Book Two, Chosen

Chapter Five

Hawkflight, Batheart, Oakpaw and Moonpaw got back from their hunting patrol with only three pieces of prey.

Moonpaw had caught a mouse, Oakpaw had caught a finch and Batheat caught a small rabbit that was as white as snow.

They came back to a beautiful camp. It was all decorated in ThunderClan's way, each den was decorated differently, with small cedar branches and holly for the apprentices den, fine grasses and cedar bark for the warriors den, ivy and more holly for the elders den, twigs and moss for the medicine cats den, lots of holly and cedar branches for the leaders den and ivy and holly for the nursery.

In the center of camp there was the fresh-kill pile, as normal, but Tuftkit, Pinekit and Cloudkit were putting cedar bark, cedar branches, holly and ivy around it, it looked awesome.

"I can't wait for StarClan's Coming!" Squealed Cloudkit as Batheart, Hawkflight and their apprentices drew closer.

"That looks awesome! Great job!" Exclaimed Batheart as they set down their prey.

"Thanks! We did it all by ourselves!" Tuftkit boasted. Pinekit nudged him. "The apprentices had to get the stuff! We cant go out of camp yet!"

"I know that!" Tuftkit exclaimed. Cloudkit just rolled her eyes at him. "You can be such a pain, Tuftkit!" She cuffed his ear.

Batheart chuckled. "You kits be careful now, if you be naughty, Jingleberry wont come!" Batheart threatened.

Each kit immediately straightened up. "Okay! Sorry Batheart!" Apologized Tuftkit.

"That's fine, you kits be nice to eachother now." Batheart nodded to them and padded away with Hawkflight, Moonpaw and Oakpaw.

From walking all day her paws were numb with coldness. "Hey, Batheart!" Exclaimed a voice that sounded like Lightheart's.

"Yes?" she turned around. "Can you decorate outside of camp? We thought we'd leave that to you and your apprentice." Lightheart ordered. Batheart nodded.

"Come on, let's go you three." Batheart called to Hawkflight, Moonpaw and Oakpaw and they all padded out of camp to look for things to decorate the camp entrance with.

Moonpaw burst off in one direction and Oakpaw the other direction and soon Moonpaw came back with a few ivy tendrils hanging from her jaws.

"I thought we could hang these ivy vines down like this" Moonpaw strung up the ivy tendrils infront of the camp entrance.

"That's a good idea." ommented Hawkflight. Oakpaw soon came back to them with multiple holly branches between his jaws.

Oakpaw stuck them into the camp entrance to decorate it. "That looks so good you two!" exclaimed Batheart.

"I'm very proud of you both" Hawkflight praised. "Now we should get back to camp before our paws freeze off." Hawkflight chuckled, then looked off into the direction of Sunningrocks.

"I.. need to check something first." Hawkflight said, then raced off. Batheart looked off his way. Odd. I saw him talking to a shimmery white cat at the Gathering yesterday, he couldn't possibly be doing the same thing I'm doing!

Batheart sighed and took Moonpaw and Oakpaw back into camp again. By now the sun was setting and the snow was starting again.

"Go to your nests and stay there." she ordered the two apprentices. They nodded and headed off into the apprentices den.

Batheart was awfully curious about Hawkflight but then she thought that maybe he was going to visit Goldenwing's burial spot.

But why not tell us? Or at least me..?

Batheart shrugged it off and headed to her den. She climbed into her nest and quickly fell asleep.

Multiple sunrises later, Batheart was now padding alongside every cat in the Clan, except the elders, queens and kits, to the StarClan's Coming meeting. It wasn't snowing for once, it had been snowing for the last week or two and Batheart didn't like it.

Batheart carried a piece of wood that was in the shape of a heart and a vole.  Each cat in the Clan carried a very special gift and prey that they had stored in a hole special for StarClan's Coming eve.

"We seem to be the first here." commented Riverstar. She flicked her tail for everyone to climb down into Fourtrees.

Batheart set down her vole and the rest of ThunderClan set their prey down in a pile on top of her vole.

Batheart looked up into the night sky. All of silverpelt was shining down at them. She wondered if Goldenwing was up there.

Then, she smelt WindClan scent and soon WindClan was here. "Happy StarClan's Coming." Riverstar touched her nose to Fallowstar's in greeting.

Fallowstar put down her prey and gift and returned the greeting. "Put your prey in a separate pile over here." Riverstar told her.

Fallowstar nodded and placed her rabbit that she was carrying in a separate pile next to ThunderClan's, the rest of WindClan did the same.

ShadowClan's scent soon came on the breeze and then Batheart saw the lithe shape of Ashstar sliding into Fourtrees with his Clan following.

"Happy StarClan's Coming." Fallowstar greeted Ashstar once he came closer to them. He grunted in reply, then padded past everyone to the feast piles and placed his frog he was carrying down and the rest of ShadowClan put their prey in a pile.

Not soon after ShadowClan arrived, RiverClan soon came and Riverstar padded up to Shimmerstar. "Happy StarClan's Coming." Riverstar said politely. Shimmerstar put down her water vole and returned Riverstar's polite greeting.

"Put your prey in a pile over there." Riverstar angled her ears towards the three prey piles.

Shimmerstar nodded, picked up her prey and flicked her tail for her Clan to follow her. They all placed their prey in a pile.

All four leaders then hopped onto the Great Rock and yowled for everyone to quiet down.

"Happy StarClan's Coming everyone!" exclaimed Shimmerstar. 

"Eveyone may start off with one piece of prey from any pile, we highly encourage you to try prey from a different Clan." Ashstar grumbled.

"Yes and elders will eat first, we are honoring StarClan and their code and we will follow it as per usual, then medicine cats, then warriors, then apprentices and then us." Fallowstar continued.

"And once you've taken your prey, please take it to the other side of Fourtrees to give room for others. Once we are done eating and catching up, we will all sit in a circle and thank StarClan for everything they gave us, and then after, we will exchange gifts." Riverstar finished.

"Shall we start?" Shimmerstar looked at each leader, they nodded. "Alright, everyone to the other side of Fourtrees unless you are an elder." Shimmerstar ordered.

There weren't any elders other than Acorntail. Soarstep and Brushfeather decided not to come because they were too old now.

Acorntail chose a thrush from the WindClan pile and took it to the other side of Fourtrees. Then, the medicine cats padded up and picked their prey and sat down on the other side of Fourtrees aswell.

Batheart tried to spot Moonpaw among the crowd but she was nowhere to be found, neither was Hawkflight.

The warriors were called on to get their prey. Batheart walked up to the RiverClan pile and decided to try fish. Skywing said it tasted good, so she went with fish.

She took it over to eat on the other side of the Fourtrees and then spotted Skywing. "Decided to try fish, eh?" he asked once she laid down in front of him.

"Yep. I wanna see what you RiverClan cats are all raving about." she bit into the fish. Instantly, watery flavors filled her mouth. She finished her bite and nodded. "That's pretty good!"

Skywing laughed. He had a mouse, he bit into it. "Not too bad, but I prefer fish." he commented with his mouthful. "Finish your bite, furball!" Batheart cuffed his ear with her claws sheathed.

Skywing just rolled his eyes and continued eating, so did Batheart.