"Fallen, Fallen, guess what!" Cloudpaw bounced up to Fallen a couple days later. She was grooming her fur next to the tree stump the apprentices ate at and looked at Cloudpaw. "What?"
"I talked to Fireheart and he said that you could come with us to the Gathering tonight!"
She blinked. "What's the Gathering?"
"It's where all four of the forest clans meet in peace at each full moon to exchange news."
"And I get to go?"
"Yep!"
"Great," Fallen went back to cleaning her paws. "So when are we leaving?"
Just at that moment Fireheart appeared on the High rock. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the High rock."
Immediately everyone gathered in the clearing and went quiet.
"Tonight is the Gathering and I will be taking Mousefur, Darkstripe, Cloudpaw, Whitestorm, Greystripe, Sandstorm and Fallen."
"Why are you taking her?" Dustpelt called out.
"Yeah!" Agreed another cat.
Fallen growled, her eyes narrowing. She could feel her anger beginning to rise.
Fireheart glared at the two who had spoken. "Because she is staying here and Bluestar says that it is okay. Now come on. We're leaving."
Fireheart jumped down and led them out into the forest. Fallen ran beside Cloudpaw, jumping over branches and rocks and weaving between the trees.
Finally they arrived at Four-trees.
They stopped at the top of the hill and looked down. Fireheart scented the air.
"Windclan and Riverclan are here," he said then raised his tail and ran down the hill.
The Thunderclan cats ran down the hill, coming to a stop in the clearing. Fireheart jumped up onto a large boulder in the center of the clearing where a spotted she-cat and a black and white tom already sat.
"That's Tallstar, the leader of Windclan." Cloudpaw whispered to her as they sat down on the edge of the clearing. "And the she-cat is Leopardstar, the leader of Riverclan."
"Where's Tigerstar?" Fallen whispered back, wanting to see the Shadowclan leader.
Before Cloudpaw could continue they heard Leopardstar call out Shadowclan is here."
The bushes on the other side of the clearing parted and more cats joined them in the clearing. A large, broad-shouldered dark tabby tom jumped up among the leaders, shooting a glare at Fireheart who gazed coolly back.
"That's Tigerstar," Cloudpaw whispered.
A yowl rang out in the clearing, the Gathering had started. Leopardstar stepped forward. "Riverclan is doing fine," she reported. "But we are, once again, having Twoleg troubles now that green-leaf has come back and scare off some of the fish. But there is still plenty left and we will get by." She sat back down as Tallstar stepped forward.
As Tallstar began his report, Fallen heard a muffled gasp a couple tail-lengths away and little, "no it can't be."
Fallen, confused, turned her head and saw a silver tabby staring at her in terror. When she made eye contact with the tom his already wide eyes went bigger and he took off running. Immediately Fallen took chase, the tom disappearing into some nearby bushes. She leaped through them, catching a glimpse of the cat trying to loop back to the Thunderpath that was the border with Shadowclan.
'Oh no you don't.' Fallen flew over the ground, steadily gaining on the tom, who was in such a panic to get away he wasn't watching where he was going and kept tripping over tree roots and stones.
Fallen piled on the speed when she saw the Thunderpath ahead and leaped through the air, smashing into the cat and rolling to a stop next to the Thunderpath.
She could feel the cat trembling in terror beneath her, gasping for air. She leaned down and growled into his ear, "Why are you running away?"
The cat began to violently shake, unable to speak.
Fallen dug her claws in, loving the pure, raw fear that she saw in his eyes.
"S-Scourge, I-I ran b-because I was afraid you were going to h-hurt me, I d-didn't know you knew the clans, please don't kill me. I thought you said that I could leave Bloodclan."
Fallen paused. Scourge. Bloodclan. The words were so familiar and yet not. She dug her claws in a bit deeper. "What are you talking about?"
The tom finally looked at her closely, his expression then changed, from fear to confusion. "You're not Scourge."
"No, I'm not. Now who are you and what you are talking about?"
The cat gulped. "Can you please let me up first? It's kind of hard to explain when you are sitting on me."
Fallen thought for a few moments then sat back, letting him up.
The cat sat up, paused then went to run but she simply reached over and pinned his tail to the ground with her claws. "Speak. Now."
The cat sat down slowly, then stammered, "my name is Boulder, and Scourge is someone I know, he might kill me if he sees me again."
The confusion lifted slightly. "Why did you run when you saw me?"
"Because I thought that you were Scourge."
Fallen cocked her head slightly. "Who's Scourge?" The name was so familiar, but she didn't know where she had heard it before.
"He's the leader of Bloodclan, the clan of rouges in Twolegplace. They don't have any laws or rules, and it's completely filled with killers. Scourge is the worst of the worst though. He'll kill anyone over the smallest things. Sometimes he goes out to patrol the territory and just kills any cats that aren't supposed to be in the territory or when he gets mad he simply kills the nearest cat."
Fallen went quiet. Hearing about all this sent chills of excitement up her spine. Learning all this should repulse her and make her shiver in fear but it only made her more intrigued. She wanted a part of it. And something about the prospect of killing and making cats look at her in fear made her only want to meet Scourge.
She looked at Boulder. "Take me to this Scourge."
Boulder's eyes widened in fear. "I-I'm sorry, I can't do that. When I left Bloodclan, Scourge was in a bad mood and he'll kill me if he sees me again, I know so."
Fallen's lip curled and she looked like she was going to hurt him but he hurriedly continued. "But I can tell you where the camp is and you can find it yourself. It isn't far from the forest and you should be able to find it."
Fallen thought for a few seconds, but withheld the answer a bit longer, enjoying the fear beginning to once again creep into Boulder's eyes. "Fine. Tell me where to find the Bloodclan leader."
Fallen arrived back at the Gathering right as it was ending, feeing lighter then she had ever felt.
Cloudpaw spotted her and raced over. "Fallen, where'd you go? One second you were sitting next to me, then the next you were running out of here like your tail was on fire."
"Oh, I just had a bit of business to take care of," Fallen waved the question off and they continued back to the Thunderclan camp.
Cloudpaw blinked. "What kind of business?"
"Nothing important," Fallen lied. Cloudpaw didn't need to know about her questioning the Shadowclan warrior so she changed the subject. "Did the rest of the Gathering go well?"
"Yep, prey's running well in the other clans and some Windclan cats had chased a dog off their territory that had strayed too far from its Twolegs with only a few scratches. And Tigerstar had said that all traces of sickness were now gone from his clan."
Fallen nodded. "That's good."
Cloudpaw shrugged. "I guess so, but we don't like Tigerstar very much, remember."
"Right."