Winter's Chill | Spidergaze & Swiftsnow

Today was a wretched day like any other.

For Spidergaze, though, that was hardly a bad thing.

Seeing the trudge of her clanmates through the brisker and brisker breezes that chapped noses and left thin pelts quivering wasn't necessarily a pleasant thing. She was a cat of many quirks, but hardly a sadist. Yet, there was a coil of smugness in her heart flicking its tail about like a rattlesnake, amused by the stubborn persistence of mortal life against the cruel, unforgiving environment that claimed so many lost souls. Here, in Moonclan, leafbare could be a killer. A shadow that stalked among them, picking off the weak and impoverished. It lent a greater importance to things like hunting and construction. It reminded certain cats to appreciate what they had.. that not many were so lucky to be blessed with the safety and warmth of a clan to buffer winter's harshness. Although it'd been many moons since she'd integrated into the group, the shortening days were a reminder of the perpetual night she'd once endured living out on her own, dodging danger at every step and escaping death by a hair length every ear twitch. Clan cats, she often pondered, were quite privileged, at times.. and they'd do well to remember their gratitude. Not to the glittering stars, cold and distant, but to the effort every member but in on a daily basis to keep things running smoothly. Even better were the cats who would be given a violent wake-up to their own slacking, and start pitching in a little more instead of lazing around all day like the sun shone just to warm their heads.

A wretched day was another day her clanmates would count their blessings, instead of whining about the deities or the cowards across the river. It was a day Spidergaze relished.

Or, well. It was until Needlesong delivered her assignment.

"The nursery needs reinforcing," They mouthed to themselves, voice lilting and mocking as they padded on dark paws to the gaping maw of the burrow that composed the structure in question. As if! What good did patting around at the dirt do, really? An entry collapse could be dramatic enough, but would be especially insulating for the cats within. That'd be one way to keep the cold out real quick. And nobody would even complain, they found their mind murmuring, as their face edged into a glower. Because that idiot would be there singing birdsong until she suffocated. Suffocating- how thematically appropriate! Yes, that was right. That one cat, that one queen who Moonclan could very well do without. The one feline in all the territories that could squash their philosophy beneath stifling, smothering fluff the way fae did all those unlucky kits. Always coddling, always hiding from the truth with a stupid giggle and a lame excuse. Throw her to the outlands and see how long that delusion lasts-

Stilling.

Spidergaze stopped in her tracks, hovering wary by the nursery that now faced them. Hovering as that awful white pelt emerged into view, like a snow cloud that didn't know how to freeze. That probably had never even heard of the concept, because everything's always sunshine and rainbows, except for when it isn't! Spidergaze stared at faer, a thousand complicated feelings spinning webs in their head, and spoke the name of her fated nemesis.