Warriors™️ FanFic #1: CrescentSwirl's Pride

Moon 2

Moon 2

It was late winter and the cold was haunting. It blew in gusts, greeting every cat with a vicious whip of frost as they left the camp's protective ridges. Only warriors could place their paws on the frozen ground. It was too soft for a kitten's pads. 

KestrelFace left the nursery and allowed the wind to blow her— no, snap her awake. Tired as she was, she was hungrier. Her kits, now able to walk, were spending every minute doing so. They pranced and hopped and skipped and jumped across the camp, bounding from rock to rock, nest to nest, disturbing the empty and abandoned warriors' nests. Luckily, during the zenith of the sun, it was warmest as could possibly be. That was still cold, but warm enough for the mother to not mind her kittens being out.

KestrelFace frowned at the fresh-kill pile. It was too bad there was nothing there yet. There probably wouldn't have been anything more if she came there later as well. Patrols had been pathetic, absolutely failing their job in the last moon. Was the previous winter this bad? There was no way it could have been. A few times, she could have sworn she saw warriors taking the scarce prey for themselves instead of bringing them to the queens first. However, that also could have been her hunger hallucinating her. Who knew what was true anymore?

"SnowMist, have you been sent out to hunt yet?" KestrelFace asked her younger sister.

She was with her littermate, PaintedPearl. MoonKit, upon spotting them, dashed up the coffee-colored queen and exchanged a greeting— a muzzle rub followed by a little kiss on the nose. KestrelFace looked on, plain expression hiding just a hint of annoyance. I should be teaching him to do that, she thought. Not her.

OwlKit and RoseKit carefully scented SnowMist, before settling right beside her. Her face was illuminated by the sunlight most beautifully.

"I haven't, yet, but don't worry!" she assured KestrelFace.  "If you can trust anyone to hunt, you can trust me." she purred. 

PaintedPearl's smaller frame remained seated besides SnowMist, fuming. Meanwhile, MoonKit pawed through her tufts and tail, batting it like a plaything.

As if she couldn't hunt just as well as her sister could! She couldn't get herself to hunt extra normally, but her anger was evidenced by her tail lashing behind her as she rose.

"I'll hunt!" she announced. "Expect me back shortly."

MoonKit gave himself a good shake as PaintedPearl checked over her coat. SnowMist giggled, feigning an arrogant expression. "Oh, sister, your coat will get so unorganized. Are you sure you'll be alright?" she teased.

PaintedPearl released a little squeak of sorts, before huffing and walking away. She wasn't much for counter-insults. They always came to her head later when the argument had passed on anyways.

KestrelFace tried to stay straight faced, but the comment added some much-needed humor to her day. "Alright, then. I'll be waiting."

OwlKit and RoseKit peeked out from within SnowMist. "Can we stay and have fun now?" OwlKit asked.

They were playing too much, she thought. They were already quite thin, running around so much. She felt bad, but there wasn't much more to do than to let them run around. Clearly, the moor wasn't able to provide the right amount of food for them. She couldn't particularly remember if the previous winter was this bad, but that was a while ago, even before OrangeKit and LimeKit were born. Now, they were LimePaw and OrangePaw.

"Not yet. Come now."

Their mother took them to the medicine den, OwlKit on her mother's tail. MoonKit stumbled around awkwardly before dashing after them into the den as well. RoseKit caught up to MoonKit.