Prologue -Snowtail, Frostbite, and Tigersky
Part 1: Snowtail
Snowtail opened his eyes to the rising sun, taking in the nice-smooth air. Excited to go training, he leaped out of his mossy bed and headed to his trainer, Frostbite. Frostbite is one of the most fierce trainers and warriors in the tribe, if you get anything wrong, he will make you do it over and over until you can’t do it anymore. Having a cat to train him like this makes Snowtail a lot more paranoid while doing his training, but also encourages him to try hard and keep going when he doesn’t feel like he can. Snowtail stepped into the hollow and scanned it for his trainer yet he could not see him anywhere.
He started to look around and saw him sitting in a mossy lump in the defensive quarters, which is a small tunnel that can only hold about five or six adult cats. There were three mossy lumps to comfort the cats doing their role, which is watching for enemies of the tribe. Usually, the watching cats get a break to eat food, chat with friends or family, or just to sleep but Frostbite has been given the role to teach snowfall the basics of hunting, now he mostly works at night. Snowtail entered his trainer’s workspace, he had no idea what time it was but his trainer was still working. “He must almost be done.” The kit though, with that in mind he walked over and picked up a nice meaty squirrel and went back to his trainer to give it to him.
Snowtail walked towards Frostbite, a gray tom with dark blue eyes, black and white slashes throughout his pelt, and a scar on the top of his head. “Are you hungry?” Snowtail asked, Frostbite’s cold gaze fixed on Snowtail then on the squirrel. “I can get my own.” Frostbite replied, Snowtail was about to apologize but Frostbite said “You can have it, we are about to start your training in a bit anyway, so you’ll need it.” Frostbite said, “Thank you, frostbite,” Snowtail said. He walked back to the hollow and sat down to eat the squirrel. After a bit, Frostbite was announced off watching duty until sunset. Snowtail walked into the training hollow and waited for his trainer.
Part 2: Frostbite
Frostbite entered the training hall shortly after the announcement for the next work shifts. He looked around for his apprentice, Snowtail was talking to one of his tribemates named Tigersky. Tigersky is a short-haired ginger tabby she-cat with pale amber eyes, black paws, black specs on her hindquarters, a white patch of fur on her belly, and a scar under her left eye from a corrupt trainer that struck the kit on purpose. After that incident, the kit refused to train for any fighting exercise and became the new medicine cat.
Frostbite stalked towards the kits, wanting to see if they recognized he was there. He was about a tail length away until they noticed, he suppressed his meow of amusement as they looked at him and said their goodbyes. Tigersky walked away, looking back as she went, Frostbite turned to Snowtail. “Are we just going to sit here and stare at each other or are we going to hunt?” Frostbite said, Snowtail nodded as Frostbite led the way. The two cats made their way outside the camp and started heading north until they arrived at an area named ‘Deadwood’, known hunting grounds of the Frozen tribe.
“Okay, do you remember the plan for hunting?” Frostbite said, “Yes Frostbite, we stick together, catch prey, and return here.” Said Snowtail, “Good” Frostbite said proudly. “Let’s get going,” Frostbite said. He looked at Snowtail and flicked his tail to tell him to lead the way, Snowtail nodded and sprinted towards the forest quickly and quietly.
Part 3: Tigersky
“The wound should be healed by Dawn tomorrow,” Tigersky said as she inspected the wound on Bognose’s shoulder. Bognose is a lanky black she-cat with gray stripes, brown eyes, and very long fur. Tigersky heard that Bognose is very mean to others, but she is very gentle with her medicine cat, Tigersky. “Thank you, Tigersky,” Bognose said, before going out the mossy doorway.
A little while later, Tigersky heard a cat yelling and a crowd starting to assemble. She was excited to find a limping warrior walking into their camp. The warrior was unreliable with all of the deep scratch marks all over their body. Everyone was asking them questions about their scratches and where they came from. Suddenly, Frostbite and Snowtail ran into camp, “Get the apprentices into their dens!” Frostbite shouted pushing Snowtail into the apprentice’s den, “Everyone else, get ready to fight!“. There was a small panic throughout the hallow, but everything got done without any protest.
“What’s going on?” Tigersky asked, “Raiders again, this time they have a whole army,” Frostbite said. “Their last attack almost killed all of us! And they had even fewer cats last time! I mean, we should retreat to another tribe, They might under-”
“And leave our home!? Are you crazy!?” Frostbite protested, “We can’t fight them!” Tigersky said, “Fine, take the kits and apprentices, if we have to retreat we will meet you halfway,” Frostbite said, Tigersky nodded and started sprinting towards the apprentice’s den.
Part 4: Snowtail
“We have to go, all of you!” Tigersky said to the apprentices in their den. “Are we leaving?” Snowtail asked Tigersky, “Yes, but only until the camp is safe to come back too.” Tigersky replied, “Come on now, we have to go!“. Snowtail followed Tigersky closely making sure they were safe before exiting the camp, meanwhile behind them they heard pelts being ripped off the warriors and raiders.
The group of cats had made their way to the halfway point without any hassle, “We’ll wait until dawn tomorrow to continue from here or until we know it’s safe to go back.” Tigersky said as they settled down. Snowtail set up his mossy bed at the high moon, and as soon as he finished Frostbite came out of the bushes, by himself. “Where is Tigersky?” Frostbite asked, “She’s over there, under that tree. Why do you need her? Did we win the battle?” Snowtail asked, but Frostbite ignored all of his questions and headed to Tigersky.
Part 5: Tigersky
“What happened at camp?” Tigersky asked, “I’ll tell that once we’re in a safe place to talk about it.” Frostbite said before jumping up the rocks of the mountain that lay right next to their temporary camp. Tigersky followed closely behind, in a few seconds they were up the mountain wall away from everyone else. “Look,” Frostbite said pointing with his tale, Tigersky turned to look at what he was pointing to, but only saw trees. Then, she felt a swift paw plunge into her back sending her to the ground.
Tigersky turned her way to see Frostbite looming above her, pinning her to the ground. She tried to lift herself yet, it felt like thirty elders were stacked on top of her. “What are you doing!? get off of me!” Tigersky said, but all he did was let out a battle cry into the distance, a second later raiders were moving towards the apprentices. Tigersky struggled, trying to break free, “I agreed with the raiders to let both of us stay alive, just you and me.” Frostbite said, “W-we can start a n-new life you know? No tribe, no apprentices, and no limits. The camp is gone, they took it over. We can’t beat them anymore.”
Tigersky was lost for words, did he really sacrifice everyone, even the kits just for both of them to get out alive!? “Did y-you actually?” Tigersky said, clawing at the gravel underneath her paws. Did you let all of them die so we can live?” Tigersky said. Frostbite peered over the rocks of the mountain, looking down on the fight. “I mean, they’re not dead yet.” His eyes filled with no emotions to the death of their tribe.
“I’m not going with you! So I guess the next time I see you...″ Suddenly, Tigersky turned herself on her back "It'll be in hell!" she used her hind legs to get a powerful kick, hitting him hard enough to get him off the edge of the mountain. Tigersky looked down to see Frostbite’s body in the grass, opposite to where the fight was with the apprentices. ‘Surely he’s dead, after all, that’s a big fall.’ Then, She started hopping from rock to rock to join the battle that lay before her.
Part 6: Snowtail
“Get off him!” Snowtail meowed as a raider was pinning his fellow clanmate, he started clawing into their pelt and could see the blood oozing out the claw marks he made. Snowtail tried to grip onto the cat’s back but he was thrown off the warrior. He plunged into the ground and saw the huge warrior jump on top of him. Snowtail used his hind legs to claw at the warrior’s belly as his front paws clawed at the raider’s face.
Snowtail got a nice strike at the raider’s eye, making him back up enough to let Snowtail stand up. He leaped onto the raider, knocking them down. Snowtail started clawing at his belly until his paws were covered in blood. He slowly stepped off the dead raider’s body, he looked around to see his dead clanmates throughout the temporary camp they made, then he saw tigersky coming down the mountain.
“There’s more of them coming! we have to go now!” Tigersky mewed, Snowtail then saw the remaining cats of the tribe Sprint into the forest followed by two raiders. “They’re going after them,” Snowtail said, “how many?” “Only two! Come on, we can take them!” Snowtail replied, they started running after them and eventually caught up and saw the two raiders attacking the apprentices and kits.
But two became four, and four became ten, “I thought you said there were only two!” Tigersky meowed quietly, “There was, they must have called for more cats.” Snowtail replied, he looked around and saw the dead bodies of their clanmates. “They’re all dead...” Snowtail said, “their none left...“.
“Let’s go, we have to see if the other tribe will help us in any way right now.” Snowtail nodded and followed Tigersky as she led the way to their allied tribe, waiting to see their reaction to the cats in need.
