February Gathering 2017

Honeydrop purred at her friend. It was nice to see the SkyClan medicine cat so excited about something for a change. "Congratulations, Rabbitfoot! Yoiu deserve it! I knew you'd get your name soon! StarClan, it's great to see you." She shook out her golden dappled fur. "I have a new apprentice, Puddlepaw. She's the best apprentice I could ask for." She featured towards the small medicine cat apprentice, already off in her own conversations. The ShadowClan she-cat winced suddenly- she had gestured with her twisted paw. "Oh, and do you have any more cobweb? We're fresh out. Beetlepaw's looking for herbs too," she meowed hurriedly, trying to distract from her temporary moment of weakness.

Littlebrook smiled warmly as her daughter, Ambernose, joined them. "Hey Ambernose." The small warrior greeted the newer warrior. She was about to say something else, when movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Her blue gaze moved to rest on her mate. "Lightningstrike." She purred affectionately. "How's SkyClan doing?" She meowed, eyes bright with happiness.

Silentstorm turned to greet his sister as she joined them. "Ambernose. Nice of you to finally join us." He teased playfully, a loving glint in his green eyes. His mother's voice saying the familiar name of his father made him turn towards her. "Dad! It's nice to see you again." He meowed, deep voice coated in cheerfulness, emerald gaze glancing towards his sister and mother.

Sandybreeze startled when Jaypaw approached and spoke to her. "Oh! Jaypaw, hello." She meowed, regaining her composure. "I'm fine. How are you? How's training going?" The cream dappled she-cat responded, genuinely curious of how the older apprentices training was going. It couldn't be long now that she'd get her warrior name.

Fawnsplash padded in to Fourtrees behind Vixenheart, eyes scanning the crowd of her clanmates for Breezewhisker. When she found him she smiled and started her ways towards him, but her gaze seemed worried for her mate. He seemed to be in a not so great mood lately and it troubled her. "Hey Breezewhisker." She purred, greeting the grey warrior. "Are you alright?" She asked, troubled green eyes searching his.

"R-Rabbitfoot!" squealed Bouncepaw excitedly, shooting to his paws. He beamed with pride, as if he were the she-cat's own mentor. He nodded, as if he could say nothing more.

Finchpaw purred, rubbing her head affectionately against her mother's shoulder. Sitting down, she decided to wait with her parents until the meeting started. Paws shuffling impatiently, her yellow eyes glimmered with excitement.

~~~

"Oh, hey Vipertail!" For a moment she wondered if her cousin had noticed her hurried rush to the front of the crowd, and felt her muscles tense. After she had encountered the she-cat one her way out to see Bouncepaw she was worried Vipertail had grown suspicious of her.

Pushing away the distressing thoughts, she sat down and licked a paw, drawing it causally over her ears. "So, are you excited to be announced as a warrior? You're so lucky, it feels like I've been an apprentice forever."" Finishing with an impatient huff, she waited for her cousin to respond, resisting the temptation to glance over at Bouncepaw.

Lichenpaw smiled and then blinked looking to the windclan cat before back to Leopardpaw. Despite him not speaking to her since Grasswhisker's death,she didn't mind and was often just hanging around him if he ever did want to talk. She looked at the windclan apprentice again"hello...."she mewed calmly her gray ginger and white tail flicked before wrapping around her paws.

Ambernose smiled some and flicked her tail before she blinking looking to her father as he came over.

Eagleheart quickly picked up on his daughter's less than thrilled attitude at his appearance and narrowed his eyes. He listened to her speak quickly about her training and nodded his head as she spoke. Hazeflight has probably been poisoning my kits minds about me, He concluded with darkening eyes, Well, if Puddlepaw doesn't want to speak to me, so be it. After his kit finished, he meowed flatly, "I'm glad to hear it, Puddlepaw. I can't wait to see your progress." The tom gave a curt "good-bye" nod and padded off to sit with his clanmates.

***

"Congratulations!" Rippedsky exclaimed as he heard the news of Twistedtail's warrior name. It was good to finally hear that she had joined him in the warrior ranks. News of how things were doing in Windclan also made him happy. Most of his discomfort around his birthclan was gone, and he was glad to hear they were doing well.

As Cherrymist came over to join them, Rippedsky flicked her lightly and affectionately with with his tail tip. Instead of saying anything, he gave her a quick nod and smile in response. Then to Twistedtail, "This is my mate, Cherrymist. Cherrymist, this is one of my kithood friends, Twistedtail." He hoped that the two she-cats would get along. They were both pretty amazing cats, and big parts of his life, even if from different parts of his life.

***

Wolfpaw's ears flattened and she whipped around to meet the eyes of some random Skyclan cat. His tone was egotistical and ridiculous. Her first thought was, He's going to frighten the other cat further! And the second was, Skyclan is finally here. Either way she was annoyed with this stranger and a hiss escaped her throat, "Now, I don't know who you are, who Addergaze is, or why you're talking to me, but I'm currently in a conversation right now." Her claws dug into the ground in frustration and she went to turn back to Ryepaw.

However, before the she-cat could speak or apologize to the Windclan apprentice for the interruption, yet another cat was speaking to her. Before the snarl rising in her throat could escape, she recognized Frostpaw, her mentor's other apprentice. There was curiosity and a bit of concern in his voice which concerned her.

"What is it, Frostpaw?" Aggravation was evident in her words and she sighed, "I'm just trying to talk to some cat who isn't in Shadowclan for a moment." She hoped he would be brief, whatever it was, so she could finally just speak to the Windclan tom.

Copperpaw arrived at the gathering with the rest of his clan and his mentor. He usually wasn't shy or nervous, but he had never seen so many cats and they were all, except for his own clan, stranger cats to him. After a few minutes, Copperpaw would open up and be like he normally is he just has to get used to his surroundings. "Can I talk to other clans?" Copperpaw asked Smokestripe

Smokestripe blinked in surprise as Copperpaw spoke up, glancing over at his apprentice with a smile. There was a chuckle as he shook his head. "Go ahead, Copperpaw, no need to task permission for me! Talking to the other Clans and learning what is going on is what this night is all about! Go have fun and make some new friends, alright?" he said with a grin.

Larksong glanced over at the apprentice that Smokestripe had taken under his paw, her tail curled tightly around her paws. With ThunderClan - along with the other Clans - having arrived, she felt more on edge. While she knew there was only a single cat to blame for what had happened with Blazeflight, she still felt it so easy to simply dislike the Clan as a whole...But Smokestripe had a point - it was a night of talking to the other Clans and learning what was happening. A time for peace. Sighing softly, she allowed her fur to relax slightly as she glanced around. At least none of the other Clans were bothering yet...But hopefully this gathering would start soon.

Hearing an unfamiliar voice, Ryepaw didn't move and kept himself pressed against Hazefur, continuing to keep his eyes shut. Although he was perfectly aware that he looked like a scared kit, he could bring himself to look up from his mother's fur. Who knew who was talking to him, it could've been some scary RiverClan cat!

With his curiosity getting the best of him, he slightly turned his head and opened an eye, but upon seeing the unfamiliar cat, let out a soft squeak and quickly turned his head back to his mother, pressing it against her side once more. Social inept to realize that Wolfpaw simply wanted conversation, the deformed tom kept quiet, still not daring to speak. So much for attempting to be somewhat social.

~~~~~~

Padding into the clearing, Mudfoot wondered what the night would be like and looked around the gathering cats. Spotting Wolfpaw and Frostpaw trying to talk to some WindClan cats, he let out a soft chuckle, glad she was trying to be social towards cats other than her own clan. Making his way over to the she-cat, he let out a soft purr and rested his tail on her rump to tell her that she was there. The little WindClan cat looked more like a kit than apprentice and he wondered if they were letting kits into the gatherings now. I wouldn't doubt it.

"Yay!" Copperpaw said excitedly before going off to visit with the other apprentices. He padded over to Finch paw and said "Hi, who are you?" "I'm Copperpaw from ShadowClan. "

Shadepaw walked slowly into the four trees area as she was shy with all of these strange cats around. She had never seen so many cats in one place before. She didn't have anyone to talk to so she just sat quietly waiting for this gathering to start. She had no idea what to expect.

Venompaw was struggling, too uncomfortable on her own, so decided she should talk to someone, to at least make it look like she was participating in the Gathering. Glancing around, she quickly spotted a she-cat about her own age sitting not too far away. Sighing, she approached Shadepaw and meowed confidently
"I'm Venompaw, of Shadowclan! Who're you?" she sat down next to her. It would be useful to know people in other clans and besides, she didn't seem too threatening. Yet, anyway, although a lot could change by the time she became a warrior. Still, only a better reason to introduce herself

Quailfeather's heart stopped as Silentpaw suddenly became serious. Is... Is he about to ask what I think he's supposed to ask? "Yes?" she responded, trying to hide her excitement, blue eyes hopeful as they gazed lovingly into Silentpaw's.

Breezewhisker blinked as his mate walked up to him, worry in her beautiful voice. He realized that he had been sort of distant lately, always brooding on his hatred of Rippedsky, but he hadn't known that Fawnsplash had noticed. He still loved her, certainly, he had just been in a stormy mood and probably no one had wanted to approach him. "What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," he meowed with a smile, sweeping his gray tabby tail over his paws.

Jaypaw smiled at Sandybreeze, genuinely hopin gthat a simple and mundane conversation about the state of the Clans and eachother could help the still grieving queen to go over her sadness. The apprentice realized with a hint of surprise that she had been, indeed, training for many moons now, but helping around with Beetlepaw sometimes took her mind of those kind of things. "It's been almost six moons now! I think that next moon I'll be meeting with the other Clans under a new name." she announced with a deep purr, thinking with delight upon being called by Ashstar and announced her new name. Even with my stumpy tail, I'll be the very best warrior WindClan has ever seen! she thought proudly. "But I'm worried that I'll never find someone..." se meowed, and the apprentice thought with a twitch of her whiskers whether Sandybreeze understood of what 'someone' she was talking about. Spinning around uselessly, she had discovered that there was no tom in WindClan to pass her a glance more than a fellow Clanmate. Maybe they all think me and Beetlepaw are still in love... she thought with a pang of regret.

~~

Cherrymist purred dryly as Rippedsky announced their mateship. The thought of him announcing that without hesitation to a former Clanmate gave her a true heart-lift, and the blind she-cat lifted her head slightly, so it would no longer be tilted downwards in dismay, but level and a small smile stretched upon her liver-colored muzzle. "Nice to meet you, Twistedtail." she meowed to the she-cat curtly, in a sharp but polite manner. Being blind sometimes made it hard for Cherrymist to be overly-trustfull with cats from different Clans, as they put her senses off. That was partly the reason that she had been so against her mate and the two former ShadowClan toms at the beginning. Partly, she was also afraid that her fathr was becoming too upset to deal with all of those other cats and he was more burdened by how he saw the actions of the other Clans.

Frostpaw hesitated, shocked as Wolfpaw snapped at him. It was normal for her to be moody, but what she had said bothered him, was she really so sick of ShadowClan as to be disloyal? He began to speak slowly, unsure of how to approach this. "Wolfpaw, I heard some things just now. Your not full ShadowClan, and that is fine as long as your loyalties lay with us. But do they? Sometimes it seems you don't like our Clan at all." He gave her a challenging stare.