Bravepaw looked around as he heard in the far away distance a lonely coyote howling.
The full moon shone through the trees as Bladestar lead his cats, taking them across the terrain towards Fourtrees. Bravepaw felt Redpaw's fur brush up along beside his.
"I wonder what it'll be like!" Redpaw meowed, "Will we actually get to talk with apprentices from the other Clans?"
"That's what Grayleaf said." Bravepaw meowed back. "Though I'm not sure what we will say to them!"
As they reached the top of the hill, looking down on Fourtrees, Bravepaw gasped, he felt pride and exhilaration run through him, from his ears all the way down to his white tail tip, as he looked at his leader standing tall in front of his clan, then giving a startling yowl, Bladestar charged down the hill with the other's following close behind.
RiverClan and WindClan were already there waiting in the clearing when the ThunderClan cats arrived.
Bladestar gave formal greetings to the two leaders and then jumped up on a low branch from the tree and continued discussing with them how the prey had been running and keeping a polite conversation with them.
Bravepaw heard Grayleaf come up and whisper in his ear, "Go ahead now, you may talk to the other apprentices, just keep to casual topics and don't mention anything about Windclan stealing Thunderclan prey. Let Bladestar do that."
"Okay... I wonder where Redpaw is?" Thought Bravepaw.
Looking over toward a group of young apprentices he spotted Redpaw sitting along the outside of the circle, starting to nose his way into the conversation.
"I guess I'll go join them."
As he started making his way over, a young WindClan warrior whom he recognized from his border patrol, practically walked into him just barely knocking into his shoulder, "Stay out of WindClan cat's ways," He sneered smugly.
Ashnose who had been sitting nearby, quickly jumped in and meowed, "Remember the truce. Don't bring up your hostility at a clan gathering."
The WindClan warrior scoffed, "Don't tell me what I can and can't do. Huh! Such a typical ThunderClan warrior," With that he quickly trotted over to his fellow warriors.
"Cocky kit," Ashnose muttered." You better stay clear of that cat. Now run along and join Redpaw."
As Bravepaw trotted up and made his way onto the side of the circle and poked his head in, he noticed he was sitting next to a light grey shecat with beautiful green eyes from RiverClan.
She turned to him and meowed.
"I haven't seen you here before. Is this your first gathering?"
"Yes it is."
"Well don't look so nervous!" She giggled.
"I'm not nervous!" He meowed indignantly, "I just... don't know what I'm supposed to do."
"Have you ever tasted a rabbit before?" The tom on his other side turned and asked him randomly.
"Er,Uh… No, can't say I have. Why?" Bravepaw meowed.
"Oh they're just the best tasting prey ever! And my littermate said ThunderClan cats don't eat them but I didn't believe her."
"Well, have you ever tasted sparrow?" Bravepaw countered.
"Eww! No!" He replied.
"Oh well you don't know what you're missing." Bravepaw continued.
As Bravepaw forgot all about his nervousness and joined in conversation with the apprentices he was suddenly startled as he heard the WindClan leader call from the tree.
"Well I say we start without ShadowClan. They would've been here by now if they were coming."
As if in response to her statement, ShadowClan cats streamed in from the surrounding trees.
"I hope we haven't kept you all waiting long," the ShadowClan leader meowed. "Our medicine cat was delayed, because he was helping one of his clanmates."
"No harm done." Bladestar meowed.
"Let's begin then shall we." The RiverClan leader announced.
The ShadowClan leader stepped up first, "I'm happy to announce that prey is running well in ShadowClan, also right before we left, our medicine cat helped one of our queens deliver two healthy and strong kits."
Murmers of congratulations were heard from among all the cats.
As he stepped down, Bladestar stepped up and meowed. "To start, we have two new apprentices with us tonight, Bravepaw and Redpaw." As all eyes turned towards them, cats started cheering out their new names. Bravepaw felt his pelt grow hot and noticed Redpaw giving his shoulder embarrassed licks.
As he looked around he noticed that most the WindClan warriors had not cheered.
Bladestar then continued, "Prey has also been running well in our territory, we have been keeping border patrols more regular but some warriors," He glared at Hedgestar, "Still seem to be confused as to which side of the border they belong on."
"I assume you are referring to WindClan," Hedgestar growled. "Maybe if you renewed your scent markers more often and left WindClan rabbits alone we wouldn't have this problem."
As the leaders continued arguing with each other, Bravepaw suddenly smelled something strange.
"What could that strange smell be?! I've never smelled that before!" Bravepaw thought.
All the cats were so wrapped up in listening to their leaders that they were all taken by surprise as a ravenous coyote barged into the gathering from appearingly nowhere! It was a medium size she-coyote, she looked as if every hair on her back was standing straight on end, as she started lolling her head back and forth, with foam forming and dripping from around her razor sharp teeth, Bravepaw thought it was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen!
As all the cats scrambled around in a frenzy, some climbing up trees, others making for the woods and some hiding behind the great rocks. Bravepaw quickly scurried up a nearby tree, just barely making it to the first branch.
There was only one lonely cat down in the clearing now who sat there trembling, frozen with fear.
Bravepaw noticed her instantly. The grey little Riverclan apprentice who had started a conversation with him only moments earlier!
And the Ravenous coyote was heading straight toward her!