March Gathering 2020

One by one, the leaders forged on through their announcements. Deciding to watch them rather than the increasingly ominous skies, Raventail peeled himself away from the Great Rock. He couldn’t stop himself from categorizing each answer. Flintstar and Wolfcall would follow the code. Oakstar would continue as he had been, citing Mossbloom (here, Raventail tried and failed to locate her calico pelt in the crowd) as one of his many reasons. Ivystar’s expression remained inscrutable. What she made of Torrentstar’s death or StarClan’s apparent wrath, he couldn’t say. At least she’d gotten her answers. The Clans couldn’t afford to fight each other now.

Finchstar was last to step forward. No trace of last moon’s illness tugged him down. His words lingered in the clearing for a heartbeat; two; three. The ensuing silence was tense like the kind that came after a line of monsters had gone roaring and spitting down the Thunderpath—as if every living creature in the forest was holding its breath, terrified of being seen. Raventail knew how a declaration of war sounded in the warm tones of his friend’s voice. This wasn’t far from it. If StarClan chose to be beasts, WindClan would stand against them to the end.

With a searing flash and a rumble as if Fourtrees was being wrenched apart, the clouds opened up. The onslaught of rain succeeded where Raventail’s previous attempts had failed; as his ears plastered themselves against his skull, his bristling pelt finally went flat. His paws refused to move—which, seeing as most of him wanted to bolt for the trees or scramble up the Great Rock to squash himself in between the leaders, was probably for the best. His head had been spinning for most of the night, but this, he knew. Aside from the Tallrock and Outlook Rock, there wasn’t much to climb on the moor. They had to go back. The camp—

Distantly, he watched Ivystar pause beside Flintstar before leaping down to lead her Clan home. Her pace was no more hurried than one would expect from a cat caught in a rainstorm, of course. This was one night of rain, not a moon’s worth. The camp was fine—for now. Raventail’s heart quieted just enough for him to think around it. He shook his head until something rattled between his still-flattened ears and looked up, searching for Finchstar, wishing he could make the fear in his own eyes feel a little less sharp.

---

A dazzling orange light sprang down, accompanied by a roll of thunder as loud as the Gorge, and then someone overturned an entire river onto Fourtrees. At least, that was how it felt. Snowpaw squinted upward until a raindrop nearly hit him in the eye. This couldn’t be normal—even as a kit, he would’ve noticed if it’d rained like this on the nights when the camp was emptiest. What could’ve caused it, though? ”What happened?” he meowed to no one in particular; frankly, he doubted he’d hear the answer over the ringing in his ear. Maybe he should’ve paid attention to the leaders…

Here and there, his Clanmates (all soaked to the bone; dismayed, he realized he was no better) were turning away from the Great Rock. They reached the clearing’s edge in a cluster, with Ivystar walking at its head. Snowpaw waved his tail in farewell to the stranger and her squished muzzle, and hurried off to rejoin his Clan. He'd solve that mystery once he got home—assuming there was even a mystery to solve. They'd had storms in the forest before, right?

When Finchstar stepped up, Clovertwist saw only a grin on his leader's face. He knew the fire in Finchstar's eyes, though; he'd grown up and trained beneath the tom's guidance. Finchstar oftened glowed in the face of a challenge, and within the WindClan leader's first few words he made his challenge clear. He believed that StarClan no longer respected the living. Clovertwist's tabby face held a grim expression, but he sat tall to watch the proceeding and listen with a growing apprehension. He had expected nothing less, but he'd sort of hoped that Finchstar would've been more careful about declaring things like this after what happened between Aspenheart and Softpaw. Finchstar was his leader, though, and through Clovertwist's fear, he knew it was his duty to support him. Perhaps the young tom even... agreed... to some extent.

As it turned out, StarClan despised this declaration more than Clovertwist could've guessed. When the world froze and went silent, the WindClan tom did the same, feeling an unnerving prickle crawl up his spine. He knew it was unnatural; the feeling was like a paw hovering over him waiting to crush him like a vole. The next moment the sky was red and clouded, and a bolt of lightning struck threateningly close to the cats gathered in the hollow. As it struck, Clovertwist leaped to his paws with fear, letting out a short cry of alarm. He immediately began locating his kin in the clearing. A moment later it was as if the sky cracked open, and rain flooded down in a relentless, pelting torrent. Clovertwist, with his thin WindClan pelt, was drenched in a heartbeat. His kinked tail began to ache almost immediately in the cold as his skin prickled.

"Oh, pleeeeaaaase don't get any worse," Clovertwist muttered under his breath as he glanced around the darkening clearing. RiverClan and ShadowClan were already preparing to depart to avoid any more damage. Clovertwist felt too anxious to look at Finchstar, but his eyes drifted to his leader anyways, a look of dismay and helplessness on his face.

---

As if it couldn't get any worse, the next leader to speak was Finchstar - the leader of Dacedream's mother's new Clan. She had always admired his grace and determination, but as he spoke a veiled threat against StarClan she couldn't help but gasp and prickle and look at him with dismay. Does all of WindClan believe that? What about momma? Dacedream scanned the clearing with worry, wondering, Where is she? I... I haven't seen her in so long...

Distracted by her thoughts, she was alerted to an eery, unnatural silence that pierced the night. Dacedream's ears flattened as a feeling of alarm spread over her. The next moment the sky split with lightning, and Dacedream squeaked, ducking down to press harder into Duskrain. Then the rain began, drenching all the cats not under cover - and soon all of them, as well, as the downpour broke through the canopy of trees. The water took a moment to break through Dacedream's thick and half-oiled RiverClan pelt, but she was a ThunderClan cat now and was soon soaked and heavy with rain. She looked at Oakstar for direction, leaning into Duskrain for protection and comfort.

Oakstar listened quietly to his companions on the rock. Uncertainty filled him for a moment as Finchstar spoke. While the other leader wasn’t wrong in some points… he wasn’t sure about everything. Starclan usually had a reason, Oakstar believed in that. He always had, but it seemed as though Finchstar didn’t. His jaws parted to speak, but silence reigned. So profound that he paused, and stopped to listen. On a normal night, there was some sound… but tonight?

A massive cracking sound, and the roar of thunder told him all he needed to know. Clear skies were suddenly covered in thick clouds, and the rain poured heavy onto his pelt as he blinked his amber eyes to clear it. He watched as his fellow leaders pelts filled with rain and felt… odd. Why did Starclan not want them to discuss it. It was confusing, alarming, and there was only one thing he could do.

Look after his clan.

He turned his gaze to Mossbloom, then to the other leaders. Only to watch them begin to descend as the gathering was clearly over.

"This gathering is over! Thunderclan, head home!" he yowled over the din of the storm. He leapt down from High rock. A glance at the clanmates as they gathered around him before he headed off into the forest. Away from the biting cold winds, snow and rain.