Warriors: The Darkness Within

Chapter 14

Birdpaw paced restlessly, waiting for the others to be ready for the gathering, her siblings stood behind her with Nettlestar, Lighteningstreak, Blizzardpelt and Pebblefoot. They were just waiting for Palepaw to finish treating Waterclaw,  Ambercloud to get back from hunting and Branchfall stood with his apprentice, Rockpaw, discussing something that seemed important. Birdpaw still couldn't believe that she was going to her first gathering, she had always watched the cats leave and tried to stay up late to hear what happened as a kit, she couldn't wait to tell the other apprentices and her clanmates what happened tonight.
"Come on! Let's leave!" Called Nettlestar the others had joined them and the front of the group was heading out of camp, Birdpaw felt a jolt of excitement and caught up to where her siblings were following Blizzardpelt out of camp.
They raced through the trees toward the meeting hollow, their paws throwing up dirt, sticks, leaves and plants as they ran through the undergrowth, Nettlestar in the lead with the rest following close behind. Birdpaw hesitated before crossing over the scentline that marked the border they shared with Animal clan, but she crossed it after her clanmates.
She raced along feeling a rush of excitement pass through her, her brothers ran with her and she felt them brush against her every now and again, they were obviously just as excited as her.
They ran through thick forest, dodging rocks and logs as they practically flew through the forest, Animalclan stench was everywhere as they crossed the territory. The group veared left and plunged through a large bush, Birdpaw shook the leaves off her pelt, panting she tried to catch up.
As they approached the meeting hollow, Birdpaw's nerves and excitement thrashed around inside her, she wondered what the other clans were like, and if any of them had been attacked by rogues?
They came to a walk as they advanced to the mass of cats they could already see in the hollow, Birdpaw felt her paws tingle as they emerged and blended into the crowd when they arrived, she kept close with her siblings as the three of them stood awkwardly amongst cats of all 4 clans.
"Why don't you head over to the other apprentices, you can talk with them but you must not tell them any clan secrets or things that may be revealed in the leader's reports." Their father told them, they looked over to where 5 small cats where sitting near the back of the hollow. They nodded their thanks and cautiously and carefully headed over to the other apprentices. A silver Tom sat nearest to them and as they approached he turned to look at them, he flicked his tail at a ginger tabby she-cat that sat beside him, who was talking to a black and white she-cat and a grey and white she-cat.
"Leopardpaw, these must be new LightClan apprentices." The silver apprentice said to the ginger she-cat, who turned to see Birdpaw and her siblings, as did the other two she-cats. "Hi, I'm Pigeonpaw." The silver Tom introduced himself, Firepaw replied; "Hi, I'm Firepaw, this is my brother, Pinepaw, and my sister, Birdpaw." They all dipped their heads in greeting.
"I'm Ploverpaw." The grey and white she-cat said, "I'm Pigeonpaw and Cranepaw's sister." She flicked her tail toward the black and white she-cat behind her who had been introduced as Cranepaw.
"It's good to meet you." Birdpaw said.
"So your first gathering, huh?" Pigeonpaw asked, his kind eyes watch the three siblings curiously.
"Yeah, how many gatherings have you been to?" Pinepaw asked them.
"Leopardpaw has been 3 times and my siblings and I have only been twice." Pigeonpaw replied.
"I can speak for myself you know." Hissed Leopardpaw, "I'm the oldest apprentice here, I'm doing my assessments actually." She boasted.
"Oh, that's good." Birdpaw said, not quite sure what she was supposed to say.
"Yes Leopardpaw, we know, you've mentioned it at least eight times tonight." Pigeonpaw rolled his eyes.
Birdpaw didn't think she liked the ginger tabby she-cat very much, but she knew she liked Pigeonpaw and Ploverpaw, Cranepaw came over to them, leaving Leopardpaw and Ploverpaw to talk.
"So, are you excited?" Cranepaw asked excitedly, sitting herself beside her brother.
"It's a little scary but we are very excited." Firepaw answered.
"What happens after we all talk?" Birdpaw asked.
"The leaders give their reports then we go back to our camps." Pigeonpaw told them.
"Oh, who is from which clan, I still get confused." Pinepaw asked, raiding his nose in the air, catching the mixed scents that surrounded them.
"We are from Birdclan and Leopardpaw is Animalclan. Plantclan hasn't arrived yet." But just as Cranepaw was answering, a new scent found it's way to them and a large group of cats pushed their way into the hollow. Plantclan!
Birdpaw thought, scanning the cats that now mingled with the other three clans, she didn't recognise any of them  except those of her own clan.
Two smaller cats approached them, and Birdpaw could see that they were here for the first time as well, though they looked a little younger than her and her siblings.
There was a silver she-cat and a cream-coloured Tom who had Plantclan scent clinging to their pelt.
"Hi." The Tom said shyly.
They introduced themselves and learned the two cat's names, The she-cat was Grovepaw, and the Tom, Haypaw, they found out that they had been made apprentices only 4 days ago.
"Silence upon the clans! The meeting will begin now!" A White Tom had called out in a loud clear howl from where he stood on a raised tree root.
"Who's that?" Birdpaw asked no one in particular.
"That's our leader, Greenstar." Grovepaw replied in a hushed voice they watched as Nettlestar took her place on a root near Greenstar. A bulky Black and white Tom sat on the furthest branch, Birdpaw opened her mouth to ask who it was when Cranepaw said, "That's Badgerstar, the AnimalClan leader."
And finally a wiry blue-grey Tom sat in the middle of the leaders, on the last remaining root.
"And that's our leader, Jaystar." Pigeonpaw whispered.
"Who's the golden cat?" Haypaw asked curiously.
"Nettlestar, Our leader." Pinepaw told the young Tom.
As the immense group of cats settled down and grew quiet, anticipating the leader's reports, Badgerstar raised his voice, strong and confident over the cats, "Greenstar, would you like to start?"  The white Tom nodded his thanks and stood tall on his root, "Plantclan is satisfied with the hunting and there has been no furthur interference from the twolegs, we have two new apprentices, Grovepaw and Haypaw." Greenstar's gaze settled on the two cats that sat near Birdpaw and the other apprentices. She saw the two cat's eyes bulge in surprise as multiple pairs of eyes landed on them, murmuring congratulations and calling their names, Birdpaw and her siblings joined in. When the crowd of cats was silent again, Greenstar sat back down, signalling he had nothing further to report and Jaystar stepped forward, stand on his root and looking out to the cats that sat in the hollow.
"The prey is running well for Birdclan, we have had much success in training out apprentices and raising out kits, we have no new news." Birdpaw thought she may have imagined it but she thought she saw a flicker of confusion cross the faces of the Birdclan apprentices, she noticed that they all seemed a little skinny and cast her gaze around the hollow trying to pick out the Birdclan cats, there seemed to be a few that were quite skinny and seemed underfed. Perhaps prey was not running well after all, she wondered why Jaystar had lied.
"AnimalClan does not have much to report, we are well-fed and we are healthy. Thanks to Beesting and Beargrowl, a fox that has been in our territory is now no longer a problem." The hollow was filled with murmurs of a well-done and finally, it was Nettlestar's turn.
"First of all, prey has been running well in LightClan, and we have three new apprentices, Birdpaw, Firepaw and Pinepaw." The crowd of cats chorused in calling their names and congratulating them much like they had done with Grovepaw and Haypaw, Birdpaw studied her paws, avoiding the many eyes that looked her way. "We are also very pleased to announce the birth of Branchfall and Whiteblaze's two healthy kits, Archkit and Smokekit." Branchfall puffed out his chest in pride and the crowd of cats called his kit's names, glee filled the hollow at the news of new kits, new kits were always good, different clan or not.
"I have more to report," Nettlestar said, her voice full of authority, she continued when the cats became silent once again. "We have had a battle with a group of vicious rogues who had the nerve to stake a claim on our territory and kidnaped one of our apprentices," She once again paused to let the gasps of shock reside.
"We fought them off and we thank StarClan that none of our cats were killed and that the apprentice successfully escaped. Unfortunately, Waterclaw, our deputy was badly injured and has chosen to retire to the elders early, he will be respected and was a wonderful deputy and warrior. I need to choose a new deputy which I shall when we return to camp." Nettlestar finished.
"Where did they go?" Greenstar asked, concern in his eyes.
"We don't know, our warriors tracked them as far as the moontree." She answered, her calm essence was soothing and made the news much less frightening. Though Birdpaw knew her leader was anxious about the potential possibility of the rogues attacking again, in fact the whole clan was cautious when venturing out of camp.
The cats around her murmured worriedly, she heard Pigeonpaw ask her brother's about the battle.
"Pinepaw was the apprentice attacked and taken by them! He was nearly killed, but he escaped when we were holding them off." Firepaw told him, Birdpaw saw Pinepaw look at the ground and paw at a few blades of grass, embarrassed.
"All the clans shall look out for these rogues and update each other of sightings, if they occur." Badgerstar announced the other leader's bowed their heads in agreement.
"Cats who leave camp now go in groups of 3 or more, agreed?" Jaystar suggested. Every cat in the hollow bowed their heads in understanding, including the leader's.
"Shall we put an end to the gathering?" Nettlestar asked. When the other Clan leader's agreed they lept down from the roots and cut lines through the crowd, calling for their clans to follow at the edge of the hollow.
"Bye, hope to see you next gathering!" Pigeonpaw called over his shoulder as he raced with his siblings to their leader.
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Hey hey peeps, haven't posted on this story for aaaagggggeeeesssss so sorry, I'll try and be more regular, I've been busy with school and updating my other story, The not so good girl, plz check it out, thanks for reading!!!