It was a time of cold, suppressing winds and howling blizzards and life dying away. The clans struggled just to feed themselves enough today so they would not die tomorrow.
Leaf-fall came and went. The colorful leaves were red, brown, golden and orange. They danced in the cool, refreshing breeze. But every time, those bright colors faded away and the branch turned bare. Leaf-bare was almost here.
"Mama, what is snow?"
The ShadowClan nursery was quite empty and vacant, quiet also. A silvery tabby she-cat lay on her side in the shadowed farthest end of the den, her ice blue eyes caring as she looked down at her young daughter.
"Snow?" the tabby she-cat mused, her fluffy tail swishing back and forth thoughtfully. "Why do you ask?" Her kit had never even seen snow before.
A small, white she-kit was seen tumbling around playfully in the nursing den until she finally came to a halt and stared back up at her mother, her dark blue eyes round and wide.
"Because," she squeaked happily, "I want to know what my name means."
Snowkit was the young kit's name, and her mother, Silverbreeze, had named her that because her snowy, clean pelt was the exact color of fresh snow. Her mother also loved the snow. The sparkling white fluffy blanket that covered the ground in leaf-bare was beautiful to her.
"Well, snow is…" Silverbreeze said but trailed off. How exactly do you explain snow to a kit? she wondered.
Snowkit was still staring wide-eyed at her as she waited for an explanation.
"It's fluffy and white," started Silverbreeze, "and it covers the whole ground and all the trees. It's cold if you touch it at first, but once you get used to it, it's not so bad."
Snowkit breathed, "Wow. When do I get to see snow?"
"In leaf-bare," answered her mother. "That's when snow comes. It's fun to play in and a beautiful sight to behold."
Snowkit laid down and rested her chin on her paws, her snowy white tail sweeping from side to side.
"I really want to see snow soon," she murmured, and looked out the den's entrance to the outside world, staring at a scene of grey and brown.
Please, let leaf-bare come soon…
"Hey, Flamekit!" mewed Snowkit cheerfully as she leaped out of the nursery to greet her friend.
A fire-colored tomkit was sitting beside an older warrior who was watching him at the fresh-kill pile. Flamekit glanced over his shoulder to see a white she-kit bounding over.
"Hi, Snowkit," he said.
"Do you know what snow is?" Snowkit asked eagerly, a wide grin on her face.
"Oh, snow," Flamekit said, looking up as if he were thinking. He nodded slowly. "I've heard about snow before, even though I've never actually seen it. My mother used to tell me stories about snowstorms and blizzards and how it's really scary, cold and can even kill cats!"
"No no, not a snowstorm or blizzard or whatever you just said," interrupted Snowkit. "I mean what the world looks like after it snowed! My mother told me all about it. How it sparkles in the sun, how it's so white and fluffy and you can just jump in and play in it." She sat down. "How can you say it's scary? It doesn't sound scary to me at all!"
"Maybe your mother is lying," whispered Flamekit to Snowkit, leaning into her ear.
Snowkit gasped, then made a disapproved look.
"No, my mother wouldn't lie to me!" she exclaimed confidently. Then her eyes widened and her confidence drained away. "…Right?"
Flamekit shook his head. "You wanna know what snow really is, and I wanna know which one of us is right. Come on then, let's go ask Pinekit. He's smart, he'll know what it is!"
Snowkit nodded. "Right."
And with that, they bounded back off in the direction of the nursery, hoping their tabby friend was there.
"Pinekit!" called Snowkit into the den. "Pinekit, where are you?"
"We need to ask you something!" added Flamekit.
They peered into the nursery—a white head and an orange one looking around. A few older queens and she-cats turned to look at them. Snowkit was about to walk away when Flamekit spotted a dark brown tabby pelt amongst them. A slightly larger tomkit waddled out.
"Pinekit, we need to ask you something," Snowkit said.
Pinekit focused his yellow eyes on them. He flicked his ear. "Sure, what is it?"
Flamekit shuffled his paws. "Do you know what snow is?"
"Snow? That's easy!" Pinekit laughed. "I heard it's white or silvery and it comes when the temperature gets cold."
"I thought snow could only come in leaf-bare," said Snowkit. "That's what my mother told me."
"No, I've heard snow can actually come anytime, as long as it's cold," Pinekit said confidently.
"Great," muttered Flamekit. "Now how do we know who's right? We have three different answers as to what snow is."
"Maybe we should just wait for snow to actually come," Pinekit suggested. "That way we can all see for sure."
Snowkit groaned impatiently. "But who knows when snow might come? It could take forever! I can't wait that long."
Pinekit looked around. He spotted a distinctive dark grey pelt among the cats.
"There's Stonepaw," Pinekit pointed out. "We could ask him. I bet he knows."
"If it means we'll finally know what snow really is, count me in," said Snowkit as she ran along with the two tomkits in the dark grey apprentice's direction.
In the woods, an apprentice was having a lesson on hunting.
"Now you just crouch down like this, and remember to flatten your ears and stick your tail straight, lowering it to the ground but not touching the ground," his mentor was speaking. "Focus on your prey and slide forward silently. That way, the prey won't hear your paw steps and it'll—"
"STONEPAW!"
They both cringed at the shrill shout. Stonepaw's mentor, Stormflight, sighed and shook his head.
"What now?" his mentor muttered.
Stonepaw turned to see three kits dashing towards them.
"What in StarClan are Flamekit, Snowkit and Pinekit doing here?" Stormflight exclaimed.
"They should be in the nursery!" Stonepaw murmured.
The three small cats skidded to a halt and panted as they stopped right in front of Stonepaw and his mentor.
"Stonepaw, what's snow?" asked Snowkit immediately, bursting with curiosity.
"Why do you need to know?" Stormflight questioned in his deep voice. "You're only young kits."
"It all started because of Snowkit's name!" Flamekit cut in. "Now we need to know what snow is, and we've never seen it before."
Stonepaw looked up. The sky was clear and light blue today, but tomorrow, maybe it'll snow. Leaf-bare is approaching fast, after all.
"Why don't you just wait and see?" suggested Stonepaw in his usual calm demeanor. "It'll probably snow very soon, looking at the temperature." He felt a cold wind blow over, and shivered. The kits did too.
"You three need to go back inside the nursery," ordered Stormflight.
"But we still need to know—" started Pinekit, but got interrupted.
"Come on, guys," said Stonepaw, leading them away. "It's good for you to go back. Besides, it's getting quite cold here in the forest."
He lead them back, promising to come back to Stormflight and continue their lesson later. As the dark grey apprentice tom lead them back to the nursing den, Snowkit's mother burst out and circled around them.
"Snowkit!" she exclaimed, happy and relieved but very angry too. "Where have you been? And Pinekit and Flamekit's parents have been searching too."
"I'm sorry, we just…" said Snowkit. She sighed in defeat, shifting her paws around. "We just wanted to know what snow is," she finally admitted. "So we went around asking other cats."
Silverbreeze's blue eyes widened, then she chuckled and sighed hopelessly.
"I thought I already told you," she meowed. "Besides, do you really need to go that far when we're all right here?"
"Well, our ideas of snow are all different," said Pinekit. "So we wanted to know the truth."
"Tell you what, let's just wait until tomorrow and pray to StarClan that it'll snow," said Silverbreeze, smiling down at the kits. "Pray extra hard, and who knows? Maybe those StarClan cats will hear you and really make it snow."
"I'll pray!" Snowkit cheered. "I'll pray to StarClan!"
Flamekit grinned too. "And I'll do the snow dance to make it snow!"
Pinekit smiled and looked up at the sky. "I hope it truly will snow tomorrow."
And left with a land of bare trees, the chilling night set in later as the kits dozed off to sleep. A cold wind swept through the clan's camp, and dark clouds filled the sky. But as one downy white petal drifted down from the heavens, a ghost-like cat smiled down at them from above the clouds, as if saying:
"Wish granted."
"Wow…"
The next day was a wonder and a miracle all mixed in one. Snowkit woke up and blinked sleepily, then her eyes widened to the white rim as a pure scene of white was reflected in her dark blue orbs.
"No way…" breathed Snowkit, then bounded outside and leaped joyfully into the snow. "IT'S SNOWING!"
Little snowflakes like fluffy downy feathers softly and silently drifted down from the grey clouds, clouds that promised much more to come. Snowkit's white fur blended in perfectly with the fresh blanket.
"Flamekit! Pinekit! Wake up!" shouted Snowkit, overjoyed with a big smile on her face. "It's snowing! Come on, wake up already, sleepyheads!"
She saw a bright orange fireball dash through the white. She smiled as a darker tabby kit followed close behind, sinking and yelping due to the thick layer of snow.
"So this is what snow looks like!" Pinekit mewed happily.
"It is beautiful!" Flamekit said, looking around as the sunlight bounced off the snow and left a golden and silver glitter. "Snowkit, you were right."
"Mother was right," Snowkit corrected, smiling. She then jumped into the snow and sank in, lying on her back with her two friends beside her, not even caring that the snow was chilly and stung her skin at first, because later it felt so nice and refreshing.
The land glittered and gleamed, the sun cheered as it peeped out from behind the clouds. And in the snow, cats—warriors, apprentices, and even elders—came out of their dens to gaze in pure amazement at the silver blanket.
Snowkit sighed happily. She gazed up at the clouds, and she swore that she thought she saw a blue-silver ghost-like cat peering down from the heavens, wearing a faint smile. But as she blinked, the silvery, half-transparent figure vanished.
In the midst of their joy and awe, Snowkit took a glance at Flamekit and a question rose to her mind. She was named for snow after her white pelt, right? And snow was white. So then…
"Hey…" mewed Snowkit hesitantly, but then gave a sheepish smile. Pinekit and Flamekit both turned to look at her.
"What's a flame?"
Ze one with many-a-questions. XD Ah well. It's almost 2000 words, by the way. It kinda cheered me up 'cause I remember always wanting to see snow when I was a little kid, since where I live never allowed me to. So yeah, kind of got the idea from that. Hope it passes, Silver! If it does, then 2 challenges left! :)