The first days of Leaf-bare

It was cold,

Lizzardkit found himself curling up tighter during the nights as the chill breezes of Leaf-bare enter more actively into the nursery. One morning Lizzardkit slowly clambered from the nest still shaky to the cold and his vision was still clogged from sleep, but he managed to get his tail out of the nest and into the now white camp. "W- w- What..??" Lizzardkit shaked his head thinking that this was a dream, but it wasn't a dream. Though yesterday the camp looked completely normal their wasnt all this white stuff yesterday, Lizzardkit lowered his head down, his brown eyes examining the fluffy white snow which the kit had never seen before his entire life until today.

What even is this? the windclan kit was tempted to lick the strange thing but remembered what the queens in the nursery had said. Instead of eating it, he stuck a paw into the snow and quickly took it back startled. "Cold!" He yelped still looking at the snow in confusion.

Honeykit silently got out the nursery and tip toed after Lizzardkit. As she heard him yelp, she jumped over, and before she could ask what's wrong, sunk into the snow. "Wow, it's cold!!!!!!! So so cold!" She wailed and wriggled free. "Lizardkit, how do you manage to stay o-out here?" She asked with a shiver.

Some of the snow shifted, running the peace of the pure white field until a brown head popped his way up with a gasp of surprise. "Not....Sleeping...Outside any more!" Owlheart wailed softly as he attempted to free himself from the snowy mess, before he manged to get himself onto his paws and shaking off the snow that was clinging to his fur. He shivered, before glancing around the clearing. So, it had snowed. He didn't remember a lot about snow, he was only a small kit the last time it had so seeing the clearing caused his heart to rise in the thought as he started to bounce from spot to spot with a small giggle of excitement. It was so soft...But so cold, but it barely mattered to him. He did soon pause when he saw at the front of the nursery was two kits, Lizardkit and Honeykit, with the latter having snow stuck to her fur. He chuckled softly as he made his way over, still shivering slightly from being buried. "Its called snow, and yes, it is cold. This happens every Leaf-Bare."

"Snow?" Honeykit echoed. "Why is it so cold?" She asked. She placed a paw into one of the lighter patches, and she fell into, coming up with lots of clumps of snow on her face.

Scarletheart was watching the cats from the clearing. She heard the kit ask about the snow and purred in amusement. "Snow is cold because the weather is cold," the red tabby she cat said as she walked to the group. "And snow is frozen water." The she cat explained it as she scooped snow on her right paw and smashed it with the other. The water drips from her paw as she showed it to the kits. Scarletheart could tolerate the cold, but she preferred sunny days.

Honeykit watched in amazement as the snow dripped. "Wow!" She meowed and tried to do it. As she smashed her paw, a few drips fell, and Honeykit squealed in surprise. "Lizardkit, look!" She squeaked as she shoved the snow on his face. "Try smashing it!" She squealed and she jumped up and down.

Lizzardkit slightly shifted his body to see that Honeykit had followed him outside of the nursery, she seemed surprised as much as him from the dramatic change of camp. He simply shrugged at her question, though he looked thoughtful. "I guess it's because my pelt is thick" He mewed shrugging again.

The kits ears perked up to see a warrior jumping up from the snow, and make his way over his pelt a bit damp from the snow " Mornin Owlheart." Lizzardkit chirped, brown eyes wondering what had caused this snow. "How does it happen every winter..? Lizzardkit asked still not slightly sure of what this was and how this happened.

He slowly nodded as Scarletheart told him that this snow was actually frozen water. He looked down at his paws again where the snow lightly touched the pads of his paws, he figured that it must be safe to eat if it was frozen water. Lizzardkit blinked at Honeykits enthusiasm and attempted to duck as she tried to shove some snow on his face, sadly he wasn't quick enough and now he was freezing.

"Hey! He growled as he shaked off the snow that was on his face, he wasn't very happy of the idea that Honeykit decided to throw some snow directly at his face, what was she thinking? that mousebrain but lizzardkit kept the thoughts to himself not wanting to hurt Honeykits feelings. "Snows cold because the weather is cold? so what happens to it if it gets warm? Lizzardkit asked looking at Scarletheart and Owlheart who seemed to know so much about this fluffy white snow that was beautiful, but cold.

Honeykit shrunk back a bit, but her happy personality still kept her upbeat. "I'm sorry Lizardkit. But I agree, what does happen?" She asked, her curiosity growing. "Does it poof away like this proofed here?" She asked.

Owlheart had grown silent when Scarletheart was showing them that it was just water, before he smiled softly as he watched the kits doing it as well. He let out a soft chuckle, before kicking at some snow with one of his paws. "Why, when it get warm it turns back into water then the ground soaks it up and it disappears until the next Leaf-bare! Snow falls from the sky on cold days, but on the warmer days of Leaf-Bare it may just say on the ground. Its very pretty when it doesn't have tracks all over it, as it glimmers in the sun."

Honeykit nodded. "That's amazing.." She said, imagining it. Her thoughts were broken off as a flake of white snow fell on her nose. More fell down from the sky, landing softly on the rest of the pretty snow. She squealed and ran around, and she stuck out her tongue, a few flakes landing on it. "Wow!"

Lizzardkit listened silently as Owlheart had told him what happens, he blinked as he noticed how calm Owlheart had sound once he was talking about snow, he tried to envision it in his mind he saw vivid images of nothing but pure white snow go on for miles, and how it sparkled like the stars up in sliverpelt.

His eyes crossed to watch a snowflake land directly on his muzzle, he sneezed afterwards but watched the other snowflakes fall onto the ground with ammusment, they looked like beautiful sparkling crystals falling from the sky but he began to wonder, even though they looked harmless what did a small kit know about the world? "Snow is harmless right..?

Scarletheart nodded as Owlheart spoke. She watched the kits play in the snow and she blinked in amusement. She perked her ears when Lizardkit spoke. "Snow is harmless when you know when to get out and get warm. Otherwise, I wouldn't say it's harmful at all." The she cat blinked her eyes and nodded her head again. She flicked her tail so snow would fall off of it. Scarletheart could remember the last time she'd been in snow, but only reason why she remembered that time so much was because something terrible happened at that time. The cat shook her head lightly to shake her unwanted thoughts out of her head.

Owlheart raised his gaze up as snow started to fall, letting out a happy laugh as he felt one land on his nose and then melt. He glanced at the kits as they started to play in it; at least Honeykit was. He wished he was a kit again; or maybe at least a young apprentice so he could get away with playing around. But nope, he was a fully-grown warrior now. No playing around for him...Other than a few moments ago where he was hopping around the snow. Hopefully nobody had seen that...Or, maybe he didn't care. That had been fun, playing in the snow like that. Oh how fun it was to be carefree for even a short while.

CloudPatches saw HoneyKit playing in the snow and laughed. "Yeah it's fun now, but soon the rabbits will be hiding and won't be filling any bellies." He sighed and jumped on the snow trying to have fun with her. "Ah! Cold!"

Honeykit laughed as her father jumped in the snow. "Why do the rabbits hide? Are they too scared of the snow?" She asked. Honeykit then jumped over to her dad, and threw a small clump of snow at him.