"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather around the bramble bush for Clan meeting!"

Kestrelstar's yowl echoed across the camp. Cloverpaw perked her ears up. After a busy day of hunting practice 'because even medicine cats need to learn how to hunt!' and gathering herbs for their leafbare stores, Cloverpaw was ready to relax.

But often Kestrelstar's meetings were interesting, so Cloverpaw dropped the robin she was sharing with her brother, Patchpaw, and padded over to Highrock. Kestrelstar's emerald green gaze swept the Clan.

"Attention, SkyClan! We are going to attend tonight's Gathering! The cats I have selected are: Ebonystorm, Streampool, Ghostwish, Swiftsky, Shadowfrost, Mothripple, Rainfeather, Ashscar, Honeypool, Cloverpaw, Softpaw, Dawnpaw, and Duskpaw. The rest of you will stay here and guard the camp. Meeting dismissed." She finished, still staring at Cloverpaw. Well, so much for a good night's rest! Cloverpaw thought, but she was happy that she got to attend the Gathering with her littermates.

"This is amazing! I get to go to my first Gathering! What do you think?" Softpaw meowed. Cloverpaw stifled a purr. Leave it to Softpaw to speak her mind!

"It sounds really fun! I can't wait to go!" Cloverpaw mewed, hoping she sounded excited enough. Dawnpaw and Duskpaw purred.

"C'mon, Clover, Kestrelstar's leaving!" Softpaw yowled, and together, the four apprentices followed Kestrelstar as she padded out of the grassy camp clearing, with the other warriors and apprentices following her as she went.

The Gathering place was in the center of the four Clans. It was surrounded by one oak tree for BreezeClan, a misty pine tree for MistClan, an iceberg for IceClan, a small rocky hill for StormClan, and a high branch with flowers on it for SkyClan. At the center, a big ancient birch tree sat there, with spots for all the leaders and deputies to sit.

Cloverpaw gazed at the whole clearing in awe, but got shoved aside by some rude gray-and-black apprentice, MistClan by the looks of it. He glared at Cloverpaw with his piercing yellow eyes. Cloverpaw glared back with her amber eyes.

Dumb SkyClan kit! The cat thought, sniffing and whirling around to stalk off to his clanmates. Cloverpaw just rolled her eyes. She'd expected some other Clan cats to be rude, and this cat was definitely one of those.

She'd planned to sit next to Softpaw or one of her littermates, but there was already a huge crowd surrounding the BirchTree.

Cloverpaw was about to pad over and sit beside Ghostwish, but a flash of white and blue caught her eye. Growing curious, the dark-furred she-cat began to pad over to the small group of cats.

When she was about a fox-length away from the four apprentices, a mischievous grin slowly formed on her face. She took a deep breath and concentrated on becoming invisible.

Giggling quietly to herself, the young SkyClan medicine cat apprentice slowly patted up to an orange-and-white she-cat who was chatting with a beautiful white-and-cream she-cat.

Smiling cheekily to herself, she snickered quietly to herself and tapped the orange-and-white she-cat on the shoulder. The she-cat jumped and her yellow eyes went as wide as a vole.

"Eek! What in The Dark Forest was that?" she hissed, narrowing her eyes and unsheathing her sharp claws. She was ready for a fight, but as far as the she-cat could see, there was no other cats around.

"Is something wrong, Kestrelpaw?" meowed a sable she-cat with bright yellow eyes just like the orange-and-white she-cat's eyes.

Well at least I know her name, Cloverpaw silently mused to herself as she sat there watching the four cats with an amused expression forming at the corners of her mouth.

"I thought I felt somebody tapping my shoulder," Kestrelpaw mewed slowly, her eyes still darting from left to right as she tried to settle her paw.s.

Ripplepaw blinked and stared up at Kestrelpaw with concerned icy blue eyes. "Well you know, now that I think about it... I do keep hearing the sound of shuffling paws."

The other four cats all blinked and perked their ears up in alert. "Do you think somebody's watching us?" Flowingstream meowed worriedly, her minty-green eyes scanning the area for signs of movement.

Knowing that she had been noticed, Cloverpaw sighed and let herself become visible again so that the five cats see her.

"Hi there!" she meowed with a cheeky grin on her face. "I'm Cloverpaw, medicine cat apprentice of SkyClan. It's nice to meet you guys."

Kestrelpaw let out a low hiss, narrowing her yellow eyes at Cloverpaw. "Why'd you do that? I thought I was going crazy!" the ginger-and-white she-cat apprentice huffed and flattened her ears.

Cloverpaw giggled and gave Kestrelpaw a playful shove. "Hey, you don't need to be so grumpy!" she meowed in a teasing tone. "Don't you know how to have a little fun?"

Ripplepaw laughed and patted Kestrelpaw on the head with a paw. "Don't mind her," she meowed kindly, "she just doesn't like being surprised."

"Oh, and I'm Ripplepaw by the way," she introduced herself to Cloverpaw with a friendly smile.

"I'm Bluepaw, nice to meet you, Cloverpaw," she purred and Ripplepaw laughed at the blue-gray apprentice's enthusiasm.

"I'm Starlingpaw, and over there are my litermates, Larkpaw, Shadepaw, Poppypaw, and Reedpaw." Starlingpaw meowed, motioning with her tail at four cats sitting beside a dark gray she-cat with black accents and a dark gray tabby tom with a white stripe on his face.

Cloverpaw then turned her attention onto the beautiful cinnamon tabby she-cat. "And what's your name?" the dark-furred she-cat meowed in a friendly town.

Flowingstream purred and twined her tail with Bluepaw's. "My name's Flowingstream, I'm Meadowlight's apprentice, and, uh, don't tell anyone about this but... Bluepaw and I are secretly mates."

Cloverpaw, Kestrelpaw, Ripplepaw, and Starlingpaw all stared at her with wide eyes and gaping jaws.

"You two are what?" they all shouted in both shock and disbelief. "Isn't that against the medicine cat code?"

Flowingstream was about to open her mouth to retort but at that moment Rosestar began the meeting.

"Good evening, cats of all Clans. I am here to report that BreezeClan is having a successful newleaf. Prey is plentiful and we have two new warriors, Moonstorm and Sunwhisper!" she meowed.

"Moonstorm! Sunwhisper! Moonstorm! Sunwhisper!" the Clans cheered. Cloverpaw looked around and spotted tow fairly young she-cats, she guessed they must be Sunwhisper and Moonstorm.

"We encountered fox scent on the borders of our territory and StormClan's, but the scent was stale." She turned to Duskstar, who nodded.

"We will put more patrols out. Thank you, Rosestar." The black she-cat dipped her head in gratitude. Rosestar nodded to her and spoke again.

"There are no other announcements. Over to you, Larkstar," Rosestar meowed, leaping back to her branch beside Briardawn and letting the old MistClan leader speak.

"I have an announcement!" Larkstar crowed. Bluepaw hissed and flattened her ears. Cloverpaw blinked and tilted her head to the side in confusion. Why did Bluepaw look so mad when Larkstar spoke.

"I have spotted IceClan warriors on our territory!" the old leader yowled. Silence followed.

Then shocked mews and outraged yowls sounded across the clearing. Thornleap and Iciclespike, a MistClan warrior and IceClan warrior who had just moments earlier, been sitting next to each other and chatting together, were now hissing and spitting, their backs arched and fur raised.

Ripplepaw stared at the scene in horror.

"How could he accuse us of that?! We didn't do anything!" she said in disbelief.

Dovestar, IceClan's leader, was staring daggers at Larkstar, who was staring defiantly at the scene in front of him. Dovestar hissed something Cloverpaw couldn't hear at Larkstar, and Larkstar hissed something back. Finally, Rosestar pushed herself in front of Larkstar and yowled to the Clans,

"For the love of squirrels, STOP! Look at the moon!" she yowled. The fighting cats ceased their fighting and glanced up at the moon. Every cat, from the oldest elder to the tiniest kit knew that at a Gathering, if StarClan sent clouds to cover the moon, it meant that they were displeased. Cloverpaw looked up, scared to see what the answer was.

The moon was round and full, but it had wisps of clouds beginning to cover it. Cloverpaw breathed out a sigh of relief.

•••

The Gathering went well, besides that incident. After the leaders spoke, the Clan cats were allowed to socialize with each other.

Starlingpaw told the apprentices a funny story about her friend, Foxpaw, and Ripplepaw told them how she'd won a hold-your-breath contest. Kestrelpaw laughed at the stories, and even added her own story about Winterpaw's odd name.

"So that kittypet, Winter, saved my mother and her littermates from a badger when they were small, so that's where her name comes from. It's the Twoleg word for leafbare." Kestrelpaw explained. Bluepaw nodded.

"That's a creative name. Like mine. My parents were feeling very imaginative when they chose my name." Bluepaw laughed, rolling her blue eyes and gesturing to her blue-gray pelt.

"I swear to StarClan, if Larkstar names me Bluefur or Bluepelt…" she raised her left paw menacingly, and everyone laughed. Kestrelpaw was surprised at how at ease she felt with these cats, like she could say anything, even though she wasn't supposed to share secrets with cats from another Clan.

Cloverpaw opened her mouth to tell them something but she was interrupted by the sound of Kestrelstar's mew behind her.

"Come on, Cloverpaw. StormClan is leaving now." Kestrelstar said. The StormClan leader was looking thoughtfully at the four other cats.

The dark-furred she-cat nodded her head in understanding and said a quick goodbye to her friends, who all meowed a quick farewell in return. Then Cloverpaw set off with her Clan to finally get a good night's rest.