She hated that memory.

It always seem to visit her when she needed to be reminded of the power that was being held over her head.

The memory also reminded her of a time when her mother cared about her and her brother.

Now all that Ashenpounce cared about was the next litter she was having.

She was only nine moons old and her mother already shoved her aside for the new kittens coming.

A part of her wants to be happy, that she should be happy, but the numb sensation always overpowered any other feelings.

'Stop this, just go back to sleep.'

She just wants to slip back into the darkness and forget about everything.

Slowly her subconscious turned quiet, and she fell back into the darkness.

A rough push is what snapped her out of the dark void her mind was trapped in.

Maybe if she ignored the persistence of the object prodding her face, she could fall back into her subconsciousness.

"For Ancestor's sake Frozenpaw, get up!" The voice hisses out in irritation.

A harsher smack to her face caused she cat to jolt out of her nest.

"What!" Frozenpaw snapped as she tiredly looked up at the light brown tabby.

Her brother, Hawkpaw, stared down at her with an unamused expression at his sister's response.

"Beebounce and Frostfin are waiting for us." Hawkpaw stops when he saw his littermate's confused look.

"We're going on a dawn patrol with them remember? You agreed to it yesterday."

The statement brought Frozenpaw back to when she and Beebounce had been together the previous day, going over her first-morning patrol since becoming an apprentice.

Frozenpaw slumped in her nest and let out a sigh "It's too early." she complained, which made her littermate chuckle softly.

"That's the whole point of dawn patrol mouse brain, now come on let's get out of here before you wake up Irispaw, and you know how she is when woken up this early."

Hawkpaw waited till Frozenpaw was sitting up in her nest before paddling out of the den, so as to not disturb the other two sleeping figures.

She cat turned from her grooming to look at the silver tabby called Irispaw, who slept soundly in her nest just behind Frozenpaw's.

Irispaw was what Frozenpaw considered as a hard head and strong-willed, traits that could get you killed if you weren't careful enough.

But Irispaw knew how to make herself not a target and Frozenpaw admired that about her, it's why the two cats were such good friends.

Then there was the tom that was on the opposite side of the den who also slept soundly.

Burdockpaw was a cat that was easily imitated when authority was pushed onto him.

There was one time when Frozenpaw caught the tail end of golden smoke tom being yelled at by one of the queens.

Burdockpaw only sat there hunched until the queen muttered something about the tom being useless, and then stomped off back to the nursery.

Frozenpaw never felt more pity for a cat before than she did for Burdockpaw on that day.

"Hey, are you almost done in there!" The soft hiss Hawkpaw sent out into the den took Frozenpaw by surprise.

Shaking out her fur the diluted calico stood up from her nest, only to look over her shoulder one more time, before walking out of the den.

The air was cold and damp due to the fog that came in when the small group had been out in the territory for some time now.

The sun was slowly rising as the group traveled over the rough terrain.

If there was ever a time Frozenpaw would curse at her warrior ancestors, it would be on why they choose this place to live.

While it was a forest area, the mountainside was steep and had some jagged edges that could easily cut open a cat's leg, if they weren't careful enough.

Beebounce and Hawkpaw we're leading the small patrol, causally discussing topics cats usually wouldn't do back in camp.

Frozenpaw never understood why Beebounce was chosen as her mentor.

The golden dapple cat was more outgoing and bubbly than any of her peers.

Even Frozenpaw thought she would be placed with someone like Frostfin.

He was more like her in some ways.

Frostfin was quiet, and never really spoke unless he wanted to, but the tom was very attentive.

Were as Frozenpaw was just quiet altogether to keep herself out of trouble.

Frozenpaw watched Hawkpaw effortlessly leap from jagged edge to edge, to safely travel along the border.

She has heard stories from the elders about cats who fell to their death or were seriously injured when their paws slipped on the jagged rocks.

Once at the top, she let out a sigh of relief.

"You're getting better at climbing up." A low voice says from behind her.

Frozenpaw had forgotten that Frostfin was bringing up the rear.

"Beebounce took me this way to practice hunting, I guess she wanted to make sure that I could make it up without hurting myself."

Frostfin let out a purr of laughter "well can you blame her, you almost slipped and fell you're first time out."

Frozenpaw ducked her head a bit in embarrassment at the memory.

At six moons old, she wanted to impress her mentor by being able to climb without any help.

But one miss placed paw and Frozenpaw would have fallen, had it not been for Frostfin.

Giving her a gentle nudge Frozenpaw glanced back up at Frostfin.

"Don't worry she's very proud of how far you've come over these past few moons."

The white and orange tom started after the other two who were still in debate about whether their favorite prey was the better one.

Frozenpaw sat there a little shocked at the words, her pelt fluffed up in the sense of warmth she felt spread throughout her whole body.

After another moment she finally took off after the others.