Part 1
You find yourself shivering as the wind picks up once again, whistling past your ears and dancing through your fur. You scan your surroundings, barely able to tell anything apart under the thick, bright white covering of snow draped over everything. All you can do is squint against the wind and stumble blindly through the snow, hoping to find somewhere to stay. Except, the wind and the snow disguise how high up you truly are.
With the smallest misstep, you feel what looked like yet another pile of snow on solid ground break beneath your paws. You yelp and scramble for footing, your paws slapping against the sheer rock face dropping to the ground far below. You close your eyes, terrified of the fate you're facing as your back paws slowly slip off the snow and rock above. For a moment, just a moment, you're falling.
You stop with a jolt and feel something clamped firmly on the back of your neck. Your eyes snap open as you're hauled back up onto the cliff by whatever has you in its grasp. With a final pull, your definitely alive body is unceremoniously dumped back on the snow and whoever grabbed you is panting loudly from the effort. Before you can even turn to thank them, they speak, "What the blizz are you doing up here, Swiftie?!"
You twist yourself round to see a large, blue-grey cat standing over you, staring down with piercing orange eyes. He flicks an ear, watching intently as you stare back up at him in silence. You begin trying to explain you don't understand what a 'Swiftie' is but he seems completely unconvinced. "Save your blabbering, let's at least get you somewhere warmer," he interrupts, waiting for you to stand up.
The thought of a warmer location drags you to your feet, even with all the excitement you can't ignore the chill slipping through your fur as if it wasn't even there. The fluffy cat nods and stalks away, waving your tail for you to follow him. You follow him through the snow, taking a weaving path across the unmarked mountain, you're fairly sure he's making sure you will never find your way back.
Eventually, the cat stops and announces "We're here" before leading you into a dim cave warmed by the heat of many cats crammed inside, but you do feel warmth returning to your fur ever so slowly and there's no wind in here. You follow the cat deeper into the cave, passed many cats, all with some level of distrust on their face. Some look wary and shy away from your path while others hiss and spit at you from the sides.
You're led to another fluffy cat, a smaller one with orange on his limbs and face. "Sir, this Swiftie was quite literally caught on the edge of a cliff," the blue cat explains. The smaller cat nods his thanks and looks closely at you, his neutral expression fading away to allow confusion to take its place. "Stone, this is the strangest Swiftpaw I've ever seen. Looks like they're sending they're runts out now," he chuckles, with the blue cat, Stone, joining in.
"What do you want, Swiftpaw?" The smaller cat asks, staring straight at you.
