3-1-20 8:29 PM


Chapter Eight: NightClan

Frostpaw carried moss into the queen's den. She had been assigned to help them clean out the nests and replace them. She liked to spend time with the queens, they were usually nice and she did have fun playing with the kits. But then again, Frostpaw didn't ever want any kits of her own.

As she tossed out the old nest, Frostpaw quickly made the other two queen's nest and moved onto her mother's. Snowleap was laying outside by time she was done. Bramblekit raced around the clearing, battering around a leaf.

"Hey, Frostpaw!" Snowleap purred. "Do you have the time to stay and sit?"

Pausing she glanced around. Her mentor wasn't in camp. I think he's on patrol with Blazewing and some other cats. Sitting down beside her mother she watched her little half-sister. The small kit seemed so pure, happy and untouched by the harmful world.

"How are you?" Snowleap asked, there was a motherly softness in her voice. A flicker of worry in her pale eyes.

Frostpaw nodded, her paws starting to knead the ground. "I'm fine, Snowleap, why?" Eyes narrowing onto her paws the small she-cat shifted in her spot.

There was a part of her mind that drifted. It looked behind all the cats, who turned to a mist and devolved before her blue eyes. It comforted her as the silence emgulfed her, she closed her eyes and hummed softly to herself.

*

The bright light of the full moon glared down on them. She glanced up, sighing as the moonlight made her pelt shine. Seeming to glow among the darkness of the forest. It was the full moon, and time of the Gathering.

Frostpaw had been chosen along with many of the apprentices. NightClan liked to show off how many apprentices they had training at one time. Though she doesn't know if this was on purpose, or Ravenstar liked to have them see what Gatherings were like.

"Try and keep up, runt!" Darkpaw shoved past her. His tail lashing in her face as she froze, ears flattening.

Her other brother, Blackpaw, raced after Darkpaw. Their loud yowls scaring birds which flew out of the trees. Rabbits, shrews and mice scampered around in the undergrowth and one ran right past her paws. They'll be scaring away prey for any patrols tonight.

Toadclaw stopped them with a few harsh words. Which only seemed to make them more irritable in the long-run as they hissed insults at the tom.

"Are you alright, Frostpaw?" Jumping slightly, she sighed in relief as she spotted Oakspring, who was paddling to her side. The larger tom cocked his head, giving a gentle smile. "Sorry, didn't mean to make you jump, Frostpaw."

Nodding she returned her gaze to the floor. Wanting to just look at the wet moss underpaw as they walked. But course Oakspring wouldn't let her, he would want to talk things out like always. "I'm fine." She mewed almost instently, it was a response that she seemed to rely on more than she did on air or food.

Oakspring frowned, laying his tail onto her shoulder. "Are you sure? Frostpaw, you don't look fine." The brown tabby shook his head. "Is it Hawkpaw? Or your brothers, I could have a tal-"

"No!" Flinching at her own voice, Frostpaw added more quietly. "I-I mean no thank you. I'm fine, and it has nothing to do with Hawkpaw, or with my brothers."

Quickly she pushed past Oakspring and rushed forward. Glad to see the Gathering spot, which was a large area cleared of trees and bushes. There was nothing but one single tree in the middle, bare of leaves and looking half-dead. But it had many branches, which were strong and held the leaders, deputys and even medicine cats during the Gathering.

As she picked a spot to sit at, she noticed Stormpaw. A large she-cat apprentice within her Clan. She was the sister of Hawkpaw, but unlike him she was alot nicer. "Hello, Frostpaw!" Chirped the blue-eyed apprentice.

"Hi.." Softly she mewed back. Ears flattened to her head as she scuffled her paws.

Stormpaw didn't seem to notice as she looked on. Eyes wide with excitement as the leader's called the Gathering to a start. Frostpaw sighed, wishing to be back in camp instead of here. It smelled of to many cats, a whole lot more than she was use to, or even wanted to be around.

"Welcome to the Gathering, for almost a hundred seasons the four Clans have gathered here in peace during the full moon." Stagstar yowled, his voice ringing across the large area. It was shaped like a dome, curving inwards so that walls of dirt and stone made the leaders voices bounce off.

Archstar, a shady black tom, raised to his paws. "I'll speak first, in place of QuickClan." He cleared his throat before starting. "QuickClan is doing great, we have plenty of prey and our Clan is growing. Soon, in a few moons, we should also be welcoming a new warrior."

Turning to Frozenstar, the beautiful leader of RainClan, he dipped his head. "Please speak now, Frozenstar." Sitting down his place was moved to the back. Instead a featherly white-silverish she-cat trotted forward.

"I, Frozenstar, speak for my Clan, RainClan." She paused, seeming to take a moment before meowing. "Our queens are healthy, giving birth to even more beauitful kits that will grow to fight for RainClan. Our prey is plentiful, and the lake seemes to almost give more fish than we can handle."

Frozenstar stopped, a flash entering her eyes. "Sadly we have also had bad news. A fox was in our territory, and my own daughter, Breezepaw, was injured horribly."

A fox? Frostpaw felt her fur raise along her back. There had been a fox around the territories? Fear rippled through the young she-cat as she crouched down. Aware that cats had started to stare at the heavily breathing apprentice. But a part of her didn't care. The pain of her chest growing tightly made her vision go blurry, and she felt sick to her stomach.

Something slipped around her shoulders. Feeling warmth, she pressed into a familiar cat's side. "Shh, it's okay Frostpaw, just breathe." Pinetail soothed, his tail stroking her back.

"B-but a fox. What i-if it had a-attack-ked one of us? O-or.." closing her eyes tightly the visions of teeth slashing into a NightClan cat's pelt flashed in her mind. The yowls of pain and blood as the mossed turned crimson.

Frostpaw's mind seemed to roar with blood as something almost like a memory flashed in her head. A lithe silver she-cat with a fluffy mane being attacked. Cats yowled, one black she-cat leaping at the fox while a tom stared in horror.

The image was gone as soon as it came. And Frostpaw blinked open her eyes, surpirsed to see rays of sunlight. The air smelled of herbs, and the young she-cat blinked as she realized she was in the medicine cat's den.


3-2-20 9:33 PM