March's Gathering 2018

Scarletpaw smiled shyly as Sweetpaw complimented her pelt. "Thank you," she meowed. "Yours look pretty too." She was glad all this apprentice was nice. All the other cats seemed tense, like they would love to jump on each other and claw their faces out. Why would StarClan allow this?"Have you been to the Gathering before? This is my first one. There're so many cats!"

Stepping forward, Ivystar began the gathering as every clan was gathered in the clearing. The silver tabby looked striking in the moonlight, and her green eyes was eerie as always, piercing the warriors and apprentices below with her unflinching gaze. If Ashstar and Blizzardstar stood tall, she stood taller, not willing to even compromise on a mundane front such as height. She loathed them both, seeing them as no better than prey, or if anything, lower than prey. At least prey had their uses. These fools were weak, pathetic, and hinderances to the forest. Only out of courtesy to StarClan, did she allow them to exist, skulking about in their little miserable pits of land they called territories.

Silencing everyone with a swish of her tail, she began. "Greetings to all the five clans. For those who are not aware, RiverClan was recently in a conflict with WindClan as they were reluctant to share their bounty of herbs in reparations for their apprentice mauling our Medicine Cat. RiverClan won, naturally, and this past moon we have held their land of Lone Stump as punishment for their reckless ways. Tonight, I announce that RiverClan will return this land to WindClan, as they should surely know their mistake in messing with our clan. I wish that we could now return to peace, however, I hear that ThunderClan is harbouring the cat that murdered a ShadowClan medicine cat. Littlestar, we stand by you in these difficult times and will defer to your judgement in our actions."

She gave a glance to Littlestar, giving her an assuring nod that despite the change in leadership, her alliance to ShadowClan remained. There was little benefit for her to support ThunderClan, particularly after they made their decision to side with WindClan clear. And WindClan was no friend to their clan. "In other news, RiverClan is getting by well. We are not thriving as the fish haven't returned due to the chill, but WindClan's generous donation has saved my son from the brink of death. The plague of foxes on our lands have made living difficult, with only warriors allowed to venture freely, but we are making it work. I would suggest that our bordering neighbours take care, these beasts seem to be breeding like rabbits."

Sparkpaw
Sparkpaw immediately snapped his gaze to the leader of RiverClan when he heard her words. ThunderClan is sheltering a murderer? He wondered how Ashstar would react. He stared at the ThunderClan cats to see what reaction they had.

 Scarletpaw


Scarletpaw stared in dismay at Ivystar as she heard her words. The RiverClanners knew they were sheltering Gingerstripe! Now surely WindClan would break off their alliance. She stared at Sweetpaw, wondering what she was thinking now. What were the leaders and deputies thinking?


OOC : GAH, Short

Hawkpaw didn't look anyone in the face. Why didn't Blizzardstar get rid of Gingerstripe? He bit his lip. What were the other cats going to think?
---------------------------------
Sprucepaw sat there with an indifferent expression. Riverclan mostly already knew of the traitor being sheltered in Thunderclan.
----------------------------------
Oakpaw was shocked at all the news he was hearing. All of this was new to him since he was a recently made apprentice. He looked around to see others' reactions.

Sparkpaw looked at Ivystar. Those fox hearts! They shouldn't reveal Thunderclan's secrets! Though I am against what Blizzardstar did, I wouldn't tell all the clans! Though, to be fair they are Riverclan. Sparkpaw thought, almost hissing.

Dustpaw looked at Blizzardstar in shock. Thunderclan is housing a murderer! One that killed a Medicine Cat! She thought.

Ashstar nodded at Blizzardstar as she arrived, still ignoring the other leaders, then watched as Ivystar stepped up to start the Gathering. At the she-cat's words, she barely held back a hiss of anger. "Bounty of herbs?" "Naturally?" "Reckless ways?" "Mistake?" That arrogant piece of crow-food acted like she was StarClan's gift to the forest, come to separate some squabbling kits. She had caused the war, but was trying to turn it the other way around. The WindClan leader hardly paid attention to the last part of the fox-heart's smug speech, but instead stepped up immediately after she was done, making sure to control herself. No matter how much she'd love to tear the fish-face's throat open and rid the forest of her, she wouldn't lose it.

"We hardly had a 'bounty of herbs,' Ivystar," she returned coldly, undisguised fury in her voice. "We had barely enough for our own Clan, and you stole that away for your own selfish needs. And don't act like you beat us easily. Numbers were all that won your ill-gotten battle, and nothing more. If you wished for peace, then you should have accepted our efforts to fix the small wrong you were complaining about instead of starting a fight on our territory, then robbing us blind. We will take our territory back, as you have so very kindly offered to return it, which will hopefully let us have peace at least until after leaf-bare, so long as you refrain from starting any more battles you'll regret." Shaking her head dismissively, Ashstar turned back to the crowd of cats to get down to business. "Thanks to aid from ThunderClan, and despite RiverClan's best efforts, WindClan is back on its feet, and trespassers will not be tolerated in any way. We have enough prey, and many new warriors and apprentices to hunt and defend our borders, and our ally's." The she-cat sat back down and turned to Blizzardstar, wondering if she would get up next.

Blizzardstar’s fur rose notably as her eyes went cold as the ice on the river as Ivystar spoke. When Ashstar stepped forward to speak she forced her fur as flat as possible and shook her head a bit to get rid of the storm of thoughts flooding it. It wouldn’t be wise for her to let her emotions to guide her actions unless she desired to break the peace pact of the gathering right then and there.

As soon as Ashstar had stepped back, she stepped forward without hesitation “Ivystar claims of honorable battles and great victories, yet what I saw when my clan went to aid WindClan after such conflict supports more what Ashstar says than the claims of Ivystar. Cats injured and unable to be treated because RiverClan had stormed into their camp and stole even the last herb they once had, hungry because their fresh-kill pile had also been ripped away from them, and on top of that their best hunting grounds now lying beyond their reach. Even in lusher seasons such act would be seem as dishonorable and fox-hearted, but in leafbare, Ivystar?!” Her cold eyes went from the crowd underneath to the leader “You accused me of following Spottedstar’s wicked ways, reminded the forest of how they once invaded and ransacked SkyClan’s herb storage.You accused Ashstar of lusting for territory like Falconstar before her. Well, answer me, who is the one following their pawsteps now?”.

She had to take a long deep breath after talking, her long fluffy tail lashing as a sign of her clear anger. She then looked at Littlestar for a brief second before her attention returned to the crowd beneath them “While I might have a vague idea of how Ivystar got the piece of information regarding ShadowClan’s exile that she is using in an attempt to make us look like nothing but a nest of murderers, I need to say that its fake. Yes, Gingerstrripe arrived to ThunderClan asking to join us, but he never did and we have no idea of where he might be now, as not long after he arrived he left”.

After debunking Ivystar’s words she started to calm down once more, or at least as much as she could with several stray negative thoughts still trying to turn into words through her muzzle or actions through the claws she was trying so hard to keep sheathed “ThunderClan is growing stronger than even I would’ve expected, with many new warriors and apprentices within our ranks toughened by the harsh leafbare that we had been forced to go through. We are ready to defend ourselves AND our allies, if the need ever arises” With those words she finally stepped back to sit down at Ashstar’s side.

She gave one last challenging glare at Ivystar before she focused on the remaining two leaders, waiting for their speech. Her clan and now her friends had suffered too much at the claws of RiverClan in this leafbare. She no longer felt intimidated by the rival leader that once took a live away from her, and she knew that if her clan of her friends found themselves in danger again because of them she could bring SkyClan and ShadowClan with her, mouse-dung, she could even add the Dark Forest and StarClan themselves to her ranks…ThunderClan would still fight them till the end without hesitation nor fear.

Crowstar let out a growl. He didn't like this senseless bickering, he wasn't going to change his mind on the matter of backing up Riverclan. "You speak of this evil against my clan yet you weren't there, and neither was Ashstar. Thunderclan showed up at my camp without warning, and attacked without even asking for the herbs first. Windclan followed suit shortly after but drove us from our home, and forced us to take shelter with Riverclan." Ivystar was nothing like those leaders were.

"You accuse Ivystar of the same thing? She gave you warning and plenty of it. Tell me Blizzardstar, Ashstar. Are you out of a camp? Are you forced to take shelter at your allies camp because of what Riverclan has done to you? Taking a little bit of land and herbs for shredding a medicine cat? If a skyclan warrior had done that to either one of your clans back then, we wouldn't be in the forest anymore." He heard the stories of how both Thunderclan and Windclan wanted to drive his clan out. How they nearly did if it wasn't for Shadowclan showing up.

"If you wanted more hunting ground Blizzardstar you could have asked for it. I would have happily allowed you the hunting rights to the area around fallen oak, but did you ever turn to me? No. You could have asked for herbs from me after the fight against Riverclan, but did you? No. You asked for my help in defeating a clan that has helped my clan for many moons, and I will never turn my back on them." The leader let out a sigh. Why.. Why did this have to happen? He wanted peace, but every gathering these moons was about the stupid fight between Riverclan and their enemies. Riverclan was defending itself, while also seeking justice, and the Skyclan leader couldn't fault Ivystar for that. He wanted the same thing when the Dark Forest showed up.

The leader let out a sigh before continuing on. "Skyclan is fairing well this moon. Prey is returning to our tree tops, and our herbs returning from the frost. While we are still struggling with the lack of prey, we couldn't be better off." The leader said. He didn't want to be at this gathering anymore. He wanted to leave.

Ravenpaw´s ears dropped, she didn´t understand... she thought this was going to be a fun event, a place to make new friends! But instead... everyone seemed to be angry and the leaders were arguing... she didn´t liked any of that... Ravenpaw decided to walk away, away from all that tension, she sat on a rock, looking around and keeping an eye on Dawnpetal in case she had to rush to her...

"You okay there?"

Ravenpaw almost leaped and turns to see a white and black young tom, behind her, he chuckled a bit, Lionpaw couldn´t sleep with so much racket, so he started walking and saw the young she-cat walking away.

"I´m sorry, i didn´t mean to scare you" he apologized 

"Y-you didn´t scared me... just surprised me" she replied, looking a bit uncomfortable, but she quickly composed herself "Hello... i´m Ravenpaw, from Thunderclan, nice to meet you"

"Whatever you say" he smiled a bit and sat by her side "I´m Lionpaw, from Shadowclan, nice to meet you too"

Ravenpaw purred in greeting, first cat she meet who wasen´t angry or ignored her, her gaze fell on the rest of cats again, and she sighed, thing the tom noticed...

"... Kind of disappointing, isn´t it?" he said.

"Uh? what?"

"The gathering... is not what you thought it was?"

"Oh... yeah" her ears dropped again "I thought i was going to make new friends here but..."

"Everyone is tense, or wants to fight each other, just look at the leaders..." he said "... I´m kinda scared to be honest"

"... why?" she turns to see him.

"Because... maybe i don´t fully understand what´s going on because i just became an apprentice, but if becoming a warrior means to be like that" points with his tail to the group of warriors and leaders "I don´t wanna be a warrior then..."

"..." Ravenpaw didn´t answered right away, she keept looking at the other cats... "... well... i do wanna be a warrior... but i´ll try hard and make sure i never be like them"

Sweetpaw giggled at Scarletpaw's compliment. Thanks! No, this is my first one too!" She would have continued but Ivystar started the gathering and she fell silent. Ashstar quickly followed the Riverclan scum and Sweetpaw's chin lifted up with pride when Ashstar mentioned the new apprentices in the clan.

---

Cherrypaw was still sitting with Birchpaw and Spiderpaw when the gathering started and she decided to stay there, knowing her clanmates were nearby. During the leader's announcements she stayed quiet and kept a smile on her face though in truth what Riverclan had been doing left a bad taste in her mouth. Looking at the two toms she was sitting with she wondered what their opinions were on what was going on between the clans.

---

Tinypaw's ears perked as the gathering started and she looked away from Dawnpaw. 'Ivystar sounds like a pompous ass.' Tinypaw, never much one for politics, had no idea what side of the war Skyclan was on but she immediatly didn't like the Riverclan leader. Ashstar seemed a bit aggressive but at least she wasn't full of herself. When Crowstar spoke up after Blizzardstar Tinypaw realized they were on Riverclan's side and she groaned, curling back up and deciding to take that nap afterall.

Dustpaw looked over at two other cats (Ravenpaw and Lionpaw) and walked up to them. "So this gathering huh?" She said.

"You... just really look like someone I know..." Rippedsky trailed off, fairly distracted as he glanced around the clearing from his son. Despite just coming back, there was no way he would deny Willowflight the chance to become fully immersed in clan life once more. Eventually, he found the pelt he was looking for, and sure enough, there was a similarity in their coats. He wanted to deny it, wanted to shake the now sneaking suspicion in his mind. But, it seemed to make too much sense. Was Willowflight keeping secrets from him? Or was it just pure coincidence this Thunderclan warrior looked like a copy of his son? He sat back on his haunches slowly, stumped by the thoughts running through his mind. Why had he never seen this cat before until right after Willowflight appeared? They would have to talk later on.

Before he could open his maw again to address the young warrior again, Ivystar started speaking. Instead, he simply nodded to the warrior and left it at that. He couldn't be disrespectful by continuing to talk through her address of the clans. The tom tilted his head to stare up at the leader while she spoke. Nothing came to a surprise to him. This was merely a continuation of the tensions of the previous gathering, apparently, nothing had changed. Although he was surprised to hear of the attack on Windclan, it made sense. Ivystar was a cat of her words. Besides, with the shortage of supplies, battles were expected. He felt a brief twinge of sadness for the affected cats, but he couldn't help but think that the clan would have been better of sharing their herbs with Riverclan. As the other leader's jumped in to share their own perspective, his tail tip nearly twitched.

Finally, Crowstar spoke. Rippedsky found himself just barely nodding stiffly. It wasn't his allegiance to the fluffy black tom that provoked him to agree, but rather the sense that spilled from the leader's maw. His former mentor was a very wise cat and he was grateful to have trained and led under him. As he finished speaking, the deputy could tell that his friend wanted to leave as much as he did. Lately, it had been less than pleasant to attend the gatherings. Skyclan wasn't directly involved in any of the disputes, nor was Shadowclan, but they had been dragged in along with the rest of the forest. He sighed lowly and stole a glance as Jaystream to try and gauge the other deputy's response to everything that was happening.
____
Mumblefoot's maw twitched slightly and he flicked her pelt gently with his tail and reminded, "You look like you would have a beautiful smile." He shot Birchheart a bit of an apologetic look as he settled down between the she-cats and Poplartooth. The gathering looked like it would be starting soon as all the clans had arrived. It was that break in the conversation that gave him a chance to worry. There was so much tension between the clans, as there had been the time before. He tried to glance subtly over at his kit and fought the urge to move closer to her protectively. If he had a tail, there was no doubt it would be around the innocent, young apprentice now.

"We aren't fighting Thunderclan." The young warrior finally muttered to his denmate, daring to shoot him a bit of a glare. For the longest time he had felt inferior to the younger tom, but now, with the addition of his kit and a gained self-confidence that came from shifting his anxiety to her, that feeling had begun to dissipate. He straightened up to adjust his tailless rump on the ground. As he leaned over to Poplartooth, Mumblefoot continued to meow just soft enough for the words to escape Drizzlepaw's ears, "Would it kill you to be a little civil? This is a gathering, after all, her first gathering. Besides, Birchheart is a friend. Clan loyalty comes first, but she has suffered greatly and we have no reason to blame the actions of a whole clan on one cat." He didn't look at the other cat's expression while he spoke, merely looking up to focus on the now starting meeting of the clans.

Ivystar started speaking and his ears twitched uncomfortably. More feuding between the clans. Thankfully, Skyclan hadn't seen anything happen to them yet. But, with things getting more intense, that might not always hold true. Mumblefoot's claws kept kneading the ground with anxiety. It was true that he had grown a lot over the past moons but the overwhelming fear and anxiety never left. As Crowstar snapped back at Blizzardstar, he couldn't help but wonder if Poplartooth had a point.
___
He didn't spare her another glance until she was practically breathing on his pelt. Finally, the muscular tom turned his eyes towards her, with an obvious disdain in them, "Blizzardstar may say we're allies, but I've never met a Windclan cat worthy of being called my ally." It was undeniable how beautiful the she-cat was, but he put all of his efforts into hiding his attraction. No matter how appealing this cat seemed to be, nothing could change the fact she was a Windclanner, and reeking of it too. His nose twitched and he flicked his tail as an indication he was annoyed by her attempt at challenging him for no reason.

"Besides, I see no problem with being loyal to my clan. The code doesn't say to be friendly with others, does it? So, no, I don't have a problem. But you seem to."Eaglepaw almost seemed to snap the words, but in the calmest and taunting way the apprentice could manage. He was not known for his patience or level-headed nature in the slightest, but this was a gathering. Even if he hated the other cats here, he was loyal to the code and bound to the peace that came along with it. If this idiot Windclan cat wanted to start a problem, it wouldn't be on him. He huffed slightly before turning his attention back to the leaders on the rock and the gathering started.

The fur rose on Acornpaw's hackles as she heard Ivystar's cruel, mocking words. She held back a snarl.
Ivystar is overexaggerating everything. She speaks lies. How could the former leader have ever chosen Ivystar as his or her's deputy? She doesn't have any sense. She'll do anything for power and anything so that her Clan is the 'dominant' and 'better' one.
Acornpaw forced her pelt to flatten. Maybe that black-furred cat had some sense. She had never heard the other leader's names. She only knew Ivystar and Blizzardstar. 
She couldn't believe her ears. Crowstar, who appeared to be the eldest cat there, didn't seem to be wise, that's for sure. Couldn't the tom see that Ivystar had never even tried to make amends with WindClan? 
Supposedly, she gave us warnings, but did we do anything after that? No, except fight our pelts off when we battled with RiverClan.
She decided not to hold a grudge against Crowstar. His unfamiliar scent didn't click a lightbulb at all, so he must've not done anything to WindClan. This didn't mean she was going to be friendly with SkyClan's cats, though.
I hope these current allegiances don't stay. ThunderClan seems to have sense, allying with the wisest Clan. I hope Ivystar ruins all her current allegiances and that, just like WindClan, they'll either have only one other Clan to ally with or none.
I hope...


OOC: i hate making acornpaw so on-edge like this. can't wait till she finishes her moonstone journey because then she won't be an absolute mad-man

Ravenpaw and Lionpaw gave a soft meow, greeting Dustpaw.

"Gathering? More like a battlefield if you ask me" said the tom 

"I don´t think i want to come to any other gatherings in the future... if all are like this...?"