Out in the Cold



 Ou t in t he C ol d

Episode One, Season Two, of Beauty.

Enjoy <3

Out in the Cold
It’s been a moon since we left the Academy. All of us have been forced to different areas. Appleleaf and Finchwing are part of the hunting patrols. Hawkpelt went to the poor to find Rainstorm, though he has to be careful about it. Lionclaw and Brownpaw tried to find a suitable position for them.

While Snowflare and I try to place ourselves in a squad. The way we are now, it kind of makes me wonder if we’ll ever join up together again.

“We’ve been rejected by five squads already.” Snowflare groans, “This makes me think we should have gone with Appleleaf and Finchwing.”

“Someone will take us,” I reassure her, “One squad must have missing cats or something.” They fight the rebels everyday. Someone’s bound to die in those battles.

“Or we’re just not applying right.” Snowflare mutters, “Oh dirt, is that Flareheart?” I peer over to where she’s pointing. “StarClan, it’s her.”

Flareheart is flouncing towards us. “Are you the two desperate she-cats who want a patrol?” Figures, she already has her own patrol. Of course Flareheart would be the one to answer our call. “We’d love to take you lovely she-cats,” Flareheart purrs, “But…”

She eyes us disdainfully. “We only take skilled she-cats and toms.” A few of her cats snicker. They must be completely loyal to Redstar to be with Flareheart.

“Then why are you there?” Snowflare mutters. Thankfully, Flareheart doesn’t hear.

“Well, that’s fine,” I mew brightly, “We were hoping for a better patrol anyways.” Without waiting for Flareheart’s response, I turn and walk away.

“There are no better patrols!” Flareheart shouts after us, “Cats like you won’t make it into any sort of patrol!” Well that’s encouraging.

“How is she a squad leader then?” Snowflare grunts as we walk away, “StarClan knows which fool pieces these patrols together.”

“Amberfrost!” A pure white she-cat stalks towards me, “My dear she-cat!”

I blink. “Mom?”

Snowflare does a double take. “That’s your mother?” She whistles in appreciation, “I can see where your looks came from.”

“My pelt color must have been inherited, right?” I agree, “I look so much like her.” In reality, I look nothing like my mother. While she looks flawless and gorgeous, I am plain and simple. Her white pelt is simply stunning compared to my dusty orange pelt.

My mother strolls up to us. “Congratulations!” She purrs, “I knew you could do it! How is Brownpaw? Did he make it?” Typical of her not to notice Brownhare at the ceremony.

“He’s Brownhare now.”

“Oh!” She smiles, but I know it’s fake, “I always knew that tom had potential. I knew he wouldn’t fail like Silverfrost and Duskheart did.”

“What?” The words fly out of my mouth.

“Oh right, you never met those two fleabags, huh? They’re Brownhare’s parents. But at least that tom knew to befriend you. Have you and Flarepaw – I mean Flareheart – get along well?”

Snowflare makes a face next to me. I cough, “Yes, mom, of course we have.”

“Absolutely wonderful! Now I have an important meeting with Redstar and I can’t be late! Drop by later, alright? I’ll be waiting!” With that, my mother hurries off.

“Yeah,” I mutter, “I’ll see.”

Snowflare blinks. “That was…interesting to say the least. I actually kind of expected your parents to be rebels.” She gives a snort, “Guess that’s a complete fantasy.”

I shrug, “Well technically you could pray that my father is a rebel. I’ve never met him after all.” I don’t feel bitter about that though, because he’s probably a jerk too.

Snowflare rolls his eyes. “I don’t know, Amberfrost, what’s the probability of you having a tolerable father?”

“Probably one in a million cats.” I smile, “I’m sure we’ll find my father bearable. Only because we won’t ever meet him.”

Snowflare snorts and starts walking again. “You can meet my parents instead. I don’t think you’ll see much difference from your mother.”

“Parents?”

The white she-cat looks disgusted, “My father stays to force my mother to do things for him and to tell me to do things I suppose. I mean they’re both strong supporters of Redstar but they have their own ideals too.”

I raise an eyebrow. “That’ll be interesting to see.”

~

Rainstorm didn’t really know what to say. She and Hawkpelt had met up an hour ago, since they can only see each other so many times a day. They had done their usual round of things to help Silverfrost and Duskheart but then they were just sitting there.

“Any more news?” Hawkpelt finally asked, “From the rebels I mean.”

“Just the usual,” Rainstorm replied, “There’s been an increase of attacks but the rebels are holding up. They think that soon, the Beauty will relent a bit and then they’ll strike instead.”

“Are you going to participate?” Hawkpelt gazed out into the forest.

“No,” Rainstorm looked distant, “I don’t want the Beauty to get a good look at my face and then I’ll have to hide like the leaders of the rebels. This way, I can help Brownhare’s parents and still see you.”

Hawkpelt smiled wistfully, “Soon, we can all get together and fight the Beauty together.”

The gray she-cat shook her head, “No, Hawkpelt, we’re already doing that.” She gazed at the brown tom, “Maybe not physically together but mentally, we are. We’re fighting to achieve the same goal.”

“Do you think Amberfrost will take control of FireClan?” Hawkpelt mused.

Rainstorm frowned, “It’s unlikely. She’s not the leader of the actual rebellion. There’s no need for her to be a leader; expect leader of our group.”

Hawkpelt shrugged. “Guess you’re right.” He turned to her, “What do you want to do now?”

Rainstorm let her eyes rest on him, drinking everything in. He meant the world to her and she would do anything for him. But she wanted to make it clear. On an act of impulse, Rainstorm leaned forward and touched her nose to his.

“Anything that involves being with you is fine with me.”

~

“Is this really a good idea?” Lionclaw grumbled, “We’re going to be messengers?” The golden tom looked miffed, “You’re crazy, Brownhare. What in the world does Amberfrost see in you?”

Brownhare glanced at Lionclaw. “Amberfrost sees me as a friend,” he said simply, “And this job is easier than getting on a patrol and fighting the rebels. Come on, let’s go.”

“She doesn’t just see you as a friend!” Lionclaw huffed, “And I don’t want to be Redstar’s messenger!”

The brown tom ignored Lionclaw, though he scanned the area for a den to sign up. “I think it’s over here,” he murmured, “Let’s check it out.” He started walking towards a sturdy looking den while Lionclaw scampered after him.

“What do you think about Amberfrost and Snowflare getting on a patrol then?” Lionclaw mewed as he caught up to Brownhare, “Snowflare said they wanted to find a patrol.”

“Good for them,” Brownhare sighed, “Amberfrost needs to show her strength to get the position of squad leader. She can’t do that without being on a squad, you know?”

“So why don’t we get on a squad too?”

“Because we’re waiting for her squad!” Brownpare turned sharply, “I know you know all this so why are you hounding me about Amberfrost?”

Lionclaw looked exasperated, “She likes you, that’s why! You’re being too oblivious. She’s been wanting your attention for the past six moons!”

Brownhare froze. “She what?”

“Forget it!” Lionclaw groaned, “You’re hopeless. Let’s go sign up and whatever.”

Brownhare followed slowly, still thinking about Lionclaw’s words.

~

“How many pieces of prey do you have?” Appleleaf called out, “I have give, do you think that’s enough for today?” She began to unearth her catches.

“I have four,” Finchwing sighed, “I think we have enough. There are a lot of hunting patrols out anyways. If not, we could just come back and hunt for more.”

“Do you think the rebels are out there watching us?” Appleleaf murmured, “After all, some of them live out there.”

“I think most of them live out there so its likely,” Finchwing agreed, “They don’t attack out here though. There are too many warriors guarding the area. It would be suicide to try to attack from here.”

Appleleaf shrugged. “It can’t be that hard. We should drop off our prey and investigate. There’s got to be some sort of weakness that you can only see from the inside.” She gathered up her catches. “It’s worth looking.”

“I guess,” The brown she-cat agreed, “We’re not due back to the den until sundown.”

When they got back out, Appleleaf nosed her way through the bushes. “I bet there would be a weakness where there are more cats.”

“Why?” Finchwing frowned, “Wouldn’t it make more sense to look around the uncommon areas? Less cats mean less defense, right?”

The red she-cat’s eyes gleamed, “Yes, but the rebels are smart enough to figure that out. They must have tried to break into Main through here. But they’ve never succeeded before. So if the uncommon areas are impossible to penetrate through, what’s the next best option?”

“The common areas,” Finchwing sighed, “You’re a genius, Appleleaf.”

Appleleaf laughed and beckoned to Finchwing. “Look, the hunters are gathered here, so there are less solders. Obviously the hunters can fight, but they must have been placed here because their fighting skills aren’t on par. Plus, it’s easy to see that nobody pays attention to the trees.”

“So if an attack from the ground doesn’t work…”

“Yes, the trees are the only way in.”

~

“Only three pieces?” A tom’s voice roars from inside, “What do you mean you could only find three? Your daughter might be coming home today and you only caught three pieces?”

There is a thump and I wince. “Are you sure you want to go in?” I murmur, “Your parents don’t seem very festive.” There’s another thump and even Snowflare flinches.

“I promised them,” my best friend sighs, “I mean I’m probably not coming back after this.” She eyes the den meaningfully.

Before I can say anything reassuring, a pure black tom storms out of the den. I jump in surprise. “Snowflare!” He bellows, “You’re finally home!”

“Hi,” she walks right past him, taking me with her, “This is Amberfrost, my friend.”

“Isn’t your mother Whiteflicker? She’s one of Redstar’s advisors, correct?” The tom stares at me.

I nod meekly. It’s been awhile since anyone cared about my mother being the advisor of Redstar. I used to hate the attention because I didn’t like being in the spotlight. Now I loathe it because I don’t support Redstar and her ideals anymore.

“Come on in!” the tom follows us in, “I’m Shadowstream, Snowflare’s father. You can ignore that frail she-cat over there and please, help yourself with prey.”

Snowflare’s father turns to the skinny she-cat. It shocks me to see Snowflare’s family in such condition. The den is in ruins and there’s little prey to go around. “Why didn’t you catch more prey? Now there’s company and there’s four of us! You can go hungry tonight.”

I cough awkwardly. “I’m not hungry. We just ate before we came, so it’s fine.” I push a piece towards Snowflare’s mother, ignoring my growling stomach.

“Nonsense!” the tom bellows, “Eat up!”

I don’t want to take the prey though. “Seriously we ate already,” Snowflare pushes her piece away too. “And we’re only here to say hi. We have other things to do.”

The tom fixes his gaze on his daughter. “If I say eat, you eat.”

Snowflare glances back. “And when I say I’m leaving, I’m going to leave.” She stands abruptly, “Come on, Amberfrost, let’s go.”

I follow her silently. “I hate that den,” Snowflare hisses, “I’m never going back there again. I can’t believe my mom doesn’t ever stand up for herself and-“

“Are you alright?” I ask, interrupting her.

“No!” Snowflare bursts out, “I don’t get why the System has created such rotten families. Do you know how it was to live with them for eight moons? I was so glad to leave that den!”

I remember what Snowflare said the first time I met her. “''Redstar makes us all believe in this system. It’s not like everyone profits from it. We aren’t a Clan.''” Now I can understand why she hates Redstar and FireClan so much. It gave her a family she didn’t want.

“One day,” I vow, “Nobody will ever suffer that sort of pain again.”

Snowflare glances at me, “StarClan, I hope so.”

The End.