I shivered as I looked down the sloping rocks, my ear-tips freezing in the wind. The time of Cold-paws had gotten worse, and I could only hope that it would ease up during our travels.

The dream was a constant reminder that there was always difficulties ahead, and that whatever I was doing, I was doing something wrong. The cheetah hadn't visited again but each night I went to sleep I lay down hoping for answers, because me and Midnight were nowhere closer to the truth. Often while hunting we'd sniffed among the rocks for signs of dogs or humans as well as prey, but so far nothing had turned up but a round metal thing we'd found buried in the light snow.

I felt bad for Diamond, who was not a full grown cat and didn't have any thick layer of fur to keep her warm- even tottering on someone's shoulders she would shiver. Hannah's feeble attempts to make her warmer didn't help, but chilled the little cat even more. I desperately hoped she would survive.

Hunting was proven to be the worst thing out in the mountains, especially when Fallan wouldn't even try in the cold snow and Hannah and Blaze acted as if they were always tired. Sure, we all were, but that was no excuse; and when I'd tried to explain it, Hannah had turned on me with an eruption of anger. Whether mine and the pretty cheetah's relationship would be repaired, I didn't know. But what I did was that her and Blaze grew closer every day, and never left each other's side. Now Hannah slept curled up close to the blotched cheetah's pelt at night, with Diamond (obviously) and Midnight and Aspen did the same with me.

"No, Fallan! Go sleep over there next to Storm," I'd heard my long lost sister say one day, right after we'd stopped to sleep for the night. Hannah had snapped at Fallan for asking to sleep next to her, leaving Fallan to sulk while dragging her paws a tail-length away from Storm and flopping down in a cold exhaustion.

Of course I was going to ask Fallan if she wanted to come join me, Midnight and Aspen- but the cheetah had already curled her tail over her nose and fallen asleep. I'd felt a pinch in my heart from seeing how small and frail the cheetah looked that night.

"Spirit," Midnight meowed to me, so I pulled my head to the right. Midnight's black fuzzy head looked small against the whiteness of the snow all around.

"It veers into two ways," she said over the quiet whistle of wind. I peered close to realize that further on, our trail veered sharply to the right down pointy rock-hard stone, or to the left with slippery snow and a winding trail that might cause any cat to loose balance and slide down the slope. Plus, there was no telling which parts were safe or uneven because the snow was covering everything. Thankfully it was no so deep that even Diamond could walk in it without much struggle.

"Why not go over it?" Storm meowed, volunteering his idea. My fur bristled at the thought of going straight up the mountain, which we had directly been avoiding so far. I craned my neck, feeling at least a small surge of relief from the fact that the mountain was not that high- almost just like a tall hill.

"There might be caves to shelter in," Aspen commented, who had come to stand beside us.

My thoughts took me back to the cluster of rocks we'd sheltered under the other night. Hannah, Blaze and me had almost gotten into a heated debate over who should be allowed to sleep inside of the warm, snow-ridden and wind-blocked hole. In the end, every cat but Diamond and Fallan had slept outside, but there'd been room for two more cheetahs if they'd slept curled up close together. Blaze had thrown a glare my way after that, surprising me. The tom had never shown me any open hostility until that moment. Now, I often avoided his gaze but let my thoughts drift back to the night in the trees.

"Oh, and, by the way, you're really pretty," he'd said without any shyness, balancing on the branch in front of me.

"I've been wanting to tell you that for awhile."

I shook out my fur and shook my head with a frown. Midnight, of course, had noticed.

"What's going on?" She said with a side-ways glance of purple eyes full of sympathy. Something told me she might've already known.

"I was thinking about that night with Blaze, how it freaked me out and now he's on Hannah's side all the time."

"Does it bother you?" The little black cat asked, and I had to think about the question for a moment. I had never really wanted Blaze around me because the only thing I'd seen of him was weirdness and no regard for personal space. However, Hannah had taken an extreme liking to him after finding the tom in the forest that day and making the rash decision to invite him into our group.

"No, but the fact that Hannah has come so close to him and avoids me to be with him all day bothers me."

"So are we going to choose this trail, or that one, or go up?" Storm said from behind.

I flipped my head around and instantly felt my pelt burning. How much had the thick-pelted black cat heard?

Midnight gave me a small nod of understanding, and looked up-ward with her tail twitching to and fro. How come she wasn't worried that Storm might've heard something about my personal problems?

"We should just go up it. It would be much faster, and we don't know where the other trails go. They might just lead to more moutains." Midnight and Aspen nodded, all look expectantly at me. Behind me, I heard Fallan groan and yell "hurry up!" while Hannah shuffled her paws with boredom, ignoring me as Blaze played with Diamond. Feeling like there wasn't much time to think it out, I quickly decided that my companions were right. The way up the mountain might make it colder, but it would save a lot of time and we could at least see what was up ahead.

"We'll travel over the mountain," I mewed. Midnight's claws scraped on stone as she moved upward, and Storm's belly swayed as he moved. Sneaking a glance behind, I could see that Hannah's usually bright green eyes were a bit dull and she held her head down. Even Fallan looked on as if she were worried, and complained less these days because she knew it did no good.

My own legs were thinner than usual, and I knew I was loosing the muscle I'd had in the warmer 'Paws days. I could feel the wiry tiredness in my shoulders and back, and hunger nipped at my stomach once again. Yesterday only a mouse had been caught, and given straight to Diamond. Fallan had looked on uncomfortably, clearly wanting to ask the kitten for a bite of her food but forcing herself not to.

"It gets steeper up here," Midnight meowed as she dug her claws in to pull herself up, sending grit and snow showering down over everyone's heads. Aspen did the same, less than a tail-length away from his old friend. A thin trace of red skin where the fur had chafed could be seen around the tom's neck, and reminded me of the accident that'd happened on the rock-face just a paw-full of days ago. Poor Aspen's neck twine, a collar, he had called it, had gotten wedged in a branch while hunting and almost choked him to death.

Now the tom looked much more like a forest or wild-cat, rather than one that was owned and lived beside the weird-looking creatures called humans. Secretly, I hoped to never meet one, for the stories my mother had told back then had seemed horrific. Though it did seem a real possibility because me and Midnight were working together to look for signs of them, trying to trace where the last two additional members of my Pride would be found. My pelt bristled at the thought of letting dogs into my pride- it didn't seem safe, or smart. But, when the time came, we would see what kind of animals they really were inside.

Digging my claws into cracks in the stone, I pushed up with my hind-legs but slid backwards a bit as one of my paws slipped free, causing my throat to close up in a moment's terror.

"Do you need any help?" I heard someone offer, and turned my head this way and that trying to find the source of the sound until I realized it had come from below.

Without warning, a firm head pushed me upward from my haunches. I let out a yowl of alarm at the unwelcome help and finally scrambled onto a ledge with enough paw-space to stand, looking down at Storm's bewildered expression.

"I'm sorry! I was just trying to help!"

"It's okay," Midnight meowed before I had a chance to speak, though I didn't know what I would've said anyways.

"She was just surprised- that's why her fur is bushed out."

I realized that the fur along my spine had lifted, and quickly smoothed it down with my tail, which had healed from the confrontation with the wolves but would carry a scar forever. Heat flushed my pelt, and if I were a kit I knew my mother would've scolded me for being so rude and unwelcoming of help up the cliff-face.

"Thanks," I muttered before I could re-think making an apology. Storm had only been trying to help, and Midnight gave a small snort in my direction.

Well, it wasn't my fault the tom had caught me off guard. What was a cat supposed to do when an unknown force was pushing them up a cliff? Fly away?

I heard a squawk of delight and turned around to see Hannah and Blaze both working together to push Diamond up the rocks, both carrying her and then setting her back down to take turns making progress up the side. Clearly the little calico kitten with the white mark between her eyes was having fun, and to my relief everyone was distracted from their hunger for now.

"Look at that huge bird!" Aspen yelled down to all of the cats below, and Midnight craned her neck up with me to see a huge brown-feathered bird swooping around the mountain, just like the one we'd seen a few days after first setting paw on the stones..

"Those birds hunt mice and shrews," Storm meowed while eyeing the creature in the sky. It was swooping lower, clearly trying to pinpoint some form of food.

"If it's searching for food on this mountain, don't you think we might be able to find some, too?" I heard Fallan say down below from a distance, and realized with a wince she was probably making the slowest progress of all because she had no help. Bending my neck, I could see that Hannah was the closest to her, but had Diamond's scruff in her teeth. And Blaze almost surely would not be comfortable giving the she-cat a boost up the whole way.

"Storm, could you help Fallan?" I meowed at the tom, who was right below me and standing with his paws slanted side-ways on the stone. With a nod of understanding in his dark green eyes, Storm turned with a whisk of his tail to travel slowly down the slope and give Fallan some reassuring help.

"Spirit, a word?" Midnight whispered as I bunched my shoulders to make it up to the next ledge, aiming for flatter ground. Once me and Midnight had come far enough from the other cats to be out of ear-shot, I bent my head to hear what she had to say.

"Why do you keep rejecting Storm?" Midnight said, her tone urgent and her eyes portraying a challenge. I looked away uncomfortably, wondering what she'd meant.

"He was just trying to help- that's all he's been trying to do since he's been here. So why don't you let him? What's so wrong with him being your friend?"

I backed away, uncertain of the question and telling myself I didn't know what Midnight meant. But, inside, I did. I'd acted rude since the tom had showed up, only sometimes greeting him with a stiff kindness. Was Midnight really so worried about it that she had to ask?

"Why does it matter?" I mewed, questioning. Midnight's eyes simply rolled far to the side, and she didn't speak until they had fixed on me again.

"We need as many allies as we can get, Spirit. It's Cold-paws and we need more hunters than ever. Storm catches more prey than all of us, and I think he might consider leaving if we all don't welcome him more." Some feeling tingled my fur, so I simply looked down at the ground as the other's caught up. Storm was farthest down, his fur just a black figure as he sunk his jaws into Fallan's scruff to pull her up, trembling slightly with the effort.

"I'll try to act friendlier," I said with a sigh, turning my head up and stretching my paws to make more progress. Midnight didn't respond, but I could feel that was wasn't satisfied with my answer.