April Gathering 2023

Kestrelchirp strode to the clearing proudly. As soon as his paws hit the land of the Gathering, his eyes started scanning for his new friends from last time. He wanted to see if they got their names too. As he spotted the pair already talking, Kestrelchirp caught the tail end of Thrushpaw's question. "Kestrelpaw? Don't know him. I have seen a Kestrelchirp, though." He said with a small chuckle, joining the other two more formally in a little triangle shape. "Do you two have new names as well?"

Kestrelchirp is catching up with Thrush and Falcon.

Burdockroot had immediately gone to the medicine cat huddle and sat in her usual distant way. Glancing at Smokestep, a new apprentice, she only huffed before turning back to stare at Nightstar. He was not going on the rock...

Burdockroot is being Burdockroot.

Flutterpetal wasn't having any luck finding either his brother or his friend. Maybe he should go looking for Yarrowblossom? He hadn't seen the RiverClan tom in quite a while. Hopefully he was still all right. He was just beginning to stand up and scan the clearing again when someone bumped into him from the side. "Oh! Excuse me," he began politely, but the words stuck in his throat when he saw who it was. A cat he used to see around camp often and had never really spoken to, before she... "Silverwing?" But, hadn't she been exiled? He remembered his brother being upset about that, though he himself had been gone hunting at the time. It was difficult to get a full story on what had happened that day, so he hadn't pushed it, wanting not to make anyone upset. But here the warrior was, standing in broad moonlight at the Gathering, and looking none the worse for wear. A friendly smile rose to Flutterpetal's face, though a slight tilt to his head belied his confusion. "Hey! Um... how are you? Recently? With, uh... you know? What've you been.... up to?"

Flutterpetal is speaking to Silverwing.

Falconmoon noticed Thrushpaw approaching and his eyes brightened. He opened his mouth to answer, but Kestrel...chirp..? Fantastic he got his warrior name! "I'm Falconmoon now. Congratulations on your name Kestrelchirp!" He then looked at Thrushpaw again. "Don't worry, we still want you in Birdclan!" He said kindly, hoping Thrushpaw wouldn't feel out of place. He sat down as Birdstar announced the gathering was to commence. He was perfectly happy sitting with his buddies rather than with Skyclan. He saw them all of the time. His friends he only saw in gatherings... then he wondered if he should ask them if they wanted to change that.

---

Darkspirit stiffened. He wanted to puke when the gathering began. He may have bolted right then and asked, shamefully, Mottlestar ask someone else to do the announcements. Alas, he stayed, swallowed his fear, and stepped forward next. What was he even supposed to say??? His focused out across the clearing and avoided eye contact with most cats. He chose one in particular and focused entirely on them.

"Thunderclan... is awesome." He began... and his heart dropped. Fear scent permeated the air around him and he could have swore his throat was closing off and his mouth was running out of spit. "Lots of green on the territory. Newleaf. Doing great. Food... lots of it. Uhhh... Lichenpaw is Lichenwing, Acornpaw is now Acornstem and Firepaw is Firefly. Don't wander over our borders because we'll fight you and... you don't want that. Okay Thunderclan is done."

He stepped back and away and his face was hot. There was a ringing in his ears and he wished Starclan would have enough mercy to strike him down where he stood. Of course they didn't. He didn't dare look at any other leader, or deputy, or anyone. He onyl stared at his paws, staring intently at the Great Rock beneath them but picking up absolutely no detail whatsoever.

I'm so stupid! Why am I so horrible? Why did Mottlestar want me? I wouldn't blame her if she changed her mind. I would. I'd throw my deputy off a rock for this and I don't blame her if she does it to me. On an on his pity party went. If anyone said anything to him, he wouldn't hear them. He wanted to go home and he hoped he'd be bitten by an adder on the way there.

---

Lionpaw's attention snapped over to Burrpaw, smiling as the other apprentice introduced themselves. "Lionpaw!" He announced proudly. A Windclan cat! How cool was this?! "Yeah this is my first gathering. I didn't expect to see so many cats! I didn't expect it to be so big." He said honestly. "So what's Windclan like??"

Thornstalker followed the rest of Skyclan into the clearing and finding an empty spot away from the crowd. She wasn't really in the mood to talk with anyone, but she kept an eye on her clanmates, eye glancing from Birdstar, to Wolfblossom, and then to Falconmoon. It seemed everything was going okay, even Smokestep was settling in with the medicine cats. Satisfied to see everyone was content where they were, Thornstalker felt content to get more comfortable in her spot.

--

Tigerdance was a little behind the rest of Windclan, he had gotten a little distracted by a rather large hare on the way to the gathering, but forced himself to leave it behind for a later time. The chocolate tom was quick to settle at the edge of the crowd, content to listen to the annoucements. Even the awkward one from Thunderclan.

Thornstalker is open to talk

Tigerdance is open to talk

Starlingflare and Echomist are not attending.

Snowfoot hadn’t wanted to go to this Gathering. In fact, she wouldn’t have had she not heard that Leopardsun would be taking Nightstar’s place for the night. Far be it from Snowfoot to neglect showing her support for her niece! So she sat, making sure she was where Leopardsun could se her, and offered a smile.
Snowfoot is not open. (Feel free to admire from afar, Fawneye.)

Finally, Blazefang’s life had slowed down and she was able to get back into the rhythm of attending the Gatherings. A face caught her eye. Hawkshriek! She bounded over to say hi to her nephew. “Hey, Hawkshriek! It’s been awhile, how are you doing?”
Blazefang has approached Hawkshriek.

Sagepaw padded into the Gathering with a smile on her face. Her mother had helped her fasten leaves onto her ears, and they helped a lot with the noise! Maybe now she could finally make some friends. The fluffy fawn she-cat approached a young tom who seemed about her age. “Hi, I’m Sagepaw!” she chirped. “And yes, I can hear you just fine.”
Sagepaw has approached Poppypaw.

Lighttail and Sunpaw are not in attendance.

"Surprised to see me?" The she-cat purred. She wasn't sure how Flutterpetal would react to her presence, though the smile that appeared on the tom's face gave Silverwing her answer. "I'm doing great! It's been kind of hard adjusting to life on my own, but it's been pretty cool so far! I have so much more freedom now, and I've been able to meet some awesome cats that I probably wouldn't have been able to meet if I were still... y'know." She was fine with leaving out how lonely it was, that would only make their conversation more awkward. "Oh! I met Birdstar too! She's really nice, she even offered to let me join Skyclan. Not sure if I'm going to take her up on that, but it was really nice of her to give me the choice." Though she said that, it was clear that Silverwing had already made her choice, the sparkle in her eyes that matched the intensity of her smile giving the she-cat away. "Enough about me, I wanna hear about you now! How have you been lately? Good, I hope." Silverwing sat back on her haunches, eagerly awaiting Flutterpetal's response.

Silverwing is talking to Flutterpetal

Nightstar nodded silently to Leopardsun before she made her way up the rock for the first time, a slight smile at the corner of his maw pulling at his tired face as he watched briefly. He knew that he screwed up a lot of things according to Leopardsun that she had to clean up, but regardless of what she thought about how he handled things he was proud of her and felt maybe a little bit happy that she was happy to be up on the rock. His slightly elevated mood didn't last too long though, as Tigershriek padded up, concern evident to him. Nightstar was quick to reassure him, say that he was just a little bit too tired and sore with his still-healing body and not to be worried, but Sablestrike was quick to butt in.

Nightstar observed Sablestrike quietly for the moment, angry and annoyed at his former apprentice, an emotion that seemed constant. Sablestrike had butted his head in on a discussion that he had no permission to be privy to and had trampled over systems in places for authority. "I do mind, actually." Nightstar stated simply, "You butt in on meetings you've no purpose to be in. You cut into a conversation that Tigershriek tried to have with me. But fine, if you've no care or respect for my authority feel free to sit with us anyways." Nightstar snipped, maybe perhaps a bit more cruel than he'd usually be, but the exhaustion he felt after Redice's execution chewed at his bones like a dog, chewed on nerve endings like fleas - and itch impossible to scratch.

Nightstar had a habit of beginning the Gatherings, but Leopardsun was content to listen and take cues from the cats around her. Once most of them had spoken, and she had committed the information to memory (keeping herself still rather than responding to the vague jab Birdstar offered: it was more than deserved, but chasing Burdockroot through SkyClan territory hadn't been fun for her either; suppressing her amusement at Darkspirit's obvious nervousness and confusion; Perchstar was- missing?), the deputy met her aunt Snowfoot's smile with a flick of the tail.

I see you.

"ShadowClan has been faring well," she began, grateful for the experience she'd already had with public speaking and diplomacy. "This season has been kind to us. Badgermask has earned her warrior name," and if her voice swelled with pride for her daughter as she met her eyes then she thought she had earned that right, "and we welcome Ivypaw to the apprentice's den."

There were other things she could have mentioned, but it felt pointless to raise concern for issues that had already been dealt with. She was sure that Nightstar would have said something about specifically defending their borders, but she felt it would have been in poor taste after recent events and settled on something else that was meant to send a similar message.

"Lastly, a reminder that ShadowClan defends our own."

Having said her piece, she turned quietly to Darkspirit, tail swishing lightly as her eyes sparkled with amusement. She whispered: "You weren't expecting to be up here either, were you? Don't worry too much- it could always be worse. Your leader could be insulting the other Clans, accidentally or not."

She hadn't been able to speak with Thistlemask much, but she thought she sort of liked Darkspirit's awkwardness. It reminded her of when she was a young warrior thrust into this responsibility, and so she felt a sort of obligation to be nice.

---

Lightningbreeze purred as Birdstar called her name along with Rainfrost and Crookedlight; and cheered for the new warriors in every Clan. This was a time of peace and celebration, after all: it didn't seem all that fair to only be excited for her friends.

Smallbean watched, wide-eyed, as each of the cats on the tall rock began their announcements. Now that the gathering had actually begun, it seemed so much more real. The voices in the crowd began to hush and all of the attention was given to Birdstar. The small deputy's heart began to beat faster, his breathing quickened. Birdstar was done quickly, Smallbean only looked away when she stepped back for another cat to take her place.

Stars, he could see it now, every cat was paying attention to him, and he made a fool of himself - a fool of Windclan. The quicker his time came to making his announcement, the more he wondered why he even agreed to do this in the first place. 'because it's your job. The least you could do it make an announcement on the Great Rock for Shrikestar. If you can't do a simple task like this, what kind of deputy are you?"'

When he looked up again, the third cat had already stepped forward. Poppyshine. He watched her as she spoke, observing her body language. Taking mental notes on her tone, the way she seemed to make the announcement so easily. Something so simple for her was his bane. He managed to calm his thoughts enough to listen to her words, and despite feeling sorrowful for the disappearance of their leader, didn't have enough emotional space to express it right now, and the emotion was quickly lost beneath a sea of nervousness.

Leopardsun stepped up soon after Poppyshine, and nearly within the blink of an eye, the spotlight was shined on Smallbean. Hesitantly moving forward, he stepped to the front of the rock, overlooking the entirely of the clans. All five of them, gathered right below his paws. He could see them, judging eyes, waiting for him to make the slightest mistake, for him to trip up, for him to give them a reason to hate him. More than anything, he wanted to run away, leave Fourtrees behind, but he stood, paws firmly pressed against the stone.

This was it. He was supposed to speak now. The sounds were being made, but his words were drawing a blank. A trail of "Um..."'s and "Uh..."'s Left his maw, too quiet for the crowd to hear. His mistmatched gaze darted from cat to cat in the crowd before landing on Shrikestar. That was where it would stay. "Windclan, uh. Windclan has been... Faring Well..." Smallbean squirmed uncomfortably, eyes fixed on Shrikestar still. "Two kits have become warriors- er, apprentices... sorry... They are, uh. Burrpaw and Fennelpaw." He struggled to take in a deep breath. "Five Apprentices have become warriors... We welcome uh- Tigerdance, Kestrelshirp, Jayfrost, Sparrowthorn, and Eaglefly."

"Windclan is faring well, this Newleaf..." 'You already said Windclan was faring well!' "And we are enjoying the influx of prey this season... That- That is all... Thank you."

---

Upon walking into Fourtrees, Jayfrost had stayed with his siblings, hanging around Kestrelchirp and Eaglefly as they walked around the clearing (and until Kestrelship parted from them). He'd kept an eye out for that lousy Thunderclanner, although he hoped that she was still in the medicine den from the lightning strike - Stars, she deserved it.

By the time the clan's announcements had begun, he'd picked a spot near the clearing's edge by a group of Windclanners, ears raised to listen to their conversation. As the leader's voices drones on, he found himself growing uninterested, not really paying attention until Smallbean stepped forward. He squinted his icy eyes, burning a hole through the deputy. Smallbean was a cat Jayfrost hadn't bothered to interact with, and for good reason. He was a coward, and, despite Shrikestar being his father and all, he questioned his choice in the tom as deputy. His patheticness seeped into the clan's image, and if it weren't for how little he cared, he'd probably be enraged by it. Rolling his eyes, he raised his ears once more, eager to hear his clanmate's thoughts on their deputy.

---

Absent-mindedly flicking his tail, Astershine sat at the edge of a group of Skyclanners, but his eyes were everywhere else. Secretly, he hoped that he'd see Forest again at this gathering, but he knew that the chances were probably low. He didn't even really know why the loner had been at the last gathering, but it made it much more fun, in his opinion.

The only time his attention was grabbed was when the gathering had just begun, and he offered his leader his attention, but only briefly. As soon as Birdstar had withdrew, he immediately lost interest.

Jayfrost is sitting with a group of Windclanners.
Astershine is looking around