Chapter Three

Larchkit woke up the next morning, colder than she'd ever been and covered in a thin blanket of snow. Sometime during her sleep, it had started snowing and even though Ferncloud tried desperately to shelter her, the barren terrain was unforgiving and both her kits were frozen to the bone.

"M-mama?" Larchkit's teeth chattered as she tried curling closer to her mother. Ferncloud was already awake but she was as cold as her kits and she cat's providing much warmth. "I'm s-so cold."

"I know, I'm sorry. Your father should be back soon and when he does get back, he can warm you up," Ferncloud nuzzled her daughter. Birchkit was only slightly warmer than Larchkit but even with their combined body heat, the mountain air was too bitter for them.

"I-I don't know i-if I can h-hold on that l-l-long," Larchkit chattered and Ferncloud's face dropped for a moment before breaking out in sheer terror. She could not lose another kit!

"Leafpaw! Cinderpelt!" Ferncloud wailed, trying to get someone's attention. Sootfur and a WindClan she-cat named Robinwing were closest, running to her. "Please, someone go get help! My kits are freezing!"

Robinwing lightly touched Ferncloud. "You're freezing too. Sootfur and I will stay with the kits while you go get help. We have thicker fur than you anyway so they'll warm up faster with us."

Ferncloud shot Robinwing a suspicious look but Sootfur calmed her by putting a reassuring tail on her shoulder. "It is okay, Ferncloud. We won't let anything happen to them."

Ferncloud nodded as she pulled away from her kits, making them both cry when their little source of heat was taken from them. But not a heartbeat later, Sootfur was wrapped around Larchkit and Robinwing around Birchkit.

They were right; their thick fur was significantly warmer than Ferncloud's. The pale she-cat had clambered to her paws and raced away in search of someone to save her kits.

"How are you feeling, Larchkit? Just keep talking to me, okay?" Sootfur asked seriously and the kit just managed a small nod. She felt like she was made of ice and if she made any big movements, she'd shatter.

"S-so cold," Larchkit whispered and buried her face in Sootfur's soft pelt. She closed her eyes and breathed in his smell; he smelt like all the Clans mixed together but the strongest scent was a comforting forest-y smell. ThunderClan smell.

"It's going to be okay. Cinderpelt will be here soon and you won't be so cold anymore," Sootfur soothed. She could vaguely hear Robinwing whispering comforting words to her brother as well. "Just try to stay awake."

"C-cold," Larchkit repeated. Her eyelids were starting to feel droopy but she desperately tried to keep them open. If not for her, for Sootfur.

"I know, we all are," Sootfur murmured. "How about a story while we wait? You can help me make it up." Kits love stories, right?

Larchkit slowly nodded again as he began. His story telling skills weren't really the strongest but for a single tom who's never talked to a kit before, he thought he did pretty well. "Okay, once upon a time, there was a cat named-"

"F-Frozenkit," she piped up. She could feel his muscles tensing under his pelt but he went on.

"Frozenkit," he repeated. "So Frozenkit was a very mean cat. He'd-"

"She," Larchkit butted in. "F-Frozenkit the… she-cat." She was stuttering and shivering so bad that she was starting to leave out words in her sentences.

"Okay, so Frozenkit the She-cat was a very mean cat. She went around throwing rocks and-"

"F-frogs." Sootfur chuckled as he went on.

"-throwing rocks and frogs at everyone she didn't like. But then one day, a beautiful she-cat named…" he trailed off, hoping she'd pick up where he was going and fill in her own name. Kits liked it when they were the centre of attention so he was sure she would like being the 'beautiful hero' in their story.

But instead, she answered, "Sootfur."

"What?" Sootfur gasped. "I'm not a beautiful she-cat!"

"H-her name is Sootfur," Larchkit replied defiantly. He sighed but couldn't help but notice that her chatter was starting to die down and she was finally starting to warm up.

"Fine, a beautiful she-cat named Sootfur, decided to stop Frozenkit the She-cat. So one day, she snuck up behind Frozenkit the She-cat and attacked her. And the second Sootfur touched Frozenkit the She-cat, the evil cat melted away because Sootfur's so hot."

From beside them, Robinwing snorted. "Is that your weird way of boosting your own ego?"

"Hey, I'm not the one who brought my name into the story," Sootfur sniggered just as three distressed cats appeared; Ferncloud, Dustpelt, and Cinderpelt.

"They've warmed up quite a bit but we need to find them shelter," Robinwing reported to the mother. "And soon. Marshkit's been getting worse as well."

"Marshkit?" Birchkit repeated tiredly. Larchkit felt the same. She was beyond exhausted and her eyelids felt like they weighed the same as the mountains, themselves.

"He was picked up by an eagle yesterday by Brackenfur saved him. He's fine but he needs shelter," Cinderpelt responded. "We all do. That eagle's not dead yet and who knows who he'll try and snatch up next?"

"Cinderpelt…scare…kits…" Larchkit was going in and out of consciousness so fast that she was starting to miss parts of Ferncloud's sentences. All she could hear was her mother's scolding tone.

"Larch…awake…" Sootfur mewed as the kit blinked a few times. She only managed to keep her green eyes open long enough to see the panicked expressions on everyone's faces before she passed out.

Larchkit woke up to see three faces staring down at her. Once she blinked a few times, she made out Birchkit, Toadkit, and Applekit's smiling faces. But they weren't outside anymore and Larchkit was no longer freezing.

"Am I in StarClan?" Larchkit whispered and the kits broke out in fits of giggles.

"No, of course not!" Applekit laughed, playfully cuffing Larchkit over the ear. "You're in the Tribe of Something!"

"That was my next guess," Larchkit replied dryly. She didn't listen to Toadkit's response though and glanced around the cave they were in. It was dark and she had to blink a few times to get used to the lighting but once she did, she realized how crowded it was.

It was like being back in Barley and Ravenpaw's barn only it was a cave and the smell of fat mice running around wasn't as strong; actually in the Tribe of Something, it was nonexistent.

"What happened?" Larchkit asked, sitting up. She could see many familiar faces like Squirrelpaw talking to Spiderpaw, Brambleclaw eating some freakishly large bird with some other cats, and her mother was laying pressed against Dustpelt.

"You fell asleep and everyone freaked out. Then a bunch of cats ran in and saved Toadkit from an eagle. They took us here and we've been waiting forever for you to wake up!" Birchkit explained, wailing a little at the end. A few cats nearby shot him some glares because of how loud he was being while others were trying to sleep.

The elders and queens were sleeping in some nests while the warriors were dozing on the ground. Larchkit could spot a small, silver tabby tom curled up in a ball with some poultice on his shoulder; Marshkit.

"Larchkit!" she turned to see Spiderpaw, her brother, standing a little off to the side with a ShadowClan apprentice. "It's about time you woke up. You've been sleeping all day and night! In fact, it's almost morning… I think at least. It's kind of hard to see outside."

"Can't you just glance out?" Larchkit asked pointedly and the ShadowClan tom sniggered at her sassiness.

"Not when there's a waterfall in front of it," the tom pointed out. Larchkit glanced at the cave entrance to see a wall of water covering it. She hadn't even noticed the sound of the water crashing down. "It's been snowing all day too so I wouldn't be surprised if we woke up to a wall of ice in the morning."

"Moving water doesn't freeze," a strange cat piped up. She must have been part of the Tribe. She turned to Larchkit, "It's good to see you're awake. Now all we need is that poor tom to wake up."

By 'poor tom' she probably meant Marshkit. Or maybe even Tallstar since he wasn't looking so great lately.

"Marshkit's been getting all the attention," Toadkit muttered under his breath with bitterness clear in his voice. He glanced scornfully off to the side and kneaded the ground with his paws.

"Maybe we can go see if he can play with us?" Larchkit offered and Toadkit's eyes brightened significantly.

"Sure!" Applekit squeaked and the patrol of kits started running towards where the tom was snoozing. Larchkit was at the back of the group since she was still waking up after her deep sleep. It didn't matter how slow she was though because Tallpoppy stepped in front of Marshkit anyway.

"He needs his rest!" she snapped and lightly batted Toadkit away. She wasn't trying to be rude about it but her son still looked hurt. "You can play with him once he's healed but for now, you're going to just play with yourselves."

"Fine," Applekit grumbled as her ears dropped. While they started to pad away, Larchkit hung back. She looked up at Tallpoppy, who was eyeing her wearily as she crept forward.

In Barley and Ravenpaw's den, Larchkit and Marshkit had stayed up late talking about their new home. It was the one time they ever did talk but Larchkit found herself growing fond of the tom and she only wants him to be okay.

Larchkit licked the kit a few time over the ears and whispered, "Get well soon, Marshkit. Then we can go play in the mountains together," she purred. Tallpoppy's face softened when she realized that the ThunderClan kit wasn't there to harm her son.

"He'll be awake soon enough and I'll call you over soon but for now, I think it's best if you went and played with the others," she whispered softly and Larchkit nodded. She really didn't like being herded away but at least Tallpoppy was being a little nicer about it.

Larchkit padded over to where the other kits were sitting in silence and plopped down next to Toadkit. After a few moments, Applekit turned to Birchkit, "Hey Birchkit, what do you want your warrior name to be?"

"Birchstar!" Birchkit grinned and Applekit shot him a look.

"You can't be Birchstar. Only leaders can be stars!" she argued. Soon enough, the two were in a full-out argument about whether Birchkit was good enough to skip the warrior rank and go straight to leadership. All while Larchkit and Toadkit sat silently by the side.

While Toadkit was moping about how Marshkit was getting all the attention, Larchkit was glaring past him at two cats, excitedly talking at the back of the cave; Sootfur and Robinwing. She watched as Robinwing playfully batted the tom and he let his head fall back as he laughed.

'She's not even that pretty…'

"Larchkit?" Toadkit questioned but the brown tabby didn't move her gaze. He turned around to see what she was glaring at and a smile fell on his face when he spotted the pair of friends. She was jealous!

"You know, if you want to impress Sootfur, you have to do something really brave," Toadkit smirked and Larchkit finally let her eyes flick back to the younger kits.

"Like what?" Larchkit asked.

"Like, I don't know, catch an eagle," he purred. "Imagine their faces if we were to come back to camp with an eagle in our jaws? We'd be heroes!"

"Toadkit, that's a mouse-brained idea," Larchkit snorted rolling her eyes. She glanced once back at the couple in the back and felt the jealousy in her stomach grow. "Well, saying that we were to go off, how hard do you think it'd be to catch an eagle?"

Toadkit's smirk widened. "I saw the Tribe cats do it, it can't be that hard. So are you in then?"

Larchkit frowned. It was a mouse-brained plan and they would probably get killed, not to mention going outside would mean going back in the cold. But then again, Larchkit also wasn't the most rational of cats and she tended to be quite impulsive… "I'm in."

The kits stood up and did a quick look around the room to check to see that no one was looking before they casually started the entrance. The figured if they acted normal enough, someone would just think they're two young warriors going out for a hunt.

And somehow, it worked.

Across the cave, Sootfur was laughing at a story Robinwing was telling him. They had bonded early that morning after a hunt and decided to keep each other company on the journey. There wasn't anything romantic about their friendship but Ashfur couldn't help but put in his thoughts as he, Thornclaw, and Rainwhisker padded up to them.

"Don't let your mate see you," Ashfur teased. "She might call you out."

"Mate?" Robinwing cocked her head. "I haven't seen you talk to any females."

"Sure you have," Thornclaw joined in on the banter. "She's just a little… little."

By now, Robinwing was utterly confused as she glanced at each tom separately and then back to Sootfur who was ducking his head in embarrassment.

"Where is your mate anyway?" Rainwhisker teased. "She's probably angry since you've been flirting with all these she-cats."

"For StarClan's sake, who is she?" Robinwing gasped, exasperated and the three toms broke into fits of laughter. "Why are you laughing?"

"I don't have a mate," Sootfur muttered. "They're just bugging me because I've been nice to Larchkit a few times."

"Larchkit?" Robinwing sniggered. "Don't you think she's a little young?"

Sootfur rolled his amber eyes and sighed dramatically. "Not you too." It only made the light brown she-cat to laugh harder.

She glanced around the room. "Where is the lucky lady? I want to properly meet her." Robinwing scanned the cave, her eyes flickering from Marshkit to Applekit to Birchkit but she couldn't find the familiar brown tabby or the other ShadowClan kitten, Toadkit. "No, seriously, where is she? I don't see her or Toadkit."

Rainwhisker turned and started searching the faces, trying to find the ThunderClan kit. "She was sleeping just a few moments ago. Do you think we should tell Ferncloud?"

"Not yet," Thornclaw answered seriously. "Let's all do a quick walk around the cave and ask the kits. If they don't know where she is – or Toadkit – then we tell Firestar and Blackstar. They'll deal with the mothers."

The group stood up and hurriedly started walking around the cramped room. A few cats watched them, sensing the tension in the air. Ashfur was the one to go up to Birchkit, "Hey, where's your sister?"

"With Toadkit," Birchkit answered with admiration in his eyes. Ashfur was one of his idols!

"And where would that be?" Ashfur asked, growing impatient. Birchkit opened his mouth to answer before frowning and wildly looking around the cave,

"They were just here a moment ago," he squeaked. "Hey, where's Toadkit?"

Thornclaw appeared by the gray tom's side a few heartbeat's later. "I couldn't find them."

"Neither could I," Robinwing reported as she approached them. Sootfur appeared a second later, shaking his head. Only Rainwhisker hadn't come back but they only needed to glance at the cave entrance to see him standing by it, his eyes wide and his jaw dropped.

"Rainwhisker, what did you find?" Thornclaw asked.

"Their scent. It leads outside," he said and everyone froze. It was perfect timing for Firestar to appear with Blackstar not far behind.

"Is everything okay? You five looked worried and some cats are getting nervous," Firestar asked worriedly as the group all looked down. Only Sootfur met the leader directly in the eyes. He glanced in between the ThunderClan leader and Blackstar.

"Firestar, Blackstar, I don't mean to alarm you but I think… I think we may have lost some kits."