Christmas BlogClan Fanfic

This is a fanfic created by Hobbitheart. It originally was going to be an entry in the FloFlamShiv 2015 Fanfic contest, but she didn't finish it until three days after the deadline. So she gave is as a Christmas present to her Clanmates instead. She gives credit to Owl City for inspiration with his song, "Light of Christmas."

What Christmas Is All About
It had snowed the night before in the BlogClan camp. That wintery morning, the white fluffiness blanketed the ground like an endless sea of thick, dense glitter as the wind whistled in the trees. And Hobbitheart was sleeping soundly for once when the squeal of an excited kit sent her jerking awake. Her head snapped up, and her eyes searched about wildly in alarm. What’s wrong? She thought, looking around. All she saw however were the sleeping forms of a couple dozen warriors and lots of moss (which Hobbitheart had discovered was not nearly as comfortable as warrior cats made it out to be). Whatever woke me up must be outside then. Great. Now I get to have my whiskers frozen off. Grumpily, she heaved herself out of her cold nest and stumbled towards the brilliant light. Her eyes bleary from sleep, she found herself bumping into several of the still-sleeping forms. I guess I’m not the only one that wanted to sleep in on a day as cold as this, she thought as she tripped over Sagemist’s tail. At least in slumber, the cold and ones’ troubles could fall away into peaceful dreams. The squealing and general noise got louder as she approached the entrance, and so did the sunlight, the latter of which blinded her as she stepped out of the protection of the den and into the great outdoors. She stood there in the biting cold, blinking away tears as she tried to be able to distinguish more than white. When she was finally able to see, though, what she saw took her breath away. The sky was the bluest Hobbitheart had ever seen, and the suns’ light was made even brighter as it reflected off of the dazzling snow. The branches of the trees were weighed down by clear, cold ice and the snow stretched out as far as the eye could see. It’s so beautiful! And while the scenery itself was breathtaking, it wasn’t what made the tabby warrior’s face turn into a wide smile that she couldn’t force away. No, the cause of her joy was something different, and it made her rude awakening almost worth it. There were Mistykit and Flowerkit, dancing in snow so deep that it almost reached their necks. Thornkit was rolling a ball of snow with her front paws; her entire pelt was dappled with white droplets. In contrast, Stoatkit was standing stock still, his tongue out, trying to catch a flake of the sweet snow on his tongue, while Crystalpaw stared at the falling snow, fascination in her gaze. “I wonder if Jack Frost is giving us this snow, then?” She murmured to herself. Low as her tone was, Flame’s head still swiveled. “Did you say Jack Frost?” She asked from her position by the fresh-kill pile, where she was giving herself a thoroughly frozen grooming. Hobbitheart’s attention was drawn away from them, though as someone called, “Thornkit!” It was Olivepaw; she and Meadowpaw were shaping a huge mound of snow into a ball with their paws. “Bring that over here! That’s gonna to be the cats’ head!” “That’s not big enough, mousebrain,” Winterpaw retorted, coming out from around the mound. “That’s barely large enough to be one of the eyeballs!” “Wrong,” Ollie said. “It’s big enough.” Thornkit looked back and forth between the bickering apprentices. “So…should I make it bigger or not?” “Ollie! Winter!” Maplesky called. “Stop arguing and start building! We want to surprise Cakestar before she gets back, don’t we?” The two apprentices grunted noncommittally and went back to work, but Hobbitheart noticed with amusement that more than a little snow was being flicked between the two, some of which got on Emberkit as he passed by. Padding over to where Maplesky stood, she asked, “You’re building a snow cat?” Maplesky nodded. “Yup, as a Christmas present. Cakestar went out on an early morning patrol with Hazelburrow, Jayie, and Shiver. We’re gonna surprise them.” “Who’s helping you?” Maplesky cast a glance towards the trees. “Birchpaw, Wavepaw and Aspenflame are gathering thin branches for the whiskers while Poppypaw, Wildpaw and RaggedOak find small stones for the eyes. Aside from those four,” she motioned towards Ollie, Winter, Meadowpaw and Thornkit, “Elkheart, Eagleclaw, and Applewood are helping us build the actual cat. And, then Geckopaw agreed to stalk Cakestar’s patrol and make sure she doesn’t get back before we’re ready.” “Is there anything I can do to help?” Hobbitheart asked. Maplesky tipped her head thoughtfully. “Not that I can think of. We’ve got a lot of cats building, and thank StarClan, it’s packing snow. We’d be in trouble if it weren’t.” “I can think of something she could do,” Applewood piped up, running over from where she was shaping the base of the cat. “How about she go and check on the patrol and see how far they are. That way, we know how much time we’ve got left.” Maplesky thought about it for a moment before nodding. “You know, that’s a really good idea.” Turning to Hobbitheart, she asked, “Would that be something you think you can do?” “Sure,” Hobbitheart agreed, glad to have some part to play. “I’ll be back shortly.” Scenebreak Everything was clear and refreshing to the tabby warrior as the wind bit at her fur and blasted her face with a ferocity that made her glad for the cover of the ice coated trees. The ground was frozen solid, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. She actually found herself enjoying her run through the woods as she followed the patrols’ scent trail. I’d never be out running on such a beautiful morning if I was a Twoleg still….she thought as she dashed along the forest floor. I guess this isn’t so bad. The patrol was a quite a ways out from camp, and several times the tabby she-cat was compelled to stop and gasp for breath before renewing the trail. If their path was any indication, it couldn’t be long before they returned; a patrol could only go so far in one morning. “Psst! Hobbitheart!” She heard someone whisper from the undergrowth. Whirling around, she spotted gleaming eyes from under a bush, and she hurried to join their owner. “Snakepaw?” She asked, sliding under the prickly branches. She hissed with annoyance as a few of them tore at her already messy brown fur. “Yup.” “What are you doing out here?” Hobbitheart was aware that every second she stood talking might mean that Cakestar’s patrol would walk into their surprise, and so she shifted her paws back towards the trail. “I was trying to hunt,” Snakepaw said. “But I’m still just awful at it. Seriously. I’m worse than a hobbit at swordplay.” “It would depend on which hobbit you were referring to. If I remember right, Bilbo was quite dangerous with Sting.” Snakepaw laughed a bit. “That’s true, I suppose. But for demonstrative purposes, just picture Sam fumbling with Andruil, and that’s what it’s like for me and hunting.” “You’ll get the hang of it, Snakepaw,” Hobbitheart said. “Just keep trying. Practice makes perfect you know.” “So I’ve heard,” Snakepaw grumbled. “But enough about that. What are you doing?” “Following Cakestar’s patrol and seeing how far in they’ve gotten,” Hobbitheart told the apprentice. “Have you seen them?” “Yeah,” Snakepaw said. “Like, some time ago. I was more that way,” she used her tail to motion west, “and they came up and said I shouldn’t be out here alone.” “And then?” “They said they were going to be a while yet; they were going to try to do at least half of the border and then cut across the territory to get back to camp.” Hobbitheart swiftly calculated in her brain what all of this meant. “So, they’re probably on their way back by now, which means we don’t have much longer. I’ve got to get there first.” “Why?” Snakepaw asked, tilting her head. “We don’t have much longer for what, exactly?” “To make a Christmas surprise,” Hobbitheart replied as she began to edge out from under the bush, her nerves jumping. She didn’t want to let all of the cats back at the camp down; they were counting on her and Geckopaw. “Here, I’ll come with you,” Snakepaw said, noticing her impatience. “I’m not doing much good out here anyways.” And so, the two set off through the woods, hoping to reach their camp in time. Scenebreak “Hurry up, you guys!” Maplesky urged, her own paws moving frantically as she patted snow in place. It had been just minutes since Hobbitheart had raced back into camp, panting as she relayed the news to her Clanmates, and now everyone was doubling their efforts, trying to correct minute mistakes in the cat’s shape as well as create the face. “We’re practically going at hyper-speed as it is!” Goldenpaw’s protests were muffled as she used her mouth to lodge a thin branch into the side of the cats’ head. Tinypaw was on the other side, doing the same thing. More cats had joined the effort after Hobbitheart’s departure, and those who weren’t were milling about, watching the bustle. “Not quite,” Jetclaw purred from her position on Stonestripe’s shoulders, as she tried to place one of the small pebbles in position as an eyeball. Creampaw handed up to her a second, coral colored stone, which was promptly pushed in next to the first. Hobbitheart stood back, watching and admiring BlogClan’s hard work. She had to admit, the figure before her really did look like a cat. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Geckopaw crash into camp, gasping for air. “They’re here!” Geckopaw cried breathlessly, skidding to a stop and spraying snow all over Hobbitheart. She growled softly but didn’t make any further comment. “It’s not ready!” Maplesky fretted as Jetclaw hopped down and thanked Stonestripe. “It’s fine,” Sundance reassured her, licking her Clanmate’s shoulder. Maplesky gave the she-cat a small smile but her eyes still showed worry. There was apprehensive silence in the clearing then as Cakestar’s patrol entered the camp and looked around. “Wow,” Hazelburrow was the first to speak, and his eyes shone as he beheld the creation before him. “This is beautiful,” Cakestar agreed, looking around at all of the cats standing there. “You guys made this?” “Yup,” Thornkit piped up. “It took forever.” “We weren’t sure we were ever gonna get it done!” Honeypaw mewed, her tail flicking back and forth happily. “We wanted to give you a Christmas surprise,” RaggedOak added, smiling. Hobbitheart herself had to purr as Cakestar walked around the huge figure and listened patiently to all of the comments and explanations that were being made simultaneously. Clamor and laughter and all in all, cheer spread through BlogClan as cats young and old told their leader about the joys and pains of their project. Hobbitheart, however, was content just to stand on the outskirts and watch; that was her way and she was fine with it. “This kinda brought us together,” she realized with some pleasure as Ollie playfully tripped Winter facefirst into a mound of snow. “And that’s the important thing, isn’t it?” Snakepaw said, watching Emberkit jump out of Winter’s way as the apprentice tackled Ollie. “That we’re close. I mean, for now, we’re all we’ve got.” Hobbitheart nodded. “Indeed.” And as the wind ruffled her fur and caused her eyes to water with not unpleasant tears, she observed something else. “I’m glad we figured it out at last,” she murmured. “What?” “That this,” she motioned the hubbub and joy with her tail. “Is what Christmas is all about.”