The Kingdom hadn’t existed for very long, meaning camps were still in the process of being built. It was a lot of hard work, building a home, especially in the midst of leaf-bare when both herbs and prey were scarce. Cats were starving and weak and irritable, and Luca was among them. But he had a job to do, too, which led him to the mountain pass. He was on the hunt for sagebrush in particular, which he could swear he’d once seen growing on the mountainside, though he struggled to find it now. Hadn’t it been growing near an equally resilient shrub? He thought he’d checked around every bush in the area. Maybe he was in the wrong place. Before Luca could take one step along the border, the sound of a pebble tumbling down the rocky slope caused him to drop into a defensive crouch. The noise came from at least a tree-length away, but in the quiet of the mountains, the sound was ear-splitting.

He waited for a lengthy moment, staring in the direction of where the noise originated. While The Kingdom’s borders were strengthening with each passing day, predators such as mountain lions and wolves had yet to completely grasp the fact that a new group had moved in. Every Kingdom cat was warned to be extra cautious outside camp as they established their presence. Luca probably should’ve asked another Kingdom cat or two to accompany him, a decision he was very much regretting now. But when no predator emerged, Luca wondered if he’d imagined the sound of a small rock rolling down the mountainside. He knew he couldn’t not investigate it, because if it was a wolf or a mountain lion or even a bear that had made the noise, he should warn his groupmates that a threat was within their borders. So he began to cautiously move in that direction, paws placed firmly but silently.

When his gaze finally landed on a familiar smoky pelt, Luca breathed a quiet sigh of relief. He could now confidently believe the sound came from Sable, a fellow medic of the Riverwalker faction, and not a dangerous threat like a bear. They were digging and he assumed they were searching for herbs, too. He rounded the large rock he’d hidden behind, purposely kicking a pebble down the slope so as to avoid startling them when he was within striking distance. Once he’d gotten their attention, he greeted, “Sable! Oh, am I glad to see you.” Luca bounded over to their side. “I heard a pebble tumble down the mountainside and my first thought was that something big and dangerous was nearby. I was beyond relieved when I realized it was just you.” He rocked back on haunches and glanced down at the small hole they’d already dug. “Searching for herbs? Anything specific?”

Starting from scratch certainly wasn’t easy. The medics only had so many herbs to work with since they hadn’t been able to prepare for leaf-bare, but as he searched, Luca learned that a decent amount of the herbs growing in The Kingdom’s territory were quite hardy. It was just up to the medics to look in all the right spots. Unfortunately, Luca had yet to memorize the entire territory, so he often found himself looking in all the wrong spots. And he didn’t even recognize some of these herbs, which made it hard to know what to look for. He’d never stepped foot in mountains before or even seen mountains until just a few moons ago. He was comforted by the thought that very few Kingdom cats had prior experience in the mountains, so many were still adjusting. But it seemed Sable knew what they were doing.

“And yourself?” Sable asked politely. Luca thought they didn’t seem very interested in his response, like they’d asked only because it was the courteous thing to do, but he also knew they were quite reserved for someone who lived in a group. Like everyone else, Sable was still adjusting. He’d seen the smoky-furred medic interact with their kin and figured it must’ve just been Sable and Eve before The Kingdom came along. Luca figured Sable was attempting to be friendlier, which he jumped to encourage. “I figured since leaf-bare is the season for sicknesses, we should stock up on sagebrush. There should still be some leaves on the branches that we can use. I swear I’d seen a few shrubs around here, but I’m not having much luck finding them. I should’ve collected a few stems when I’d first discovered the sagebrush, but I thought it’d be easy to locate the second time.”

“The sagebrush can wait, though,” Luca said. “I was thinking we should stick together. Y’know, since we shouldn’t have left camp by ourselves.” He chuckled awkwardly. He wasn’t much of a fighter - not because he couldn’t fight, but because he hated even the thought of hurting someone else - but if a wolf approached them right this second, Luca knew he’d fight to defend Sable. “I can help you look for roots. Phlox roots would be best, I think, but I know we can’t afford to be picky.” Without waiting for a reply, Luca started scraping at the frozen ground on the edge of the path, beside the hole Sable was digging. And before they could form a response, before they could even register Luca’s actions, he was talking again. “How are you doing, Sable? Are you adjusting to this new lifestyle well?”