Moon and snow, sun and rain, parted kin, bond again. Stars descend from the sky. Guard them well, hardship is nigh.
"Rockear! I told you there was going to be a blizzard. But no, you had to run off to the Cliffbowl, instead off staying here NOT catching greencough."
"I had my reasons Raincliff, dont worry. It will be worth it. Trust me."
"I'm the leader, it's my job to worry. Plus, Rabbitpaw is going to hate you if you keep this up."
"Oh, please. She loves having free reign in MY den, with MY valuable herbs, having naps in MY bed whenever she gets bored."
"...Just tell me what you saw. You know we'll need it if this keeps up."
Tundrapaw woke with a jolt. "Sparrowpaw! I'm awake! Seriously, stop!"
"Awwww... " The brown tom stopped poking him and put his paw back down.
"You know,..." The toms turned around to see Wintersnow, the grouchiest cat in all the tribe, staring at them. "The dens may be made of rock, but that doesn't mean everyone's ears are too. Next time, I'll ASK if I want a wake-up call." He padded off to the fresh-kill pile in silence.
Tundrapaw turned back to his main problem. "Why did you wake me up so early? Nothing special about today, right?"
He stared like a startled badger. "What do you mean, nothing special about today?! The Blizzard is over! let's go see the Outside!"
Even though they had been apprentices for a moon, just before they became apprentices the three-moon-long winter blizzard started, so they had never been outside before. This sort of thing was considered quite normal for the tribe. It happened every year, why should it surprise them?
"Come on! We gotta get Raincliff to show us the Glacier!"
"Probably gonna be Blizzardtail. Just because YOUR mentor is the leader doesn't mean he can run off with you for everything."
At that moment, Rockear bolted in, and ran up to the Rockfall. "Scout says..." Tundrapaw turned. "scout says" basically meant 'I've found something important, listen to me.'
"Scout says... We have... a.. way across the.. ravine.. now..." He sat down to catch his breath. "But unfortunately, we also have two other problems. There's a snow fox on the loose, and.." He paused for a second, "The river's surging early." The cave erupted into chatter. The river surging early? If that meant they had to leave the glacier early this season-cycle, they could starve! The ice-cold river was a risky food source, and the small forest provided okay prey at best... And what about the ravine? that was their best protection! With the deep ravine, the freezing river and the near-unpassable glacier, no other animals came onto their wedge of tundra territory.
And other cats were a rarity, too. Some cats from the Tribe had even left because of the harsh land. Sunpelt, who's fur was too thin to survive. Moontail, who was mostly nocturnal. Snowpath, who once tried to "make friends with" a fox. This land WAS pretty dangerous.
As the crowd began to disperse, Nightpaw, Tundrapaw's sister, padded up. "You know what that means?" He turned. "No... what?" She smiled. "Raincliff will almost definitely try to speed up our training!