April Gathering 2014

The Gathering hadn't yet started, but apparently something had decided to start in its stead. Falconstar noticed fear burn bright in Dewstar's eyes, and he looked up to see quite a sight: the moon had turned an ominous shade of red, as if it was bleeding right above them. The WindClan leader's eyes widened in shock, looking back once more towards his fellow leaders, then down into the clearing, where slowly the gathered throng was starting to realize something was amiss, and it wouldn't be long before panic started to settle in. It was a terrible omen for this to happen, the first gathering since ShadowClan had been driven from their home, but everything would end up much, much worse if there was panic. Somehow they had to quell their fear.

"Everyone!" Falconstar yowled over the rising tide of fear that threatened to wash this meeting out. "We cannot give in to panic! Though this is a rather auspicious start, it will not help if we let fear take over." His voice grew calmer, though it still held an authoritative tone as it rang out along the clearing. "Let us not do anything rash until we allow ourselves to talk it over." Lowering his voice now, the brown-furred leader turned towards his fellow leaders, addressing them now. "This is a terrible omen to happen now. Perhaps StarClan is angry with us, though we cannot be entirely sure it is over the terrible deeds ShadowClan did to the forest. What do you think we should do, Dewstar? Reedstar?" If the leaders exuded calm, hopefully their charges would feel calm as well.

OOC: Very late post happens to be very late

IC: Before the red-moon catastrophe because, as stated before, I am late, Flowerfrost went over to her WindClan friend. "Hi, Twopelt!" She nodded to Nightglow. "I'm Flowerfrost. Who're you?" Then the red-moon catastrophe happened. "Wh- what's happened to the moon?" Her tail was bushed out to maximum fluffitude, and the fur along her spine lifted. "StarClan, save us! What is happening?" The frightened ThunderClan she-cat fell silent as Falconstar began to speak, though her tail was still bushed out in fright.

Mistyflower had totally appeared with the rest of RiverClan, and today she was in a very bad mood. Not really mad or grumpy, just sad. Then the moon turned red, which made her day (or should I say night) a lot worse. Shocked, Mistyflower stared at the moon incredulously. "WHAT. Is. THAT? THAT is the MOON? Since when has the moon been RED? Or is it just me?" As she looked around, she realized that it wasn't just her; it was everyone. Everyone was staring at the moon, looking either frightened or astonished. "StarClan, what is happening?" she asked her ancestors softly, eyes wide and terrified in the blood-red glow of the full moon. Listening to Falconstar, she calmed down a bit

And Foxclaw and Hailfang had similar reactions that are too time-consuming to put.

OOC: Crappy post, but I was bored and realized I hadn't replied to this. Sorry, huehue.

IC: Fear took Reedstar's heart in its icy grips as panicked mewls went up around the clearing, all with glances skyward. He turned his eyes to the moon, and let a gasp escape his throat. The moon is bleeding. Fourtrees was bathed in a burnt orange glow. What did it mean? Was it ShadowClan? An omen? A prophecy? This isn't safe... My Clan... He felt compelled to leap from the Great Rock just then and bring RiverClan back to the safety of camp, but he took one deep breath and forced himself to sit. One of my lives were for composure. Patience, reason...

"Falconstar is right. We shouldn't let ourselves be alarmed." Reedstar flicked his tail and cast another nervous glance to the stars and the crimson disc hanging above them, knowing it was a lie. Whatever this was for, it was clearly meant to stir up panic. If it wasn't StarClan's anger, it was a warning. Something ominous... His mind wandered back to Gingerheart's bloodied corpse lying in the mud, and Sagewhisker's broken body in the center of camp. That was justice. Hailwhisper... She had been kind and gentle, and ShadowClan murdered her in cold blood on their own land. It was a provocation, and a heinous crime. He couldn't have remained idle and let them go unpunished. It would have been a stain on RiverClan's pride and honor. What choice did they leave him?

"Medicine cats. Mallowroot? Ravenwing? Swiftnose? What do you make of this?"

Midnightpaw tried to calm himself down, but the cold feeling of dread struck him like a swift talon of an eagle. "Is Starclan mad at us? Is it because we drove out Shadowclan? Is Starclan planning to drive out all the clan? No... please no... " he said to himself in a whisper.

Lightpaw looked up in fear. "What's going on?"

Bramblestripe wouldn't let panic sit in. He waited for the Medicine cats to speak.

Stormblaze looked at the sky in shock.
"What is happening! Is this an omen?" a asked the medicine cats with a shocked and terrified face. It brewed with Horror and Fright.

Nightglow yelped in surprise as the moon turned red.
"It looks like blood!" Nightglow shouted with pure horror in her voice.

Firepaw almost jumped out of her fur. She ran over to the other Riverclan cats and hid behind Mistyflower.
"What is happening?" Firepaw cried out.

Addertail eyes widened as he looked up at the moon, red as they said it was. As yowls of terror began to broke out, he stood up to get a better view of what the leaders were going to do about it, what they thought was going on. When both Reedstar and Falconstar took control, he sat back down, a little relieved, but could still hear panicked meows nearby. His gaze shot towards some nearby yowling cats(Stormblaze, Nightglow, Firepaw, etc) and glared at them. Didn't they hear? "Keep quiet! They're right--We must keep calm!" He meowed, then turned back to look up at the leaders. He dared a sideways glance at Sunface, then to his kits(wherever they all were), hoping they weren't as worried as some of the others.

(Hey, others are yowling too ya know.)

Firepaw stood up and went silent. Her eyes cast curious glances around the gathering place.

Stormblaze let out a relieved sigh and looked at Dewstar.

Nightglow let her gaze wandered.
"I'm Nightglow," she whispered to Flowerfrost. Then Nightglow looked for Acornpaw.

"What will we do!?" Midnightpaw yowled a bit too loud.

Slowly, Dewstar came back to her senses. She realized that her panicking so terribly would not help this large group of cats, and it seemed to be frightening them. She gathered up her breath and stood tall, hoping that it would make up for her previous cowardice. "If StarClan is angry, it is not because of our actions against ShadowClan!" The ThunderClan leader asserted loudly while raking her gaze over the cats. Everyone had seemed to quiet down until one tom yowled out, seemingly at random. Her ear twitched in frustration. Can't they just calm down? She thought, forgetting her own fear. "We all know that we were perfectly justified in our attack! If StarClan is indeed angered, then it is more likely because of a single Clan or perhaps a single cat." She didn't know if any of this was true, but it would be better to fake it than to admit being just as confused as the crowd.

Swiftnose stood as Reedstar called to the medicine cats for an answer. He wasn't comfortable with Dewstar's assumptions, but he wouldn't outright challenge her. He first looked to Ravenwing, but then turned back to the RiverClan leader. "I'm not sure what it means," He said carefully, hoping not to stir up the crowd again. "and I don't think I've heard of such an occurrence before. Unless Ravenwing has heard stories from Shadeheart, the only cat I know who might have some knowledge of this is Mallowroot. He is the oldest of us and might know a few old tales. Wherever ShadowClan has gone, I'm certain that they didn't miss this... strange event. We would just need to find them." He flinched slightly when he saw Dewstar's fur rise and muzzle draw into a silent snarl. She was clearly opposed to turning to ShadowClan, but still said nothing.

Sunface was oddly comforted by Dewstar's words about a single Clan or cat being to blame. It can't be me. I haven't done anything... I should be safe. It can't be ThunderClan, either- we've not done anything to upset our ancestors. It must be RiverClan or WindClan. Maybe even ShadowClan, though I can't imagine what it is they've done this time. Yes, she was glad to have someone to blame. She traded looks with Addertail, still more comforted by his presence. It chilled her, though, when her medicine cat admitted to not knowing about the blood-colored moon. It was true, though; she'd never even considered that such a thing could happen. She saw Dewstar's reaction to his suggestion and partly understood what she felt. It was unbecoming of Clans to chase out rivals and then crawl back for help. At the same time, she was almost disgusted. If Dewstar would just get over her cursed pride and stubbornness, we would have an answer to this! Secretly, she wasn't a big fan of her leader. They were similar in some ways, but Sunface couldn't help but feel slightly superior in the sense of brains. She was thankful, though, that Dewstar let her into the Clan and therefor she would not share her thoughts with anyone; not even her own mate.

Darkpaw watched on, silent the whole time. Yes, he was very frightened by this event. This isn't supposed to happen...! He was aware of the yowls and caterwauls of fearful cats around him, but kept his muzzle closed. His eyes were trained on Falconstar, hoping to gain confidence from his leader and mentor. Fortunately, Falconstar had stayed collected and quieted the crowd, allowing for the other leaders and the medicine cats to get a few words in. He wasn't sure who this 'Shadeheart' character the black and white medicine cat spoke of so tenderly(he must have known her when she was supposedly alive) but determined she must have been a medicine cat as well. He risked a glance around the clearing and saw that all cats had their eyes trained on the three leaders, illuminated by the eerie red glow.

A silver she-cat padded through the entrance shortly behind her leader, ready for some peaceful Clan interaction, only to be startled by the frightened yowling of cats all over. After listening briefly to the conversation, the elder known as Silvershade flicked an ear and padded towards the group, pushing to the front where the leaders and medicine cats stood. "With all due respect and no intention to brag, I'm fairly sure that I'm the oldest cat in the forest, and I have no memory of an occurrence like this one. What it means is up to interpretation alone," the silver cat mewed, sitting down and ignoring the protest from her knees.

Copperpaw looked up at the sky; his eyes full of fear. What did StarClan want with them?

Stormstep padded in behind his leader, trying his best to stay calm. He certainly hoped he hadn't contributed to angering StarClan, whether it be over damning ShadowClan or not.

Things were getting out of control very fast. Despite some cats exhibiting calm, others gave in rather easily to panic, and the temporary lull could be shattered by these cats. Of course their first instincts would have them believe that this was over ShadowClan, but none of them knew what StarClan meant from their sign, and the last thing they were going to do was ask a biased party about it. "Dewstar is right!" he yowled down to the masses, attempting to establish authority again in order to quell any dissension. "We do not truly know StarClan's meaning behind the red moon, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is here because of our conflict with ShadowClan. Perhaps our ancestors are sending this omen because of something else…" Taking a deep breath, he mewed what he had been thinking about for awhile now, though he hadn't given much voice to it, despite his own son's rather vocal stance towards the matter. "Lately, there have been a growing number of cats dishonoring the warrior code. I will not stand here and pretend I can tell you every single cat who has broken the code, but I do know that they exist. They carry on illicit relationships with cats from other clans and with rogues, and they betray their clans by carrying half-blood kits into our ranks. Now, nobody is blaming the kits for this, as they had no choice in the matter, but this could be StarClan's sign! Our purity is at stake, and our ancestors shouldn't have had to send us a sign to remind us of this!" He took a couple steps back, letting his words sink in. What they had done to ShadowClan was harsh, but it was just. His apprentice had been kidnapped, and who knew how many cats had been murdered in cold blood. He was the leader, and he was willing to live with those nightmares on his conscience. He would carry that burden rather than let his clan do it in his stead. This was a whole different matter, however. All he hoped for was that his fellow leaders would understand his message.