Of Cold Droplets

Prologue
"Are you sure it's safe out here, Sweetflag?" Dewpaw asked, testing each step on the dry ground carefully. Her mentor, Sweetflag, was walking ahead unconcernedly, not seeming to hear Dewpaw.

"The ground is drier than usual." the gray and yellow she-cat stuck out her claws and dug at the earth. Before she could continue her thought, she spotted a large hole up ahead. "There it is!" she ran towards it, Dewpaw picking up the pace a bit.

"Do you think the ground being dry would do this? Dewpaw asked, catching up to her mentor.

Sweetflag nodded. "There have always been some caverns under this area, but they've never caved in before. It's also never been this dry before."

"Do you think a drought is coming?"

"It's already here, it just hasn't gotten bad yet." Sweetflag scanned the bottom of the hole. She saw some of Sugarpaw's calico fur, left behind from earlier when the young apprentice had fallen with the collapsing earth. ''This seems... unusual. she thought to herself. Like this wasn't a normal ouccurence. This feels like the start of something big. Or maybe the continuation of something I hadn't noticed before.''

Suddenly, Sweetflag's ears pricked. Turning around, she saw a tiny, brown mouse. It was crawling weakly out of the bushes and moving towards the nearst pool. It was terribly skinny and moved like every bit of it ached. It didn't seem to noticed the two cats not far from it. She whispered before Dewpaw could move. "Leave it. It might be sick, and it doesn't have much meat on it anyway."