Distant Sun - Clouds

Chapter 16

Fallenpaw woke up the next morning to find snow outside. And it was still snowing! She hops up and goes to look outside. The camp was awake and everyone was looking up at the snow. The kits were playing, squealing at the cold feeling. The apprentices, those who were awake that is, were chasing each other around camp. The warriors were all around camp, watching the sky warily. The elders were nowhere to be seen, probably in their den. Rocktooth, Blueheart and Whitestar were all by Whitestar's den talking. None of them looked happy.

"Fallenpaw, look!" Spotpaw exclaims. "Snow!"

"Yeah!" Fallenpaw giggles.

"All cats gather beneath the HighRock for a Clan meeting!" Whitestar calls, leaping up onto the rock.

Fallenpaw walks with her sister up to the rock. The cats outside all gathered while the rest poked their heads out of their dens. Whitestar looked grim.

"What do you think Whitestar is upset about?" Spotpaw asks.

"Dunno, we'll find out," Fallenpaw shrugs.

"I'm sure many of you are very excited about the snow," Whitestar meows. "But as usual, the snow is not quite good for us. Due to the lack of trees on our territory, we get a lot of snow. Most leafbares lead to us getting stuck in camp. This leafbare is the same. We have not been able to find a way out of camp. So Blueheart will be leading teams of warriors and apprentices to dig out the snow and create a path so that we can get hunting parties out. Blueheart, it's up to you now."

Whitestar jumps down and Blueheart replaces her.

"The first team will be Ashstone, Cindercloud, Barknight and Coralsong. You'll be going to the entrance and digging out the snow until I send another team in to replace you," Blueheart meows sternly. "As for patrols, we'll set those up once we can get out. That is all."

The cats disperse. Fallenpaw looks at her sister to see her reaction. This was Spotpaw's first snow, and she immediately had to learn that it wasn't good for the Clan.

"Are we really stuck in camp?" Spotpaw asks softly, a little bit of fear in her eyes.

"It happens every year," Fallenpaw meows. "It's not too bad, we usually manage to make a tunnel in the snow pretty quickly. We won't starve."

"Ok..." Spotpaw frowns still.

"Hey, don't worry, ok? The tunneling teams have got this," Fallenpaw bumps Spotpaw's shoulder gently. "How about we go huddle up in the den with the rest while we wait for the next team? It'll be warmer that way."

"Ok," Spotpaw nods.

***

The snow had stopped coming down, but the apprentice's den was still full of the shivering cats. Fallenpaw and Spotpaw were the fluffiest cats in the den, so all of them were burying themselves in their fur. Fallenpaw was glad to make sure all her friends and siblings were warm.

"Fallenpaw!" A voice calls. It was Silverstripe.

"Yeah?" Fallenpaw replies.

"We're on tunnel duty, let's go," Fallenpaw's mentor pokes her head it. Silverstripe gave a start when she saw the huddle of cats.

"Ok, I'll be there in a sec," Fallenpaw chirps. She wiggles out of the pile, much to the protest of Fluffypaw and Snakepaw.

Fallenpaw trots out into the camp. She saw the first team by the warriors den. They were all covered in snow, it was hard to tell who was who. The next team was sitting by Rocktooth's den. Silverstripe, Firestrike and Amberheart are all talking together when Fallenpaw approaches them.

"Ready?" Amberheart asks.

Fallenpaw nods. "Yep! Let's get digging!"

Silverstripe rolls her eyes and gets to her paws. Fallenpaw walks over to the tunnel that was started and starts digging into the snow. Amberheart and Firestrike go on either side of her and Silverstripe goes to Amberheart's side. The snow was freezing on Fallenpaw's paw pads. As she scoops out piles of snow, she starts to feel the cold bite at her. She had a lot of fur and usually never felt cold weather like cats with shorter fur. But now, she could feel the snow packing onto her and the cold making its way through her many layers of fur.

***

They'd been digging for hours. Fallenpaw started to wonder if it would never end. The snow had covered her by this point and she could feel the snow start to melt against her warm skin. It was horrible.

"We're out!" Amberheart suddenly exclaims.

She pushes her whole weight against the snow and the wall they were digging at collapsed. Fallenpaw laughs in relief. She looks around at her companions to find that Firestrike and Amberheart's ginger fur was covered with snow. There was no trace of ginger on either of their pelts.

"Finally," Fallenpaw sighs.

"Perfect," Blueheart appeared at the entrance to the tunnel. "I'll lead a group out to see what we can find. You four go to Rocktooth and get some herbs to prevent a cold."

Fallenpaw follows the three warriors to Rocktooth's den as Blueheart gathers a patrol. Fallenpaw collapses on a nest and lays her head on her snowy paws. Rocktooth gives Fallenpaw a couple herbs which she eats gratefully. She lets her eyes close as she feels a gentle tongue working the warmth back into her skin.