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A light dusting of frost coated the uneven earth and painted the pines silver beneath the dreary gray sky. A blue-gray tom cat's paw-steps left imperfections in the otherwise perfect frost as he walked beneath the sparsely populated pine forest. Though it was his second Leafbare in the strange mountainous realm, Lightnose couldn't help but long for the partially frozen river that flowed around the RiverClan camp. It didn't matter that he couldn't fish or swim properly in it, the scent and sound of the water was the important aspect, the classic marker to RiverClan that it was Leafbare. Here, far from the nearest proper body of water, the closest the blue-gray tom got to his river's sounds and smells was the frost that froze and slickened the ground. Needless to say, Lightnose was not fond of his new marker of Leafbare.

Warm, moist clouds of breath taunted Lightnose with memories of warmth, both in its abundance in RiverClan territory and its scarcity in his new home. Lightnose moved beneath the relative shelter of a frosted pine, curling in on himself in wait for a former rival turned ally. Lionfang, like Lightnose, had unwittingly ended up in the miserable mountainous realm for a time with no end in sight. He was, no is, Lightnose corrected himself, a ThunderClan cat.

There was no denying Lionfang's heritage upon observation: broad, strong-bodied, and a flame-colored pelt with eyes that reflect the forest he was brought up in. His brave personality and know-it-all ThunderClan speech affirmed his true allegiance as well. In short, Lionfang was the epitome of a ThunderClan cat just as Lightnose was the epitome of a RiverClan cat. His eyes and slick, water-resistant fur mirrored that of the river who wrapped itself snuggly around RiverClan's camp; his thick, rudder-like tail and big, webbed paws made it easy to conquer any body of water that crossed his path; and to this day (or so Lionfang claimed) his breath reeked of fish.

Though the two toms would have never associated with each other around the lake territories, they had become good friends in the past few seasons. The new group of cats they'd found in the mountains was nothing like a clan. Aside from sharing a camp and hunting territory together, the group was otherwise unaffiliated with one another in the clan cats' eyes. Each cat was on his own with catching prey and healing themselves and because of this, no cats survived to be elders, and hardly any kits were born into this group. Not to mention, their names were strange and the clan cats' names were taboo.

Lightnose's ears twitched at Lionfang's signature heavy-pawed steps against the slick rock. The fire-pelted ThunderClan tom stood out starkly against the white, gray, and green landscape as his viridian gaze scanned the area warily until they landed on Lightnose's form beneath the pine.

"There's another one." Lionfang said, voice low.

Lightnose's tail flicked, "Is that what's off? Did you feel this when I came to Dragon's Maw?"

Lionfang gave a short nod, "Yes, at first I didn't know what to make of it, but then you showed up. Good thing I recognized your fishy pelt and warned you, too, otherwise Judas would've had you killed."

His lips curled back into a partial snarl, "If you handled yourself with Judas, I'm sure I could've as well."

The ThunderClanner huffed, an arrogant gleam in his eyes. "Somehow I doubt that. There's no river here to dive into and swim away when things get tough, Fishy."

Lightnose growled lightly at Lionfang's nickname, but didn't bother fighting him about it. "Look, we just have to make sure we find the new one before anyone else."

"You think I don't know that?" Lionfang griped, "I was here first, I actually saw what happened to the first clan cat who came to Judas' group! I will never let that happen to another one of us again! Around the lake we might be rivals, but here, we are all just clan cats and us clan cats look out for each other."

Lightnose flicked his tail again, "Of course, I thought that was a given."

A look of annoyance fell over Lionfang's face, but Lightnose ignored it. "Then we are in agreeance," Lionfang told the RiverClanner, "we search until we find the newcomer."

"Yes, and if another finds the newcomer first?"

"Then we do whatever we can to get Judas' mercy." Lionfang said grimly.

Lightnose rose to his paws, "Judas is not known for his mercy."

Lionfang nodded again, "Then let's get searching."