The Third Gathering

[Fallinggaze]

~~~~~FALLINGGAZE~~~~~~
Fallinggaze sat quietly by herself in the crowd. There was some meowing between cats, but she kept quiet.
-_-_-_-_-_Firepaw-_-_-_-_-_
Looking up, down, and all around, Firepaw sat down next to his sisters.
"Isn't this exciting?" he asked. "Our first time at the Gathering! I wonder what will happen!"
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X Sunpaw X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
"I know!" answered Sunpaw. "I think I'll go and meet the other apprentices!" Sunpaw stood up and walked away from the two cats, and sat next to other apprentices.
"Hi," she greeted shyly. "Is it okay if I sit here?" she asked.
OoOoOoO Dewpaw OoOoOoOo
"I think I'll go and meet the other apprentices!" said Dewpaw's sister, Sunpaw. Sunpaw quietly approached two apprentices.
"When do you think the Gathering will start?" she asked her brother.
"I don't know," answered Firepaw. He flicked his tail into the cat behind him, who got really mad.

[Raccoonstar]

WINDPAW

"Oh...erm...sorry Gorseear." Windpaw stated. Sorry?! Windpaw was becoming pathetic! He uncontrollably sat down next to Eveningpaw. Why couldn't he control himself around this she-cat? Did she have some hypnotic power over him or something? No matter how much his brain wanted him to, his legs just would not respond to his mind's deperate longing to leave. This she-cat must be hypnotizing him! It was the only explanation!

OOC: Waaaaaay off, Windpaw! Waaaay off!

[fαllεη •]

((OOC: Falling. Please listen to me. You can't role-play Dewpaw, Sunpaw or Firepaw because they're not accepted yet. I told you this with Ashtail, and he still needs a bio if you're going to keep role-playing him. If you want to discuss this, PM me, but you have to wait for them to be accepted.))

[Fallinggaze]

Fallen, Ashtail has a bio, I'm not sure if you've seen it, but he has one

[fαllεη •]

Smokeleaf blew into the clearing at Seastar's back, stepping around cats as easily as a winter breeze. Every step seemed to fall into place today --as it tended to do, when she was trying to keep her mind off things. In her place in the medicine cat's ring, she found Nightleaf already there, and offered the young she-cat a curt nod. But she sat suitably distant: no need to brush pelts, as some cats were prone to do.
So, where was Duskwing tonight? She carefully scanned the entering steam of cats, making sure to be suitably even in her gaze so that it didn't look as if she were looking for a specific cat.

Her discussion with the 'traitor' had made her suitably wary of IvyClan's warriors, and she was glad that there were some moments before their arrival to suitably prepare herself for the arrival of that... That... Her face crushed into fury and turned her grey eyes to her feet. She had run out of adjectives long ago for such a verminous heathen, if all were as Duskwing claimed. All she could do was hope that Duskwing had been mistaken; so, so mistaken.

"I hope Amberslash will be okay without me. He's so jittery."
Smokeleaf didn't take her gaze off of the entering cats. Some entered, but she noted one of FrostClan's number missing. Rivershadow was lagging behind; she'd seen him slip into the bushes somewhere, probably to attempt to get over his constant hatred for everything under the sky. She couldn't help snorting; the tom needed to get over himself. But she wasn't familiar with the cat that Nightleaf was talking about. There was tenderness in her voice, though --a quality that most medicine cats developed, but that Smokeleaf preferred to mask with a good dose of acid. "Amberslash?"
She didn't remember hearing the tom's name before, and her thoughts were certainly not on conversation at the moment. Would Silentstar even show? And if he did... Could she be trusted not to make a fool of her clan, with what information she thought she knew?

---

((OOC: Someone's deleted the posts where I expressed my extreme embarrassment at forgetting that I had already seen Ashtail's bio, and also Falling's last role-play post with it, I think XD. So allow me to express that embarrassment again!

[Raccoonstar]

NIGHTLEAF

"Yeah. Amberslash is so twitchy, he can't ever keep still. You might have heard him scream about too much pressure. He might annoy the other warriors." Nightleaf calmly stated. She wasn't surprised that no one had heard of Amberslash. He was hardly on any border patrols or Gatherings. He was an outcast of CloudClan.

[Seafeather]

Skyleaf

Smokeleaf gave Skyleaf a curt nod when she sat down with the other medicine cats. Skyleaf was just minding herself when Nightleaf said something about Amberslash...he was jumpy? And he wasn't calm and couldn't sit still? Skyleaf would use a mixture of a poppy seed and thyme to calm down kits who decided to sneak into her precious honey. The honey would make them jumpier than two squirrels!

"Why don't you try giving him a poppy seed and some thyme when you get back to CloudClan? And see if it works on him. It sure helps me when kits get into my honey stores. They calm down instantly." Skyleaf waited for Nightleaf to answer patiently.

[//Sunneh// is FuMiNg]

[glow=red,2,300]Thicketheart[/glow]

Thicketheart smiled as Oakpelt's pelt brushed up against hers. The chaotic mix of smells and noises could be a little too much for her at times; it was hard to sense where she was going. But with Oakpelt at her side, she felt more sure of her pawsteps.
Her ears twitched with amusement when she heard the excited chattering of the three FrostClan apprentices. Thicketheart fondly remembered her first Gathering. It wasn't especially eventful, compared to most, but it was one of the most exciting days of her life. The blind warrior sighed. She wished life was as simple as it was when she was an apprentice. No matter. Thicketheart had Oakpelt now, and his affection was more than enough for her.

[glow=blue,2,300]Hazelpaw[/glow]

Hazelpaw felt her pelt burning as Falconpaw moved closer to her. He was bold, she thought, pulling such a move when they had barely had more than three conversations, mostly containing, "How's the prey running?" "Will you scoot over? You're taking up the whole den"
Despite her resentment at his rashness, she said nothing. In fact, she actually liked it. Hazelpaw frowned as Eveningpaw walked away, a hurt expression on her face. Part of her screamed, Let her go! She's jealous of you. Falconpaw deserves your attention more. But she shook off the thoughts. Eveningpaw was her best friend, and she wasn't about to abandon her.
Hazelpaw was about to get up and pad towards her friend when an IvyClan apprentice started chatting with Eveningpaw. She smiled as an annoyed expression crept onto Eveningpaw's face. Hazelpaw relaxed and sat back down. She had to have a conversation with Eveningpaw about Hazelpaw's crush on Falconpaw. If Hazelpaw wasn't careful, she could end up hurting someone.

[Raccoonstar]

NIGHTLEAF

"Good idea, Skyleaf." Nightleaf stated. Poppy and thyme, no honey. She calmed herself down and forgot about Amberslash for a moment. "So, how is SnakeClan and FrostClan?" She calmly asked.

FALCONPAW

"Hi Hazelpaw!" Falconpaw calmly stated.

[//Sunneh// is FuMiNg]

Hazelpaw

Hazelpaw raised her brow at Falconpaw, amused.
"We've been sitting together for nearly half the Gathering and all you can say is 'Hi'?"
She laughed, then flicked her tail against his shoulder. Falconpaw puzzled her sometimes. He was an open-minded cat, and wasn't too hard to figure out. But he still puzzled her sometimes.

Stormleaf

Stormleaf padded into the clearing, his fur wild and covered with pine needles. He shook his pelt, licked it a few times, then padded towards his fellow medicine cats. His golden fur was still untidy, but it was always like that. No need fussing over something that would never change.
He sat down, suddenly self-conscious as the medicine cats turned to see who had joined them. He was the youngest among them, barely out of his apprenticeship, and this was the first time he had came to a Gathering without his mentor, Redleaf. Stormleaf nodded to the three she-cats, giving Smokeleaf a grateful glance. He still hadn't forgotten how the elderly cat had helped him save Woodstripes.
"Sorry I'm late," he said, his naturally calm voice slightly hard to hear amongst the loud chattering going on around them.

[Raccoonstar]

FALCONPAW

"Oh....sorry." Falconpaw softly spoke. "So....when do you think Silentstar will show? I think I saw some IvyClanners, but not their leader. Weird, huh?" Small talk was the greatest weapon in an awkward conversation.

NIGHTLEAF

"Oh hi, Stormleaf. It's okay, better late than never!" Nightleaf stated. Stormleaf was the youngest of the four, and this was his first time without his mentor. He was doing better than she did at her first Gathering without Whiteleaf. Her mind flashed back to Whiteleaf for a split second. Did she still care about her, up in StarClan? She ignored the nagging thought and asked, "How is IvyClan?"

[Fallinggaze]

------------------------------- Firepaw Dewpaw -----------------------------
"If the Gathering takes this much time every time, then the Clans have to be quicker!" complained Firepaw. Usually, Firepaw doesn't complain, so Dewpaw was surprised for that fact. She was also surprised for the fact that SHE wasn't complaining.

[.M.i.d.n.i.g.h.t.i.e.]

Silentstar

[/b]

Silentstar prowled through the forest, followed by his warriors. Woodstripes had stayed back in the nursery, attending to her newborn kits. His icy gaze cut through the darkness, as he arrived to the Great Hollow.

He wasted no time, and jumped up to his place on High Branch. "Sorry we are late," he called, though no cat had asked. "we were too busy welcoming new lives into the life of IvyClan." His eyes glittered with malicious satisfaction as some rival Clan cats' eyes glittered with jealousy. With leaf-bare approaching, new lives would benefit the clan.

[Raccoonstar]

DUSKWING

It took all of Duskwing's self control to keep herself from snarling at Silentstar. He was a cruel, evil leader that had tried to kill an entire Clan! This was why her hatred let out a low growl that was barely audible when Silentstar spoke of new lives entering IvyClan. That whole damned Clan could go to hell for all she cared. IvyClan was evil and deserved to be destroyed. And if IvyClan must live, then Silentstar must die.

[fαllεη •]

Smokleaf's gaze flickered away from the entrance for a moment, as Nightleaf's question caught her attention again.
"FrostClan are well."
It had been two moons (a whole two Gatherings!) since Silentstar had made FrostClan bleed, but it had turned out to be a clean scratch; not quite the festering muck that he must have hoped for. Silentstar. Where was he?
Ah, but here came a symbol of IvyClan's prescience now. Stormpaw, his pelt looking ungroomed. Redleaf wasn't with him, and her eyes narrowed. She hadn't seen Redleaf at that little altercation on the IvyClan border, and since she had been busy at the half moon, she hadn't seen him there either. What was going on in IvyClan these days?

At the risk of seeming impolite -but when had Smokeleaf ever bothered about manners?- she simply came out and asked what she was thinking. "Late? It's your mentor who's late." Her tail bristled a little at the scent of the other clans around her, but she forced it to lie flat. 'Bouncy old badger, you are.'
"Where is Redleaf?"

And then a black figure slipped into the clearing. It was all Smokeleaf could do to force her fur to stay down this time. She hadn't been at the last Gathering, and so she hadn't a chance to confront Silentstar about his actions. And if she hadn't known only too well how it would have shamed her clan, she might have vocalised her opinions.
His news made her whiskers twitch. New lives? In IvyClan?! The treacherous voice in the back over her mind muttered 'Time to replace the ones you've lost, eh Silentstar?' But the other, more sensible part wondered how the new kits would fare this leaf-bare. It felt a long way away, though; her bones weren't yet cold with snow --and as a FrostClan cat, by choice if not by birth, she was good at sensing the approach of cold weather.
'I hope it comes early this year.' Yes, early and bitterly, bitterly cold--
No! No, she did not think that. What was she turning into, some petty, vindictive warrior? No. Not possible. The kits would grow strong and proud, even if she did wish them not to be raised under Silentstar. 'Though I would no sooner have seen them raised under Shatteredstar.' The rivalries between Frost and Ivy went further back than this most recent struggle, as Smokeleaf remembered far, far too well.