October's Gathering 2017

Toadpaw was part of that group of ThunderClan apprentices. He padded with an occasional skip in his step, as he was ecstatic to see what the other clans were like. This would be his first ever Gathering.

Crowstar lead Skyclan into the gathering, not in the mood to be here but he was here anyway.

All my other cats are here too

Bubblemist and Hollowpaw followed after Crowstar.

Echopaw happily followed Crowstar into the gathering.

Raggedpaw jumped at the older ThunderClaner's touch. He settled down when he recognized her face. "The only time this many cats were together in the No Fur place was when cats were about to kill each other for fun." he mumbled, glancing around.

Without so much as a hint of hesitation evident in his light steps, Elmpaw proudly strode after Crowstar into the Gathering, his meticulously groomed fur glowing slightly in the moonlight. Lifting his head confidently, the young tom slowly began to make his way through the blended crowd of Windclan, Thunderclan, and Skyclan cats. A part of him had been a bit worried that he would be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of cats who supposedly attended the Gatherings, but, much to his surprise, he found himself feeling quite at ease. Although perhaps that was because two Clans were still missing. Breaking away from his Clanmates, the ruddy colored tom found himself scanning the small clusters of cats.

Spotting the small and fluffy form of a solid grey she-cat with a squashed face and gleaming amber eyes, the lanky Skyclan tom quickly made his way towards the obviously uncomfortable she-cat. Rippedsky had told him that one of the key points of going to a Gathering was to fraternize with your enemies, but he could hardly see a cat who was hardly as tall as his knees as an enemy. Shaking away the thoughts, the apprentice drew to a halt in front of the Windclan apprentice with a friendly chirp of greeting. "What's with that face?" Elmpaw cheerily questioned, cocking his head to look at Mistpaw.

Mistpaw looked to a freakishly lanky apprentice, her rounded amber eyes blinking with shock.'What's with your face?' Her face? W-Was something wrong with her face? Sure it was much more... different than her clan-mates protruding faces but her ma and her pa both loved her face; well she never asked but she believed they did. "M-My face? Is there something wrong with it?" Mistpaw's fur heated in embarrassment, her ears flicked back and she tried to look away but finding that he could probably see it anyways. "I know it's flat an' all... you don't need to tell me." Mistpaw dipped her head, shuffling her paws with awkward nervousness. An insult on the tip of her tongue, but her momma told her to always be polite... unless some cat deserved it enough to beat them to a pulp- but Mistpaw didn't want to beat any cat up, especially with a truce.

Silverpaw walked to the gathering with Windclan. His chest was puffed out in pride and excitement. It was his first gathering and it was exciting.
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Littlepaw slowly walked behind Crowstar and the rest of Skyclan. He had his head low but the tom held a lot of excitement for the gathering.

Echopaw turned her head as Elmpaw strode past her to another smaller cat from another Clan. Happily, she trotted after the bigger tom and brushed against his fur as she stood next to him. "That's not nice, Elmpaw." Echopaw teased and stepped forward and nuzzled the other apprentice as she stumbled over her words. "Pay no attention to Elmpaw. He's a meanie." she teased, glancing back at Elmpaw with a grin.

"Oh," Elmpaw paused, slightly blindsided by Mistpaw's self-conscious words, "I just meant ya were making a weird face- like you just wandered into a foxes nest with no way out." He quickly countered, feeling rather awkward at how his words had been misinterpreted. While the Windclanner in front of him did have a rather squashed face, it wasn't something he hadn't seen before. It wasn't like she had four eyes and horns or anything. Letting out an apologetic little shrug, Elmpaw was forced to simply listen to the awkward silence between the pair of apprentices until Echopaw approached the duo. Flicking his ears indignantly at Echopaw's words, the mottled she-cat's affectionate gestures were lost on Elmpaw as he processed the other Skyclanner's words with a rueful expression. "Meanie?" He echoed with faux hurt despite the glint in his eyes, "Why I've never heard such an inaccurate description! Chivalry is practically my name!"

The black and white deputy padded in with his head high. There was certainly pressure to let it hang with the prior moon's events still weighing on his heart, but the Skyclan tom wouldn't let it bring him down. His night under the stars had provided a bit of perspective change and relief. Remembering that those lost were not gone forever was a difficult thing to do, but slowly he was learning to keep that at the forefront of his mind. His paws just barely brushed the ground as he padded towards the base of the great rock. However, he managed to overheard a bit of the apprentice's conversation as he went past. His ear twitched at Elmpaw's comment and he meowed lowly, with hints off humor just barely lining the worlds, "If Chivalry is your name then I must be a mouse." Rippedsky flicked his tail against the younger cat's nose. Even if he was a pain in the tail, he still found himself growing fond of the troublesome tom.

Without waiting for a response, he nodded to the group in a slight greeting before finishing his path to the place where the other deputies sat. Last time, Brindlewhisker had acted cold. He hoped the ice, whatever it's cause, had melted since the prior gathering. Rippedsky settled down and dipped his head to her in a greeting. As his tail wrapped over his paws, he glanced up at her with a twitch of his whiskers, "Greetings, Brindlewhisker. How have things been?" The tom made sure to ask specifically about her. No doubt Ashstar would be bringing the news of the clan later on. For now, he only cared what the she-cat had to say.

***

Coyotepaw said nothing as he followed Blizzardstar into the gathering. Per usual, he sat down by himself. However, he was not to far off from the group of apprentices chattering from the other clans. He smelled a mixture of Skyclan and Windclan. Once more, he found himself confused at the mix of different clans. The gatherings were always said to be a time of peace, but none had appeared that way so far. Outside of that, he had only ever seen border hostility. That combined with his general wariness of other cats made him skeptical of talking to any others. He barely spoke to many cats within Thunderclan. His face was neutral as his ear twitched at the mostly lighthearted conversation.

Darkflight's dandelion gaze watched the young tom curiously. He was tense, she could see that. Almost all cats from Twolegplace expressed that same anxiety over other cats. She watched Crowstar and the rest of SkyClan begin to file in. "I suppose my Clanmates and I were lucky to have each other then. It seems very few of us remember when we had to rely on one another in Twolegplace during," There was a pause and for a moment she could feel the hard sides of the cage pressing in on her again. She remembered the overbearing silence from the stars, how cold and dead the moon hung in the sky, absolutely lifeless. Her eyes squeezed shut, then reopened to rest on her tree-dwelling lookalike up on the Great Rock. "During the Dark Forest's reign." There was a short pause. "Except for Crowstar, but that's something for another time."

A few heartbeats passed before she turned to him again. "Do you know why we gather here, Raggedpaw?" She batted away an annoying mosquito. They were always so much worse this time of year.


Her first Gathering was supposed to be something magical, but the circumstances made the usually cheery Firpaw saddened. She was supposed to come here with her mentor by her side, not alone, not off to the side and completely lost as to what to do. Pansyface's sudden and unexpected death was taking a toll on the young she-cat and she dragged her paws the whole way to the clearing. If she had gone last moon, maybe this wonderful moment wouldn't have been so crushed. She could've made more memories with the late warrior while she was still alive. The deaf apprentice half-followed Elmpaw and Echopaw at a distance, but once they began talking to a WindClan apprentice she stopped, looking a bit forlorn. She backed up slightly, but only to bump butt-first into an older ThunderClan apprentice. Firpaw let out a rather undignified squeak and bowed her head in apology.

Raggedpaw flicked his ear in question. Dark Forest? What was that. He heard of the Clan of Stars, er StarClan, but the Dark Forest? Was that another clan? He decided he would ask Shadowleaf later. Raggedpaw took a seat next to the older warrior and shook his head, flicking his tipless tail. "No, I don't. I just came because Blizzardstar told me too." he shrugged, and glanced over to Darkflight.

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Echopaw purred, both in amusement and love for her father. Echopaw took a step back, sitting back a little weirdly. Her SkyClan legs were growing in, and she was still getting used to them. Her long claws kneeded the grass beneath her paws. "My name is Echopaw and this is Elmpaw!" the happy apprentice motioned to Elmpaw. She glanced over in admiringly happiness.

Toadpaw was particularly interested in getting to see cats from SkyClan and RiverClan. Although he was a ThunderClan apprentice, he had grown fond of hearing about these other two clans. He wanted to know more about SkyClan because he himself was a fan of jumping around, and he had heard from his mentor Birdflight that SkyClan was as close to flying as any cat could be. As for RiverClan, his early memories of his father Otterleap, a RiverClan warrior, were enough to interest him.

Hearing only the tail-end of the conversation among Mistpaw, Echopaw, and Elmpaw, Toadpaw trotted over and decided to introduce himself. "Hey, everyone. I'm Toadpaw. I heard the last two introductions, but who's this... er, flatter-faced one?" He nodded his head towards Mistpaw to drive home his point. Although he tended towards playfulness, Toadpaw could also come off as tactless and rude without realizing it. Because he had come into the conversation late, he had also not heard the earlier conversation that had already touched upon Mistpaw's distinctive facial feature. Completely clueless, Toadpaw waited for a response, his tail swishing jovially.

Mallowpaw came in with the rest of Skyclan. Even if she was blind, the apprentice was never going to let it show.
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Fawnpaw walked to a group of apprentices with a grin. The she-cat was too excited to really stand still. She was there with early Windclan. She got time to look around a bit before the other clans were starting to arrive.

Turning towards Rippedsky briefly, her eyes widening at the sight of the jovial tone of the majestic-ish looking tom she almost cracked a grin at his joke. Turning towards the two she was about to make some sort of joke, but it was right there on the tip of her tongue but in came Toadpaw and Mistpaw's hackles raised, partially through anger and fear. The normally shy she-cat could handle a bit, but she often secluded herself when she wasn't with her clan and mother. That wasn't all, she had come to the gathering where there were more cats than she could imagine and she was forced to be in the middle of it while being expected to behave herself in a manner Brindlewhisker could be proud of; Not only to add the fact that her face was insulted twice! Twice!

Turning on Toadpaw the flat-faced apprentice's tail lashed. "I know I have a weird face! Leave me alone! I can't have long muzzles like you guys! How selfish are you?" The small, fluffy she-cat spat cruelly, her nerves frayed like the shredded bark she'd seen on the borders with Riverclan once. As if realizing what she just said she straightened up, dipped her head and sputtered an apology before breaking from the group in search of her father.