Orion decided to find where this white creature belonged. By the second day, he was wandering around. Looking for anything that might lead him to where it came from. He was getting desperate. He had no idea where to begin. Only then did he realise that it had joined them there, by the rock Freya had climbed. He didn't reach it until late in the afternoon. He walked back and forth beneath the rock, looking above him. If it had come from above, surely someone would have noticed. So it must have come from somewhere below. But from which side? He wondered. He tried to remember. Freya would know. Even Astra would probably know. He squinted. He wrinkled his nose. He shook his head. No, no, he couldn't do that. He wasn't going to beg some tiny kitten to help him. He wasn't going to humiliate himself.

"Come on, what are you backing out of?" He'd been goading Trigger every minute. He shoved him against the rock in front of him. "Leave me alone, what are you doing?" He swung at his large paw, but Orion kept walking with a firm stride. "Where did it come from?" asked Orion. "What?" "The white kitten? Where did it come from?" He raised his voice. Trigger pulled back, hiding his head between his paws. He didn't like being yelled at. "You're a scaredy-cat." Orion shoved him. "I won't do anything to you." He rolled his eyes. "I just need to know where the snow monster came from." He explained. Trigger looked at him. What monster was he talking about? What was the snow? "You're a handful." Orion whined. "That white kitten. You saw it first, I want to know where it came from." He said, this time perfectly clear and understandable. Trigger smiled. If he had told him right away that she needed his help, he would have gladly gone and not been so afraid.

"It was over there. Look, over there, behind those rocks." He jogged over to a pile of large rocks. Orion followed him. He peeked over to the other side, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. He sniffed around like a sniffing dog. He regretted not being a dog, he would have been able to track by scent. Then he'd be good at finding things. "It came from over there." Trigger uttered quietly. "What?" Orion asked. "It came from here, look, there are broken branches." Orion watched. There really were. There was a complete tunnel in the bushes. "He couldn't have done that, it's too big." He stuck his head in and then went all the way in. "Wait, don't go in there, what if some giant animal did it and killed you." Trigger pulled his tail. "Nonsense. It wasn't much bigger than me." Orion continued walking. Trigger cupped behind him, startled. He was afraid to climb in, but he was even more afraid to be left alone.

After a few yards, they emerged in a grove of low spruce trees. "Which way?" Orion asked. Trigger looked at the trees for a moment. "This way." He pointed to more broken branches. Orion shook his head. The little guy had perfect powers of observation. He wouldn't have noticed them on his own. "Let's go." He stepped resolutely into the trees. He had to walk crouched, and in places, sneak. Several times he needed to rest. He advanced slowly. Trigger had no problem climbing through the low growth. He was much smaller than Orion. He was smiling to himself. It was good for him, after all. Being a tiny kitten. It took them an hour to get out of the dense forest. Orion was tired. His back hurt and his paws hurt too. With gusto, he straightened up, stretched, and stood up. Trigger looked to see where they were. He just hoped they wouldn't have to climb into another scary tunnel in the bushes or trees.

They had a field ahead of them full of giant yellow flowers on thick stems. "Wow, that's something." Orion remarked. "Where are we?" Trigger asked. Orion looked at him, he had no idea where they were. He ran down the path along the field. If he was going to find anyone, it had to be somewhere in that direction. He ran like he was racing the wind. Trigger couldn't keep up, even though he was swinging his legs much faster than he ever had before. He was afraid Orion had completely forgotten he was there with him. "Wait, stop, don't go so fast." He called out. Orion didn't slow down. He wondered if he would have left him there. "Come on, I'll take you all the way here, So wait..." Trigger's too-fast legs betrayed him. He probably tripped over the other one. He did a few somersaults and sprawled beside the path. He was stopped by the stem of one of the flowers. Orion braked hard. He turned around. "Thick one." He sighed and took several long strides back to him. "Get up." he grabbed the skin of his neck with his teeth and pulled him up onto all fours. Trigger would have liked to get up, but his legs wouldn't obey him. They buckled and he lay by the flower again. "Okay, well, let's sit for a while." Orion said resignedly, cackling next to Trigger.

It was probably the pleasantly warm sun combined with fatigue that made them both fall asleep. They only woke up when it was starting to get chilly. Orion opened his eyes. Trigger was curled up on top of him, his paw draped over his stomach. "Hey? What's that?" He pulled his paw out and looked at the little guy. How did he happen to have him pressed against him? He jumped to his feet in fright. Trigger opened his eyes. He didn't want to wake up, he had just been playing so nicely. "We have to go, come on." Trigger noticed that it was getting dark. He jumped quickly to his feet. He didn't want to stay out overnight. But Orion wasn't going back. "Wait, we have to get home." He hissed cautiously. But he didn't wait. He continued down the path until he had walked around the entire field. He stopped at a tiny house with a round entrance, no windows. He took a breath. He smelled a cat.

He stepped back and meowed as quietly as he could. He didn't want to scare whoever lived in the house. First he heard a shuffling sound, then he saw a rather large cat's head. It was a light brown colour with darker brown stripes on its forehead. "A kitten has wandered in, we're looking for somewhere it might belong." He said cautiously, backing away some more. Behind the head, the rest of the body came out of the house. He was surprised to see a light brown girl cat with darker brown stripes. He knew from Freya that he was a pretty big tomcat and that tomcats were bigger than girl cats. Well, I guess there were exceptions. He certainly wasn't bigger than this cat.

"Do you know if anyone's lost a kitten?" he said timidly. The cat took a few steps towards him. She measured him with her eyes. "He's about this big, but because of his bushy fur, he looks bigger." He nudged Trigger in front of him. The cat looked at the little guy, then turned back to the house. Out of it came three kittens just like her. Orion turned to go in. This cat didn't seem to be missing any. If she did, she'd be looking for it. Besides, hers were just like her. The kittens were nothing like their white furry. "Come on, let's go." said Orion to Trigger. But he stood and watched the cat. More accurately, he was watching her tail. "It's her kitten." He whispered so only Orion could hear him. "What?" The cat leaned towards him. "It's her kitten." He whispered again. But he spoke so quietly that Orion couldn't hear him. "What?" He asked louder. "That he is her kitten." Trigger said normally. The cat turned at him, hissed, and leaned over him.

"What was I supposed to do? Drag her to our house? A big cat like that?" Orion looked at Trigger. "But he's her kitten." Trigger said. He and Orion walked slowly through the tunnel in the bushes back home. "Freya would give me." "She'd be happy to get rid of him. You should have brought her with us." Trigger thought and said what he thought out loud. "Like how am I supposed to drag her with us? She's twice my size. Was I supposed to carry her in my teeth?" He turned to look for the little guy, but couldn't see him. "I couldn't even carry her." He shook his head at such an idea. "Then you should've flipped her over and dragged her away." Trigger said seriously. "Like really? Run her over, huh? Me? Her?" He looked around again, but there was little space in the tunnel, so he really couldn't see him. "She'd outwrestle me and drag me somewhere, I don't know, just somewhere." He climbed out of one bush and into another. He was getting tired of it. "Even if I made it and survived, how do you know she'd take the kitten back? She didn't miss any." He grumbled, looking forward to being back in his cot.

They walked down the path, Orion looking around carefully. He had a feeling something was following them again. "It's driving me crazy, driving me insane. I'll go mad and just run around the garden digging holes." He muttered to himself under his whiskers. He didn't really know what it was to go crazy or to go insane. "But that's her kitten. Did you see that tail?" It didn't give Trigger any peace of mind that they had found the snow something's mother and just left her there. "I've seen all their tails." Orion said seriously. He probably wouldn't have noticed himself, but Trigger pointed it out to him.

Only the cat still claimed she hadn't lost any kittens. That no kitten had wandered off. Also that no one had stolen any kittens from her, and that certainly none of her kittens had gone anywhere on their own. "But I really couldn't pull her in my teeth." He paused and gazed toward the pines beyond the garden. Trigger stopped beside him. But while Orion was thinking about the strange movement he saw back there, Trigger was thinking about the cat and getting the kitten back. "Let's get Freya over there, she will sort it out." He said determinedly.