Thanks to those that reviewed. Here's the second chapter, from Squirrelflight's POV.

Squirrelflight pushed her way through the throng of cats. She saw a familiar tortoiseshell figure ahead and leaped over. "Tawnypelt!"

The ShadowClan warrior turned around, twitching her ears in greeting. "There you are. Where's Brambleclaw?"

Squirrelflight shrugged, pretending not to care. "How should I know?"

"Uh-oh," mewed Tawnypelt. "Had a spat, have you? What'd he do wrong now?"

"He nosed up to the biggest traitor in the forest," Squirrelflight replied angrily, before she remembered Tawnypelt was Tigerstar's daughter too. She wondered if she could take it back, but her friend had already made the connection. "Hawkfrost? He's still around, then? Blackstar reckoned that Leopardstar should have chased him off after he involved ShadowClan in his and Mudclaw's betrayal."

Squirrelflight wanted to say, "She should have," but didn't. Instead she asked, "What do you think?

"Oh, I don't know," Tawnypelt mewed, shaking her head. "It was stupid of him to join with Mudclaw- even more to try to involve my Clan- but he only did it because he thought that he was doing StarClan's bidding."

"That's what he says," Squirrelflight meowed. "But before he died Mudclaw told Brambleclaw that Hawkfrost had done it so that Mudclaw would help him take over RiverClan later."

"There's just as much a chance that Mudclaw was lying as Hawkfrost," Tawnypelt pointed out.

Squirrelflight knew she was right, and shook her head in confusion. "It's more than that," she admitted. "I just know that he's keeping things from me. He acts like he doesn't trust me anymore."

"But you know he does," Tawnypelt meowed, narrowing his green eyes.

"No, I don't." Squirrelflight whipped her tail around. "Would you trust a cat that let a traitor go in battle? That said he wouldn't choose another over you one moment, and then rejects you like crowfood the next?"

Tawnypelt twitched her ears. "I don't know, Squirrelflight, but it seems to be that you're looking for the worst. If you want to know what's going on with Brambleclaw, just make an effort to ask. He'll tell you."

Squirrelflight lifted her eyes to the moon. That's just the thing, she thought worriedly. I don't know if he will.

At that moment one of the leaders let out a yowl for the meeting to begin. Squirrelflight and Tawnypelt turned towards the huge oak. Onewhisker, Firestar, Leopardstar, and Blackstar were perched on low branches. To Squirrelflight they looked almost mystical, the shadows of the bare branches turning half their fur dark, the rest of them silver by the starlight and the reflection of it on the lake.

"Welcome, cats of all Clans," called Firestar, "To our first Gathering on the island. We have decided to call this tree the Great Oak, in memory of the Great Rock that we once addressed you from."

Murmurs of approval came from the cats below, and Squirrelflight agreed with them. Naming the tree would further assure the Clans that this was their new home; where they belonged. Firestar nodded with them before he began again. "ThunderClan brings good news to tonight's Gathering. Our medicine cat apprentice, Leafpaw, has been given her full status, and will now be known as Leafpool, in honor of the Moonpool that she has found for all four Clans."

Squirrelflight felt a rush of pride for her sister and joined in with the murmurs of approval. They were louder than the usual greeting for new warriors- the ginger she-cat wondered if that was because of Leafpool's deed, or because of the Clans' new friendships.

Firestar stepped backward, and Onewhisker took his place. Squirrelflight saw that he looked a lot more confident than he had before in the past moons- but was that because of Mudclaw's absence, or his visit to the Moonpool?

"I traveled to the Moonpool," he meowed, "And gained my nine lives. I will now be known as Onestar, and Ashfoot is my official deputy."

Nods and approval came from all around. Onestar had no more news, so Blackstar took his place. He had no remarkable news, and Squirrelflight turned to Tawnypelt. "Won't he mention how his warriors died when they tried to invade the ThunderClan camp? And that they sided with Mudclaw?"

"Not if he doesn't have to," Tawnypelt mewed, her eyes on her leader. "Why would he give himself trouble when he could avoid it?"

Then Leopardstar came forward. After an announcement of a new apprentice, she took a breath. "Onestar has forgiven my warriors for their actions in the past moon, and so have I. They will all remain in RiverClan."

Blackstar's eyes flashed in the moonlight. "What about Hawkfrost?" he growled. "He was the one who involved my Clan in all of this. If it weren't for him none of my warriors would have died!"

"Here we go," mumbled Tawnypelt.

Leopardstar turned on him. "It is none of your business how I punish my warriors!"

Blackstar lashed his long white tail. "If you ask me, that rouge has caused enough trouble! We should have never taken him in. He has bad blood."

Squirrelflight felt Tawnypelt shudder beside her. Bad blood. She shared Tigerstar's blood too, even if, unlike Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost, she didn't look just like him. She felt a surge of unexpected sympathy. Was that what it was like for Brambleclaw, too, being judged all the time?

"Bad blood, Blackstar?" Firestar leaped nimbly from his branch to one in between Leopardstar and Blackstar. "How long ago was it that you yourself followed Tigerstar? This has nothing to do with him. We left all memory of him in the old forest."

Did we? thought Squirrelflight suspiciously. No matter that Tigerstar himself was no longer here. He had left four of his kin in the forest, one of which she had once thought would become her mate.

The tenseness on the island had faded, and the leaders had finished talking. Still, the Gathering hadn't ended yet, and the cats milled around, talking to one another. Squirrelflight searched for Leafpool, or Crowfeather, since she hadn't seen him yet, but couldn't find either. She spied Brambleclaw, though, saying good-bye to Hawkfrost. Squirrelflight watched from a distance as the two powerful tabbies touched noses. Brambleclaw touched his tail in an encouraging gesture to the blue-eyed cat's shoulder. Squirrelflight saw the RiverClan cat look anxiously up at the Great Oak more than once, as if he expected Leopardstar to go back on her decision right away.

A strange feeling came over Squirrelflight then, and it took longer than it should have for her to realize that, for the very first time, she was feeling sorry for Hawkfrost.