July 14, 2021

Dappleleafthebootiful - Thank you! And yeah, I'm trying to stay close to the same plot, but it will somewhat differ since there are new characters and I want to make it longer and not so quick-paced.

DawnfrostofThunderClan74 - I don't think Darksnow really wants to lie to Amber, but explaining your beloved Clan is now under the control of your murderous brother is kinda a lot.

Wolfstar of RavenClan - Yeah having writer's block sucks, however, I've been wanting to rewrite this story for over a year now, so hopefully this will be the break I need from my other stories, and let me be able to sit down and write it.

The sun burned harshly on the group of cats. It was a late day, some clouds covered the sky, but not enough to keep them safe from the harmful rays. No wind broke the chatter between the cats, that was the job for the increasingly loud river that they were close by.

Lion was practicing his hunter crouch. He was doing a fine job, seemingly to have been taught by someone else how to hunt. Even so, he looked nervous, his tail flicked back and forth, eyes darting to the sides as if he expected to be attacked.

"You need to focus on your surroundings, Lion." Darksnow meowed. She was trying her best to teach the two young cats how to hunt. With only Amber hunting for them, they were starting to grow weak with hunger. Being fed off nothing but lizards.

The golden tom huffed in annoyance. He stood up straight, swerving to look at the injured she-cat. "I am." He declared curtly.

Darksnow twitched an ear. He had a way of being a scared kit to becoming an irritating little foxheart. "The mice won't be stalking you. You need to be listening for them, above any other distractions. Now, tell me what you hear, what you smell."

This was one of the basics an apprentice needed to know. And even with Lion being a loner-born tom, one that should've learned this stuff early, as they had no protection of an entire Clan, seemed to be lacking.

Luckily Snowy was much more passionate about learning. She tried her best to stalk, which wasn't too bad for her first time, and she had a good nose on her, being able to smell beyond their mingle scents to smell a mouse that had passed by an hour ago.

"Fine." Lion lashed his tail. He tilted his head and perked his ears, listening for only a minute before giving an angry growl. "The river is too loud!" Complained the tom, his eyes narrowed as he clawed at the dirt.

Sighing, she forced herself to sit up. She was starting to move around, but only a little bit at a time as to not open up the wound again. "Close your eyes. Get rid of that sense to help boost your other ones," she instructed, "then listen. Get past the noise of us and the river, search for what's past those. Search for what you scent."

"All I can smell is us," Lion mumbled.

"Push past that. The grass, they have a certain smell, and so does the river and everyone here. If you can push past those familiar scents then you can find new ones, those new scents are the prey you're looking for." Darksnow remembered these lessons from her mentor.

Palepelt, they had been a pale ginger cat with wide yellow eyes. They were the sibling of Ratstar, although much different. Palepelt was calm, smart, collected, and kind. They taught over three apprentices before they joined the elder's den after a battle that left them crippled. She hoped they were still doing fine after all this time.

Shaking her head she turned her focus back to the young tom. She had almost completely forgotten about the lesson she was teaching. Lion was sitting still, eyes closed as he twitched his ears every few seconds.

Just as Snowy and Amber joined them, muzzle full of herbs they had gone to collect, Lion jumped to his paws. Before she could ask he rushed off into the grasses.

"What's his problem?" Snowy asked, her gaze searching past the grasses and into the shadows.

Darksnow frowned. "...just give him time." She didn't exactly know what he was doing, but she trusted he wasn't a total mousebrain and ran off with some sort of reason.

It wasn't long before he came back. Shouldering his way past the grass with a mouse in his jaws. He twitched his ear. Glancing at her, he dropped the mouse and sat back down. "Good enough?" He asked.

"The kill was sloppy. You can see how you bit into the back of the leg before it died, making it bled out slowly." Darksnow meowed. She narrowed her eyes at the golden tom. Did he expect this to impress her?

Lion blinked. He looked taken back, but at the same time nervous. "I- I killed it though!" The tom stammered.

"Without skill, to learn properly to hunt it takes patience. Don't worry about showing off, Lion, that's how you lose respect and prey." The warrior nodded to the mouse. "But you did catch it, you and Snowy can share the mouse and go back to training."

The tom nodded. He turned to the cheerful fluffy she-cat, his eyes lighting up as he trotted over to her. Darksnow purred. She had seen the same look in her sister's eyes whenever she looked at the leader's daughter, Softblaze.

"At least he can hunt." The mumble caught her off guard. She blinked, looking back at the pretty queen.

Darksnow frowned. There was a look in the she-cats eyes that she didn't like. "What do you mean? You've been feeding us for over a moon now."

"Yes, but lizards barely feed anyone. We go to bed hungry every night." Amber raised to her feet. She had a giant leaf at her paws, resting on top being herbs and cobwebs. "I need to re-patch the wound before dark." Even with a grim look on her face, she started to chew up the herbs.

As the ex-kittypet went to work, the warrior frowned. Amber did a lot to help them, she knew the uses of each herb, or at least enough to help, she hunted piles of lizards to feed them. But she could see how Amber thought that, it was hard to feel proud when anything you did seemed less than perfect.

"I can teach you how to hunt." Offered the white-and-brown she-cat. She turned to glance at the fluffy loner.

Amber was...quiet. To quiet. Worry started to make her stomach churn as she twitched her tail tip back and forth anxiously. "I would like that." Amber finally mewed.

"Alrighty then! Tomorrow, when the two apprentices are training, we'll train too." It felt nice to be able to do something for the queen after all this time.

Purring, Amber leaned towards the warrior. She nuzzled Darksnow's cheek before grabbing the leaf and whatever herbs she hadn't used before slipping into the den. The warrior felt her heart skip, ear tips turning red as she ducked her head.

*

Snowy had been watching her mother and the strange cat from afar. She raised a paw to clean off her whiskers as she finished chewing the last of her meal. "Aww!" She folded her tail over her paws, looking over to Lion.

The golden tom only looked on with a worried expression. He was weird in her opinion. Always being so jumpy and worried about something. She just wanted to play, not have to worry about some stupid shadows roaming in the wheat.

"What's your problem? We got to eat a mouse for the first time!" The mostly white she-cat started to groom out her knotted pelt. After spending hours trying to dig up roots and pick leaves she got her fur caught on almost everything. And some burrs were stuck in her pelt.

Lion frowned over at her. "I've had mouse before." He said but added in a smaller voice. "Mainly leftovers, but still."

"Oh..." Snowy shook her head. "Still, you don't have to be such a bum!"

Growling, he raised to his feet. Pelt ruffled and hackles raised, he bristled out his tail with his eyes trained over to the injured she-cat. "They shouldn't get too comfortable, Crow said he'll be back and he stays true to his word. Any weaknesses he'll use-" the tom shook his head. "They should just stick to themselves."

Snowy huffed as she watched him slink off into the den. More than one question danced in her head, but she ignored them as she covered the bones of the mouse with dirt. Following him inside as the air turned cold, night starting to settled as the sun dripped below the wheat field.