username: parlayx
clan: elkclan
rank: kit (future warrior)
name: harekit (harepaw, hareleap)
gender: she-cat
age: 0.5 moons
prompt: ( 208 w.c. )
That first winter is the worst the clan has seen in generations.
Everywhere she looks, ice covers the ground in sheets; deadly in some places near the river. Cats lose their footing, slip and fall on the ice; a patrol gets lost for three days after a blizzard rolls in and sets visibility to zero. She can't see more than a paw's-length in front of her, even in so simple a journey as crossing from one side of camp to the other. At first Harekit delights in the frigid, fluffy flakes, tiny silver stars that match her coat. After a while, though, the cold and oppressive damp wears even this kit's spirits low.
What little refuge there remains from snow and ice vanishes within the week. Melting snow on bodies turns the bottom of dens into a mire of cold mud, paws and bellies sticky and half-frozen as ice howls down off the mountain with no sign of stopping.
"It will end soon," Mother tells her, and even a kit as young as she can spot the lie, "We will be warm soon."
By the time winter is over, Harekit will tell anyone who listens - loudly, in that tiny kit's voice of hers - how much she hates snow.
