"Welcome to FloeClan, stranger." You walk nervously through the camp entrance, guarded by two thickset cats.

Your fur is fluffed up against the cold, but these cats don't seem bothered by it.

Their fur seems white and cream at first, but looking closer to your guide, you notice darker fur underneath.

"I'm sorry to say, but you probably won't see your twolegs for a while. It's hard for them to get out onto the ice."

You dip your head sadly. "I understand."

"While you're here, I may as well show you around." Your guide, a white mackerel tom, says.

He leads you to a pile of snow with a small hole in it. You brush your tail against it, expecting it to crumble. But, to your surprise, it is rock solid, covered in ice.

Inside the den, several bodies of cats are curled together in the furthest corner, heat radiating from their pelts.

"This is the warriors den. It's not very comfortable, as we save the blubber and fur mostly for the nursery and medicine den. But it's warm. You never want to sleep alone. That spells certain death. "

You nod. The cats must be resting together to keep warm.

He leads you out of that den and into another one.

In this one, three kits with super fluffy fur race around, squeaking excitedly. The walls are covered in a slick, almost clear substance that emits a faint scent of death.

The ground is covered in fluffy white fur, and two queens are laying together in a nest made almost entirely of fur. One queen's stomach bulges with unborn kits.

"This is the nursery." Your guide says, smiling towards the expecting queen. The cream she cat winks at him, and your pelt heats up with embarrassment.

He turns back to you. "The walls are lined with seal blubber we extract from corpses. The floor is covered in fur from minks, bear cubs, and seal pups. "

You nod as he continues. "The rules of this Clan is that you cannot have kits without another cat already in the nursery. If you do, you and your kits will certainly die. Normally there would be a nursery queen who stays full time, but she unfortunately was killed in an avalanche about a moon ago."

You dip your head, offering your consolations. The tom looks up.

"Enough of that. We don't have time to dwell on the past. Come along, you must be hungry."

As you walk out of the nursery, you ask, "are there any other dens?"

Your guide nods. "The medicine den and the nursery. We don't have very many herbs, but we thankfully have developed a strong immune system. As for the elders, you cannot retire unless there is another elder already there."

He walks you to the prey pile. You expected to see small animals, but you are greeted with frozen chunks of meat.

"A seal pup or a bear cub is too much for a few cats to share." He explains, seeming to catch your question.

"Plus, some of the queens don't like to see baby creatures killed. It's easier this way." He grabs a chunk of meat and gives it to you.

"Eat up."

---

After your meal, your guide shows you the other dens.

"Now, how about I tell you about the different roles we have?"

You nod eagerly.

"Well, we have cats assigned to different jobs. Patrol cats, hunters, guards, water watchers, and prey gutters."

You recoil at the words "prey gutters."

"Patrol cats patrol the ice floes we make as our territory. They don't mark borders, as it would lead hunters to our camp. Instead, they keep watch for white bears, seals, and twoleg hunters."

You gesture for him to go on.

"Hunters are sometimes gone for days at a time, busy collecting prey. They search for seal pups and lone bear cubs, but they stumble upon minks, lemmings, and various types of birds."

"Guards. They are always in pairs, stationed around various parts of the outside of our camp. If the patrol cats come back with news of danger, they get the cats ready to fight or flee, depending on what we are facing."

You nod, your eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Prey gutters take the prey the hunters have caught and extract the meat from it. They separate it into chunks that are big enough to be a meal for a full grown cat. They take the blubber and fur and put it in the places that need them."

"What are the water watchers?" You ask.

"They are the most important cats in this camp, though they work as normals warriors for a majority of the year. When the weather starts to warm, even slightly, they begin to patrol and watch the ice floes."

"All the ice melts when it gets warm. They let us know when we need to start teaching the kits to swim, and getting the prey and elders ready. When the ice melts, the Great Swim begins. We must swim to the land and survive until the ice reforms."

Your eyes are wide. "Thank you for telling me this." You say.

"No problem! Enjoy your stay!"