Panting, Moonstar tightens the grip of her right paw – she’s managed to sink her claws into a thick root that is growing through the side of the cliff. She’s dislodged it a bit – that must have been the cracking sounds – but it holds fast to the cliffside and Moonstar doesn’t hesitate a second longer.

Gathering all of her strength, she swings her other paw up to sink her claws into the root, shoulders shaking as she pulls her body up. Her back paws windmill in the air until she’s able to find purchase on the cliff, digging her back claws into the rock and dragging herself up onto the slope.

Shaking all over and sick with adrenaline, Moonstar’s aching limbs want nothing more than to collapse out from under her. She flexes her claws in the loose gravel under her paws and eyes the dirt warily, as if it’ll suddenly heave forward and send her sailing over the edge of the cliff again. Muscles screaming, Moonstar moves her shaky, aching body to firmer ground.

Safe for the moment, she slumps at the base of a pine tree and shakes.

She almost died.

She almost died.

Quest for moss entirely forgotten, the only thought Moonstar can dredge up is the idea of getting back to her brother and collapsing against him, taking comfort in his familiar scent and his solid, grounding presence at her side. She’d assured Fogfreckle just last moon that she could handle being on her own, but now she’s not so sure she’s going to survive the hunt for a new home without him.

Ignoring the sharp ache of pain in her shoulder where she caught the root that saved her life, Moonstar struggles to her paws and slowly sniffs out the trail she took to get here, retracing her pawsteps through the fog and back up the mountain.

Limbs dragging, a wash of relief splashes Moonstar like ice melt on a hot day as she spots the clearing where they’ve scraped out their dens. Through the trees and the mist, she can just make out the light color of her brother’s dappled pelt moving around in the clearing. There’s something dark swinging from his mouth, likely freshkill, and, feeling relieved, she pulls herself through the trees and towards him.

Only pawsteps away, Moonstar opens her mouth to greet Fogfreckle, but stops in her tracks. 

It’s not freshkill.

“Moonstar!” Fogfreckle’s ears flick back a second before he turns at the sound of her arrival, eyes bright and shining with happiness. “Look what I found while I was out collecting moss!”

Tucked at Fogfreckle’s paws is a kitten. A skinny thing, with short, raggedy brown fur and dark, reddish tabby stripes.

Moonstar’s relief swiftly vanishes.

The kit is quiet, motionless, almost expressionless, but it stares at Moonstar like it can see through her, past her pelt and muscle and down to her bone. Unnerved, Moonstar meets its intense bright blue eyes with her own. They’re not cobalt blue, like her brother’s, or ice blue, like her own. They’re an otherworldly blue.

She’s snared by that unblinking, unwavering gaze, and something about it seizes Moonstar with a feeling of pure, crawling dread, like somebody has set ants loose in her pelt. The kit sits neatly with its tail curled over its paws, still and silent unlike any kit Moonstar has ever interacted with before.

She feels rooted to the spot, as if to make any move closer to her brother – closer to the kit – would be dangerous, somehow.

Fogfreckle grins, wide and happy, apparently unaffected by whatever has taken hold of Moonstar. He bends his head to give the kit an affectionate lick atop the head. “I’m going to name him Alpinekit.”

ALT TEXT: Endless delivers a litter of 2 kits with little struggle.

GALEKIT - ??? - Avid play-fighter - Interested in Clan history - 0 moons - Kit

OAKKIT - ??? - Oddly observant - 0 moons - Kit

Olivepaw fought off a fox and was barely hurt! Darkrain, however, got her tail severely mangled.