Lost Creek Hollow solstice

Night came early during the short December days. Darkness fell quickly and a light snow began to fall. Shadowpaw trodded through Riverclan territory and enjoyed the quiet solitude.

Sandulf was still healing. Silvertongue only had three legs. Riverclan’s ranks had thinned – but they had always been a small pack.

Shadowpaw hunted voles under the snow. Her large, bat-like ears listed for small scratching noises and then - pounce! She lept into a bank of snow.

Lately the den Esma shared with her mom had become too small and with a certain reluctance the girl had set out to seek a home for herself. In spring that kind of quest could have been easier, because Lost Creek Hollow as a home for other wolf families in the past, had plenty of nice dens for a young wolf to inhabit.  Now snow made things more difficult. And nearly every evening she returned to Ash Paw's side and make herself as comfortable as possible in the tight space. 

However, she had spied one of the packmates make a shelter in the snow and too shy to ask, but eager to learn, she had attempted to replicate the actions. It did take her many tries to find out, what the right way was, but eventually she succeeded. A small burrow in the snow, herself curled up and allowing to be snowed in so that she found herself in a snug and warm cocoon. Feeling very proud with herself, which did not happen very often, she had fallen asleep and dreamt about happy events. 

...only to be awoken by someone's paws crashing the ceiling of her snow den and landing painfully on her back. Esma yelped in pain and shock, snapped at the unknown assailant and tried to scramble away in panic. But all of a sudden all she could see was snow, snow, snow and more snow.