Two small kits peered from the piles of hay their warm nest resided in to the tall upwalker that cracked upon the door like he did every early morning. It let in a cold, clean light into the dark warm space that smelt of warmth and small rodents. It was something new that Hoarfrost didn't know what to think of, to his side his brother Puddle slunk down when the cold nipped at his thin pelt.

"What is it mama?" Hoarfrost looked back into the nest of moss and hay where the white, black and silver splattered queen laid. His blue eyes managed to see past the doorway, a doorway he had only glanced past, but never ventured beyond. The cozy barn was all the little kit knew, the piles of dusty grass and the wooden shelves where the upwalker hung his scary claw sticks and his mother sharpened her claws. But Hoarfrost knew the old upwalker would never hurt them, his mother would greet him and he'd swoop down with his big funny looking paws and rub her head affectionately. Sometimes, he even left them food in a bucket!

"It's called snow, it falls from the sky like rain and marks the beginning of the cold days." His mother meowed. Then came a pause, and words that the two brothers didn't expect. "Would you like to go see it?" the kits gasped in surprise, quickly hurling themselves towards their mother.

"Can we can we can we pleaseeeee?" Puddle begged, Hoarfrost added some begging of his own. Silvia was a protective mother, she hadn't let them outside yet and they were forbidden to climb in the dangerous loft and rafters that towared overhead.

The she-cat sighed but nodded. "You're nearly four moons old, I suppose now that you're big enough and ready going outside is a must. But stay close to me and when I say it's time to go back inside, it's time to go back inside, got it?" The she-cat's hard amber eyes fixed on the two fidgeting balls of grey fluff, Hoarfrost and Puddle hastily nodded, promising to abide to their mother's strict words. The queen brought herself to her paws, and lead the two excited kits down the stacks of straw and across the cold stone floor. Hoarfrost gasped and tried to jump at the cold sting, the dark grey stone was always cold but it hadn't ever been this chilly before! His eyes narrowed a bit when he realized just how bright it was outside the dark barn.

To his left was a tall wooden fence, where the horses stomped and trudged along to eat the hay the upwalker threw to them from the loft. He had tried to eat hay once, just once to see if it was any good. He found it to be dry and unsavoury, and wondered daily how the tall animals could stand it. All his mother had to say about them was that their hooves were dangerous and they had little to say. He gazed at his right, and it was an open world so big Hoarfrost wasn't sure what to make of it. There was more barns, from the looks of it, beyond that more fencing, and there was even more tall buildings, bigger than anything the small kit had ever seen before.

"What's that?" He asked, having to hop behind in his mother's tracks to keep up, his pelt thick and hastily clogged with the cold white powder.

His mother's head turned to where he pointed with his tail, her whiskers twitching.

"The upwalkers live there, the one that we see is their helper. If you see them, you run away. They aren't as friendly and dislike us farm cats." His mother warned, and his eyes widened even more. Upwalkers that didn't like them? Why? What had they done wrong? The barns that the upwalkers lived in were yellow with orange roofs, it was very different from the red coloured barn they lived in.

"How many upwalkers live in there? There has to be a hundred of them!" Puddle exclaimed, but the queen just shook her head.

"Just four live in there, two adults and their kits. Many come to visit all the time, but they never stay."

Hoarfrost didn't understand that, what did one do with all that space? He followed his mother up a path that lead in front of another barn, this one much smaller. It held the smell of prey and was full of an odd bird like sound. The fence was tall and made of this odd hard mesh, the top lined with threatening looking silver thorns.

"This is the chicken coop. We don't ever touch the chickens, do you understand?" Silvia stopped to look at her kits. Hoarfrost was again met with the look his mother always used when she was expressing danger, he had come to know it well and she used it when explaining nearly everything. He knew while questioning was okay, breaking the vow not to do it would be a harsh mistake. Well, he didn't know for sure, having followed all of his mother's rules, but despite his never ending curiosity, the one thing he never wanted to know was what would happen if he were to disobey. The rules were there for a reason, he thought. Why else would Silvia remind him and Puddle so often of what not to do?

A chicken poked it's head from the coop, the two kits looked at it with surprise. It let out a loud 'bacaw' and ducked back inside, maybe afraid of that cats, or maybe it just disliked the cold.

"Chickens look funny," he commented, racing to catch up when his mother continued on, Puddle hard on his heels. Silvia showed her kits more of the place she called the farm, they saw goats, and big black and white things called cows. The farm was too massive to explore all in one day, and he was struggling to uphold all the information that his mother had to offer, and all the warnings she had to give. How the cows could trample a cat like the horses could, how the fields in the warm days had big farm monsters in them, and how the river would flood in the wet days with strong currents that could sweep someone away where nobody would ever find them again. The farm was painted to be a wondrous but frightening place in the minds of the two kittens.

Soon both kits were yawning, their eyes were drooping. His legs were aching and his belly empty, his paws were sore and rather numb from the cold, as were his eartips. But he didn't want to go inside, there was still what his mother called the garden and orchard to explore, he wanted to know more. What did the tractor look like? Where did the river go? What was a pond and what were ducks?

"Come on," Silvia ushered him back, they followed their tracks back to the barn.

"But I've already seen everything in the barn," Hoarfrost protested. "How can I learn in there?"
"We can go back outside tomorrow, but only if you listen to me." He listened.

Behind him a noise stirred. Loud, the kit's ears perked.

"What was that?" Puddle asked. "Is it thunder?" The two kits looked up, but besides the light snow that came from thin clouds, the air was dry and neither saw anything to say there was a storm.

"A roaring, it runs on the road." He noticed his mother had paused, and Hoarfrost looked in slight confusion. Before them was a hard black path, one he didn't recall seeing before. Fresh tracks rolled across it, and an acrid smell filled the air. The noise got louder, before in terror he ducked down as a large red shelled creature lumbered by, spraying wet slush at him. He pressed against Puddle, who was also shaking.

"The roads are another thing you must fear, for the monsters are ruthless and will kill you with one blow of their paws." His mother turned and began walking once more. His mind ran with questions, wide wake unlike his legs that stumbled and whined with fatigue. He felt relief when he walked back inside the familiar barn, and smelled the scent of warmth and hay once more. Out of everything there was to fear, he feared the roarings the most.

"Mother?" He asked, she had to pick him up by his scruff and help him up to the nest, his legs too tired to get him up the haystacks, like everything else suddenly it seemed so big and intimidating. She grabbed his brother, setting the speckled kit down beside him.

"Yes my dear?" She asked as she lapped him with her warm tongue, warming his body and luring him closer and closer to sleep.

"Can the roarings get us here?" His eyes had closed, keeping them open was suddenly harder than anything.

He heard her voice somewhere above him, it was nearly drowned out by Puddle's purring.

"We're safe here, as long as you're with me, you'll be just fine."