May's Gathering 2017

Honeydrop laughed bitterly. "Sorry? You're s-sorry for what y-you've d-done? Oh, now th-that changes e-e-everything, doesn't it? Now my s-scars will magically h-heal, P-P-Puddlepaw will c-come back, and we'll all l-live together in h-harmony. It d-doesn't work that w-way, J-J-Jazz. Y-You m-may have joined B-B-Bear for safety, b-but that doesn't excuse w-what you've done. A-And if you think that j-joining SkyClan will ch-change who you are, then you're w-w-wrong." The golden dappled she-cat lowered her head closer to the former rogue, almost flaunting the scars on her face and throat. Her amber eyes were filled with a fire of hatred she'd never felt before. The words the ShadowClan medicine cat spoke were low and hoarse, but carried all the fierceness of spikes of ice piercing the she-cat's heart. "I can never move past what you rogues did to me. Stay away from me and Roaringpaw, you fox-heart. You will never be a Clan cat."

"Well, we didn't know that when they first arrived! They weren't clan cats, they didn't know the code.  They could've been rogues, like Bear and his gang, that would've attacked us.  Now we know though."  A slight hint of scorn in her voice, Laurelpaw relished in the moment that, for that moment, her knowledge put her above the tom she secretly despised.  The sound of padding paws from behind though, caught the young she-cat's attention.  Turning, she met face to face with one of the aforementioned Tribe cats.  Though two of their group had been welcomed into WindClan, Laurelpaw had not spent much time talking to them.  Now though, she felt a thrill of excitement rush through her mind; Maybe he'll tell me more about the Tribe and their old home!  With a friendly smile, Laurelpaw introduced herself.  "Hey there!  I'm Laurelpaw of WindClan, and these two are my friends Necterpaw, and Stonepaw."  Though calling Stonepaw a 'friend' made her want to hurl, she pointed to the toms respectively as she said their names.  "What's your name?"

Gorsepaw had caught wind of an argument between a newcomer in his Clan and some ShadowClan she-cat. His ears careened with interest. His eyes were filled with surprise and wonder. So much juicy gossip at Gatherings. What did Jazz do? he thought to himself, eyes filled with wonder. And who is Bear? He was obviously eavesdropping, what with his eyes trained on the two fighting she-cats and his ears aimed so that he could hear the slightest murmur in their conversation.

Screech of the Startled Eagle was startled when the grey and white she-cat whipped around and began to chatter with him as if they were kin. Flicking his large ears uncertainly, Screech stepped forwards towards the group as Laurelpaw introduced the respective cats within the group, his pale green eyes narrowing slightly as he observed each member. Laurel of Paws...Nectar of Paws...Stone of Paws...why did they all share such a bizarre naming trend? He resisted the urge to roll his eyes- clan cats were utterly impossible. Why would all the Kit-Mothers want their kits to share the same names? Where was their originality?

"Greetings, Laurel of Paws. I am Screech of the Startled Eagle." Screech murmured, aware of how thick his accent sounded in comparison to that of the Clan cats, dipping his head towards the smaller she-cat. "Although I am more often called Screech." He continued, extending his forepaw in a more formal greeting that hopefully made more sense to the she-cat. "If I understand correctly, you are also all To-Be's? Or how you say...apprentices?" He questioned lowly, testing the word apprentice carefully on his tongue- not enjoying the way that the word clung heavily to his tongue like feathers.

"Yeah! Hi Screech! We're apprentices, yeah. Are you an apprentice too? I mean, are you a To-Be too?" Nectarpaw said in his usual friendly manner. "And her name is Laurelpaw, not Laurel of Paws." Realizing after he said it how offencive that sounded, Nectarpaw tried to make up for it. "I mean, our names must sound really weird to you."

Roaringpaw's eyes popped out of his head as he watch the two she-cat's argument heat up further and further, showing how deep this hatred went. This cat, Jazz, must be linked to his mentor's scarred past. Looking at Honeydrop, he wondered if the time for her to tell him was coming close. But then chided himself for being so selfish. The medicine cat apprentice didn't want to her to relieve through the experience just for his sake, not if it hurts her. At the height of their spat, Roaringpaw rested his tail on his mentor's shoulder. "Mentor, I think we shouldn't test Starclan's anger anymore tonight. We should save this for another time."

Stonepaw nodded with slight confusion. How would a cat not know that they're apprentices? Isn't that what every cat in the wild does at their age, other than medicine cats? "Yeah, we're apprentices! But," he looked at the cat with a puzzled expression. "What are To-Be's?" He hadn't ever heard of such a term before.

Rowanpaw had stayed silent throughout this exchange. Although he stayed close to Honeydrop, he shot Jazz an apologetic look as they walked away. Not for the first time was the tom grateful that the fact that he was rouge-born wasn't well-known.

Honeydrop couldn't believe her ears. "You're making me out to be the villain? I'm not the one who kidnapped innocent cats! You can't tell me to leave- I'm Clan-born. I'm not a rogue like you. No, you get out of my sight, Jazz. I may be a medicine cat, but I swear, if you harm Roaringpaw, you won't have a life to be worried about!" Breathing heavily, the ShadowClan medicine cat turned to her apprentice. "Y-You're right, R-R-Roaringpaw. Come on- l-let's go s-somewhere you'll be s-s-safe." Shooting the rogue one last venomous glare, she ushered the tom away with her tail. "I w-want you to p-p-promise me something, R-Roaringpaw. Promise me you'll stay far, far away from that- that cat." Her voice was low and serious.

Rowanpaw shuffled his paws awkwardly as the she-cats continued to argue. He shot Bouncepaw a helpless look.

Jazz growled in anger as Honeydrop ushered away her apprentice and told him to stay away from her. Running in front of her to stop her, she spat, "Since when does me being in the area make it unsafe?! Am I a fox? A badger? Maybe I'm an eagle now. Do I look like one? I'm just a cat, for Starclan's sake! I'm perfectly fine with you leaving, better than fine even. But I'm not going to stand it if you pull away everyone I interact with because I'm dangerous or something, you little witch." staring into the golden she-cat's face, she suppressed the urge to claw her ears off her head. "You know, I see a similarity from you to the cats that killed my family," she calmly, and maliciously, spoke, "They looked all sweet on the outside, but they're just cold hearted rats on the inside. Actually, now that I think about it, judging by the way you're treating me for an innocent mistake in my past, you don't have any heart at all, do you? And you say that you can boss me around all you want because you're a clan cat and a medicine cat, huh?! As far as I could tell, your Clans couldn't have been around forever, and before that, your ancestors were rogues themselves, so aren't we all the same? And aren't you threatening to kill me right here, huh? That seems nothing like a Clan cat, especially a medicine cat at a Gathering. You're the one being dangerous here."  She glared deep into Honeydrop's yellow-orange eyes, almost complete twins to hers. She could feel her claws scraping the earth, and her tail was standing erect and was bushed out.

~

Swanpaw noticed what seemed like an argument between what looked like Jazz and some Shadowclan cat. Interested, she peered closer to see if anything would happen.

Honeydrop halted in her tracks as Jazz darted in front of her, snarling something about how horrible she was, calling her a rat, likening her to the cats who murdered her family. Moving in front of Roaringpaw protectively, her amber eyes glared into the rogue's. "T-Trying to keep my a-apprentice s-safe from a r-r-rogue hardly constitutes m-murdering cats, J-J-Jazz. Given what y-your kind d-d-did to me, you c-can consider yourself l-lucky that I d-didn't shred you to p-pieces i-immediately. And y-you have n-no idea w-w-what I'm like, s-so you have n-no r-right to call m-me a rat. H-How can you c-call deliberately i-i-imprisoning me in that h-horrible place and helping B-B-B-Bear hurt me an 'innocent m-m-mistake?' Y-You have no i-idea w-what I've b-b-been through, you f-f-fox-heart. You're j-just as j-judgemental as I am. B-But let me tell you, I'm n-not the one causing t-t-trouble here. I-I'm not th-the one who s-s-started this, but I'm t-trying to end it. Run b-back to your S-SkyClan friends and l-leave me a-a-alone. N-Never come near R-Roaringpaw and me a-again. I w-want no part in this a-a-argument." The ShadowClan medicine calmly moved past the rogue, nudging Roaringpaw to move quicker, heart beating. She didn't know what she'd do if that fox-heart tried to attack her. She was pregnant, for StarClan's sakes. But she knew one thing. She would never let her apprentice go through what she had to, even if it cost her her life.

Echopaw looked over to where she heard hissing confusion in her mind as she thought this was supposed to be a peaceful gathering, but she guess not. Looking over she saw a cat she has never seen before and Honeydrop hissing at the she-cat. Making her way over to them out of curiosity she saw Roaringpaw was there Honeydrop pushing him behind her. Her eyes widened she hurried over to them, even if there was a weird vibe going on between them two they still were siblings. "What is going on here?" She asked loudly really directing her voice towards Honeydrop and Roaringpaw.

Honeydrop let out a tiny gasp of pain as Jazz's claws caught onto her tail. She had a sudden flashback of Wolffang chasing her across the marshes, desperately running, but the rogue catching onto her haunches with her claws and overpowering her. As the former rogue she-cat continued some rant about how much worse her life was than Honeydrop's, the ShadowClan medicine cat turned around, glaring at her with cold disdain. "You've j-just proved my p-p-point about why you're d-dangerous, you f-f-fox-heart. If th-there's one thing I-I've learned from all m-my p-pain, it's that no r-r-rogues can ever b-be t-trusted. No m-matter what p-p-problems you think you've b-been through, I can a-assure you, nothing you could d-d-do to me would be w-worse than what I've e-experienced. Now g-get off my tail." As the she-cat ran off, apparently crying, Honeydrop let out a slight exhale of relief, and then collapsed. The whole fight had taken too much energy for a scarred, pregnant cat to take and now she was completely exhausted. But at least Roaringpaw was safe from that fox-heart. I'll be watching you, Jazz.