June Gathering 2020

Crowspirit stiffened as the other tom muttered under his breath. He had a lot of nerve to say something like that, when WindClan had taken the brunt of the suffering from the Righteous Few, and had still stood strong. To insult WindClan was to insult Finchstar, Ravenstar, him. Redfall tried to carry on as if he didn’t think Crowspirit had heard, but the older tom fluffed up his fur, taking a step forward. “You want to say that to my face, rat? Easy for you to talk, seeing as you didn’t even fight in the battle where so many cats proved they have spines.”

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Ravenmist gave a light chuckle, tail flicking once. Olivestone shifted once she was done speaking, and the RiverClan apprentice was there, so she stayed silent, leaving them free to speak.

The ginger tabby scowled. Obviously Crowspirit hadn't seen him. "Who are you calling a rat? I was there. I saw my Clanmates wounded with my own eyes. I stayed, for better or worse, and I did it knowing that I could get punished for doing so." It wasn't like SkyClan didn't get the plague! It wasn't like we weren't punished! We just happened to follow the code, unlike every other Clan. Of course, he wasn't going to mention that he had only stayed to protect Swansong, and had still regretted that he'd stayed...

...but Crowspirit didn't need to know that.

Upon Mistpaw's request for him to stay, Bloodpaw nodded. Of course he'd stay close to her! He did a slow, scanning gaze at the rest of the cats in the gathering, just to be sure no one was crouching toward them. It seemed fine for now, though he agreed with his sister. The tension was getting to him too. Forgive me, Starclan, but these gatherings seem to be a bad idea. Can't we do something different? Bloodpaw almost never addressed Starclan, rarely even said prayers, but today he had a serious question. If they never answered him, fine, but at least he tried. He happened to overhear a lot of different conversations going on, some of which rose more questions that he'd like to have answered at some point.

Upon hearing the slightly heated exchange between Redfall and Crowspirit, Bloodpaw's head snapped in their direction and his hackles and tail bristled. Every muscle in his body tensed and he lowered himself into a crouch, ready to spring behind the Windclan warrior and try to injure his hind legs so he couldn't move as fast. Speed.... Windclan's only claim to fame... dared claim that Skyclan had no spine?

What a mousebrain! What good is he good for besides running? Arrogant tom! He should have been named Crowfood! His anger had been white hot for several heartbeats, but he realized that his emotions were taking him over and he stopped himself. He drew in a sharp, rattling breath as his body shook with fury. He liked Redfall.... he had fond memories of the russet warrior... but as he chilled himself out, Bloodpaw reminded himself that Redfall had insulted the Windclan warrior first, even if he had tried to do it sneakily.

I've got to calm down... I shouldn't be here.... Mistpaw shouldn't be here... Fourtrees can be turned into thunderpaths for all I care! Mistpaw's voice entered his head at that moment and Bloodpaw looked at her for a moment. He had to gather himself back up and resumed a normal, though defensive stance once more.

"Training is going great..." He spoke a little hastily, though he didn't mean to. His memory flashed back to when he caught his first squirrel. He hadn't told Mistpaw about that.... Dad couldn't climb trees? What???

"He can't? Really? He watched me chase a squirrel up a tree and catch it. I even jumped from one tree branch to a different tree's branch and still caught it. He didn't mention not being able to climb.... he's in Skyclan for crying out loud!" He chuckled a little at the thought, more so in jest than any sort of condescending tone. His anger from early had dimmed down to a small candle flame rather than the raging wildfire that it had been a second ago. It was good to talk to Mistpaw. She always helped him be the best part of himself.

His eyes traveled again around the clearing, wishing they could start this.

"Let's get away from these two before I do something dumb."He said only half-jokingly, nodding toward Redfall and Crowspirit. He slowly started to pad away from them, trying to get them out of earshot. He didn't want to move so fast that Mistpaw couldn't follow though. He decided to try to just focus on maybe... trying to get Mistpaw to come out of her shell a bit. Apparently, Windclan wasn't fond of Skyclan. Fine. But what about the other clans? He looked around and saw plenty of other apprentice-aged cats around, but he was going to let Mistpaw pick who to talk to. he was just going to follow her around and keep her safe.

"We better do our duty Mistpaw... who should we talk to first?"

Mistpaw giggled, nodding. “Foxfire was dad’s mentor! He told me that we could make Dad jealous because Foxfire never really taught Dad how to climb trees.” As Bloodpaw suggested to move away, Mistpaw blinked, slightly confused, before following her brother’s gaze towards two toms. She knew Redfall...but the other cat wasn’t familiar to her. With a small sniff, she caught a whiff of moor scent. WindClan? It seemed as if things weren’t going really well with the two toms, so Mistpaw nodded. She knew that Bloodpaw would defend Redfall if Crowspirit did anything...and she didn’t want her younger brother to get hurt. When Bloodpaw asked her who they should talk to first, Mistpaw frowned and looked around. “Maybe...her?” She pointed her tail towards a rather sad-looking she-cat who smelled of ThunderClan. She was cream-colored, with a brown tail tip and big, round sapphire eyes. The ThunderClan she-cat was rather...alone. Lost in thought. “She seems sad, Bloodpaw. I wonder what happened to her? We could get some answers too.”

((Mistpaw is mentioning towards Willowheart of ThunderClan.))
((Frostpaw is at camp. She doesn’t want to come to the Gathering as she is a little bit frightened to.))

Smallbean practically jumped when he heard another cat approaching him. He looked over to see a brown tabby she-cat who seemed to be Thunderclan. "Hey uh- I'm Smallbean." he murmured, turning away. He really didn't want to converse with anyone and he was starting to wish he'd stayed back at camp. He glanced back at Cedarheart, putting on a smile. He didn't want to be rude after all, and maybe this cat could keep him company. "How are things in Thunderclan?"

Cedarheart watched the tom become very nervous, and started to walk away slowly. But he turned back around, and she returned closer. ”I’m Cedarheart.” She was impressed that he could tell she was from Thunderclan, but he was a warrior, and he did smell distinctly Windclan to her. ”Well, it’s been pretty crazy. My leader’s daughter took one of his lives, but then she died. And my mentor was punished, she’s technically an apprentice now.” she took a deep breath in. ”And my best friend, Stormpaw, left the clan.” she said. She hadn’t me at to rant to this stranger, he probably didn’t even want to talk to her. ”What about you? How’s Windclan?” she asked in return.

Bloodpaw followed Mistpaw's gaze and his eyes landed on a she-cat that looked like she also didn't want to be here. Bloodpaw did not think she looked sad so much as on edge, but he wasn't going to correct his sister. He simply nodded and slowly padded up to the lone she-cat. The smell coming off of her was forest-like, like Skyclan, but she certainly wasn't a Skyclan cat. So Thunderclan.

A neighboring clan member... time to see how this would go.

"Hi," he began carefully with a polite dip of the head. "This is our first gathering." he nodded his head toward Mistpaw to include her as well. "I'm Bloodpaw and this is my sister, Mistpaw... we're from Skyclan."

He tried to look optimistic, but he tensed a bit saying Skyclan. He got the vibe they may not be well-liked and he had heard what Crowspirit said earlier. He knew next to nothing of the last gathering. Perhaps the Thunderclan warrior could shed some light on why everyone was so tense.

Bloodpaw is talking to Willowheart

Willowheart turned, slightly surprised. Her gaze softened as she gazed at two younger apprentices. “Willowheart.” Staring at the two, her memories immediately fleeted back to Moonpaw...light. Moonlight. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Willowheart smiled at the two. “Nice to see you both. I’m sorry you have to experience such negativity. Things have...not been...going well for...many cats.” Her voice cracked and she choked on her last sentence. Willowheart thought about her mentor, again. Then her friend, Moonlight. Then Rainstrike. Blizzardpaw’s mentor. Her friends mentor. Then the Righteous—no. I’m not thinking about the past anymore. I don’t want to anymore.

Mistpaw noticed something rather off about this she-cat. Not in a negative way...she seemed like she was grieving? Concern darkened her eyes. Now she was just even more curious about what had happened in the last Gathering. “Uh...Willowheart...um...what happened in the last Gathering?” Mistpaw stammered quietly, shrinking back slightly at her outburst. Wow, so straightforward, Mistpaw. Can’t you see she’s grieving? You totally had to go and do that, didn’t you? Trying again, Mistpaw said, “Well...most of the warriors and elder apprentices seem rather tense so...”

Josteled awake by gentle paws, the medicine cat apprentice's pale eyes flashed open and she looked looked around in alarm, panic evident in her unsheathed short claws and her bristling pelt. However, at the sight of a peaceful and content Gethering, as if should be, she softened, relaxing her pelt, her claws sheathing as quickly as they had unsheathed.

"Huh, what? Oh, Daisybloom, I- sorry, it'sjust.. I've been stressed is all, thank you for waking me. Uhm, how are... How are you? Is everything well?" She asked, a bit too eager to change the subject from her and her wellbeing. She was fine, just a bit tired. After all, everything needed to be perfect for her exhibition. Abd it had to be secret, so night was the only sensible hours to do it.

Daisybloom watched with concern. The she-cat seemed overworked. Honestly, that was understandable. Many Windclan cats had fought, and many had probably been injured. Aspenheart and Softpaw probably had a lot of work. But she was relieved to see her up and running. ”It’s alright, I get it.” she mewed, her blue eyes soft and light-hearted. ”I’m alright.” she said. Although it was an apparent lie. ”Not really... she took a deep breath in. ”My sister, one of my only two siblings left, and the closest one, by far...she left Thunderclan.” she said quietly, her eyes gazing at the ground.

The conversation fell into a lull for several moments after Clovertwist's comment about peace, and he sat for a moment waiting for something to happen to get things moving again. Thankfully, ThunderClan came to the rescue for that: the forest-dwelling Clan arrived at last, led by a particularly bedraggled-looking Oakstar. Clovertwist hummed in surprise and turned to mention it to his apprentice and their companions. He realized, however, that Redfall - the SkyClan tom - had stood and nodded, preparing to leave the discussion. "Take care, Redfall, it was good to meet you," Clovertwist meowed after him, though he was certain the statement had fallen on deaf ears. He huffed and mumbled, "Why does SkyClan always have to be so grumpy?"

Well, it didn't matter. Not really. Swallowflight hadn't been like that - he was the first, and possibly the only, SkyClan cat he'd ever met who knew how to make a friend and laugh at a joke. Clovertwist missed his friend and the short-lived friendship they had. Clovertwist glanced at Fernpaw and Eaglepaw and stated, "Well, uh, hopefully since Oakstar and the rest of ThunderClan have arrived, we can start soon. The sooner it starts the sooner we can all go back home, huh?" He chuckled a little.

"That s-sounds... very eventful. I'm sorry for the d-disappearance of your friend, she was probably very dear to you."  He meowed with a sad tone. He had no idea what Thunderclan was going through. Windclan hadn't had nearly as much trouble after the battle as they had. Now was to answer Cedarheart's question. " Windclan's okay- i g-guess. Things aren't so great for me though. M-my mate died while kitting not t-too long after the battle. But a few good things happened, i got m-my first apprentice, Heatherpaw, and of course my d-daughter, Wildpaw, was born." Just think about Larkflight made him sad. She was everything to him, but he didn't want to dampen the mood, so he changed the topic. "So- do you have an apprentice?"

Being congratulated on leadership left him with a twisting feeling he couldn’t place. The sympathy in Oakstar’s expression soothed some of the sting, though, and when Ravenstar murmured his thanks, he meant it. During his time near (now on) the Great Rock, he’d learned the forest’s leaders and deputies could be civil, even friendly, with each other, but conversations rarely got personal outside of things that had to be announced anyway. For all his concern, he had been expecting a diplomatic answer. Now, he watched in horror as the oldest leader in the forest hunched in on himself.

It hadn’t been the Righteous Few who’d killed Oakstar that night. The truth was, impossibly, worse. Ravenstar couldn’t imagine himself or Dappleshine turning their claws against Fogpaw, much less what he’d be willing to hear in the aftermath—yet Oakstar and his mate had gone through exactly that. The rest wasn’t much better. Ravenstar swallowed. ”Oakstar,” he began, aiming for a comforting tone. His ears fell. Though he’d never been forced to hurt his own kits, he knew what it was to lose them; the weight bowing Oakstar’s shoulders was something he couldn’t hope to lift. On top of that, he’d never lived in ThunderClan; he couldn’t assume they functioned the same way WindClan did. He was out of line and out of his depth. But he’d asked. He had to try. ”I…I’m so sorry.” Ravenstar leaned over to brush his shoulder against Oakstar’s, aware this, too, was probably crossing a line. ”Your other daughter—I could keep an eye out for her, if she goes to the moor.” He considered his mismatched paws where they pressed against the cool stone. ”I don’t know the whole story. What I do know is, you've led ThunderClan this far. If they didn’t still trust you, they wouldn’t be here right now.”

Ivystar huffed and settled down in her spot, neatly placing her feathery tail over her paws. When Flintstar approached, she kept her eyes locked on the rock in front of her. She traced the score marks with her eyes, listening closely to what he had to say. Finally, when he finished his question, she looked up to meet his bright yellow eyes. "I... Yes, there's... A few. My mate, Honeytongue, is his daughter. And... We have kits." She said, suddenly very aware of her slightly protruding belly. Of course, the two kits they had together were adopted... Her mind shifted to the litter growing in her womb. They weren't related to Honeytongue and Stormbringer by blood, but they were going to mother the kits together, just like they did with Spiderquill and Ashpaw. "Does his family in ShadowClan wish to meet them?" She asked, knowing that it was a possibility. She wasn't entirely sure how possible that might be with a litter on the way, but... If the timing worked out, surely it wouldn't be a huge problem. They were family, after all.