frozen spaghetti -- open

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Squirrelkit plodded out of the nursery with a shiver, his breath turning to mist in the cold air. Despite the fact that cats were saying newleaf would arrive soon, the kitten wasn't sure this frigid weather would ever stop. Had it ever been warm in IceClan? If it had, he couldn't remember. He must've been too young.

The grey-and-white tom wove between snowdrifts and made his way towards the fresh-kill heap. However, upon arriving, he discovered that all the prey was frozen to the ground! Squirrelkit nudged at a fish and pouted when it remained stuck. Apparently the morning hunting patrol hadn't brought fresh food back yet.

Still frowning, he sat back on his haunches and met the dead, glassy eyes of the trout. "Yeah, I know, go ahead and mock me," he told it. "I'm hungry. Shut up."

[Lilypad]

Sudenly a flugg ball of white and grey fur clipped her hooked claws onto the slick silvery fish and almost slipped before landing in front of the grey tom. Her amber eyes met his as she dropped the fish in front of him. Despite the messy foot work the fish was barely scathed.

"why don't you eat him then" she smiled.

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He flinched slightly, embarrassed, when an apprentice appeared out of thin air. Had she heard him talking to the frozen fish? Judging by her response, probably. Squirrelkit's ears twitched back.

"Because it's practically ice? Look," the kitten meowed, and prodded the fish with his thorny little claws. A few scales fell off the prey's stiff body. "Listen, I don't know about you, but I don't feel like chewing on a frozen fish all morning. Where's the warm food?"

[Lilypad]

"in your mother" she scoffed. Beginning to happily chew the cold fish. Jezze were all kits this bratty. Did their mothers spoil them? Well that was never an issue for her was it.

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"Are you kidding? Rowansky doesn't have time to nurse all of her kits; she just lets us eat whatever's on the fresh-kill pile. Of course, that's a little hard to do when all the prey is as cold and hard as the mountain itself," Squirrelkit told her flatly. This apprentice sure did have high expectations. He felt a little bad for whoever her mentor was.

The grey-and-white kitten stared when Lilypaw bit into the prey. "That fish is literally a chunk of ice. You're gonna break a tooth and then the medicine cats will have to deal with it." Squirrel had heard a few rumors about IceClan's healers already, and although Flamingthorn seemed alright, everyone seemed to agree that Addervenom was a nasty piece of work. Hmm. Maybe he should've just kept his mouth shut and let Lilypaw deal with those consequences on her own.

[Lilypad]

"well I never had to deal with the nursing problem." She remarked hiding her grief. " and I think I will be fine thanks for the concern she purred. Finally hitting fish flesh which was oddly warm.

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| Hey, would you mind giving me a tiny bit more to work with in your responses? It's sorta disappointing to get two-line replies when I'm aiming for content and not rapid-fire posts. Thanks! |

Squirrel raised his metaphorical eyebrows dubiously. He hadn't the faintest idea why anyone would want to eat a piece of prey that had been sitting on the pile all night, and was now frozen quite solid. But hey, if Lilypaw was so insistent, he wasn't going to stop her. Whatever joy she'd gotten by ignoring his warning was probably now seeping away like the warmth of her mouth.

Really, they were in IceClan, why didn't they store prey more effectively?

"D'you think the hunting patrol's going to be back soon? Did one even go out at dawn? They're running late if so, in a while it'll be time for afternoon patrols." Despite his longing to be out in the mountains with his Clanmates, Squirrelkit didn't really envy them this morning; he was cold and he'd only been outside of the nursery for a few minutes.