Harsh leaf-bare winds swirled around a distinct pair of cats as they trudged through the snowy mountains. Pure memory guided each pawstep, ensuring their pads remained unharmed but cold.
It was getting hard to see- had been since before they left but the fresh-kill pile was so painfully understocked. As the leader and deputy respectively it was a rare time the two she's didn't butt heads. They both wanted to see their clanmates survive the season, and thus they carried the self-given burden together. Quiverfreckle had lingered at the exit to reassure her kin, all smiles and energy. Only Mousepelt had given Boulderstar a worried look, but a dismissive tail flick was the only reply.
The smiles dropped once camp was out of sight. It was rare they went out together for this very reason- Quiverfreckle... didn't exactly like Boulderstar, and though the younger cat would like to say she didn't know why... she knew. She knew it was her failings as a sister coming to bite her again.
Distantly she wondered if, in another life, she too would have been curled up in the older molly's nest, purring with her sister... looking at Curlewshade and Locustpaw as siblings. The hardened look in her deputy's eyes when she caught her gaze made the feeling of sorrow only deepen. Amber eyes turned downwards hurriedly, the gulping motion of her throat hidden beneath layers of thick mane-like fur. No... no she'd long since lost the right to long for kin.
The once-black parts of her coat were hidden beneath a thick layer of snow, the winds making it hard to even put one paw in front of the other and- oh, StarClan, where were they now?
"Q... Quiverfreckle...?" She had to shout ti be heard, straining to even keep her eyes open.
"Cave." The deputy managed back over the storm, kind enough despite her hatred to press close to the young leader as she led her to a hole in the rockface.
The rocky walls were a swift relief from the storm but no-less cold. Without the snow biting at their faces the pair could finally collapse to rest their trembling bodies.
Shaken off snow lay nearer the entrance, newer fallen ice becoming drawn to the small pile.
Silence fell. It was dangerous to sleep, but the storm could go on for days. Boulderstar's mind raced, anxieties building-
A weight fell over her back, the tortie flinching from the contact as if it were a searing iron.
"Shush, kit. We need to stay warm." The tone wasn't kind, nor playful. Factual and blunt as the queen settled half-way atop her, the wide expanse serving as a thick blanket of moss. The leader soon settled, transported to her kit-hood. It was easy to imagine she was snuggled up between her mother's paws, small and safe. The scent of milk seemed to perpetually linger around Quiverfreckle, who's eyebrows furrowed as the steady purrs began to rumble from the suddenly sleepy molly beneath her.
As she drifted off, usually hard features softened. Quiverfreckle was struck by just how young Boulderstar really was. She'd nearly forgotten in everything going on.
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