For the first time in moons, the snowy forest was flourished with prey.

Poolpaw padded beneath the towering snowy trees. She breathed deeply, opening her mouth to taste the faint tang of newleaf.
It wouldn't be long before the snwoy forest was alive with the song of birds and the rustle of prey, and the lean moons would just be a memory.

"What about here?" Icepaw circled a snow-filled tree, looking into the branches. "I think I can see a nest."
Icefrost and Ravenbird followed her gaze.
"Abandoned," Icefrost sighed.

Suddenly a twitch of movement bobbed in the distance.
"Squirrel!" Poolpaw dashed away stealthgngly, joy rising in her belly as she raced between the snowy trees.

The squirrel flashed through the snowy forest with it fluffy tail billowing behind.
Poolpaw ran as lightly as she could, hoping to not make any crunches in the snow.

She swerved past a snow-filled bramble, and found that she was slowly gaining.
She pressed back the urge to run full-pelt in case the thump of her paws gave her away in the snow.

Her mouth watered.
The squirrel would be a delicious treat for her still-hungry Clanmates.

Another few tail-lengths and she would be close enough to pounce.
She controlled her breathing, measuring each breath so that she would be ready. She could already taste the kill.
Now!

She pushed hard against the snow floor, surging forward, sprinkling icicles in her wake. The squirrel ran harder, trailing fear-scent now. Eyes fixed on its gray back, Poolpaw changed her pace, preparing to leap.
Suddenly the squirrel sprang upward. A wooden fence loomed ahead and the squirrel disappeared over the top. Too late, Poolpaw slowed in a halt, her flank slamming into the fence.

Fox dung!
Frustration surged through her.
Where am I?

She sniffed the air. This wasn't IceClan territory.
Warm, strange smells mixed with the sour tang of the Thunderpath.
Blinking, she had realized she had crossed the border and was beside Twolegplace. She had been close to this area before while on border patrol, but never stayed near the fence.
She turned, her heart sinking. She wouldn't dare follow the squirrel beyond there. No Clan cat was allowed to hunt outside the territory.

"Hey!"
A voice called down from above her.
Spinning around, Poolpaw saw a fat, golden-brown tabby tom balanced on a branch overhanging the fence.

She tensed, her hackles rising, but the tom just gazed at with round, calm eyes.
"You don't live around here." His voice was as soft as his pelt looked. He tipped his head to one side. "Are you one of those forest cats?"

Poolpaw thought for a moment. Should she leave? What would her Clanmates say if she spoke to a kittypet? She began to back away.
"Don't go!" The tom called. "I want to know what it's like."
"What what's like?" Poolpaw echoed.
"Being a forest cat." The tom crept along the branch but didn't climb down. "Who feeds you?"
"We feed ourselves."

The tom stared blankly.
"We hunt," Poolpaw explained. Doesn't he know anything?
"Mice?"
"And shrews and squirrels."

"You just missed a squirrel," the tom commented. "It came over the fence."
"I know." Poolpaw flicked her tail crossly. Had this cat just watched it run past without even trying to catch it? Lazy frost-brain!

"It sounds like hard work," the tom observed. "What do you do when it's cold? Don't you freeze?"
Us IceClan can't get frozen!
"Our dens are warm," Poolpaw said simply. Poolpaw wondered why she was bothering to answer such stupid questions.
"Your dens?" The tom narrowed his eyes. "Are they like baskets?"
"Baskets?" What was he talking about?

"Poolpaw!"
Silverstar's sharp mew made her jump.
She spun around to see her stalking toward her. "I-I..."

Hot with embarrassment, she tried to think of a good explanation for being there. She decided the truth would be simplest.
"I was chasing a squirrel," she confessed. "I didn't realized I'd crossed the border."
Silverstar glared at her. "So why are you talking to a kittypet?" She flashed a warning glance at the tom. Was Silverstar going to attack? The tom gazed calmly back.
He's too dumb even to run away!

"Come on!" Silverstar's mew was harsh.
Why was she so angry? She was only there by accident.
"He started talking to me," she defended herself.

Silverstar hissed as claws scrabbled against wood and a second kittypet leaped from the fence to the tree branch and crouched beside the tom. This was a dark-grey she-cat with emerald eyes, and even softer and plumper than the tom.
Silverstar turned and shouldered her way past a snow-filled bramble, beckoning Poolpaw with a sharp flick of her tail. She followed, glancing back at the cats.

"My name's Talon!" the tom called as she padded away. "Next time you can see my nest."
No way! Poolpaw shivered. She would never set paw in a kittypet nest!

She hurried after Silverstar, wondering why she was still bristling. "Are kittypets dangerous?" she asked.
"Dangerous?" She turned to her. "Don't be a frost-brain! We could have shredded that one!"
"Why didn't we?" she wondered.
"He didn't cross the border." Silverstar padded on, the fur ripping along her spine.

Poolpaw glanced back again, confused. Did kittypets ever cross the border? Why choose to stay in Twolegplace instead of living free in the forest? She wanted to ask Silverstar, but she was staring ahead, her gaze furious.
"Don't go there again," Silverstar growled. "You're a Clan cat, not a kittypet."

As they crossed back into IceClan territory, Poolpaw recognized Icefrost's pelt in the snowy trees.

"There you are!" The deputy hurried to meet them, looking relieved. Ravenbird and Icepaw were following, each carrying a fledgling. "We'd thought you'd gotten lost in Twolegplace," she meowed.
Poolpaw lashed her tail. "I'd never go there! I just got caught up in chasing that squirrel." Did she think she was a frost-brain like those kittypets?

Poolpaw was acutely aware of the hopeful faces that watched the hunting patrol pad back into camp. Ravenbird and Icepaw had their tiny fledglings and Icefrost had caught a scrawny mouse near the top of the ravine. But she had caught nothing, and her ears twitched with guilt.

"You'll have to go out again at dawn," Icefrost told her.
She looked at her black paws, ashamed. "I nearly caught a squirrel."
"Nearly doesn't feed the Clan," Icefrost reminded her.

She had disappointed her. She just hoped Silverstar wouldn't tell her she'd been talking to a kittypet instead of hunting. She glanced at the IceClan leader. She just padded to her den, and now her tail was disappearing through the lichen covering. She'd barely said a word on the trek back.

Dawnstripe stared at the meager pile of prey. "I'm just glad there are no kits to feed."
She glanced anxiously across the clearing to where Thornpaw and Amberpaw were practicing battle moves, their pelts following the the line of every bone. "But our apprentices still need to grow."

"I'll catch something tomorrow," Poolpaw promised. Even though newleaf was tantalizingly near, it would take a moon to fatten the Clan when prey started to run again.

The only fat cat in IceClan now was Duskwing, whose belly seemed to swell while the other cats grew thinner.
Poolpaw watched the tabby warrior, dozing beside the frozen nettle patch in the weak leaf-bare sunshine.
Was she secretly eating prey while she hunted? How come she was so plump when every other cat was hollow with hunger?

There was a scraping noise at the tunnel as Blackpaw padded in with Briarfang. The black apprentice looked smug.
He was holding a shrew in his jaws. He carried it to the fresh-kill pile and dropped it, flicking his tail with a flourish.

Featherpaw nosed her way out of the apprentices's den. "Catch anything?" She said as she trodded towards Poolpaw.
Poolpaw shook her head. "Icefrost says I have to go out again at dawn."
"I'll come with you."
Poolpaw blinked. Featherpaw hadn't hunted with her in a moon. "You don't have to," she mewed.
"I want to," Featherpaw replied. "We haven't been out together in ages."
Poolpaw shrugged. They haven't been out together ever since their argument at the battle from Icerocks.

The clattering of snowy branches woke Poolpaw.
Cold dawn light filtered into the den, and the snowy ferns rushed in the wind. She fought the urge to tuck her nose under her black paw and go back to sleep. She'd promised Icefrost.

She nosed Featherpaw, curled in the nest beside her. "Do you still want to come hunting?" she whispered.
Thornpaw, Amberpaw, and the others were still fast asleep, their gentle snores filling the den.
Featherpaw raised her head and blinked open her eyes. "Of course." She yawned and stretched, arching her back till her legs quivered.
Poolpaw gave her chest and black paws a quick wash to wake herself up, then tiptoed out of the den.

The wind outside pricked against her fur and roared in the branches overhead. Please let us catch something, she prayed to StarClan.

The clearing was empty. Outside the tunnel, Braveheart huddled against the tunnel as he stood guard, pelt fluffed up and ears flattened against the wind. "You're up early." He meowed.
"Hunting," Poolpaw mewed.
"May StarClan guide your paws!" Braveheart called after them as they headed for the ravine.

As they scrambled up snowy cliff, the wind tugged their fur. At the top it roared like a Thunderpath, shaking the snow-filled trees to their roots.

"Which way?" Poolpaw asked.
"What?" Featherpaw raised her voice against the wind.
"Where shall we hunt?" Poolpaw called louder.
"The forest's thicker near the SmokeClan border," Featherpaw suggested. "Let's try there."
She bounded into the snowy trees, and Poolpaw followed.

As the cold and snow started disappearing in their fur, she could sense the small warmth starting to cling to her fur.
The thick trunks creaked around them as they ran, and the forest floor felt damp and cold underpaw. They slowed as the forest began to thicken.
Poolpaw gazed into the branches in hopes of a bird they could track, and Featherpaw scanned the drifts of old leaves for signs of scurrying prey.

Suddenly Poolpaw caught a scent.
"Rabbit!" she whispered.
"What?" Featherpaw's eyes opened wide. Rabbits were rare in the forest; they lived on the moorland.

Excitement pulsed through Poolpaw as she tasted the air; it was definitely rabbit. It would feed half the Clan! Then she wouldn't be a complete failure to the Clan! She whipped her head around, searching the scrub.
There!
A white tail bobbed underneath a bramble.

She pressed Featherpaw into a crouch with her tail and began to creep forward over the damp forest floor.
The rabbit bobbed out from under the bush and headed along a small trail between a swath of ferns.
Poolpaw and Featherpaw followed, quickening their pace as the rabbit began to pick up speed.
Had it caught their scent? Something must have spooked it, because it broke into a dash and began racing through the forest.
Poolpaw pelted forward. She wasn't going to lose this one.

It dived under bushes and through patches of bracken. Poolpaw swerved and skidded, keeping up, the white bobtail always in sight.
She was going to catch it. She could almost taste it.
The forest sloped upward as a bank reared ahead of them. She would have it by the time it reached the top!

All of a sudden the rabbit disappeared down a hole.

Poolpaw skidded to a halt. "Fox dung!"
"We have to follow it," she told Featherpaw as her sister caught up.
"Down there?" Panting, Featherpaw stared down the dark opening in the bank.

They had been taught never to follow prey underground. Only StarClan knew what might be waiting in the darkness, and some burrows went on so far it would be easy to get lost and never find a way out.

Poolpaw sniffed at the hole. "The air smells fresh," she announced. "There must be another hole nearby. Maybe it just darted through and popped out somewhere else."
Featherpaw stared, unconvinced.
"We have to catch it!" Poolpaw insisted. "It's the best piece of prey the Clan has found in moons."

Without waiting for an answer, she squeezed into the hole.