Deep, powdery snow swirled all around the cats of WindClan, coating the moors in blankets so thick that even the hares struggled to leap over them. A brisk wind howled outside of their underground dens, freezing any living thing that dared emerge from its burrow. Newleaf was supposed to be on its way, yet leafbare still held a shockingly tight grasp over the moor.

Anxiously, Rainstar peered out of the small overhang she shared with her deputy, Sparrowflight, and medicine cat, Duskwhisker. The snow was too deep to go hunting in- already Lionfang had died of starvation, and Brookkit had fallen ill along with her mother, Smokefur. Times were rougher than Rainstar had ever imagined possible. Survival looked bleak for WindClan.

As day passed imperceptibly into night, the snowstorm became even harsher. The wind had turned into a gale, flinging pawfuls of snow down with every forceful gust. Rainstar knew that, sooner or later, a few brave members of the Clan would be forced to venture out on a deadly hunting expedition. Standing- and giving a shudder at the cold through her thin skin- the speckled gray she-cat bounded over to one of the three dens the warriors were sharing, hoping some would be awake. Since the snowstorm had started, the cats of WindClan hadn't had much to do besides sleep and try to conserve energy.

Rainstar quickly picked out several pairs of eyes, bright compared to the gloom around them. After a moment she hissed, "Berrytail. Mallowfur. Do you two think you could come on a hunting patrol?" The brother and sister respectively both had pale coats and sharp senses; if she didn't lose them in the storm, Rainstar knew they would make a good pair for hunting. There was a long pause before Mallowfur's green eyes blinked in assent, and the off-white she-cat nudged her brother, getting both of them to their paws. Rainstar let out a sigh of relief, and the three cats left the den together.

The hunting patrol, as could be expected, was cold and painful. All three cats were painfully scrawny after the harsh moons of leafbare, and Mallowfur nearly fell into a snowdrift when a strong wind pushed the cats to the side. It was a long, bleak trek to the ThunderClan border, and Rainstar sat down in exhaustion once they reached the tree line. Mallowfur and Berrytail did the same, and there the patrol rested for several minutes, catching their breath after fighting the elements.

Rather painfully, Rainstar stood again, her speckled pelt dusted with snow. She turned to swipe a half-hearted tongue over her paws when she spotted a pitifully skinny squirrel just a few fox-lengths from a nearby tree. Though she was a WindClan cat and knew little of stalking, Rainstar dropped into her best hunting crouch, and suddenly sprang at the squirrel; its senses must have been dulled by the storm, as somehow her paws landed on its tail, pinning it in place. She quickly snapped its neck and turned to the two warriors accompanying her, eyes bright with pride.

"Wow!" Berrytail breathed. "That's more prey than we've seen in the last quarter moon."

"Yes," Rainstar agreed, feeling cautiously optimistic. "This won't feed many cats, but it's something. Let's head back to camp."

Another half moon passed, and though more cats were falling sick from the cold and lack of food, newleaf was beginning to show signs at last. The snow had stopped falling from the sky save a light, powdery layer of flakes, and a few patches on the ground in camp were even melting to reveal dirt. However, for all the good things happening, WindClan was ominously solemn; Rainstar was one of the cats who had become ill, and Duskwhisker had declared it to be greencough.

Without food or herbs, Rainstar's health was fading fast. Only Duskwhisker was even permitted contact with the Clan's sick leader. But the next sunrise, the lack of supplies took its dreadful toll on WindClan's beloved leader, and her six lives were reduced to five. Weak but determined to survive- and now healed of her greencough- Rainstar led her Clan bravely on, despite having half the amount of healthy warriors and a fraction of the amount of food available to them. And slowly newleaf returned, the sun shining brighter, the snow slowly melting away, and the prey running again, though in far fewer numbers than before.

One of those first warm newleaf days was the day of the snowmelt. The river that marked the border between ThunderClan and WindClan had been running nearly completely dry, filled only with snow and the tiniest bit of ice frozen at the bottom; but on a warm day like the day of the snowmelt, that all began to change. There was hardly even a warning from the river. The day before it was somewhat warm, and when Sparrowflight led a patrol to the ThunderClan border, he reported only a small amount of running water in the streambed. But the next day, the sun cast its rays to the ground below, and the warmth caused a chain reaction. By the time Rainstar had made her way to the border, albeit hearing some odd sounds along the way, it was too late.

Only she and one other cat, a tom named Brackentail, were on the patrol. As the two approached the border, Rainstar frowned and flicked her tail, motioning for the warrior beside her to stop.

"Do you hear that?" she asked, one ear twitching in confusion. There was a heartbeat's pause before Brackentail answered.

"Yeah…it sounds like…water. And rocks," he added, eyes narrowing. "But there shouldn't be any water- right?"

Rainstar shrugged in response. "Let's go check it out. It could just be ThunderClan messing around," the speckled she-cat pointed out. Brackentail rolled his eyes at his leader, but more in amusement than irritation. They bounded towards the border together, Brackentail a pawstep behind- a pawstep that seemed very far away when Rainstar slipped without warning and disappeared into the running water.

At first the tom was merely confused; where could Rainstar have possibly gone? Then he, too, fell into the river. Realization dawned on him like the current crashing over his head. The river had flooded its banks, swirling away towards the lake in an angry torrent, and taking the two WindClan cats with it. Neither of them had ever learned to swim properly, but Brackentail saw Rainstar's gray head surface a few tail-lengths away from him, and he floundered desperately towards her. It didn't do very much; by the time he reached her, the river had emptied into the lake, plunging both of them underwater. The overlapping currents and the cold shock of the water- the lake was still partly frozen from the snowstorm- numbed Brackentail, and by the time he surfaced again he was too exhausted to register the difference between up and down.

The light brown tom felt at peace as the frigid lake dragged him down into its depths, and Rainstar soon followed. Through hazy eyes he watched her large form darken the rays of light watching him from above, and he watched as she stopped moving. His eyes closed as he saw her kicking towards him once more; and that was the last he knew.

Rainstar survived that deadly battle against the river, though she lost a life in the process. That leafbare was one of the worst WindClan had ever known; Lionfang, Smokefur, Brackentail, Poppyclaw, and Grassfrost all died, and Rainstar lost two of her lives. It was known as "the season of tragedy" for the Clan long after Rainstar was gone- the snowstorms had been going on ever since leaf-fall, and many cats starved from the lack of proper food. Keep this story in mind for the rest of your lives and know that, as strong a warrior as you are, no one can command the elements or stand against nature's fury.

AN: Wow guys, sorry for the late update again. I started #23, Failure, last night (it fit my mood quite well) but I think I might end up scrapping that one as I'm not happy with how it came out...and I didn't really have the inspiration for any more stories. So instead I decided to do #43, Nature's Fury, today! I had a lot of fun with this one, although as most of my stories seem to, it ended a lot differently than I'd expected, switching to Brackentail's perspective. I originally planned to add a sort of tornado into the blizzard, too, but that never ended up happening...

Also, is that last bit that I spy a few words from Embertail?! It very well could be!

Guest: Aww, thank you so much! I'm really sorry for my slow updates, had kind of a bad day yesterday haha...

Magicpelt: It's not intended to be- Embertail is merely a cover for my stories or "tales" (I love the tail/tale homophone, so that's why I used it). However, I suppose it kind of is becoming a little bit like Darktail's Tales! I do read those (and love them), but these ones are less...dark, I guess. I might even put some parodies in here ^.^ So that and the fact that this is a 100-oneshot challenge rather than a random idea are the main differences. Thank you very much, though! I'm glad you like the series so far 3

As always, please rate and review if you can! Thank you for reading, and until next chapter, have a good day/night!