Upon Winter's End

Chapter One

Cross shivered as the cold seeped into his bones through his thin, matted, grey splotched fur. He rose from the cold ground, his legs shaking as he tried to keep himself standing. Cross made a small 'oof' noise as he flopped back onto the frozen, snowy ground. Cross sighed as he managed to straighten his legs and walk forwards on wobbly legs like a tiny pup. As he walked on his limbs slowly gained feeling back he paused and his ears perked up as he heard two voices.
"What do you think you're doing?!" The first voice spoke, their tone slightly agitated.
"There's someone on our territory, I have to mark our borders," The second deeper, gruff voice said sounding lightly annoyed.
"We need to get back before the clan meeting, I really want to go the the gathering this moon!" They said.
"Alright, alright, let's go," They deeper voice said as the two walked off. Cross followed the two from a far distance making sure that they wouldn't catch his scent as he trailed behind them all the way back to their camp. Cross hung back around the bramble entrance as the clan's leader spoke up, he couldn't quite understand it all but from the fragments he caught he now knew about this thing called a 'gathering' where all the clans would come together for a single night under the full moon. Cross found it odd he had never heard of this before, it may have been because it seemed only warriors were aloud to go to them, when he had lost his clan he was actually completing his final test to become a warrior. His head drooped slightly as he remembered his old friends, suddenly Cross was sucked back into reality as a few wolves exited the bramble entrance causing him to rush away from it to make sure he was unseen. As he watched he saw two wolves, one black with odd blueish grey stripes, and the other with white fur splattered with black, who seemed like the ones he had heard and followed earlier. As the last of the group exited he padded along behind the last one in the line who had very splotchy fur and a ragged, beat up tail. Cross didn't manage to get very far before a much larger black wolf came crashing down on his shoulders.
"Ahh!" Cross screamed as he felt claws rake down his spine, he tried to struggle but was unable to do anything as the other's razor sharp claws dug deep into his bare flesh. "S-stop! P-please!" He cried out, the claws finally stopped but he felt the other wolf breathing down his neck as they got close to his ear.
"What are you doing on our territory?" They asked their voice deep and gruff yet oddly soothing.
"I-i'm sorry! Please don't kill me!" Cross whimpered as he felt a hot substance soak into his fur.
"I said what are you doing on our territory?" They growled.
"I-i was just looking around! I didn't mean any harm!" Cross said his voice shaking in fear.
"Pfff, likely story, you're coming with me to see the deputy," They said as they rather forcefully grabbed Cross by the scruff and dragged him back into their camp, Cross shaking in fear of what would come and a pounding pain covered his spine. Cross felt the wind knocked out of his lungs as he was thrown down onto the cold, hard unforgiving ground, he looked over, finally able to see the other, they were a very large black wolf with sharp blue piercing eyes and scars from old hard fought battles adorned his muscled form.
"Mint, I found this loner on our territory, what do you suggest we do with him?" They asked another wolf who was a grey, sooty color.
"Nightmare! Oh goodness what did you do to the poor thing?!" Mint exclaimed as she saw the large gashes running down Cross' back.
"I-uh- nothing..?" Nightmare seemed a bit ashamed now, Mint just glared at him.
"We are not deciding on anything until I take them to the medicine den," Mint said as she helped Cross to his paws and guided the small frightened wolf to a medium sized cave carved into the stone walls of their camp.
"Geno, you here?" Mint called out into the cave, shorty after a small particularly pudgy white wolf came rushing out from a side cave, their claws scrabbling over the smooth stone.
"H-hi, w-what's up?" Geno said huffing slightly. "Oh my!" Geno exclaimed as he saw the blood that was now dripping down onto the floor. "I'll be right back!" Geno said quickly as he scurried off again. Cross laid down on the cold floor with a heavy sigh.
"Did Nightmare do this to you?" Mint asked, her voice smooth and soft. Cross nodded.
"Y-yeah," Cross said scared that these other wolves wanted to kill him.
"We won't hurt you sweetie, Nightmare's just a little... aggressive," Mint paused trying to find the right word for the black wolf.
"A-alright, just stay still, this may sting a little," Geno said as he came back with a dripping ball of moss and a small bundle of herbs. Cross felt the wet moss go across his wounds making him sigh softly, the cold water feeling nice against his raw, bleeding back. Suddenly the moss was removed and another substance was rubbed into the claw marks, Cross yelped in pain as the new substance felt like fire.
"It's okay! It's okay!" Geno said quickly as he finished rubbing it into Cross' wounds. "That is meant to stop infections," Geno explained, Cross nodded slowly and Geno hurried back off into another side tunnel.
"So, what's your name?" Mint asked looking down at Cross.
"O-oh, my name's Cross," He said his eyes darting to the side.
"Well, Cross I need you to come with me until Reaper returns," Mint said.
"Who's Reaper?" Cross pondered aloud.
"Oh, he's our clan leader," Mint spoke softly, Cross' eyes widened, he was in big trouble if they were involving a clan leader in this.

Cross sat near the small entrance to the clan leader's den as he was forced to stay there until they returned from the gathering which was probably going to take awhile. Cross laid down, resting his chin on his paws, he pricked his ears up trying to hear anything interesting. He picked up on one conversation between two female wolves.
"He's crazy!" One of them commented.
"I know! He shouldn't be out hunting, he should be in the nursery," The second one said.
"Speaking of that, something about Geno's been off lately and I just can't put my claw on it," The first one gossiped. Cross wondered who they were talking about and soon their conversation ended and Cross just started to pick at the small patch of grass in front of him with his claws. Just as Cross raised his eyes he saw Geno dart out of the entrance to the camp, where's he going? Cross wondered as he raised an eye ridge. Cross was tempted to follow him but he didn't want to get attacked by Nightmare again, his back still hurt quite a lot. Speaking of Nightmare he was watching Cross closely from the other side of the camp, his sharp blue eyes locked on Cross, it made his fur feel like little insects were crawling around beneath his thin flesh. Cross turned his head away from Nightmare, his unwavering gaze becoming very uncomfortable, Cross closed his eyes and didn't even notice as he started to fall asleep, slowly slipping into the realm on unconsciousness.

"Hey! You! Wake up!" Cross felt himself shaken awake only to be staring into those sharp blue eyes again, Cross yelped at how close the other was. "Sorry, I was just trying to wake you up, the clan leader is here," Nightmare announced, Cross blinked his eyes a few times before they adjusted to the darkness.
"Is it the middle of the night...?" Cross mumbled. Nightmare rolled his eyes and sighed.
"It's almost dawn, now come on," Nightmare said pulling Cross up by his scruff and guiding him into the clan leader's den.
"Ah, Cross, hello there," A large black wolf with a white underbelly spoke as Nightmare left Cross alone with him.
"H-hello R-r-reaper," Cross stuttered as he bowed down to the other wolf.
"Oh, there's no need to bow!" Reaper said with a chuckle. "Sit down," He said, Cross quickly obeyed at sat down on the mossy ground. "Now, Nightmare caught you trespassing on our land correct?" Cross nodded. "Do you have a clan?" He asked.
"N-not anymore... I was separated  from them about a year ago when a white storm hit during my warrior testing," Cross said hanging his head slightly.
"Which clan do you belong to then?" Reaper asked, seeming more interested now.
"Um, it's MountainWalker," Cross said.
"What?" Reaper asked, Cross repeated himself and Reaper still seemed as confused. "What kind of clan is that?" He questioned.
"I lived in the mountain ranges," He said.
"I-i didn't know that there were clans in the mountain ranges!" Reaper exclaimed. "If you like you can stay with us until winter's end, then I can send you with a few other wolves to return you to your clan," Reaper paused. "Maybe we can even establish an alliance with them," Reaper mumbled a bit. "Well anyways you'll need a place to sleep, follow me," Reaper said as he stood up and exited the den, Cross following close behind. "You can stay in the warrior's den," Reaper said pointing to an opening in the rocks covered by hanging moss.
"Thank you so much," Cross said with a soft smile.
"You're welcome, this is kind of an apology for what Nightmare did to you," Cross cringed a bit at what Reaper said. They said their goodbyes and Cross parted the moss and entered.
"Oh, hi," A deep voice spoke. "I thought he would get rid of you," Cross turned to see Nightmare, Cross huffed a bit but looked around the sleeping bodies of other wolves trying to find a free spot to sleep. "Over here Crossy," Nightmare said waving his tail with a smirk, next to Nightmare was an open spot. Cross huffed and flopped down onto the moss nest next to Nightmare. After a while Cross managed to get comfortable but there was a cold draft passing right across his back making him whimper. "Come here," Nightmare said as he brought his nest closer to Cross' and wrapped himself around Cross' much smaller form. Cross squeaked in fear but it soon subsided as he realized Nightmare wasn't going to hurt him, at least for now. Cross let himself slip back into the realm of dreams as he burrowed into Nightmare's warm, thick, soft fur.

This is heavily inspired by Warrior Cats, I just randomly thought of this so I wrote it down, and I know Cross' clan has a weird name it's kind of like the mountain cat's names in Warriors
So tell me what you think, and tell me if I have any spelling errors or anything, bye for now!