CHAPTER 4

Swallowstar must have been an impressive cat, in his time. As the black and white tom stepped forward to speak on large paws decorated by overgrown nails, his long coat hung off a thin, but tall frame. He gave the impression of a cat who was muscular once; his head was large and imposing; looking mismatched on an emaciated and frail frame. His yellow eyes showed the beginnings of blindness, but still were sharp as he glared out over the Gathering. Dappledpaw had noticed signs of both his fragility, and a clear disdain for Icestar throughout proceedings. She was intrigued to see what he would say.

"Cats of all clans, I bring ill tidings." Swallowstar's voice sounded out as a venomous hiss, hoarse with age.

"So I guess the prey isn't running well in Flaxclan…" Sedgepaw joked quietly, causing Rowanpaw to shove him.

"Shut up weta-brain, I'm trying to listen!"

Dappledpaw wanted to smack both of them for that very reason, but she tried to ignore them and focus.

"While Icestar would sit here all proper like all is well, I tell you that nothing has changed in Gorseclan!" Swallowstar spat, swinging his head around to glare at the large white tom. "This one is just as much of an underhanded worm as his predecessor!"

Icestar blinked owlishly at the old leader. "I'm quite positive I don't know what you are insinuating, Swallowstar." He replied calmly, while the other two leaders looked baffled. Dewstar shrunk back slightly as Swallowstar took a few steps towards Icestar, thrusting his head in the other tom's direction aggressively.

"Oh yes you do! Don't sit there all smug and above it all like you and your bruteish clan don't know what you're up to!" Swallowstar snarled. Dappledpaw was certain spit must be flying from his jaws as he raved, looking every bit the paranoid old fool cats had been saying he'd turned into. Icestar did well to simply sit there impassively.

"And what am I up to?" Icestar's reply was so quiet that Dappledpaw had to strain her ears and leaned forward as she tried to listen. Beside her, Rowanpaw's face was also intent. One could hear the scuttle of a mouse's paws, for the hollow was dead silent as the gathered cats watched the exchange.

"Oh you know!" Swallowstar spat, his sides heaving with each furious breath. "Your clan has been trespassing and stealing prey! Prey running well in Gorseclan? My foot!"

"And do you have any proof it's Gorseclan?" Icestar was holding the furious yellow-eyed glare of the other leader with a steady, cool one of his own.

"We've not caught any stinking Gorseclan rats yet, but I've seen them slinking back over your border with my own eyes!"

Finchstar tried to calm thing, interjecting with a steady if slightly unsure voice. "Swallowstar, Icestar, perhaps it would be best-"

"Keep your sticky-beak out of it, Finchstar! I don't need your holier-than-thou opinion!" Swallowstar was quick to shut him down though, rounding on him with a great mane of fur bristling. "You should be angry too; his clan has been an endless thorn in Fernclan's side since the Great Split!"

He then turned on the young Tussockclan leader. "And you, Dewstar! Your clan nearly lost an entire generation with Gorseclan's campaign to grab your territory after that storm seasons ago!" Dewstar looked around nervously, not answering; seeming to be panicked by being directly pulled into the argument. Dappledpaw recalled that Swallowstar's former mate left Flaxclan many seasons ago for Tussockclan... perhaps that's why his words to Dewstar seemed to have a personal edge.

In the crowd, cats murmured among themselves. Fernclan and Tussockclan cats spoke with concern and glanced at Gorseclan cats, however Flaxclan cats for the most part didn't seem to share their leader's righteous anger… Indeed, some of them looked embarrassed.

"We aren't stealing prey!" Sedgepaw meowed, confused, looking towards the young Tussockclan apprentices who looked scandalised. He turned back to Rowanpaw and Dappledpaw. "Are we?" He whispered.

Rowanpaw haughtily denied it, but Dappledpaw nodded her head silently, still watching the leaders up on the tree. They weren't, were they? Icestar would tell her if he was sending warriors into enemy territory… If he was going he would take his apprentice? Besides, being sneaky about things wasn't Gorseclan's style. If they were going to raid a territory, they weren't going to hide it.

"I wouldn't worry about it." Takahepaw murmured quietly, finally drawing Dappledpaw's gaze away from the leaders.

"What was that?" She blinked at him. The black and white tom looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"I'm just saying everyone shouldn't judge you guys harshly, just on what Swallowstar says."

Sedgepaw peered around Dappledpaw's side to look quizzically at the Flaxclan apprentice. "Why's that?"

"I- I shouldn't really talk about it… Tinyfrost told us not to…." Takahepaw's ears were flat and his tail twitched erratically to show his anxiety. He wasn't looking at them, but instead at his paws. "But I mean, it's not like everyone can't tell just by looking at him…" The apprentice shrugged helplessly. "He's just… he's old. It's not just his body that's failing him anymore."

Dappledpaw was about to press Takahepaw further, but Icestar's deep voice drew her back to the scene on the Dead Tree. "Well, I can assure you, that these cats you saw were not Gorseclan cats. Perhaps it was rogues."

"Rogues." The other tom snorted sceptically. "Like we can trust a word you warmongering fleabags say?!" Dappledpaw wondered if Swallowstar was about to attack Icestar.

"Can we trust you, old fool?" Icestar returned curtly, his black ears angling back slightly as he still tried to keep his composure but was seeming to be getting rattled. "How about you tell us your little secret you are keeping?"

"Secret?" Dappledpaw muttered under her breath, confused. What did Icestar know that they didn't?

"This isn't about that! This is about you and your clan's traitorous ways!"

"Taking in a kittypet is an unusual move for you, considering how much you like to go on about the warrior code?"

"A kittypet?!" The exclamations echoed through the crowd, and the Flaxclan cats only seemed to look more uncomfortable.

"Don't give me that look!" Swallowstar hissed at the other two leaders, causing Dewstar to shrink back again. "It was not my choice; the monarchs took pity on it, and the clan as a whole agreed. It's barely more than six moons and twolegs tossed it out of a moving monster by the thunderpath." In Flaxclan, queens were known as monarchs, and had high authority in clan affairs. Dappledpaw didn't really understand how it worked, but clearly they had a good deal of power if they could make a leader do something they didn't want to do. The old black and white tom narrowed his eyes into slits as he leered at Icestar. "How did you even know about that?" He hissed.

"I have my ways." Icestar was evasive and aloof. "So are you keeping this kittypet?"

Swallowstar ignored the question. "Further proof of your trespass if you ask me! You dare sit there with your head held high like you do no wrong when you are no better than those that came before." He looked to the other two leaders as if expecting them to back him up on this. "I will have you pay for this!"

"I don't recommend picking a fight with Gorseclan, Swallowstar." Icestar still sounded very calm, and was sitting very still, but there was a slight shift to his tone now.

"Pick a fight? We should have wiped you good-for-nothings off the map back when Boulderstar was leading you to rack and ruin! You go on about taking in a kittypet? What about that rogue Boulderstar took in and we allowed you to tame? You lot have never been anything but trouble!"

"Spiderstrike is a strong and talented warrior; his origin is far less relevant than a kittypets; he's always been wild… and I'd rather you didn't mention our former leader in front of me." Icestar's voice suddenly turned sharp, just for a moment. Boulderstar was the previous leader of Gorseclan, and had been Icestar's mentor… Nobody in the clan liked to talk about him. He had led the clan on battle after battle in hopes of grand conquest, and it had been a miserable failure; causing him to quickly lose his nine lives, and cost many others in the process.

"I'll spit on his grave for all I care for your concerns, Icestar!" It was then that Icestar finally stood, and it seemed like the Gathering held their breath as the two leaders stood bristling mere inches from each other.

Suddenly, the bright moonlight shining down on the hollow dimmed. Icestar broke his icy stare to flick his eyes skyward. "Starclan is angry." He murmured. A streaky cloud had passed over the full moon; filtering its light. "This Gathering is over."

"Starclan has spoken…" Dewstar agreed quietly as Finchstar nodded in agreement. Tussockclan cats were incredibly devout; they'd never question a sign they thought came from them. Dappledpaw honestly didn't get the "clouds covering the moon" thing meaning their ancestors were angry. Clouds were just things in the sky that moved around. It was just a coincidence, if well timed.

Swallowstar hissed with wordless fury and indignation, glaring frantically up at the sky then back at Icestar as if looking for a way around this. Finally, he seemed to deflate; his fur once again hanging off his thin frame and making him look frail. "This isn't over."

"I assure you that attacking Gorseclan will end badly for you, old one." Icestar replied, pausing a moment as he made to leap down from the fallen tree. "I respect the leader you have been over your seasons, but I will not tolerate aggression towards my clan."

"Well I can tell you one thing." Swallowstar replied, his breath wheezing slightly. "You won't be crossing through my territory any more… from now on. If my cats see a single hair or rank whiff of Gorseclan cat across our borders, they will shred them." And with that, the tom leapt from the tree, stumbling as he landed so that his deputy Tinyfrost had to brace him to stop him falling. The white cat was small, but sturdy, and they murmured reassuringly to the old leader as he led their clan away.

"So I guess we are going to have to take the long way home, then." Sedgepaw sighed, waving his tail in an awkward goodbye to Takahepaw as he scurried off, not keen to stick around.

Dappledpaw could see the remaining three leaders and deputies exchanging words too quiet to hear, and then they too went their separate ways. Fernclan vanished first; Lionpaw shoving Keapaw away before she could get in a final tease at Rowanpaw, then Tussockclan; many of their number casting furtive looks at the clouds in the sky above as they melted into the treeline. "The Moon's light preserve us all." A few murmured as they left.

Icestar and Sorrelwind gathered the Gorseclan party up together near the Dead Tree. "I'm afraid due to Swallowstar's aggression, we will have to take the route along the thunderpath until we can cut directly into our territory." Sorrelwind informed the group. "Everyone be on your guard; there are usually less monsters at night, but if one comes along and catches you in it's glowing eyes, you'll freeze up and then it's all over." Monsters had eyes that glowed bright like a beam of moonlight in the dark, and seemed to have some kind of paralytic effect on animals. Dappledpaw had seen it once when out at night with Icestar; a hare had been caught in an approaching monster's gaze, and it simply froze in place; allowing the monster to trample it. She couldn't believe the twolegs had somehow tamed them to allow them to ride inside their bellies.

"We should just go the normal way anyway and beat up any Flaxclan cats that annoy us!" Mottledtail boldly exclaimed. She was always itching for a fight. "That's Gorseclan's traditional route! Why should we change just because the Flaxclan leader is losing his grip?"

"For now, we won't antagonise Swallowstar further." Icestar rumbled. The large tom turned and made his way towards the exit, calling back over his shoulder. "Make sure you've all had something to drink before we leave, it will be a long walk."

"Well this is going to be fun." Sedgepaw grumbled as he came up beside Dappledpaw.

"No complaining. It is what it is." Her brother jumped as a quiet but steady voice sounded out from behind them. Sheercrag padded up alongside them, and then moved ahead without another word. He was Icestar's brother from an older litter, and certainly shared their leader's powerful physique, along with their other brother Waspsting. Unlike Icestar and Waspsting though, Sheercrag was incredibly soft-spoken. If he spoke at all. He was a quiet cat.

"I can never get a read on that cat." Sedgepaw shook his head with a mumble as Sheercrag got out of earshot.

"Me neither really." Dappledpaw shared a small chuckle with her sibling. "I think that's the first time I've heard that many words in one go from him."

"Are you two going to just stand there or what? Everyone is leaving." Rowanpaw's angsty voice called out and interrupted them. He was already at the edge of the hollow. Sure enough, Icestar was at the head of the group at the top of the rise, and was staring at them like he was waiting.

"Coming!" The siblings called in unison, quickly hurrying to catch up. Ah, that was sloppy of her! Hopefully Icestar wasn't annoyed about it. She offered a quick dip of her head as they reached the rest of the group, and he just blinked at her before turning and leading the party off on their long trek home.

His apprentice watched him move off, thinking it might be best to wait until tomorrow to tell him about what she'd heard tonight as he'd asked. He still seemed a little tense. Still, she wondered… For now? Maybe that meant he was intending to do something about this after all. Surely he wouldn't allow another clan to slander Gorseclan like that?