat, he would rather be known as a coward than be dead. There were obviously going to be plenty of cats in the new generation willing to stick their heads into lions mouths, he would much rather hang back and be the lion tamer instead of the stunt performer.

He stared at her, deadpan in the face of her scowl and not moving and inch when she stomped her paw. Instead he let her work herself through her own tirade before speaking. "There are loads of things to see everywhere. And of-course ghost aren't real; there is no way they could exist and not be everywhere in our territory." He stayed silent and simply looked at her as he thought over the proposal though.

Something in her determination made him want to agree to go, if only to see how Nour reacted to the ruins. "Why do you want to go so badly? Do you believe in ghosts? Or is it some silly quest to prove yourself or something as equally as dull." Iago thought her bringing up that her father finds it creepy was a bit of a flag of some sort but he didn't know what it was signaling.

Matilde’s lip was half-angled into a scowl as she listened to Iago, though she’d turned her body away from the two others, as if she wasn’t interested. To her ears it almost sounded like the tom was patronizing them, but Nour’s rebuff had worked to silence Tilly’s worst reproaches a bit.

When Nour asked for thoughts, she turned only her head, her eyes half-lidded as if bored by their pattering. It was almost too obvious – of course Nour knew Tilly’s fascination with curses – she was only asking to get Iago to buy into the idea. But the truth was Tilly did want to go, so shrugged her shoulders and answered honestly. “It sounds cool.”

Nour gave Iago a large grin at that. Oh, she loved an adventure crew. "Let's go then!" she had that bug-eyed excitement in her gaze, her crooked tail waving brightly in the air at that. "Ghost hunting team, let's go," she immediately commanded as if she was a commander in an army, "All right, Tilly, you'll be in charge of finding any cool secret tablets or magical artefacts, and Iago, you can watch the rear, so if anything attacks us from behind, that's on you! I'll lead."

She was always the type of cat who wanted to be at the front, to experience the most excitement possible. As she scrambled out of the camp, she lifted her muzzle as if to taste the air, despite never having been there before. The adults did say it was on the way to the big oak tree, where the leaves were golden. She immediately followed the little path towards the big tree.

Matilde was still visibly silent, evidently sulking in protest at some perceived slight. But still, she went along with them as they left the mansion, though she marched at a slight distance so it didn’t look like she was walking with them to outside observers.

When they got outside, Matilde drew in a little closer — she secretly felt just as anxious as Iago was as they headed to the ruins, though she tried to keep a dignified apathetic expression in contrast to the tom’s outward jumpiness. She walked beside him as Nour led, shooting judgemental looks in his direction every once in a while, though he probably didn’t notice.

She hoped Nour led them straight into a big ghost trap, so she could take herself out along with this big orange burr, two birds with one stone.


She hoped Nour was leading them in the right direction, because her little legs were growing tired. But she dared not voice her complaint, or else they’d think she was a weakling. So she kept her silence.

He hated her. It was decided, now a fact, and he refused to ever rescind that opinion; it was laid in stone. "Of-course I don't have any ghost stories you insipid fool. Because I don't believe in ghosts." The fact he had to repeat this to her infuriated him more than it should have. But he was starting to suspect he would always be irrationally angry around Nour whose very presence for some reason drove his already thin patience over a cliffs edge.

He glanced around at the crumbling facade of something that had once felt great and nothing stirred in him. These forgotten moments lost to time he cared nothing for and it evoked no great feelings in him as it might have in others. What use was their beautiful dynasties when everything fell in time. The thought made him glance towards Nour and Matilde being reminded of their own lineage and feeling a strike of vicious satisfaction.