The Golden Lamb and the Bloody Lion

1

Loud crackles complemented the roar of bloody flames as a house burned to the ground. Two soot-covered forms crawled out of a cracked window, with billows of smoke nipping their backs as it rose to join the gently falling snow. They quickly hurried away from the flames, making their way into the forest of ferns.

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Soft coughs from smokey lungs rang out in the silence amongst the trees, as two somewhat sooty kits walked aimlessly.  One of a soft blue with small black spots that meshed together with the soot that hadn't been washed away by the snow. The other a white with golden features and nervous amber eyes.

"... Sis?" The white tom mewed.

"Yeah, Wheaty?" She glanced over her shoulder to look at him while they walked.

"I think we should take a break," He flicked an ear. "After all, we've walked pretty far..."

The she-cat stopped and took cautious glances around before mewing, "Alright."

She padded over to one of the many ferns that surrounded them and sat down, with her brother following suit.  She raised a paw and began cleaning off the rest of the soot that still clung to her fur.

The tom looked back the way they came, still seeing smoke and ash rise from whatever remained of their home. He flattened his ears as he processed all that had happened, "... Sera, do you think they're okay?"

The she-cat froze and closed her eyes a moment while she thought, "I... I don't think so."

Silence settled back in as the she-cat continued grooming and the tom took in the environment. The winds began to pick up as the flakes fell in larger clumps from the starless sky above, with only the clouded over moon to light up the world below.

The journey to somewhere unknown continued as the siblings decided that they needed to find a proper place to sleep before they freeze to death. They trudged through the piling snow with the wind berating their sides and the fluffy flakes starting to make it hard to see far away.  It only took moments for the pair to be caught up in a white-out that gave them trouble seeing even a few tail lengths in front of them. Howling winds mostly deafened them as they pushed forward.

"H-Have you seen anything, Wheat?" The she-cat meowed over the wind as best she could.

When her brother didn't answer, she asked again while taking a quick glance back, "Wheat, any sight of a place we could-"

She stopped and stared at the empty space behind her where the tom should have been. She looked all around her, "Wheaty?"

"Whitaker?!" She called. "Whitaker! Where are you?!"

She desperately called out to try and find her brother, being unable to backtrack as she couldn't tell where she had come from with their tracks already displaced. She finally gave in, unable to keep calling for him, and picked a direction to keep walking in, hoping to find him on her way.

Meanwhile, said tom similarly tried to find his sister, calling, "Seraphina! Sis, where are you?!"

He did his best to search for her, wandering around blindly while he yowled her name. He smacked into a tree that he couldn't see and took a step back. He shook his head and looked up at the large oak tree.

Upon closer inspection, as he walked around it, he noticed a large opening that led into the tree. He cautiously stepped in, finding no sign of a resident. He glanced back out into the endless white and cold before fully stepping in and nestling down for the night.