Everything after that day had sort of been a blur.

A couple days had passed, and each one was a mix of lies and rogues. They were stealing prey at the borders more and more often, and blood was often found spattered across the borders. It wasn't a pleasant sight, though Adderheart hadn't seen any of it. He'd only gotten bits and pieces of gossip from Pantherleap, and surprisingly, Willowdapple.

He and the she-cat talked more frequently now. Because he woke so early on most days, he went to her and brought her some prey along with some conversation starters. Nobody else really visited her, and he could easily see how she got lonely. She never asked about the kits, and she never asked about what happened to them. She seemed to have forgotten completely.

Which, really, he took as a good thing. The first morning he'd gone to her hadn't been great; the worry before it had been strong. He'd not been sure of what he was going to say if she asked about it, and eventually, he just settled on a lie. It hadn't been one he'd needed to say, of course, but it had still felt wrong.

He'd not yet spoken to Finchpaw yet, but he really wanted to. He'd been thinking of it for the past couple quarter moons, yet hadn't spoken to her at all. He had to talk to her after the whole situation with him in the healers' den, and he had to talk to her after the mid-assessments. He hadn't even figured out what had happened with those yet. And all the while, he was kind of trying to avoid Pantherleap.

There weren't many ways that he could be around him and not feel extremely guilty or horrible. It was like a storm, one that hadn't yet arrived, but was clearly there and hanging precariously over a world of pleasantness. Though, he knew that the storm had already come, and there was no need to worry over it. But he did have to be careful around Pantherleap. Very careful.

They had yet to be assigned a patrol together with another cat, but Adderheart could tell that the day was coming soon. It was simply within the air, clear and fresh like words upon a newly printed page. Nobody had figured it out, yet, though, which was definitely a good sign. He had to tell himself near daily that he and his mate wouldn't end up like the elders.

The patrol that he'd been assigned yesterday had been awful. Poppyfur and Galewind were both on it — two of three siblings to Brindlebreeze — and the latter was miserable the entire time. Because it had been a border patrol, Marigoldcry, who'd lead the patrol, had lead them right toward where the battle had been. Adderheart'd been furious at her, though there wasn't much he could do.

Galewind had essentially gone quiet. He spoke no words, and if he did, they were minimal, perhaps two or three words if one got lucky. He looked at his paws pretty much all the time, and he never spoke of his sister. It seemed as though he was trying to ignore the fact that she had ever existed, though Poppyfur wasn't quite the same.

She was trying to ignore it, too, but it was a different kind of ignoring. She just pretended that they'd never had a sister in the first place. She was still as bouncy as ever, maybe even more so, trying to ignore her and pretend she'd never existed. Adderheart hadn't seen Birdwish, the final sibling of the now broken four, around so far, but he figured she was dealing with it normally.

He felt bad. He knew exactly how Brindlebreeze had died, and so did Pantherleap, yet neither could tell in fear of death falling upon them. Pantherleap had yet to spill many secrets about Cougarstar's leadership, though Adderheart could see them in his gaze and in his movements around the tom. The arguments of the high-ranks had grown more frequent once more.

Every single time that he passed by the leader's den and there were cats inside, it was essentially a guarantee that they'd be arguing. Loud hisses came from within the den, and although the words they carried were ones he didn't hear, he didn't need to hear the words. The action was venomous as it was, rude and sharp.

He didn't know what they were fighting about and Pantherleap wouldn't tell him, but he thought it was about the rogues. His injuries had finally cleared up, enough so that he was allowed to be on a patrol without Coalbelly and Cougarstar screaming at each other. Though, leaf-bare had finally settled in, so that likely spurred conversations, or rather arguments, about prey.

It had been incredibly cold the past couple days, so when it snowed, nobody was surprised.

Padding out of the warrior's den, he pulled back instantly, tail flickering sharply. He'd seen snow before, obviously, but every time that it newly fell, it was like he was seeing it for the first time again. It was cold and sharp, yet warm in the sense that it blanketed the entire world within its icy claws. He carefully exited the den and picked his way toward the fresh-kill pile.

It was empty, to his shock. Quickly, he pivoted upon his paw and turned to the camp entrance, before pausing and looking at the snow. Should I try to move some of this? He wondered, hopping momentarily to get his pale paws out of the chilly snow.

With a decisive motion, he began to clear the snow. He started by making lines of snowlessness from each den to the exit, and then he expanded the lines. He wondered if he should connect the lines to the fresh-kill pile, but eventually decided it useless. However, the lines he was making wouldn't stay forever, as more of the little white speckles covered the ground soon enough.

He tried to work quicker to ensure that the camp would be mostly free of snow, but it was getting so high that the lines were looking more like a walkway between some tall trees. The snow was rising and rising, rising higher than how tall he was, which would definitely be an issue if the sun never came out to melt it. He thought of the forest and the prey that was likely hiding.

Today might be hard.

It didn't take a genius to know that. Only Willowdapple and the high-ranks would get prey, and the rest would be forced to share. Adderheart's tail flickered sharply. I have to get prey soon, or they're all gonna be gone. The sooner we go, the better.

With a swift motion, he quickly headed for the apprentice's den and peeked his head in. All of them were sleeping still, flanks rising and falling at even pace. An icy breeze skipped around the den and he shivered, wondering how they'd not woken from the chill. He entered carefully, surveying each of them, before lightly poking Finchpaw.

She sat up, startled, gaze hurriedly traveling the den before it landed on the warrior. She, confused, looked up to him, head tipping silently. His tail flicked at the entrance of the den before her eyes widened with concern, and within a moment the she-cat was leaping up and sprinting out.

He quickly dashed after her, ears flickering as she stared out at the snowy world. She looked to him, concern flashing brightly through her green eyes. The snow from earlier that had risen taller and taller around the cleared lanes were even taller than before, appearing as if they were simply just snowy walls. The area that had been cleared had a layer of snow on it, too.

"What're we going to do?" She asked, carefully picking her way around the snow walls before stopping and looking back to him, suspicious. "Why'd you wake me up?"

"Hunting?" He offered, a spark of anxiety lighting within him.

"When did you want to be around me?" She questioned, though not in a rude way, simply curious and inquisitive. However, her eyes were slightly sharp, as if she was suspicious of him.

"Well, I... you were around, for the incident with me in the medicine cat's den."

She went silent, appearing to have nothing else to say, her ears sharply flickering.

"And I never figured out what happened during the mid-assessment... and I feel bad for just kind of ignoring you."

"You didn't really ignore me, but if you wanna go hunting we can!" Finchpaw replied, ears flickering as she glanced around. "But how are we supposed to get out of camp?"

Carefully, he flicked his tail at her as if to indicate that she could follow, and she quickly headed after him as he headed through the... well, it was like a hallway or a cave of sorts, except there was no roof unless the snow counted. It continued to fall and fall, growing colder and icier by the moment, and Adderheart hurriedly shuffled through it to the entrance.

"If we're fast enough, we'll be fine," he offered, stepping through the entrance and out into the snowy world.

The snow had risen taller than he'd ever expected, and truly, he was unsure if it had ever been higher. It appeared to simply be taller than the trees, reaching to the dark and somewhat cloudy sky with long and well-built arms, fingers stretching up and up as if trying to ruin the sky.

It was as cold as ever, appearing as if leaf-bare had leapt in and clasped the Clan tightly. The wind around was icy, and it caused the cats around to shiver, yet it didn't seem to get toward the camp. Luckily, the fact that it was in a little dip in the ground made it so that the wind skimped right over it.

However, this also meant that once Adderheart and Finchpaw had left the camp, they could see into the camp, and it looked like the snow was rising taller than the ground nearby. The snow-walls were rising too tall, taller than where they were standing. So when they turned back to look at the territory, it was almost scarier.

The trees had tons of trees upon their spindly features, and the concept of pine needles seemed to not exist. The snow was covering the trees and even making them lean down, so that their millions of branches tipped down under the weight of the snow. And this only made the trees lean and wave uncomfortably as if threatening to fall.

This, in turn, caused the snow from the trees to fall off and onto the already snow-clad ground. At some parts, the snowdrifts were larger and taller than the trees, peeking over the tips of the pointy tops of the trees. At least, what used to be the trees, for now, they were simply just snow, and that likely meant that the creatures would either be dead or scampering around, hiding in the snow.

From behind him, he heard the soft gasp of Finchpaw, somewhat startled yet possibly even afraid of the world around them. It was scary, he admitted it. Well, everything was sort of scary, for if he even said one wrong word, the entire world he lived in could be as ruined as the trees that were drooping down from the snow atop them.

He quickly forced thoughts out of his mind, looking around at the territory with a sharp gray gaze. He had to catch prey, so he could prove to the Clan that he was doing fine. Despite all the issues he'd had with panicking randomly, despite all the comments that had been made about him, despite Willowdapple's former anger and Streamfang's irritation with him... he was doing okay and could provide for the Clan.

Turning back to the apprentice, he shifted momentarily and then his ears flicked sharply. "Where do you think we should go first?"

"I'm not sure, but let's see!" She chirped, and with that, the she-cat dashed off.

After they eventually reached a clearing of snow, Adderheart quickly reeled back and looked behind them. A long and zig-zagging line of pawsteps led the way to where they were now, and he sniffed quickly, shaking out his pelt. As they'd ran, the snow had quickly sprung to stick to their pelts, and the smaller she-cat was shivering.

She shook out her pelt, too, glancing around curiously. She appeared to scent the icy leaf-bare air, but she frustratedly screwed up her muzzle as she looked back around. Her tail flickered back and forth as she poked around the clearing a bit, pressing her paw past the top layer of snow that just kept on growing.

"What should we go for? Burrows?" He prompted.

"Burrows will be covered, making it hard to get air, and anything inside is probably dead," she replied, ears twitching. "But hunting aboveground is going to be impossible, so I think burrows are what we need to look for after all. Scenting them is going to be difficult," she added.

He nodded, and for some reason, he was proud. He knew that this likely just came from her being realistic, but it seemed as though she was ready to be a warrior. I wonder if she and the rest of the apprentices will be getting their ceremonies early... or if they've already done their assessments.

He doubted it though, but he turned and sniffed the air, only to realize it would be useless. He found a tree and was quick to dig up some snow nearby it, but found that it was like an endless hole. The snow went on forever and forever, seemingly never-ending, and his muzzle twitched irritably.

Then, an excited call split the clearing.

"I got past the snow!"

Adderheart was quick to pivot upon his paw and turn around, skittering over to where the apprentice was. She'd actually managed to dig low enough that she'd hit the dark grass beneath it, and there was a small hole that looked like a burrow there, too.

He continued to dig out the area around it, hoping that she could try and get her paw into the burrow and snag something within it. Preferably something alive, but he doubted there'd be anything alive in it. Depending on how long they'd been without air, it was likely it was just a bunch of corpses anyway.

With a swift motion, she seemed to lurch downward, and he turned to see her trying to get further and further into the burrow. She had her entire foreleg inside of it, and she was sort of just awkwardly pressed up against the ground. He muffled a laugh, but he watched her in case she'd need help.

After a moment or two of pause, she let out a triumphant exclamation, and she leaned back, pulling up two mice by their tails.

"StarClan! Good job, Finchpaw!" He praised her, looking at the little creatures. Their fur was wet, as if snow had gotten into the burrow, though they were clearly already dead. He brushed a paw over their little pelts to clear it of the dirt that had collected on them.

"Thanks," she mewed brightly in response, taking both of the mice within her jaws. He peered at where she'd been searching, and was able to discover the fact that the tunnel that the mice were in sort of lead away, toward a different tree.

He traced his way over to it and began to dig out the snow, and as soon as Finchpaw had realized what he was doing, she did the same. Luckily, this made the process much quicker, and almost as soon as they had uncovered the snow, a large blur of brownish fur sprung out.

Adderheart quickly leapt backward, though whatever it was hit Finchpaw straight in the muzzle. He cringed as she sneezed and swayed momentarily, and he quickly swiped his paws at the creature, which had just laid awkwardly in the entrance to the burrow. He realized that it was a vole, and its neck was broken. It must've gotten injured in the burrow, and the pressure probably forced it out.

"Are you okay?" He questioned, looking to her. She had lifted her paw to her muzzle and sneezed a couple more times, and he felt a little bad for muffling his snickers.

"Yeah, yeah," she commented, rising to her paws with an absent sneeze followed by a laugh as she recollected her prey. "Let's go back."

"Sure," he mewed, grabbing his vole as he rose to his paws and began to pad off. He had difficulty getting back to where their pawsteps had been marked in the snow, and soon enough he realized they were essentially covered up. So, he just decided on walking back based on where they were. At least, where he thought they were.

Finchpaw's pace was fairly happy in general, and he wondered briefly what he should do about all the questions swirling in his head. He had to ask about her mid-assessment, what had occurred in the healer's den when she'd been there... they all needed answers, yet he didn't want to ruin what had seemed like a good hunting trip.

What if she gets mad at me? He wondered and contemplated telling her because if he didn't, it'd just mean he'd have to do something else like this again. But if he did, he could easily ruin this fairly good hunting trip. They'd actually go into camp with prey, unlike the majority of the patrols. At least, he expected that not many would get prey. His tail flickered sharply as he continued, glancing to the pleased she-cat.

Anxiety sparked within him but he pushed it down, continually walking forward. He wasn't sure what to do, and he knew he had to pick something to do soon. He couldn't just talk to her when they were right outside of camp, as that would simply just be wrong of him to have her explain right next to the cats inside of the camp.

I can't risk that. We've had a good hunting trip. Now shut up and walk.