Hostile

37

Five cats stood just outside the protective gorse barrier that surrounded their camp. The rain came down harder and harder, becoming more steady and unforgiving along with the wind. Frostcloud and Warmheart stood next to each other, while three skunked cats rolled in a puddle of thick, coagulated mud.

Their flanks were completely coated. Heavy, weighing down on the warriors. Brown blobs dripped their bodies and plopped back into the ground. And while the stench of skunk was very much still present, it was also significantly masked by the dense clay.

"Can we help?" A voice came from behind Frostcloud, who turned to face the incoming pawsteos. Foxpaw and Ferretpaw approached- but it was Ferretpaw who spoke with her head tilted uncertainly.

"What a generous offer." Frostcloud praised the apprentices.

"My kits." Leafear purred at the duo. She stood in the center of the puddle. Her legs were spread apart as she kept her balance with the leaden weight pulling her down. "Help me cover my face?"

The two she-cats, without hesitating, stepped into the mud and used what coated their paws to gently cover their mother's face. They used great care to avoid her eyes and nostrils. She purred loudly at her kin.

Frostcloud and Warmheart exchanged a bright glance before reaching forward and doing the same. Frostcloud set one foot onto the mud before it sucked and swallowed her paw whole. It was thick, cold, and gritty. She brought her gaze up to Buckheart, who almost glittered from delight. "Thank you, Frostcloud." He said, just before she used her paw to bat his cheek with gunk.

"Hey!" He chirped. He lifted his paw and returned the playful gesture. Frostcloud bounced in surprise. Mud stuck to her cheek and the left side of her face felt heavy.

"Mouse-brain!" She purred, "I'm helping you!"

"Ahem." Crowfur coughed. He watched the two warriors with slit eyes, as if he were disappointed. But as he did Warmheart clocked him with her own mud-paw right on the forehead.

"Warmheart!" He said, shocked. Her tail was raised in delight. Foxpaw and Ferretpaw cackled as their deputy.

Suddenly, the entire group of cats were wrestling in the mud. Frostcloud had knocked down Buckheart and pinned down on his chest victoriously while he laid on his side, wailing dramatically. Ferretpaw and Foxpaw bounded in circles around their mother while she swat mud at them, tossing it like she would a mouse, and miraculously even landing some of the throws. Even Warmheart and Crowfur wrestled with eachother, the formers beautiful white and red fur became drowned in brown sludge.

There was a monstrous rumble of thunder that shook the earth the cats played on, and startled, Frostcloud leapt from Buckheart and onto dry land. Her entire bottom self was coated in mud, pulling on her fur uncomfortably. She shook her body- partially just to shake off some of the clay. But primarily to flatten her puffed fur before the others noticed. "We should go back." Buckheart said to his Clanmates as he got to his own paws.

"Our fur." Foxpaw stated, casting her eyes to Frostcloud for an answer. She was right, Frostcloud admitted to herself begrudgingly. It was only the skunked cats that couldn't wash themselves yet.

"Let's go to the stream behind camp." She said to the apprentices, "Quickly, just to get the bulk of this gunk off."

She circled camp urgently- the sisters and Warmheart following. They quickly found the small creek, which was swelling with the worsening rain. Though the water was still gentle enough to step into without the threat of the current.

Cold water wrapped around Frostcloud's legs and belly, making her shudder. It tugged on her fur gently, and clouds of muk were carried off in the otherwise crystal water.

"Oh, stag-dung!" Foxpaw cursed quietly as she followed suit. Frostcloud flicked her tail. She wanted to correct her foul language, but frankly couldn't blame the tortoiseshell. Her long fur became soaked in water as she crawled into the creek, which creeped further up her body.

"This isn't fun anymore." Ferretpaw whined. She shivered in the water that splashed her body.

"Just a minute here, Ferretpaw!" Foxpaw encouraged, "Then we can go back to our warm nests!"

Approaching her smaller sister, Foxpaw sat on her hind feet to use her front paws to help her clean the mud that plastered on the back of her neck. She splashed it, and rubbed what she was able to off. Ferretpaw's teeth chattered.

Frostcloud caught Warmheart's eyes, which looked almost as proud as Frostcloud felt. The sisters didn't have to come out and help their mother, they chose to leave their warm, dry den to care for the stinky warriors. Foxpaw didn't have to stay in the frigid creek longer to help bathe her sister. She chose too. Despite her heavy coat, which did nothing but absorb the freezing water like thirsty moss.

Four drenched cats urgently trotted back to camp. Foxpaw's coat was still dripping by the time they made it to the clearing and the two 'paws were shivering as rain continued to beat down on them. The wind was beginning to howl now, and lightning burst the sky in powerful moments of light. Frostcloud's could feel her heart race. Her paws itched to duck into her safe, cozy, underground shelter where Cricketlegs, Buckheart, and Riverpelt surely lay waiting.

But instead, she followed Foxpaw and Ferretpaw into their own den. It was dark inside, but the immediate break from the icy wind outdoors gave instant relief from the bite in her skin.

Her heart lurched, noticing right away a dry nest that once belonged to Badgerpaw, tucked just behind where Foxpaw and Ferretpaw curled up.

"Frostcloud?" Foxpaw mewed as her mentor stepped closer.

"Let me help you dry." She said, straining to stop her own shiver from her voice, "Before I go to the warriors den."

She tucked down in front of the two sisters. Ferretpaw's teeth continued to chatter, but it was Foxpaw's soaked coat that concerned the warrior. Gently, she reached forward and lapped away at the water that clung to her belly fur.

Rain came down in waves, shaping to the roaring wind outside and following it's irrational current. Lighting flashed, briefly illuminating the dark world outside before being followed by an aggressive rumble of thunder so deep the world trembled.

She flicked her ears, opting to focus not on the chaos outside but the apprentices in front of her she needed to dry.

A sudden memory snagged Frostcloud's attention. A memory from so long ago she couldn't count the moons- when she herself was still a 'paw. Laying with Littlepaw's working to dry out Mosspaw's coat as a violent storm raged outside. They slept in this very den back then. At the time Frostcloud was the youngest cat in all of PineClan.

Frostcloud pulled away from her apprentice. Her headstrong, brave apprentice, who only grew to be a stronger warrior for PineClan by the dawn. Meanwhile, across camp, Mosspool lay with kits of her own. Frostcloud couldn't stop her eyes from squinting in delight. Her Clan has grown so much. Once meek, starved, outnumbered, it only grew. Like an oak, with roots growing deeper into the soil and leaves growing large and green.