April Gathering 2021

Swanpaw had been watching the argument for awhile, she was extremely confused, she hadn't been to a gathering before and this was really ruining the experience. The white she-cat glanced around, she wanted to speak up, just to get this argument over with, but she didn't really have the courage. She hadn't even heard her own voice, so why do fighting strangers get to? There was no way she was going to speak up now, so she just looked at her paws and flicked her ears back, just until the fight was over.

Sweetpaw watched, uncomfortable with the sight before her. The harsh words of the cats, the leaders of the clans, they seemed out of place here. This was her first gathering, after all, and now that she had somehow managed to lose both her mentor and friend, she felt rather out of place. All of the cats around her seemed on edge. Sweetpaw would have blamed it on the argument, but it seemed deeper than that.

She glanced around, hoping to find a place where she could easily slip into the crowd, perhaps with the familiar faces of other cats, but she could see no other cats from Riverclan besides farther up, closer to the verbal argument going on.

Sweetpaw had heard many stories about gatherings from the elders. Apparently, they hadn't been to one in a while, because of... something. Sweetpaw remembered the hushed words she had caught when the other Queens had thought she was asleep. Haunted whispers about something... an Asylum? Sweetpaw didn't know. But she was young, still. Too young to really remember the times of strife. Untouched by the war.

Her eyes caught on another apprentice, a pale white one with large amber eyes who was staring determinedly at the floor. Sweetpaw watched her for a moment, before slowly moving forward to sit next to her. She recognized the cat as Loonwhispers' other apprentice. She wasn't very good at talking and would probably just scare the other cat off with her attempts, but she might as well try.

Leaning forward, she murmured to the other apprentice, "Do you know what's going on?"

Sweetpaw is trying to converse with Swanpaw.

Swanpaw jumped as a voice started to speak near her. She turned her head towards Sweetpaw, giving her a confused expression. She flicked her paw up towards the leaders who had started fighting and tilted her head. She put the paw down and shook her head. Her tail, that had puffed up after being scared, had curled around Swanpaw's paws and she looked back to the ground. She drew some shapes in the dirt with her claw, five circles. Then, she wiped it away with her paw, her ears flat. She wasn't talking, she never did, and definitely won't to the small grey tabby that spooked her.

Swanpaw is interacting with Sweetpaw

For a moment, Sweetpaw was confused at the moments, before she realized that Swanpaw was simply communicating with her in a nonverbal way. That was fine, she thought, though the message was confusing. Sweetpaw took a moment to try and decipher it.

It didn't seem like the she-cat knew much of what was going on either, so Sweetpaw let it be. She was glad, at the very least, to be with someone who she recognized. There was so much going on, after all. Even if the other apprentice didn't speak to her, the she-cats' presence was comforting. Sweetpaw sat close to her, scooting close enough that they were only a whisker-length away but not touching.

The other she-cat didn't seem to like her very much, but Sweetpaw would rather be here than lost somewhere in the crowd. Her first gathering was supposed to be exciting, and instead, it was shaping up to be rather disappointing and lonely. She tucked her tail around her own paws, following suit to the other apprentice, and tried to drown out the noise, staring determinedly at the ground. The five circles Swanpaw had drawn were there, partially obscured by the disturbed soil. She kept her eyes on them.