December Gathering 2016

Sprucepaw got to his paws,following Twistedpaw."Who are you kidding Twistedpaw?It is pretty obvious it is Rippedpaw.How's SkyClan then Rippedpaw?Bet it isn't as good as WindClan!"he meowed jokingly.Sprucepaw smiled happily and his emerald eyes lit up as he talked to his old friend.

Twistedpaw playfully glared at Sprucepaw. "Is it a habit to make every serious moment playful?" She teased.

Leopardfang was silent, waiting wordlessly with the deputies who had gathered at the base of the rock. He exchanged no words or nods of greeting, instead staring straight at the leaders and occasionally checking for the last clan. Of course he'd been avoiding his mate, and of course he'd seen the returning exiles, but he let neither the not-so-subtle hostility between himself and Shimmerheart nor the presence of his son and grandson ruffle his fur. The only hinderance detectable was the annoying snow and cold winds. Leopardfang was not Crowstar's mother and wasn't responsible for teaching the SkyClan leader what 'morals' were, plus he didn't give a rat's tail about what type of cats SkyClan filled their ranks with. The best kind of fight was one that didn't happen. The ShadowClan deputy had had enough stress for the past several seasons. There wasn't a moment he could remember in his lifetime that wasn't stressful.


Tigerflower remembered her days in the nursery. It was snowing then, too. She always thought it was beautiful, and strong memories of her long-lost kithood echoed in her mind. She missed her siblings and the days when their family was happy. That was long gone, though. She kept her eyes down to her paws, and wrapped her tail around herself tightly. Maybe if she didn't look at anyone, she wouldn't see them interacting with family and friends. She wouldn't get to see the relationships that she no longer had herself. Tigerflower sniffed, feeling rather unwell. But her son was back at camp, feeling much sicker and hardly eating at all. She was afraid she would lose him, even though it wasn't likely. This season was too unpredictable for any cat to say who would live and who would die.

Rippedpaw's eyes widened as he looked away from Crowstar and at his former clanmates. So they don't hate me? "Oh, h-hi guys," He licked his paw and swiped it over his ear uncomfortably, "It's good." He meowed simply, not knowing what all to say. The apprentice didn't know what to say to the friends he had abandoned so recently.
After a moment he added, "I feel better with Skyclan. I miss you all, but I couldn't have stayed. Crowstar has taken me on as his apprentice now and I already trust his judgement so much more than Ashstar's..." His eyes clouded as he thought about the Windclan leader he had once looked up to. Now that respect was replaced with that of his new mentor. His new leader.

****

Flamepaw shifted his paws uncomfortably under Eagleheart's look and answered simply, "It's good to finally be here". This was another thing he had waited moons for. Thankfully he seemed to have gained the clan's trust enough to be made an apprentice and represent the clan at a gathering.

****

Eagleheart grunted and looked over Flamepaw, "You're an apprentice? Rather big for an apprentice. Thrushstar didn't trust you enough to be a warrior yet?" Eagleheart suppressed a laugh, knowing full well that Flamepaw had been held back since he wasn't clanborn. He didn't even think about the fact that he wasn't supposed to know that, and didn't try to hide the disdain from his voice.

****

Grasspaw followed the Windclan apprentices over to Rippedpaw, not even realizing she might be unwelcome and simply deciding these were her new friends. She overheard part of the conversation and her eyes widened, "So you're the one everyone has been talking about! You used to be Windclan and now you're Skyclan, that's crazy!" She couldn't help but hide the shock and awe from her voice.

Sprucepaw smiled awkwardly.Wow,you're Crowstar's apprentice?!That is so cool!Maybe I'll move to SkyClan now."he joked.Sprucepaw twitched his tail in greeting to Grasspaw.
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Hazeflight stared at Eagleheart coldly."I think you should leave Flamepaw alone,Eagleheart.He will make an excellent warrior and will probably be better than you.Not that's saying much."she meowed coldly flattening her ears.That's right play it off.Play off the looks you gave him.

Beetlepaw joined WindClan at the back, nervous. He passed Ashstar a scared glance before hurrying to get to his spot amongst the other medicine cats. He was alone there, well, there were other cats, but he felt very alone. Cindercloud was not here with him, he felt burning glanced onto his hunched back. Amomgst all the things swirling in his mind, he hoped that Ashstar would be better and able speak now without the anxiety clouding her mind.

He saluted Sparkpaw, a fellow medicine cat apprentice from ThunderClan, nervous. "Hey, it might seem strange that I know who you are, but Cindercloud told me about the other medicine cats. You must be Sparkpaw... right?"

"Let's meet tomorrow night, please?" He glanced around the clearing to see if any other cats were eavesdropping on them. The young she-cat was prettier than Blossoms in new-leaf.

Sparkpaw flicked an ear at the sound of a foreign voice. The tom smelt like WindClan, and he wasn't much younger than her. "Oh! Hello!" she grinned, slightly surprised but not daunted. In her eyes, this was merely an opportunity to make friends - and friends were never a bad thing, right? "Yeah, I'm Sparkpaw, medicine cat apprentice of ThunderClan! Nice to meet you." He'd said something about Cindercloud? Hmm, that could only mean...
"You're WindClan's new medicine cat apprentice, right? I heard you got your name only a few moons ago - congratulations!" The gray she-cat paused for a second, thinking. "What's your name?"

Amberpaw blinked then nodded slowly"alright that is fine with me"she mewed after a moments thought.

(omg they have the same dialogue color ♡)

Beetlepaw smiled, slightly awkward. The she-cat seemed friendly, and maybe her mentor was friendly, too, so he could ask for help if he ever needed. Training with the other medicine cats would be hard even so, as his clan was going through hard times after their defeat. The others might start suspecting he was sharing too much with the other clans...

"Aye, I'm Beetlepaw."

Icepaw turned away from Amberpaw and went back to his clan. The gathering would start soon!

Sparkpaw smiled. "Nice name!" The tom seemed friendly at least, and unlike him, she was scarcely awkward around others. Talkative, if anything, an electric personality like the beginnings of a fire. She hadn't gotten her name for no no reason. "What's been going on in WindClan lately? Nothing much in ThunderClan, not that I know of. We've been going alright so far this Leafbare."

Beetlepaw was at loss of words when the she-cat asked him about how WindClan was doing. Of course, she couldn't have known, and she was not in RiverClan either, but he felt like he shouldm't be telling her everything. But he did, necause he trusted her. "Been a fight, aye, bloody. We have two life-scared apprentices, Squirellpaw and Deerpaw... Smokepelt got his jaw broken... Cindercloud is gone... My brother is dead... Ashstar lost two lives... Lionfur betrayed us all..." he was soon at loss of words, teras rolling down his cheeks. Everyone was counting on him to be wise, but he was drugging the leader into a clear-headed state, stealing goatweed from RiverClan...

Sparkpaw's face melted into one of pure, genuine sympathy as the words came pouring out of Beetlepaw's mouth. How immature it seemed now, to be rambling on about her good fortune, when this was happening right across the forest? "Oh, great StarClan, I-I'm so sorry! Nobody deserves to go through that, not ever." She pressed closer to his side in an attempt to comfort the clearly distraught tom, wrapping her tail around him. basically a cat hug. "Y-you'll get through this. WindClan is strong, I know that as well as you do. You'll get through it, somehow. It's going to be okay," she mewed gently. This was the very least she could do.

Beetlepaw looked up gratefully at the gray she-cat which looks like Smokeface XD, genuinely enjoying her support. He pushed back his tears with new hope, trying to look as good as possible. He flashed around a glance to WindClan, slightly afraid of what his clanmates might be saying now as he was becoming such a good friend with Sparkpaw. Were they suspicious... afraid... angry?

"But the fight could not have been avoided... I have heard stories of Smokepelt's act of violence... breaking an apprentice's jaw... maybe getting his jaw broken was the way..." he said lightly, a ghostly smile on his muzzle. This would have produced so much pain in Ashstar's heart, but that was what goatweed was for, right...? In the end, it all resumes to hising our mistakes behind a veil of lies...


(Dunno bout you, but having Twitch here with her medie would have been great...)