The morning air was refreshing and cool as the two she-cats walked side by side, their pelts brushing as Amber glanced up to the sky. The sun was out and shining brightly, the first time in a few days. The soil was still damp from the downpour of rain, and she could see the river had overflowed its banks.
Even the tall wheat grasses had been flooded into the river. Some bent down, their stems snapped from the current. Amber's gaze flickered to the injured loner.
Darksnow's leg had healed a great deal. Doing much better since the two younger cats have been able to hunt plenty of field mice, letting all four of them go to bed with a full stomach. She couldn't help but admire the dark-haired molly, she was terribly hurt and yet still taught two cats how to hunt and some minor fighting moves.
The ex-clancat was odd though, first being the name and how she talked. Even though most of the words had been explained to Amber, she still couldn't help but find them odd. But even so, she kinda liked the weirdness of the names, it was unique and fitted Darksnow well.
The ex-clancat was had a brown pelt with her chest, muzzle, and paws being an off-white, and her face was much darker than the rest of her pelt, but it made her eyes stand out even more, a sky blue amongst the dark fur.
Shaking her head Amber pulled her gaze off of the molly. A sudden realization that she had been staring, not even paying attention to what the molly was saying. "I- uh," a rush of embarrassment made her pelt heat up. "I'm sorry I wasn't listening-"
"I know." Darksnow gave a small chuckle, her whiskers twitching as she gave the larger she-cat a small glance. "I've had apprentices who've nodded along to an entire conversation and then admit half an hour later they weren't even listening."
There was no anger behind her words. She was just light-heartedly talking, a small smile on her maw. Guilt still made her dip her head, she was a full-grown cat, not an apprentice, she should've been listening instead of being distracted by her thoughts.
The two of them came up to the edge of the river. She looked over the edge of it, eyes wide as she saw a flash of silver dart in and out of her vision. "Have you ever fished before?" Questioned Darksnow, who also peered over the side.
"No, the closest to fishing I've ever done was tapping the water of the fishbowl my housefolk had," Amber admitted with a small grin, she used to try and fish out that golden scaled fish, it was the first taste of freedom that drove her out the house in the first place, course her housefolk always scolded her whenever they saw her even near it.
Darksnow once again laughed. It was like a rush of joy to the fluffy loner upon hearing it. She knew the dark pelted molly went through something bad, it was written across her face the first day they met. But now she was laughing, enjoying herself instead of sulking in the field, not talking, barely eating - although that had more to do with her lack of hunting skills than anything else - but still, the change was something that made her smile.
Backing up from the water Darksnow limped along the edge of the water. Her gaze flashed up to the sun, to the ground, the water, her eyes fixed upon many things as something worked itself behind her gaze. Amber watched in silence. Not wanting to break her focus.
"Alright, this will work. First off you must check for your shadow, if it goes over the water you'll scare the fish, and you need to be positioned as to not let them see you." The molly sat down at the edge onto a part of the stone that stuck out of the water. She padded at the stone, giving an inviting smile. "When you've done that, we fish. You need to curve your paw, claws out to grip the fish, and whenever you do be careful they are slippery, as soon as you get one toss it onto the land, and bite the gills."
Amber stayed quiet for a solid minute. It was a lot to process, but she repeated it a few times to herself before nodding. "Okay." She mewed, straightening herself as she stared into the water.
A tail wrapped around her shoulders, squeezing them before the she-cat continued. "Don't worry, you have time to practice, no reason to stress about remembering everything today." The molly tilted her head to the side, watching the water intensely.
Amber continued to run the instructions through her head. She wanted to help hunt, it was important to have enough food for them all, and she felt horrible for leaving that duty to the youngest cats of their group.
A splash brought her out of her head. She had winced back from the cold water, ears flattened as she shook the water off of her whiskers. Darksnow had backed up from the water, now holding a still-flopping fish in her jaws. She bit down, fresh blood dripping into the damp soil as the scaled animal went still.
"We used to fish all the time in RainClan, one of the first things an apprentice is taught." The she-cat blinked sadly down at the fish. Gaze fogged and unfocused, like she was caught in an old memory.
Amber could only press her nose against Darksnow's cheek, a low purr waking the ex-clancat from her memories. The molly cleared her throat, nodding back to the water. "Do you want to try?" Seemingly distracted, she leaned into the water, tail lashing and coiling.
"It's still early," hummed Amber, her gaze fixed onto the brown-and-white cat. "I'm guessing we have time."
With that, she returned to her friend's side. Fluffy tail wrapped around the flank of the ex-clancat, she still felt bad for the molly, the look in her eyes told a different story about what happened to RainClan than what Darksnow would ever say.
Amber listened once more about what to do when fishing. And she could see that the longer they let the water sit free of any ripples or shadows, the fish would swim back happily. She didn't catch anything, instead face-planting into the water with a loud, cold splash.
But the day felt like a win as the two walked back, Darksnow carrying her single fish, and Amber grinning as she recalled the first few genuine smiles she had seen from the strange speaking molly.
*
Snowy stalked along the edge of the wooden fence. She could feel it shake under her weight, splinters poking at the rough pads of her paws. The young she-cat had been here before, it was the place her mother went to get herbs to heal Darksnow.
The two traveled there at least once a moon to get new supplies. It was a small house, one that had been long abandoned by its inhabitants, and now was overgrown with plants and the inside crawling with mice. She looked down into the garden, eyes trained on a fluffy animal.
It was a rabbit, and it was chewing on a patch of dandelions. She knew that the dandelions could be used for healing, she didn't know exactly what, but it had to be important enough if her mother had freaked whenever Snowy stepped in them. And now some rabbit was chewing them all up!
Snowy wiggled her hunches, ears flat as she rolled her shoulders. The wind picked up just enough for the creak of the old fence to not be heard as she leaped. She landed on the back of the rabbit, her claws digging into its shoulder as she bit into the throat of the fuzzy-tailed animal.
The rabbit fell after the first bite, and she purred as she lifted the heavy kill. It was half her size! Delighted, she turned to look for a way out. There was no way for her to drag the rabbit up the fence, it was too heavy. She bit down onto the scruff of the rabbit before squeezing through a hole in the fence, her pelt snagging on the old wood.
Huffing, she realized just how heavy the rabbit was. She would have to carry it back I hope their den, which was further than she liked. Ears flat she started the trek back, stopping every few seconds to readjust her hold on the kill.
*
The sun was above her head as she pushed past the wheat. She flicked her tail-tip from side to side upon seeing her mother seated next to Darksnow, their heads low as they talked. She knew that they were speaking about Clan's life, her mother was obsessed with learning all about the Clans and their functions.
A fish sat between the two. And she frowned at the sight, they had already eaten without her! She huffed in annoyance but forced it down when she entered the small clearing, head held high as she dropped the rabbit.
Darksnow was the first to look up. Her eyes lighting up as she purred, lifting herself onto her paws to greet the young she-cat. "You caught that all by yourself?" She asked as Amber joined her side.
"Yup! It was in the garden." Snowy glanced around the clearing. She frowned as she noticed that Lion was gone, and his scent was faint. "Where's Lion?"
At the mention of him being missing, Darksnow paused. She gave the young molly a long look before meowing. "He's been gone all day, I thought you two left together." There was panic in the older cat's voice as she sniffed at the ground, trying to catch the scent of the lost tom.
"I would've asked him to join, but he was gone when I awoke." Snowy had a bad habit of sleeping in late. It was something she never really realized until they had to wake up early for training.
But it was something Lion never struggled with. He would get up at the crack of dawn and stay up late at night. Snowy never understood why or how, she barely could stay up past sundown without getting blurry eyes. But the tom seemed determined to do so, for reasons she still questioned.
Darksnow gave a small growl. She turned back to them, tail lashing as she limped quickly to where a small trail lead deeper into the field. "We should go find him." She murmured. Gaze searching the shadows as if they had the answers to her thoughts.
"Why? Snowy went off by herself and you didn't seem worried. What's the difference with Lion?" Amber sounded more hurt than anything, her fur slightly bristled.
The dark-furred molly shook her head. She looked back with a frown, face scrunched with running thoughts. "It's different, Snowy doesn't have a strange tom that threatened to find her - we still don't know if he's around, or got Lion."
"...that was moons ago, Dark." Guilt flashed across the fluffy loner's face before she turned to her daughter.
Snowy had stayed quiet. Just trying to listen and figure out what to do. She now bit her bottom lip, eyes searching for an answer. "What tom?" She was never told about a strange tom that had been with Lion. Is that why he's so jumpy?
"No worries of yours. Get back to training, we'll be back." Amber meowed, but the look she had shared with the ex-clancat hadn't gone unnoticed by the young molly.
Ears flat she growled in annoyance. She didn't like to be kept in the dark, not about anything, definitely not about her friend. "I can hunt already," she hissed, pawing at the dirt, "why do I still need to train?"
"Battle training, if this is an attack then you'll need to fight, or at least defend yourself," Darksnow growled, fur fluffed out. "And you always should train, hunting one rabbit doesn't make you a skilled hunter."
Snowy gritted her teeth in irritation. She glared at the rabbit, the pride she had gotten from the hunt was gone. Instead, she felt like a stupid kit that got in trouble. The white-and-russet molly curled up in the only shade the little camp had, her green eyes watching the edges of the swaying grasses.