Fortunately for Vanilla Bean, her excitement to begin training woke her up early. Not so early that she was up before her master, but early enough that the sun wasn't too far past the horizon. She gave a long stretch when she padded from her new den, giving a small bounce before she searched for Hearthfire. It didn't take long, the chocolate-patched she-cat bearing an excited grin as she tried to reach the guard post's peak beside the prison guard, regardless of if she'd been noticed already or not.

   "I'm ready to learn!" she chirped, hind paws scrabbling against the packed snow before she dug in her claws to get a proper grip. Vanilla Bean was never really quite like any of her denmates when she was a kit, and it showed even now in her eagerness to start training. She was just excited to follow down the same pawsteps her 'father', Barrenfrost, had walked before, far too naive and innocent compared to the average WinterClan cat.

   "Arena?" She paused in her attempts to stand next to Hearthfire, long enough so that she slid back down to the bottom. Sure, she'd heard about the arena, but she hadn't the faintest idea where it was. She stared up at her master in confusion for a while before, with a shrug, she meowed, "Okay. If you say so." She was supposed to listen to everything her master told her after all, right? She got to her paws and, with only a glance back at Hearthfire to see if he had any advice, she bounded out of the camp. Maybe this was like one of her papa's games where she pretended to be lost like when he found her so he could find more playmates for both of them to play with. Except she assumed Hearthfire didn't want her to pretend to be lost. She had to find this arena place.

   Her thick fur fluffed out against the chill outside the camp, the young she-cat scanning her surroundings for any sign of where she might find an arena. She didn't seem overly nervous, assuming Hearthfire would be right behind her like her papa so she didn't get gobbled up by a fox or something. Eventually she decided to just head off down what looked, at least to her untrained eye, like a trail through the snow. Maybe just signs of a patrol that headed out earlier, but also maybe the route to the arena.

   Vanilla Bean made frequent stops as she followed what she assumed was a trail, tilting up her muzzle every tree-length or so to sniff at the air to see if she could pick up any scents, whether it was another Clanmate out early or a fox or, what she more specifically was searching for, the scent of Hearthfire reaching her. She couldn't catch so much as a whiff, though, the cold stinging her nose each time she tried. Eventually she stopped, focusing on relying on her eyes to track the path.

   She hadn't learned much from her ventures with Barrenfrost, learning more about staying far enough above the snow to not be up to her ears in it, a skill which she put to use now, and other ways to maneuver through the territory than anything to find her way to specific parts of it. She could probably scramble far enough up a tree to stay out of the reach of a fox long enough for someone nearby to save her, and she knew how to avoid clumps of falling snow so she wouldn't be buried underneath it, but she knew little that would help her in the task Hearthfire set her on.

   After a while, she started glancing over her shoulder every now and then, searching for some kind of sign of her master following her. Had he really come with her, or did he expect her to find her way all alone? She kept in mostly a straight line, in part so she could easily find her way back along her own trail if she got too lost, but the longer she was kept alone with little more than her own thoughts with no sign of Hearthfire the more nervous she seemed to get.

   She had noticed the signs of coming snow. It was obvious by the nervous looks she sent skyward as she tried to make her fur fluff out even more against the coming cold the clouds promised. She worried if she might end up like she had when Barrenfrost first brought her back to WinterClan. She had been practically an icicle when she was found. If Hearthfire really wasn't around, would anyone be able to find her if she was lost in the snow? She tried to convince herself she didn't need a visible trail back if the snow came and wiped out her own pawprints, an attempt mostly driven by a desire to not disappoint Hearthfire, but her resolve was beginning to waver as she repeatedly glanced up at the gathering clouds. Surely her master was nearby to make sure she didn't end up lost and alone, especially with snow on the way. Right?