"Hey, Grasskit, wake up!"

Grasskit moaned and rolled over in his nest, lifting his paws over his ears to block out Applekit's mews. Their mother, Owlwing, had already gotten up and was sharing some fresh-kill with their father, Rabbitleap; his littermates Applekit and Berrykit had gotten up ages ago and were already playing moss-ball. But it was way too early for Grasskit's tastes, and he hoped to remain in his nest for as long as possible.

"Yeah, Grasskit, get up," Berrykit chimed in. "The sun is already almost at the middle of the sky!"

Owlwing looked up from the rabbit she and Rabbitleap were sharing, exchanging a bemused glance with her mate. "Don't lie to your brother, Berrykit," she mewed. "I'd like him to get out of his nest as much as you, but the sun only rose an hour ago."

Berrykit wrinkled her bright red nose, which had been her namesake. "Well, he should still get up," she muttered.

Grasskit didn't reply. He just wanted to stay asleep forever. It was all cold and snowy outside, and it wasn't even the fun kind of snow. This was the kind that was neither sticky nor fluffy, but was simply hard, crusty, and slippery. And even if it had been a better kind of snow, Grasskit still wouldn't have wanted to go outside, because there was simply nothing to do out there.

"C'mon, son, don't you want to go see what your Clanmates are up to?" Rabbitleap asked, trying to sound enthusiastic, as if it wouldn't just be the same old stuff as always. "Maybe Gorsewind will have some cool new stories for you!"

Even if Gorsewind hadn't been the only elder in the Clan- though the leader and deputy were both old enough to have retired long ago if WindClan had enough cats to spare- he still would have been the most popular with Applekit and Berrykit. They were always talking about his great stories, but Grasskit didn't see the point of stories. He wanted to live out his own epic tales, not listen to those of some elderly cat.

Besides, Gorsewind's stories were all the same. Some big thing was threatening all the Clans, and the future of everything was riding on one very special kit. Grasskit wanted to be the kit in those stories one day, but nothing in his life had been special whatsoever so far. His parents were both pure WindClan, he had never had any special dreams, and he didn't seem to have any special skills. The only thing remotely unusual about Grasskit was his fur colour, and that was the thing about himself he hated the most.

Grasskit's fur was not light brown like Berrykit and Rabbitleap's, or white and cream like Owlwing's, or even white with reddish-brown patches like Applekit. No; his fur was a very rare colour- a very particular shade of gray that, under the right lighting, appeared as olive green. Every cat had stared on his first day out of the nursery. Not only that, but Sandstar seemed to expect Grasskit to be special someday because of the colour of his fur, which he didn't understand at all. Sure, he'd love to be special, but it wouldn't be because his pelt was almost, kind of, sort of greenish.

So no, Grasskit was not getting out of his nest.

"Come on, Waterpaw, it's time for you to get up."

Waterpaw sighed, shaking out her pelt and pushing herself to her paws. She'd been having a really good dream. There'd been a big open stretch of land, but there were fish swimming in it like it was the river. Then something had started coming up behind her, and she'd had to fend it off with the fighting skills she'd learned yesterday.

Still, dreams were nothing compared to real life. It was only her fourth day as an apprentice of RiverClan, but Foxfang had told her she was the best apprentice he'd had yet- and Foxfang had had a lot of apprentices. He was the deputy, and had volunteered to mentor a whole bunch of young cats in the past, many of which were now very strong warriors. If Waterpaw was even better than Graystorm or Storkflight had been when they were young, then she must be really good!

Maybe she really was the cat who Mossnose had been told about. Miststar certainly seemed to think so, and he was the leader, so of course he'd know best. Waterpaw hadn't been so sure at first, but the more praise she received, the more her doubt subsided. Not only was she apparently really skilled; she was also the only surviving kit from her litter, so her parents always pampered her. She had often been told that her blue-gray pelt was of a lovely shade, and every cat seemed to like her. It seemed to Waterpaw that she must have been a very special cat.

"So, Foxfang," Waterpaw mumbled around a trout once she had gotten out of her nest and groomed herself a bit, "what are we doing today?"

"Today I'm going to show you the borders," her ginger-pelted mentor mewed. "If we have time we can practice some more battle moves." Waterpaw perked up at that- she loved battle moves! "But we probably won't have time, so don't get too excited," Foxfang added.

As soon as Waterpaw had finished off her trout, she and Foxfang set off. Patchfur and Smokefur, two brothers who were related to Waterpaw, poked their heads out of the warriors' den to greet her as she set off, and she happily waved her tail back at them. Today was going to be fun.

Everybody here is just a bunch of rabbit-brains, Grasskit thought bitterly as he chomped on the rabbit leg his parents had left for him. Prey was always scarce in leaf-bare according to them, but he had a hard time believing that their Clan had survived for countless seasons if things had always been this bad. Was his own piece of prey really too much to ask? Applekit and Berrykit had offered him a chunk of their marmot, but it had looked too small to split three ways, and besides, Grasskit didn't want his sisters' charity.

Once he was certain he had eaten every single scrap of meat that the leg had left to offer, he finally trudged outside, squinting in the harsh sunlight that reflected off the snow, making it even brighter than it normally would have been. In the camp, Roseflower was consulting with Podtail about an ache in her hip. "With all due respect, ma'am, maybe you ought not to be so rambunctious at your age," the young medicine cat suggested with thinly veiled exasperation.

"Now, listen here, whipper-snapper; I don't want your 'advice'," the old deputy grumbled. "Just stick some of your plant gunk on my hip so it won't hurt as much."

"I'm afraid it won't be as simple as that," Podtail sighed. "Your hip is arthritic; the pain is going to keep coming back no matter what you do. Your best bet is to just take it easy and let me know when it flames up."

"Can you fix it for now so I can join the hunting patrol?"

Podtail flexed his claws; Grasskit looked on with amusement as he tried to talk sense into Roseflower- a pointless cause, he knew. That old cat was a stubborn one, and she wasn't going to retire even if all of StarClan came down and told her to.

Besides Podtail and Roseflower, it seemed that next to every cat was off doing something else. Sandstar was hiding in his den again; Rabbitleap and Owlwing were off on a hunting patrol with a couple other warriors; Lilyflower was still recovering from her on-again, off-again bought of greencough that had been keeping her in the medicine den since before Grasskit had even been born- it was both a miracle that Podtail had been able to keep her alive so long, and what seemed like a curse to have kept the sickness in her system for moons on end. Applekit and Berrykit were chasing each other around merrily with no regard for just how terrible a state WindClan was in, and sometimes Grasskit envied them. Even Grasskit's friend Barkpaw was off somewhere with her mentor, though her brother Seedpaw was still in camp.

"Hello, Grasskit," Seedpaw mewed from the little mound of snow he sat on. "I see you finally decided to get up after all."

Grasskit nodded to the glossy brown apprentice. "I was hoping you'd be here," he mewed. "I suppose you're hoping to play one of your 'paw games with me."

"I must admit, I was thinking of doing that." Seedpaw jumped down from his mound and padded over to sit beside Grasskit, staring out at the snow-covered camp. Here and there, long bits of dead grass protruded from the snow.

Seedpaw had been unlucky enough to have Lilyflower as his mentor. Due to her constant poor health, he didn't get to go out and train nearly as often as his sister. Sometimes Barkpaw convinced her mentor to bring Seedpaw along for training as well, but he was still pretty far behind. He would no doubt have to wait a while longer to become a warrior than his sister would.

Grasskit scanned the camp for anything that they might trip over, but he couldn't see any dangers, so he agreed to play one of Seedpaw's games. They decided on a game where one cat chased the other like in a game of rabbit, only here you had to carry a clump of grass around in your mouth and when you got caught, the other cat had to fight you for it. Grasskit wasn't very good at this game, but Seedpaw wasn't the best at it either, so they were almost evenly matched.

They played that for a while, but it quickly became boring. Seedpaw seemed restless today, flicking his ears and twitching his tail and looking around as though he expected something more interesting to come out of the sky and entertain them. "We ought to go somewhere," he meowed suddenly. "Out of camp, I mean. Like, down by the lake. Have you even tried swimming, Grasskit?"

"Why would I swim?" Grasskit sniffed. "I'm not a RiverClan cat. And you aren't either," he added, "so I don't see why you'd want to!"

"Forget it. It was a stupid question." Seedpaw muttered to himself for a moment before announcing, "I gotta get out of this StarClan-forsaken wasteland. Meet me down by the lake if you feel like it, okay?"

Grasskit felt a pang of alarm. I can't go out of camp; I'm just a kit! And neither could Seedpaw, he realized, without his mentor or some other adult cat. Plus, the lake- sure, it'd be frozen over now, but who knew how firm the ice was? How easy would it be for him to fall in and drown? Grasskit knew at once that he couldn't let Seedpaw do this- at least not all alone.

Maybe he could tell somebody- but no; everybody here was either too old, too sick, or too young to be any use. The only cat who could've kept up with Seedpaw was Podtail, and Grasskit really didn't want to bother the poor cat. He was too busy as it was. So Grasskit decided he'd go with Seedpaw, if only to keep an eye on that rabbit-brain.

Seedpaw may have been behind in his training, but he was still a WindClan cat. He slipped out through the dirtplace tunnel and took off far faster than Grasskit could keep up with. It was a good thing it was leaf-bare and Grasskit could pick him out against the snow, because any other time of year he'd have lost sight of his brown pelt amongst the grass.

"H-hey," Grasskit called just as Seedpaw was about to disappear over the crest of a hill. "I'm coming with you. Wait for me!"

"Ah, good, you decided to come along!" Seedpaw slowed down so that Grasskit could catch up. "That's good. You know," he went on as they bounded through the snowy fields, "the lake is probably frozen right now, so you won't even have to swim. We can just slide across the ice! I've seen twolegs doing it a couple times. It'll be fun!"

Grasskit nodded, although he still didn't think they should be out of camp. What if someone noticed they were gone? Then again, he thought sourly, who would miss a cat as useless as him?

As they neared the lake, Seedpaw sped up once again, letting out a yowl of excitement. He ran down the slope that led to the water's edge and threw himself onto the icy sheet that covered the lake. Grasskit hurried down to join him, skidding across the slippery surface and almost crashing into Seedpaw, who jumped out of the way and fell over, landing on his haunches and skidding backwards across the ice for several tail-lengths. When he'd stopped moving, he lay there stunned for a few seconds before bursting out into giddy laughter. He scrambled to his paws, slipping and falling down several more times in the process, before charging at Grasskit.

Grasskit let out a loud, contented purr despite all his worries about their safety, and slid out of the way. Seedpaw practically flew past him, crashing into the snowbank at the water's edge. Snow showered won on top of him, and Grasskit was worried for a moment before he crawled back out and flung a chunk of snow at Grasskit, who retaliated, catching the snowball in his paw and hurling it back. It splattered across Seedpaw's face and he snorted, scratching the ice to send up a spray of ice flecks at Grasskit.

The two young toms played merrily for a while, all of Grasskit's concerns forgotten until Seedpaw began to venture further out onto the ice. "Be careful!" he warned. "The ice isn't as stable out there! You could fall in!"

Seedpaw ignored his warnings, spinning and gliding gracefully across the ice. He giggled as he twirled about, and he even stood up on his hind legs for a bit, raising his front legs in the air and tossing his head back in a great show-offy burst of confidence. Grasskit followed him further out and tried out the same trick, but his paws gave way and he came crashing down on his belly. The wind was knocked out of him while Seedpaw danced around him, purring with pride.

"Watch this, Grasskit, watch this!" Seedpaw purred giddily. He coiled his muscles as if he was going to jump, but instead he propelled himself forward on his front paws, lifting his back paws up into the air. For an instant it was an impressive trick until he flipped over and came down hard on his back, letting out a yowl of pain. Grasskit rushed over, concerned. "I'm fine," Seedpaw assured him, rolling over and trying to pick himself back up. Although he winced a bit, he did manage to get back on his paws, and he got back to playing around. He didn't even notice the small crack that he had left upon falling.

Grasskit didn't notice the crack either at first. In fact, he didn't notice it at all until he tripped over it and slipped, sliding on his side across the ice. His claws left marks where they had skidded across the ice, pulling the crack open wider where they'd been caught in it. Suddenly Seedpaw came slipping and sliding over to him, and Grasskit tried to warn him to look out.

"Seedpaw, there's a crack in the ice!" Seedpaw didn't react; maybe he hadn't even heard. "There's a crack in the ice! Look out!" Grasskit cried out again and again, but to no avail. Seedpaw was down the hind-legs trick again, and when his front paws came down they pushed on the already widened crack, shifting the sheet of ice in front of him and separating it from the one his back legs were stationed on.

Grasskit scrambled over to try to push Seedpaw away, but the ice was too slippery. He couldn't stand up. Grasskit struggled to keep his balance and stop falling over as he helplessly watched Seedpaw scramble. His front paws were on one side of the crack, pushing at it and making it ever wider, while his back legs were being pushed further away as the crack widened. Finally, they had stretched so far behind him that they couldn't support him and he collapsed into the space between the two sheets of ice. His front claws still clung to the chunk of ice Grasskit stood on. He tried to pull himself up, but it was no use.

Finally Grasskit managed to get over to where Seedpaw was struggling. "Grab my paw!" he instructed the floundering apprentice, holding out a front paw. Seedpaw tried to lift a paw off the ice, but as soon as he did he lost his grip on the ice altogether and slipped even further into the chilling waters.

"I can't hold on!" he wailed. "Oh, StarClan, why did I ever want to come down here?!"

"That's not important now," Grasskit told him. "You've gotta grab onto my paw!"

Seedpaw shook his head, his amber eyes round with terror. "You're too little," he mewed. "I'd just pull you in with me."

"No!" Grasskit didn't know what to do. Seedpaw was right- a kit like him couldn't pull an apprentice out of the water all by himself. But there had to be something he could do! "I'll manage it somehow," he insisted.

Seedpaw's paws were sliding closer and closer to the edge of the ice. In a desperate attempt, Grasskit lunged forward and dug his claws into his friend's slipping paws. Then he tried to drag him up out of the water, but he didn't have a good hold on him. Grasskit bit down hard on Seedpaw's paw and tugged as hard as he could. Seedpaw yowled in pain, but he had been lifted a couple of whisker-lengths higher. That was something, at least, right?

Grasskit tried again, getting Seedpaw a bit farther up each time. But something was wrong. His friend had stopped trying to get up on his own. Now Grasskit was the only one making any effort! Seedpaw's grip on the ice loosened, and Grasskit found himself tugging at a motionless, half-frozen brown lump. When he tried to tug his friend to safety, all he came up with were a few clumps of brown fur.

"Seedpaw, don't give up," he pleaded. "I can't help you if you don't help me too!" But there was no response.

Grasskit looked around, his eyes wide. His heart was beating against his ribcage like the feet of a rabbit; terror pulsed form his body, warming him so that he didn't even feel the cold wind that blew across the frozen lake. He dug his teeth into Seedpaw's scruff and pulled as hard as he could, but his fur was waterlogged, making him too heavy to even try lifting.

"Help!" he shrieked as Seedpaw slipped out of his grasp, sinking into the icy cold waters of the lake. "Somebody help me, please! HELP!"