Falling With the Rain

~ To the Mountains ~

Jaypaw shrugged in reply, "Nothing in particular."

"Fine, I'll be back soon."

Bounding away, deeper into the forest, Rainpaw felt glad to finally have the familiar cover of trees over her again. She was also glad to be met with the rich scent of lively prey. Tasting the air, Rainpaw quickly found recent traces of vole that lead to a small hole at the base of a tree.

Crouching low, she nimbly slid across the forest floor till she was only a tail-length away from the hole in the tree. Tensing her hind legs, she pounced, one forepaw neatly sliding into the hole of the tree. Inside, she could hear—and feel—the vole scrabbling around trying to find a way to escape. Gritting her teeth, she flailed her paw around inside of the tree with her claws unsheathed. After successfully trapping the vole under her paw, Rainpaw used her toes to snap the rodent's neck, instantly killing it.

Dragging it out, she was pleased to find no blood on it from her slightly desperate scrabbling. With a small smirk, she carried it in her jaws, trotting back the way she came.

When she reached their resting spot, she found Jaypaw stretching close to the roots of a tree. Behind him, at the base of another tree, Lionpaw and Breezepaw snored loudly, fast asleep. She let out a small mrrow of laughter around the fur of the vole before placing it at Jaypaw's feet and settling down to eat.

"Excited for the mountains?" Rainpaw questioned, swallowing a bite of vole as she watched Jaypaw do the same.

Jaypaw shrugged before letting out a huge yawn. "Not really, but I am tired."

She snorted in reply, "Really? I hadn't noticed."

He shot her a dirty look with his bright, unseeing blue eyes before taking a couple more bites of the vole in silence.

Soon enough, they were both even grumpier and the vole had disappeared into their now-full bellies.

Half-dragging herself closer to the roots of the tree, Rainpaw curled in on herself, resting her tail and a paw over her muzzle. The last thing she felt as she fell asleep was Jaypaw settling down right beside her.

... (no more timeskip notes now that I realised I can just use the lovely three dots)

Rainpaw officially decided that she hated the mountains. Not only were the pathways so thin even she—the smallest in the group—was struggling to not fall off, but the wind! She had never felt such cold and fearsome wind in her life. Not even in the coldest leaf-bares and not in WindClan territory.

Her nose quickly became cold as the frost-bitten wind blew straight into her face once more. Spitting, she squinted her eyes even harder to try and block out the wind. While Brambleclaw was a fairly large cat, even travelling behind him didn't block the wind from crashing into her.

They eventually came up on a gap where every cat would be forced to jump. The two tribe cats, Talon and Night leaped over the gap first with ease. Brambleclaw followed right after with a powerful jump.

Rainpaw spat bitterly. The gap was big enough to swallow her whole! Shaking her head, she took a couple of pawsteps back before running at full speed and leaping high into the air. It was clear that she was going to make it, that is, until the wind suddenly blew again.

It crashed fully into her body like running straight into a wall. She let out a shriek as her body twisted around to face the horrified faces of Lionpaw and Hollypaw in midair. I'm about to fly away, she realised, dread filling her bones. Thankfully, before the wind could fully blow her away, teeth grasped firmly into her scruff and pulled her back onto the firm stone path on the other side of the gap.