Onyxpaw grumbled as the forceful winds blasted his short black as night fur. Snow covered the frozen tundra. Shrubs were buried in the glistening white powder. Onyxpaw's teeth chattered in the cold, making an audible sound.
"Shush your nonsense chattering! I'm trying to hunt here!" hissed his irritable mentor, Fogpath. The pale, pale gray tom was barely visible against the snow. His pelt blended nicely with his surrounding. Unlike his apprentice's.
Suddenly, Fogpath shot forward, racing with all his heart. Onyxpaw's bright orange eyes watched as his mentor chased a snowy white hare through the thick snow. His visibly powerful legs gave him the extra strength to race through such deep snow. Onyxpaw inspected his own legs. They were scrawny and thin. Not right for a TundraClan cat. You'll grow his mother constantly reminded him when he complained that he lost prey. But now, three moons into his training, he was still the petite black, orange-eyes, bony kit that always fell behind.
Onyxpaw watched as the once white landscape turned crimson with blood. Fogpath was lumbering back towards his apprentice, the blood-spattered hare dangling from his mouth.
"Nice catch," Onyxpaw mumbled.
"I know," Fogpath boasted, "now it's your turn. Just stand still and listen."
Onyxpaw took a deep breath and pricked his ears up. He couldn't hear anything besides Fogpath's ragged breathing and the raging wind. But then Onyxpaw crinkled his nose. Something caught his attention as a breeze sailed through his nose, like on purpose. It was a vile smell, full of blood and raw meat. It reminded him of the foxes that sometimes passed by but this scent was more…savage
Fogpath tilted his head in confusion at his apprentice puzzlement. "What is it Onyxpaw?"
Onyxpaw looked at Fogpath, "I don't know but it's not good."
Fogpath sniffed the air, "I don't smell anything. Leave it to an amateur apprentice to freak out about nothing!"
Onyxpaw's fur bristled, I did smell something! I'm obviously not lying!
Fogpath rolled his gray eyes "Come on lets go home. I'm sure the other hunting patrol caught something." He picked up his blood-stained hare and started walking to the TundraClan cave. Onyxpaw did not follow immediately. Instead his scented the air again. The raw scent was totally gone. Onyxpaw crinkled his nose. Did he just imagine it? He shook his head and sighed. Fogpath's irritated voice called from up ahead. "Come on, Onyxpaw! Do you want this hare to freeze get your lazy tail over here!" Onyxpaw rolled his shoulders and raced up to his mentor.
Onyxpaw and Fogpath reached the TundraClan cave right before dusk. Onyxpaw still marveled at the sheer sight of the huge carven. The two cats padded inside and laid the big hare in the fresh-kill cave within the main cave to keep it from freezing. There were many other smaller fissures in the cave for many different reasons. One for the nursery, one for the warrior's den, etc.
Cats greeted Fogpath. Some just nodded and continued what they were doing. But no one paid any attention to Onyxpaw. Without a word to his apprentice, Fogpath snuck off into the warrior's cave, which was high up by the ceiling, to get some rest.
Onyxpaw grabbed a small rabbit from the fresh-kill cave and began chewing the tough meat that was normal at the end of SnowFall. The next season would be NoSun when the sun barely came up and TundraClan had to forge in the tiny bit of daylight they had. To make it worst, the snow from SnowFall would be hard and icy from the frigid conditions. Onyxpaw had never seen a NoSun and he feared that because of his fur, skinny stature and everything else 'wrong' with him, he wouldn't survive till SnowMelt.
Onyxpaw finished his rabbit and licked his lips in satisfaction. Dusk patrol was gathering under Ice Rock, a huge piece of ice jutting out from the cave wall that was used by the leader to make announcements. Falconpaw was among them. The tom waved his tail at his friend and ran up to him.
"What's up Onyxpaw? How was hunting with Fogpath?" Falconpaw said the deputy's name like it was a piece of frozen fresh-kill. Fogpath wasn't the most popular cat in the Clan despite his high rank.
"I'm sure you can guess," Onyxpaw sighed, "but it was freezing out there!"
Falconpaw sniffed the air as if to check the temperature. "Really? I didn't noticed"
Onyxpaw cuffed his ear playfully, "Well it's cold for me. Unlike you, I don't have the pelt of a lynx!" Falconpaw rolled his big amber eyes lightheartedly.
"Shouldn't you be on patrol?" Onyxpaw asked
Falconpaw glanced at the group of cats still waiting under IceRock, "Not yet. Darksky still hasn't showed up. That weasel-brain doesn't know sleet from snow anymore!"
Onyxpaw looked down at his paws at the mention of his loony grandfather. His father's father was well known in the Clan for being, well, odd. He once was a mighty warrior that slayed a big white fox that threatened TundraClan. But after his mate died, Onyxpaw's grandmother, old Darksky was never the same.
"Sorry," Falconpaw quickly apologized to the black tom
"Its fine," Onyxpaw mewed.
There was an awkward silence. Suddenly, a piercing scream from outside the cave filled the cold air, getting louder and louder every passing moment. Then…it went silent.